The place I was standing behind, at that moment, wasn''t a White Fang hideout. At least, I hoped it wasn''t, otherwise I was going to feel silly. It wouldn''t be the first supermarket I''d found to have them lurking in the basement or backrooms. From the outside at the very least that''s what it was, a supermarket. A 24-hour place. Surprisingly convenient, but I had to wonder how much business they actually got in the later hours.
Well, it worked in my favor anyway. I''d taken to hitting places like it during my nightly prowling. Get myself something to eat and drink, have a barebones break. Tried not to hit the same place more than once, keep anyone from seeing me often enough to ask questions. Like: What''s that kid doing out past curfew?
It was also a nice chance to get out of the rain for a bit. The summer nights had been mostly cool, but they got humid real quick when the rain started. Enough that the moisture fogged up my goggles the moment I stepped into the climate-controlled store.
The store itself was a rather large place. Yang and I had stopped in to one back around when I''d first arrived. This one was even larger than that, but I could tell it paid for it in quality. It was midsummer, and the produce didn''t look all that appealing. On the flipside though, they had other conveniences, like a pharmacy at the back of the store. Pity I was there for the food.
The store was largely deserted. There were a few, absolutely exhausted looking, people manning the registers, but I didn''t see too many people roaming the aisles. Which made sense, it was getting to be late, and I''d probably walked in about the time most people went to bed. The entrance fed directly into the produce and deli section. Which made it easier for me to just grab something ready to eat. Fruit was easy enough to scarf down, and most of the delis tended to have sandwiches pre-made. It was just a matter of picking the one I wanted. Though given how late it was, most of them would''ve already been discarded if I was too late. Which was nonsense to me, and a waste of perfectly good food. So what if the veg is starting to wilt? A hungry stomach doesn''t know the difference between day old and week-old bread. It won''t notice a little soft lettuce.
Unfortunately, as I reached the deli counter, I saw I was already too late. The people behind it were already cleaned up for the night. They were also giving me strange looks, but otherwise seemed to not pay me much mind. I''d seen what people wore at Beacon, I was not the weirdest thing wandering around. I distinctly remember hearing one of them mutter something like ''Huntsmen gonna huntsmen''.
It wasn''t just them though, there was one other person giving me strange looks. A small, frankly tiny, elderly woman with a cane, who was waiting at the deli counter. When I say tiny, I mean it as well, because she was only maybe half the height of the deli case. Something in the ballpark of an incredibly optimistic four feet tall, which might''ve been a major rounding error.
I didn''t pay her any mind, and chose to move along. If cured meats and cheese were out of the question, that meant moving on to the second-best option for preserved food. Canned beans.
Snagging an assortment of fruits from produce, I walked along the back of the store. I scanned the overhead signage, looking for the canned goods section. There were plenty of other dried goods I could have gone with, but the canned stuff was just the easiest to work with. Didn''t have to worry as much about trying to get any of it prepared, or eating it ''raw''. I''d eaten more than my fair share of uncooked BlamCo Mac and Cheese. It wouldn''t kill you, but you''d feel like you were chipping your teeth with every bite.
The hardest part about eating canned beans was the can. Which was optional unless you were a bighorner.
I walked along the back of the store, until I found the aisle with the canned vegetables. I turned down it and began perusing my selection. There were other options besides beans. Carrots, corn, potatoes, spinach, and beets among others. They had medleys and others too, including peas. But most of them were unseasoned and meant as sides or, like peas, were some class of bean.
Among them: Brickie''s Baked Beans. Not the best beans I''d ever eaten, but the only kind I''d had that wasn''t two hundred-plus years out of date. They tasted like the tree-sap from the Forever Fall, and had bits of meat floating in them, which was nice. It came in other flavor options too, for the little they matter.
I pondered over them for a minute, mulling over which was worth trying.
As I stood before the shelving, a rhythmic tapping began to echo down the aisle, from the way I''d come. I initially assumed it an employee, moving through clean-up for the night. However, as the tapping continued, and was slow in approaching, I turned to look.
It was the elderly woman again, tapping along with her cane. A knotty piece of wood that, I had failed to notice prior, was capped with a skull. Painted blue and highlighted with almost glowing teal accents. Or perhaps they were cyan. I had to image it was either wood or metal itself, and painted or enameled. If it was a real skull, kudos to that lady, she was more hardcore than half the Mojave. Violent whack jobs that the wasteland was full of, I''d never met one who kept the skull of their enemy on a walking stick. There wasn''t much about her that was really notable besides that. She was wearing multiple layers, which was a bit strange in the heat of the summer. But they were loose, billowy, giving a very light appearance. A long, blue-grey skirt that reached down to a pair of brown boots, and a deep blue blouse. She was covered, however, by some form of shoulder wrap. Not a cape, like Ruby wore. Something bigger, more encompassing. Something more like a shawl, or a cloak. Trimmed with a pattern of light blue triangles. It was a darker shade of slate than her blues, with a hood she had drawn over her head. Just enough that, down the aisle, I couldn''t make out her face. Likely meant to be against the rain outside.
Paying her no mind, I went back to perusing the selection of canned fiber in front of me. Silently pondering why someone would mix ketchup into their beans instead of something sweet. Yet there was an offering for beans in tomato sauce, which I was sure tasted alright, but confused me anyway.
As I pondered, however, I heard a quick tapping of the woman''s cane.
I turned my head to look, and found that she was still looking at the shelf. However, she was now several yards closer.
''¡''
I turned back towards the shelf myself and made to look like I was examining the merchandise. Waiting a moment.
The tapping resumed, and my head whipped back towards the elderly woman.
Again, she was several yards closer.
I looked up to the signs hanging from the ceiling, pretending to search for something. I took a random can of beans and started down the aisle, turned out of it, and walked into the next one. Dried goods, snack food specifically. Chips, trail mixes, similar dried and crunchy carbs. Things you''d want to eat by the fistful and leave your mouth stung by salt.
I grabbed a jar of nuts and continued on my way. Listening carefully as I went.
It was softer now, with distance and shelving between us, but I could still hear the woman''s cane. Rapping sharply against the floor. A strange thing for me to feel the need to focus on. We were in a grocery store; it was perfectly normal to go about shopping in your own rhythm.
But the atrophying sense of paranoia I''d once had said something was off. The worst I could do was to test it a little, and see what exactly was going on.
After a moment, however, my paranoia eased off. The sound of the woman''s cane disappeared among the dull hum of the store. I probably looked a little strange to the worker who was pushing a broom down the aisle. Honestly wasn''t sure if he was paying me any mind though. He had the glazed-over look of a wage-slave who''d been at it for ten hours, and just got assigned extra over-time.
I walked down the aisle, past him, and to the back of the store again. I turned to do another loop, then head for the register. I just needed something to munch on, and what I''d grabbed would be more than enough.
Then, I felt something tap me on the small of my back.
I turned around, and the elderly woman was standing there, craning her head up to me.
She had a vaguely rectangular face, though rounded with the softness of age. A few strands of silver-white hair hung in front of her face. The corners of her mouth creased with smile lines and lips that were a little wrinkled. Her nose was wide and flat, but did no disservice to her. If anything it helped give her a rather jovial appearance.
Really, the thing that stuck out the most about her though, were these goggles she wore. I''d almost have mistaken them for a prosthetic of some kind, if it wasn''t for the band wrapping around her head. They were these over engineered, cumbersome looking things. All steel and glass, the lenses large circles of blue that obscured her actual eyes. They even had lenses on them, which almost seemed to function the same as eyelids. They snapped open when I suddenly turned.
"Oh! Sorry!" the woman said suddenly, voice carrying the crotchety croak of age "I didn''t mean to startle you like that."
''I call bs on that.''
"A-all good." I said "¡ can I help you?"
The woman raised her cane up, and pointed towards the top of a nearby shelf. "Could you reach that can of cashews for me, I wouldn''t have had so much trouble in my younger years."
"¡ Of course." I said, nodding.
Without looking away from the woman, I reached up to the top shelf. I gripped the can and brought it down to her level. The woman took the can and returned with it to a nearby shopping cart, and dropped it into the basket. The woman herself was only just tall enough to see over the one side of it, as she began to push forward.
"Thank you, young man." The woman said, smiling pleasantly "Do yourself a favor: don''t get old. There was a time I could have done that without asking for help."
"No problem." I said, preparing to continue on my way.
Until the woman stopped me again.
"One more thing, if you don''t mind?" The woman asked "There''s this bag of rice that is just a bit too heavy for my old bones to lift. I don''t mean to be a bother, but could you help me carry it to the register?"
I looked at the woman for a moment, gauging her. While I didn''t mind being helpful, that didn''t change the strange feeling she was giving me. She''d been giving me strange looks since I''d walked into the store, now she was asking for my help. While it''s not a crime to look, that didn''t change the feeling.
Whatever her deal, I chose to play along. Nodding, I followed her to the aisle with the dried goods. I grabbed the large bag of dried rice she indicated, and foisted it into her cart. The bag wasn''t particularly oversized, but I could see how someone of her stature would struggle with it.
"Thank you young man." The woman said "Now, why don''t you follow me up to the register, and we can see about getting you checked out?"
"Pardon?" I asked.
"Your food." The woman said "It''s the least I can do for the helping me. It doesn''t look like you''ve got a lot either."
I shook my head "It''s no trouble ma''am. You don''t have to do something like that."
The woman chuckled "I insist. Especially because I''m sure you''d rather have gotten a sandwich instead."
"True, but it''s no big deal." I said.
"It is to me, who do you think is going to carry this bag for me?" The woman answered candidly, giving me a smirk.
"Umm¡" I looked around for a moment. She was, indeed, shopping alone. Which raised a question: "¡ How were you planning to get that bag of rice if somebody didn''t help you?"
The woman looked at me a moment, then shrugged "I was fine until my shoulders started acting up."
"¡ if you say so. " I said, then motioned towards the front of the store "You don''t have to buy me anything, but I''ll at least help you get everything unloaded."
The woman smiled at me, and the lenses of her goggles shifted, gaining a pleasant edge. "Why thank you."
I followed the woman up to the register, and helped her unload her cart. It didn''t erase the unease, but it helped abate it. The longer I helped her, the more normal things seemed. Sure, she''d basically shanghaied me into it. But taking a few minutes out of what had been an admittedly slow night wasn''t a big deal.
Funny word that, Shanghaied.
The burnt-out cashier began scanning the items as I finished unloading the cart. "That should about do it, ma''am." I said, recollecting my gathered food.
"Thank you." The woman answered "If you just set your food down-"
"Ma''am, I''m serious, it''s not necessary." I said, squeezing past her and back into the space between the aisles and registers. "I have no problem paying for my own stuff. Helping you was enough."
The woman looked at me for a moment, curiously "Are you sure? I don''t mind paying for it."
"I appreciate the offer Ma''am, I really do. But it''s ok." I said.
The woman nodded, before focusing intently on me once more. "Well then, if you don''t mind, there is one more thing I need to ask-"
Before the woman had a chance to finish, all hell broke loose.
There was a crash of sound back towards the entrance of the store, breaking glass. Followed closely by shouts that dissolved to incoherent echoes, then a staccato of thunder.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Gunfire.
Scream and shouts followed, moving deeper into the store, towards the back.
''¡ You''ve got to be fucking kidding me.''
Without hesitation, I bolted down the aisle, towards the back of the store once more. Listening carefully as the source of the sudden racket moved with me. Rather, I moved with it, same difference.
I reached the back of the store, and kept to the edge of the aisle, waiting to see what transpired. After a moment, from the far side of the store, I saw several people hurriedly moving down the back of the store. I recognized one of them as a worker in the store, likely a manager.
The others were White Fang.
Three of them total, a small group compared to the normal fare I seemed to run into. They looked pretty roughed up already, like they''d just crawled out of a burning building. Only two of them were armed, one a man with a pistol, and the other a woman with a hatchet. Hatchet wielder had a broken arm. Third looked like he was nursing a bullet wound. The blood stain on their shirt and general posture said he''d been shot in the side.
I couldn''t remember running into them, so how they''d gotten the tar kicked out of them was a mystery. Initially at least.
The two fairly intact Fang pushed the manager along the back of the store. Towards the pharmacy. The pistol wielding Fang kicked the manager in the rear, causing him to stumble forward. He crashed against the door, and scrambled to get up.
"Open it!" The pistol Fang ordered.
"I am- I am." The manager said fumbling at his side and pulling out his scroll.
The hatchet Fang turned to her bleeding partner. "How''re you holdin-"
"I''ve been shot Rosa!" The bleeding Fang snapped.
"Okay, easy!..." ''Rosa'' turned towards the manager "Might have to kill him now, thanks for that."
"Fuck!" Bleed-Fang shouted.
"Will both of you knock it off?" Pistol-Fang hissed "We''ve got the cops on our asses, we need to grab the shit and get out."
"How the fuck did they know we were going to be there?" Bleeding Fang asked.
"Don''t know, every pig gets lucky once in a while." Rosa grit.
''The police did this? Shit, good on them, didn''t think they actually had it in them.''
The manager swiped his scroll against the door finally, and it unlocked with an audible beep. The pistol-Fang shoved him aside and kicked the door open. Being the clearly least wounded of the bunch, he had no problem leading the charge.
"Tam, get in here so we can get you patched up." He called "Rosa, watch for the cops¡ and take care of that idiot, if he gets out of line."
Bleeding-Fang, now ''Tam'', stumbled into the back of the pharmacy behind ''Pistol''. Rosa meanwhile moved over to the manager. Menacing them with their hatchet, one arm still hanging limp at their side.
"Sure, just leave the one with the broken arm to watch for the police." Rosa griped "I''m totally fine."
Rosa loomed over the manager, while I heard the other two begin working over the back of the pharmacy. She didn''t look like she was about to make any moves, but it wouldn''t take much. Worse, they already knew the cops were on their tail, so it was only a matter of time before they arrived. There weren''t many people to get caught in the crossfire, but police involvement was a problem.
''First thing I find all night, and it just had to be during my break.''
I grimaced as I tried to come up with a quick plan of attack. It was a straightforward thing. There were only three of them, they were already wounded, and they''d isolated themselves well enough. If I took out Rosa, that would alert Pistol and Tam. Pistol would have to take priority, he was the least wounded, and the only one armed beside Rosa. Tam''s wound would likely slow him down.
That''s how I was going to do it, Rosa, Pistol, and then Tam if his wounds didn''t automatically disqualify him.
Then a new element asserted itself into the mix.
From the aisle next to mine, accompanied by the tap of footsteps and her cane, came the old woman. Before I could even react to her, she strode up to Rosa without missing a beat. Who, in turn, took immediate note of her.
Rosa''s head snapped to the old woman "What the fu-"
"Excuse me dear, you know it''s a school night, right?" The woman said "You shouldn''t be out partying."
Then, as an affront to logic, the old woman suddenly launched herself at Rosa. That''s not hyperbole, she launched off the ground like a little wrinkly rocket and delivered a flying kick to Rosa''s face. Hitting with enough force to crater the Fang into the wall.
Rosa slumped to the ground as the little old woman flipped through the air, came to ground, then darted into the Pharmacy''s back room. There were a couple of shouts, and a crash of splintering wood and broken glass.
"¡ Oh what the fuck." I muttered, and moved from behind cover to the pharmacy door. I looked down at the manager, who looked at me somewhere between terrified and utterly confused. Like he''d never seen an old woman turn herself into a missile before.
It was a first for me too, but still.
Keeping behind the edge of the door frame, I peered into the pharmacy.
The place was completely overturned. Couldn''t tell if that was an effect of the Fang digging through the place, or the old woman pin-balling off the walls. Tam was frantically trying to guard themselves, while ''Pistol'' was already lying face down on the ground. His weapon knocked away from him.
The woman collided with the wall and slid to the floor facing Tam. She had a wide smile on her face, and was cackling like a madwoman.
Without hesitating, Tam turned towards the door and started blindly running towards it. Never one to waste an opportunity, I got in his way.
I stepped out from cover and tossed my can of beans at his head. The metal tin impacted his face and erupted into a spray of fiber and sticky sauce. He stumbled in his run, and fell forward, hitting the ground limply.
''Seriously, what is in the food here?''
As Tam slumped to the ground, the woman looked at me with a smile on her face. Slowly she got her laughter under control.
"Well-" She said "This was certainly something, wasn''t it?"
¡
The old woman hurried back to the front of the store, after we made sure the White Fang stayed put. Rather than return to her cart though, she just dipped out the exit. I felt inclined to follow her, as dealing with the police wasn''t something I had the energy or time for. I dropped almost everything I''d picked up, save an apple, and tossed a couple lien at the cashier.
We got probably all of a block away from the store, before the woman seemed to remember: she was old. Most old people don''t do what she did.
The rain poured down around the two of us, as the woman doubled over on herself, panting.
"Oof, haven''t had to do this much running in a while." She huffed, as I loomed over her
"That so?" I asked "So it''s not normal for little old ladies to go bouncing off walls?"
"Oh, hush you." She huffed "I may be small, and out of shape, and a little older, and my eyesight''s not so good, and the rain is having my shoulder act-up, but¡ um¡" She trailed off
"¡ But you can still bounce off walls?" I offered.
The woman straightened out slightly and gave me a playful smile. "Yes, thank you."
"Hm, still wouldn''t call that normal." I said, turning to look back over my shoulder "You left most of your stuff back there."
"Well, it''s not like I paid for it yet." The woman countered "What about you? You didn''t exactly wait for the police either, young man."
I nodded at that. "Fair. But I guess we''re both waiting for the police now, considering we''re just standing around."
"Hmm¡ nope, it''s raining. I''m going home." The woman said, adjusting her hood.
"Smart." I said "You good to get back on your own?"
"Very funny." The woman chuckled "But I wouldn''t mind if a nice young man would be willing to escort me."
"I don''t know any nice young men." I apologized "But I know a smart-ass who could probably fit the bill."
The woman nodded "I believe he''ll do. And his name would be?"
"Six." I said "Just Six."
"Hm, easy enough to remember." The woman smiled "Well, my name is Maria. It''s a pleasure to meet you, young smart-ass."
I snorted out a small chuckle. "Likewise¡ so, shall we get walking?"
"Let''s." Maria agreed adjusting her goggles "These blasted things are starting to fog over."
The two of us began down the sidewalk, as the rain began to kick-up. The streets were all but abandoned, the rain driving away anyone who''d want to spend the night out. The street lights dyed the rain spattered streets in shades of yellow and amber, surrounded by rainy grays and inky blues.
"So, Six, can I guess that you''re a huntsman in training?" Maria asked "Or do you just have a habit of charging towards gunfire."
"Both actually." I said "I''m currently going to Beacon, though I gotta say I''m not so taken with the place at times. What about you? Most of the old women I meet aren''t half as spry as you."
"Retired." Maria answered "Have been for a long time. But I still try and practice the old moves, occasionally¡ You know, you''re not supposed to be out here at night, right?"
"Who''s going to stop me, the police?" I asked snidely.
"Yes, actually, I believe they passed laws about huntsmen in training performing vigilante justice a few years ago." Maria said "Though I could be mistaken, I only visit here every once in a while."
"Really?¡ huh. Wasn''t aware of that." I said "Mores the reason to avoid the police then."
The two of us came to a cross-walk, and I helped her across. Traffic was light at least. Not so many people to worry about.
"So, what brings you to Vale then?" I asked "Seeing as you''re a tourist rather than a resident."
"Visiting an old friend." Maria answered, smiling "It''s a long trip from Mistral to here, so it makes it hard for the two of us to see each other. But I try to get over here for a week or two, once or twice a year. What about you? It''s been a while since I''ve been to Vale, and you don''t strike me as a resident either."
"Bit of a wanderer." I said "Long ways from home, but figured this was as good a place as any to study. Among other things."
"Strange, I seem to have a habit of running into wanderers." Maria said "Always from far-away places I''ve never heard of either¡ Well, that''s how I met my friend, so I suppose that''s not such a bad thing."
"How do you know I''m from some place you''ve never heard of?" I asked.
"That''s just how it goes. There''s a lot of places that crop up and disappear in the blink of an eye." Maria said "In my day, being a wanderer was just a good way to get gobbled up by Grimm¡ still is, come to think of it."
I nodded "Pays to be careful then."
"Very." Maria agreed "There''s a lot of dangerous people out there. Pays to be dangerous in return. I remember it used to be worse, when I was your age. They didn''t have all the Huntsman Academies and everything. You just took a licensing test, and bam, you were a Huntsman. Lot of people who weren''t cut-out for it wound up either not making it or turning to crime."
"Honestly, I could care less whether or not I ever get the license." I said "I don''t need a piece of paper to tell me I can do the right thing."
"Yes, and I''m sure your Pip-boy can point you in the right direction." Maria said snidely.
"If someone''s in trouble, I''ll just do what feels right to me." I explained "There''s a lot of cases where someone saying that just results in more problems. But by and large, I''m not one of them."
"I saw that." Maria nodded "You at least were trying to figure things out before rushing in. Smart, a lot of people tend to just rush-in without thinking."
"You didn''t seem to take a lot of time to plan dive-kicking that one girl." I countered.
"I''m a slow walker." Maria chuckled "I''ve got plenty of time to think."
The two of us rounded a corner, and Maria''s walk slowed further. She stopped in front of a shop door and turned to look at me.
"Well, this is me." Maria said "Thank you for walking me here, young man."
"My pleasure Ma''am, you take care of yourself, ok?" I said.
"I will, have a good evening, and don''t be afraid to stop in and visit." Maria said with a smile "I''m probably going to make this a long vacation." She reached a hand up to the shop door and pulled it open. I held it for her, as she tapped her way in out of the rain.
As I released the door however, I felt my scroll go off. I pulled it out and checked it, finding that a new message had gone through.
The White Fang were moving, it was time to go to work.
"So much for my break." I grumbled.
Turning on my heel, and started away from the store. I slid my scroll back into my pocket, and went to the map of my Pip-
I stopped dead.
Maria knew what a Pip-boy was.
A complete and total stranger to me, knew what the hunk of metal on my wrist was. She also had an idea of what it did.
I turned to look back at the store I was walking away from. It was a squat brick building, fairly modern and recent in appearance. A large display window with painted gold lettering sat beside the door. The shop beyond was fairly dark. But I could make out the lettering.
''Brown''s Antiques and Knick Knacks''.
I stood there, in the rain, frozen in the summer''s breeze. A part of me wanted to immediately rush after Maria and find out just what the hell was going on. The other part of me, knew that the White Fang were about to start causing trouble. If I didn''t tend to them, it would only get worse. Both were important, and demanding of my time.
But, only one of them had the potential to bring immediate harm to people other than myself.
I would have to come back when things were quieter.
I swore, and turned back down the street. Breaking into a sprint before my legs could turn and point me the other way.
''Don''t forget this one, dumbass.''
Camping in the Chibi (April Fools)
I dumped my firewood and kindling onto the ground near my lean-to and got to busting it up. I didn''t have much in the way of tinder, so I was going to need smaller, drier material to compensate. Stuff that would catch more easily. Building a fire isn''t a hard thing, assuming you''ve got some way to actually strike one. You just need things that''ll be more inclined to burn. Or barring that, something you could dip them in that was more liable to catch fire.
My little camp wasn''t too far from Beacon. Maybe a five minute walk into the Forever Fall, away from the dorms. Just far enough I didn''t need to worry about¡ issues. I hadn''t really needed to set up a lean-to but felt more in the spirit of it after having a small break. And giving my foot a few minutes to get over being steamed.
As if the world wasn''t crazy enough, now the fucking floors were made of lava.
Needless to say, I wasn''t going back into the dorms. At least until the Physics Police, Fire Blockade Initiative, and Agency for Thermodynamic Fuckery had a run of the place. There were some laws you just didn''t want to mess with, and that place broke all of them.
The only upside was that I liked camping, otherwise I''d have to trek my way back to Vale. Then blow money on a hotel room.
Instead, the only thing I had to provide was my own food and entertainment. The forest provided almost everything else. Except a bed. Or clean water. Or meaningful shelter.
Ok, so it didn''t actually provide everything, but it gave me the materials.
The lean-to was just to make sure if it started raining, which it would with my luck, I''d have cover. The fire meant I would have a little extra warmth, almost unnecessary in the late summer heat. But it also meant I wouldn''t need to trek back to the cafeteria for food.
I fumbled around on my person for a minute trying to find my pockets. There were enough things about the now altered world around me that didn''t make sense. Aside from the obvious, that my body had been shrunk and was now perpetually disproportionate.
Like, for example: what I could and couldn''t stick into my pockets.
I found the lips of my pocket and drew out my lighter. Which was easily three times the size of my hand. My pocket too. When I got shrunk, did everything else stay the same size? But then why were my clothes fit properly, and why was my head disproportionate?
Just one more thing that didn''t make sense, and probably wasn''t going to make sense.
Rather than dwell on the existential questions of the universe in the vain hope of enlightenment, I moved on. I opened my lighter with a mechanical *tchunk* and held it to the tinder and kindling for a minute. Once it got going, it immediately shot to the size of a roaring flame, but didn''t burn any faster than it should have. It looked funny too, almost static. Like someone had described fire to a blind man, and you got singular and unchanging image of what it was.
I set a kettle near the fire and got to heating it. I was planning to sleep before long, but a bit warm drink would help with that. Maybe the world would go back to normal after I woke up. Barring that, it would at least give me some time to properly dissect things.
As I waited for the water to heat up however, I heard people talking, along with rustle in the bushes. Before I could get up to investigate, I was set upon by a thunder of sound and shattered wood. One of the trees near my campsite had a man sized chunk suddenly burst outward from it. The bushes across from it were instantly riddle with chunks of wood and ''shot.
"No need to be discouraged old chum." A voice said from the bushes near the tree "You know she was just having a bit of fun."
"I know, but it''s discouraging." Another voice boomed from the tree. Which was revealed to belong to port, as he stepped through the hole made in the tree "I put in all the effort to try and educate these young men and women, and then get ridiculed for it. The Grimm are but weak and helpless beings compared to the blows I have taken this day."
"You''re exaggerating it. Ridicule would''ve been making fun of your body odor." The voice chimed again, this time stepping from the bushes to reveal Oobleck with some form of camera "Though her comments on your moustache were perhaps too far."
"Do you think I should try a different style?" Port questioned "I''ve always preferred this style, but¡" Port trailed off, as he looked past Oobleck, noticing my presence only a few yards away. Wasn''t like I was trying to hide or anything.
"''Sup." I said, giving a small wave.
Oobleck whipped around fast enough I heard his neck crack. His head went a little cockeyed, so it was possible he hurt himself. "Mister Six what are you doing out here?" he rattled
"Camping. Like a man." I said, prodding my fire with a stick "What''re you two doing out here?"
"Filming a movie about weapons construction." Port boomed "¡ Like men."
"Gotcha, gotcha." I nodded "¡why?"
"For the Internet." Oobleck said "For the students of the combat schools, who have yet to make one and need guidance."
"I believe your generation calls them How-2''s." Port provided.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!"Not my generation, but it''s an explanation" I nodded.
"And yourself?" Oobleck asked "Why are you out here?"
"The floor is lava." I answered "Until the dorms stop knotting the laws of reality like a shoelace, I''m not going back there."
Oobleck nodded "Ah yes, I remember those issues. They should correct themselves within a day or so."
I wasn''t sure whether to be relieved they would be, perturbed that this was a regular occurrence. Especially considering for the several months I''d been present that was never the case. Someone was clearly having a joke at my expense.
My water started to come up to temperature, and I pulled out a mug. Then thought a moment and pulled out a few more. "Either of you care for a drink? I''ve got coffee, tea, and cocoa. Also a few cans of beans if either you''s hungry."
It wasn''t tea, per say. Just a slightly altered version of bitter drink. A couple of the Sorrows showed me how to make it in Zion. It was a rather refreshing beverage, compared to certain other teas. The coffee wasn''t particularly special, just some instant stuff I picked up, same with the cocoa.
I actually found I quite liked the cocoa. It didn''t give any benefits, but it tasted good.
Port gave me a confused look. "Well I do not believe it appropriate for student and teach-"
Suddenly Oobleck, raised a hand quieting him. "No¡ let him cook." He then zipped over to the campfire and took a seat at it. "Coffee, you say?"
I held up a packet of it. "It''s the instant stuff, but I don''t particularly need it right now, I''m planning on-"
Oobleck snatched the packet from my hand and dumped it into a cup. Then poured hot water from the kettle onto it. He set his camera down and began nursing his mug.
"Ahyes,there''sdaddy''slittlehelper." He muttered to himself, sipping his steaming brew "Thank you, mister Six."
"Uh¡ no problem?" I said, looking over to Port. The mustachioed professor merely shrugged, and came over to join us. He took a seat across the fire from Oobleck, and I passed him a mug. He took a bit of the ''tea'' mix, and brew himself a cup, which I thought surprising. Port didn''t strike me as a tea drinker, but being around Oobleck, it was either that or feed into his obvious addiction.
"So, you two were filming a tutorial on weapons making?" I asked, putting some cocoa mix into my mug, followed by water "What does that have to do with being out here in the woods?"
"Materials gathering." Port answered glumly "How, to make the best weapon, you need to collect materials from the darkest forests and most treacherous mountains."
"¡ You force people to literally start from scratch on that stuff?" I asked "You know there''s a lot of quality control when it comes to materials right?"
"Naturally." Port nodded "But where''s the beauty and challenge in using pre-fabricated materials?"
"¡ There isn''t one." I said "The challenge comes from designing and actually prototyping it, not scouring the woods for the perfect stick to use to clean the thing."
"But then where''s the beauty and uniqueness?" Port questioned "There are some things you simply must seek out yourself to make the weapon your own."
"I''d argue that simply being the one who made the weapon makes it unique enough." I countered "If everyone made a sword, even if they were the same style, none of them would truly be the same. That''s the kind of thing you only get off a factory line."
"Hmm." Port grumbled, sipping at his ''tea''. He grimaced, probably a bit too bitter.
"¡ Alright, to be fair I do get the point you''re trying to make." I said "The importance of self-reliance and sufficiency, which is really what you''re driving at. You want some honest criticism, tone it back a little. You can urge that through your delivery, but if you really want to provide a tutorial, then that should be your focus."
"¡ I will keep that in mind." Port said, blowing on his beverage "Though I wish we''d had better luck during filming, at any rate. I couldn''t even get through the intro before she started mocking me¡ There''s nothing wrong with my moustache."
"Yes, it is impressive and commanding." I agreed, cocking my head to the side "Somebody made fun of your moustache?"
There was a rustle near the bushes where Port and Oobleck had appeared. A shadow leapt out of them.
"DID SOMEONE SAY MOUSTA- ah!" Velvet boomed, standing proudly with her hands at her hips. Pink holographic copies of Port''s blunderaxe and moustache in her hand and on her lip, respectively. The moment she stepped out and saw who she was addressing, she jolted back. Eyes wide and mouth agape.
She froze, as the fire continued to crackle softly.
"¡ Velvet." I acknowledge.
"Uh¡ h-hi." She said, shrinking a little and flushing.
"Were you bullying Professor Port?" I asked, cautiously.
"¡ Maybe." She said tossing the blunderaxe away but leaving the moustache.
"Bullying, me?" Port asked softly, stricken that I used the word to describe him.
"¡ It''s a nice moustache." She offered.
"¡" I rubbed the bridge of my mask "Seriously V? You of all people?"
"Sorry¡" She offered weakly.
"¡" I sighed heavily through my nose "¡ You want some cocoa?"
"¡ Yes please."
All in the Plan
"The first thing you need to do." Domino said "Is to pull the cork, and let it breathe."
I took a carpenter''s screw that I threaded through a piece of scrap wood, and twisted into the cork. Turning, until the wood was almost flush with the bottle. The few others I''d opened so far, the cork was almost completely dry rotten. Going all the way through at least made sure that I was pulling the whole thing.
With steady pull, I removed the cork from the wine bottle. It fell to pieces as it came out, but didn''t land in the bottle, so nothing was spoiled. I hadn''t been planning to reseal it again anyway.
I set the opened bottle down, and waited, Domino across from me. "¡ How long do we need to wait?"
Domino chuckled "Parisian tradition says an hour, for the best results."
"Swell." I muttered.
But what was one hour, compared to two weeks?
Which was what I''d spent in the Madre. Two weeks.
After successfully freeing Christine, and gathering everyone at the fountain, we waited for a time. I expected Elijah to be watching, listening, as I knew he was. But it took him several hours before he actually bothered to make contact with us again. He then started making demands about how he wanted us to ''get to work''.
But by that point, we were all tired, hungry, and feeling the effects of the Cloud.
So we all agreed to rest, and return in the morning.
It¡ wasn''t that simple.
Short version: The Sierra Madre was a hellhole. To rest, we each had to find places we could rest. Both away from the Cloud, and from each other. Christine, Dog/God, and Domino didn''t trust each other as far as they could respectively throw one another. Which was pretty far, for Dog. Christine in particular was pretty vitriolic towards Domino. I was the only one any of them seemed remotely willing to tolerate, and the feeling was roughly mutual. We were all stuck here, for one reason or another. Someone needed to make sure we actually stood a chance at getting out with our heads intact.
Which the Madre made more difficult, because outside of surviving each other, we had to survive it.
Food wasn''t inherently a challenge, the Vending Machines provided for that. It was everything else that was a problem. That, and dodging the Ghost People, the Holograms, and the dense pockets of Cloud that seemed to crop up at random. Meaningful supplies, like medicine, ammo, and booze were harder to come by. Led to me having to be more thorough in my scrounging than usual. Found a lot of different caches and things, playing cards, a snow globe for House, and a guitar oddly enough. I eventually found some codes for the vending machines that unlocked additional items for sale. Which mitigated things, if not by much.
I took to stashing my salvage in the garbage cans at the Fountain. Seemed as safe enough a place as anywhere in the Madre. I had to assume everyone else was doing similar, elsewhere. Elijah wasn''t going to let us go until we got the work he wanted done. Prepping for the long haul wasn''t the worst decision.
But it gave me time to better understand the Madre, and the people I''d been chained to.
The Madre was a lesson in poor planning and corruption.
Dog/God were a sad affair all their own. Having been a slave, tortured by the Master.
Christine was an assassin, of all things. For some reason, though likely a good one, Elijah was her target.
Domino¡ was just an asshole.
But, he had bougie taste, and was teaching me how to be an ''Old World Gourmet''.
Which culminated in lessons on how to be a sommelier. Whatever the fuck that was.
I waited, at the small card table I''d pulled from the wreckage of a building, with Dean near the fountain. An intact bottle of red wine, and a pair of drinking glasses between us. Not wine glasses, drinking glasses. You''d find wine glasses at the Ultra Luxe, not at the Madre.
As the minutes ticked by, I drummed my fingers on the table. Impatiently waiting to try the purported vintage.
"¡ Is this really that important?" I asked "The bottle is over two hundred years old, I can''t imagine it''ll make a difference."
"For a bottle of swill like Chateau Montrose?" Domino asked, smirking "Greatly. Trust me, partner, you haven''t tasted truly good wine until you''ve done this. With the world being¡ ehm, what it is, I doubt you''ve ever even tasted good wine."
"No, I''m more of a liquor and ''shine kind of guy." I admitted "Sometimes beer, depending on the day. Wine''s always been a bit outside my purview."
Domino''s lips curled up in a waxy smile. "Well then, I''d say you are in for a treat¡ in about forty minutes."
I rolled my eyes, and kept drumming my fingers.
For forty minutes.
Monotony occasionally broken by the sound of shifting rubble and distant thunder. Near the fountain, I could see Dog muttering to himself. A little further away from him, I could see Christine messing with a broken Hologram emitter. I tried to warn her to be careful with it, but she seemed to have a better understanding of it than I did.
"¡ Wish I could''ve found a checkerboard." I muttered.
"Quite." Domino intoned, checking his bare wrist. He saw it was half past a radiation mole. "¡ Alright, I suppose this has been quite long enough now." He reached out and grabbed one of the glasses "Did you clean these?"
"As best I could, you try finding clean water in this place." I said.
"Easy on the tone, partner." Domino said, a soft edge to his voice "Now, do as I do."
Domino took the bottle and poured some into his glass, then passed it to me. I mirrored him, as he began to swirl his glass, bringing it up to his eyes for a better look.
"Give her a spin." Domino said "Watch the pretty lady''s legs. The thicker they are, the stronger the kick or the sweeter she is."
I did, and noted that the ''legs'' weren''t particularly big. But I only had liquor to compare it with, so I was no judge.
Domino then drew the glass up to what remained of his nose. "Then pull her close. Take a deep breath of her. Indulge in her aroma."
''Careful with the phrasing there, guy.''
Again, I mirrored him. Lifting my reinforced security helmet back enough to take a whiff of the drink. It didn''t smell anything like any wine I''d had, few though they were. It smelled earthy, floral, and fruity. I couldn''t say what fruit, as I''d never tasted them, but knowledge would imply grapes.
"Then, you take her in for a kiss, and hold her, dancing on your tongue." Domino said, leaning back with his glass
I mirrored him, and took in a small mouthful of wine. Letting it linger there as I swished it slightly. The flavor dry, and bitter. But ever so slightly sweet, and smooth in a way I hadn''t tasted before. The flavors evolved on my tongue as I waited. Bringing the spiced notes of oak, the body of dried fruit, and the bitter darkness of something else. Almost coffee-like, but different, emboldening the sweetness.
After a moment, I swallowed, and found myself licking my lips. The wine going down as easily as water.
"¡ Ok, wow. That''s easily the best glass of wine I''ve ever had." I said, swirling my glass again "I really have been doing it wrong."
"It''s still swill." Domino said, swallowing "But, it''s swill that has had two and a half centuries to get its edges knocked off. It''s all in how you treat it then."
"I''ll have to keep that in mind going forward." I said "I can think of a few-"
I was cut off, by an electronic buzz, coming from the fountain.
Swiveling on my seat, I saw the holographic projection over the fountain flicker. Morphing into the grizzled and bitter display of Father Elijah. He didn''t look happy, but never did, so I didn''t take it as any meaningful sign.
"What do you think you''re doing?" Elijah hissed.
"¡ Taking in the wonderful Villa air." I said, sipping my wine.
"I gave you mongrels implicit instructions." Elijah hissed "You are expected to complete them."
"Oh yeah?" I asked, feeling punchy "News flash: The Villa isn''t an easy place to get around. You didn''t exactly leave us with a lot to work with either."
"That excuses nothing." Elijah hissed again.
"Bite me." I shot back.
I should''ve picked better words.
"¡ Dog." Elijah hissed "Bring him here."
Instantly, Dog''s head snapped upright. He turned back towards his Master for a moment, twisting at the hip.
Then his gaze locked on to me.
There was a scrape of metal across from me, as Domino suddenly dove to the side. Taking the wine with him.
I remember a blurred swatch of blue, as a pick-up truck slammed into me. Bells ringing and pain shooting through me. Breath knocked out of me, as I was crushed briefly against a wall.
Then Dog wrapped a meaty paw around my head, and hauled me back towards the fountain. I remember, blearily resisting as he did. A panicked reflex more than anything. Supermutants often said how humans hit like Radroaches. Dog probably didn''t feel a thing.
I felt my boots scrape the stone pavement as I struggled against Dog. But if I bothered him at all, he didn''t show it. In fact, I don''t even think he really noticed at all. Not until we were in front of the fountain, and he moved his hand enough for me to see Elijah. I could see his grim-faced silhouette glaring down on me.
"Put him in the dirt." Elijah hissed.
With a rush of motion, Dog hoisted me into the air before slamming me down against the pavement. He began to crush me against it, whether that was intentional or not didn''t really matter. Heard my bones creak, my breath wheezing in my ears.
"You forget yourself." Elijah hissed "I could have the mutant tear you limb from limb. Rip you apart with his teeth while you are still alive. I don''t have to detonate your collar to kill you. I hold the leash on all of you."
I wanted to say something in return, something snide. Unfortunately I was too busy eating dirt to do it. Would''ve been something to the effect of having half a month in the Villa. Elijah''s bomb collars didn''t really register as much on my radar anymore. Not because it couldn''t kill me, but because Elijah wasn''t going to pull the trigger. I''d seen the proof of him going through other people who didn''t cooperate. The things spread around the Madre implied he''d gotten quite far. Raised a few questions that I was slowly piecing together into a very interesting picture.
But it told me we were the first group in quite some time to have gotten this far. While Elijah was a temperamental cuss, he wasn''t stupid. We were his best shot at opening the Madre, in no small part because of my own nature.
That didn''t mean I was so important he wouldn''t kill me.
But if I went, the animosity the others had for each other would eat them alive.
So I put myself on the knife''s edge, and didn''t say anything. I just laid there, pinned in the dirt. Let Elijah believe whatever he wanted to, threaten all he wanted to. I knew the score better than he did at that point.
Elijah let the silence hang in the air. I could feel Dog''s deep, ragged breaths on the back of my neck. Knew that if I was wrong, and Elijah gave the order, he''d follow it without hesitation.
Then, Elijah spoke again. "It happens tonight." He spoke, voice grave "You will all get into position, and the opening ceremony will commence. I''ve already given you your jobs. Do them."
Then without another word, the hologram vanished. A moment passed, as Dog waited for Elijah to come back, tell him what to do.
Then, of his own volition, Dog released me. Pulled his weight off of me and sat beside me.
I picked myself up out of the dirt, began brushing the dust and grit off of my ''Assassin'' suit. I gave Dog a momentary look, and he looked at me vacantly. I couldn''t really hold it against him. He had no choice in the matter when it came to Elijah''s orders. More to do with his mental condition than his physical one. God wouldn''t listen to Elijah, but all it took was a few words from Elijah to ''put God in the cage''.
''There''s a blasphemous statement if ever there was one.''
"Dog miss Master." Dog panted.
"I''m sure you do buddy." I said, looking towards Christine. She was still looming over the emitter, scarred face set into a furious scowl. Eyes trained on the spot where Elijah''s head had been floating. I was convinced by then that the trouble between them was far more personal than she let on.
Her eyes tracked down to me, and she visibly sighed, shoulders sagging. She stepped away from the emitter and started closer. As she did, I heard footsteps approaching from behind me.
"It would seem that we''re out of time, partner." Domino said "The Madre is waiting, the lights are dimming, and the band is keying in."
"Seems so." I said, walking back over to where Domino and I had been sitting. I''d set some of my gear down to get a bit more comfortable. I double checked most of it, before putting it back into place. Most of the guns I''d collected were low on ammo. Hard enough to find in the Mojave, more so in the Madre.
I picked up the Automatic Rifle I''d found during my exploring, and pulled the magazine. Round count was at eighteen, two shy of full.
My hand fished around in the pouches of my suit, and I pulled out a loose .308 cartridge I''d found. I thumbed it down into the magazine and slapped it back into the receiver. I would need to make my shots count.
"Alright folks." I said, racking the action "Show time. Let''s get into position."
¡
I woke with the lethargic movement of cold oil, as a stab of pain shot through my neck. My arm moved stiffly up to rub the spot, muscles sore and fatigued. A sensation that rolled up and down my body rhythmically.
Then the alarm on my pip-boy went off.
I groaned, lightly bumping my head back against the tree I was lying against.
As had become routine, I was lying in my garden. Back to a tree and trying to catch a couple extra hours sleep after finishing grounds work.
It¡ wasn''t working.
I knew the reason why. After running on a total of four hours sleep, divided in half, each day for two weeks straight, exhaustion was catching up. I was still able to function normally, as normal as I ever was, but it was wearing me down. Four hours of sleep wasn''t going to cut it anymore. Especially if a good chunk of my awake time was spent in constant physical activity. Like getting in gun fights, sparing, or lugging 100lb. bags of mulch around campus in the summer heat. I didn''t even know 100lb bags were an option, most everything is 50lb. bags.
But daylight was burning, and as much as my body was screaming at me to stop, everything else said go.
Reluctantly, and sorely, I pushed off the tree and picked myself up. On my feet, I twisted a little to the left and right. Joints cracking like a cartelagic choir. Sore muscles were making my movements stiff. Once I was moving it wouldn''t be a problem, but staying still for too long wasn''t going to help. I stiffly walked back up the path a ways, and collected the equipment I''d used. With a groan, I walked it back to the shed and locked it up, before heading back to the dorms. One of my knees locked up on the way back, which was pleasant.
As I climbed the stairs to my floor, I stifled a yawn, and leaned against the railing for support. I was having trouble trying to wake up, which was a little concerning. Especially since I nearly tripped. Falling down the stairs wasn''t on the daily agenda.
''Come on dumbass, keep it together.''
I pushed off the railing and finished climbing the stairs. Without any further loss of pep, I proceeded down the hall, and returned to my dorm room. I walked in to find all of my teammates already there. Weiss and Ruby were sitting on one of the beds, going over some papers. Might''ve been some of the documentation I''d slowly amassed, but it was probably homework. Port had assigned a paper earlier that day. Zwei was lolled out on the bed beside them, napping contentedly. Blake was looming over the map of the region, still set up in the center of things. She was looking a bit more refreshed, a few days of meaningful rest had begun to piece her back together. She was even drinking a cup of tea instead of coffee. Yang was across the table from Blake, arms folded as she studied the map.
As I walked in though, all of their eyes trailed up to me.
"''Sup." I said.
The girls all gave some variation of hello, and I shut the door. I kicked off my boots and stumped my way over to the map beside Yang. I examined the map thoughtfully, eyeing all the locations I''d marked, doting over the kingdom''s limits. Stash houses, former robbery locations, bars I''d hit or still needed to investigate. It was a little disconcerting how many Yang had actually provided. I wasn''t sure if she had actually amassed the list herself, or knew someone who might. Were I her dad, I''d find her having an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Vale''s nightlife a little worrisome for someone her age. I''d already met Tai, so it did raise some questions, but nothing truly alarming.
But all the markings made it easier for me to see where I''d already hit. Or where I could try to better focus my efforts at this point. The only points that were on the map I couldn''t do any actual investigation on, were outside the city limits. The Train robberies and convoys that Blake and the SDC records had supplied. They were outliers, and that was the problem. If the dust was still in the city, then why would they have made targets so far outside its limits? With the items and quantities provided by the manifests, it just didn''t add up. Only reasonable guess was they were moving it to smaller camps for dispersion. But it would''ve been a lot of material to make disappear without anyone noticing.
As I stared down at the map, mulling over the data, I felt a shift in the room''s atmosphere. I looked up from the map, and looked around. My teammates were all still looking at me.
"¡ Six, can we talk?" Ruby asked, getting up from her seat beside Weiss. She approached the map.
"¡ I don''t see why not." I said, returning my gaze to the map "Shoot."
"It''s about what we''ve been doing to help stop the White Fang." Ruby said "Or¡ y''know, what we haven''t been."
"Hmm." I grunted, still studying the map.
"This isn''t working." Yang cut in "We''ve been doing this for weeks now, and nothing''s changed."
"Intervening in stuff like this doesn''t happen overnight." I said, cringing a little "It takes time, data gathering and logistics are important for long-term success. Every question needs an answer, otherwise there''s a greater chance everything fails in the long run."
It helped that the White Fang had been slowing down, after I started hitting them. They weren''t stupid, they knew something was messing them up, even if the dots weren''t connected yet. They were on the back foot for the moment. But I couldn''t count on that lasting forever.
"There''s a faster way to get answers." Blake huffed.
"One we already agreed not to use." I shot back.
"Yeah, and it''s lame." Yang said, fist tapping against the map table "We''re stuck waiting while you run around all night. What does keeping a map of all this stuff even do, besides show us what we''re not doing?"
"It shows us everything they''re doing." I answered, Fixing Yang with a look "The big question is: Where is all the dust they''re stealing? The answer is in Vale, but where? With all of this information, at some point it''s all going to come together-"
"But when?" Weiss asked "We could sit here studying forever, waiting for you to find out, but at some point, we''ll be out of time."
"Soon, I can feel it." I said, now turning to Weiss "All of this data, there''s something here already, just winking us in the face. We just can''t see it yet. We''re missing something, I know it."
"Then that''s more of a reason to let us help you!" Yang cut back in "Six, Come on, If you would just let us help-"
"You are." I said, stolidly "While a lot of important things involve running out and physically addressing them, many more don''t. If a surgeon cuts into a patient, without knowing what the injury is, without knowing where it is, or the severity of the situation, they risk the patient''s life on a whim. We know the White Fang are a problem, we know the situation is grim, but to what degree? We don''t know where they''re hiding. We don''t know their numbers. We don''t know enough."
"At what point is it going to be enough?" Blake asked, bitterly "You''re not going to know everything about What the White Fang are doing, at some point you''re going to have to just take a chance."
"It''ll be enough, when in one move, we can shut them down." I said "Every little step we make, takes us one step closer to cutting the head off the snake and making sure it doesn''t get to wander off somewhere to recover. But all it takes is one wrong move, and it''s all for nothing. What happens when they realize they''re up against just a handful of people rather than some mysterious enemy? It''d be far easier for them to counter us than the other way around."
"What happens when they realize they''re only up against one person?" Blake asked "That''s even easier."
"Then we adapt." I answered "If it''s clear what we''re doing isn''t working, we try something different."
"But it isn''t working!" Blake snapped.
I took a calming, banishing breath "And you know that how?"
"Because it''s still happening." Yang said "Six, we want to help, and more than just standing around waiting, come on."
"You will." I said "But this isn''t something where you can just charge headlong into it and hope for the best."
"Guys." Ruby said.
"So now you don''t trust that we won''t make everything worse?" Blake bit.
"Guys." Ruby said again.
"Blake, you do not want to open that door." I said "You need to trust me, I''m trying to-"
"RUBY NO!" Weiss shouted shrilly.
It was followed by the concussive thunder of gunfire in an enclosed space. The kind that sends a hammering *thud* through your chest and hitch your breath if it catches you off guard. My ears rang something vicious, and I noticed both Blake and Yang wince.
I snapped in the direction of the gunshot.
Ruby was standing next to my bed, a finger plugged into one of her ears. Her other arm was extended out towards one of the corners of the ceiling, my sawn-off in her hand. Faint smoke was leaving the muzzle.
"¡ ow." Ruby said, as my hearing came back and she lowered my shotgun. "That''s a lot louder than in the movies."
"The fuck are you doing!?" I snapped, marching over to her.
Ruby lowered my shotgun onto my cot and dropped it. "I was trying to get everyone''s attention, but you guys were ignoring me!"
"So you grab my shotgun and punch a hole in the ceiling?" I ask, bewildered.
"Only the corner of it, that''s the safest place." Ruby shrugged "No one was listening."
"There are a host of things wrong with that statement." I groused, reaching out for my shotgun. I broke it open and snapped out the empty shell, replacing it with another bean-bag round "¡Y''know I have to hand load these things now, right? I can''t just buy more of them."
"Sorry, I know it was really stupid, but you''re being really stupid!" Ruby said "Six, we''re all supposed to be doing this together, but it feels like the only one who''s actually doing anything is you. We''re your friends, and we''re doing this for Blake."
"¡" I took a deep breath "I know. But that doesn''t invalidate everything I''ve said. If we screw this up, all that work will have been for nothing."
"¡Ok." Ruby said "But I want you to promise me something."
"What?" I asked.
"If something happens, you''re going to let us help." Ruby said "We''re trusting you, but you need to be able to trust us too. If something happens, and it turns out that just you doing this isn''t working, you''ll tell us. Then we''ll all take care of it together. As a team."
"That should go without saying." I said.
"Should it?" Ruby asked, fixing me with an inquisitive brow and a cocky smirk.
"Hmm." I hummed, allowing a moment to pass as I collected myself "¡ I''m just trying to make sure this all succeeds, Ruby. I understand how important this is." I turned back to Blake "Believe me, I get it."
Blake looked dourly towards me, bow flopping to the top of her head.
"We are too." Ruby said "But we''re supposed to be a team. If you can''t trust us and rely on us, how are we supposed to be friends?"
"By keeping each other at arm''s length and respecting our boundaries?" I offered.
That earned a chuckle out of Ruby.
I looked around to everyone one more time, before fixing on Blake. "You just have to trust me. I only want to make sure we don''t screw this thing beyond repair."
"¡" Blake huffed "Ok¡ a little longer."
I nodded, accepting her acquiescence. Really, I couldn''t fault her for feeling the way she did, I knew the way guilt could eat at a person. It was a good thing Ruby stepped in when she did. I was seconds away from tearing into Blake in a way that really wouldn''t have helped any, and would''ve sent things spiraling. The lack of sleep was eating at me. I wasn''t blind to the fact that before long I was probably going to start picking up some of Blake''s more recent habits. Last thing I needed was to have that conversation again.
Rolling my neck, I looked up towards the corner of the ceiling Ruby had been pointing my sawn-off at. There was now a fist sized hole blasted into the drywall, with the shell''s wading imbedded beside it.
"You really just couldn''t help yourself, could you?" I asked.
"I regret nothing." Ruby said "¡ who do you think is gonna fix it?"
"Not me." I answered "¡ Y''know, the janitor probably just loves cleaning up after me though."
¡
"Hey, Six?" Jaune asked, as he passed Ren a plate of that night''s slop "I''ve got a question."
"That so?" I said, doling out another for my own teammates, Zwei sniffing curiously at the passing plate "Shoot."
"How do you ask a girl out?" Jaune asked.
"¡"
I looked at Jaune, more than just a little confused. I wasn''t the only one, everyone else in the room turned to look at him too. Either curious, amused, annoyed, or if you were Pyrrha: surprised.
"¡ What?" Jaune asked "It''s a simple question, right?"
"Jaune, do I look like the kind of guy you should be taking dating advice from?" I asked "Literally, what part about me says I know jack about talking with women?"
"It''s just a question." He said "I would''ve asked if no one else was around, but that doesn''t seem to ever happen."
"And again: why me?" I questioned, mystified "There''s better people to ask, even among immediate company."
Jaune looked at me in confusion. "Like who?"
"Oh gee, I don''t know-" I said, motioning to his teammates "How about Ren, or Nora, or Pyrrha? You know, the people in this little circle who''re joined together at the hip. Or otherwise meant to help with things like this. The fuck am I gonna know about asking out the Lady-folk?"
"Ren and I aren''t-" Nora started.
"Spending anywhere near enough time apart for me to believe that lie." I interrupted.
"Uh- well- I mean¡ you''re worldly?" Jaune asked "You know all kinds of stuff, I figured I''d ask."
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"Jaune, as far as I''m aware, dating isn''t really a thing in the Mojave." I explained "At most, two people will get drunk together a couple times, dance the Tribal Two-Step, then decide whether or not they stick together after that."
"The Tribal whaaa-?" Ruby asked, looking utterly lost.
"That sounds like a terrible way to do things." Weiss said, giving me a disturbed look.
"Life happens in an instant in the wasteland. You live fast and die young." I explained "If you''re really lucky, you live long enough for people to add the prefix of ''Old'' to your name. But I can only count a handful of people that manage that. Not much time for courtship in the middle."
"So you just get drunk one night and wake up the next morning married?" Blake asked, somewhere between amused and disgusted.
"Yeah, sometimes. Believe it or not Vegas had a history of that even before the war." I explained "Being the city of vice that it is, it wasn''t uncommon to black out and wake up the next morning to find yourself tied down. For a manner of speaking."
Blake sniggered a little at that, and I noted her cheeks flush a little.
"Pay a little extra, you could even get the King to officiate it." I added.
"You could get a King to marry you?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"Not a king, the King." I corrected "He runs that gang in New Vegas I mentioned a while back, The Kings. He''s styled himself after a pre-war figure, who was also apparently famous for marrying people. Jury''s out if he was a religious icon, but The King certainly thinks so. Had all kinds of hymns and things apparently"
"So the King dresses up like the guy he worships?" Ruby asked "That sounds kinda¡"
"Self-aggrandizing." I supplied "But he has everyone who''s part of the gang do it. It''s gotta be part of trying to mirror the philosophies and things the original King espoused or something. He''s a pretty cool cat though."
"¡ Never use that phrase again." Blake said.
"Getting back to where this all stemmed from though-" I said, willing to put that statement behind me "I''m not the guy you want to be taking relationship advice from. Literally, just ask anyone in this room besides me. I mean, don''t you have, like, a dozen and a half sisters you could ask?"
"Don''t remind me, they''re half the reason I don''t know!" Jaune groaned "Literally anytime I wanted to ask my mom or dad, Saph would tell everyone and I''d get teased about it for- like- a month!"
"Sounds more like you let embarrassment keep you from it." I said.
"Oh like you can talk!" Jaune said testily "You keep your face covered all the time! How would you work up the nerve to ask someone out!?"
"¡ Well Jaune-y boy-" I said reaching under my cot and into my box of tricks. I pulled out a jar of ''shine and gave it a little shake "That''s what the liquor''s for."
"¡" Jaune gave the jar in my hand a decidedly stern look.
"Look, you want real advice, try talking to-" I started.
I was interrupted by Jaune. Who proceeded to lunge forward and snap the jar out of my hand. He wrenched the cap off of it, put the lip to his, and swilled backwards. Clear liquid rolled back to his open mouth. He took a big swig, before leveling back out and trying to swallow. Unfortunately, what little bravado he''d managed to try and muster evaporated. His eyes bulged, as his mouth began to pucker. He began to the early motions of retching.
Which was immediately interrupted by my hand, clapping over his mouth.
I bolted over to him, and locked my hand over his mouth. He really only got as far as he did because, honestly, Jaune was the last person I''d expect to make a grab for it.
"HMF!?" Jaune grunted, eyes snapping up to me as I loomed over him.
"Swallow." I ordered "You don''t get to steal my liquor and then waste it in front of me."
My taunting him with the jar had only been a joke. The fact that he''d actually tried to drink from it wasn''t something I''d counted on. Jaune was too much of a wet noodle to pull something like that. At least I thought he was.
Jaune whined and looked at me pitifully. But, with a visibly pained gulp, he swallowed. My hand withdrew from his mouth as I collected my jar from him. As I closed the lid, Jaune gagged.
"Atta-boy." I said "This stuff''ll put some hair on your chest."
"AUGH- How do you drin-" Jaune started, as I sat back down.
Then the color drained from his face and his eyes rolled back into his head. With a wheeze like a deflating tire, Jaune flopped back onto the bed he was sitting on.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha suddenly squawked, rushing to her collapsed partner. She sat beside and began worrying over him, before giving me a sharp look.
"Oh relax, he''ll be fine. He can''t hold his liquor is all." I said "He''s just dancin'' with the deathclaws right now. Give him a bit, he''ll be back with us."
"Is it really safe for you to be drinking that?" Weiss asked.
"Of course not, ethanol is poison." I said brightly "Delicious, mind clearing, mouth numbing poison. But you could drink worse."
Everyone present gave me a bland look for my cavalier description of my beverage. Weiss however appeared the most exacerbated, running a hand down her face in annoyance. But after a few moments, they mostly brushed it off. They had to know me at least a little bit by then. Sarcasm tinged with a little fatalism tended hang around me. The only ones who seemed intent to make it last a little longer, were Pyrrha and Nora. Of the two, I had to say it was Nora who seemed more directed in her displeasure. Pyrrha certainly seemed upset that Jaune had gone and turned himself into a quick-pickle, a quickle. That meant, however, she had more reason to be concerned for his well-being. Less focused on her anger towards me.
Maybe.
"So what brought all that about, seriously?" I asked her "You know I''ll answer most things as best I can, but those questions were a little out-there, especially for Jaune."
Pyrrha pursed her lips. "Well, he had a bit sheltered of an upbringing, and clearly there''s a girl he likes. He''s just a little insecure about how to get her attention."
"Hasn''t stopped him before." Weiss said, giving Pyrrha''s unconscious teammate a bland look "You''d think getting told no once would be enough to get him to stop."
I gave Weiss a curious look. "He tried to ask you out?"
"Last week." Weiss answered "You left for Vale, and he tried to ask me out to a movie after dinner."
"It was awkward." Ruby added.
"Oh¡ hmm, well there''s a piece of advice I could''ve given him then. Make sure the girl is receptive to your attention first." I said.
"Because that''s so unreasonable." Weiss grumbled.
"Or being more attentive when someone is trying to get it." I said, giving Pyrrha a sidelong look.
Pyrrha tried to keep a stern look on her face. But after a few moments of silent judgement, reinforced by literally everyone else in the room sans Nora joining me, her face began to soften. Falling into an uncertain, almost embarrassed flush. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Only from the outside." I offered "Not your fault, some of us actually need a road map before we start to see where the trail''s at."
"No kidding?" Yang asked with a cheeky smirk "We really need to map it out for you?"
"Har-har." I said "You try navigating without a compa- ok, Nora, what is it?"
Mid-sentence, I shifted my attention to Nora. Who was beginning to get on my nerves. She was still trying to glare a hole into my head. Her Ocean-green eyes like sharpened daggers pointed at my forehead. Nose and mouth pinched tight together. While her face was always a little ruddy, I couldn''t help but notice it was a darker shade of pink than normal.
"¡Ren and I aren''t together." Nora emphasized, squinting at me.
"And who''s choice is that, yours or his?" I asked "You two hang around each other enough that you might as well be married."
Ren''s eyes widened slightly, and he chuckled. Clearly amused by the joke.
Nora, however, wasn''t. Her face just got redder and he eyes more wild. "M-married!? We''re partners, we''re supposed to spend time together!"
"You''ve also known each other since you were kids, supposedly, and you''re practically joined at the hip." I prodded "Also, ''partner'' can be used to describe marriage too."
It was around that point, that Nora''s face got as red as Ruby''s cape. Her mouth gaped in horror. I honestly could have let up, but teasing her was fun.
"Frankly I think you two make an obviously great couple." I said "You two balance each other well if nothing else."
"ONE MORE WORD AN'' I''MMA HIT YOU!" Nora squawked, steam practically coming out of her ears. She shot up like she was intending to make good on that threat. The sudden rush of excitement had Zwei hop to his feet and toddle over to her.
Then Ren reached up and softly put a hand on her back. Nora went ramrod straight, and looked back at her boy-toy.
"Nora, he''s just joking." Ren said soothingly, giving her a smirk "He''s just trying to wind you up." He then turned and fixed me with a more warning look. "And he should really stop."
I held my hands up innocently. "I''m only calling it as I see it."
Nora continued to glare at me, before slowly gliding back down into her seat. As she settled into it, Zwei sat down beside her, looking up to her with a doggy grin. Nora then looked to her boy who was a friend. Her face went positively incandescent, and she buried it into her hands, groaning.
Ren raised a hand, likely thinking about giving her a pat on the back, or some other form of PDA. Then he thought better of it, and put his hand down.
''Coward.''
"¡ You know what, I''ve got a question." I said "Considering the two of you aren''t a couple or something, how''d you two meet at least? Out of everyone here, besides Yang and Ruby, you two seem to have known each other the longest."
A chilled expression slid over Ren''s face. It must have been pretty cold, because the color immediately drained from Nora as well. Causing Zwei, color blind though he may be, to look at the two of them, notably confused.
Ren looked as though he was going to say something. But instead, he simply sighed and let silence take its place.
"¡ I''m guessing it''s a touchy subject?" I offered "You two said previously that you were orphans, but that leaves a lot of room for questions."
"We are." Ren answered "It''s¡ not a time either of us like to think about."
"I can imagine." I said "I''m sorry if it came across as a thoughtless question, I''m not trying to dredge-up bad memories."
"It''s alright." Ren reassured, though there was a flinty look in his eyes "There are just some things I''d rather leave buried."
My head bobbed at that. Burying bad memories wasn''t always a good thing. There was always the chance they''d choose to rise from the dead and jump your bones. But, by and large, processing them wasn''t always feasible. There''s a reason bad experiences haunt people for life. It was up to the person to come to grips with the matter. With or without the aid of a psychological professional. But they had to be the ones to decide to do it. Like any issue, you can''t force someone to address it. They had to choose to.
Ren was choosing not to, and that was fine. Perhaps he''d found his own way of managing.
As I studied Ren however, I noticed Nora began to still. The fingers parting from her eyes as she studied her partner. The manic light that usually pervaded them had been¡ washed out, almost. Like the rest of her. The light was there, but it seemed less present, less lively in a way.
"¡" Nora slid her hands down her face and straightened out. Her expression, in utter dissonance to her manic normality, a stone mask. "Renny and me aren''t from Vale, we both grew up in Mistral." Ren''s eyes glided over to Nora. She turned towards him and gave him a sad smile, before pulling the stony mask back over herself. "We didn''t meet until we were about seven¡ or was it eight?" Nora questioned "¡It doesn''t matter I guess. We didn''t meet for a while. My mom was a nomad, from a big family of ''em."
"Travelling folk." I nodded, not wanting to interrupt "What kind? Traders?"
Nora shrugged "''Dunno. I was really young. They never explained anything to me¡ Ok, they did, but I didn''t really listen."
"Oh bull-crap." I said "You can-"
Nora gave me a pained look.
"¡ sorry." I said "Please, continue."
Nora took a deep breath, then carried on. "It was tough, traveling everywhere. Whenever I started getting comfortable somewhere, we had to pick up and leave. I couldn''t really make friends, and I was the only kid. Everyone else was too old to want to hang out with me." Nora pursed her lips, scrunching her nose slightly "Thinkin'' about it¡ they were a load of butts."
I let a chuckle escape at her attempt at humor. It seemed to invigorate her, a little bit.
"Traveling around wasn''t always bad though. We got to see all kinds of cool places, do fun things. My mom always tried to make sure I was doing my best. She wasn''t always around, and my dad wasn''t in the picture, but she did her best." Nora said, looking solemnly at the ground "We didn''t have a lot, but we had each other, and our family."
"Sometimes, that''s all you need." I said "¡ what changed?"
Nora looked at me sadly. It was disconcerting, and frankly upsetting to someone normally so energetic and manic to be so dour. Even if I''d been on the receiving end of that mania more than once. "We travelled a lot, and that meant we ran into Grimm¡ a lot. We always pulled through though. A lot of the people that travelled with us were good fighters. But then¡ one night, we were attacked by a Grimm, and everything changed. It tore through everything. The only thing we could do was run. So we did." Nora''s hands began to ball into fists, gripping her skirt. "Then things only got worse. We were so scared, we kept attracting other Grimm. For a whole night, we just kept running and fighting and screaming. Everyone kept getting splintered off. I didn''t know what was happening to any of them, my mom just grabbed me and kept running."
In the peripherals of my vision, I could see the solemn looks of concern on my teammates. The way Weiss covered in her mouth, horrified. The empty way Ruby and especially Yang looked at her. How Blake fidgeted in her seat. Even Zwei was concerned, in the way dogs can look concerned. Little tilts of the head and watery eyes.
"¡ Somehow, we made it through." Nora said "My mom managed to find a village that was safe enough we could hide in. We''d lost everything and everyone, but we were still alive¡ and homeless." Sorrow began to bleed into Nora''s eyes "Things got really rough. My mom tried her best to make sure we could stay safe, but everything just kept going wrong. We were lucky to have a roof over our heads, most nights. We- uh¡ we ate out of the garbage." She muttered "It got really bad¡ then it got worse."
"It got worse!?" Ruby gasped.
"¡ The Grimm that attacked us came back." Nora said, voice quavering, sounding nothing like how she normally was "It attacked the village, destroyed it on its own."
"On it''s own?" I asked "Fuck''s sake, what was chasing you a Goliath?"
Port had covered a lot of different Grimm types, from common Beowolves and Ursai to Geists and Caerbannogs. There were even more than that, lots of extremely rare and scarcely seen beasts that he would explain to us in the next semester. Though he''d given names like Feilong and Wyvern.
"¡ No." Nora answered, softly, reservedly "¡ A Nuckelavee."
A physical chill rippled through the air.
Port had made an aside about the Nuckelavee. Once. They were exceedingly rare and could supposedly redefine the word terror many times over the course of their existence. He had never faced one, but from all the stories, made one thing clear: don''t. They were hard to kill, tenacious, and more often than not cunning from living as long as they had. Worse, with the kind of fear they could draw from people, they pulled other Grimm around them like bloatflies and Brahmin crap. You''d be better trying to take one out with artillery than actually fighting it.
Nora had one chase her as a child.
"Holy fuck." I swore, softly.
"¡ It came at night. Tore through the village." Nora bubbled "The last I saw of my mom¡ she told me to run. Hide."
"You did." Ren spoke up.
"¡ I did." Nora said sullenly, voice croaking slightly "That''s when I really met Ren for the first time. I''d seen him around the village before¡ but that night was the first time we''d actually met."
"¡ How did you survive?" Weiss asked.
"With Ren''s help." Nora croaked "His semblance activated, and he kept us hidden until we could escape¡ W-We¡ We¡"
Nora trailed off, miniscule tears began to bead into her eyes. She blinked hard. I swear, I''d been shot by things that hurt less than seeing Nora on the verge of tears. I don''t like seeing people cry, period. Maybe because it was Nora. But it hurt worse.
Ren pursed his lips, but didn''t do anything. He just curled in on himself. Maybe the things Nora had dredged up were hitting him too. But that didn''t change how I felt, in that moment.
''You''re doing it wrong, boy.''
Before I even realized what I was doing, I was on my feet. I crossed the room, carefully side stepping Zwei, as I stood in front of Nora. She looked up at me, still blinking tears out of those ocean green eyes. Ruddy face now splotchy and damp.
I hooked my hands under her arms and hauled Nora to her feet. Her eyes lit up in surprise as my arms snaked around her and I dragged her into a hug. I didn''t quite know what I was doing, or why I was doing it. I just know that, in that moment, I wanted to pick her up and squeeze the sadness out of her. Maybe I was just repaying her for doing something similar, before.
What I did know: she looked like she needed one.
So I pulled her in tight and gave her one.
She went rigid for a moment, as I did my best to try and help calm her down. I was taller than her by about a foot, and her head connected with my armor.
"Breathe." I said, gently "It''s ok, you''re ok. Just breathe."
After a few second, Nora took a deep breath. I could feel her ribcage expanding between my arms. Felt her heartbeat thumping quick and heavy.
Then she relaxed in my arms. Going loose, as she reciprocated the hug. Meaning she began trying to crush me like a bug. But either her heart wasn''t in it, or crying was taking away too much of her strength. She didn''t wind up squeezing the life out of me, but gave as good as she got.
"I didn''t mean to dredge this up for you." I apologized, gently patting her back.
Nora said something, but it was muffled against my coat and armor. I just nodded along with it, and turned my gaze down to Ren. He was looking up to me, a bit confused, and a bit bewildered.
I just looked down at him. He couldn''t see my face, so it really didn''t matter what mine looked like. But I needed him to understand: He should''ve been the one to do that instead. Nora and him had gone through an obviously scarring situation in their formative years. Maybe they''d worked past it in their own ways. Maybe they hadn''t.
But he shouldn''t have shirked away when it became uncomfortable. Nora was the only person in the room who had likely lived through exactly what he had. I thought of Ren as a reasonable and rational sort. The reasonable and rational thing to do when she started crying would''ve been to support her. As one of the only people who''d understand.
In that moment, I was sorely disappointed in him.
He must have picked up on that. Ren''s head looked away from Nora and me. For a rare moment, he almost looked ashamed.
Nora and me stood there for a small eternity, before she finally began to ease off. As she did, I released her in kind, and she eased back into her seat. The back of one of her hands rose, trying to wipe the dirt out of her eyes that my clothes no doubt left behind.
Zwei, opportunistic little devil he is, took the chance to bound up onto her lap. He immediately snuggled in.
I walked back across the room and took my seat again. Pointedly ignoring the looks everyone was giving me. Like they''d never needed emotional support, ever.
Nora sniffled, and finished swiping at her eyes. They were a little red, and a little puffy, side effect of my clothes, surely. But they were clearing up, made their color pop.
"Thank you." Nora said, voice a quavering chirp.
"Hm." I grunted.
"¡ You give really nice hugs." Nora chirped, a smile bubbling through.
"Hush, you." I said, tacitly ignoring the snickering of my teammates. "¡ Ok, so what happened next?"
"We ran away." Nora said, sniffling "Renny and me managed to hide from the Grimm and make a run for it. A couple of the other villagers managed to escape, and we followed them back to Mistral. We weren''t sure what was going to happen to us. But when we got there, people from other attacks were already camped out. Including a few people from the group my mom and me travelled with." A softer smile curled onto Nora''s face "Like my Nana Bess."
"She sounds familiar." Ruby said, visibly thinking "¡ I think you mentioned her before, but I can''t remember where."
"She looked after me and Ren after we got to Mistral." Nora said "I don''t know if she was really my grandma or not, but everyone in the caravan called her Nana, so I did too. A few of the others from the caravan survived too, and stuck with us for a while. But they hit the road eventually. They liked travelling."
"I can understand that." I said "Being a homebody in the Mojave is a stable thing, but it tends to come with lots of restrictions. Caravaners don''t get the security, but they get more freedom, so the appeal is obvious."
Nora nodded, scratching Zwei under the chin "They''d come around, sometimes. But most of the time it was just us. We went through combat school there, then came over here, and the rest if history!"
"Why not go to Haven?" Blake asked "You were already in Mistral, wouldn''t that make more sense?"
"Umm¡" Nora said, pointing at herself "Nomad?"
"And Ms. Bess may have kicked us out." Ren added "She said she was going to go back to travelling now that she didn''t have to worry about Nora getting struck by lightning. Or sticking a fork into the outlet."
"You do it one time and no one forgets it!" Nora whined.
Jaune bolted upright suddenly, inhaling sharply and eyes bulging out of his head. It was followed immediately by dry heaving and his head drunkenly swiveling around the room.
"Buh'' Whaa¡?" He slurred "Wha'' happ''un?"
"Oh hey, he''s back." I said "Told you he''d be fine."
Immediately, Jaune tried to stand up. But the moment his butt left the bed, he flopped forward and planted his face into the floor.
"¡ Mostly fine." I corrected.
Jaune planted his hands against the floor and began to pick himself up. However, as he extended his arms, he lurched forward again, and planted his face back into the floor.
"¡ Ok, fifty-fifty." I corrected again "Fuckin'' light-weight."
"Muh'' phase hurz''" Jaune groaned.
"Good, ''cause you''re killin'' me." I said, trying not to laugh. Something my teammates were trying very hard not to do as well.
Pyrrha shot me a look that could cut steel, and leaned forward. She gripped Jaune by the back of his armor and pulled back. Hauling him onto the bed with surprising ease. As he settled onto it though, his began to circle uneasily.
"Why''s th'' rum ''s spinnin''?" He said, starting to look a little green.
"Oof, gin spins." I said "He gonna be in for a rough night."
"What''s that mean?" Ruby asked, clearly missing out on important terminology.
"Means Vomit-boy''ll want to keep a bucket nearby tonight." I said "And drink a couple glasses of water to stave off a potential hangover."
"I''ll make sure he does that." Pyrrha said, giving me a bland look.
Then Jaune lost his balance and fell against her, giggling. His head coming to rest against Pyrrha''s shoulder, eyes looking towards hers. "S''rry P''rrha. Ev''rthin''s spin''nin'' an'' yo''re re''lly str''ng."
"I-it''s fine." Pyrrha stuttered, flushing slightly but giving Jaune a sympathetic smile.
Jaune''s eyes blinked slowly, and out of sync. His blue eyes were glassed over, and his face was had started to flush. A big, goofy smile curled his lips. "Yo''ve g''t re''lly pr''tty ey''s P''rrha."
"Eh?" Pyrrha said.
Before Jaune could say anything else, his eyes rolled back into his head and he conked out again. Which was a real shame, because he completely missed the rest of the show.
Pyrrha blinked: once, twice.
Then on the third, a wave of red the same shade as her hair shot up her neck and over her face. Her eyes went wide and almost luminous, while her lips pressed into a thin line. Her face continued to deepen in its color, until it almost looked like steam was rising off of it. Then her lips blossomed into a positively giddy little smile. She adjusted her shoulder slightly, so Jaune could rest more easily.
Seriously, I had no clue why Jaune would need to know how to ask a girl out. He had one that seemed pretty keen on him to begin with. There was no way he couldn''t see it.
Speaking of¡
"Well that was a fun little distraction." I said, looking back to Nora and Ren "Thank you for the story. I stand by what I said about you two though. If anything your side of the story has only helped to re-enforce it. ''Cuz now you''ve admitted your own family was willing to take in an outsider and raise him alongside you."
"It wasn''t really raising." Ren said "It''s not like I was a baby."
"Not after surviving what you did you weren''t." I said "In the wasteland, something like that is practically a rite of passage. Like tracking your first hunt, earning your first caps¡" I reached back for my jar and held it out for him. "Here, a belated toast for entering into adulthood."
"¡" Ren looked at me, blandly. Then he looked at Pyrrha and Jaune, then back to me. "¡ I''m not drinking that."
I shrugged "Eh, worth a shot."
"Ha!" Yang laughed.
It took myself a second to realize my mistake.
"Quiet you." I said, wagging a finger at her.
"Why?" Yang asked "You seem to be taking a ''shine to it."
"Is there anything you can''t make a pun out of?" Weiss groused.
"Nope." Yang smiled "That''s the beauty of it."
"I thought the beauty of it was that it lets you be a menace at the drop of a hat?" I asked snidely.
"I know you love it." Yang shot back with a smirk "I just don''t have any¡ proof."
"Well that one was a stretch and you know it." I said, looking down at my pip-boy, and being surprised by the time "Crap, looks like it''s time to hit the bricks." I got up again, as the ache of restless nights suddenly chose to flare up.
"Be safe." Ruby said, giving me a warm smile.
"See you girls in the morning." I said, forcing myself to walk normally.
As soon as I was out the door, I let myself stoop slightly. Everything was starting to crash down again.
I needed another nap.
¡
As the dorm room door shut, and the Courier fled into the city, the two teams began to settle into their dinner once more.
"¡ Does he really give good hugs?" Ruby asked.
"He actually does." Weiss said, picking at her food "Like getting wrapped up by a giant blanket."
"Right!?" Nora squawked.
Hitch in the Plan
"You think I can make the jump?" I asked staring across the void.
Christine looked at me like I had a screw loose.
"Just a joke." I said "I''m good, but not ''long jump thirty feet'' good."
Which was the rough distance between our end of the broken walkway, and the other.
Getting people into position was proving to be more of a hassle than I''d thought it was going to be. Which said something, because I knew who I was working with. Dog/God had a series of switches they needed to throw, and I had to take steps to make sure they actually did it. God seemed willing enough, with some nudging, but I had to take extra steps to make sure Dog complied if he got loose. Domino was more of a pain in the ass, wanted some assurances the Ghost-People weren''t going to swarm him. Assumed I didn''t give a flip about whether or not he survived. To be fair, I was getting tired of his bullcrap. It was easy enough to forget when we were being civil, but he was a whiny bastard. Wandering around the Madre had given me a chance to learn a bit more about its history. The hand Domino had played in it as well. I didn''t have the full picture, but it was coming into focus. As if that hadn''t been enough, there were also the Madre''s hazards. The Ghost People and Cloud were denser in the areas of the Villa that Domino and Dog/God needed to be. It made every step we had took a tense one, every fight a heartbeat away from disaster. Couldn''t encounter one Ghost Person without five more dropping down on top of you.
It also had the unfortunate effect of validating Domino''s concerns, which blew.
I managed to set him up with some holograms for security, and he was convinced to hang around. Long enough to do his job, at least. After that, I could bet good money he''d probably hightail it to the casino.
Which then left Christine and me to get her to the switching station. Whatever work she needed to do apparently required more technical know-how than Domino and Dog/God could manage. Getting in hadn''t been so hard, just mess with a few wires and blast a few speakers. As we went, we even noticed signs that someone had been here before us. Something I''d picked up on at some of the previous ''positions'' Elijah had us manning. Small notes and directions, but signs that definitely weren''t from before the bombs.
Not long after we''d gotten into the switching station however, we ran into our first real obstacle. We had to cross a transfer room, that''d had the ventilation shut off for the past two-plus centuries. Naturally, the Cloud had collected in the room. Luckily, there were walkways that were made to take workers over the room quickly.
Not so luckily, they were also two-plus centuries old, and hadn''t held up either.
Leaving a thirty-foot span in the air that there was no jumping over, plus the fifty-foot drop to the concrete and Cloud below. The fall probably wouldn''t kill, but I''d probably wish it had.
Off to my right, further along the walkway, was a staircase descending into the Cloud. I could see it reached the floor below, and at the other side of the room was another staircase leading back up. So it wasn''t that we couldn''t carry on. But we''d need to get through the cloud first. Making matters worse, the Cloud was dense enough that I couldn''t make out how to get through it. The transformers and machinery snaked around everywhere. If I stepped wrong, I could wind up stuck in the Cloud longer. I''d gotten myself caught in it enough times to know how dangerous it was.
But the only way forward was through it.
So I motioned towards the stairs, and started walking.
Christine looked at me like I''d lost my mind.
"No choice." I said "We try to jump across we''ll both wind up dead. The Cloud will kill us if we hang around in it too long but Elijah''ll kill us if we don''t move. If you got any better ideas, I''d love to hear them."
Christine gave me a decidedly sour look.
"¡ Poor phrasing." I conceded, scanning the walkway along the opposite side of the room. I could just barely make out the dark scratching of more markers. Clearly someone else had been through before us.
There were also more speakers mounted on the walls. The kind with re-enforced housings.
"We can clearly get through." I said, motioning to the markers "Those speakers''ll be a problem but I think¡" My eyes track the walkway deeper into the room. It led to a raised, overseer''s station. I could see a terminal poking through the window. "-That''s probably the kill-switch over there." I said "Assuming we get to it fast enough we shouldn''t have a problem."
Christine fixed me with a flat look.
"¡ Okay, I know I''m making a lot of assumptions, but it''s that or death." I reminded, looking down into the crimson fog below us. Odds were, if there were markers on the walkways, they''d need them in the Cloud too. I glanced back to Christine. "Look, I''ll go first, that way if something goes wrong, you''ll know it ahead of time. Just be ready to jump in after me in case I need help. I''d very much like to not die today either."
Christine continued to give me a flat look, but eventually relented. There wasn''t any getting around it, and she knew that. The two of us walked to the stairs and went down about half-way together. Right to the point we were hovering above the Cloud. Had me wishing I had some of the grease Domino carried around. He''d slather it on himself before we stepped into the Cloud. Didn''t stop it completely, but slowed it down long enough for us to get through it unharmed. He''d been willing to share small amounts of it when we were going through the Villa.
Key word being small.
I wasn''t going to get that cover this time.
"Wish me luck." I said, starting down the stairs into the Cloud.
I could feel the Cloud climb its way over me as I descended, slowly gnawing at my skin. Like walking into the waters of some caustic lake. I held my breath as I went under much the same. I couldn''t hold it for long, but the less of the stuff I sucked in, the better my long-term prognosis seemed.
As I walked down, I noticed a body, off in the corner of the room, wearing one of Elijah''s jumpsuits. I''d have paused to look at it a little longer, but waiting in the cloud wasn''t a good idea.
It did begin to confirm something important though. Elijah had said he''d had people working before us. He''d never said how far any of them had gotten before they''d bit the dust. Something I took note of.
Passing down onto the ground floor, I felt the cloud immediately start eating at my soft tissues. Tickling at the sinuses of my nose, collecting in the stagnant air there, needling at my eyes. The assassin suit did good to keep it from pushing through to most of my skin, including my groin, which was good. I could only imagine how much that would''ve hurt. I stepped away from the stairs and out onto the floor. Following the memory of where I saw the stairs on the other side. All I had to do was weave my way amongst the debris and machinery. A few steps through the Cloud, it started to really sink its teeth in. It wasn''t as debilitating as the first time I''d encountered the Cloud. I''d gotten used to it in my own way.
A few steps away from the stairs, as I''d guessed, I found a marker on the supports from the machinery. Pointing through a space between them. Toward the other side of the room. Naturally though, I didn''t just charge recklessly into it. Even as my lungs began to burn for fresh oxygen, and I could hear my heart in my ears. I''d run into enough stupidly obvious booby-traps in the Madre to know to expect something.
So I wasn''t surprised, when the tight space came equipped with a bear trap. Which I easily stepped over.
Right into the three bear traps set behind it. I was used to seeing multiple bear traps set in series. But they were normally set in pairs.
Whoever had been through there last, must''ve been a vindictive little shit.
My foot came down on the second bear trap, and it snapped shut on my leg. My assassin suit braced against its teeth but it still caught my foot, tripped me.
I faulted forward, threw a hand out to catch myself. My right hand met the ground, and my left slammed into the third bear trap. The jaws snapped shut, connecting with the steel housing of my pip-boy and trapping my arm. I face planted just short of the fourth one, but it must''ve been wound tight because it snapped shut anyway.
"Motherfucker!" I shouted, pain shooting up my leg.
I regretted those words, as I suddenly began inhaling the Cloud. Panic set in, as I began struggling, trapped in the steel jaws. My hand flew to my side and pulled a cosmic knife as my lungs began to ache. Immediately I set to trying to free my arm. Harried though I was, I knew having both hands would make it easier to free my leg.
As I felt my lungs beginning to liquefy, I slid my knife between the pip-boy and trap. Using the silvery knife as a bar, I used the extra leverage to begin pressing down the jaw springs. I felt nails being slowly pushed into my lungs, as I slid my hand out from the trap. It crashed shut with a metallic twang, and I hurriedly flipped over, bending towards the trap at my feet.
As I did, Christine darted out of the Cloud and stopped at my feet. Her eyes widened, as the cloud began to eat at her too. The scar tissue on her face started turning raw, more crimson in color. The whites of her eyes grew bloodshot, and tears began rolling from them. Her mouth curled in a grimace, as her breathing began to grow coarse.
Without missing a beat, she knelt down to the trap as well and began applying pressure. Trying to spread the jaws apart. In a display of surprising strength, she moved them enough for me to slide my leg free all on her own. Unfortunately, as I did she collapsed on herself, the Cloud instantly taking its toll.
"Fuck." I coughed, pulling myself to my feet. I slid my knife back and grabbed Christine by the arm. My mouth tasted like copper and solvents, as I dragged Christine the rest of the way through the Cloud. The way was clear after that, thankfully. I guess whatever asshole thought setting up four bear traps in a row was a good idea also thought it''d be enough.
He wasn''t wrong, but still an asshole.
We squeezed out of the area between the machines and bolted for the stairs. Well, I bolted, Christine was led. She stumbled up the first few stairs, but managed to climb the first two flights back to the breathable air. We left the Cloud hacking, sputtering, and leaking crimson snot.
It took us both a minute before we could even begin formulating words again.
I blew a crimson rocket out of my nose. "Ick- Thanks, Christine." I gagged "You got good reflexes, were- Augh- on me right quick."
Christine waved me off, rubbing at her eyes. As she cleared them, she gave me a dogged smile. Guess it was repayment of some fashion. I''d helped her out, now she helped me. At least, that''s what I thought it was. After we finished recovering though, we had to deal with the speakers on the next floor. We bolted up the stairs to them, and she took point. Christine sprinted down the walkway to the overseer''s office and disappeared as I heard my collar begin to beep. She''d had figured out how to dampen the interference by daisy chaining our collars through my pip-boy. It worked both ways, and helped bypass the speakers when we couldn''t break them.
However, instead of having me be the one to disable them this time, she''d taken it upon herself.
Before my collar really had a chance to start chiming, the speakers shut down. A minute or two after that, Christine rushed back.
"Thanks again." I said "You''re officially the most proactive person I''ve worked with today."
Christine rolled her eyes. Then she motioned back to the office. Her hands moved up and down for a moment, motioning to her body. She then crossed both hands over her throat and made a face like she''d croaked.
"¡ There''s a dead body in there?" I guessed.
Christine nodded.
"¡ That makes two." I said, motioning back down into the Cloud "You saw that one near the stairs, right?"
Christine nodded again.
"Means we''re not the first people Elijah''s had get this far." I said, leading the way down the walkway my pip-boy was pointing "¡ I''m starting to think I''ve got an idea on where he''s at."
Christine quirked an eyebrow at me, as she kept pace.
"I think he might already be inside the Madre." I said "Think about it: the four of us have been bumming around the Madre for weeks, but we''ve only ever seen the hologram. He hasn''t approached any of us physically despite the explosive leash. On top of that, with all of the dead bodies, caches, and notes lying around there''s no telling how many people he''s gone through. Clearly he''s gotten this far before too."
Christine nodded, then opened the door for me, and we stepped into the room across from the broken walkway. A combination maintenance and break room.
"I think he''s already inside the Madre." I said again "It just¡ I don''t know, something about it tracks. We''re not the first team he''s shackled like this, so he has to have succeeded before us. So then the question becomes, why the fuck are we here?"
We passed through the room and Christine pondered the question. Ultimately, as we passed into the next room, another break room but with lockers, she shrugged. It was a mystery to her too.
"That''s part of the trouble then." I said "I know why I''m here, same for Dog and God. I can guess why Domino''s here easy enough, he''s not a hard one to read."
Christine paused then pointed at me, curious.
"¡ I was curious and decided to take a look." I answered.
Christine''s mouth fell open.
I ticked off the reasons. "Dog''s here to serve and God wants to be free of Elijah. Domino wants what''s in the Madre, nothing but greed in him. And I¡ got curious and went sticking my nose in places I shouldn''t have."
Christine¡ well, she couldn''t laugh, but not for lack of trying. It looked good on her, made the scars seems smaller and softer.
"What about you?" I asked, pausing near the door that led back out "You mimed that you were here because of the old man. What''s the story there?"
As I asked the question, Christine''s face darkened. It wasn''t an immediate thing, but a gradual one. It started with a fading smile, ended with a grimace. But it wasn''t a look of particularly dark emotions. There was anger for sure, maybe even hate, but not as I''d seen it in on others. She looked more like she was in pain.
She gave me a sad look. Whatever the story was, even if she''d wanted to tell it, she couldn''t.
"I know you came here to kill him." I said "We covered that part... I''m probably going to come across as an ass for asking- but why?"
Christine gave me a pointed look. Reminding me she couldn''t answer in any detail.
"Right¡ Yes or no: personal reason?" I asked.
Christine paused a moment, then nodded. Personal.
"Ok, that''s getting somewhere." I said, looking her over, and focusing on her scars "Is he responsible for those?"
Christine pursed her lips, then rocked her hand back and forth: Sorta.
"Sorta." I vocalized "Ok, so that''s only part of it?"
She nodded.
"Ok, so he hurt you, but also did something else to you." I said, my mind immediately going to a place I didn''t want it to. "Did he¡ assault you?" I asked.
Her gaze narrowed for a moment, before she caught what I was saying. She almost seemed to laugh at the idea. I took it seriously, but she seemed to know something I didn''t.
"Ok, just making sure." I said "Next guess is: he took something from you?"
She paused, then made the ''sorta'' gesture again. She then motioned to herself.
"¡ He stole you?" I asked "¡ you weren''t a slave, right?"
Christine gave me a dry look then motioned to me instead.
"¡ I already know he stole me." I said, now more confused "And he''s definitely trying to make a slave out of me, tell you what."
Christine ran a hand over her face, then motioned back and forth between the two of us.
"¡ us?"
No.
"People?"
Sorta
"¡ Person?"
With an exasperated look on her face, Christine nodded.
"He stole someone from you?" I offered.
A resounding ''Yes!''.
I paused a moment, making sure I got the facts right. "¡ So he hurt you, and he took someone away from you?"
Another ''Yes!''.
"¡ Alright, yeah, I''mma help you kill him." I said.
Christine blinked, and looked at me in confusion.
"Out of everyone here you''re easily the only one whose company I actually enjoy." I admitted "Domino''s a self-entitled asshole, and while I pity Dog and God''s situation, I know neither would hesitate to kill me. Or eat me for that matter. You''re the only one who''s even remotely civil in this group." I held my arms up in a shrug "So yeah, if I can help you settle accounts with Elijah, no bones about it, I''ll help."
It was a bit hard to tell with the scarring, but Christine''s expression seemed to soften a little. She seemed almost touched by the thought of someone helping her commit murder. It couldn''t be happening to a better person either. I didn''t even care if he could hear me at that point. He had a problem with it, then he''d have to gamble waiting for the next team. When he was already so close to whatever he was trying to do this time.
"First thing''s first though, we gotta get the Gala going." I continued, opening the door so we could press on "If he is inside the Madre, then we''ll never be able to reach him without getting it open-"
As the pneumatic rattled into the floor, two things happened at once.
One: my collar started beeping.
Two: a Mk. II Automated Turret that''d been trained on the door opened fire on me.
Of the two of them, I took much more immediate note of the latter. A trio of bolts nailing me in the arm, chest, and groin. The assassin Suit tanked the hits again, but that was just rude. I dipped behind the doorframe and grasped at where I''d been shot. Surprised at the minimal damage I''d taken.
Then I got mad, and pulled my Automatic Rifle from over my shoulder.
"Oh fuck you, ya fuckin'' machine!" I shouted "We were having a moment!"
I flung myself back around the corner again, took aim, and squeezed off a small burst.
The turret erupted in a shower of sparks as the bullets tore through it. Electronic smoke billowed up from the chassis.
"Sorry about that." I apologized, stepping back into the room enough to silence my collar. I looked out the door, and took note of a speaker just outside the doorway. Plus more across the massive room it led to. It was similar to the one we''d just walked through, only now there didn''t seem to be a way to descend to the floor below. The space of which was consumed by more of the Cloud and machinery. More walkways spanned the massive gaps. Broken in many places, but more easily traversable than the last one. They ran to the far side of the room, connecting to the Switch station''s main office, our destination. "¡ Shouldn''t be much more trouble than before." I said, motioning across the way
Christine fixed me with a smirk, and we started across the room. I was a lot less afraid of the collars with her around. Or maybe I was finally just numb to their existence. The knowledge that something could blow my head off for standing in the wrong place lost its impact after a while. Probably because it was preferable, compared to the rest of the Madre. At least it would be quick.
The two of us ambled our way across the walkways, carefully passing through the ranges of the speakers. We found a terminal with some entries on it along the way, plus access to the speaker control, which made the whole thing moot.
Inside, the switching station looked like it''d been flipped over a few times. There were a couple of desks and filing cabinets, plus a few more terminals besides all of which looked like they''d been ransacked. Our priority was an elevator at one end of the room, with a terminal wired to it nearby. The elevator descended into the junction room Christine was expected to operate. Except, the closer we got to it the more apprehensive she got. Even from the distance we were, I could hear the sharp clicks and whirs of the elevator. Sounding like it was just barely holding together. While Christine wasn''t willing to chance being near it, I took it down to the level she needed to be at.
It was dark, and cramped as a coffin. The auto-doc I found Christine in would''ve been a penthouse suite by comparison.
I came back up to the office and found her leaning against one of the desks, trying to breathe evenly.
"Bad memories?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Figures¡" I looked to the desk wired to the elevator. I''d noticed them running down to the floor below on my trip. "That must be a remote access terminal. It''s easier to work from that than from below."
Christine nodded, looking to me hopefully. As I approached the terminal, she joined me.
Naturally though, it was locked. Last guy to come through probably hadn''t been claustrophobic.
"Alright, let''s see." I said, running my fingers over the keys. "I''ve got a decent enough understanding of Termlink, plus a trick or two from a friend. Let''s see if we can''t crack her open."
I punched open diagnostics with Christine watching over my shoulder. The start-up scrolled by, and opened into the shell. Lines of centuries old code and command lines streamed over the screen. Most of it was gibberish. Bits of scrap code and uncompiled errors. Most of it was useless. However, some of it wasn''t, if you could find the right pieces to put together. It was easy to encrypt a password if you broke it up and changed it enough times. Even more when you stashed it amongst a dozen similar sounding ones, or enough to lead you off track.
But those little errors and scraps were like sign markers. Find the right ones to snip, and you crossed off the misleading choices. Robco had to be given credit for including a failsafe though. If it became apparent you were trying to brute-force the password, it would automatically lock-down. Requiring the ''administrator'' for the server to step in and bring it back online.
Veronica had taught me how to bypass the lock-down. Funny how a few innocuous keystrokes are meant to act as a deterrent. There were only a handful of them per terminal. With them, the whole system basically fell apart.
After a couple of tries, I got the system to unlock.
"Thank you, Veronica." I said, stepping back from the terminal. The command prompt blinked onto its screen, displaying options and readouts.
I motioned for Christine to step into place, and she looked at me, surprised. Then she looked down at the terminal a moment, brow furrowing. Before I could begin to move out, she motioned for me to move towards the terminal again. Her fingers began to move over the keys
You know Termlink?
"Enough of it." I said "Had some knowledge of it floating around in my head, and I had a friend of mine teach me more of it. Comes in handy from time to time."
Christine looked at me pensively a moment, then cleared the line and begin typing again.
Strange, not many people know it. Not many outsi- She backspaced quickly. Take the time to study it, terminals aren''t common.
"They''re common enough." I shrugged "Definitely helps that Veronica is part of a clandestine group."
Christine paused noticeably for a moment, her lips pursing. The she started typing again. Is that her name, Veronica? Then she rubbed her temples. Christine had trouble with physical communication. It was part of the reason she didn''t just write things down. Something about what happened to her left her somewhat dyslexic, or close to it. That''s what it seemed to do anyway, it seemed to take a lot of effort on her part just to use the terminal properly.
I nodded "Yeah, sweet girl with a penchant for old-world fashion and boxing."
Christine stilled like I''d just run ice down her back. She turned to me with wide, almost begging eyes. Her hands started to tremble slightly.
"¡ you ok?" I asked.
Christine looked back to the terminal again and focused on it. With great and decidedly concerted effort, she set back to the keys again.
Is her last name Sa- Christine paused a moment, looking to be in almost physical pain. Whatever it was that had been done to her had very clearly wrecked unmistakable havoc. ¨Cntangelo?
I didn''t immediately answer her, just let the question hang in the air for the moment. Veronica was a member of the Brotherhood. While I didn''t have much care for them, from everything I''d heard they were assholes, Veronica was one of them. If I said something out of turn here, I didn''t want it to somehow come back around to her.
As the silence hung in the air, Christine turned to look at me, that same pleading look in her eyes. But I held my ground against it. Now I had a question of my own.
"Christine." I said "Who are you?"
Christine''s gaze narrowed at me for a moment, the pleading disappearing. What was left was hard, calculating. The kind of look you''d expect from lone operators and trained soldiers.
Old World Soldiers.
Christine turned back to the Terminal. Her use of the keys slowing considerably with each tap. Christine Royce, Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel. Circle of Steel.
My blood chilled a little bit.
Veronica had only talked about the Circle of Steel a little bit, once. They were the closest thing the brotherhood had to an Internal Affairs. Closer to an Inquisition, more like. They''d dispatch people to take out brotherhood members that went sufficiently rogue. If the Brotherhood was a monster that''d kick down your door, then the Circle was the boogeyman you''d send after the monster.
Like Elijah.
A lot of pieces started to fall into place in my head.
But it wasn''t for the obvious. I could''ve easily latched onto the Circle part and forgotten about it. If she was going to put Veronica in danger, my mouth was staying shut.
But there was another side to things.
"You''re her." I said, a little breathless "You''re that Christine, aren''t you?"
Christine looked at me pained. She went to begin typing again, but I grabbed her hands instead and turned her towards me.
"Yes or no." I said, making it easy "Are you Veronica Santangelo''s girlfriend?"
She didn''t answer.
Her eyes simply widened at the question. A look of disbelief washed over her like cold water from Lake Mead. Her breathing hitched, then began to increase in speed, becoming frantic. Her eyes began to grow watery, and her mouth pinched upward.
Then she nodded.
"¡ I don''t believe it." I said, in disbelief "Of all the shit I could stumble into, what are the odds-"
Christine ripped her hand away from me and slammed them onto the keyboard one more time.
Alive?
"Ali- yes, yes of course she is!" I answered, trying not to laugh at the absurdity of it all "She''s still back in the Mojave- You''re her!"
At my words, Christine''s hand began to tremble again. Then the rest of her began to follow suit, shaking like a tumbleweed in the wind. She leaned forward, against the terminal, shaking as her breathing began to strain.
She began to cry, silently. But she had the happiest smile I''d ever seen on someone so sad.
Christine Royce. The girl Veronica courted. The one she loved. Ripped away from her by Elijah.
Found by some jackass lost in the middle of hell.
Even as she shook, and swiped at the tears in her eyes she tried to keep typing. Thought died Helios
"You mean that mess Elijah caused?" I asked "No, she managed to escape but was forced into hiding with the rest of the chapter. They''ve been operating out of a bunker in Hidden Valley."
Christine, through teary eyes, looked at me curiously.
"They have her acting as a gofer." I explained "That''s how I know the Brotherhood, relax, I''m vetted."
Christine nodded, and I took her hand.
"We''re going to get out of here, understand?" I said "I know how much you mean to Veronica, and I know beyond a shadow of doubt it''d light up her whole world to see you well."
Christine began blushing quite vibrantly at that. It was almost cute.
"There''s no time to talk about it, not here, not now." I said "But you have to make it through this, understand? If not for yourself, then for her."
She looked at me for a moment, taking calming breaths. Then she rubbed the tears from her eyes, and smiled brilliantly. Determinedly.
"Good." I nodded "Now, let''s go rob a casino."
¡
I jolted awake at the edge of the building. Narrowly stopping myself from involuntarily vaulting off of it. Which would have been both embarrassing and lethal, given I was a couple stories above the ground. I stepped back away from the ledge and looked out, across the way. I didn''t have much of an understanding as to how infrastructure worked. But if it worked anything like I understood, which it probably didn''t, then it was a power substation. A fresh brick building, as fresh as brick ever looked anyway, with power lines leading out from it. The lights were dim, and it was all but abandoned.
Or at least it should have been. The number of White Fang buzzing around it in the dark kept it from that. The lights were all out, even the few they''d need running for safety compliance, if such a thing existed in Vale. Probably helped that the Fang didn''t need lights. At least most of them probably didn''t. Perk of having naturally occurring night vision. Made it so that you didn''t have to make your presence obvious the way others did. People probably would''ve noticed the place being lit up in the middle of the night, in the pitch-black industrial zone.
Of course, it was also the industrial zone. At night. Most people with a normal life and sleep schedule stayed away from it. Things that never applied to me.
The night had started with a bang. No sooner had I gotten off the airship than my Scroll went off. The White Fang had tried to make a move on one of the listed Vale P.O.I.s, forcing me to intervene. The only problem, was that they were halfway across the city. I''d gotten faster, with all my roof running and aura training. But I wasn''t that fast, not yet. Another couple months and maybe.
By the time I''d gotten there, they''d already moved them to a second location.
They gave enough information for me to find most of the way, and a little prodding gave me the spot. It was a pretty subtle place, assuming it wasn''t one of their official safe houses. I couldn''t imagine it staying hidden for long if it was. Logic dictated it was just a temporary hideout. At least until they could take their hostage elsewhere.
However, as I stayed on the rooftop, observing everything an old inkling began to chime in.
This looked a lot more like a trap than just a simple kidnapping.
Remote location, hypothetical terrain advantage, an indeterminate number of enemies laying in wait. Most importantly: bait that couldn''t be ignored.
My skills and paranoia might''ve been rusty, but even I could tell when something was off. The White Fang had started picking up on the fact that I was an active problem. It wasn''t outside the realm of possibility that, if I was making a big enough mess, they''d try to bump me off. They weren''t the first assholes to try, and I wouldn''t let them be the last either. I was going to approach with an extra degree of caution and stealth, until I had a better understanding of what was going on. They overplayed their hand; something was wrong and now I knew to look for it.
I shook the sleep out of my system, then took a few steps away from the ledge. I gauged the distance from my vantage point to the rooftops across the street. They were adjoining to the substation, so that was an easy enough way in. I could slip through one of the upper windows and at least perform recon before making any moves. But I wasn''t simply going to be able to cross the street and call it good. Faunus had better senses than most normal humans, and certainly better than me ninety percent of the time. Sharper hearing and smell, plus their natural night vision. Just trying to rush across the street was a good way to wind up getting shot. Though they probably wouldn''t expect it, and it would catch at least someone off guard. Probably.
Getting to the opposite rooftops wasn''t easy, but I''d had a lot of practice recently.
I ran at the edge of the roof and launched myself off it, aiming for the nearest street lamp on my side. I sailed through the air a short distance and contacted it. My boots ringing hollowly through the metal structure. There was a tense moment, where I watched the White Fang, waiting to see what they would do. If their sharper senses had picked up on my landing. But if they did, they didn''t show it. Taking that as a sign, I trotted down the arm of the lamp and did it a second time. I hopped to the lamp hanging out over the opposing side of the street. Its arm bowed more under my landing, a matter of physics, but held, and I ran down it, before launching back up the rooftops. Now safely across the street and, if a moment''s investigation proved true, undetected.
Aura. I was starting to understand why people said the soul was such an important thing.
Certainly helped by the fact that most animals don''t think to look up when searching for danger. Nobody thinks it''s going to drop onto them like a ton of bricks. Humans and Faunus were no exception to that. I''d had it happen more than a few times in the Mojave. So few predators bother to use it, you don''t even think to account for it most of the time.
Then a cazador comes skittering over the ridge and nails you in the sternum.
Good times for everyone involved.
I surveyed the roof of the substation, making sure there wasn''t anyone stationed on it. There wasn''t, thankfully. The roofs were slanted and tiered anyway, so it would have been a hazard for most people to try and walk around on, especially in the dark. With a small bound, I crossed over to it. Angling and bending so my weight would be leaning into the slope and I wouldn''t fall off. I landed smoothly, though skidded downwards a little bit before friction pulled me to a halt. There was a moment, where I worried that landing as I did would''ve echoed into the substation. There was plenty of open space inside the building for reverb. It could just as easily become a lot more noticeable as not. With the way my luck tended to go, noticeable was always the more likely option.
But after a few moments, waiting, I heard nothing. No movement from inside the building, hard as that would''ve been to hear, or the ground below. If they heard me, there was a better chance they''d played it off as the building settling, or the wind.
Secure in the fact I hadn''t been immediately discovered, I toddled my way carefully up the roof. There were a series of skylights, inlaid into the gap of the roof tiers. Further towards the back, I could spy a hatch leading into the building proper. Roof access, for maintenance naturally. But otherwise the roof was empty. It would''ve helped them to keep people on the roof. The fact they left it open showed either arrogance or carelessness. Or re-enforced what I already pegged it for: a trap. Provide an entryway that seemed unguarded to funnel your target where you want them.
I loomed against the upper windows and stared into the darkness below. There were very few lights in the space below. The White Fang didn''t need them. They were likely just emergency lights built into the shell around the substation. A safety precaution. They didn''t do much to help me get a good look of the place. Most of the substation was still bathed in shadow, and the night vision in my helmet only went so far.
But even without a clear view or numbers, I could tell there were a lot of them. Way more than I''d normally run into while running the streets. I was almost flattered they thought they needed that many people for li''l ol'' me. But really, it more showed how seriously they were taking the issue. Even without a real number to account for, the effort and manpower they were putting towards this was noticeable. I''d put a lot of effort into pissing in their Sugarbombs, but something was off. The White Fang had proven itself overconfident in their forces in the past, sending small numbers of people out to handle more complicated jobs. It''d worked until I started intervening. Only this time they''d sent a more appropriate force.
Had I actually been hitting them hard enough to teach them a lesson? The wrong one at that?
In the gloom below I could see a raised, walled off section of the substation. Dim light was coming from it, and I could just barely make out the control panels and switch boards inside. Among them, I could make out three figures. Their features a bit hard to discern at the distance, but notable. At least two of them were White Fang, with one of them being particularly large. Scale was hard to judge from the distance and angle, but noticeably larger than the guy beside him. The third was sitting in a chair, noticeably smaller than the both of them. The purported kidnapping victim, I had to assume.
I observed the ladder leading down to the substation floor a moment longer. There didn''t seem to be anyone actively observing it, but they didn''t really need to be. Their sharpened senses could potentially make the difference, if they''d been informed of where to look in the first place. Which was assuming they hadn''t booby-trapped the ladder in the first place.
So rather than take the sane route into the building, I took the less conventional approach. If there was something I''d started to learn, that was the appropriate approach around those parts.
I jimmied Blood-Nap into the seam of the window and pried it open. Wasn''t particularly sure if they were ever intended to open in the first place, but they seemed to hinge upward with some prying. They weren''t particularly quiet, but probably more so than the ladder would''ve been. Again, most people don''t look up.
Just beneath the window, ran a series of steel support beams. Crisscrossed along the ceiling and spanning back to the floor below. I shimmied my way through the window and planted my feet onto the support beam. Disturbing dust that''d probably been gathering there for years. My eyes flashed to the ground below. Watching the gloom writhe with the motion of all the White Fang prowling the dim light and long shadows. I crept calmly and smoothly through the dark above them, keeping balanced on the thick steel beams. Once or twice, I froze, paying mind to the ground below me. Thinking I heard someone pay mind to some motion in the darkness above. But, when the bullets didn''t start flying, I knew I was good to keep going.
I managed to keep it going, right up to the back wall, near the raised office. Before I got moving, I cast a glance towards the ladder, not far from the office. My eyes tracked it back up to the ceiling, and saw that the hatch hadn''t been booby-trapped, at least. While it was possibly still being observed, it at least meant the physical route wasn''t blocked. If I could retrieve the hostage undetected, I could lead her back out through there under the White Fang''s noses. Trying to accomplish the same acrobatics that got me up there in the first place would be more of a challenge, but I felt I could do it. Even with my growing fatigue, I would have to. Once we were out, I could take her to the nearest police station. Then I could figure out what to do with the gathered White Fang. Assuming they didn''t notice their hostage had been taken from under their noses and start panicking.
It was a plan. Not a good one, but a plan.
I slung myself down from the crossbeam, planting my boots into the rib of the vertical beam. The toe of my boot planted into the interior face, as my gloved hands gripped the opposite. Gingerly, but calmly, I began to slide down the column at a controlled descent. Watching the ground below me carefully, to see if I''d drop in on anyone unannounced.
About half-way down the column, the door to the office swung open, and the larger White Fang I''d seen before stepped out.
Immediately, I pressed my feet into the column, halting my descent.
Now that I was closer to the office, I could get a better look of him. That particular White Fang was a large one. I''d stand him toe-to-toe with Yatsuhashi or Lanius and say he was comparable. He wasn''t as thick with muscle, like I''d seen on supermutants or a previous White Fang, Waylon I think his name was. But muscle was deceptive with aura involved. His uniform eschewed the usual fare of the White Fang. His robes lacked any form of sleeves, revealing long arms inked with black, snaking tattoos. His hood and half mask traded for a full, bone-white one instead, eyes clawed with red. His head open to the world with a cropped, dark haircut. Fingerless gloves ran up his forearms, covered by steel bracers. Black cargo pants on his legs, steel braced boots on his feet.
A massive chainsaw slung over his back.
It was one that hadn''t been plucked from a hardware store either. It had a smaller motor, the handles and grips modified to work easier as a weapon. Like a ripper on steroids. Maybe even FEV.
I decided right then that I did not want to test how actually effective it was as a weapon. By and large it looked like a bad bunch of business.
The large White Fang looked around, as he descended the stairs away from the office. He reached into a pocket of his uniform and produced a scroll. With a deft movement he opened it and began communicating with someone. I couldn''t pick-up what was said, but it diverted his attention away from me. After a moment waiting for him to pass, I resumed my descent, being mindful of any other passing Fang. Once I was maybe ten feet from the ground, I leapt off the girder, towards the office. I landed just soft enough to avoid notice of a passing pair of Fang. Which was almost a miracle unto itself. Without missing a beat, I crept up the stairs to the office and kept low, just outside of view. I leaned past the door frame enough to see the room beyond. The young girl they''d taken hostage was seated in a chair towards one side of the room, facing out towards the substation. The sole remaining White Fang left in the room, likely to watch her, was leaning against the rear wall. He had a submachine gun crossed in front of him, and was looking blankly ahead.
I pulled out my cattle prod and flicked to maximum output. The White Fang''s head twitched a little, as I shifted my weight.
As he began to turn towards the door, I launched at his side. My hand clamped over his mouth and jammed the electrode into the side of his head. His body tensed as the current flowed through him. A startled scream struggled against my hand for escape. But I kept the current to him until I knew he was too out of it to defend himself. Then I bounced his head off the floor to make sure he stayed out of it.
The sound of him hitting the floor clearly caught the girl''s attention, as she turned part-way around in the chair.
She was a small girl, tied to a steel folding chair. It was hard to place how old she actually was, but her size said she couldn''t have been much older than ten. Maybe just barely passing the threshold into her teenage years. Her skin was exceedingly pale and creamy, and her hair was a chocolate brown, tied back into a pair of braids. She wore a rather upper-class style of dress, black and stuffy looking in the summer night''s heat. A white collar ringed the neck of it, cinched at the front by a black bow. Her features were small, soft, but her eyes were big and brown. They looked at me, curiously and perhaps just a hint afraid. There was a thick roll of cloth gagged into her mouth.
The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Pre-empting a potential scream, I raised a finger to the front of my mask, and tapped it in a shushing gesture. If she started freaking out, screaming, she''d draw everyone down on top of us.
Keeping low, I moved over to the girl. There was something off about her I couldn''t put my finger on, but her eyes tracked me as I got closer.
"Trivia Vanille?" I asked, keeping my voice normal since I was dealing with a child.
The girl blinked, waited a moment, then nodded.
I exhaled evenly, and pulled Blood-Nap back out of my boot "You picked a bad time to get lost girl. Bet your mom and dad are worried sick about you."
She didn''t panic, or try to pull away from me. Just calmly sat in the seat as I began to slice the ropes binding her hands and legs. Maybe it was shock, or exhaustion from the situation. When fight or flight don''t work, placation sets in. Whatever mechanism stands a chance of actually seeing you safely through the danger.
Poor girl would''ve been through an ordeal for someone her age. Or any age for that matter.
I finished freeing her hands and feet, and she sprang up from her chair, stretching slightly. Her hands rose up to the cloth gag in her mouth, and untied it. She moved her mouth with a circular motion, then stuck her tongue out, likely to get rid of the taste of rag.
"You alright?" I questioned, peering out through the office windows to the darkened substation, then turning back to her.
Only to immediately catch a kick under my chin.
With surprising force I left the ground, sent backwards, through the glass of the windows. I tumbled through the air, taken by surprise as I collided loudly with the concrete on the opposite side. With a second''s reaction, I rolled to my side and scrambled to my feet, hand flying to my jaw. I was glad I did, as a moment later, a figure sailed out of the officer after me. Landing right where I would''ve been.
It was the girl, Trivia. Except then it wasn''t. With the sound of shattering glass, the image of her broke away in a flurry of pink fragments. Leaving behind someone, still roughly her size, but not at all her. She wore a white and pink high cropped jacket over a brown leotard. Black pants with white buttoned boots. Her hair still pink and brown, divided along the part of her hair, flecks of white in the pink. Her eyes a heterochromatic pink and brown.
Stabbed into the concrete I''d just rolled away from, a parasol. With a very sharp point.
I scrambled to my feet as the pink-eyesore herself drew her weapon from the ground. We''d met in passing, and it took me a moment to remember her. She was with Torchwick at the Docks, and got into a close shave with me and Yang.
Neo was her name.
As I recovered, I could hear motion echoing throughout the substation. Mingled with shouts of excitement and aggression. The White Fang fell on us in a tidal wave of black and white. Weapons drawn, machine guns and rifles to swords and axes. There numbers massive. Must have been about sixty or seventy of them, all told. Not counting Neo, or the big guy. But I had less time to worry about counting all of them than would''ve been needed.
Neo picked herself up, the blade at the tip of her parasol retracting back into the body of it. A sinister, positively sadistic smirk curled her lips.
On my feet, I heard the whine of a chainsaw motor.
Steps thundered to my left. I had the barest sense to dodge out of the way, diving away from the office. The massive chainsaw blade arc through the air where I''d been standing, teeth gnashing. It carried through its swing as it contacted the support of the office, teeth digging into it, burying the blade.
Gripping the weapon by the throttle, was the Big Fang. His body poised, making him look bigger than he already was.
"Finally got you to come out." The Fang growled "I was expecting¡ more."
I didn''t say anything in response. They''d already blindsided me; it was better to not let them pick-up on how badly.
I did my best to keep Neo, The Big Fang, and the sixty some-odd grunts in my line of sight. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. Neo was circling me, but so was the Big Fang, after pulling his chainsword from the wall. The Grunts may have been stationary, but my eyes wanted to track what was moving in front of me rather than waiting in the background. Gave me a minimum of three different vectors to watch for attacks from. Not breaking down each angle the Grunts had individually.
It sank in very quickly that I''d made a massive misstep somewhere.
"What''s the matter, nothing to say?" The Big Fang growled.
Again, I stayed silent. Words would be wasted, and I needed the brain space elsewhere. I was acutely aware of the fact that the only reason the Grunts hadn''t attacked yet was because of him. Friendly fire was something the Fang seemed to struggle with. The Big Fang had out-ed himself as somewhat important. Bad idea to shoot the boss-man in the back. He should''ve just stepped back and let his boys handle me. I don''t know who to thank for giving people that vindictive little trait for theatrical retribution. But I almost wanted to find them and buy them a drink.
The Big Fang gave a throaty growl. "Very well." He hefted his sword.
There was a rush of motion behind me, and I spun to the side.
Neo spun through the empty space I''d been standing. Her heels whipped through the air like a turbine. Her parasol shot towards me as she went, and it narrowly skated off of my armor. Any deeper and it would''ve affected what was left of my aura. Her strike to my chin has gotten through already by dint of surprise.
Then the Big Fang followed in after her from the other side, chainsword coming around in another sweeping swing. Again I was forced to backpedal, narrowly avoiding the tip of it as it chewed and screeched at the concrete floor. But immediately he continued to press in, offhand gripping the improvised guard as a handle, and swung it in reverse. I couldn''t backpedal fast enough to get out of range, and forced myself to leap over it instead.
Neo took the chance to dive at me once more, bladed tip extended from her parasol. She planted both feet into my chest in a kick, and angled the blade to my chest. The momentum of her connection threw us back, away from the Big Fang.
As we flew, I brought both hands up, narrowly catching her parasol. Kept her from making a stab at my armor. We tumbled back and hit the ground with enough force that, if I hadn''t, she''d have managed some damage. But the impact of our landing caused her to sail off of me, somersaulting across the floor to her feet. Leaving me on the ground for the Big Fang to make another pass at.
Despite the work they were doing I didn''t consider either of them the real problem. I''d fought big opponents, and small. Faster and stronger, smarter and more enduring. Even fighting them together as Neo and the Big Fang were wasn''t an issue.
The issue always came in quantity.
Even if I held my ground against those two, there were dozens more. All ready and waiting to send me out in a blaze of gunfire. Survival meant changing that.
I flashed open VATs to buy myself a moment to breathe, then closed it. I rolled out of the way as the Big Fang''s sword swung down into the concrete. Carbide teeth hissed against the floor in a flurry of sparks and stone dust. Immediately as I sprang to my feet, I drew my flare gun, a flash round chambered into it. I pointed it in the vague direction of the crowd and fired, no sense or time for aiming. The vibrant ball of light sailed through the air as Neo began to push towards me again. She and the Big guy prepared to lunge for me again, and I moved to dodge both of them. Then I shut my eyes and steeled my ears.
The flash round was deafening inside the confines of the substation. The light searing bright even through my eyelids. There was little I could do to prepare against the sound that followed, but I tried all the same. The world died away in a thunderclap, fading into a whine of tinnitus and damaged nerves.
As the light faded from my vision, I turned towards the crowd of Fang and charged towards them. All of them, with their heightened senses were incapacitated. Each clawed at their ears and eyes desperately. Trying to get the blinding light or deafening scream out of their ears. Some of them had even lost control of their weapons, firing blindly.
I waded into the crowd without hesitation, forcing my way through their line. My window was small, and if I didn''t take it, I''d only be dooming myself. The only thought on my mind at that moment was to find cover and regroup. Get out of sight long enough to assess everything. If I''d been thinking a bit more clearly, I''d probably have tried making sure Neo and Big Fang were completely incapacitated. Even if it was just to buy myself a few more seconds. Neo, at least, didn''t suffer from the Faunus''s enhanced senses. But I''d also seen what these things did to people without them, and they''d still proven effective.
Shoving my way through about three, maybe four White Fang I came out the other side. I broke into a dead sprint while they were still recovering. Knowing that at any time they could recover and my odds of survival would drop like a stone.
At first, I ran straight, towards the front of the substation and its entrance. After about fifteen feet though, I cut a hard left. Diving among the circuit breakers and transformers. Tried to make sure that I wasn''t giving them a clear and easy path to trace. Bad enough fighting an uphill battle, didn''t want them to turn it into a gecko shoot. Assuming I actually had a reason to stick around and fight.
Which I got the distinct impression I did not.
In the distance ahead, at the front wall, I saw a shift in the lighting. Whatever White Fang were outside decided to come inside and see what the fuss was.
Without thinking about the consequences of it, I clambered up onto one of the transformers. They were tall enough that, laid flat, it''d be hard to be seen even with the White Fang''s night vision. So I put myself down flat against it, and waited for them to pass. As they did, my hearing started to come back. Enough that I could tell that the gunfire and panic had stopped. People were still shouting, disorganized. But a voice boomed over them.
"Quiet!" The Big Fang roared.
The White Fang complied.
A moment passed, before he issued his next edict. "Don''t let him leave this place. Find. Him."
With those words, I knew my small window for immediate escape had closed. I heard the White Fang begin rushing around the building, searching. It''d only be a matter of time before they thought to look on top of the equipment. I was going to need to think of something, fast.
I started by reloading my flare gun. Normal flare, you can only take people by surprise so many times. Then I followed it by assessing the situation I''d found myself in. That this had been a trap was something I''d known going in. What I hadn''t counted on, was that they''d baited me with a second trap I hadn''t expected. Trivia Vanille, whoever she was, must not have existed or was safely somewhere else. But they''d known to use the Scrolls to get my attention. Which meant they''d finally realized they''d been compromised and figured out how. Exactly how they''d gone about that, I wasn''t sure. But that they knew to use the scroll messages to lure me in meant they''d figured out that much.
Meaning my one active lead for the Fang had finally dried up. Swell.
But it didn''t explain the heavy-handed reception. The White Fang had a tendency to overestimate themselves. I knew for a fact that learning wasn''t their strong suit either. Joking about them being there in force was one thing, having to face it was another. I was missing a piece of the puzzle.
Unfortunately, before I could dismount the transformer and continue running, the Grunts fanned out. Quickly and almost methodically tracing through the substation in a wave. Funny what a little direction and instruction can do. If I was going to move, I was going to need to wait until I had most of their backs to me. I couldn''t see the Big Fang or Neo with them, but safe assumption said they were around. I needed to figure out the best exit route, and get to it. There was no sense in staying to fight when that was exactly what they were hoping I would do.
As I lay there, mulling the options available to me, I heard a pair of footsteps stop beside my transformer. Unconsciously, I stilled my breathing and waited. Ready to jump from the transformer if it came to that.
"¡ Seems clear here." A grunt said, shuffling around the transformer. "Damn, the fuck did he go?"
"He''s gotta be here somewhere." A second said "Bane''s gonna have our heads if we can''t clip him."
I recognized the name from a few of the messages I''d seen go around, Bane. He was one of the higher-ups. I''d yet to meet the guy, but it appeared he was the one to thank for that surprise party.
"I dunno man, there''s- what- sixty-eight of us here?" the first said again "How do you lose Sixty pairs of eyes?"
"Sixty-seven actually, Thornburg caught the flu." The second answered.
"Man, fuck off." The first said, irritated "¡ Still, something doesn''t add up. Wasn''t there supposed to be six people we were supposed to handle here tonight?"
"Beats me, maybe they sent him in to try and scope things out?" The second said "I want to know how he managed to get past all of us and make it to the office."
The two continued to converse beside the transformer. Either content in being unable to see me, or still searching diligently from their ''post''.
But I immediately keyed into what they''d said. They were here for people.
Six.
Myself, my teammates, and Sun. They miscounted, we''d had a seventh with us that night, but Penny had vanished without a trace. Reasonable they''d have neglected to account for her. But they knew to account for us.
Somehow, they''d managed to rub their two functioning brain cells together, and puzzle things out. They had an idea of who was responsible, and sicced what they thought an appropriate number of people on them. Made sense, Torchwick was in bed with them, he''d been at the docks. If they were able to piece together somebody was screwing with them, why wouldn''t it be us? The people who''d shown up, out of the blue, and started hurling wrenches at everything.
The only silver-lining, if it could be called that, was that all the grunt work had been done by me so far. They acted on the assumption we were all involved, and had to overplay themselves to counter it. Odds were good that the rest of Vale was safe, at least for tonight.
It pissed me off, but was reason enough to call it a night. I just had to get out of there. There was no point hanging around to settle a fight that''d been set up to kill multiple people. I knew a losing situation when I saw one.
But that still didn''t answer the question of how to get out.
The front door was the most obvious path, but that would be the one they''d be watching. The alternative was going back towards the office, then take the ladder to the roof. Both of those, however, would require me to try and sneak past the White Fang. The latter involved going back where the Big Fang and Neo had been. Even if they weren''t there anymore, knowing my luck, I''d run into them on the way. Which meant the obvious routes were out.
But then, I hadn''t come in through the obvious way, had I?
It was going to be tricky, but getting back out was still entirely feasible. If I could move quick enough.
Warily observing my surroundings, I slid off the side of the transformer opposite the two lingering grunts. The wave of Grunts would likely continue their sweep until they hit the far wall. I had until they turned around for the second sweep to get back out of sight. The transformers and breakers were placed in fairly uniform fashion. Made it easier to move between them, but made for less effective cover overall. The only mercy was that I didn''t have to go far. Just to the nearest support beam.
After narrowly avoiding a trio of Grunts, I reached one and braced a foot on its interior. Climbing girders is actually surprisingly simple. A little practice, you can shimmy up them easily. Made even easier with the addition of aura. Much like climbing anything you just need to move one side at a time, be smooth and a steady.
Steady and smooth weren''t really an option when I was maybe five seconds from getting spotted. So I had to rely on aura giving me the necessary boost. Which it did, for the first ten or so feet. Then it began to flare, the way it does whenever being overextended or damaged. I felt fatigue begin to ebb into me and almost lost it right there. But I caught it in time, and slowed down. Took the pressure back off my aura. My constant pushing was now coming back to bite me, at the worst time.
I wound up hanging there, about fifteen feet off the ground, trying to catch my breath. Which was when the Fang made another sweep beneath me. By what must have been the last miracle of the night, they didn''t see me. It helped that they were coming from the opposite direction. People don''t look up. Normally.
Stubbornly, I pushed on. There was no turning back the other way unless I wanted to get caught. If I was struggling to just climb the beam, I didn''t want to know how much of a fight I could handle.
With a barely audible hiss of effort, I climbed the rest of the way up the girder. I pulled myself onto the cross member, and looked around. The window I came in through was on the opposite side of the substation, and a little further towards the front.
Briefly, my gaze fell to the distant floor. Watching the White Fang coursing around the darkened substation. They searched in knots three and four, unimpeded in the murky shadows of the building. It was scary to think about, in a way. They had a natural advantage in their senses. Were some normal person to get caught up by them, there was little they could do. They''d need an external light to see, and would otherwise be running blind against an enemy that saw everything. I had a few tricks to level the field, but someone who didn''t would''ve been slaughtered.
Smoothly, I began to creep along the cross member. Then cut across another to begin creeping towards the other side of the building, walking the width of it. All I had to do was move smoothly and quietly. Even the Grunt''s sharpened senses wouldn''t be able to pick up movement at that distance.
Unfortunately, they weren''t the only ones I had to worry about.
Halfway across the beam, I heard a footfall impact the metal behind me.
Fluidly, I spun on my heel, keeping balanced and facing the unexpected noise.
In time to catch the blade aimed at my stomach. What would''ve been the small of my back. Instead it skated harmlessly off my armor.
Neo stood peerlessly poised on the girder, her parasol thrust at me once more. I didn''t have time to question how she got there, or realized that I was there. My only guess: she was a thief. She had some ideas of how to get into and out of places.
She smirked, even as her weapon skated off me.
Then she ducked, an exact duplicate of her leapt through the air, spinning into a kick. Immediately I back stepped, keeping my balance as the clone sailed through where I''d stood. As the clone lost momentum, I grabbed it by the leg and gave it a yank to the side. The clone tumbled over the edge and fell, dissipating into a shower of glowing pink embers. At least it wouldn''t need to be a mess for the coroner to cleanup.
Neo continued to press in, thrusting her blade at me. Just as easily, I continued to step back, keeping the distance between me and her. I had no reason to engage.
As I continued to try and back away from her however, I noticed the lighting around us changed. A brief glow of pink light flashed behind me. Reflexively, I ducked my head. A copy of Neo weapon swung through the empty space like a club. My head now at stabbing level, Neo rushed forward again. My head whipped to the side of the blade, and I brought my arm up and wrapped it around the weapon. Trapping it and giving me a point to grapple Neo from.
Unfortunately, it occurred to me too late that grappling while trying to balance was a bad idea. Almost as quickly as I grabbed Neo''s weapon, I released it. My hand moved out to balance me, the same motion swatting Neo''s weapon away, and causing her to stagger. If I had to fight for balance, so did she.
Then her clone slammed her parasol down on me, and I felt my knees buckle. I gripped the weapon and mule kicked, nailing the clone in what had to be her lower body. The clone snapped downward and hit the beam with a satisfying *gong*, then fell off the beam. Again disappearing into a shower of pink embers.
Grasping that I wasn''t going to be able to get away from her without a fight, I pulled into a stance. Narrow enough I could balance on the beam. I flipped out my cattle prod and lunged at Neo, output at max. She parried the electrode off the body of her parasol, fabric insulating against the electricity. The blade of her weapon sung towards my chest, and I twisted to let it past. As I slipped the blade, I swung my cattle prod upward, connecting with the underside of Neo''s chin. The pink eye-sore stumbled, going rigid with the current. But she regained herself, barely, and retreated two steps.
Another pink flash behind me, and this time I wasn''t surprised. I spun a heel kick without looking and caught another clone in the head, immediately sending them over the edge again. As my foot swung back to the beam I began to move in on Neo. I swung my cattle prod at her, and she slipped out of the way. With a twist of my wrist I turned it into a thrust, and she brought her parasol up into a parry. As my cattle prod rebounded off of her parasol, turned the moment into a punch at her open flank. The cover of her Parasol expanded to its full size; my fist rebounded off it like armor plating.
As it did, the image of Neo''s boot in my face flashed through my head.
I shook it off. Her parasol fell, and she swung her leg in a counter-kick. I pulled my head back and watched as the sole of her boot passed my face. I immediately returned the favor with a scribe counter, but she was ready for it. She moved close to my arm, grappled, and clamped down onto it as she tried to pull me down to her level. Parallel with her, she snapped her leg up in a vertical split-kick. My head craned to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike.
As her leg sank, and she tried to make more use of our grapple, I turned it on her. My trapped arm grabbed onto her white jacket, and something soft, and clamped tight. I swung my cattle prod over myself, thrusting the end of it into her face. Her eyes snapped open as the electrode connected between them. Her grip spasmed, tensing and relaxing erratically. Enough for me to slip my arm from her grasp and push her back.
Vaguely, beneath us, there was beginning to be a stir of commotion. We were getting noticed.
Neo lost her balance and tumbled back onto the beam, before rolling off the side of it. By what had to have been sheer luck, she flipped her parasol around and swung it out. The handle hooked onto the lip of the girder. She held on, dangling in the air by her weapon. Before I could kick her weapon off the cross-member, there was another flash of pink behind me. Knowing what would follow, I wheeled around and kicked at the space her clone''s head would''ve been in. Instead, I saw the small flourish of them cascading into existence, then disappearing.
At the same time, they reappeared behind me again, as I was mid-kick. My back to Neo.
The crook of a parasol handle hooked around my ankle and pulled. My foot came out from underneath me, and I fell, narrowly landing on the cross-member. My arms instantly locked onto it. Unfortunately, I could still feel the crook of the clone''s weapon around my ankle.
Which then plummeted over the side of the girder, dragging me with it.
My body wrenched over the side as my arms clasped tight to the girder. My grip catching the extra weight.
By that point, I could definitely pick out the voice beneath us. The grunts had realized what was going on.
Neo then sprang back onto the girder, as I tried to get a better grip on it. Before I had a chance to even consider a way to improve my situation, she was looming over me. I had half a second to see the gleeful smile on her face.
Then she kicked me in mine. Again.
I lost my grip on the girder and began to fall, cattle prod escaping my grasp as I began to tumble through the air. Gravity has a surprisingly fast acceleration quotient. Under most circumstance it goes unnoticed. Because most people try not to jump from excessively high places. Most people won''t consider dropping from anything over five feet, without something to stabilize anyway. A drop like that is over in a second, less than that.
My fall was from about thirty feet in the air. You get an appreciation for how quick gravity is then.
I had maybe three seconds to try and summon my aura, focus it around me. Brace myself for impact.
The first part of me to touch down was my back, followed swiftly by the rest of me. The impact was dull but powerful, knocked the air out of me. My aura broke instantly on contact with the ground, as my weight carried into it. Blunted pain whipped through me as my head snapped against the ground. Without my aura, I''m almost certain the impact would''ve knocked me unconscious, if not crippled me. As it stood, it left me sucking air and trying to keep the room from spinning.
But I could hear footstep racing towards me.
I staggered to my feet, swiping my cattle prod off the floor nearby. Immediately I returned it to my side, and drew That Gun.
A trio of Grunts came racing from around a breaker bank. Weapons drawn, a submachine gun in the hands of the nearest. They moved without coordination, simply rushing to close distance. The muzzle of their guns slowly levering towards me.
I took a breath, focused. Fire and thunder leapt from my pistol as I fired, thrice. The grunt with the submachine gun jerked back, a spray of bullets rattling against the roof. I put the last two rounds into his two over confident friends, who continued to charge at me. The hits were enough to slow them down, take chunk from their aura. The three shots were enough to break the aura of the machine gunner. He immediately began to pull back, while his other two friends carried on towards me. I didn''t have time to reload, so I slapped That Gun back into its holster and drew my lever-action. Right as one of them got within striking distance, I planted a magnum shell of 3/0 buckshot into his chest. The shot instantly canceled out his momentum, and he grunted in surprise. I slammed forward, throwing him off his feet. The action of my gun cycled, and fired a second shell at his friend, who''d suddenly realized his own error. He stumbled and jerked to the ground as I charge the next shell, slamming my boot into the first''s head. The charged forward and kicked the second in the crotch, then kept running. Quickly rounding the corner before the machine gunner had a chance to center himself. I found him with his arms flared out, fumbling with his weapon. It wouldn''t have been hard to take him out of the fight permanently there. But my habit towards less lethal means forced itself to the front of my mind then. Can''t explain why it did. Worst time it could have.
My hand swung away from my shotgun and pulled my cattle prod. I stabbed it, jammed the electrode into his throat. He hit the ground jerking and shaking.
Then the rest were on me.
The grunts began to swarm out of the darkness, and gunfire filled the air. Without a moment to really think about what I was doing, or where I was going, I ran, diving between another bank of transformers. I could hear bullets rattle against it as I did, spatter around me. There was no sense in trying to keep track of them at that point. If they weren''t chasing me, they were going to be in front of me. The only thing I could do was try and focus on my surroundings. Try to pick up where they were going to be coming from over the ring of my ears.
I dove out of the bank of monitors and right into another knot of four of them. It caught them as off guard as it did me. One with a shotgun, two with swords, another with an smg. I recovered with the help of VATs, stealing the initiative. I dove for the one with the shotgun, stabbing him with the cattle prod, off hand swiping across. It connected with his shotgun, pushed the muzzle aside, towards one of the swordsmen. His muscles contracted; the shotgun went off.
One less swordsman.
I spun around the shotgunner, catching his throat in the crook of my arm. With a jerking motion I wrenched him in front of me as the machine gunner opened fire. Belatedly realizing I''d acquired a meat shield. A hail of bullets rattled my direction, before abruptly cutting off. My shield howled in pain at the impacts, and the remaining swords man began to close distance. I kicked my shield towards him and they collided. Tumbling over each other as I turned tail and rain again. Used them as a short-lived barrier between me and the machine gunner.
Only for more grunts to begin trying to squeeze themselves through the breakers beside me.
With a haphazard swipe, I hit the first to begin working her way through, causing her to tense. Bought myself a few seconds as people tried to struggle past her. I ran several steps, then leapt on to the nearest transformer, trying to break line of sight with as many of them as I could again. But it didn''t do any good. There were too many of them. Immediately, I found myself between two more groups, one of three, one of five. I didn''t wait for them to react, I just kept trying to move, put more distance between us.
Neo narrowly missed landing on me, instead touching down in front of me. She drifted down on her parasol, using it like a parachute. Immediately she spun into a kick, and I pulled my cattle prod up in a guard. Her mistake, her leg contacted the electrode and she tensed.
I pushed Neo aside and started running-
A spray of bullets rattled in our direction.
They impacted my armor, tore at my coat.
My off-hand fell to my flare gun and I turned. VATs opened for a heartbeat, closed.
A ball of fire flew through the air, coruscated against my assailant in brilliant red flames. Stole the rest of their attention. I kept running. Weaving through another bank of breakers. There wasn''t enough cover to work with. Too much open ground.
Out the other side of the breakers, I found myself alone. But it would be a momentary thing. Until someone weaved along after me. I turned and charged ahead, trying to orient myself, I must have been running to the back again.
Then the chainsaw roared.
Metal teeth whirred past my head as I dove away. They chewed their way through the breaker beside me like it was plywood, scattering sparks of hot metal and electricity from it. A small alarm kicked up from it, indicating something was wrong.
I turned to look at the Big Fang, as he pulled his chainsword from the breakers.
"Hold still." He growled, moving in for the back stroke.
I declined, slapping my flare gun back to my hip again as I backpedaled. There weren''t as many places I could run then, I could go back the way I''d come, and chance the running into the people already chasing me, or hope it took them a minute to catch up. Both guaranteed a bad outcome, but one rushed me quicker to it.
The Big Fang big to charge towards me, and I whipped out my lever-action again. I dove towards him, ducking the chainsaw teeth as the nipped at me. The shotgun jerked in my hands, as I dumped a magnum shell into him at point blank. Without missing a beat, one of Big Fang''s arms lashed out at me. Clawing at the fringes of my coat. I dipped to the side, cycling the action of my shotgun and fired again. This time practically jamming the muzzle into his ribs.
Big Fang returned his grip to his chainsword and spun. The weapon chewing through another transformer as he torqued it around to me.
I threw myself back, firing another shell into him.
If it bothered him, he didn''t show it. He took the full force of three magnum shells, where most were done after one.
Fighting him had already been low on my priority list, and was dropping like a lead lined stone.
I hit the ground, rolled, turned, and bolted. Preparing to put as much space between us as I could. Immediately he bellowed, and gave chase. I could hear his footsteps easy enough. That, and his chainsaw as it clipped and nipped everything it so much as grazed.
Half a dozen grunts wormed their way between some of the breakers. Heads swiveled towards their boss, bellowing after me. I turned and launched myself over another bank of them. Aiming to by myself room. They weren''t going to give me room to breathe, to think. I needed to get out, the odds against me weren''t worth fighting. Too much risk for little reward.
Which became clear as I leapt over the transformer bank.
A grunt, probably the same one that''d shot me before, was waiting.
His machine gun trained towards the ceiling, probably by complete happenstance.
He saw me.
The weapon roared.
A hail of bullets and fire leapt towards me. I felt them pelt my armor, hammering dull against the material. But they tore hot against the rest of me. I felt them hit my arms, legs. Digging into me and carving channels through my flesh.
Right before I could shout in pain, I opened VATs.
I closed it.
My shotgun went off. My last loaded shell nailing him in the head. The grunt flew back and hit the floor.
My flight turned into a flop and I hit the ground. Rolled across it briefly like a sack of tubers. Then I pushed myself back to my feet, quickly, fighting through the pain ripping through my body. I could feel blood beginning to well from the wounds.
Blood loss would be imminent if I didn''t work quickly.
Scrambling, I pulled a stimpack from my pocket and haphazardly stuck myself with it. The effects would work quickly, but there was no time for precision. The healing would be slower for it.
By the time I scrambled back to my feet, more of the grunts were coming, a dozen, maybe double. My hand flew to my pockets again, grabbing shells-
The transformers behind me exploded in a roar of metal.
The Big Fang flew through the shower of machinery and electronics. Chainsword howling like a demonic ghost bear.
My hand left my pocket before I could grab anything. I dove out of the way again, watching as the saw blade came within inches of my chest. I scrambled back, my arms and legs aching and itching. My arm flung back around me, throwing my shotgun back. All my guns were empty. I only had Blood-Nap and my cattle prod left.
I whipped out my cattle prod but immediately tried to turn and keep moving.
Neo reappeared, kicking me in the face.
I couldn''t run.
The Big Fang thundered towards me like a turbo-addled supermutant. Chainsword sung through the air.
I raised my cattle prod, instinctively trying to make a guard with it.
The teeth collided with the body of the prod, just over the battery pack.
They chewed through my cattle prod like it wasn''t even there. Then carried on towards me none the worse for it.
"FUCK!" I shouted, swinging to the side as the saw teeth scraped against the steel of my helmet. Scraped chips of it free.
Then Neo, and a clone she pulled from the air, spun and heel kicked me in the chest at the same time. I was off balance, and the force was enough to send me sailing backwards. Even as I did, I could see more of the Grunts beginning to fall in around them.
I could see the way things were about to end.
With me, chopped into butcher friendly pieces.
VATs snapped open, as my chest throbbed, the wind beaten from it. The handle of my cattle prod, still clutched in my hand, broken. My body frozen, as it sailed back through the air.
It was the only moment I was going to get to think, and it wouldn''t last long.
They weren''t looking for a fight, they came prepared for war. In different days, maybe I could''ve taken them. I''d managed half the number, recently, but that''d been a close thing, and required blind luck I didn''t even know I had.
The White Fang weren''t going to give me time to react. They were going to keep hammering me until I completely gave out. I couldn''t just slam myself with stimpacks and keep soldiering on either. There weren''t enough, and blood loss would kick in eventually. I couldn''t fight, my guns were all empty, and reloading wasn''t going to happen quick enough to matter. Even if I could swap to any of them fast enough. Even If they weren''t I didn''t have anything with the needed punch to make it matter.
The only chance I had to was to try and run for one of the exits. But the front door likely had people waiting at it, just in case. The ladder back to the roof was out too. Even if I could climb it fast enough, they''d still have ample opportunity to unload on me en masse. The only alternative was to try and make a new one, which wasn''t a realistic option.
I was fucked.
The only things I had were a knife, a broken cattle prod, two empty guns, and my flare¡
An idea hit me.
Maybe I had a chance yet.
VATs forced itself closed.
I sailed through the air and tumbled to the ground. Scrambling, I shot to my feet, stowing my broken weapon, and drawing Blood-Nap from my boot.
Immediately, Neo and her clone were on me again. The White Fang racing in after her.
She and her mirror, which was which I couldn''t tell, thrust in at me with the bladed parasols. I parried one of them off my knife and dove up the length of it. The palm of my off-hand slammed into their chest, a Ranger takedown sending them backward. Toward the Big Fang as the other rounded on me.
Callously, the Big Fang slashed them out of the air with his chainsword. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the clone.
The now identified real Neo crooked her parasol over her arm, trying to club me with it. Close as we were, it didn''t work. I batted it aside with my arm, reverse-gripping Blood-Napas I slashed its blade at her throat. She tried to back step, but I felt it brush against her, dulled by her aura. Before she could retreat, I clasped a hand down her shoulder, and stabbed the knife at her chest, twice. She clearly felt the blade hitting her, even if it didn''t sink in.
Big Fang closed in on us, and I threw Neo at him. Unlike her clone, the real Neo immediately reacted and tried to defend herself from the chainsword. The last I saw her there; she was raising her parasol.
For the last time, I turned and bolted. Ran in whatever direction wasn''t currently being swarmed. But I had a destination in mind, one of the outer walls, any of them.
Gunfire rattled around me as the White Fang tried to close in.
I squeezed through another patch of the transformers, and quickly moved to the side of them. My breathing calmed with a bit of effort. If I panicked, I would die.
Quickly, I pulled my flare gun back out and ejected the shell. I grabbed a fresh round and slapped it in, snapping the barrel shut.
Before I had a chance to fire, The Big Fang steamrolled his way through the transformers. He tore his way to me, and I ran. There wasn''t much further I needed to go. My arms ached and itched with every movement as I went, heart hammering in my ears. I used whatever transformers, breakers, and other equipment I could to stand between us, buy me however long I might need. But I could hear him tearing his way through like they were made of tinfoil.
It must''ve been his semblance, completely ignore whatever you run into.
After what felt like an eternity of running and leaping, I reached a wall, hard brick and mortar.
But Big Fang was right on my tail.
I worked on the fly.
Turning, I faced him as he bore down on me. Chainsword held high and howling for blood. It was a formidable weapon, in his hands. Far better than I''d ever seen it done.
He was on me in a heartbeat.
Chainsword came down.
I stuttered VATs and circled him. Barely moving out of the way. Putting him between me and the wall.
I jammed the flare gun into his ribs.
"Ignore this one." I growled.
I fired.
Purple light leapt from the muzzle in a ring. The gravity shell slammed into the Big Fang and dragged him forward. His feet skidding across the concrete floor, until he was pressed against the wall. He seemed to realize what was happening, and tried to brace himself against the wall and push back against the sudden ball of force crushing into him. First with one hand, then two when he dropped his weapon. The ball didn''t move, only glow brighter as he struggled against it.
I could hear the rest of the Fang closing in. My heart thundered. If I''d been thinking, I''d have loaded my shotgun then. Tried to prepare for things to turn into a last stand.
But I didn''t.
And I didn''t have to.
With a concussive burst of force like standing next to a stick dynamite, the flare exploded. I was launched back once more, colliding with the remnants of a transformer. It crumpled around me, and my flight stopped there.
Big Fang wasn''t so lucky.
As the dust cleared, there was a hole in the wall where he used to be. About ten feet across and seven high, leading out into the night beyond. I could see the Big Fang out in it, slowly slumping against an adjacent wall.
Not wasting a moment, I leapt through the hole and out into the night. My feet came down in a kick on Big Fang''s head, slamming it back against the wall once more.
I then righted myself, and started running in whatever direction got me away from there the fastest.
¡
After about three blocks of back alleys and rooftops, I finally stopped to think about what''d happened. That, and catch my breath.
"¡ Idiot!" I cursed "You absolute fucking moron!"
I kicked a trashcan of the alley I was hiding in, sending an alley cat yowling into the night. Staying long wasn''t an option, but I wasn''t going anywhere until I had a chance to process. Which wasn''t coming easy, through the pain, exhaustion, and itchiness of the stimpack.
"You knew it was a trap, yet you went in there anyway you¡ FUCK!" I snarled, trying and failing to collect myself.
Everything had gone tits-up. It didn''t scrub everything, but things had taken a turn I hadn''t counted on. My line for intel was shot, the White Fang were hunting me, and they knew to be on the lookout for me and my teammates.
How could it possibly get worse?
I discovered how, when I reached up to scratch the itch in my arm.
A hot pain shot through it on contact.
I paused, looking down at the spot I had scratched. There was a new bullet hole in my coat. Not out unexpected, I''d been shot. But I''d already stuck myself with a stimpack.
With a degree of pain, I pulled my coat off and shifted my clothes. The hole went clean through them, naturally. Perhaps I just needed to apply a little extra medicine. But as I removed the sleeve, I saw something more concerning. The wound was already healed over. But my bicep was distorted, swollen slightly, and deepening in color.
Gently, I prodded at it, eliciting further pain and discomfort.
I began to realize what the problem was, and craned my arm around to look at my tricep.
There were no new scars. No exit wounds.
The bullet was still in my arm.
"¡ Ah shit."
Not in the Plan
With the fighting over, the adrenaline wasted no time flushing itself back out of my system. Which was a problem, because I really could''ve used the endorphins to help keep the pain at bay. Shaking hands are a bad thing for surgery, but it was better than worrying about every little ache and pain. A little breathing room I found myself wishing I had.
My duster was folded off to the side of me, with my bullet-proof vest weighing it down. I had to strip off my undershirt as well, just to give myself the best view of the wound. It was mostly healed, due to having stuck myself with a stimpack. But where the bullet hit had left behind a star-shaped scar and puckered skin.
It was easy enough to locate under my skin, given the way it hurt and how my bicep deformed.
After blowing the hole out of the substation, I''d put as much distance as I reasonably could between myself and the White Fang. Only after I did, had I realized they''d managed to give me a parting gift. That''s what I got for walking into an obvious trap. Bastards hadn''t even had the courtesy to bait it with something valuable. It was like they''d armed a mouse trap with poison. Doubly insidious and a touch overkill.
Would''ve worked too.
As soon as I finished digging the bullet out of my arm, I was going to need to consider how to begin better implementing Dust into my arsenal. Or how I was going to fix my equipment. Again.
Always gotta be putting holes in my coat. Bastards.
But I needed to worry more about the bullet first.
Performing surgery on yourself isn''t a simple thing, nor is it advised. You''re not exactly equipped with the best angles to see everything, which is a problem. Last thing you wanted to do is nick a vein and not have the ability to see it until you''ve already left your body. But you also need the right tools for the job. Forceps, abductors, scalpels, the whole nine if you want to do it right.
I had a pair of needle-nose pliers. That I stole from a garage.
At least I left a couple lien to pay for the broken lock.
There weren''t exactly a lot of options, but I at least got a pair that wasn''t too oily or rusty. Beat having to use my fingers, as I''d done once or twice in the past.
Seated topless on a garbage can, in a deserted back alley at the edge of the industrial district, I prepped for surgery. Started with cleaning my arm, using water from my (trusty) Vault 13 Canteen. It wasn''t sterile, but it kept the worst of the sweat and grime from getting dragged in. Stimpack would have to account for any chance of infection. Then I wrapped a belt around my other arm to work as a tourniquet. Help stem blood flow, considering this was going to take time.
Reaching down to my boot, I pulled Blood-Nap from its sheathe, bringing it up to my arm.
I looked down at my arm, and drew a steady breath. Sometimes, having an Adamantium Skeleton wasn''t such a nice thing.
Gently, I set the tip of my knife just above the scar tissue. Felt the tip press against my skin, as the arm holding the blade ached. How lucky, the arm with bullet was my off-hand.
''Note to self: Remember to sharpen Blood-Nap.''
The point of the knife pierced my skin, and I dragged it downward in calm, steady motion. Most people, when they cut themselves, do it purely by accident. A quick flick or drag of the blade, and it''s over. Nothing but a flash of pain and blood to show for it. Having to doctor yourself is different. The pain is constant, and deliberate. You have to resist the urge to take it out, or move the blade off course. It''s best left to the people who have a clue what they''re doing.
Unfortunately, I was the only person available for the job.
Carefully, I carved the first incision. Enough to get past the skin, so I could begin assessing the damage. In using a stimpack to heal myself, it sealed the bullet it. Meaning all of the muscle and sinew had to reform around it instead. Scar tissue is different from normal tissue, but it can be much harder to pick out when it''s still pumping blood. I could only try and follow the sensations in my arm, hope they guided me on course while I dug after the bullet.
Made even more difficult, by the fact I was doing it with my hand tools and a bowie knife.
I was only a step away from getting medieval.
Emphasized, when my arm twitched and I nicked a vein. The tourniquet kept it from becoming a problem, but I wasn''t having a fun time.
Relaxing my arm, I continued to slice at my biceps, watching a crimson river slowly trickle its way out. A reminder I was working under a time limit. But after a minute or two of stabbing myself, I could feel the tip of my knife begin to prod against something solid. Further evidenced by the way I felt the bullet shift sharply against the surrounding tissues. Normally, I would use both hands. Spread the wound a little, so I could make sure I was digging in the right spot. Then maybe use a pair of tweezers to pull it out.
Since one arm was indisposed, all I had was my knife.
Carefully, oh so carefully, I worked the tip of my way too big knife around the edge of the bullet. Feeling for a lip, some place I could get leverage under and begin manipulating it. It took a few tries, and a few more shredded muscle fibers, before I felt the tip sink into the right place. With great discomfort on my part, I began to lever the bullet from its resting place. Angling it so I might get a better grip of it. Soon as it was, I took up the pliers and slid them into the incision. Fumbling them around the metal. Eventually, with a little more pain, I managed to get a good grip of it and began to pull. Moving it upward, towards the incision.
After several minutes, I managed to get it out. The bullet slid out in a flattened, mangled wad of lead, pulling at the wound as it went. Once it was free though, I could feel myself beginning to relax. Holding the bullet up to the pale moonlight, I began to inspect it.
"¡ Oh you''ve got to be fucking with me." I hissed.
The Bullet had fractured. Just looking at the busted wad of lead I''d pulled out, I knew there was still a good chunk of it in my arm. More than likely, that was chunks rather than chunk.
I was going to need to go back in for another round. Bad enough my aura was actively trying to reseal the wound. In the time it''d taken me to get set-up, it hadn''t come back to proper strength. Didn''t take much to intuit: If I didn''t get the bullets out, I didn''t get the extra protection.
With a growl, I pocketed the bullet for later comparison and picked up Blood-Nap. Preparing to dive back in and keep fishing around, as a car drove by the mouth of the alley.
I paused, then looked to the mouth of the alley. There hadn''t been any traffic until then. No reason to be, that late at night, in the industrial district of all places.
Following instinct, I got off the can and moved immediately behind cover.
Half a second later, the car reversed back to the mouth of the alley, idling in front of it.
I cursed, quietly, and began pulling my armor back on. I wasn''t going to have time to secure it, but it was better than nothing.
The doors of the car opened, and four White Fang climbed out of it. I could just barely see them, from behind cover, scanning the alley.
I stuck my wounded arm with another stimpack to re-seal the wound. Things were going to go south again at any moment. The last thing I needed to worry about was the tourniquet letting go and me bleeding out. Which also gave me an excuse to collect my belt.
The four White Fang crept into the alley, pulling themselves into a tight formation. I pulled my shotgun around front of me and waited. Listening as they stepped closer.
"You sure you saw him?" One of the Fang asked.
"Man, I don''t know." Another said "It''s dark and I''m fucking tired. It sure looked like that was him."
"Lucky break then?" a third said "Wouldn''t think he was still hanging around¡ hold up." The White Fang stopped moving, turning to look at the third, who began sniffing at the air. "¡ Does anyone else smell blood?"
''¡ fuck.''
The Fourth cracked a smile. "He''s wounded. This''ll be eas-"
I popped up from cover and opened VATs. Judging my shots on the unsuspecting Fang. Clear shots on both of the closer ones. Rear two would be difficult. One with the nose was in rear. If there was one I couldn''t allow to keep standing, it was him.
VATs closed.
My shotgun thundered; buckshot flew down the alley.
It caught the nosey one in the face. The surprise meant his aura didn''t have time to compensate.
The shot ripped a third of his head into ragged meat.
I cycled the action as the Fang began to whip towards me. My wounded arm fought my aim, and rebelled at the recoil of the shotgun. My second shot wasn''t as quick to follow, or as accurate. But it still managed to wing another of the Fang.
The other two quickly gathered their wits and returned fire. Bullets rattling off the surrounding brick walls and the dumpster I was perched behind. I could see the way the metal buckled with the impacts. It wouldn''t cover me for long.
I cycled and fired a third shot, hitting the one I''d already winged. The fourth was already on the ground, if he wasn''t dead the massive blood loss would change that.
The other two Fang immediately retreated back to the cover of their car. The one I winged stumbled after them, struggling to keep himself upright.
I took the opening, dropping my shotgun and pulling out my flare gun. I took aim and shot a standard round towards the winged one. The glowing ball of red light flew through the air, narrowly missing him because of my off-kilter aim.
But it flew past him, and set the car on fire instead. Which instead frenzied his two companions. Fire has that effect.
Spying an opening where no one was looking at me, I took it.
I slapped my flare gun back into place and grabbed my shotgun, cradling it with my bad arm as I turned and ran. The alley would have an outlet elsewhere. Even if it didn''t, my strength and agility were still enhanced, albeit not by much. If I stayed still, they''d have reinforcement''s en-route and I''d be pinned back to square one. This time without anywhere near enough cover.
Not that it helped the first time.
I could hear the White Fang shouting behind me, but no bullets flew. They were too busy trying to figure out what happened. But if they were hunting for me, it was only a matter of time before they called for back-up. Before they did, I needed to be gone.
The Alley hooked to the side and I turned with it, slinging my shotgun onto my back. I bolted down ahead and broke onto the adjoining street. Following my rough mental layout of the city, I was near the commercial district. There was a temptation to leave the Industrial district entirely. The commercial sector stood a better chance of having the police around, and I had more opportunities to lose the White Fang. But it would also mean leading them into a more populated area without any actual plan. Dragging bystanders into my mess wouldn''t help, and would defeat the purpose of doing all of it.
But the further away I got from where they''d been holed-up, the better. I was willing to hedge bets on them not having prepared for a protracted chase. Resources can''t be shifted that quickly.
So I kept to the edge of the Commercial district. Knowing that, if nothing else, it kept my options open. I dipped down another alley. My arm throbbed as I ran. I could feel the shrapnel in my arm slicing against the surrounding tissue. Had the bullet stayed intact, the pain would''ve been dulled at least, if no less present. Instead, every errant sway of my arm sent a stab of pain through my nerve endings. Actively trying to use it was even worse. As I climbed a ladder to the rooftops, my brain practically screamed at me to stop. Unfortunately, I couldn''t hear him very clearly.
Once at a point of vantage, I was able to move more easily. The streets below were practically deserted. Given the time of night it was, that wasn''t a bad thing. It made it stand out more when a car passed. The way each one seemed to be rolling along at a leisurely pace. There was no telling who would or wouldn''t be inside of them.
I just needed to get some place safe. Safer anyway.
The airships wouldn''t be running for hours yet. I couldn''t head back to Beacon without them. But this wasn''t anything I couldn''t handle yet. Just needed to keep my wits about me. I could hold the line for another¡
Six hours.
Not a problem.
I continued along the rooftops at speed. Pushing myself as hard as I could. I didn''t need to try and be stealthy if I was already out of sight. People don''t look up.
A crossing came up to me and I pushed off the edge of the roof. Aiming for one of the street lamps.
Then a cramp shot through my leg, right as I reached it.
I hit the lamp and my leg went dead. My arms flung forward to try and catch me, but the only thing I did was smack my wounded arm against solid steel.
I bounced off the lamp and fell. Worse, bouncing off the lamp put a spin to me, so I couldn''t even control how fell.
So I hit the ground on my wounded arm too. Then bounced, rolled, and tumbled to a stop in the middle of the street. If there was one thing I was glad about, it was that no one I knew saw it. They''d never let me live it down if they saw how badly I ate shit.
The impact knocked the wind out of me, to start. Coupled with the sound of screaming cartilage, I was pretty sure I dislocated my shoulder too. Which only added more pain to the matter. Dull pain throbbed through me, made pulling a breath hard at first. Made thinking hard for that matter. My body didn''t want to listen to me anymore, and it took no small amount of effort to get myself moving.
But, as I was picking myself up, I was given an incentive.
Oncoming traffic.
The lights of an approaching car washed over me, and I summoned enough adrenaline to pull myself up. Only to dive out of the way once more as the engine roared.
The vehicle, a pick-up truck, flew past me as I dove across the pavement. As I tumbled onto the sidewalk, I heard the screech of its tires. I scrambled to my feet, looking to find the truck had skidded to a halt about a dozen yards away.
A pair of White Fang hopped out of its bed.
''OH GIVE ME A BREAK!''
The Fang sprinted towards me, Assault rifles swiveling up towards me. As they let loose, I strafed to the side, barely stepping out of their fire lane.
I drew That Gun and let off a round. It missed, bad aim, but bought me a moment to start sprinting for cover again. Well, not sprinting, too much pain for sprinting. Hobbling, I hobbled for cover.
The Truck the Fang had leapt out of roared. It lurched backward and whipped around in a wide arc, front facing towards me, headlights casting long shadows from the Fang in front of it. With a moment''s thought, the two Fang leapt out of the Truck''s path.
The Driver gunned the engine.
My legs didn''t stop moving, but my finger squeezed the trigger fast enough to empty the cylinder. With luck, they all flew vaguely in the direction of the cab. I weaved back onto the sidewalk, past a streetlamp, and into another alley. I ejected the spent casings from That Gun, reloaded it, then scrambled for my Flare Gun, trying to slap a new shell into it.
From beyond the mouth of the alley, Tires squealed. The sound of the truck''s engine roared closer.
Almost as quickly as I''d loaded a fresh flare into the gun, I scrambled to replace it with a dust shell.
The truck bit the curb with an audible grind, and hurtled into view. Headlights shining upon me like the eyes of an angry demon. It was a straight shot down the alley between us, and it quickly built speed.
I slapped an Ice shell into the gun and fired at the direction of the cab. The ice blue orb trail mist through the air as it sped to meet the cab.
The two collided in a cloud of cold wind, mist, and rent metal. A massive chunk of ice caved-in the windshield, messing with the driver enough he couldn''t keep the vehicle straight. It plowed into one of the alley''s walls.
But kept coming. The momentum sent it into a tail spin.
In a moment of knee-jerk reaction, I jumped upward. Knowing I couldn''t get out of the way in time.
The truck, grinding itself to a halt, slammed into me, sending me tumbling deeper into the alley. My head spun, and ears rang as I struggled to my feet. I think the only thing that kept me going at that point was just plan bull-headedness. If I didn''t have it, I''m pretty sure that would''ve been the end of it there.
Instead, I got to my feet and kept hobbling. Everything hurt, but I kept going. I could hear the truck trying to dig itself out of the wall, but didn''t seem to be getting anywhere.
With a far less than professional motion, I pulled my arm forward, forcing my shoulder to relocate itself. The pain was just one more in the growing choir, and it was getting easy enough to drown it out.
I could hear the Fang struggling behind me. The ones in the truck at least. The ones in the Street wouldn''t have as much trouble getting around it. How long before they were on me?
Not long enough. Never long enough.
As soon as they were past the truck and had a clear shot, they would take it. The only thing I could do at that point was keep running. There was no telling if I had the means to make a stand and have it matter. Worse, how long would it take for more Fang to come crashing in on us? I was already wounded, and only going to get worse if things dragged on.
Emphasizing that point, as I clambered over a chain-link fence at the other side of the alley, I came down and twisted my ankle.
"Son of a bitch!" I hissed, and began scrambling forward, trying to take in my surroundings. I was still in a back alley, but a nicer one than where I''d been. You don''t notice how nice an alley is until you''ve stepped down the wrong one once or twice. This one looked like people regularly used it, the trash was properly put away and kept in fairly ship shape. Helped cut down on rodents and pests. Stoops and backdoors lined the walls, leading into the surrounding buildings. It was a straight shot out onto the next street. Most days, I was sure I could make it, break line of sight completely with whoever was chasing me.
But I could hear the Fang shouting just beyond the fence.
With half a second to mull my course of action, I hobbled over to the secured trash cans and dumpsters. The top of the dumpster was locked, so I couldn''t climb into it. But it was still on wheels. With great pains, I pried it away from the wall. Just far enough that I could squeeze between them. An uncomfortably tight fit, but if it worked then who cared.
If it didn''t work, I wasn''t going to last long enough to care.
I slid into the crevice and kept low. I could hear the Fang''s footsteps echoing through the alley. There was a clatter and rattle of metal, as they clambered over the fence. Followed quickly by more footsteps, that petered off not long after. Coming to a stop near the dumpster.
"¡ Fuck, where''d he go?" One of the Fang hissed.
"He''s gotta still be going." The second said, huffing and puffing "Crazy fucker, can''t believe he got Odie to wreck."
"Fuck Odie, did you see what he did to the boss?" The first said "I almost don''t think we should be chasing him. Cops''ll be on us next if we keep this up."
"Don''t let Taurus catch you saying that." The second said, then paused "¡ C''mon, we''ll lose him for good if we stop now. ''Least we know he can''t shoot for shit."
I was half tempted to pop out and prove him wrong. But that didn''t bode well for my long-term health either, so I let it slide.
The Two Fang sprinted towards the mouth of the alley. After a short distance, I got line of sight on them, before watching run out onto the street. Disappearing around the edge of a building. I continued to crouch behind the dumpster for a moment, waiting. Prepared that, at any moment, they''d just randomly decide to come running back.
When they didn''t, I knew I was¡ safe. Again, for a loose definition.
''¡ yeah. Six hours¡ right.''
I felt myself collapse in the space between the dumpster and wall. Every part of me felt like it weighed three times as much, my arm and shoulder felt like ground meat, and everything hurt. Maybe I could keep this up for Six hours. But would I be in any shape to actually get to the airship after all that? I was going to have to be. I didn''t have any other options.
"If something happens, you''re going to let us help¡ We''re trusting you, but you need to be able to trust us too."
I didn''t have any other options. I was just going to have to grit my teeth and push on. Sure, my teeth were practically chipped to pieces and I was a stiff push from falling apart, but I could keep going.
If I survived worse, why couldn''t I do this?
I gripped the edge of the dumpster and pulled myself out of the space, taking a step back-out into the alley.
Then the sole of my right boot blew out, and I stepped into a tepid puddle of dumpster water.
"¡ Ok. Fuck it. You win." I growled, flopping out of cover. It seemed my body had decided I''d reached my physical limit a long while back.
The question became, would I get help that mattered? I was only going to have a small window to plan and catch my breath. If the White Fang were going to be actively hunting me through Vale, the simple answer was to leave, ASAP. I would need to find somewhere to hunker down and hope they didn''t find me. Or at least some place I could make defensible, without others getting caught in the crossfire. I was going to need someplace isolated, or otherwise abandoned. Because clearly I knew so many of them.
¡Given recent events, more than a few of them, actually.
With a painful motion and a bit of a grimace, I swung my arm up and caught. Though my wounds had both of them wanting to fall back to my side again.
I checked my map. It took a few moments to scan it over, try to think of someplace I knew likely wouldn''t be under surveillance anymore. Both by the White Fang and otherwise. Which was a problem. There wouldn''t be many places the White Fang wouldn''t look, and the cops would have a good number of them roped-off yet. I was going to need something a bit more under the radar.
As my arms- as my body throbbed, my tired eyes glanced over the map of my Pip-boy. Much of the amber and black blurring together. It felt next to impossible to actually pick out anything.
Somehow though, my body found something while on what was basically auto-pilot. My eyes flashed over it, and my consciousness picked out a T and a B, while the rest of the letters melted into gobbuldy-guck. For all I knew, I''d actually just picked out Tom''s Butchery, Or Bruner''s Thatchery. What either would be doing on my map, I had no idea. But given the location on the map and the little surrounding context I could make out, I got a rough idea of what I''d selected.
It would work well enough, assuming the owner kept to his word.
I let my arm lower, gratefully, then gingerly fished my scroll out of my pocket. There was another brief pause, as I struggled through the windows and menus trying to get to the right thing. But eventually, I managed to locate the right number and picture. With a quick tap, the screen changed again. Showing a blue background, with two portraits and a phone between them. One for my phone, one for the other.
I raised the phone to my ear, and waited, listening to the dial tone. After a short time, the line clicked open.
"¡ Hello?" Ruby asked, voice sounding groggy and half asleep over the speaker.
"Ruby?" I asked, keeping my voice low "That''s you right? I didn''t mess this up?"
"¡ Six?" Ruby asked, then paused "¡ What time is it?"
"Late." I answered "I don''t have a lot of time to explain, but I need you to give the phon- Scroll to Yang."
"¡ She''s asleep." Ruby said blearily.
"I''m sure she is." I said, trying to be patient "Wake her up, this is important."
There was silence for a moment, as Ruby''s sleep addled brain struggled to process what I was asking. But after it passed, I could hear the sound of ruffling cloth and squeaking bedsprings. Followed almost immediately by a yelp from Ruby as she probably literally rolled out of her bunk. She, or perhaps one of our teammates, could be heard faintly grumbling on the other end of the line. There was another squeak of bedsprings, then more hushed words on the other side of the line.
"¡mm-ello?" Yang''s voice croaked over the line.
"Yang, I don''t have a lot of time to explain." I hissed quickly over the line "I need you to come down to Vale and get me."
"...m-what?" She asked.
I took a deep breath, feeling arms begin to throb again. "Yang, I don''t have time to play twenty questions. Either you can get down to Vale or you can''t, which is it?"
Another pause. "¡ Six, it''s almost one in the morning. What do you need me to come down to Vale for?"
"It''s important." I hissed, getting agitated "Just¡ get down here, alright?"
It shouldn''t have been that difficult to get them involved. They were all gung-ho about wanting to do more than just sit around waiting. But suddenly, when I was showing that I needed their help, it was like pulling teeth. I would give them the benefit of my calling in the middle of the night, when they were clearly asleep. That was hardly an excuse though. When trouble calls, you don''t get to pick and choose when to be ready, you just need to be.
My wounds and situation definitely weren''t helping with my patience either.
"¡ Six, it''s¡ early?" Yang said, trying to find the words "Whatever it is, can''t it-"
"FOR FUCK''S SAKE YANG I''VE GOT A BULLET IN MY ARM!" I shouted "CAN YOU GET ME OR NOT!?"
A heavy, pregnant silence passed over the phone.
"¡ What?" Yang asked, voice suddenly very sober.
"I don''t have time to-" I started, then stopped turning towards the mouth of the alley.
The sound of footsteps was quickly approaching. Either the Fang were coming back, or more were on the way. Or both, both was always possible.
"-Fuck." I swore, trying to figure out where to go. The only ways out where forward, or back over the fence.
Forward it was.
"Six?" Yang asked
"Do you know where Tukson''s Book trade is?" I asked, pulling my shotgun off my back. The action racked open, and I made sure the shells were topped off. "If you can find it in your heart to get your ass out of bed and come help me, I''ll be hiding in the backroom."
Footsteps were getting closer.
"Gotta go." I said.
"Wai-"
I cut the line and pocketed my scroll. Assuming Yang was actually going to get around to helping me, I''d thank her then. If she didn''t, well, it just proved my point for me.
And would probably mean I was dead.
Gritting my teeth, I started towards the mouth of the alley. Trying my best to supplement my waning stamina with aura. A strange feeling. Like my muscles were hollowed out, and some outside force was filling the vacuum. Again, similar to moving on auto-pilot. I wouldn''t have the protection, but the extra strength was welcome.
I reached the mouth of the alley the same time as the White Fang did. I saw the first White Fang began to skid around the corner, confused grimace creasing his mouth.
His mouth quickly fell open in surprise, as he stared down the barrel of my shotgun. He started to say something.
It was drowned out by the thunder of my weapon. The magnum shell emptied the contents of his skull onto the pavement.
As his body began to fall, his friend stumbled after him. Horror lighting his masked face. I cycled the action of my shotgun and loaded another shell with his name on it.
The second Fang didn''t hesitate, he whipped his assault rifle in my direction and panic-fired. Bullets spattering and spraying against the ground uncontrolled as he brought it up. Defying common sense, I rushed towards him. Beating his rifle before he could get the muzzle pointed at me. My shotgun came up, bracing against his weapon as it continued to fire. Roaring defiant and deafeningly at me. Fire curling out from the end of the barrel.
Pivoting my shotgun, I slid it underneath the weapon and pushed upward. The recoil helping to force it upward. Destroying what little balance and control the Fang had over it. After a moment of firing fruitlessly into the air, he got his finger off the trigger and found the sense to start trying to fight back properly.
Right as I got the muzzle of my shotgun around to face his head, he dropped his weapon and weaved to the side. As he did, my finger left the trigger, sliding to the grip as I swung the butt of my shotgun around. I clipped the tip of the Fang''s mask, and he back pedaled, rifle clattering to the ground.
"You bastard!" The Fang squealed, face flicking down to his dead friend.
"Worry about YOURSELF!" I growled, lunging towards him.
The Fang raised his arms in a guard as my shotgun crashed against him. I could feel the impact rock back through both of my arms, agitating my wounds. Made me wonder if I was even hitting as hard as I could''ve been. Good guess was no.
Braced against the hit, the Fang shot back, fist snapping out. I weaved under the punch, and they combo''d it into an uppercut. Their fist scraped the edge of my mask as I narrowly avoided it.
Which was then followed by a low kick.
I pulled my shotgun around front of me and barred against it. The impact easily traveled through the weapon, up my arms, but it was better than nothing. Seeing it as an opening the Fang pushed in, trying to keep the pressure on me.
Shotgun already barred in front of me, I came up and slammed the length of it into his face. He at it, and tried to slip into another punch. Still using my shotgun as a bar, I slipped around the punch and used it to trap the Fang''s arm. Then I twisted the arm, dragging him forward as I kicked into his knee. The momentum pulling him towards the ground as his arm began to twist at a bad angle.
Once he was down, I pushed in. His aura protected him at first.
Then I angled my shotgun into his back, burying the muzzle against him.
There was a dull thud, a flash of light and aura. The White Fang howled in pain.
I twisted his arm, heard it snap in two places, felt it break in three.
Then I smashed my shotgun against the back of his head. Maybe overkill, but it put him out of it completely. Assuming the shotgun blast hadn''t been enough to kill him.
I stayed there over him for a moment. Trying to catch my breath, and waiting for the ache in my arms to subside. I could feel my aura flowing out of them like a blown valve. It was only by conscious effort I was getting them to do what I wanted. Like trying to keep a flat-tire inflated by constantly re-inflating it rather than plugging the leak. An apt description, actually.
Unfortunately, I didn''t have time to stop and put air in it.
I picked myself up and started running, darting in the direction of Tukson''s former business. Trusting my compass to guide me as I began to weave into another alley. Quicker and quieter though the rooftops were, I wasn''t in the condition to take them. I''d already survived one fall off them that night, trying my luck wasn''t worth the chance. I got off easy in just having both my arms semi-functional. If I lost one of my legs, I''d be a Gomorrah girl without a condom. Or with a condom for that matter. Suppose that part didn''t hold much sway given the profession and location.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Either case, I kept low to the alleys and moved quickly when I was in the open. There were more streets to cross than not, so I had to be fast and smart. There weren''t any Fang patrolling on foot, that I saw. It would be a dumb idea on their part. If the gunfire hadn''t already gotten the police''s attention, having the White Fang openly patrolling the streets would. Maybe they felt confident they could take me with their numbers, but I don''t think even they were stupid enough to tangle with police unprepared.
More than once however I ducked behind trash bins, or scrambled onto fire-escapes to avoid a passing vehicle. Even in the event that they somehow weren''t the White Fang, it wasn''t worth risking it. So I''d waste the time it took. Even if it felt like I was running on barely present fumes just to get as far as I did. The closer I got to Tukson, the more I could feel my aura failing me. It was getting harder to think, my head felt like it was full of static, not the Tesla-coil kind either. Like a radio with a busted receiver.
After an eternity of skulking through the darkening streets of Vale, I could see my destination ahead of me.
Tukson''s Book Trade looked a lot different in the dark. It looked plenty welcoming during the day, or when the lights were on. But, blacked out, in the dead of night with the street lamps casting shadows, it looked dead. Tukson wouldn''t have been gone long, maybe three weeks at the most. But he took whatever life the building once had with him. Leaving behind only the shell of what it was.
I crossed out of the alley and over the street to it. Tried the front door, and found it unlocked. Tukson must''ve figured whatever he left behind wasn''t worth protecting.
Steeling myself against my own growing weakness, I pushed into the building.
Inside was just as much of a mess as the last time I''d been there. Shelves knocked over, books ruined, bullet holes and blood on the walls. Difference was, it was now painted in shades of shadow and dust. One a product of the time, and the other a result of it. Stagnant air meant it would settle out eventually. See it enough in the old ruins. Funny, how much the building looked like one with Tukson gone.
I let the door swing closed behind me as I stumbled forward. The place was dead silent. There was no noise coming in from outside. No lights passing by the front windows.
With luck, I''d gotten in completely undetected.
Which meant I''d entered in full view of a White Fang hunting party, and they''d storm the building any minute. Because that''s exactly what my luck is.
Rather than wait around in the open and find out, I made tracks for a door at the far side of the room. It led into the back of the store. A stuffy little room, filled with cardboard boxes, paperbacks, and office supplies. Shelves laden with more expensive looking books jutted from the walls into the room. As I moved deeper in, I took note of a staircase towards one side of the room, leading up into the building. An emergency exit? Access to an apartment? Didn''t matter at the time, but I took note of it.
I approached the back wall, beside one of the desks, and pulled out a stool to sit on. Facing towards the door, I level my shotgun and waited.
If Yang didn''t show up soon, I was going to need to start digging the bullet out of my arm again. But I needed to be reasonably certain I wasn''t going to be interrupted mid-surgery¡ again.
So I sat there. In the dark of the room. Shotgun leveled at the door.
Waiting.
¡
As I climbed the long staircase to Campanas del Sol, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
All around me, I could hear the rasping, reverberating breathing of the Ghost People.
But I didn''t see them.
Campanas del Sol was a massive, open courtyard at the top of a long staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was a landing that led elsewhere in the Madre, and another descending staircase. The second stairs were filled with Cloud, so I was less inclined to go investigate them. Even if the prospect seemed tempting compared to dealing with the Ghost People.
But my Pip-boy said my destination was ahead of me, not behind.
So I had no choice but to face things head on.
The courtyard of Campanas Del Sol was largely abandoned. It must have been one of the locations Sinclair had felt people didn''t need to spend time, during the Gala. It was still falling apart, like the rest of the Madre, but it just seemed more empty than it should''ve. Sinclair would''ve only needed someone to throw the switch for the Gala, so it wouldn''t have seen much use by guests. But the vacancy of it only served to put me further on edge.
It meant the Ghost People were waiting.
I hadn''t run into many of them on the way, and I''d kept my head down when I did. I didn''t have the supplies to chance a confrontation. Even if I did, Fighting the Ghost People wasn''t something I really wanted to do.
But, seeing that I wasn''t going to be immediately under attack, I moved into the courtyard. Keeping the muzzle of my Automatic Rifle low and my finger off the trigger. I''d managed to pick up a few rounds to replace some I''d wasted getting everyone into position. They hadn''t made it easy either, Dog/God only barely cared what I had to say and Domino thought I was in this thing to screw him over. The only one who didn''t resist me at every step was Christine, but even she put up some struggle. Mostly because the place she needed to be set off a degree of claustrophobia she''d developed.
I''d managed to work with all of them though, painful as it was. But they were all willing to stay in position.
It even led to an unexpected discovery, regarding Christine. A certain connection between her and myself, via a mutual friend.
Or lover, in her case.
As if I didn''t have enough of a reason to make sure she, at least, got out of this mess in one piece.
I crept quietly into the courtyard of Campanas Del Sol. Carefully watching to make sure the Ghost People didn''t suddenly decide to sneak up on me. Wouldn''t have been the first time they''d made the effort. Which was an impressive feat considering how loud they were. I probably needed to get someone to test me for tinnitus if I made it out of the Madre.
My Pip-boy pointed me straight ahead into a wall. Craning my head back, I guessed it was actually telling me to climb the bell-tower above me. The only problem to that was the lack of an obvious way in. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, that someone seemed to have found a solution to that. More evidence to that fact that things weren''t what they seemed. To one side of the courtyard, a wall had been blown out, into the buildings beyond. Knowing how the Madre''s buildings tended to snake together, I took the path in. Keeping my Rifle at the ready all the while.
The Ghost People''s rasping seemed to be all around me. Buzzing in my ears like the chitter of cazadors. At any moment, ready to lunge from the corners of my vision.
Domino said that most of them hid underground. Where and how didn''t matter.
Fittingly, the path had me descending into a large wine cellar. It was massive, spanning almost the entire courtyard paved above it. Sinclair cut corners everywhere else, but I guess he wanted his partygoers to be good and soused. Which seemed so very counter to a lot of the bans he put in place regarding chems.
But even as I crossed through the cellar, I saw no Ghost People. Only heard them. It was making my nerves dance. I didn''t want to fight them. But knowing they were there, just waiting, was even worse. Any moment, they''d rush in, and that would be it. I don''t know what kept them from doing it then and there.
But they didn''t.
I reached the other side of the cellar and climbed the stairs back out. At the top of the first flight, I passed through some sort of ritual room. I don''t what it had been set-up for, or when, only that it was one. An open room, lined with candles, and a wooden altar in the center. A centuries-decayed skeleton lay over the altar, charred jaw hanging open.
Maybe it''d been intended for a pre-war wake, but I couldn''t tell.
If it was more recent then that, I didn''t want to know.
I rounded another corner and climbed another flight of stairs. From there it was an almost straight shot up to the bell-tower. The stairs led out onto the veranda ringing the courtyard. I circled them, and walked through a broken wall to a bunkroom. Then through another wall to a series of apartments and more stairs.
That final set of stairs led to a store room, and finally a ladder. My objective was at the top of it.
I climbed it, and entered the belfry.
The view over the Madre was spectacular, and a cool, clean breeze swept over my face. Far below me I could see the crimson Cloud floating over the streets. See the vague movements of the Ghost people that yet milled the streets. The glow of the holograms that patrolled their centuries old routes. High on its mesa, the Sierra Madre. Far above it, the star filled sky.
In its own eerie way, it was beautiful.
I took a moment and breathed deeply of the night air. It smelled of the desert, free of the noxious Cloud. It''d been weeks since I hadn''t smelled anything tainted by the Cloud. It immediately filled me with a sense of longing, reminding me what was waiting beyond the Madre''s walls.
Failure was not an option.
Greedily drinking in the night air, I approached the controls console. There was an array of switches, but only one that mattered. The main switch, waiting to be reset.
I lifted it back into position, priming it.
"Is everything ready?" Elijah''s voice hissed through the belfry''s speakers. "Damn transceivers¡ There. They should all be linked through the Bell tower."
"I''m in the tower." I answered "Everyone, sound off."
The sound of Christine''s typing rolled through the speaker. But I could just barely make out the cadence for ''Shave and a Haircut''. Which I gave the requisite two taps.
"Dog is in the cage." God growled "Not for long."
"What are we waiting for!?" Domino hissed "Strike up the band already¡ Oh but, um, be mindful of the ghost people once you do. This''ll surely kick up a fuss."
"Acknowledged." I said, feeling my heartrate begin to ratchet upward "Alright, places people. The show is about to begin."
"Finally, now the gates will open." Elijah rasped "-and so will the skies!"
Steeling my nerves, I gripped the handle of the switched and slammed it down. Instantly there was a boom of power, as system within the Madre''s ancient streets sprang to life. Motors and generators roaring into motion. Speakers crackling and sparking with music. Around the Madre, atop the mesa, beams of light began to shoot up into the sky, cascading against the golden structure.
Fireworks erupted from the Villa.
The Grand Opening Gala had commenced.
As I stepped away from the control panel, a new sound began to fill the air. A deep, rumbling drone, almost like some form of ghastly siren. I could feel it passing through me in trembling waves. Making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Elijah was right. Time to go.
"See you inside." I said, then turned and bolted back to the ladder. I mantled down through the hatch and gripped the sides of the ladder. Gravity took over, and I slid down far faster than I''d climbed up. Even through the stone and stucco walls of the building, the drone and music carried on. Like the wail of some distant beast. Without hesitation, I ran for the doorway, stepping into the corridor beyond.
Then stepped into a bear trap.
The steel jaws snapped shut on my ankle, and I got a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu as pain shot up my leg.
"Are you kidding me!?" I snapped.
Ignoring the pain in my leg, I knelt down and began trying to pry my leg out of the trap. I knew how, it wouldn''t take more than a second. But as I forced my leg out of the trap, a thought occurred to me.
It hadn''t been there before.
Right as I stumbled out of the trap, a new sound cut through the droning.
A rasp of breath.
Kicked by adrenaline and fear, I fell back through the doorway. Right as a cosmic knife spear sank into the floor where I''d been standing. Followed immediately by the loping gait of a Ghost Person.
My hands scrambled, pulling my Automatic Rifle around front of me. The weapon''s length and weight made tricky, cumbersome.
The Ghost Person lurched to look in my direction. It jerkily pulled the spear from the ground and began loping towards me.
My heart thundered as the siren droned. I scrambled off the floor and backward. My rifle pointed towards the Ghost Person and I squeezed the trigger. The heavy weapon thundered in those close quarters. .308 caliber bullets flew at the Ghost Person. Punching holes into it that erupted into gory wounds on the other side. Each impact landing landed like a sledgehammer, pushing the Ghost person back.
But it did little more.
After five rounds, all I accomplished was wasting ammo and backing myself into a corner.
With stiff motions, the Ghost Person recovered and began rushing towards me.
I waited a moment, let him commit to the motion, then dove to the side. Get him to clear the doorway and give me a better escape route. They slammed into the wall spear-first, and I weaved around them narrowly. Without a moment''s hesitation I bolted back across the room and into the hall. I heard them rasp, wrenching their spear out of the masonry. It wasn''t hard to picture them being hot on my heels. If I didn''t put as much ground between me and them as possible, I wasn''t sure how quick it''d be on me.
I burst out of the hallway and onto a veranda overlooking a small plaza. It wasn''t a far fall from the veranda to the plaza. If I dropped down, I could cut back to the bunk room and have a straight shot back to the Campanas courtyard.
Which is exactly what I tried to do. I slung my Automatic Rifle around so both of my hands free and mantled over the edge of the veranda. Trying to control my descent, quick as I needed it. Dropping the distance wouldn''t kill me, but hitting it wrong would still hurt, and I couldn''t afford a messed-up leg.
As I released, and let myself fall, the Ghost Person barreled over the edge. Sailing past me and through the air over the plaza. When I hit the ground, they landed not long after, followed by a sickening crunch of broken bone. I twisted and ran for the bunkroom, hearing the Ghost Person shamble and rasp after me. Unimpeded by little things like broken bones and mangled cartilage. Another spear hissed past my flank and imbedded itself into the opposing wall of the bunk room. Right as I cut a hard left into the room.
Only to find another Ghost Person lying in wait.
It lunged as I rounded the corner.
I swore, and pulled a Police pistol from my hip. Without a second to aim, I fired from the hip, squeezing the double action trigger. Unfortunately I pulled my shot, and the bullet went wide of its target.
The Ghost Person charged in, twisted and sharpened metal over its right fist. A bear trap gauntlet, one of their improvised weapons. As it closed in on me, its left arm shot outward, grasping at me. I sidestepped it, tumbling through one of the many bunks in the room. Its arm missed me as I scrambled over the mattress, and I heard the springs of its gauntlet release. Teeth biting down with a metallic twang.
Clearing the bed, I spun briefly around, and saw it had struck the edge of the mattress, only narrowly missing me.
Its head stiffly jerked up to look at me.
I pointed my police pistol and sent a magnum round through its head.
The Ghost Person''s head snapped back with a creak of leather and a crackle of glass. Green viscera exiting the back of its skull.
It slowly rocked back forward, still rasping and alive.
I sailed a second round through its head, then turned and ran. In my periphery, I could see the spear-thrower had loped into the room after me. Even if the second shot had killed the Bear-trap Ghost, I gained nothing from standing my ground. So I made for the hole back to the Campanas courtyard. Bolting back out onto the veranda overlooking that courtyard.
Only to receive a knife spear to the stomach.
As soon as I stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard, a third Ghost Person attacked. Hurling their spear from the courtyard below like a missile. The cosmic knives easily piercing the armor plating at the front of my Assassin Suit. Their tarnished metal slicing against my innards. I could feel them shifting around the dirty material. The only positive was that it lost momentum and didn''t run me through completely. It still sunk hilt deep, but stab wounds beat a gaping hole when it came to my long-term life expectancy.
The impact of the spear caused me to break my stride, and I crashed against the ruined railing of the veranda. I fun feeling when I had something metallic leveraged against my guts. The Ghost person below me continued loping through the courtyard, moving towards the passage leading up to me. I loosed a shot at him and pulled the spear out of my gut, letting it fall to the courtyard below. Pushing myself off of the railing, I fished a stimpack out and began moving along the veranda.
Then the Bear-trap Ghost caught up with me. Slammed into me with his loping gait. The teeth of his weapon bit down into my arm as his weight crashed against me.
Then the railing broke. Unable to handle the extra strain.
"FUCK!" I swore.
The two of us fell through the open air of the courtyard, now more than a twenty-foot fall. We landed on paved stone. Me on my shooting arm, from an unfortunate twist in the air.
The Ghost Person landed head first. Their head deforming against the stone and neck cracking to an odd angle. Some kind of yellow and putrescent ooze began to ebb from one a broken goggle in its mask. But I didn''t trust for a moment it actually had the good graces to die.
I scrambled to my feet, losing my grip on my Police Pistol. My right arm didn''t feel right, didn''t respond how I needed it too. I chose to abandon it there, no time to waste trying to make my arm move right. Not when I had more pressing concerns. Like patching the holes in my chest. I stuck my gut with the stimpack and let the medicine do its work. Not clean, but better than leaving the wound unchecked.
I heard the rasping of the Ghost that''d speared me, and ran. Bolting across the courtyard with my right arm flopping erratically against my side. Didn''t know how long I could keep ahead for but it didn''t matter. If I could make it back to the corridor back out of the Campanas, the path would start to untangle itself.
Just needed to run, before they caught up with me,
The stairs back down from the courtyard descended before me, and I practically leapt off of them. Skipping the first four, I managed to somehow catch myself on the fifth and bound the rest of the way down them. I reached the smaller landing between the Campanas and the catacombs below, and began to run for another hole in the wall. One that lead back to the fountain.
Two steps onto the landing, a darkness leapt up from the catacomb stairs. Ghost People coursing from the depths below.
Two.
Four.
Eight.
Sixteen.
I stopped counting after Two Dozen.
A panicked, half crazed laugh escaped me as I bolted for the wall. Weaving among a decorative set of columns, I passed through the wall with the Ghosts nipping at my heels. Rasping behind me in a coalesced chorus, a metallic buzz of strangled death.
The hole in the wall lead to a small store room, with a set of stairs and a vending machine on one side of it. I grabbed the corner of the vending machine and tilted it onto its side, as I vaulted onto the steps. The heavy machine heaved to the side as I pulled against it, slamming against the opposing wall. Helped bar the stairs, as the Ghost People closed the distance. They crashed against the machine right as I began to climb the stairs, two at a time. I could hear the whine and squeal of metal as they rent and bent it. Putting force against it in ways it''d never meant to be hit.
I reached the top of the stairs, and crossed the small room waiting at the top of them. Another hole in an exterior wall, leading to a narrow alley. Barred slightly by a previously triggered swing-girder trap. It passed beneath me as I leaped through the opening. Coming out onto an eve overlooking the alleyway. The deep drone of the siren still thrumming through the air.
As I mantled down off the eave, I scarcely remembered one of my arms wasn''t working and fell. Hitting the pavement, again. When I went to pick myself up, another Ghost Person came stalking out of the shadows. Just as another came bolting over the eve after me.
Soon to be followed by the rest of the dark tide.
Scrambling to my feet, I continued to follow the alley, death close behind and waiting ahead. At the far end I rounded into another hole in the wall, stepped on a Radroach, and kept running. The hole lead through a shop, and out the back into the narrow Villa streets. From there the path split, two routes ahead of me, left and right.
The Ghost People were hot on my heels.
I panicked and ran left.
The path took me to another flight of stairs, leading to a covered street. I began running down them, pulling my Automatic Rifle to bear once more. My right arm still wasn''t cooperating, but it was easy enough to lock the weapon to my hip. Accurate fire wasn''t going to be an option. Thankfully it didn''t need to be.
As I leapt off the bottom of the stairs, another Bear-Trap Ghost lunged from the shadows. Their fist narrowly missing my head.
The barrel of my weapon swung low, and a trio of bullets tore through their knee, muzzle pressed against it. The leg blew apart at the knee and the Ghost Person wrenched forward, grasping at me and only missing by a hair. I didn''t bother wasting the ammo to finish it off, Its mobility was nil. My feet slammed against the pavement as I began to run, faster, more hurriedly. Trying to follow the compass of my Pip-boy, while the constant drone of the siren boomed in the background. The corners and curves of the dark and clouded alleys blending into an unforgiving and toxic spiral. I found myself ducking through more corridors, more stores, dashing through more broken walls and past further and further traps. Some of which didn''t even seem to have been disarmed or otherwise triggered. Meaning I had not passed them previously.
Before I could even blink, I found myself lost. Even with my compass to point the way, everything looked the same.
My legs carried me up another flight of stairs, and I found myself once more at a crossroads. A path ahead of me, and to my left through another hole in the wall.
There was a rasping chorus waiting to my left.
I ran straight ahead, curved a corner, a threw myself down another flight of stairs.
There was a Ghost Person laying at the bottom. As I careened down the stairs, it went to look up at me from the ground.
My Rifle pointed vaguely in its direction and a quartet of bullets ripped through the air. Two bit the ground around it, a third hit its spine. The fourth split its head, yellow muck pouring from the wound.
It slumped back to the ground and I crashed onto it, clambering to my feet. Harried mind wondering what it was doing on the ground.
Then my eyes caught a better look of it. Of its blown-out knee.
It was the same one. The same one I''d shot before.
I''d gone in a god damn circle.
Furiously, I slung my Rifle around so I could check my Pip-boy. I pulled open the map and quickly poured over it. Sure enough, looking at the local map it was generating, the alleys and streets did form a giant loop. The spot I was looking for would''ve been closer if I''d gone right instead of left. I''d literally run straight past it and completed the loop. Without hesitating, I turned and began to take the stairs two at a time. Taking the shortest path to get back on track.
Half-way up, there was screech of metal and a thunder of footsteps.
The tide of Ghost People loped around the corner into the top of the stairwell.
Somewhere nearby a generator screamed to life, and I ran for mine. The only route left for me being to make the loop once more. If I fucked up again, I didn''t like my prospects for the foreseeable future. All I could do was blindly charge ahead. Heart hammering in my ears, death rasping at my heels.
I crossed the threshold of, running back through a shop-
My foot caught a tripwire.
It hadn''t been there before
The tense wire snapped, and beside the hole in the wall was a metallic *ping*. Followed by a high-pitched hiss, and the slow shrill of sheering metal.
I twisted at the shoulders, looking towards the sound. In the corner beside the hole, were a trio of gas bombs. The kind the Ghost People used.
One of their valves had burst, fire flew from the nozzle like a blowtorch. Its whining hiss growing higher and loud at a rate of nano-seconds. I dove away from the cannisters-
They exploded.
The shockwave hit me first, like a dozen runaway Brahmin. It was followed by a thick cloud of black smoke, that quickly erupted into a great ball of vibrant orange flame.
The blast threw me off of my feet, sent me crashing through the air. I smashed through a long-abandoned display case, rolled across the ground, and came to a halt on my side, back to the sales counter. My head spun, ears rang, and my body went numb. The only sensation I could feel, at first was the dull vibrating of my heart. Then my nervous system caught up to the damage and I was wracked with pain.
With a groan, I tried to force my barely responsive body into motion. The Ghosts were coming, they would be on be on me-
They were on me.
The first loped around the corner, into line of sight with the store. Followed by the second, the fourth, all the way to the twelfth.
They bore down on me.
My body refused to move.
With great pain, I pushed myself upright. My automatic rifle swung around as they were halfway across the store. I pulled the trigger, fire and thunder leapt from the muzzle. They charged relentlessly.
I roared.
Darkness fell on me.
¡
I jerked awake and nearly fell off my stool, heart hammering in my chest.
The motion sent a stab of pain through me.
"Stay awake moron." I growled "You''re not out of the woods-"
The sound of a slamming door echoed through the darkness of the building.
My already palpitating heart skipped a beat, and I struggled off my stool. Running on blind instinct, I moved towards the door. I stepped to the side of it, beside the hinges. When the door swung in, it''d move to cover me. Offering me at least a moment''s protection against whoever just kicked-in the front door. A few seconds to try and get the drop on them.
As I moved, I traded my shotgun over to off-hand. No shot at me using it effectively, but it was better than putting it back and needing to draw it again. In its place, I pulled That Gun, double checking that it was loaded. Only to find all of the primers dimpled, and then having to struggle with a one handed reload. Made me feel like even more of a mess than I already was.
After managing to somehow slip fresh rounds into the cylinder, I brought my pistol to a low-ready and waited. Straining my hearing, I could hear someone stomping around on the sales floor. Couldn''t tell if that was multiple someone''s or not, but there was someone out there.
I waited by the door, pistol ready.
The perpetrator began to approach the back room. Only stopping briefly at the door.
Then it was blasted off its hinges, flying inward as large chunks and splinters of wood. Better than it flying on the hinges and slamming me into the wall, anyway. A moment passed, as whoever was on the other side waited. Clearly examining the area before stepping in.
But, after several cautious seconds, they took several steps into the room.
My arm swung up and pointed That Gun at Yang''s golden head.
It took me a second to realize it was Yang. In the intervening time, she heard me move and whipped around to face me, only to find the barrel of my gun in her face. Her lilac eyes went wide, and I got a better look of her in my nightvision.
She looked¡ like a hot mess. Just like me. Her golden mane was a spikey mess of threads and bed-head. Her face looked a little more sunken than normal, the effect of not being fully awake. She was still wearing her pajamas, an orange tank-top and black shorts. However, she''d pulled her brown jacket over it, and was wearing her boots. I could also make out her gauntlets ringing her arms, already expanded and waiting.
Yang searched the darkness for a moment, trying to figure out what she was looking at. After a moment, she seemed to get an idea and backed away slowly, but making no sudden moves.
"So you actually showed up." I said, lowering my gun.
"¡ Six?" Yang asked, squinting into the darkness at me.
"The one and only." I answered, holstering my pistol then moving to do the same with my shotgun "Sorry for the scare, I''ve been having one of those nights."
Yang''s posture began to relax, her brow creasing slightly "Oh, so that means you get to-"
I took a few steps towards her. Into the little light that streamed in through the doorway.
Whatever Yang was going to say was cut short. She took out her Scroll, and tapped at it, enabling a small light. She pointed it towards me, and her expression fell. "Oh crap- are you ok?" She asked.
"Been worse." I answered "Did the White Fang find you?"
"Uh- no, I don''t think so." She answered "I got here as quick as I could. I''m pretty sure I''d have seen them."
"They''re driving around in cars, not too many of those out right now." I said "You pass anyone on the road here."
Yang shook her head. "All quiet."
I nodded. "Good enough."
"Are you ok?" Yang asked again, still looking me over.
"Again, I''ve been worse." I said, moving back to the front of the store. "C''mon, we need to get out of here before my luck turns again. You still good to drive? My arms ain''t feeling right."
"Y-yeah." Yang said, quickly following me out and taking point. She crossed the sales floor ahead of me, quickly, and made for the front door. A part of me wanted to warn her to be more careful. If the Fang were aware of us, throwing caution to the wind now would be a mistake.
But, if the Fang were aware of us, they''d probably have attacked already as well.
I cautiously peered outside the bookstore as I approached the door. The street seemed to still be abandoned, save for Yang''s bike, sitting beside the sidewalk in front of the store.
Satisfied that we were relatively undetected, I stepped out and was immediately followed by Yang. The door closed behind her, Yang bounded over to her bike and got it running. I stumped my way after her, still feeling hollowed-out in just about every way.
"How quick can you get us back to Beacon?" I asked, over the idling of the bike.
"You sure you want to go back to school?" Yang asked in turn "I think the hospital might be better idea."
"I can handle it." I said "Just get us back to the dorms."
Yang scowled for a moment, then shrugged, motioning for me to get on. "I can get us back in a half hour. Twenty minutes if I push it."
"Good." I answered, straddling the seat behind her. Though I struggled to move my arms, I managed to loop them around her waist and lock my fingers. "I''ll try not make it more difficult¡ hey, Yang?"
Yang''s head twitched slightly as she looked over her shoulder.
"...Thanks."
Scrap in the Plan
Yang was good to her word. We made it back to Beacon grounds in the span of about twenty-five minutes, max. The trip wasn''t particularly smooth, but I''d call it graceful. The road was bumpy and pitted, but Yang knew what she was doing. Tried to keep things as consistent as possible. Helped mitigate my discomfort enough that it wasn''t as mind-numbing. Helped me focus more on staying awake as we went. I was afraid if I conked out again, I wouldn''t be waking up for a few hours, minimum.
Considering we were flying down the road, that could become a permanent condition.
We made it back in one relative piece at least. If the Fang were following us, they were doing a damn fine job of it. Yang tooled her bike down the back road near the weapons workshop, and pulled us into the parking lot. She killed the engine, and we both got off.
"The way through the school is locked." Yang said, motioning around the side of the building "We can cut around to the dorms from there¡" She gave me a curious look "I can''t tell, have you actually been shot? It''s too dark to see."
"Several times actually." I said, looking at the door to the workshop. I knew the way to the infirmary from there, even if they wouldn''t be open. The only question was if I needed to pick the lock and get a few supplies. But given my condition, I realized it would be easier said than done. I could make do with what was at the dorms. "Don''t worry, it feels worse than it looks."
Yang gave me a once over, but said nothing. Just looking at me leery-eyed.
We walked, or stumbled, around the buildings back to the dorms. It took a few more minutes, but it at least seemed like we weren''t going to run into any trouble. Almost everyone seemed to be asleep at that hour, as they should''ve been. Part of me wished I could do the same. But that wasn''t going to happen until I addressed my lingering issues. As we made our way back, I could feel myself slowing down. Whatever adrenaline that''d worked its way back into my system was basically gone, again. The cumulative exhaustion wasn''t helping. I remember almost tripping over my own feet at one point, and only narrowly catching myself. Which earned another concerned look from Yang.
After slowly stumbling back to the dorms, we climbed the stairs to our floor and were in the homestretch.
Which is when I actually tripped and hit the ground. Wasn''t exactly a quiet landing either. Like a barbell slipping out of your hand and hitting the floor.
Immediately Yang turned to look at me again, concern evident on her face. As she moved back to help me though, I raised a hand and waved her off. Though I may have been a mess that was tripping over his own two feet, I could at least make it back to the dorm.
She didn''t really seem to buy that, but I picked myself up all the same.
As we reached our room door, it opened ahead of us, and I was shown the sight of a half-asleep Ruby. Barely awake, but clearly waiting for us.
She sobered as soon as she saw me.
"Oh my gosh- Six!" She started.
Immediately, I shushed her. "Quiet, middle of the night. Inside, now."
Ruby got the gist, and stepped out of the way, letting Yang and me through before shutting the door behind us. Ruby was still dressed in her pajamas. Different pair from normal, black pants and shirt, pink dots, buttons, and silver trim on her shirt. Oddly formal for her. Formal for pajamas anyway.
The rest of our room was lit by dim lamp light. It cast everything in a warm, sleepy yellow glow. Zwei was resting on my cot. Weiss and Blake, likely woken up by my call, were sitting on their respective bunks. They both looked tired and barely awake. My sudden arrival did little to remedy the bags and wrinkles under their eyes. But they certainly tried to come to some form of attention as Ruby shut the door behind me and Yang.
"There you are." Weiss groused, stifling a yawn "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Mm." I grunted, struggling to shoulder out of my duster. With a degree of discomfort, I managed to slip it off. Letting it hit the floor in a holey heap.
"It''s the literal middle of the night." Weiss continued "When we said we wanted to help, that was preferably before you got yourself into a mess."
"Yep." I answered, unbelting my armor and tilting forward, letting it clatter to the floor, my back creaking gratefully as the weight fell off of me.
"Then there''s¡ Wait, are you ignoring me?" Weiss snipped. "Don''t ignore me, I''m trying to criticize you!"
"Uh huh." I agreed, stripping off my under shirt.
"And will you stop stripping!?" she squeaked.
"¡ no." I answered. "Keep your voice down, people are trying to sleep."
Weiss gave me an exasperated look, and I went over to my cot. Seating myself beside Zwei, I dug out my box of tricks and fished out what I was going to need. Namely a doctor''s bag. I tried to keep one on hand for situations like this, but trying to carry it with me everywhere was difficult. Most importantly though, I pulled out one of my precious jars of moonshine. It was going to be sacrificial here, but it was at least for a good cause. Not the least of which was its ability as a painkiller, though the last thing I needed before surgery was a blood thinner.
I fished through my pocket and pulled out the mangled wad of lead that was the original bullet. Setting it nearby, I''d use it for reference of how much might be left in me. Under normal circumstances, I could''ve left it in until I was actually in a position to address it. Which could''ve been a long ways off. As long as a bullet isn''t causing trouble, you could get away with leaving it alone. However, I was partly glad I''d taken the initiative in the case. By the time I''d have realized it had fragmented, things would''ve gotten a lot worse.
My teammates drew a little closer, and began to loom over me as I prepped for surgery. Ruby in particular was eyeing the bullet.
"Is¡ Is that the bullet?" She asked, almost transfixed.
"Part of it." I said, sucking back some of my moonshine "¡The rest of it''s still stuck in my arm."
"How did you get it out?" Weiss asked, looking very off-put.
"Stabbed myself with a bowie knife until it came out one of the holes." I answered.
"Y-you what!?" Weiss screeched.
"Snowflake, please, keep your voice down." I repeated.
"What happened?" Blake asked, alert and as awake as could be expected.
"A fuckin'' trap." I said "Long story, I''ll tell you it later. Suffice to say, someone got the drop on me and got lucky."
"And there''s more of it in your arm still?" Yang asked, before taking a deep breath. "¡ Ok, we need to get you to the nurse."
"No." I said, setting my surgery equipment into the moonshine to sterilize, then swabbing down my arm. "I''ll be fine, I know what I''m doing."
It took Weiss a moment, looking at the situation, before she connected the dots ahead of the others. When she next spoke, her voice was full of dawning horror. "¡ Y-you''re not seriously planning to take it out yourself, are you?"
"I know what I''m doing." I reiterated, prepping my tourniquet. "I''m also far more equipped to handle it than most people."
The color drained from my teammates'' faces.
After tying off my arm once again, I slipped a medical brace over my arm. It wasn''t the best fit for the job, but it worked as an improvised retractor in this case. Used it as such in the past. The moonshine hadn''t kicked in yet, but it was going to before long. I''d rather get to work while my hand and mind were still relatively sharp. Pulling a scalpel out of the jar, I gave it a quick shake to get the excess liquor off. Then, carefully, I looked over my arm to find the previous incision. With luck, the shrapnel wouldn''t be too far off from it, and I could work it out.
Carefully, I set the tip of the surgical blade against my arm.
"Stop!" Weiss shrieked. "Are you crazy!?"
"¡" I looked up at Weiss. "Have you not been paying attention?"
I sank the tip of the scalpel back into my arm. Felt it cut deep as I once again opened my arm up. Felt blood beginning to roll, slowly, down my arm again. I tried my best to keep the muscle relaxed, make it less painful.
Weiss''s jaw hit the floor.
Ruby, Blake, and Yang physically recoiled as I set to work. Blake in particular seemed the most affected. Sharpened senses, I guess. Meant the smell of blood hit her harder and more quickly.
Soon as I cut a space big enough to work in, I set the scalpel aside. With any luck, I wouldn''t need to cut myself any deeper. Using the brace as a fixture, I began to spread the incision open enough for me to get a better look. Looking at your raw muscles isn''t a pleasant experience, but neither was getting shot. Reaching back towards my jar, I grabbed a pair of forceps.
"I think I''m going to be sick," Ruby whined, shifting restlessly.
"Wait until I''ve at least got my arm taken care of," I grunted, beginning to probe with the forceps. Unfortunately, as I did, I began to realize that even with the improved lighting, it was still too dim for me to get a proper look of things. It was better than the alley, but considering I wasn''t in one anymore, I knew I could do better. Meaning, unfortunately, I was going to need help. I looked over to my teammates briefly, before coming to a decision. "¡ Weiss, grab your scroll and come over here."
"Huh?" Weiss grunted.
"There''s not enough light." I said. "If I''m going to do this I need to be able to see what I''m doing. Take your scroll and hold it so I can see what I''m doing."
"¡ What?" Weiss repeated.
I took a deep breath, and calmly repeated myself. "I have a fucking bullet in my arm still, and I can''t see it. Hold the damn light so I can get it out before I bleed to death."
Weiss, however, continued to stand there, frozen. Then after a moment, she managed to knock herself out of her stupor and start moving. She walked to her bunk and picked up her scroll. She then opened it, turned on a light, and trotted back over to me. Cautiously, she approached my side, looking over my wound. As she did, I could see her face turning green.
"O-oh." Weis shuddered.
"You don''t have to look at it, just keep the light steady so I can see what I''m doing." I repeated
Weiss muttered to herself, sounded more like a whine, but kept the light steady while I began to probe the wound. Blood began to weep from the muscle tissue as I dug, looking for discolored tissue. Signs of where the extra shrapnel could be sitting. After a moment or so, with the better light, I noticed a dark wafer of material poking out of the muscle fibers.
''There''s one.''
I caught the tip of it with the forceps and gently tweezed and coaxed it out of place. As I did, I noticed Weiss, having found some resolve, was watching with horrified fascination. Trying very hard to keep from fidgeting. Funny the things people start to do, once they get past their own squeamishness.
With a little more discomfort, and a bit of blood, I pulled the small piece of metal from the muscle. I then removed it from my wound and set it with the rest of the bullet. I could see where it had sheared off from, had an idea of how much might be left yet.
Frankly, too much.
"Is¡ that it?" Weiss gagged, eyes still tracing my handiwork.
"No." I said. "There''s still some left. Gotta go back in."
Weiss grimaced but said nothing. By this point Ruby, Blake, and Yang had turned away. They knew better than to keep watching if it was uncomfortable. Though judging by the tension about them, it was cold comfort.
With a stiffening hand, I went back in, continuing to probe for shrapnel. I can''t say for how long I kept at it. Might''ve only been ten minutes, could''ve been an hour. But it was a long and painful process, even having quaffed some moonshine. The arm I''d tied off had long gone numb by the time I was done. But I''d managed to fish out two decently sized pieces, along with some smaller pieces, thoroughly staining my hands, and my cot, with blood in the process. If there was more of it in me, I couldn''t see it. Unless it started causing me problems, I wasn''t concerned with removing it either. Wouldn''t be the first bits of metal still stick in me.
"¡ Alright, you can move the light." I said. "Think I''m done."
Weiss nodded, gratefully, and stepped back. "Ok¡ now what are you going to do?" She asked, looking pale and queasy "You''re going to need to get¡ that taken care of. Otherwise you''ll die."
I nodded, looking down at my arm. I could feel my body getting sluggish. "Not my finest work, but better than some." Keeping the tourniquet in place, I fished a stimpack out of my supplies. "¡ Wanna see something cool?"
Weiss looked at me in confusion, and my teammates turned to look at me. Clearly worried and stressed by the situation.
Unceremoniously, I stuck my arm with the hypodermic and let the medicine do its work. As it did, I released the retractors and slid the brace off. For a brief moment, I got to see the muscle fibers stitch and knit themselves back into place. Like threads being weaved into a bolt of cloth. The skin of my arm seaming itself back together like the teeth of a zipper. Blood and plasma briefly wept out of the space, before drying and flaking off like an old scab. Leaving behind fresh scar tissue.
As I returned my equipment to the doctor''s bag, I noticed the looks that my teammates were giving me.
"Cool, ey?" I asked, voice a bit strained.
"¡That was freaky." Ruby said, voice numb and a bit distant.
I nodded to that, using a damp rag to begin cleaning the blood off my arm. There were a lot of things I needed to do. Get my equipment sterilized and properly put away. Clean up the blood that''d spilled out. Organize my equipment for repairs.
The first thing I did, was unbind the tourniquet from my arm, let the blood flow back into it. Then I¡
I¡
...
I awoke in darkness. My body aching and screaming at me from every nerve ending. Hollowed with pain whose source was both everywhere and nowhere. Impossible to pin to any one point on my body.
But I could start with the tingling in my arm, as something wormed up it.
Thoughts and memories flashed through my mind like lightning in a desert storm. There and gone within a breath. The Villa, the bell tower, and the Madre. Flashing gold and vibrant as the memories sequenced.
Then the Ghosts. How they hunted me through the streets like an animal. Like a child trapped in a nightmare.
Where the monster won.
How I had missed that trap, I didn''t know. Had the Ghost people set a new one when I wasn''t looking? Had I just somehow missed it the first time I''d gone through? That happened sometimes. It hadn''t happened then. The blast had thrown me, left my body numb and barely responsive. Opening fire on them had been my last desperate bid against them.
It didn''t work.
It flashed to the front of my mind, what happened. How the Ghost People fell on me in a black tide. The crushing force of them colliding with me. The bite of their weapons and pounding of their fists. How I disappeared beneath a rasping ocean, struggling to breathe. I lost consciousness amidst the darkness and pain. Felt as they tried to tear me apart. That''s where it should have ended. Don''t know why it didn''t.
Domino had said that the Ghost people don''t always kill. That, sometimes, they like to drag people away. Take them to god knows where, to do god knows what.
Well, after they got through with beating me, I got to know too.
Everything after the beatings was muddy and murky, barely bubbling to the surface. Flashes of pain and spiteful twists of the senses. Only the vaguest notions of motion to show I wasn''t going to lay dead against the wall. The creak of old wood and the stink of mold as I was put down on something. The stinging twinge in both my arms, as something bit at them. But none of them were enough to pull me back to the surface.
Only after the tide had long ebbed away, did I finally come up for air. No idea of how long I''d been under, where I''d been carried, or how I was still alive.
But the IV catheter in my arm had me asking questions. Especially as my bleary vision traced it to a length of surgical tubing. Then back to a jar of vaguely green liquid.
With an adrenaline jolt, I shot upright. Strangling back a yelp and struggling to keep it down as pain emboldened it. My eyes quickly searched the room, trying to pick out anything identifying. Figure out where I was. Small things had memories bubbling to the surface. Debris on the floor, a bit of graffiti on the way looking like a frown-y face¡ a skeleton on the floor beside me.
I was back in the Campanas del Sol. A side room I had to pass through to get to the bell tower.
I was¡ alive. Barely, looking at my Pip-boy. The Ghost people had beaten me within an inch of my life.
Closer still, one of my arms was bleeding. The one without the catheter had been nicked. A steady trail of bright crimson trailing down it to the floor. Whatever had been intended, they needed to bleed me dry first. I was hard pressed to stop it too. Moving was next to impossible. Maybe it was being beaten near to death, or whatever it was they were pumping into me. But my body struggled to respond to my commands. It was only with great effort and concentration I was able to pull the catheter out and, painfully, fall off the table I was laid on.
With a grimace, I reached for a stimpack, and came to the realization that I was buck naked. Perhaps it made sense that they''d do that, as much sense as anything the Ghost People did. They probably hadn''t been expecting me to re-awaken after whatever they''d done to me. My clothes, and equipment, were tossed in a heap to the far corner of the room. Pushing off the pain in me, I dragged myself over to the pile and fished a stimpack out of it. A pair actually. One for my arm specifically, to properly shut the gash they''d put in me. The other pushed back the damage everything else had done.
I stayed on the ground for several moments, waiting for my wounds to close and the damage to pass. Gave me a chance to catch my breath, examine what the Ghost People had tried to do to me. Looking at my arm, I could almost trace the veins where the fluid had traveled. Even as blood and stim-fluid flooded back into its place, something lingered. If I didn''t have bigger problems to deal with, I would''ve kept a better eye on it.
Forcing back the pain and sudden vertigo, I pulled my clothes back on and checked my weapons. Everything that happened after the Ghosts People caught me was a blur. I could remember gunfire, the smell of smoke and the thunder of explosions. Checking my weapons, I could see I''d burned through the last of my .308 ammo. The cylinder of my Police Pistol was loaded with dead rounds, so I''d given everything I had to keep them at arm''s length.
Keeping my head on a swivel, I reloaded the cylinder and put myself back to rights. Before heading out, I grabbed a jar of the green liquid. Not my highest priority, but if I survived, I''d want Keely or someone from the Followers to take a look at it. Whatever was in it couldn''t have been good for me.
With aching steps, I moved back out into the Campanas Courtyard. Even with the stimpack, I was only barely at the point where I could keep on my feet. Made me wish I''d thought to keep some Med-X on hand. Either that or a bottle of something strong and brown. I traced quickly, and cautiously over the courtyard, half expecting to find the Ghost People still milling about. But to my relief, and worry, the courtyard was empty. Good news: I didn''t see any Ghost People.
Bad News: I didn''t see any Ghost People.
How long had I been out? Couldn''t have been long, but long enough that they''d vanished?
In either case, I took it for what it was worth and stepped back out into the crimson Cloud. Carefully watching for any signs of movement. Listening for the tell-tale rasp amidst the rumble of distant thunder and the siren¡
The Siren.
My head turned towards the bell-tower. The siren I''d heard blaring through the Madre was fading. I could still just barely hear it.
The Gala was almost finished. With it, my chance to get into the Madre.
If I missed it, I didn''t imagine Elijah would see much point in keeping me around. There wouldn''t be any second chances at making it happen either. Not by myself.
Throwing caution to the wind, I took off towards the stairs a second time, keeping my ears trained. Knowing that, with as badly hurt as I was, hopefully if they caught me I''d just die instead. I wasn''t going to chance¡ whatever they had in store for me.
I took the stairs down two at a time, easily re-tracing my path, now that I wasn''t being chased. Down the stairs, to the side wall, into the store. As I came to the next set of stairs again, I found the Vending Machine I''d used as a barricade. Haplessly tossed to one side and broken into about a dozen pieces. Some of them were even trailing up the stairs.
Climbing to the second floor, I found myself stuck once more in the loop I''d been originally trapped in. Off in the distance, I could hear the drone of the siren fading.
Tick-tock.
I leapt back down to street level, and faced with the accursed split in the path once more, I ran right. With the threat of the Ghost people replaced with the threat of being too late there was no room for mistakes. Needed to pay attention to the ones I''d already made. I followed the direction my compass pointed me, racing down a long stretch of straight alley. At the far end of it, spilling into a cramped crossroads, was a small patch of Cloud. I could remember having barreled through it, vaguely, during my initial mad sprint. I barreled through it a second time and found myself facing out onto the crossroads.
Directly across from me, hidden under the eve of the overhanging terrace, was a hole in the wall. Easily missed, if you came from the wrong way, or moved too quickly.
My compass was pointing right towards it.
Once more cursing my own inability to slow down and keep calm, I bolted through it. Passing through a familiar looking store-room and climbing another set of stairs. Leading to a cramped apartment, and a door.
It opened onto a balcony of Salida del Sol.
I got the briefest sense of relief. Lasting all of a Bighorner fart in a dust devil.
The siren was all but gone.
Taking the stairs down from the balcony, I ran through the cramped streets of Salida del Sol. As I did, trickling from somewhere nearby, I could hear the crackle and pop of old-speakers. Big band music trickling from them in a song I could remember from the Mojave, but couldn''t put my finger on. An Instrumental piece. Brass horns blaring and strings whining.
I wasn''t out of time yet.
My feet pounded the cobblestone streets. The way guided by the compass on my wrists, and the return of street signs, pointing the way to the Fountain. All the while the music blared from speakers I couldn''t see, or were too far to affect me. I passed through several crossroads, turning where directed.
Then the doorway separating the Fountain from Salida del Sol loomed golden in the crimson gloom. Down the far end of an alley.
I was almost free.
Then the rasping returned.
A knife spear sailed past my leg and buried itself into the stone.
I didn''t even waste a moment to turn around and see who threw it. Didn''t matter.
I ran for the door, my heart suddenly thundering in my ears.
The Ghost People were on me again.
I bolted down the alley and crashed through the doorway, stumbling but managing to catch myself. I could hear the tramp of foot-falls behind me.
A lot of them. Enough that I could hear them tearing the door to Salida del Sol off the hinges as they pursued me. Gave me a reason to not slow down, avoid tripping. The rasp of their breathing coalescing into a reverberating buzz. Echoing and bouncing off the close walls of the alleys.
I raced ahead, knowing how close they were behind me.
As if there wasn''t enough incentive, suddenly, my collar began to beep. Either Elijah decided he was done waiting, or the speakers were getting closer.
Cutting corners and rebounding off of walls, I tore my way down the alleys. The closer we got to the Fountain, the less I needed the street signs to point the way. The whole way, my heart was pounding out of my chest. Felt like it was going to explode if so much as one more thing went wrong.
But, somehow, it didn''t. I rounded the last corner and faced the final straight to the Fountain. Without a moment''s hesitation, I darted down it, coming out into the fountain plaza. I could hear the rasping growing distant behind me. The Ghost People feared the holograms, even the non-security ones. Vera was still standing proudly over the Fountain, a glowing beacon of protection.
As I came within view of the Madre''s gates, my collar finally stopped beeping. Meaning Elijah finally got the message. But the music was coming to an end. Not wasting a second, I ran for the gates of the Madre, and found them unlocked. With a heave, I pulled the centuries-old gate open, found myself staring at the long path up to the Madre, far on the mesa overhead. As I looked up at it, I had a moment to stop and breathe.
I was finally out of the Villa.
Weeks of being trapped there, finally over.
Only to trade it for whatever lay ahead.
Before I could start up the steps to the Madre, I heard the rasping return. Still behind me, beyond the gate.
I forced myself to calm down, then turned and looked to the Villa behind me.
The Ghost People were there.
Dozens, maybe even a hundred of them. Mask lenses glowing like green eyes in the gloom of the Madre. Their breath rasping in a chorus. How they mustered the courage to get past the Vera hologram, I don''t know. But they were there. Looking at me.
Waiting.
I half expected them to throw a hail of spear at me through the bars of the gate. Just further punctuate how poorly things had gone. But it never happened. All of them simply stood there, watching me. Completely still and calm.
At that moment, I was reminded.
They''d all been human. Once.
As terrified as they made me, as dangerous as they were, as alien as they could be. They had been once.
Even if they weren''t anymore.
I brought my fingers to my security helmet in a two-fingered salute, then turned and kept running, climbing the hill.
The Madre was waiting.
¡
When I came back to, the first thing I noticed was how dry my mouth was, and the way my head throbbed. Common signs of a hangover.
They were quickly followed, and drowned-out, however, by the pain shooting through the rest of me.
With great reluctance, I forced my eyes open. Accepting the searing light beyond, and the way it drove screws into my brain. It took a moment or two for my vision to clear, before I started to get a picture of things.
I was still in the dorm room, and it was¡ morning, I had to guess. Couldn''t say what time until I checked the clock, but I couldn''t have conked out for that long. I was laid out rather stiffly on my cot. Like they''d been preparing to put me into a pine box. Arms at my sides, everything straight. Blanket tucked underneath me even. Can''t tell if that was someone''s attempt to make me comfortable or not. I was still wearing my cargo pants and boots, but could feel the cloth of the blanket against my chest. That or my natural insulation had learned to weave itself.
Blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I looked around, sending an aching jolt up my arm, and a wave of bitter soreness over the rest of me. A familiar feeling. Hangovers are a hell of a thing, and in my experience, there were only two ways to get them: hard drinking, and fighting. Fighting being the worst of the two, because at least I''d have been drunk the other way. Dehydration''s a bitch.
The bruises and beatings were non-negotiable. Drunk or not, I was bound to do something that caused me physical harm.
As the sleep vacated my eyes, the room came into focus. It was¡ better than I could remember it being. Still in disarray, like not much effort had gone into cleaning up after my arrival. My doctor bag was still open on the floor next to my cot, and there was still some amount of blood on the floor. But it looked like someone had at least attempted to try and make the mess a bit smaller.
Beside that fact, I could see I was alone.
Well, mostly. Zwei had apparently deemed it an appropriate time to cuddle-up next to me. Painfully, and with just a smidge of trepidation, I managed to wiggle my arms free, and give him a scratch. He raised his head into it and gave a wide mouthed yawn. It was even more of a trick to roll out of my cot without disturbing him. Despite the protest my body put up, I managed it and got to my feet. Took me a moment after that to find my balance, and had to steady myself on a wall.
"¡ Girls?" I asked, looking around the deserted room, confirming I was indeed alone. Then started a mental play-back of everything that happened.
Investigated the Fang.
Got my ass beat and escaped.
Performed self-surgery.
Got my ass-beat again.
Lost the sole of my boot.
Had Yang get me.
Performed a more successful round of surgery.
Everything after that was a blank. I must have passed out. Figures that once all of the adrenaline was gone everything would¡
I craned my head towards the window. My eyes stung as the morning sunlight lanced my retinas. Immediately, I pulled my Pip-boy up and checked the time.
9:30 AM.
I''d missed the first two classes of the day.
"¡Son of a fuck-knuckle." I growled. Now I was going to have to tack missing class onto the list as well.
If there was any bright side, it was that the third period would be starting shortly. If I got my ass in gear, I could make it with minimal trouble. Just figures they wouldn''t bother to try and get me up for class. How¡ Thoughtful of them, actually. I suppose the appropriate reaction to someone needing rest is to let them. Guess they earned double points for not dragging me to the nurse, since I did pass out on them. Probably would have if I didn''t wake up.
I struggled to get myself dressed, hard to do when nothing wants to cooperate, then stumbled out the door. By some miracle, I managed to get down the first flight of stairs, then immediately rolled down the next two, before saying ''fuck it'', and throwing myself down the last. If I wasn''t allowed to go down them normally, I''d at least handle it of my own accord.
After falling down the stairs, I began my mad dash across campus. Last time something like this happened, I at least managed to make it to class on time. Might have missed the first couple classes, but I could at least make this one on time. Even as I was sucking wind and feeling like my bones were gelatin. My attempts to weave my way past students had all the grace of a drunk pack-brahmin. Pretty sure I wound up slamming a guy and girl into a locker when I stumbled at one point. Their fault for being so close together to begin with.
It took a few minutes to get to the classroom, one of the lecture halls. If I had my days lined up, that made the class I was about to barrel into Math. Algebra, I think. All about finding angles and figuring out missing numbers. Good for when you need to build a house, or know how high to arc your shot.
I crashed into the door and sent it slamming back on its hinges. Had to catch myself on the frame to keep from doubling over. Even then I was completely out of breath.
My crash landing immediately caught the attention of everyone else currently in class. Including my teammates, who I could see in our usual spot on the third row.
From the front of the room, near the chalk boards and podium, Professor Oobleck twitched irritably.
"Ah, Mister Six." Oobleck spoke "How nice of you to join us, I was just about to mark you absent."
Except when he said it, it sounded like: "AhmisterSixhowniceofyoutojoinusIwasjustabouttomarkyouabsent."
Clearly one of us had gotten their morning cuppa, at least.
"Alarm''s broken." I huffed, pushing off the frame. I didn''t bother with anything snider than that. My breath was better saved for climbing the stairs. Wisely, anyone currently in my way got out of it, and I took my seat next to my teammates. Who were giving looks that sat somewhere between concerned, confused, and consternated.
Rather than disrupt their present formation, I sat to one end, next to Yang. Whose concern was probably the most thinly veiled. Next to Ruby''s, anyway. Yang seemed to at least know the importance of trying to appear miffed.
Oobleck watched me, as I climbed up to my seat. He waited until I was seated quietly before he went back to discussing Mathematical theorems and formulae. Which was honestly an impressive display of self-control, given he tied with Ruby for most hyper-active person in the room. Quite the accomplishment for him, really.
Relieved to be at rest once more, my body eased back into my seat, while my mind listlessly observed., trying to pay attention to what Oobleck was saying. He was talking about parabolas, finding their vertexes or something. Before I could even begin to get an idea of what he was saying, he''d already scrawled numbers onto the board and was scratching out an equation. Determined to cram everything in wholesale regardless of if anyone was getting it. Best I could do was just try and keep marginal notes as he went.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
As I was making them though, my scroll vibrated.
Despite the potential for trouble it would earn me, I pulled it out, keeping it beneath the desk.
There was a new text-message.
(391414113151418151212): ["R u ok?"]
It took me a moment to recognize the number as Ruby''s. After a moment, I looked down our line up and saw her head bowed, seemingly looking towards the desk. But I could make out a faint glow, just out of sight.
After a pause, another message popped up.
(391414113151418151212): ["We didnt know If u''d wake up."]
I gave it a moment, then answered.
(914010169311125): ["So you were just going to leave me comatose until you got back from class?"]
(391414113151418151212): ["we were goin to chek on u after Oobleck was don"]
(391414113151418151212): ["done"]
(914010169311125): ["Well at least you didn''t take me to the Nurse. That would''ve been a mess and a half."]
(251920791812): ["We should have done that, because at least then you would have stayed in bed!"]
It took me a moment of staring at the new string of numbers to realize Ruby hadn''t sent that. Upon further examination, despite having only seen it once or twice, I recognized Weiss''s Scroll ID.
(914010169311125): ["Is that you Weiss?"]
(1618914351919): ["I''m pretty sure that''s her number."]
''the fuck?''
(914010169311125): ["Who''re you?"]
(1618914351919): ["Bake."]
(1618914351919): ["Bake."]
I heard Blake sigh heavily, then start tapping on her Scroll really hard.
(1618914351919): ["BLAKE."]
(914010169311125): ["Got it Bake, thanks."]
(192114418171514): ["Port wasn''t happy you missed class, apparently you''re the only one who tries to answer his questions "]
I looked at my Scroll once more in confusion. Rather than look away from it though, I took a wild guess.
(914010169311125): ["Yang?"]
(192114418171514): ["Got it in one ;D"]
(914010169311125): ["How are you all reading this?"]
(251920791812): ["We made a group chat after you passed out last night."]
(914010169311125): ["You can do that? I''ve only ever dealt with messages that had to be individually sent."]
(1618914351919): ["Well we thought it''d be better the next time you got your butt handed to you :/"]
(914010169311125): ["Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."]
(391414113151418151212): ["She didn mean it lik that]
''ok, this is getting annoying.''
I fiddled with my Scroll for a moment, trying to figure out how I could save their numbers. That way I wouldn''t have to try and remember them every time someone else spoke¡ wrote?
I double tapped their numbers and got the option to save their numbers to the contacts in my Scroll''s directory. Even got the option to give them each a name, which I did.
As I finished inputting them, a new message popped up, proving it worked.
(Snowflake): ["Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"]
(914010169311125): ["say what?"]
(Snowflake): ["About what happened last night. How you literally called us in the middle of the night, then came back and cut yourself open? We still need to finish cleaning!"]
"¡ Are you serious right now?" I muttered, glancing towards Weiss. Possibly to keep up appearances, she kept looking straight ahead. Humorously though, I could see each of my teammates was under lit by the glow of their Scroll''s beneath the desktop. Then my Scroll buzzed again, and I looked down.
(TinyFlowers): ["Wut even happnd last nite? Evrything was fine when u left."]
(MsSunshine): ["Aside from the fact you seemed kinda tired anyway "]
(914010169311125): ["shit, that''s what. Now''s not the place to talk about it."]
(PrincessKitten): ["Am I alowed to say I was riht?"]
(PrincessKitten): ["riht"]
(PrincessKitten): ["riht"]
(PrincessKitten): ["riht"]
Blake audibly sighed through her nose.
(914010169311125): ["since that''s not a word, sure."]
I did my best to ignore my Scroll after that. At least for a little while. Tried to pay more attention to Oobleck''s lesson, no small feat given how he spat information. But ultimately a fruitful one. He might have a different focus than Port, but that made it no less important. I could see, in my periphery, that my teammates were still tapping away at their Scrolls, but attempting the same as me. Causing my Scroll to buzz as they continue messaging me.
Eventually though, my hand started going numb from the buzzing and I finally looked back down to it.
(TinyFlowers): ["Six, srsly, we need 2 talk abt last nite."]
(914010169311125): ["can it wait until we''re back in the fucking dorms? When we''re not surrounded by prying eyes?"]
A moment passed, and I noticed the girls put their Scrolls away.
Except for Weiss, who waited a little bit longer than the rest.
My Scroll buzzed again.
(Snowflake): ["¡ We''re still angry, and I don''t like the fact that you have a point."]
¡
The rest of class blurred by after I got there. Partly from me fighting to stay awake, partly from my own crumbling coherency. After letting us out, I can vaguely recall shambling with my teammates and JNPR over to the weapons workshop. Everyone seemed intent to keep working on their equipment, and I could remember trying to as well. Unfortunately, my concentration was basically shot. Even as I tried to maintain a coherent idea of what I needed to get done, I would struggle to actually accomplish it. The things I needed to do were important: making more Dust rounds, repairing my armor, and figuring out what to do with my Cattle Prod. If memory serves, I''d started on armor repairs. Patching holes in my coat and hammering the dings from the armor plates. Think the only thing I really managed to accomplish was pricking myself and mashing my fingers once or twice. If nothing else it helped to keep me awake, a nice little jolt to my system.
But, after it passed, we were off to sparring. Though we kept CFVY waiting, as I found myself getting sluggish. Something which only got worse, as we got into the thick of things.
Naturally, not good in a fight.
We were in the side-room of the arena, and I was deep in concentration. Trying to keep up with the punches coming my way. Only to wind up eating a boot instead, when Velvet would slip into a kick.
I swear, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn''t get a read on the way Velvet fought. It was like trying to follow footprints in a sandstorm. One wrong step and you''d lose them and trip over a rock.
Or have the rock catch you in the teeth, as the case was.
The two of us began circling each other. I kept my guard up and gauged the distance, using it to catch my breath. I could see from the way Velvet was breathing she was doing the same. There was an equally wary motion to her steps, her eyes scanning over me.
From the corner of the room, I could see her teammates and mine resting, they''d taken a pause in their sparring.
"What''s the matter kid?" Coco called. "You''re normally a lot more fiery than this."
"It''s hot out." I answered. "Cut me some slack."
"Sounds like an excuse." Coco smirked. "Kick him again Vel!"
Hearing the bell, Velvet sprang at me, sweeping her leading leg into a kick at my mid-section. My arm fell to block it, and her other leg spun after it in a butterfly kick, aimed for my head. Narrowly, my other arm went to catch it, and I felt it sting through my training gear.
Then Velvet''s other foot touched down and she spun into a hook, effortlessly arcing around my guard and catching me in the side of the head.
My Aura shattered, and I tumbled to a knee, my arms and legs feeling like lead and chest heaving. Head felt hot and fuzzy, like radio static was bouncing between my ears, screwing with my sight. I tried to blink it away, but it wasn''t working.
As I struggled, Velvet slowly dropped her stance, and looked at me curiously. "Are you alright?"
"All sunshine and rainbows." I answered stiffly. "Just need to catch my breath."
"Are you sure about that kid?" Coco called. "You seem a bit off today."
"I''ll be fine, just had a rough morning." I said, steadying my breathing. Velvet didn''t look particularly convinced, and briefly looked towards her teammates. Perhaps just a little concerned.
With a smidgen of effort, I pushed myself back to my feet and resisted the urge to let myself slump. Damn shoulders were starting to twinge, once they went it''d be my knees next. I dusted myself off and stood straight, rolling my shoulder to work the twinge out, really only made it worse. My mind cleared and I focused on the warmth in my chest. Began to draw on it, pulled my aura back to full. I knew it wouldn''t be easy, or effortless. Repeated enough times, I knew it would wear on your stamina. I must''ve been standing there longer than I thought I was, because then Ruby cut in.
"Maybe we should stop for the day." She said, likely trying to give me an out. "You don''t seem so good."
"I''ll be fine." I answered, my voice noticeably thin, even to me.
I focused, trying to draw the warmth out of my chest. Spread it through the rest of me. It worked fine at first, moving smoothly, but with great effort. Without warning however, some unseen resistance began to push back against it. Like I was trying to pull against some kind of vacuum.
My breathing got a little unsteady as I began trying to fight against it. But the more I pushed against it, the harder it pushed back. With each passing second, it only grew stronger.
Without warning, I felt lightning arc up my back, and everything fell out of focus.
I don''t recall what happened, there''s a several second gap in my memory. One moment, I was standing upright, pushing against an invisible wall. The next, I was face first on the ground with a dull pain rolling from the front to the back of my head. Judging from experience, that''d probably been the thing to hit first.
My first instinct was to try and pick myself up again. Unfortunately, my arms picked that moment to stop paying attention, and made moving a non-option.
Around me I could hear the shuffle of footsteps and voices, and carefully craned my head to look. I could see CFVY and my teammates looking down on me in concern. I tried to say "I''m fine", but the little of it I could hear came out sounding like "M''fern."
They were saying something, but it was stuck behind a tinnitus whine. I tried to pick myself up again, and could feel a little control returning. Not enough to make a difference, but it was a start.
Without warning, I was suddenly hauled off of the ground. Seized by Yatsuhashi and pulled upright, my feet touched the ground, and it took a conscious effort to lock my legs in place. If I didn''t I''d have crumbled back to the floor. After he let go of me, I had to consciously try to keep my balance.
Crowded slightly around me, my teammates were checking me over. By all accounts, I''d just collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
"fern." I answered, then relaxed my jaw. "Fine- ''m fine."
"Yeah, I ain''t buying that kid." Coco answered, taking a few steps back, and giving Fox a quick look. "What happened?"
"Dunno." I answered. "Went to tap my aura again and I hit the floor. Felt like I was pushing against a wall."
Fox''s copper brow knit, and he cocked his head slightly.
Coco paused a moment, looked at Fox in confusion, then back to me. "You managed to hit the wall?"
"I¡ huh, guess that''s where the figure of speech comes from." I said. "Means I hit the point where I couldn''t go any further, right?"
"Yeah." Coco answered. "But it''s not easy to push your aura to it, you''d need to be completely exhausted to even come close to hitting it."
My teammates looked at Coco, then back to me vindictively.
"¡ I have the right to remain silent." I answered.
"Seriously kid?" Coco asked again.
"The past couple of days have been busy for me." I answered. "Haven''t had much time to rest."
"Rookie mistake." Yatsu rumbled, moving back to his teammates. "Everyone''s got limits."
"Not me. I''m Unstoppable." I said blearily, only realizing after a collective eye-roll that my internal monologue was shorted-out.
"Right." Coco said. "¡ Well, I think we can call it early today, kid. You try to push any harder, we''ll probably have to take you to the Nurse''s Office."
I wanted to argue it, but then had a brief wonder about why it was the nurse''s office rather than the Doctor''s office. There was a doctor on staff, so he''d take precedent over the nurse. Which made me wonder about how much budget was allocated for him to be on the school''s payroll. Then how much use he actually saw because of aura and-
By the time I threw myself off that particular train of thought, I realized Coco had a point.
"Yeah, ok." I said, gently lowering myself back to the floor. Unbidden, I took a seat, then laid back on the hard concrete.
Everyone looked down at me in utter confusion.
"What are you doing?" Weiss asked.
"Resting, Snowflake." I said, putting my hands behind my head. "Doctor''s orders."
"I''m a doctor now?" Coco asked.
"No, I am, and stubborn though I may be, I''m not gonna argue I need a minute to breathe." I looked towards Coco, pausing for a moment. "¡ Did you ever get that back brace I told you about?"
Smirks wormed their way onto her teammate''s faces.
"Yeah, no." Coco said coolly. "Think your diagnosis is a bit off, I feel fine."
"Whatever you say." I sniped back. "¡ Just a heads up though, Scoliosis affects the legs too. If it becomes a problem, you''ll start losing feeling in them, which''ll make getting around in those lady-stilts of yours a bit harder."
Coco''s teammates gave me a beseeching look. Like they were silently asking if I really needed to go there.
Coco, however, was suddenly paying a lot more attention.
Funny, hit where it hurts and people listen.
For a moment, I thought I was going to be the only one on the ground and look like a complete weirdo. Then Ruby decided to join me and sat cross-legged nearby. She was followed fairly quickly by Yang, Blake, and Weiss. Once they were down, CFVY followed suit. Why stand around waiting for class to end if we weren''t going to fight?
We settled in and started talking. Or, rather, some people started talking, and others listened. Ruby was speaking rather animatedly to Fox about his arm blades, who had the decency to nod politely. Yang and Blake, mostly Yang, started talking with Yatsu, before flexing an arm at him. He, in turn, flexed his arm and earned a nod of approval. Weiss sat primly near me, along with Coco and Velvet. Coco was fiddling with her Scroll. I''m not a peeper, don''t think I am anyway, but she was looking at some article about women''s fashion.
"Excuse me?" Velvet asked.
I swiveled my head over to her, and found her looking down at me in turn.
"''Sup?" I asked.
"Just out of curiosity, how''d you hit the wall?" She asked. "It''s really not that easy to do."
"Haven''t been able to rest for long." I answered. "Been keeping busy."
"With what?" she asked again, giving me an inquisitive look.
"Extra-curricular¡ activity." I said, stifling a yawn. "Get kept busy by¡ things."
"Like clubs?" Velvet asked innocently. "I''m pretty sure the gardening club is done fairly early."
"I got hobbies." I said, vaguely. "When I''m done, I just move onto the next. Just keeps me up at night."
Velvet looked like she was going to say something, but before she did, her jaw snapped shut, her lips suddenly pressing into a thin line. Likewise, Weiss and Coco turned to look at me. Coco with her brow knit in confusion, head tipped so she could look at me over her sunglasses. Weiss with a perturbed look about her.
"¡ what?" I asked. "A guy''s gotta keep busy."
"¡ Right." Coco said. "Must be pretty hard with other people around."
My confusion mounted. "Other people? Most of my business is soli¡ oh."
My brain caught up with my mouth.
Weiss and Velvet flushed slightly, while Coco started chuckling. Velvet did too, after a moment.
"Real classy Coco." I said. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
"Hey, I''m not judging, kid." Coco smirked. "If you want to hang out with Rose Palmer that''s your business."
"Rose who?" Ruby asked, apparently catching the conversation.
"Ok, first off, no I''m not." I answered. "Second, even if I was, I''m surrounded by people basically 24/7. You might have time to slip off and visit her brother Ross, but me and ''Ms. Palmer'' aren''t exactly what you''d call ''acquainted''."
"Oh gods will you please stop." Weiss whined. "You make me want to gag."
Coco flashed Weiss a cocky smile, but said nothing. Her teammates merely rolled their eyes, probably used to whatever her usual antics were. Though clearly my teammates weren''t, for the most part, judging by the look on Yang and Weiss''s faces. Blake clearly wasn''t bothered by it, even chuckling.
Ruby merely looked blankly at us, the whole thing flying right over her head.
"Alright, so if you''re not wining and dining Rosie, what''s your game?" Coco grilled. "Like Velvet said, you''d need to keep pushing yourself really hard to get where you are."
I didn''t answer for a moment, as I tried to think of a lie that would work. Except, as I thought about it, there wasn''t much of a point to lying, it was just a matter of not telling the whole truth. And there was some truth to my answer.
"Honestly?" I said "¡ I''ve spent the past week or two practicing."
"¡" Coco''s smile redoubled.
"Oh fuck off already." I groused. "I mean I''ve been practicing with my aura."
"Mm, I''ve heard that can be fun." Coco drawled.
"I''ve got a lot of ground to cover." I pressed on, ignoring her. "And while your help has been invaluable, there''s a level I need to be at that in-class training isn''t going to get me to. Hence I do some extra training on the side."
"And you wind up going so long you''re not sleeping?" Velvet questioned.
"Well, yeah." I said "Completely honest¡ having an aura is a bit exhilarating." I sat up slightly, bracing myself against my elbows. "I''ve spent my whole life relying solely on muscle power and endurance. Now, suddenly, I''m hitting harder and moving faster than I''ve been able to, and it''s only getting stronger. You try not going overboard when you''ve been sandbagged your whole life."
"For what it''s worth, I can understand that." Velvet said. "But you shouldn''t push yourself that hard. Because you did, now you might have set yourself back quite badly."
"It''s a little annoying." Ruby said "We keep offering to help him but he keeps turning us down."
"¡"
CFVY collectively turned to look at Ruby. So did Blake, Yang, Weiss, and Me.
Ruby looked blankly back at all of us. "¡ What? I mean we have."
"Ruby." Weiss groaned, as Fox, Yatsu, and Coco began to snicker. Velvet looked like she wanted to as well, but just kinda started blushing.
"¡ You guys are just a gift that keeps on giving." Coco said, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Seriously Coco, get your mind out of the gutter." I said. "That''s a good way to get sick."
"Whatever you say, ''Doctor'' Six." Coco said, going back to her Scroll. She began to sift through whatever article she was reading, then flicked it aside with her finger pulling up another one. "Better be more careful though, unless you want to run into Crazy Steve."
I noticed my teammates sober slightly, and turn towards Coco in confusion.
"¡ Crazy who-now?" I asked.
"Crazy Steve." Coco answered, taking note of my teammate''s confusion and returning it with her own. "¡ You guys know about him, right?"
"¡ Assume we don''t." Weiss said.
"He''s a Vigilante that''s been running around Vale recently." Velvet supplied "It seems like he''s the only thing the News has been focused on recently."
"¡ What?" Yang asked.
"Do none of you watch the News?" Yatsu asked.
"Who watches the News?" I asked. "It''s all propaganda and advertisements."
"¡"
Coco continued tapping at her Scroll until something popped up on it and made her pause. "Talk about a Chill and it turns up, looks like there''s another one today."
"Seriously?" Yatsu asked. "That''s gotta be the third one today."
"Slow News week." I said snidely.
"Lemme see." Ruby said, scooting away from Fox and towards Coco.
Coco gave Ruby a dry look, then tapped at her Scroll and set it down. A holographic projection shot up from it, a video recording began to play back through it, the images carrying a light blue tint from the light that projected them.
The projection was that of a brick wall, a perspective shot. The wall had a massive impact mark in it, like it''d been hit by a runaway car. A newsfeed scrolled across the bottom, and a logo in the right-hand corner. VNN, Vale News Network. A splash of text read ''Property Destruction in the Industrial Ward. Vigilante still at large.''. The camera panned to the side, revealing a massive hole blown out of the brick wall. Machinery beyond it, electrical substation equipment.
"Well that looks familiar." I muttered.
"Hm?" Velvet hummed, looking towards me.
I kept my mouth shut and acted like I hadn''t said anything.
Coco messed with her Scroll, and sound began to echo from it. It came out a bit crushed and tinny, but audible.
"-operty damage continues to mount in the face of growing gang warfare in the streets of our fair Kingdom." The Newscaster spoke. "Although Vale Police Department have refused to comment on the present situation, the scene was reportedly found deserted by eye-witness accounts."
The screen then changed to a different feed. The camera angles shook and rattled, the microphone picking up random static and background noise. The images were darker, I would put it somewhere in the early morning. But the scene was the same, two damaged brick walls, now being picked over by what I assumed were laborers. Dressed in work clothes, and brightly colored vests, muttering muted curses and expletives. Clearly they were going to need to be the ones to clean things up, and weren''t happy about it.
I was less happy about the fact that the chainsaw-wielding giant was gone. Didn''t want to meet him again if I could avoid it.
"Workers of the Joules Electric Union claiming that the night''s previous rolling blackouts may have been a result of the damage caused by the fighting within the building." The Newscaster continued. "However, onsite security was disabled, and no suspects are currently being pursued."
"Well isn''t that just convenient?" Weiss said snidely, only to get shushed by Ruby.
The camera feed changed once more, going back to what I assumed was the newsroom, backed in a vibrant cyan. The Newscaster was a man, another banner at the bottom of the feed dubbing him ''Cyril Ian''.
"These events continue a growing trend of criminal activity seen throughout Vale in the past weeks." Cyril spoke, keeping a neutral face for the camera. "A trend that leave many questioning the efficacy of the Vale Police Department. Coinciding with this however, perhaps counter to the trend, reports of Vigilante Justice have begun to swell."
The feed changed once more, filtering through a series of camera angles and footage. Quality varied through most of it, but the general gist seemed to be consistent. White Fang, dressed in their black and white, beaten senseless and strewn about. Sometimes out in the streets, sometimes in vehicles rammed into street fixtures. Sometimes littering the halls of buildings that belonged in a warzone. Stockpiles of munitions, Dust, Plans, and everything a would-be revolutionary-cum-terrorist needs in their toolkit. Sometimes VPD was nearby in the frame, writing reports and carting people away. Other times it was ambulances.
"Almost in tandem with the rise of violent crime in our streets, it would appear Vale has found itself with a resurgence of vigilante justice." Cyril spoke as the videos played. "What started with an incident at a small branch of Vale Municipal Trust and Loan in our Kingdom''s Financial District, has only continued to grow further out of control." The feed changed, showing the exterior of a brick building. I recognized the place, it was the bank I''d visited on my first night in Vale. Further, I recognized a wounded female officer being loaded into the back of an ambulance, a bandage around her eyes. "Responding to the silent alarm, Officers Bullit and Sapele found themselves under heavy fire from a band of the former religious group, the confrontation sadly claiming the life of Officer Sapele. However, once aid arrived, Officer Bullit was found wounded outside, and the insurgents disposed of. When questioned, Officer Bullit had this to say:-"
The feed cut to an interview with the officer in a hospital bed. There were still bandages around her eyes, but she looked far better than I''d last seen her.
"I- I thought I was dead." Bullit said, voice thready with the weight of painkillers. "I heard them get He- O-officer Sapele and I was next. They practically had a gun up against my head." Bullit paused, and her face softened "Then, suddenly, someone showed up. I don''t know who, but they saved me, me. Told me everything would be alright¡" Bullit shook her head, disbelieving.
The feed cut back to another feed, this time with a Laundromat, the windows blown out.
"Officer Bullit''s testimony is one of many similar stories present throughout Vale." Cyril said. "Others have also found themselves in similar situations and found themselves receiving unexpected aid."
Another shift, another focus, this time an older man, shrunken with age, hair long gone gray.
"I held my own against them I tell you. In my day we made upstart f*bleep*s eat their hair for the things they wanted to do to me." The man said. "I wasn''t expecting anyone to come help me¡ but I''d be lying if I said I wasn''t glad they did."
"The help being referred to here is that of an individual referring to themselves as ''Crazy Steve''." Cyril cut in.
The feed then cut to footage of what I readily identified as a stash house. The first one I''d taken, in fact. I could make out where I''d lit a couple of them on fire.
Then my voice started playing.
"LISTEN HERE YOU JACKASS." The recording rolled. "I have SPENT enough time WATCHING you fucking IDIOTS screw around TRYING to DEAL with the WHITE FANG. YOU were LUCKY I was there at the bank last night, OR YOU''D already be LOOKING for a new JOB!"
It was very subtle, well not very, but I noticed my teammates perk-up at the recording. Whether or not CFVY picked up on it, or recognized my voice from the recording I wasn''t sure.
"This excerpt-" Cyril explained. "Was provided by VPD following a previously anonymous tip towards a White Fang Rallying point. The intervention of which, undoubtedly saved the lives of several dozen people."
Another feed change. More amateur footage, this time overlooking a street as a van and police car barreled down it. The recording paused partway through, and zoomed in onto an opposing rooftop. Visible in the nightly gloom, a vaguely humanoid shape with glowing red eyes.
"Reports continue to circulate of a dark figure appearing on Vale''s rooftops." Cyril spoke. "What follows, is being hailed by those who encounter it as acts of unexpected heroism. When questioned on this, Walter Nutte, Chief of VPD, released the following public statement:"
The image of a man, dressed in a dark blue suit, an officer''s uniform, appeared at a podium. He had all the kindness and cheer of a snarling Gecko.
"The fine men and women of this department have not, nor will ever condone Vigilante Justice." The Man, Nutte, spoke, voice like a funeral bell. "We didn''t condone it back during the Xiong Turf wars, we properly outlawed it after the incident at Aurora Mutual Trust Reserve, and we will brook no arguments now. So, Steve, as you call yourself, I give you one warning: quit while you''re ahead."
Personally, I didn''t take any offense to it. He wasn''t the first person to try and ''warn'' me off.
The feed cut back, once more to the Newsroom, Cyril looking calmly into the camera. Then, without exception, he quirked a smile. "Despite this however, there are many citizens both within and outside the Kingdom''s borders who feel that the sudden rash of vigilantism has been much needed, and call attention to inadequacies within the Kingdom''s security practices. Standing example to this, I recently had the opportunity to speak with a family that had the chance to come face to face with the Vigilante himself."
The image of a family cut onto the screen, a mother, father, and daughter. All dark haired and cool-eyed. I recognized them immediately as well, they''d been on the hit-list that I''d found. The only new addition among them was a reedy, older man in a tuxedo, serving beverages to the family and Cyril. The absolute pinnacle of stateliness. They were all seated around a table, the daughter and her mother sat to one side with sheets of paper and crayons. The father, a charming fa?ade about him, smiled wolfishly at Cyril. The banner along the bottom of the image identified him and his wife as Bruce and Selena.
"We''d come to visit for the Vytal Festival, and had been coming out of the movies when it happened." Bruce explained "Hadn''t seen it coming. Considering my family''s history, we should have been more careful." He reached out and ruffled his daughter''s hair, he giggled and squirmed her way out from under his mitt. "We''d been heading back to the car when we came under attack. There must''ve been six or seven of them." Bruce''s expression grew distant, almost calculating for a moment, then the smile came back. "Then, out of nowhere, he crashed down on top of them. Turned everything around¡ I used to have nightmares as a kid, about the things that had happened to my family. At that moment, I was afraid I was going to watch it happen again." The expression on Bruce''s face softened considerably. "I didn''t."
"There are many who wouldn''t share that sentiment unfortunately." Cyril said, clinically. "However, over the past several weeks, the amount of reported criminal activity has dropped significantly. Informally, it''s being attributed to the efforts of the man you saw. Could you tell us-"
"I''m sorry, no." Bruce said, shaking his head. "Everything happened so fast, I could hardly get a look at them. They looked human but for all I know they were a faunus. I''m just glad we were able to get through unharmed. Even if Helena has found a new obsession."
As Bruce spoke, his daughter picked up the piece of paper she was scribbling on and turned towards him. She lifted it for him to look at, inadvertently flashing the camera with it. There wasn''t much to it, just the scribbling of a child. A lot of blue in the background, and splotches of white, a cloudy sky. There were two vague blobs of color in the center of it, I had to guess they were flying. One was of a dark figure with bright red eyes, something flared out behind them, like a cape or a pair of wings. Beside them was a smaller blob, colored in shades of violet and purple. A splotch of dark hair on their head, and a big smile on their face.
"Aww." Weiss cooed, before realizing the noise she''d made and tried to back-pedal.
Before she could, however, Yang made a noise of her own. "No, that''s pretty adorable."
"Hm." I hummed.
Bruce looked at his daughter and smiled in a way that could flourish crops and cure even the most dire of illnesses. With that same smile, he looked directly at the camera. "Whoever you are, if you''re out there¡ Thank you."
"¡"
I felt my chest tighten up, and only narrowly resisted the urge to say ''You''re Welcome.''.
Not like they''d have heard it anyway.
The feed changed back to the newsroom once more, Cyril nodding appreciatively at his own handiwork. "We''ll bring you more news as the investigation develops. Until then, I''m Cyril Ian with VNN. Back to you, Lisa."
The News Feed came to an end, and Coco closed her Scroll. "Pretty wild, huh?"
I pointedly ignored the looks my teammates were giving me.
"¡ Yeah." I agreed. "News can be pretty weird sometimes."
New in the Plan
I managed to catch a second wind, and muddled my way through the rest of the day. Peach must have been paying attention, because she kept the work lighter for me. I don''t like to shirk work, but I''ll take a smidge of mercy when it''s called for. Considering the trouble I was going to have to deal with, I was going to need all the energy I could get.
Trudging back to the dorms, I made my way back up to my room, silently bracing myself for the chewing-out I knew was coming. I''d had it happen often enough that I knew when it was coming. At least this time I''d kinda earned it.
Standing just outside the door of the dorm room, I silently contemplated just moving back into the closet. Unfortunately the janitor added another two or three locks to the door, and I wasn''t in the mood to pick them either. Which really only left ''face the music'' as my only option. I was expecting quite a show after they''d had a whole day to stew on things.
Feeling I''d stalled long enough, I opened the door and half expected to be bombarded right then and there.
When I wasn''t, I was reminded my teammates are capable of incredible restraint at times.
Blake and Yang were standing near our map table, while Weiss studied it, and Ruby idly twiddled her thumbs. They looked at me as I opened the door and I could cut the tension in the air with a knife.
That, and I got a wave of d¨¦j¨¤ vu.
I ignored it and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me. Their eyes glued to me as I quietly walked over to my cot, still stained, and took a seat. The tension in the room only got thicker as I calmly unlaced and removed my shoes. I kicked them off, and set them at the foot of my cot, where Zwei was napping peacefully. My hand passed over his head in a quick scratch, then I straightened out, and faced my teammates.
"¡ Ok." I said, braced. "Begin."
Weiss looked like she wanted to start shrieking, but managed to catch herself at the last second. Instead, she fixed me with a look that was all business, and cold. "Explain. Everything."
"Please?" Ruby added, then thought for a moment before fixing me with that angry puppy-dog look. Like she was trying to be serious but hadn''t figured it out yet. "Y''know what? Forget the please."
"Fine, then you can forget the explanation." I teased. "I can just as easily get up and leave."
A moment passed as Ruby continued trying to glare at me. I continued to sit there, but I could see Ruby''s resolve wavering slightly.
"¡ Well, what are you waiting for?" Yang prodded, giving me a smirk. "Go."
"¡ Don''t feel like it." I answered. "I''ll move in my own time."
"Six, please." Blake said, looking remarkably refreshed after several good night''s rest. "We need to know what happened."
"I know, I know." I said. "My pride''s telling me to put it off, but I already know I lost that battle last night."
"No kidding?" Weiss asked. "I thought it was normal for you to cut yourself open."
"Of course not, why do you think I wear body armor?" I asked. "It''s almost like getting shot isn''t high on my priority list."
"Six." Blake pressed.
"Ok, ok." I said, stretching. "¡ Well, to state the obvious, I got shot. Gotta make sure that bandage is still off."
"Ok, and?" Weiss said.
"And, it happened because I walked into a trap." I continued.
"A trap?" Yang asked. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously." I answered. "Trust me, I saw what it was when I was going in, and I regret not trusting my gut."
"¡ You knew it was a trap and you still went in?" Weiss asked, eyes scrutinizing.
"Put it like that, and I sound like a dumbass." I groused.
"Langua¡ Actually, no, it''s fitting this time." Weiss said, pinching her brow. "¡ Why did you go in if you thought it was a trap?"
"Because I thought they''d taken a small child hostage." I said. "And considering distracting the police has been their modus operandi as of late, calling them in to handle it wasn''t an option."
That answer certainly caught Weiss off guard. Her hand lowered from her face, and her brow rose. Same for Blake, Ruby, and Yang, who were suddenly quite keen to hear me before judging.
"Oh¡ Well then." Weiss said, nodding. "That¡ certainly would be more understandable. But still, perhaps you should have-"
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty Snowflake, Should''a- could''a- would''a." I answered. "Can I continue?"
Weiss paused, then gestured that I could.
"It went like this: there was a list of potential targets the White Fang was going to go after. All high-profile people in Vale." I explained. "A couple of important people get murdered, that''d certainly tie the police up for a while. Considering we didn''t hear much about that on the news, I can surmise I was doing a decent job of it. Then, last night, I found out that one of the targets on the list got kidnapped, and I managed to track them back to a substation in the Industrial district."
"Which was the trap." Yang said, nodding.
"What then?" Ruby asked.
"Then, I snuck into the building, and managed to avoid getting spotted." I answered. "I''m really good at getting the drop on people when I want to."
"Not as good as you might think, considering recent events." Weiss said snidely.
"That, is where things started to turn sour." I explained. "I got to the girl they''d kidnapped, and was about to get her out of there. Unfortunately, the real trap was that the girl was a plant. Remember that pink, brown, and white eyesore that was with Torchwick at the docks?"
"Yeah." Yang said, scowling. "What was her name, Neo?"
"Something like that." I answered. "She somehow disguised herself as the kid, and the moment I cut her loose she turned on me. Place was full of White Fang, and it was a mad dash just to try and get out of there. Wound up having to take down part of a wall before I could get any breathing room. By then I''d already taken a bit of a beating."
"How''d they know you''d actually show up?" Blake asked. "That seems like a major chance."
"My guess: They were tracking patterns." I explained pulling out my scroll. "They probably picked up I''d somehow gotten into their comms and was paying attention. Not too much of a stretch to guess they pieced it together after the fact." I set my scroll down beside me. "But, with my aura down, it only took a stray bullet to cause trouble. My armor can stop a lot, but mishaps happen. After that I spent some time running through Vale trying to lose them and deal with a series of compounding health issues. Mostly stemming from my wounds and exhaustion."
"Which was when you called us for help." Ruby finished.
"Basically." I said. "Then I came back here, cut the bullet out, passed out, and here we are sixteen-ish hours later."
"Ouch." Ruby said, giving me a sympathetic smile.
"You''re telling me." I said.
"Kinda proved the point we were trying to make last night though." Yang said, stabbing a finger at me. "So don''t think we''re going to let you go alone anymore."
"I''m not." I answered.
"Oh don''t be such a-¡ what?" Yang asked.
"You heard me." I said. "I said if things went sideways I''d ask for help. Evidence stands that things aren''t as simple as we''d hoped. Now we need to escalate if we want to keep up."
"Oh¡ Heck yeah!" Yang smirked.
Taking that as a cue, my teammates began to move. We weren''t done talking yet, but apparently, they were just itching to get into the thick of it. To be fair, I couldn''t blame them. They wanted the thrill, and I''d been keeping them from it. Blake began arraying all of the notes we had for a last-minute study. Weiss and Ruby moved to gather their weapons. Yang, lastly, was grabbing clothes out. Outfits I didn''t immediately recognize, or attach to anyone in particular.
"Ok, we just need to figure out what other places you looked at last night." Blake said. "So we can make sure we don''t go back to them tonight."
"Also, what''re we doing for dinner?" Ruby asked, giving me a coy look.
"We''re not going back into Vale tonight." I said. "As for dinner, I don''t know, I''m not in the mood to cook tonight."
Everyone stopped immediately and looked towards me again. After a moment, the looks from Blake and Yang grew heated, Ruby''s grew confused, and Weiss''s grew indignant.
"What?" Yang asked, halfway into getting changed, brown jacket removed and hovering in front of her yellow top.
"I''m not up to going into Vale tonight." I answered. "I''m still exhausted, my armor needs touching up, one of my weapons was destroyed, and all around I''m not ready to go back tonight."
"Seriously?" Blake asked, very visibly fuming.
"Yes." I said. "You don''t have to be happy about it, But I''m not going tonight, and I advise you to do the same."
"Are you kidding!?" Yang growled "After weeks of you going alone, now suddenly we''re not allowed to go because you can''t come with us? That''s bull-"
" E." I interrupted "-And yeah, I know how this looks, but believe me I''m not doing it purely because I don''t want you going without me. Busted gear or not, I''ve still got a small arsenal to work with. Tired or not, you couldn''t keep me here if you tried. Short of being dead, there''s not much that would keep me out of the fight with you."
"Then why are you stopping us?" Blake asked.
"Because the White Fang knows I''m not the only one hunting them." I answered. "They''re fully aware that there''s more than one person after them, and that our plan has been to slow them down."
My response cut the growing tension in the air like the last string holding an overstressed girdle in place.
Before allowing them a chance to ask questions I began explaining again. "While failing to dodge bullets last night, I overheard some of the grunts talking. Part of the reason I''d had so much trouble was because they''d come in force. Ready to deal with a lot more trouble than just one person. Emphasis on one. They''d been prepared to fight at least five people who''d been trained to deal with them. Take a wild guess why, I''ll wait."
My teammates paused and began to mull over my words. I waited patiently for their answer. They were smart enough I knew they''d eventually puzzle it out for themselves, I''d just confirm it when they did.
"¡ The docks." Blake finally said, her bow going rigid. "We confronted them together."
"And they didn''t forget it." I answered "We''ve been catching them by surprise, but they eventually put two and two together. Torchwick was one of the only ones to escape, and considering he was involved in last night''s incident, he probably helped them with the math. The fact that they escaped last night would''ve meant, whatever doubts may have been there, they''re gone now. At a minimum they''re dealing with one person, at most a handful. Regardless, going forward one of the advantages we had going for us is probably gone."
Blake scowled at the answer, bitterly. Yang and Weiss did too, while Ruby just looked mostly puzzled. It was a feeling I felt all too well, considering surprise was important in any successful operation.
"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Yang asked. "This means everything we''ve done is pointless."
"Um¡ not totally?" Ruby said, earning a look from Yang. "I mean, yeah, they know we''re all involved now, but they don''t know we haven''t been getting involved in all of the fighting, right?" She looked at me. "How badly does this affect us?"
"As of right now¡ can''t say." I said. "But I know it''s only going to get harder going forward."
"Ok¡ what should we do?" Ruby continued. "You seem to know most about this sort of thing, what''s the best thing to do?"
I paused for a moment, then blew a breath out through my teeth. "There''s no best choice here. No matter what happens there''s going to be a blowback. It''s all a matter of what we think we can deal with."
Ruby nodded, but didn''t say anything, preferring to listen and think.
I ticked off a finger. "Option one: we charge back into the fray tonight. Like you said, we''ve got the advantage of everyone being there tonight, so we can get more done. However, we won''t have had a lot of time to really hash out a new course, so there''s no telling what we''d actually get done." I ticked another finger. "Option two: We give it up as a lost cause since they know we''re involved-"
"We''re not doing that." Blake denied flatly.
"Wasn''t expecting it, just listing options." I nodded. "Option three: We take a day or two off and come up with a new plan. We risk the White Fang pulling some stunt in the meantime, but when we come back, we come back in force and have a clear objective."
Ruby nodded, mulling over what I told her. She looked me squarely in the eye, inquisitive. "And which of those is the best?"
"In my professional opinion? None of them." I answered. "It''s a bad situation no matter what way you slice it. We go tonight and risk accomplishing nothing, but keep the Fang on their toes. We take a few nights off to shore up, and come back to hit them even harder, risking the damage they might do. Or we give up and let them run roughshod. Frankly, we''re damned no matter which way we go."
Ruby nodded, and said nothing.
Frankly, I already knew where I sat on the issue. I''d prefer it if we stayed behind for a night or two, and came up with a better approach. Better to learn from my mistakes than keep repeating them. However, if they chose to push forward anyway, I''d follow them in. My gear was busted, but I''d muddle through with what I had. Wouldn''t be pretty, but it didn''t need to be.
After a few moments of contemplation, Ruby asked: "Do you have a plan?"
"I''m trying to piece it together." I answered. "Knowing that the four of you will be in the city with me changes a lot, and we''d all need to figure out how that''s going to work."
She nodded, considering my words.
"And while we''re doing that, the White Fang is left to run free." Blake said testily.
"We''re only¡ I was going to say human but that''d be inaccurate." I said. "¡ mortal, that might fit."
"How much more waiting do you expect me to do!?" Blake snapped. "We''re weeks behind where we could''ve been at this point!"
"You''ll wait as long as it takes." I said. "Because it''s easy enough to hold the one time you didn''t over your head as a reminder."
Blake didn''t say anything, but the toothy snarl she gave me said enough.
Ruby looked at Blake with a softening gaze. I wasn''t trying to be unempathetic, but my stance on the issue was clear enough. I needed time, we needed a plan, and there was no way to make everyone happy. I didn''t know what the middle ground of that would be, but I was open to suggestions.
As silence began to blanket us once more, I noticed Ruby begin looking at Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Conveying a silent message in a way that only young women, or maybe women in general, could. When she was done, she looked back at me with that determined gleam in her eye.
"Give us a minute?" Ruby asked.
"Not like I have anywhere to be tonight." I replied.
In a very unteammate-like and conspiratorial fashion, the girls moved towards the far side of the room. They huddled together, whispering and muttering just soft enough I couldn''t hear what was said. I wasn''t against it, in the end if we couldn''t come to terms it wouldn''t make a difference. So if they could find it in themselves to find ways to bargain, all the better.
Haggling, in business or not, was an invaluable skill.
After a few minutes, their heads began to bob asynchronously and they broke apart. Now all looking to me with more focus and determination.
"Ok. We''ll wait." Blake said. "¡ But there''s going to be conditions."
"I''d assume so." I said. "Name them."
"We''re going to need to make up for lost time." Blake said "I''m going to search through my sources and see if the White Fang has any rallies going. If they do, I''m going to one of them."
"Are you now?" I asked.
"Yes." Blake answered bluntly. "We need whatever we can get, and we can''t afford to play it safe now."
"We''re also going to divide ourselves into teams." Weiss said, before I had a chance to press the issue. "Moving everywhere together would be overkill, and we wouldn''t be accomplishing things any faster. If Blake is going to the Rally, we can divide into two teams and cover twice as many locations."
"I won''t argue that there is merit to that." I conceded. "However-"
"And we''re going to stay the whole night." Yang said, smirking. "Two days from now makes, what, the weekend right? We''ll make a party out of it, might even go through the whole thing."
"It''s really sounding more like you girls came up with a plan all on your own." I said.
"Maybe we did." Ruby smiled, maybe a bit smugly. "And there''s something else we need to do. But it can wait for a little bit."
"¡ Y''know I''m not so inclined to agree if I don''t know all the terms, right?" I asked.
"It''s not super important, we''re just missing something, it''ll be here shortly." Ruby said, still smiling, but clearly set on whatever the plan now was. "You get the time to rest, and we get to help. Sounds fair?"
In truth, it sounded more than fair. Barring the decision to split apart the group, and Blake potentially going to a Rally, it worked perfectly. That''s only, what, two-thirds of an issue, right? I could deal with worse.
Only, I wasn''t going to. If they really wanted to hash out a plan together, we were going to make sure we covered everything we could. No boxes unchecked, nothing left to chance. There were going to be enough things out of our control already, if we could avoid it, we would.
"¡Before I agree to anything, we''re going to establish ground rules." I said, leaning towards them, trying to convey I was taking this seriously. "If this is how you want to do things, we need strict answers on how to handle certain problems. Got it?"
My teammates shared a look, then Ruby nodded.
"First up, Blake." I said, looking at her. "You want to run headlong into a White Fang Rally, fully aware they''ll be looking for you, and see if they''re telling the initiates things only the higher ups hear?"
"Put it like that, you make me sound stupid." Blake said flatly.
"Not the brightest idea." I said. "However, I also won''t fault that any information we can get at this point is worth more than what we''ve got now. Do you have an intended goal when going in? Do you have a way to make sure you don''t get recognized? At least one of those concerns is still present from the last time I shot that idea down."
"With luck, I can find any other places they''re hiding in Vale." Blake said, hands rising in exasperation. "Maybe I can even figure out why they''re hoarding all of the Dust in the first place."
"Seems like a bit of a stretch." I said. "When you have to rely on luck, it''s almost guaranteed to backfire, in my experience."
Blake rolled her eyes and gave me a catty glare. She wasn''t going to back down from the issue. Wasn''t expecting her to this time, but I was making my stance on it known.
"I may not be in charge, but I''m going to give you rules to play by." I said. "Ruby can veto them if she wants, but I suggest she doesn''t. They''re only for your benefit."
"We''ll see." Ruby smiled.
"First up, no matter what happens, don''t get recognized." I said. "Torchwick''s aware of what we look like, and the White Fang is trying to prepare against us. Don''t care how you get it done, I''ll help any way I can, but you can''t look like you when going in, clear?"
Blake nodded. It wasn''t an unreasonable request, and she might be familiar with the concept. But the last thing we needed was for this to backfire on us because she got impatient.
"Second, If you do get made, run. Don''t fight, don''t hide, just run until you''ve lost them. We gain nothing from getting into street fights here." I said. "You don''t let anything stop you until you''re a hundred and ten percent sure you''re free."
"There''s something really ironic about you being the one to say that." Weiss said.
"It''s not lost on me." I said. "Lastly, and keeping with the previous rule: If you can''t shake them, don''t lead them back to us. Reach out over your Scroll, we''ll intercept and help you escape¡ For that matter, keep in regular contact over your scroll. It''ll make it easier to tell if things have gone south."
Blake smirked, clearly seeing a growing pattern to the irony. But really, that was just the best approach as I saw it.
I moved onto Weiss. "Next, splitting the team?"
"Yes." Weiss answered. "It''s more dangerous, but we can work more quickly, and it would be safer than you running around on your own."
"And if you run into trouble?" I ask.
"Then we reach out and have another team come help, unlikely as that might be." Weiss answered primly. "If it makes you feel any better, we can keep in contact as well."
"That''s going to need to be a thing." I said. "Constant contact, reporting what you do before you do it. Makes sure we don''t all suddenly get caught off guard."
"Killjoy." Yang groused, rolling her eyes.
"Unless you want me digging bullets out of you with a bowie knife, you''ll take it seriously." I countered.
"Ok, ok, I see your point." Yang said.
"Thank¡"
Yang smirked at me.
I always had to be on edge around her¨C son of a¨C.
"Moving on-"
"Oh come on, it was a knife one."
"Moving on." I reiterated. "¡ I will admit yours is probably the only one I don''t have a problem with, Yang. Operating out of some place in Vale cuts down on travel time and allows us to work more proactively. We won''t be able to get much done during daylight hours, but that just gives us time to plan and recover from being out all night."
"Sweet." Yang smiled, a cheeky edge to it. "It''s gonna be a party!"
"Hardly." I said. "We can use Tukson''s place. It''s abandoned and most people likely won''t be paying close attention to it. Again, we''ll need to be watching for tails and the like, but it''s secluded and free."
"Are you sure that''ll work?" Weiss asked. "I can''t imagine a bookstore will have any of the things we might need. Like a sleeping room, or a restroom."
"We''ll make do." I said "Not like you''d have those in the field either."
"It''ll be like camping. But in Vale." Ruby said, pondering the idea. "We can roast marshmallows over a dumpster fire, and go hiking on the rooftops."
"Less of one and more of the other." I said.
Zwei, from his spot near my cot, raised his head and yipped, tongue lolling about.
"Zwei agrees with me." Ruby beamed.
"He doesn''t have a say in this." I countered.
Zwei growled at me and, for reasons that escape me, I suddenly felt like I was in extreme danger.
"We''re going to need to take him with us anyway." Ruby said. "We''re not leaving him here alone, and it doesn''t make sense to keep coming back here."
My mind flashed over the notion of Zwei coming with us. The image of him padding along beside us as we raced gallantly along the rooftops. Towards whatever danger the White Fang was causing. Leaping over the open air of the streets.
Then Zwei fell short, and fell to the street below. Then got hit by a car.
Next, we were in the midst of a firefight. Trapped in the cramped quarters of some building. Guns firing, shadows racing, the ring of steel and stench of smoke in the air. My fist buried into the face of a White Fang, Zwei flying forward and sinking his teeth into the Fang''s ankle.
Then I backed off, and Zwei got punted through a window. Then run over by a passing car.
Finally, I was brought to the exterior of some hole-in-the-wall snack shack. The kind with broken signage and bulletproof glass. We''d stopped to grab snacks and drinks. Zwei''s waiting peacefully outside. We stepped out with our loot, and Ruby threw a morsel for Zwei to catch. He leapt out, and snapped it up in his jaws.
And got turned into a speed bump.
I don''t know what was scarier, the number of reckless drivers, or Zwei surviving them.
Ruby, completely oblivious to the danger awaiting her beloved pup, pressed on. "He''s coming with us." She decided. "Don''t act like that''s such a bad thing."
"Besides we can''t just leave ouw bestest widdle fella awone, can we?" Weiss said, smiling at Zwei. "No we can''t!"
"Barring the fact he makes people talk funny-" I said. "There''s a good chance we''ll be getting into fights. I''m no stranger to bringing four-legged companions with me into a scrap, but I''m worried Zwei''s more likely to get stepped on."
"I wouldn''t worry about Zwei, he''s tougher than you think." Yang said, beaming.
"I''m not surprised by the possibility." I said. "¡ Alright, so to make sure we''ve all got the gist of it, the plan is to spend the weekend in Vale, working out of Tukson''s shop, tying up loose ends, having Blake try to play insider for us, and¡" I looked back towards Ruby. "You never clarified what it was you wanted outta all of it."
"Weeelllll~" Ruby started to drawl, putting on the puppy-dog eyes. "I have an idea about how we can make this go even faster!"
"You mean we haven''t picked up the pace enough?" I asked. "Pump the brakes a smidge."
"No, it''s a good idea, I swear!" Ruby defended "You just might not like it."
"Of course not, but we''re making do." I said, sighing through my nose "¡Well what is it?"
Ruby started to open her mouth, but fell short. There was a knock at the door, followed immediately by Nora opening it, arms flared out around her.
"GOOD EVENING FFRRRIIIEEENNNDDDS!~" She squawked, JNPR poking out behind her.
"¡" Ruby turned towards me with a sly smile. "I''ll explain in a little bit."
¡
That smile stuck with me, as JNPR came in and got themselves settled. Ruby hadn''t said what it was she had planned. Knowing her it could be anything as benign as wanting to plan out dinner, or as out there as asking to bring everything in my locker with us. Not because we might necessarily need it, but because ''why not?''.
I wasn''t averse to reducing a few White Fang to smoldering piles of ash. But I don''t think Ruby had thought that hard about it.
JNPR took up their usual spots, and dinner proceeded a bit differently than it had. I opted out of cooking duty for the evening, and the girls took it on themselves to try and make something. That something was initially going to be a salad. They even managed to enlist JNPR to help them. A simple affair of greens, dressing and maybe a smidge of meat I supplied. Things went smoothly, at first. Greens were chopped, meat was seared, dressing was shaken, all was well.
Then Yang tossed some of the greens into the pan with the meat. Which riled Weiss up, and got her yelling. Then Yang tossed the rest of the greens Weiss had cut into the pan, deciding we were doing something called ''stir-fry'' instead. Then the greens started burning and Jaune dumped the dressing into the pan hoping to stop the whole mess. Only to cause the vinegar to begin gassing all of them while the oil scorched everything to the pan.
They decided to order a pizza instead.
About a half hour, and a cleanup session, later we were sitting once again. This time with a pair of cardboard boxes, smelling of warm bread and savory herbs. Everyone, sans myself, took a slice and began to tuck in. As they did, Ruby finally put words to her intent.
"So, guys-" She said, looking towards JNPR. "How do you feel about a little community service?"
I looked at Ruby as she said this. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, I could see that smile again, and got that feeling in my spine. The one that told me I should be concerned with what came next.
"-ommunity ¨Cervi-e?" Nora intoned, struggling to bite her slice of pizza as strands of cheese stretched themselves hair thin and mile long.
"We''ve been working on something in Vale." Ruby continued to explain. "And we''ve recently decided we needed to start working on it a little harder."
"How recently?" Ren asked.
"What time is it?" Ruby asked back, causing Ren to grimace. It was more than enough of an answer.
"Ruby." I said, keeping my tone even. "What are you doing?"
She looked at me and gave me a guilty smile. "I was going to tell you first, but it kinda didn''t happen."
"I didn''t agree to this." I said.
"Agree to what?" Jaune asked. "What are you guys talking about?"
Ruby and I continued to look at each other for a moment, before answering. On the one hand I wasn''t agreeable to what I believed she was about to do. On the other, I could see the assumed merit of it. We were still early enough that a well-placed indiscretion or two could nip it in the bud, or make it worse. But it also came down to, Ruby was technically the leader. While she seemed to take my opinion and advice on things in stride, she also wasn''t bound by them. End of the day, she got to call the shots when it came to things like this.
So she took her shot.
"There''s something we''ve been working on in Vale-" Ruby supplied looking back to JNPR. "-and we might need some help with it. I- well we - thought it might be a good idea to ask if you guys wanted to join in?"
Ruby''s question was met with a curious selection of faces from JNPR. None particularly disagreeing, just not accepting. Jaune and Pyrrha looked particularly curious, while Ren was more guarded, as expected of him. Nora, in her usual enthusiasm, charged ahead with questions. Eyes sparkling all the while.
"Ooo, what kind?" she chirped. "Feeding the poor? Homing the homeless? Shattering a criminal conspiracy- please let it be shattering a criminal conspiracy!"
"Yup." Ruby smiled.
The curiosity and confusion on Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren erupted with surprise. Nora meanwhile, just erupted.
"YEAH! Finally! I thought you guys were never going to ask us for help." She squawked.
"I gotta ask why that was in your first three choices." I said. "That ain''t normal¡ ok, maybe it''s normal for this group, but it''s still odd."
"You haven''t exactly been subtle about leaving for Vale every night." Ren answered, eyeing both Ruby and Nora "¡ That and you''ve used those exact words to describe what it is you''re doing in Vale."
"Never heard of sarcasm?" I asked.
"Have you?" Ren retorted.
"Of course not, it''s extinct in the Mojave." I answered blithely. "We replaced it with metaphors and innuendo."
"Clearly." Ren said.
"Ok, um, rewind a little bit." Jaune said scratching the side of his head. "What exactly are you guys asking us?"
"You want the short version or the long one?" Yang asked.
"Umm¡ yes?" Jaune answered.
"The long one." Pyrrha clarified.
"Well, we told you guys about how Blake was a member of the White Fang." Ruby began to explain.
"You mean their prin-" Nora began to chirp. She stopped when Blake gave her a look like an angry tom about to take a swipe at a particularly annoying song bird.
"We remember." Ren nodded.
"Well, with everything that''s been going on in Vale involving them recently, Blake felt like we needed to do something." Ruby continued. "So we hatched a plan to begin trying to find them and figure out what they were up to."
"Which is why we started marking that map with locations, keeping tabs on everything they were doing." I explained. "Part of which meant going into Vale every night and-"
"YOU''RE CRAZY STEVE!" Nora squawked.
"¡Huh?" I grunted, looking at Nora. She had a massive and manic grin on her face, eyes positively electrified.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"You''re him!" Nora said, stabbing a finger at me. "You''re Crazy Steve! The guy the news won''t shut up about."
"You watch the news?" I asked.
"Yeah, it''s full of bad jokes and advertisements." Nora chirped.
"She listens to it every morning during breakfast and won''t stop laughing." Ren nodded, then fixed me with a stoic look. "¡Is she right?"
"¡" I didn''t answer, mostly because I didn''t want to encourage her. She''d already guessed the right answer, there was no reason to- "WELL it looks LIKE you GOT ME."
The effect was immediate.
Jaune and Pyrrha lurched back in surprise, eyes going wide, and Jaune''s mouth falling open. Ren didn''t join them, but he lost control of his jaw as well, and gave me the most exasperated look. Almost like he was questioning if he''d heard me right.
Nora however, just continued to light up, and tittered excitedly. "AH! YES! DO IT AGAIN!"
"DO I look like A TOY to YOU?" I asked.
"HA!" She squawked.
"How are you doing that!?" Ruby cut in, and I turned to see her and our teammates looking at me in bewilderment. They''d already heard me do it, but I suppose it was more imposing in person.
"LOTS of PRAC-" I cleared my throat, coughing a little. "Lots of practice. I had to impersonate a guy on occasion who was known for¡ projecting himself like that. Good for making me harder to recognize."
"That was freaky." Jaune said. "Who exactly were you impersonating?"
"A former Mad Scientist trying to keep a cabal of them from experimenting the Mojave into oblivion." I answered.
"Duh- what?" Yang asked.
"Don''t worry about it." I said, before looking towards Ruby. "Anyway, since Ruby-"
"No, seriously, Mad scientists?" Yang asked, trying to stall me out.
"Not important right now, focus on the present, not the past." I said. "¡ Which we''ll do by focusing on the past. Shut up."
I took a wild guess at what Ruby was trying to do, and began to explain the situation in her stead, letting her correct me as needed, so they''d get an accurate enough picture. Starting with the situation regarding Blake, then moving on to our planning efforts. Which then segued nicely into my prowling Vale on a nightly basis, and getting into fights with the White Fang and stalking seedy bars. All the while apparently building a reputation for myself. Leading up to the night before, when I''d traipsed into a trap and managed to avoid getting cut down by the skin of my teeth.
By the time I was done explaining everything, JNPR''s surprise had melted into complete incredulity. Even my teammates seemed a bit impressed, by the end of it. Laying it all out in order like that, it probably seemed pretty unreal. The only exception, as seemed to be recurring, was Nora. She sat there drinking the whole spiel in with absolute childlike wonder.
"So, questions?" I asked. "You all with us so far?"
"¡ I feel like you just explained a movie to us." Jaune said. "Is that what you guys have been up to the past few weeks?"
"No, it''s what I''ve been up to for the past few weeks." I corrected. "And given we''ve told you about it, I can only assume we''re trying to drag you into our mess."
"Yup." Ruby smirked, looking at JNPR. "So, do you gu-"
"YES." Nora answered without hesitation, then looked at Jaune for permission. "Can we? C''mon, it sounds awesome!"
"Nora." Ren intoned, sounding slightly exhausted.
"Aw, don''t be like that, Renny." She said, giving him a beaming smile. "This is good, right? And we''ll be helping people."
"We''d also be breaking the law." Pyrrha said dourly. "Which is- um¡ not good?"
"Laws only stop the people willing to listen to them." I said. "If it''s not stopping the White Fang, or any other criminals, I''m not letting it get in my way either."
"You''re clearly not paying attention to the consequences." Ren countered. "Both the police and the White Fang are looking for you. Death isn''t an outcome I''d like, and from what I''ve heard, the anti-vigilante law is pretty strict."
"Uncle Qrow said they didn''t play nice." Yang nodded. "But we can''t just sit here and do nothing¡ Which is really all we have been."
"I know it''s a lot to ask, especially out of nowhere." Ruby said. "But we could use the help."
There was another pause that followed. Normally, when asking for help, you needed to strike a deal. By this point, I knew that wasn''t the way things were necessarily handled outside the wasteland. Sometimes you can get people to do things out of their own sense of goodness and charity. I was known to do it myself, when the situation applied. But more often than not, you''d need to offer up compensation. Greasy palms made for a better social lubricant.
After a few moments, Jaune took a breath and visibly steeled himself, looking briefly to his teammates. Nora was an obvious source of support, and Pyrrha gave an encouraging nod as well. The only exception was Ren. He nodded, but I could see how hesitant it was. Understandably so.
"What''s the plan?" Jaune asked.
"We''re going to spend the weekend in Vale." Ruby explained. "Six needs a few days to fix his stuff and rest. We go down on Friday night and go from there."
"There''s a secluded spot I used as a hideaway last night, used to be a bookstore." I furthered. "We''ll be operating out of there. Have what maps and equipment we need set-up for easy use. I don''t have much idea if there''s anything in the way of utilities, but we''ll make it work."
"What happens if we can''t finish it before the weekend- um¡ ends?" Jaune asked.
Another moment passed, before Ruby piped up again. "Dunno, but we''ll figure it out."
"We won''t be able to stay there the whole week, we still have school." Weiss answered. "¡ But even if we don''t succeed this weekend, we''ll be set for anything we''ll need to do in the future."
"Right." Jaune nodded. "¡ Well, I guess we''re in then."
"Awesome!" Ruby piped. "Now let''s eat, the pizza''s getting cold."
Everyone tucked back into dinner, sans myself. Food smelled good, but not tempting enough to take my helmet off. Instead I kept steadily tippling from my moonshine. Figuring the alcohol would eventually scratch the itch, or numb the pain enough I could wander off and find food elsewhere. As I sucked back the cool, burning liquid, I watched as everyone noshed on their food. Or struggled with it, Jaune had all the topping slide off his slice, and Ruby was fighting with a particularly persistent string of cheese. Then there was Weiss eating hers with a knife and fork, while Nora tore at hers like a wild animal. The only seemingly civil ones were Pyrrha, Ren, Yang, and Blake. Though Pyrrha had ordered some with bits of fruit mixed in with meat.
I''m not one to judge people''s tastes, but that struck me as a little odd.
But as my eyes passed over them, I noticed Ren was only picking at his pizza. Doing so with a sullen air that his stoic mask couldn''t hide. Especially given Nora beside him for contrast.
By about that point, the ''shine had started to kick in, so my mouth got running.
"Alright Ren, what''s up?" I asked, slugging back another pull of liquor.
"Huh?" Ren hummed, looking up from his mostly untouched pizza.
"You''re working on your Blake impression." I explained. "Now while it''s all fine and good to be broody sometimes, I can gather enough from context to know that isn''t you."
Ren fixed me with a flat look, which got the attention of Nora, who probably knew it better than I did. Though not by much.
"Don''t you give me that." I said. "I wear a mask too, I can read you like a damn book."
"¡" Ren sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Which got a chuckle out of Nora. Somehow, her chuckling got a half-smile out of him too. That one I could see was genuine.
"Spill, flower-boy, you''re among good company." I said, opening my arms and gesturing for him to speak. I wouldn''t force him to if he really didn''t want to. But if it could be resolved, I''d rather it be. Some things shouldn''t be allowed to fester.
Ren fixed me a look for calling him flower-boy. But it wasn''t enough to keep him from mustering the will to speak.
"¡ I''m worried about the plan." He said.
"I''m not particularly fond of it either." I agreed. "But I''m guessing not for the same reason as you."
Ren nodded; lips pursed "¡ I don''t agree with the way we want to do it." He said after a minute. "I understand that the White Fang need to be stopped. But we have to break the law to do it. If we get caught, the punishment isn''t light. It could mean getting kicked out of Beacon."
That got everyone to stop what they were doing and look at him. Apparently, I wasn''t the only one taken by surprise with that. He looked at all of them, and myself, confused.
"Shit, seriously?" I asked.
"¡ Were you not aware of that?" Ren asked.
"Not particularly." I admitted. "I figured there was some blowback for it, but that''s pretty severe."
"It''s supposed to be." Ren said. "The kingdoms don''t want undertrained huntsmen meddling in local politics."
I chuckled. "Yeah, bad habit that."
Ren settled back into his seat, putting his plate aside. Zwei looked like he was going to pounce at it for a moment, but apparently found restraint. Amazing, for a dog.
"I don''t think that it''s the wrong thing to do." Ren said. "But¡ breaking the law, because we believe it''s the right thing to do?... aren''t you worried that it starts to defeat the purpose?"
"Depends, have we decided we''re going to attack innocent people?" I asked. "If that''s suddenly on the table, then yeah, we''re officially making things worse."
Ren gave a dry and humorless chuckle at that, followed swiftly by Nora putting her hand on his back she gave him a reassuring smile, tinged with just a smidge of understanding. Everyone else seemed to be mulling it over, briefly. It wasn''t like we were trying to make things worse, but we had to walk the same road as the Fang to do it. One misstep, and who''s to say we wouldn''t make it worse. But no matter what, we had to go forward.
But even when the road''s not clear, you can still find your way.
"¡" I took another pull from my moonshine and set the jar aside. "Alright, story time."
Ren and Nora''s flashed back over towards me. I looked over my teammates as I knocked them out of their ruminating.
"This is an important one." I told them. "Listen good, because I''m only going to tell it once, and don''t want Ruby giving her own rendition later."
"Wha?" Ruby chirped, sounding slightly hurt.
"It''s related to another." I said. "I don''t need you adding things like motorcycle races and Jojo."
It took Ruby a moment to realize what I was talking about. When she did, her eyes started sparkling. "You mean?"
"Yes." I told her. "I''m going to tell you the second half of Joshua Graham''s story."
Ruby gasped "Yes!"
"Story time?" Nora chirped. "Lemme grab some popcorn!"
"You''ve got pizza." Blake said, puzzled.
"Same difference!" Nora squawked, before chomping back into the triangle of saucy bread like a hungry yao guai.
My teammates and JNPR rearranged themselves for better seating and looked at me intently. There was something amusingly childish about the way they went about it. Kinda put into perspective how much they enjoyed hearing me tell stories and pseudo-tall-tales. After a moment or two, I made sure they were all comfy, and began to collect my thoughts. Given my more personal involvement in the second half of Joshua''s story, I needed to choose my words more wisely.
(¡)
Where we last left our intrepid missionary, Joshua Graham had returned home. Having been away for years, the prodigal son of his people. The things he''d done having left scars upon his mind, body, and soul. Yet, in his heart, the fires of love, for his people, his faith, burned strong and warm. They would never undo what he had done, to himself, to the world around him. But they could guide him. Show him the way back from the road he''d walked.
Years passed in this way.
But Joshua never found peace.
"He what?" Ruby asked, sounding utterly heartbroken.
Peace, for the things he had done, could never be freely given. Scarcely could it be earned.
Joshua Graham, would have to live his life in penance. Following the rules of his people. Allowing them to guide his course and light his path out of the darkness he''d flung himself. Never knowing how or if he could ever be forgiven for what he had done.
Until one day. When the fires of chaos and war he had stoked found their way to his home.
For the Legion that Joshua had helped to build and train had only grown stronger in his absence. Though they lacked for his mind and cunning, they continued to spread through the wasteland. Tales of their exploits and brutality reaching the ears of Tribal and Nomadic clans alike. Inspiring the worse among them to follow in their shadow.
The White Legs, raiders of the city near the Great Salt Lake, knew only war.
They took to the example all the faster.
The White Legs would raid and raze settlements overnight. Taking and plundering everything they would need to survive, destroying everything that could be used to begin anew.
"That sounds like the complete opposite of the Legion!" Weiss cut in, appalled. "Or anyone with a brain!"
They destroyed everything. They had no use for it. They knew only how to fight. How to Steal. How to Kill. Demons in all but form. Borne of the Wasteland and molded by the actions of the Legion. Who considered them little but a waste of time. Yet who desperately they sought to prove themselves to.
But Caesar saw opportunity in them.
He knew that Graham yet lived. Despite the tyrant''s efforts, and the efforts of countless assassins. Joshua refused to fall.
Seeing it as a means to rid himself of one thorn or another, Caesar ordered the White Legs to sack the city of New Canaan. Joshua''s home.
"No." Ren whispered. I couldn''t help but notice the old fear that suddenly sparked in his eyes
Yes. That would be how Caesar finally snuffed out Joshua Graham. Put an end to the ''Burned Man''.
Sending his emissary to the White Legs with instruction, the White Legs did as they were bid. They fell upon the city, their defenses weakened by a shifting of forces, the defenders gone away. No mercy nor quarter was given. Not to the women, the children, or the elderly. They came at night and slaughtered the men. Bound those who were asleep in their beds and beat them to death. Took those who could not flee fast enough to their temple of worship. Trapped them within as they burned them to the ground. The corpses of those they''d butchered, nailed to the cliffs outside the city. Lastly, their land salted, so that it would remain sterile and infertile. That nothing would ever spring from the ashes anew.
I saw the faces of my audience twist up in horror. When I''d first heard of what the White Legs had done to Joshua''s people, I felt much the same.
It numbed eventually.
In the course of a single night, the family and heritage of Joshua Graham had been nearly destroyed. Hundreds, reduced to a few dozen. Wrought as much by the White Legs, as the very monsters Joshua had helped to create.
And his punishment, was that he would continue to live.
Joshua had not been there, when the White Legs struck. He had been away with the defenders. But when word of New Canaan''s destruction reached his ear, he raced to rejoin his people. Finding them, wounded, scared, and winnowed. Scattered to the wilderness of the wasteland. Together, with another missionary, Joshua led his people away from the White Legs and their sacked home.
But all was not lost.
For Providence would lead them to Zion.
In a twist of utter irony, Joshua led his people south, toward the very Canyon he had once been thrown. But he found himself instead in the canyons of Zion. A refuge of nature and life from before the War that scorched the world. The lands between, vast and full of unspoiled wilderness. The canyon walls streaked by bands of iron red, the flowing waters green as emeralds. Trees and growth, untouched for hundreds of years by the ravages of the Wastes, tall and strong.
A paradise, nestled amidst a dying world.
Joshua led his people to salvation.
But yet the White Legs followed.
And War came to Zion.
Nora''s hand shot up.
(¡)
"What is it Nora?" I asked.
"What''s Zion?" She asked.
"The area the second half of Joshua''s story happens in." I answered.
"I believe she''s asking what it was." Weiss corrected. "Almost everything you tell us about was something else at one point."
"Perk of being in a ruined world." I said, reaching down to scratch at Zwei as he toddled past. "¡ Zion was, as the story describes, a nature reserve. Specifically a National Park. One of a few places that had been cordoned off to preserve the natural beauty of America. Where no, or at least minimal, construction and industry was allowed to take place. Given the things that the Pre-war government got up to, and the lines it had no problem crossing, it makes Zion''s survival all the more miraculous. A place like that would''ve been ripe for exploitation of some kind. But it wasn''t, outside of a few trails and touristy things like a gift shop."
Nora nodded.
"All those things that happened to Joshua''s people¡ they''re real?" Ruby asked, a sad light in her silver eyes.
"¡ Yeah." I said. "The White Legs are but one band of Raiders in the wasteland. But few are as vicious or wicked. Most are content to just kill you and take your stuff or, depending on their persuasion, eat you. The White Legs are a breed of their own, because they didn''t even understand basic farming."
"That¡ is insanely self-destructive." Blake said. "They destroyed everything they came across, how can anyone survive like that?"
"The same way all the scum and predators of the earth have." I said. "By moving with their prey. That the White Legs were able to last as long as they did like that, before the Legion got ahold of them?... I don''t know what that''s called. What''s the opposite of a miracle?"
"A curse?" Pyrrha offered, fiddling with her pizza, but not eating it.
"Close enough." I said.
(¡)
Joshua led his people into Zion. Fleeing the advances of the White Legs, who sought nothing but their destruction. With the Canyon''s vast area and treacherous geography, he was able to lose them, and buy his people time. But there were few exits from Zion. Any of whom they took, the White Legs could easily follow. None from which their escape would not bring further destruction.
But Joshua and his people were not alone in the Canyon. For such an untouched place could not exist, without any to call it their home.
With Zion, were the Sorrows and Deadhorses. Tribes descended from survivors of the War. One who had called the Canyon their home for countless generations. The other, the land east of the Grand Canyon to the southeast. Peaceful people, innocent and na?ve to the horrors of the Wasteland. Unspoiled by conflict and strife. When Joshua and his people came upon them, they were received with open arms.
But the White Legs followed close on their heels. Hounding Joshua and his people.
The Sorrows and Deadhorses, dragged in as well.
But together with Joshua and his people, the Deadhorses stood against the White Legs, kept them stalemated. Allowed for them to plan.
War was in Zion.
Joshua and his people would allow it to harm no one else. They would see that the Sorrows and Deadhorses weren''t destroyed for their own mistakes. It was in that stalemate that Joshua and his people were held, for weeks, months. Only defending themselves as they worked to collect what they needed to escape. All the while, the flames within Joshua began to kindle and roar. The peace and penance he had fought and sought for so long, tested against an enemy rabid and unreasoning. The laws of his people, against his own nature. A desire to see so foul an enemy broken before him, smeared against the Canyon floor.
But he would not allow himself to do so.
And like this, the stalemate continued.
"How does this relate to me?" Ren asked, looking curiously at me.
(¡)
"Joshua, in the story, was struggling with what he believed was the right thing to do." I explained. "There''s more to it than that, obviously, but that''s one of the things you can take away from it. Joshua wanted to fight. Because at his core, even if he wanted to be better, he was always a fighter and warrior. Even tempered by the faith and love of his people, that was something that couldn''t be changed. And the warrior couldn''t abide seeing his people, and the innocents that aided them, brutalized by his own mistakes."
Ren nodded following along.
"It was him trying to decide what was more important." Ruby said, feeding Zwei some of her pizza crust. "Fighting to protect everyone, or listening to what he believed, right?"
"To an extent." I said. "Again, there''s a lot of complexities regarding Joshua''s story. But at the end of the day, for the purposes of this particular rendition, the lesson fits. It''s one of the easiest to take away from it."
Ruby nodded, and I could see Ren was considering my words carefully.
"Wouldn''t the most important part be how it ends then?" Pyrrha asked. "His choice would matter even more."
"That it does." I agreed. "¡ unfortunately, depending on who you ask, the ending changes."
(¡)
After months of holding strong against the White Legs, the war Joshua found himself in finally changed.
The story goes that a caravan company that had made regular trade with the Canaanites had grown worried. They''d lost contact with the settlement, and dispatched a small caravan to re-establish communications. Determine what had happened to their business partners, for a term.
The quickest path they could take, led them to the very edge of Zion.
As it goes, they entered the Canyon and were immediately set upon. The White Legs slaughtering almost everyone present. Save for one, an unlucky Samaritan, who had joined them fleeing consequences of their own.
"Jojo~" Nora whispered, smirking.
From there, everything changes.
Some say that, somehow, the Samaritan tore through Zion, a warrior on par with Graham himself. They let nothing stand in their path or slow them down. Slaughtering everything with an ease that would''ve put the White Legs themselves to shame.
"Ouch." Yang said, horrified.
It is impossible to say how true this, or any of the endings are.
Others say that the plight of the Sorrows, Deadhorses, and Joshua''s people touched the Samaritan''s heart. That they, with their skill and might, hastened their flight from Zion. Closing the way behind them, and ensuring that the White Legs would haunt them no further. That Joshua held true to his people''s beliefs, and that no lives were lost, yet with the Sorrows robbed of their ancestral home, Zion left to be ravaged by the White Legs, who would go on to haunt countless more¡
Then, there are those who say the Samaritan chose to fight. To fan the flames within Joshua. See that the monsters that had hounded him and his people relentlessly were crushed. That he could have justice, no, vengeance upon those that had wronged him. All that it would cost him, was his soul, and those of the Sorrows and Deadhorses. The kindness and innocence that they may have once held forever destroyed.
Whatever the ending, the outcome was the same.
Joshua found peace.
Just never as he thought he would.
(¡)
"The thing to take away from the second half of Joshua''s story isn''t about morality. About the word of law versus human nature." I explained. "It''s about choices. No matter what you believe is right, at the end of the day, you''re the one who has to make a choice. You''re the one who has to live with what you''ve done."
My teammates and JNPR turned silent, and looked to begin contemplating what I''d told them. The second half of Joshua''s story was a bit more dour than they were expecting. They shouldn''t have expected anything happy either. Things are so rarely that simple.
I looked to Ren. "At the end of the day, laws have nothing to do with what''s morally right or wrong. People will paint them that way, but most of the time, it''s just about control. The laws of Joshua''s people were concerned with morality, as they were the tenets of his faith. But when placed against an enemy that sought nothing less than their destruction, they fell flat." I took a moment and breathed out through my nose, finding it smelled of moonshine. "¡ At the end of it all, only you can decide for yourself what is right and wrong. What you will follow, or won''t. I can''t tell you that breaking the law to stop the White Fang is good, or stops us from being like them¡ but I will tell you, that in a choice between standing against them, or stepping aside, my choice is clear and made. Whatever comes after, I live with. And no one here would fault you if you chose not to join us either. You''re among friends, we''re supposed to support each other¡ even if these friends suck at that sometimes."
"Hey!" Weiss called.
"I will never forget the chair." I chuckled.
Ren nodded, and bowed his head in thought. Nora leaning close to him and rubbing his shoulder in support. It was small, but I caught the way the boy smiled.
"¡ Ok." He said, raising his head. "Guess we''re doing this."
"Yeah!" Nora whooped. "Party time!"
"Not tonight." Weiss reminded.
"Oh. Right¡" Nora said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "Party time¡ in two days!"
"Better." I chuckled.
"Hey, Six?" Ruby asked.
"Hm?"
"I''ve got a question: where did you hear the story about Joshua from?" Ruby asked. "From how it ended, it doesn''t sound like many people should''ve heard it."
"Oh, that''s easy!" Nora squawked, before stabbing a finger at me. "He''s Joshua Graham!"
Again there was silence. This time however, everyone just looked at Nora in confusion. They turned towards me after a moment, but I just kept looking at her, completely confused.
"¡ What?" I asked.
"You''re Joshua Graham." Nora repeated. "You''re covered in scars, you know the story, you clearly like fighting- You''re him, I''m willing to make a bet on it!"
"¡" I leaned in. "What kinda bet are we talking?"
Honestly, that should''ve been a warning for her.
"The usual." She said confidently.
"Well, I''d take that bet." I said "Because you''re wrong. Completely wrong, actually."
"Of course you''d say that." Nora said, smirking at me. "You wouldn''t want us to know the truth!"
"Nora, Joshua was covered head to toe in burn scars from being set on fire and tossed in a canyon." I said "Though I''m scarred, it''s nowhere near how badly Joshua would be. You''d know the difference."
"Was he, bub?" Nora questioned. "We can''t see your head, so you could look like an overcooked steak under there."
"An overcooked- I''m more insulted you''d think I''d overcook a steak!" I snapped.
"So you admit it!" Nora squawked.
"Well this is a turn." Weiss muttered.
"I''m not Joshua Graham." I answered. "I think it''s pretty obvious I''m not Joshua Graham, and you''re just making accusations because you like poking fun."
Nora opened her mouth to continue squawking. But then, she reconsidered it, and started pondering. Which worried me more than if she had just kept shooting off at the mouth. It got worse when she started smiling in that manic way she did.
"Y''know, you''re right." Nora chirped. "You''re not Joshua Graham."
My teammates and hers began to look at Nora with interest, even Zwei perked his head up.
"¡I''m glad we found common ground, and I expect that back-rub later." I said, warily. "Though it''s rather¡ sudden."
"Well, I mean of course you''re not him." Nora said, still smiling. "¡ You''re the ''Samaritan''."
''Ah. There''s the rub.''
"¡ The Samaritan?" I questioned.
"You know the story." Nora chirped. "You know about what happened to Josh and his group, about Zion, and the White Legs! You were there Bub, and I can prove it!"
"¡ How?" I questioned, feeling seven sets of eyes glide back onto me.
Nora''s smile took a triumphant edge. "How did you know Zion had a Gift Shop?"
"¡"
I will freely admit, that one caught me off-guard. Mindless slip of the tongue and she latched onto it like a tick.
"It was a tourist location." I countered "Of course it-"
"How do you know that everyone in the caravan but the Samaritan was killed?" Nora asked
"Because that''s the stor-"
"How do you know Joshua is at peace if he could be dead?"
"It''s a euph-"
"How do you know where the Deadhorses came from? Wouldn''t a story just say they all came from Zion?"
"Well-"
"How did you know what was done to Joshua''s people?"
"Stop-"
"How do you know the names of the tribes? How do you know the White Legs and Legion are connected? HOW DO YOU KNOW THE SAMARITAN''S NAME WASN''T JOJO!?"
"Enough!" I snapped, too drunk for her nonsense. "It''s a story! Meant for making a point! Dead or alive, Joshua and his people were attacked by the White Legs and their resolve put to the test. There was a war in Zion. How it ended, I don''t know, but either way it ended for Joshua. Either at peace with the life he''d led, or dead and not having to suffer with changing his bandages every day."
"¡" Nora''s smile didn''t vanish. "I didn''t say anything about him changing his bandages."
"¡" I patently ignored the dumbfounded looks everyone was giving me and Nora. "That''s just common medical practice. You have to change your bandages regularly or they can lead to infection."
"But how would you know he''s still using them?" Nora asked, her smile gaining a pleased edge.
"¡"
I flopped back onto my cot and rolled over, dragging my blanket over me. I was officially done with the day.
Nora started crowing with laughter. "Aw don''t be like that Joj- I mean Steve!"
"Fuck you Nora- I''m going to sleep." I grumbled, hearing Zwei pad over to my cot. I reached an arm over and pulled him up.
"I-¡ I have questions!" Ruby shouted.
"Tomorrow." I grumbled, tuning everything out. Falling asleep surrounded by noise and motion was a skill you learn to master, given enough time. A necessity, really. It was scarcely a good sleep, but I could worry about good sleep later.
"It''s only, like, 7!" Nora squawked "Don''t go to sleep yet!"
I didn''t respond, I just stayed rolled over hoping she''d give up eventually.
As I heard her footsteps approaching, I knew that wasn''t going to be the case.
"Listen here, bub!" She said, looming over me "I''mma get my answers!"
"Nora, I wouldn''t do that." Ruby warned. "If he''s actually asleep that would be a bad idea."
"Psh, no one falls asleep that fast." She countered, and I heard her begin to move closer-
The barrels of my shotgun poked out from under my pillow, prodding against something soft and squishy.
"¡ Y''know, I think I can wait until tomorrow." Nora chirped, footsteps quickly retreating.
Suppressing a chuckle, I slipped off into the embrace of lady night. Leaving the shit-storm I knew was brewing for whoever woke up tomorrow.
Muscle in the Growth
I gripped the circular valve in both hands and wrenched it to one side. It squealed, demanding oil and grease that probably hadn''t been given in over two centuries. For someone like Dog it would''ve been as easy as a flick of the wrist.
For me, it meant everything I had on top of leveraging my weight.
But it worked, and I saw the flammable gas leaking from the filters begin to thin out and dissipate. The ventilation system made short work of the rest. I couldn''t say for sure what it was. The air inside the Madre was cleaner than the Cloud, but the faint tinge of it was still there, stinging with oxidized copper.
After weeks of leg-work, and one too many brushes with death for my liking, we were finally inside the Madre. I''d made it inside by the skin of my teeth. If slipping under the gate hadn''t been close enough, I''d had to slip between the gilded blast doors before the Madre resealed itself. Once inside, I passed through a glass doorway to the main lobby, finding my conspirators had indeed beaten me inside.
Then promptly passed out on the floor.
I joined them as the Madre''s security washed over me.
Don''t know how long I was put back out for, probably a few hours. More than I''d spent under after the Ghost People got through with me. But even being knocked out on the cold, hard ground in the Madre was better than the softest bed in the Villa. No risk of tetanus from an old box-spring either.
Shortly after waking up, Elijah contacted me over the Madre''s intercom. I hadn''t seen him among the others, so his added control over the Madre only gave more credence to my guess. He had to have been waiting in the Madre for some time. But, either way, now I was going to need to help him ''wake it up''. There were only a few small hang-ups.
Three of them.
Elijah hadn''t counted on Dog/God, Domino, and Christine making a bee-line for the Casino. Or the security system knocking them out and scattering them through the building afterward. Something to do with vocal and facial recognition software. Though the real problem, as Elijah relayed, lied in their collars. Elijah needed access to the music archives, for some reason, but interference from the collars made the archives inaccessible. Garbled the frequencies, much like how radios interfered with their own signal. I found it humorously ironic that Elijah had only caused more trouble for himself.
It stopped being funny, when it became clear I was going to be the one to fix that.
Elijah wanted the three of them dead. He''d do it himself, but something about the construction of the Madre made that impossible. The signals wouldn''t transmit properly between floors, otherwise he''d have just offed them from the start. But it also meant that we could get away with killing each other now. The Madre would disrupt the signal from the collars that kept us linked and from killing each other. As long as I was ''quick'' I could kill them, and escape to safety before my own collar went off. Naturally, I was resistant to taking orders to some craggily old fuck who''d held me hostage for several weeks. Especially when he''d lost the only thing keeping me on his leash.
The signal couldn''t travel between floors?
I was practically free.
But the doors to the Madre wouldn''t reopen until I''d turned the power back on, at least. So I went along with what he wanted for a little longer. I found my way into the gambling hall proper, dodged security, and eventually flipped the switches to wake the place up.
Immediately after, a warning claxon sounded. There was a gas leak on one of the upper floors.
As Elijah helpfully explained: Dog was trying to kill us.
Specifically, he was trying to kill himself.
Not wanting to wind up an extra-crispy critter, I bolted up to the ground floor, and found myself in the Madre''s restaurant. Dog, or maybe God, had locked the doors to the place tight. I had to find an emergency maintenance key, then run back through a maintenance closet in the casino. It was directly conjoined to the kitchen for ease of access. It also had the piping that fed gas for the stoves.
Said piping had been busted open and was twisting through the stagnant air like colorless flames, giving off a faint sulfuric tinge. An add-in for finding gas leaks. Made the whole closet smell like rotten eggs.
I closed the valve and sealed off any damage as best I could. But it didn''t change that the air was still full of gas. Or that there were more valves in the kitchen. I could feel my throat tightening as my lungs fought for breathable air. If the gas wasn''t shut off soon, I''d be dead long before Dog blew us to kingdom come.
Passing by a terminal at one end of the closet, I opened a door out into the kitchen. A long room, with a long series of centuries old stove-tops and prep stations. To one side, left of the door, a massive walk-in cooler, possibly a second to the right side of the room across from it. I couldn''t immediately see where the valves were. My pip-boy pointed them as being deeper in, one near the cooler, maybe inside it. The other was to the far right side of the room.
I couldn''t see Dog either. But I could hear him. His growling voice snarling as he argued with himself, God''s gravelly voice trying to bring reason to their madness. They were locked in some sort of loop, both sides trying to break the stalemate, get the other to submit. It wasn''t working.
But it was enough for me to know I had to keep my head down. If I broke the loop, there was a chance Dog might seize the moment to kill us. Better to stay out of sight, until I shut the gas off, at least.
I crept out into the kitchen, and briefly tracked Dog''s voice to the far right of the room. He was rammed up against a corner, arms bracing him against it as his body shook and trembled, quite literally trying to tear itself apart. A thing both fascinating and terrifying. Supermutants could move tonnage, and all that strength was currently fighting itself in a desperate bid for control it would never win.
With the most amount of control I could muster, I crept across the kitchen to the cooler. Better to keep in cover than walk where Dog could see me. Especially if it was where the closest valve was. I passed through the door to the cooler, quietly parting strips of material hanging from the doorway that were meant to help keep the cooler at temperature. Though stepping in, it was clear that the coolant was a few centuries overdue for a refill, the air smelling of damp and mildew. Despite that, most of the food seemed well preserved, safe enough to eat. Shame I wasn''t hungry.
Towards the back of the cooler, near another door leading back into the kitchen, was the valve. It was nestled between containers and shelving that looked far cleaner than I''d come to expect. The dust had settled in the Madre, and not much stuck to stainless steel. Even the cosmic knives were naturally clean, looking almost as new as the day they''d been made. I could almost make out my own reflection in it, but it was blurry, like looking at a pool of muddy water. Without much other thought I passed it by, putting my focus on the valve. Sulfur stinging my nose and gas slowly suffocating me. I could see it rising and pouring out of the valve.
My hands reached out and gripped the Valve, and I began to push against it. Dog clearly didn''t have a hard time opening the things. Unfortunately, I wasn''t a Supermutant, and struggled with it. The metal squealed as I tried to get it to move.
Dog heard it.
I could hear as his growl echoed through the close quarters of the kitchen. Bouncing off the cold, grime coated walls. Followed closely by the scrape of his fingernails. Things hard as steel and with a natural edge, chiseling against the surrounding material.
He was still talking to himself, arguing with God as they moved towards the side of the cooler I''d entered through.
With a desperate churn in my stomach, I twisted the valve, and felt it lock hard on itself, closed.
Right before Dog came careening into the cooler, I slipped behind one of the prep tables, cosmic knives and thoroughly chipped honing rods dangling from its edges. My vision drifted past them, beneath the table. Dog''s tree-trunk legs stomping through the doorway, halting there. His ragged breathing filled the air as he snarled and growled.
I could see the base of a gas bomb in his hand. The kind the Ghost People used. No telling where he got it. There hadn''t been any in the Madre. Had he grabbed it before rushing to the Madre? Didn''t matter much. He had it. One wrong move: boom.
But with each passing second, the stink of sulfur got thinner in the air, and my breathing got better. The ventilation was doing its job. Even if there was still a valve left to close, and the risk of explosion still there, it meant the odds were shifting. As long as I could close the valve, maybe the room would vent quick enough to keep the bomb from adding us to the stains on the walls.
Dog began to stomp raggedly into the cooler, rounding around the table. Muttering to himself, voice constantly changing. "hungry¡ so hungry¡ quiet¡ want quiet¡. let it all end¡ make pain go away."
As he got closer, I crept along the opposite edge of the table. Rounding it back towards the way we''d come in. If he didn''t see me, I could bolt for the last valve and get it shut. Hopefully before he came to his senses enough to just chuck the bomb. That''s all it would take.
Halfway along the table, Dog shifted suddenly, slamming against it. A terse and rasping growl in his voice.
"Stop what you''re doing." God hissed.
Unintentionally, I did. But I stayed low. Keeping up against the table as I waited, briefly.
"Back in the cage!" God hissed. "All I want, all I''ve ever wanted is to keep you, to keep us-"
"Dog, Dog hear you now." Dog growled. "Hear voice, put Dog in cage. Dog wake up, hungry, trapped, need to find Master. No more. Not much longer. Not-"
"-listening to me!" God struggled, the Nightkin''s body suddenly lurching away from the table. "Listen to me. If you do this we both-"
"Die." Dog growled, voice becoming more solid and unwavering. "Dog wants to die. Tired of caring, tired of you. Dog tired of this place, Master-"
"Help us." God pushed back, and I saw the Nightkin stumble back against a wall, massive hands flying to their face. Briefly, I swear I saw his eye pass over me, then roll back into their head. "I only want¡ to help us! Tired of being your minder-"
I took the opportunity and began moving again. Whatever internal battle those two were having, God was clearly on the losing end of it. What little control he was wrestling away from Dog waned as quickly as he found it. If I wasn''t already sure Dog would take control and kill us all before, I was then.
Carefully, being mindful of Dog and God as they thrashed against the wall. I moved back through the door we''d both come through. Rounding the corner, I kept low for the first few steps. Just as a precaution.
Then an errant breath caused my lungs to spasm, and sent me coughing. Choked me with the poison in the air.
The thrashing in the cooler came to an abrupt stop.
Fear took control of my feet and I bolted across the room, dodging a bank of stoves and ovens as I made for the last gas valve. As I reached the last valve I heard thundering footsteps echo from the Cooler. Didn''t bother to turn around and look. If Dog already knew I was there, it was a race between us to see who was faster. His throwing arm, or my hands.
I clasped onto the valve and began to twist. The old metal creaking in my hands, threads squealing against clotted grease and flaking rust. The valve just barely began to turn as I heard Dog''s voice echo through the Cantina''s kitchen.
"NOW WE ALL BURN!"
"NO!" God cried.
With a burst of adrenaline, the valve lurched in my hand, snapping shut.
Behind me, there was a burst of air and a rush of heat. As I began to whirl around, I saw the fire roll out of the cooler, flames licking and curling in the air like flowing water. Growing and spreading through the air in a brilliant bloom of light, like the petals of some incandescent flower. It sucked the air and gas from around, drew them towards itself, grew larger. Hotter. Faster.
A wall of heated air crashed against me and slammed me into the wall. Washing over me, more scorching than the Mojave heat and prickling as a laser-bolt. Felt like it cooked the air in my lungs, swelled them to the point of bursting.
But the explosion stopped there. Slowly receding and filling the heated air with smoke. My guess about the ventilation had been right. Had I not shut the last Valve, things would''ve been a lot worse. Even then, I found myself blasted back against the wall and floor, struggling to breathe, even with the poison gone from the air.
It reminded me of my time in Vault 22 with Boone.
Too close. Way too close.
For a few moments, I stayed prone against the wall. Waiting for my heart to wind itself down before I pushed any further. Failing that, enough for the pain in my back to subside.
My first attempt at getting back up had me slip and slide back down the wall, but I made it back up the second time. As I breathed I could taste the carbon in the air. Sooty, a flavor hard to describe beyond bitter and harsh. I slowly stepped back across the kitchen, trying to pay attention through a light thrum of adrenaline. I knew my collar wasn''t beeping, couldn''t tell if that was the delay Elijah had talked about or not. But without the threat of death, I didn''t feel so inclined to rush.
"¡ Dog?" I asked, futilely waving smoke away from my face. "God?... Are you there God?... man that feels weird to say."
There was a cough, and a faint groan, as I approached the cooler once more. Slowly wading my way through the smoke. I slid my way back in, and found that the air wasn''t as cool anymore. There was a foul smell in the air that hadn''t been there before. The kind from scorched fat and hair. But worse, like the fat had gone rancid and the hair had been thick as coal. I''d only smelled it once or twice in the past. But it was unique enough that you didn''t forget it.
Supermutants burned differently than humans. Nightkin especially.
The ventilation pulled enough of the smoke away that I could see Dog and God. What was left of them anyway.
Their limbs were shredded, one leg blown off at the knee, another at mid-thigh. One arm with half a hand torn to ragged meat and the other missing the hand entirely. Large, thick shards of steel jutting from the stumps. Shrapnel from the bomb. Every inch of skin from mid chest down, just beneath the scar of Dog''s name, was scorched a shade of midnight black. Indigo fluid wept from what flesh wasn''t cauterized, Nightkin blood. His flesh was dark and raw, glistening in the low light of the kitchen, as the blood began to flow more quickly. I could see their body convulsing, minutely, trying to heal the damage that''d been done.
Something it was well beyond capable of doing.
"Dog?... God?" I asked, not even bothering to keep a hand over the weapon at my hip.
For a moment, they were deathly still. Again, if it wasn''t for my collar not going off, I''d have assumed they were dead outright. Right before I would''ve knelt down to check better though, they took a sharp breath, and groaned. Their yellowed eyes drifted listlessly towards me. Half glassed over and bloodshot.
"You¡ Dog¡ Remember you." Dog spoke, each word a labored breath. "Nice¡ to Dog¡ Bring food."
Before I could say or do anything, Dog convulsed, and his eyes flared wide.
"Dog." God hissed, voice strained and full of venom. "Do you realize¡ what you''ve done!?"
"¡ Freedom." Dog answered lowly.
I knelt down next to them. "What do I do?" I asked "I-I don''t normally deal with wounds-"
"Nothing." God hissed, eyes locked on me. "You¡ had your chance. All you¡ had to do was¡ stop Dog." Their eyes began to drift off of me. "I¡ Feel him¡ Dragging me¡ down with him¡ I didn''t¡. Didn''t want."
Without thinking about it, I pulled out one of my few stimpacks and jammed it into his chest.
The hypodermic needle bent to the side. Supermutants had a tougher hide, made using stimpacks even more difficult. Even Lily struggled with them.
I pulled the needle back and tried to straighten it out. Only for Dog to flail at me, briefly.
"No." Dog whined. "No¡ Dog... want this¡ Tired, want to sleep¡ Want it to end¡ Not sad to go."
"I¡ am tired too." God answered, voice a bitter whisper. "Do not¡ wish to go¡ with you¡ Tired of protecting you¡ Tired of being ignored."
Something in their face softened. Looking admonished, like a guilty child.
"Dog¡ Dog is sorry." Dog whined, deep voice sorrowful. "Dog¡ Wanted to please Master¡ So long without Master¡ So long alone¡ afraid¡ Dog¡ sorry."
"You¡ were never alone." God answered. "We¡ we were never alone¡ Never in control¡ Always tried¡ keep us¡ safe¡ I¡ you¡ we¡ together¡"
Their face relaxed, becoming a calm mask. As their eyes turned to glass, a cloudiness I hadn''t realized was in them faded. Leaving them empty and clear.
Whatever peace they''d made in their final moments, it was the only kind I could''ve helped them find. I wasn''t a doctor. Wouldn''t even know where to begin.
So they died as they lived. Another Victim of both Elijah and the Madre.
Even knowing I couldn''t have done anything to change that, guilt still weighed on my shoulders. Like the collar around my neck.
Which slowly began to beep.
Even as Elijah echoed over the intercom, I was already in motion.
I would live with my guilt.
¡
I woke up well ahead of my alarm, which was about as pleasant as it sounds. Unfortunately, once I was awake, I didn''t feel like going back to sleep.
Which was just the icing on the cake, since I was up at least an hour or two ahead of when I should''ve been.
With a hangover.
That caught me as a surprise. I couldn''t quite remember the last time I had a hangover. The implants around my heart from the Big Empty did a good job of siphoning out toxins, and I was good about managing myself. Must''ve been cumulative from the extra exhaustion. Helped contribute to what had been a pretty restless sleep. Bad dreams, more vivid than I liked them. I''d seen more than my share to make them feel all the more real.
I sat up on my cot with my blanket wrapped around me. As I moved, I remembered I''d pulled Zwei up with me, and had to be careful about how I moved. He began to rouse as I did, but I just adjusted him so he could keep sleeping comfortably. One of us deserved to at least. Might as well be the dog. Whatever my brain needed to process, it didn''t want the rest of me paying attention to it. Stingy prick, like I didn''t have my own thoughts to suppress.
I''m pretty sure he heard me complaining, because there''s a lengthy gap in my memory after that. One moment, I''m staring blankly into space, the next there''s an alarm ringing, and Ruby is slapping an arm over her Scroll, perched precariously by the edge of her bunk. She began to pick herself up, stretching, legs doing a rapid twitch as she over extended herself. Her silver eyes blinked open, and she slowly swiped the sleep out of them.
She looked down, bleary eyed, from her bunk, scanning the room.
Her eyes settled over me and, after a moment of fog, she smiled sweetly.
"Morning Six."
I nodded at her. "Morning Tiny."
"¡ Wanna tell me more about Joshua-"
"Nope."
¡
A steady breath blew through my teeth, as I kept my concentration. Trying to keep my aura separate from my own muscle power. I could train my main muscle groups easy enough, and needed to if I was going to keep my base strong. But they were never the problem, my aura was.
I had one hand planted against the floor, the other curled around my back. It''d already had its turn.
''97¡ 98¡ 99¡''
I pulled a hundred, and let myself hit the floor, allowing my aura to relax. All the weights and chains I had strapped around me did little to cushion me. I was even wondering if they were doing anything to help me at this point either.
In my peripherals, I could see Yang nodding. "You''re getting better."
I nodded silently, feeling a bit piqued.
After my teammates woke up, the morning began to slowly kick itself into motion. Even with the hangover, my body was still grateful for a meaningful night''s worth of sleep.
Damn shame it didn''t last.
A couple hours and a few classes later, it was time for PT. Physical Therapy in my case. All the swimming and intermittent training had gone a long way towards undoing the damage. Unfortunately, my going out and overexerting myself came pretty close to redoing it.
Stiffly, I uncurled my arm from behind my back, giving it a cursory wave to loosen it. Without hesitation, I looked down at myself. The heavy weighted vest, looped with heavy chains. The black bundles ringing my arms and legs, clinging to my hands and feet. I had to be near to double the weight of my Riot Gear in it. Used to be, when I pushed myself I could feel it.
I hardly felt it then.
Twisting at the hip, stretching, I turned to look at Yang who was busy adjusting a weight vest of her own. The two of us had been doing calisthenics. While my teammates were decidedly not a fan of my regiment, that didn''t stop it from affecting them. Yang, competitor that she could be, felt compelled to try and keep up with me. Ruby and Weiss had ditched it to go for laps through the obstacle course, but they seemed to have integrated a few extra exercises. Some minor weight work, a few extra endurance and bodyweight forms. It would do them some good, even if it didn''t seem like they needed the help.
"Not gonna lie, I was expecting¡ more." Yang said, giving me a smirk.
"More?" I asked. "I matched you while feeling like death warmed over."
"Sure you did." Yang challenged. "Or maybe you were off by one or two. Not a lot of room to mess up."
"I kept count in my head." I said. "We''re even, a hundred each."
"Keep telling yourself that." She needled, stretching. "¡ what''s next?"
"Not sure." I answered, rolling my shoulders. "But I want to keep going."
"That''s the spirit." Yang smirked, motioning towards the free weights. "Let''s do legs next. Maybe after that you''ll admit de-feet."
"Girl, you''ve got squat on me and you know it." I said.
She just smiled.
"..." I brushed past her and began moving towards the weights. Without missing a beat, she fell in step beside me.
"You know, this would be a lot easier for you if you just admitted you liked them." She said, smiling.
"So you keep saying." I droned.
"It''d be a real weight off your shoulders." She said.
"Hmm." I grunted, trying to exercise my right to remain silent.
I let my eyes wander to the rest of the gymnasium. After more than a few unwanted incidents, I''d learned it was better to look elsewhere. The picture of why these incidents kept happening was slowly becoming clear to me, but that didn''t mean I had to like it, or not avoid it.
My eyes drifted over CFVY, still training as a team. Yatsu doing weighted pull-ups with an anvil at his waist, Fox slowly swinging kettlebells through the motions of his fighting style. Coco was on a machine meant for emulating a squat press, and moving a sizable amount of weight. Could swear I could see a glint of something metallic along her torso, but that was probably my imagination. Velvet was the most curious though. She was wearing weights, much like myself, but was currently doing speed ropes. Her face was bright red, so she was either in the zone, or pushing a bit too hard. Not too far away from them, I could see Cardin and his lackeys throwing dumbbells around like paperweights. Terrible form, no control. Any muscle he was going to build was all for show. I could note that JNPR wasn''t too far from them, bouncing slightly between the machines and, confusingly, the gymnastics equipment.
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Frankly I should''ve been surprised that we even had gymnastics equipment at all. But I wasn''t. Beacon had some pretty strange stuff.
JNPR was moving between them in an uneven but circuitous rhythm. Ren was easily spending the most time on the Gymnast''s bars, flipping and spinning through the air. Moving, spinning, and bending through the air in a controlled and almost artful way. Good for the core muscles. Made sense he''d put emphasis on that part of his training, the little I knew of how he fought. At the far opposite end of the spectrum was Nora, who still favored the heavy weights over acrobatics. Emphasis on heavy. The image of her tossing around a thousand pound barbell like it was filled with helium was still fresh to me. She''d moved onto greater weights since then, and it emphasized how genuinely strong she was.
I''d sooner try bare-knuckle boxing with a Nightkin than Nora, and I''d been punched by Lily before.
Amusingly, whenever she went over to the gymnast''s bar, she''d do a few basic motions, then drop like a hammer to the floor. She''d stick it each time, but she fell hard. Ren nearly missing his grabs every time she did was evidence enough.
Between the two of them were Jaune and Pyrrha. Juggling their acrobatics with weight training. It was hard to say if one was truly a priority for either over the other. But, much like Ren, what I knew of their fighting styles lent credence to it. Pyrrha''s spear and shield work did seem to use far more motion than Jaune''s sword play. But both required no small amount of physical strength and endurance.
Past them, nestled amongst the gymnast equipment still, were Sun and Blake. He''d approached us early into the class. Made noises about how she''d seemed out of sorts the past few classes and asked if she wanted to change pace a little bit.
The girls had been trying to copy some variation of my own routines, so she jumped on it in a heartbeat. Sun never struck me as much the gymnastics type, but on the other hand I suppose it made sense. His combat style seemed focused more on martial arts than gunplay. Minus those lever-actions he somehow turned into both nunchucks and a staff.
The way people learn to fight over here will forever be a mystery to me. As if everyone individually decided to create their own combat system, then forced everyone that followed after them to do the same. Not always a bad thing, but stupidly inefficient.
But it did lead to some¡ interesting training practices.
Sun was performing some exercises not dissimilar to Ren''s. Not so controlled or organized, but similar in their motions. Blake, however, was performing some that required a wholly different degree of finesse and control. What she was doing was more akin to dancing than the acrobatic work Sun or Ren were doing. Yet, watching Blake, I couldn''t help but be more impressed by her display.
Maybe it had something to do with the vibrantly colored ribbon she was whipping and twirling about.
The ribbon of brightly colored fabric whipped and whirled around her in elegant and fluid motions. Rippled against the currents of the air, and Blake contorted herself through complex and demanding motions, each visibly requiring great control over herself to complete. The effect it had was tantalizing and graceful, showing the lean curve of her muscles and frame. Every motion tensing and relaxing them into new positions that-
The ribbon was a beautiful shade of pink. It didn''t match her normal color palate, but it made for good contrast.
"See something you like?" Yang prodded, nudging me with an elbow as she followed my gaze.
"Credit where it''s due, it''s impressive." I said. "That kind of control takes years to build. She has to have been working at it for a long time. Doubt I could do the same."
Yang nodded, looking towards her partner. "Everyone has their own way of doing things, right? Aura doesn''t change that too much. You and me seem pretty good with good ol'' pushups and squats, But Nora needs the heavy weights, Ruby needs to run-"
"And Kitten needs to narrowly avoid getting tangled up by a loose thread." I surmised.
I couldn''t tell if Blake could hear us or not, But I noticed the stink-eye she shot my way.
"That too. But, hey-" Yang raised an arm and curled it at the elbow, flexing a bicep. "Can''t argue with results right? Everyone loves a gunshow."
I took note of Yang''s arm. She wasn''t big with muscle, not the way some of our male classmates were. But she sure wasn''t small either. Side effect of strength training, you always wind up a smidge bigger for it, there''s not much getting around it. There''s different types of muscles, meant for different things. But most of the time, strength meant building more muscle tissue. Meaning, even if she wore it well, Yang wasn''t some small and dainty type either. That was more Weiss''s department. I was well familiar with the type of build Yang had because, like she''d said, it was similar to the one I had myself. There was clear shape and definition to her arm. It worked seamlessly into her shoulder, garbed under a form-fitting top that-
"Real strength comes from the Traps and the Lats, Yang." I said, fixing my gaze on her hair, pulled up in a damp ponytail.
Yang merely smirked, then shifted her flex to her shoulders and back "Duh~" She teased. "The arm-tillary is just part of the show."
"¡"
I exhaled slowly through my nose. Cleansing thoughts, silent curses. Back into the shadows with unwanted trains of thought. Deadening of the senses against unwanted punnery.
I was just as annoyed by the fact she''d found a way to turn her wearing long pants against me.
Why did everything have to be form fitting? It added no benefit and loose fitting was more comfortable.
With another, banishing, breath, we carried on to the weight rack. Since we were doing legs, the most immediate thing was squats. There were other, less obvious options. Deadlifts, Lunges, stair climbs if you were nuts. But for the amount of weight we were probably going to be swinging around, squats were the saner choice. As long as you went through the full range, you''d get everything.
We set the bar onto the rack and started loading it with weights. Remembering back to the end of the previous term, Yang had capped herself out at around three hundred and twenty something. While I''d doubled it and somehow didn''t crush myself under the weight of my own stupidity. An amazing feat I regularly managed to accomplish.
As such, we used three hundred as a benchmark and got lifting. We went for long sets at first, burn up some of that extra stamina, build some endurance. Start really pushing our auras as we went bigger. But the longer sets just meant that we each had more time to ourselves. Wasn''t so bad, when I was the one being crushed. But passing the weight off to Yang, left me with room to think. Remind myself that there are things I still needed to do.
Something I needed to tell Yang. An issue I wanted to keep dancing around, but knew I needed to address eventually.
Would now be a good time? No, absolutely not. This kind of topic was better reserved for if she and I ever had five seconds alone.
But that was another problem: the two of us scarcely got time alone¡ Well, I didn''t spend time alone with any of the girls, Yang was just the weird case where I needed to. I also wasn''t going to go out of my way and ask her to step aside for five seconds either.
But if I wanted to get this over with, I couldn''t just keep waiting for a chance to actually show itself. Or ignore-
"Whatcha thinkin'' about?" Yang chirped, slipping into my peripheral.
"Hm!?" I grunted, whipping towards her. It''d been her turn on the rack, and she still had the barbell on her shoulders. She was leaning forward slightly, but not notably throwing off her form. Her core strength must''ve been incredible. Though given her abs-
"You good?" Yang asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Fine, thank you." I said, cracking my neck. "You finish your set?"
Yang hummed an affirmative, then stepped back slightly to the rack, straightening. She set the bar back into place and took the weight off herself. Stretching languidly as it was taken off of her, rolling her shoulders. She flicked her chin towards me and stepped out of the way with a coy smile. I stepped into her place and set myself under the bar.
"Caught you off guard." She said.
"Hm." I grunted, lifting the bar and starting into a rep.
"Never answered my question." She noted, watching me.
"Hm." I grunted, bottoming out, then pushing upward once more.
"Seemed pretty lost there." Yang prodded.
"Hm." I grunted, returning to position, inhaling and preparing to begin again.
"Y''know I actually tried to get your attention without having to bend forward like that." Yang said, smirking. "Something catch your eye?"
"Hm." I grunted, slipping into cadenced breathing as I began to more properly get into things
Yang quirked an eyebrow, but didn''t say anything, probably hoping I was going to say something. Unfortunately for her, I know the importance of breathing while exercising, so that wasn''t going to happen. After a couple moments, her smirk gained a dry edge to it.
"¡ You know you''re being pretty quiet, cat got your tongue?" She asked.
"Don''t remember lending Blake anything." I said, rising out of my last rep.
"Rude." Yang said. "Catty even."
"Boo." I said, leaning the bar back against the rack. "What''s the two rules of a good squat Yang?"
"Good form and concentration?" She offered.
"Deep breaths and Ass to Grass, yes." I nodded. "I was just focusing on the two."
"Hm." Yang hummed, rolling her eyes.
"Cute." I said, rolling my shoulders and getting out of the way so she could do her next set. She obliged and stepped in to continue. Even as she did, she continued to eye me. Which itself continued as she worked through the set. Credit where it''s due, not an easy accomplishment.
"¡ Alright." I said. "If you really want to know, I''m just mulling something over."
"No kidding?" Yang huffed, completing a rep. "Couldn''t see that at all. Not like you and Blake have that contest going or anything."
"There''s no contest." I said.
"Ok, broody-butt." She smiled.
"Oi."
She just kept smiling.
There was another bit of silence, minus the ambience of the gym, and the bar clinking and rattling on Yang''s shoulders with each rep. This wasn''t the place to handle things.
But something of an opportunity had presented itself, so starting it was better than abandoning it.
"¡ When we get a chance, I need to talk to you in private about something." I said.
"Hm?" Yang hummed, finishing another rep.
"It''s important." I explained as she settled out of her rep. "But I''d rather we didn''t talk about it here."
"¡" Yang got this big smirk on her face, there was something smug about it that irritated me to no end.
"Whatever you think it''s about, I promise it''s not." I told her.
"I''m sure it''s not." Yang said coyly. "There''s nothing to be embarrassed about."
"Embarrassed?" I asked. "Really? You think this has anything to do with embarrassment?"
"Dunno, it seems pretty heavy. And I get it, I''m being weighed down too." She chuckled.
"It''s not out of embarrassment." I told her.
Shen just kept smirking. "Then what is it?"
"I need to talk about what happened at Junior''s club the other night." I told her.
"¡ Oh¡"
Then, for some reason, Yang started blushing.
"Seems you might be overdoing it." I said, spotting her and gliding the bar back to the rack. "Good?"
"Y-yeah." Yang said, stepping away from the rack, and grabbing a bottle of water. She chugged from it for a moment, and I took the chance to sip from my (trusty) Vault 13 Canteen. Good to stay hydrated while exercising, always refreshing.
"¡ What do you need to tell me?" Yang asked after a moment, not quite looking my way.
"Don''t want to talk about it here, or now." I said. "I just need to talk to you about some things. Can''t seem to get five seconds where I can do that, so I figured I''d grab your attention while I had it."
"So, what, you could schedule it?" Yang asked, sounding amused and confused. "Make an appointment?"
"Nothing like that, just¡ I don''t know, let you know I do need to talk to you, so we could work it out?" I offered.
Yang nodded, then blew a raspberry. "Alright, I''ll try to remember."
"All I''m asking." I said, putting my canteen away.
"¡ HM." Yang hummed.
"Har-de-har." I said, rolling my eyes, then looking at the bar. "Guess it''s my go then?"
"Yeah, I''m good." Yang said, motioning to the rack, before looking at me over her shoulder. "Unless you''re suddenly not up for it."
"What do you take me for, a Cardin?" I asked.
Yang chuckled a little at that, and I looked at the bar. Truthfully, I wondered how much of a challenge I could call it. I could move around with a lot of extra gear, and had a lot of the time in the Mojave. Three hundred was on the far end, but still doable.
Now it almost felt like not enough. Which had a strange feeling connected to it. No one who lifts three hundred pounds of anything is going to say it feels light.
Except around here, apparently.
And I''d gone through some recent changes too.
"¡ Y''know, I wanna try something real quick." I said.
Yang finally turned and looked at me, curious.
"Help me get some more weights."
Yang''s lilac eyes lit up, just a smidge, and she helped me collect some extra plates. We slid them on the bar until we''d doubled the original weight. Then a few more, to push it further. Put us in the ballpark of about seven hundred pounds. The bar didn''t start to bow under the weight, but I could see the unmistakable tremble in its movements. Perhaps we were using the wrong equipment, but there are few good ways to lift that kind of weight.
"You sure that''s a good idea?" Yang asked, seeing me put the last plates in place.
"Dunno." I said. "This was a challenge roughly a month ago, before I had my aura. I need a signpost of what''s too much so I don''t go and do something stupid."
"Like what?" Yang asked. "Flipping a car?"
"¡ I mean, can''t you?" I asked
Yang chuckled "Totally."
"Then spot me." I said, gingerly slipping under the bar. "Time to stress test."
As I felt the bar begin to press against my shoulders, Yang walked around behind the rack. She''d have to mimic my form. Something went wrong, she''d have all of a moment''s notice. I''d have less.
"Alright." I breathed, beginning to push against the bar, steeling myself for the extra weight. "Ass to grass."
I lifted the bar off the rack and brought its weight fully onto my shoulders. Felt it come crashing down onto me. Memories of the previous semester''s final exam poured into my mind. My own weariness hounding after it. I half expected my knees to buckle inward then and there.
But they didn''t.
There was no mistaking the weight on my shoulders. Mass is just one of those things, once you get a sense for it, you learn to very quickly not misjudge.
I had seven hundred pounds of steel resting on my shoulders.
It felt like half that.
It felt less than that. Like I was pushing three hundred again.
Gently I let the weight press me down, feeling the strain in my legs. Arms and core tightening as I kept my balance. Drawing a steady breath, I bottomed out, then shot upright, exhaling evenly.
Smooth. Fluid.
I stepped back and put the weight back on the rack, stepping out from under it. I looked at the bar, briefly making sure that, yes, that was seven hundred pounds. Yang was standing, just behind it, looking curiously from it to me.
"¡ Everything ok?" She asked.
"I just lifted seven hundred pounds like it was nothing." I said. "Last time I tried to do that I almost crushed myself."
Yang nodded "Yep. Aura. Strange stuff, huh?"
I nodded, thinking briefly, before returning to the plates and grabbing another set of them. I slapped them onto the bar, upping the weight to seven-fifty.
Yang merely smirked and gave me an approving nod.
Now the real game began.
How far could I go before I put myself back in the infirmary?
I got back under the bar and did it again. Moving evenly and smoothly through the motion, breathing steadily. I registered the extra weight immediately, but it was just that: weight. It didn''t make me uncomfortable, it didn''t push me any further than I thought I was capable of handling. It was just there.
So I kept going.
I reset the bar, went back, got more plates, and repeated the process at beats of fifty. Each time waiting to see what would happen. Things began to change quickly.
After Eight hundred, I started feeling the burn.
At Eight Fifty I felt a challenge and began really dipping into my aura.
At Nine Hundred I started questioning If this was such a good idea.
At Nine Fifty, I knew I was pushing my luck.
With each increment of the weight, I watched Yang''s brow inch a little higher and her jaw a little lower. After collecting what I decided would be the last set of plates, she spoke up.
"I think this is starting to get a little¡ uh¡" She struggled.
"Nuts?" I offered.
"Yeah." Yang nodded. "A little nuts¡ a little off the wall-nuts."
"Nice try." I said dryly. "Think it''s time we cash you out of the pun game for the day."
Normally Yang would''ve jumped on that, but instead she was just looking at the bar. Somewhere between intimidated and bewildered.
I left to collect the next set of weights. On the return trip, I was starting to feel the building tension in my shoulders. A heady mix of lactic acid and fatigue. Pushing meant walking a tightrope with it. Slowing down meant rest, but a loss of momentum with it. Which I''d have to work harder to get back, and quite possibly wouldn''t in this case.
However, as I approached the rack again, I found that I''d been given a reprieve anyway.
Two of them.
Sun and Blake stood near Yang, chatting with her as she leaned against the frame of the rack. They appeared to be talking about Blake''s agility.
"-didn''t know you could move like that." Yang said smiling. "It''s pretty cool."
"My mom taught me how to do it." Blake said. "It''s an artform that the White Fang used to pass down in the past. Traveling shows, I think."
"An impressive display." I agreed, moving around the rack to slide the plate onto the bar. "I can see how you might pull some of that training into your fighting style."
Blake nodded, brushing a sweaty lock behind her ear.
"Hey, I wasn''t exactly sitting around either." Sun chuckled, shrugging.
"''Course not, you were enjoying the show too." I said, before looking at him. "You got my money yet?"
"¡ You''re not gonna let that go are you?" Sun asked.
"Guy, you have no idea how far I''ll take a grudge." I answered. "Just pay up and we''ll be square."
"Ignore him." Blake said, looking up to Sun. "Thanks for checking in, I know we''ve been kinda distant the past few weeks."
"Just glad to see you''re doing better." Sun said, smiling. "And, y''know, getting some sleep."
"I had some help." Blake said, looking at Yang and me bashfully.
Sun nodded, then looked at the bar as I slid the last plate in place. "Gotta say man, that looks pretty big, how much?"
"With these last ones?" I asked. "Should''ve hit the thousand mark."
"Duh- what?" Sun sputtered.
"Stress test." I said.
That was apparently enough of an answer for him, because he just nodded, looking at the bar in appreciation. He then pulled out his scroll and tapped at it, before pointing it at me.
"What are you doing?" Blake asked.
"Making a video." Sun said. "The guys are gonna want to see this."
"... seriously?" I asked.
"Yeah, how many people do you know that can lift that much?" Sun asked.
"You''ve met Nora, right?" I asked.
Sun paused, blinked, then turned to look at Nora.
She was currently doing jumping lunges with a bar that was almost comparable to mine. For comparison, I could see Cardin further down, trying to gather as many weights he could. Jackass probably felt a little below the bar. Wasn''t fair when Nora kept raising it.
"... Ok, she''s crazy." Sun acknowledged. "But are you?"
"Like a rabid gecko with its ass on fire." I answered.
"Language." Weiss said, who was also returning with Ruby in tow. Who was also completely drenched in sweat and looking quite pleased with herself.
Girl liked to run.
As my crowd began to grow, I took note others were taking note. It wasn''t like I was trying to grab attention. But, then again, moving a thousand pounds of anything is never quiet.
"Are you sure you can actually lift this?" Yang asked.
I paused for a moment, weighing things out in my mind. "¡ mostly. It might not show in most cases, but I''m pretty strong. Most of that is in pure muscle-power though. I can punch hard, but I can lift harder. Different muscle types and all that."
Yang nodded, licking her lips slightly. "¡ Y''know, if something goes wrong, I don''t know if I''d actually be able to spot you."
"I think you''ll manage." I said, moving under the bar and into position. I looked back at her over my shoulder. "Don''t worry, I''ll make it easy for you."
Yang''s brow fell back down, and she gave me a piqued look.
I chuckled at her. Then I lifted.
A thousand pounds of steel settled onto my shoulders. My muscles immediately cried foul and pain shot through my nerves. The weariness I''d managed to push away was standing in front of me, waiting patiently to buckle one of my knees with a sledgehammer. My aura stretched thin across me, trying to keep any one part from losing strength. It would only take one thing.
I inhaled, gently and slowly letting myself descend. Keeping whatever measure of control I could against the thing on my shoulder. You can''t fight gravity, at least not forever, and expect to win. It was always a battle of lasting just long enough to make it a stalemate.
My knees clicked as I reached the low point, and I braced myself for the return trip.
With a concerted effort, I shifted my aura back to my legs and began to roll slowly through the motion. Breath hissing out through my teeth. I couldn''t stop, if I did I''d lose all my momentum and be in real trouble. What little momentum I could make with a thousand pounds of metal on my back. I could almost feel my aura flickering and crackling, ready to give up everything and leave me to the mercy of Newton.
Then I straightened out, and found myself unable to go any higher.
Cautiously, I stepped back, and let the bar begin to fall.
It caught the hooks of the rack and settled with the heavy thud of a car crashing into a brick wall.
A thousand pounds. I''d hit my upper limit with aura and it blew everything I could do without it out of the water. With only a month of learning to use it.
I could only get stronger, and that boggled my mind.
Everyone who''d been paying attention paused and looked. Anyone who wasn''t was when the bar crashed back into place. My teammates and Sun were cheering around me. I could see Nora pumping her fist. Yatsu was nodding in approval. Even Port gave me a gentlemanly clap.
Cardin merely threw his weight down in frustration.
It landed on his foot, so things evened out.
Right as the achievement settled in though, one of the muscles in my back decided it hated me. It immediately drew up on itself and I spasmed suddenly. A nice, completely unwanted, jolt of pain arcing up my back.
"Damn, dude!" Yang said
"Yeah." I said, trying to reach for my back. "Damn."
Good in the Springs
"Lower." I told her. "Just a little bit to the- Yep, right there."
"You got it, bub." Nora chirped.
Then she rammed her fist into my spine like a ten-pound hammer. Eliciting a sound more like I''d broken something than anything good.
But boy did it feel good. I''d had that particular crick in my back since landing in Vale.
After both breaking my personal best and my back at the squat rack, we muddled through in short order for the rest of the day. I gave Peach some minor help on the grounds despite that, then settled in for the night. Jaune and Pyrrha were on dinner detail this time, and I was eager to cash Nora''s debt in. I hadn''t gotten it in a way that I was particularly fond of, but a debt was a debt. She was willing to pay in spades as well.
Only a minute or so in, and I could see why Ren had his ''prize'' be a back rub. Nora may have been as flighty as a cazador, and crazy as one too, but she had magic hands. There were knots in my back she''d worked out that had been there so long I''d completely forgotten they were there. Don''t know where she learned to do it, or if she was just that good at hitting things the right way, but it was immaculate.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Ren said, arranging his and Nora''s dinner on their plates while she worked.
"Like you wouldn''t be-lieve." I said, as Nora pressed into a spot near my ribs. "-Know that spot, think that''s where I got hit by a truck."
"Got hit by a what?" Weiss questioned.
"Happened the other night, don''t worry about it." I told her, I looked back towards Nora, sitting on the bed behind me. "You should consider making a business out of this, you''d make a killing."
"I charge in pancakes." Nora chirped.
"Not-ed." I said, looking to Ren next to me "Sur-pri-sed you don''t do this more."
"Pancakes are a sometimes food." Ren said, working to assemble tonight''s dinner. "Lots of carbs and sugar."
"The best things." Nora twittered.
"Well tonight''s dinner seems pretty enticing." I said. "What is it?"
"Just something my mother would make for me every once in a while." Pyrrha said. "Don''t really know what the name for it is, neither does she, but she showed me how to make them."
It seemed like a simple enough meal to make, watching her and Jaune work. She''d prepped some meat beforehand, marinating it in a thick sauce before searing it. After the meat was done and set aside, she threw circles of flat bread into the skillet that puffed with the heat. They were cut open, and revealed a giant cavity in the bread. Which they then stuffed the meat into, along with what looked like cheese, greens, tomatoes, onion, and some sort of cream sauce.
The aroma was positively divine.
Unfortunately, I was on an all liquid diet.
There was a brief period, where everyone got settled and relaxed for the evening. Dinner was doled out, and everyone slowly set in, Zwei leaning up against Ruby''s leg, begging for a piece. Yang tearing into hers, Blake picking at her own. Weiss going to take a bite, and causing the sauce to leak out the back, which she then raced to dab up before it stained her clothes. I noted that Ren had taken the time to make Nora''s for her while she kneaded my back¨C No, kneaded is the wrong word. Hammered. She hammered my back like a blacksmith with a particularly tricky piece of steel.
Which she was working masterfully.
But all good things must come to an end eventually. A couple minutes of having her beat my back into shape, and she pulled back.
"I think that''ll do for now, Bub." Nora chirped. "You''re a tough one."
"Takes practice." I said, standing up and stretching, feeling nice and loose. "Something you''ve clearly had."
Nora chuckled, shuffling on the bed back to her spot next to Ren. As I settled back onto my cot, he handed her one of the¡ pocket sandwiches? Don''t know what the correct word was, but it looked like some type of sandwich.
I reached a hand out for my moonshine and pulled the jar up. The last one, a little less than half full. Didn''t quite understand how I''d run through it so quickly. Then I thought about the jar I wasted because of Weiss. Then the stuff I''d used to sterilize my surgery equipment. Then the amount I drank as a painkiller. Then the amount I drank just to drink.
Really, it was a miracle I had any left at all.
"Anyone want a tipple?" I asked, holding the jar out. "Last call, gonna be dry again after this."
JNPR looked at me like I had a screw loose. Jaune in particular looked like he wanted to retch. Last I checked, he had no memory of the last time he''d danced with the deathclaws on a pale summer''s night. But he seemed to remember the morning after pretty well, the first hangover is always the worst. None of them are fun, but the first one''s pretty raw. Suppose it just had to be Jaune''s luck though, that he was a complete lightweight.
"I don''t think any of us are planning to peel paint tonight." Weiss said.
"Or start a fire." Blake added.
"Or forget the last ten years." Yang added.
"Oh don''t be so dramatic." I countered.
"¡ Or go blind." Ruby said.
"¡" I turned to look at Ruby "Really, you too?"
"I like being able to see." She said.
"That''s cold girl." I said, scanning over all of them. "Y''all need to loosen up a bit."
"That stuff can strip the grease out of a deep fryer." Ren said. "I don''t think it''s safe for anyone to be drinking."
I looked at Ren sternly, then stuck my straw in the jar and drained it. Yeah, it would rot my guts given enough time, but anything would. After that, I put my jar back and laid back on my cot, feeling more relaxed than recent memory could drudge up. Tomorrow would be back to the grind in earnest. But for the moment, I could at least take solace in the fact that I could rest.
"Ahem."
My head swiveled on my cot, looking back across the room.
Nora was looking at me intently. Holding her food just under her mouth.
"¡ So are you gonna-"
"No." I told her.
Nora''s lips pinched into a pout. "You didn''t even-"
"Ruby asked this morning, and I told her no too." I answered. "I''m done talking about Graham and his story, same goes for Zion."
Nora gave me a skeptical look, before letting her gaze slide over to Ruby. Who, for her part, gave a guilty nod. Wouldn''t have mattered if she hadn''t asked first or not. This was a closed topic as far as I was concerned.
"But Six-" Nora whined.
"No, Nora, we''ve been over this." I told her. "As far as anything else goes, I don''t like talking about my own personal history. I''ve been willing to share parts of my life with you guys, but there are things that I don''t want to reflect on. I''ve told you about Graham, and you''ve pieced together something from it. Good on you. But that''s the end of it."
"The end of it!?" Nora squawked "But this is where the story starts getting good!"
"Nora." I cautioned. She caught it almost immediately.
"I mean, it is." She said, slowing down "You were there. There''s so much you could tell us."
"And just as many reasons why I don''t." I told her. "There are some stories better left untold. You heard what you needed to."
Nora''s response to that was to give me a questioning smirk. I''d already been told her story. She knew what it meant for things to be uncomfortable.
"¡ You get one question." I said.
"Yay." She chirped, then pursed her lips and started visibly thinking. I could see the gears turning in her head like the machinery at quarry junction. Slowly and resolutely forcing themselves into motion. Funny considering how deceptively perceptive she''d proven herself to be. Seemed like she could put the pieces together, but didn''t know which pieces to actually look for. After another moment, she nodded to herself and went to ask.
"Bear in mind." I interrupted. "You only get the one. Whatever you''re going to ask, make sure it''s what you really want to know. Don''t forget, I''ll count any question as it."
Nora nodded, giving me a sharp look. Gently she began stroking her chin, like some ancient scholar pondering the existential questions of life. What came first: The gecko or the egg? If a building collapses and no one''s around, does it make a sound? Does the light stay on in the fridge when you close the door? The deep unanswered riddles handed down through the ages of men. Truly, whatever question she would ask, she needed to make sure it was a good one.
She fell deep, deep into concentration. So deep I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears as the effort began to build pressure.
"¡ Ok, we probably have a few minutes before she has anything." I said, looking to Nora''s teammates and mine. "You guys want to try and hash out the plan for tomorrow?"
"What about the rest of the weekend?" Jaune asked. "Shouldn''t we try to figure out as much as we can?"
"Do you know how tomorrow is going to shake out?" I asked.
"Um¡ no?" he answered.
"Then we focus on getting through tomorrow first." I said, before looking at Blake. "You''ve got the rally tomorrow, right?"
Blake nodded. "It''s in the industrial district, near the kingdom limits." She motioned towards the map, growing ever more cluttered on the table we''d placed it. "With how close it is to the agricultural district, they''re probably planning to funnel out anyone they can recruit."
I nodded. "Make sense, can''t have the fresh meat hanging around. Do us a favor and don''t get hooked by them?"
"Not planning to." She said snidely.
"You never plan to get hooked, you think a fish ever plans to eat the hook?" I asked. "All it takes is the right bait and you could get stuck all the same."
Blake quirked an eyebrow at me.
"Don''t give me that, you already know I''m speaking from experience." I said.
Blake rolled her eyes. "I''ll be careful, don''t worry."
"That''s all I''m asking." I said.
"Ok, so what do the rest of us do?" Weiss asked.
"We''re probably going to be doing what Six has been for the past few weeks." Ruby answered, looking to her partner, then to me. "Right?"
"That''s the big plan, yeah." I said, waving over towards the map from my cot. "The way I''m thinking of it is this: We''re going to start with hitting whatever places I haven''t covered yet from Yang''s list, and maybe double back over one or two. See if fresh eyes catch what I missed, so to speak."
"We''ll do it with teams of two." Ruby interjected. "We won''t be able to move as fast, but we can be safer and still cover it pretty quick."
I nodded. "A reasonable decision. We keep it in groups of two, we avoid making ourselves look super conspicuous but still make sure we''ve all got support. Likewise, we keep in contact over our Scrolls. If trouble crops up, reach out. We''ll coordinate and move to help."
"But isn''t Blake going to the Rally alone?" Jaune asked, looking towards her. "What happens if something goes wrong?"
Again, another reasonable question, and one Blake would need to answer. If she wanted to throw herself into the Nightstalker den, she''d better have some answers hammered out.
"I''ve been to a few smaller Rallies in the past." Blake said. "Security isn''t heavy, only enough to keep whoever''s speaking safe. Too much and we''d get the authorities'' attention. It doesn''t look good getting caught like that."
"Ok, but that doesn''t answer Jaune''s question." I said, tilting my head towards Blake. "I ran off without getting asked those questions, or having any clue what I''d do if they happened, I''d be remiss to let you do the same."
Blake rolled her eyes. "I''m planning to keep my head down long enough to see if they know anything important. If they don''t I can slip out before they realize it. Anything else, I''d need to actually be in there first."
I nodded. "Better, and can''t ask for much more than that."
Blake nodded, looking down at her food. "¡ I might have also asked Sun to come help us."
"¡ Oh." I said, before turning over slightly on my cot. "¡ Well, that''ll even things out at least. Makes sure you''re not going in alone, and we''re evened out in terms of numbers."
Blake looked at me curiously. "¡That''s it? I was expecting more of a reaction."
"Why?" I asked. "Assuming no one else has a problem with it, we''re already calling in outside help. Might as well make sure our bases are covered."
"Yuh-huh," Yang nodded.
"Quite," Weiss added.
"Does that actually make us even?" Ruby pondered. "¡ Huh, guess it does."
"That said, we''re going to probably want to have words with him tomorrow before we do anything." I said. "Should have time while we''re setting things up at Tukson''s, which would also be our first order of business."
Blake nodded, seeming content with the answer, and likely the reaction. Her reaching out to Sun for extra help was, admittedly, a bit unexpected. She wasn''t normally the type to do that, especially considering the arm twisting we''d needed to do to just get this far. However, that she was willing to do so meant she was taking this seriously, and not taking pointless risks. Good to try and avoid those. Was I thrilled that Sun was now involved? Not particularly, the kid had done some bad and some good. Most of the bad was admittedly unintentional on his part, but the good was more opportunistic.
He was a Wild Child. But he was also willing to be friendly with Blake.
Wild or not, extra numbers in a place we otherwise couldn''t get them was welcome. We''d hammer him tomorrow.
"Ok, so we''re splitting into teams of two." Ruby said, ticking things off on her fingers. "We''ll be staying at Tukson''s for the weekend, so we''ll need to pack clothes and food for Zwei."
At hearing his name, Zwei yipped, tongue lolling out of his mouth.
Ruby finally caved and gave him a piece of dinner. He bounced and caught it as she tossed it lightly away. Little pup snapped it up and had it scarfed in a flash, licking his chops eagerly.
Sated by his meager tithe, he toddled across the room and sat next to my cot. I''d say he was looking up at me, but he was practically the same height as the cot. More he looked me in the eye than anything. Beady brown eyes like a pair of polished stones.
I reached an arm out and pulled him up onto the cot with me. Ignoring the snickering coos of my teammates.
"Once we''re in Vale, we split up and look for clues." Ruby continued, smiling oddly at me. "¡ What do we do if we find something?"
"Same as if Blake hits a snag: reach out." I said, scratching Zwei. "Communication is key. Things change, we need to be ready to react. We''ll probably want to meet up once or twice throughout the night too. Figure out what we''ve found, get our bearings."
"What do we do when we run out of places to look?" Jaune asked. "You''ve been doing this for over two weeks, right? There can''t be too many places left."
"Feels like it''s closer to three now, and you''re right, there''s not." I answered. "Once we finish up with Yang''s leads, we''ll need to reconvene and look over our findings. Whatever shakes out from that, we keep going with it, until either nothing else turns up, or we find what we''re looking for."
"Does that mean we''ll possibly be getting into fights with the White Fang too?" Pyrrha asked.
"More than likely, if the past few weeks have been any clue, yeah." I said, craning my head towards Pyrrha, as Zwei licked my mask. "Best case scenario: there''ll only be one, and that''s if we manage to track down where the Fang are operating out of. But I find that to be overly optimistic, and we''re probably going to have more than a few nightly brawls over the weekend. My advice: pack water. You''re going to get thirsty."
Pyrrha nodded. "Yes, that would make sense¡ and we should contact everyone before or after fighting?"
I mulled it over for a moment, then shrugged. "Think that''ll need to be based on context. If you think you can reasonably handle whatever you find yourself up against, you can probably get away with a post-fight announcement. On the other side, if it looks like it''ll be too big to handle on your own, relay it and we''ll figure it out¡ of course, if it also looks like trouble is imminent if you don''t step in-"
"We''ll make the call." Pyrrha said.
"Correct." I said, looking at Ruby and Jaune. "A lot of what''s going to be happening will involve working in what''s basically a constant gray zone. Sometimes it''ll be obvious what the right call is, most of the time it won''t. Remember that we all need to take this seriously. If fighting does break out, that means people''s lives are officially on the line. I think you understand the significance of that, but I can''t help but stress it: be smart."
Both Ruby and Jaune nodded. They got the point.
"Ok, so what are we doing specifically?" Weiss asked. "What teams are we dividing into, where are we each going?"
"Hm, dunno about the where yet." I said. "Vale''s a big place, and even with the extra people we''d still have a lot of ground to cover. If there''s places anyone''s more familiar with than others, it''d probably be good to send ourselves there. Make sure everyone''s working in familiar territory¡ Is anyone here familiar with Vale outside of the shopping districts?"
Ruby and Yang nodded, Blake did as well, but more minutely. Her experience was likely limited, as was Weiss''s. They didn''t have as much reason to be running around the more tucked away places in Vale. But at the very least, they''d explored the city somewhat. Blake after she''d run away for being outed as a faunus. Weiss when we''d had to track down Blake.
JNPR on the other hand, looked askance. Except for Nora, still pondering the existence of the appendix and navel.
"¡ Ok, wasn''t expecting much, we don''t all go romping in places we shouldn''t." I said.
"Sorry." Pyrrha said. "Outside of a bit of shopping and entertainment, we don''t normally go to Vale."
"I get it." I said. "Not much sense in going someplace if you don''t have a reason to. Not everyone is an explorer. But that does make this more difficult, since we can''t have everyone bunched in one area."
"Then we''ll just have to make sure we''re spread out properly, right?" Ruby said. "Yang and I know enough about Vale that we can find our way around on our own. So we can partner with either Six or Weiss to cover any part of the kingdom."
"Which means JNPR can cover the parts they know better. Or, if needed, we divide ourselves up with them to make sure everyone is more eve." I said, motioning to JNPR. "I''ve gotten a better understanding of Vale the past few weeks, I could help guide you around."
That would at least mean everyone''s on their toes, not getting used to the same area and getting complacent.
"You guys can take the Commercial and Residential districts." Ruby decided. "If you''re familiar with it, then it''ll make it easier, and we can worry about changing things the next day. Yang, me, Six, and Weiss can take the Industrial and Northern parts of town."
"Heck yeah." Yang said, tossing up a piece of her dinner, before catching it in her mouth. "-ibs on -ix."
" Aw, what!?" Ruby whined "No fair! I wanted to pair with Six!"
"I suppose I''m just Pat¨¦ then?" Weiss asked, miffed.
"Dunno what that is, but I''m with Ruby on this." I said. "Better I go with her or Weiss than you, Yang. Unless you think either of them can interrogate someone worth a damn."
"Language." Weiss snipped. "-and I''ll have you know I''m quite good at negotiations."
"Can you negotiate a man into selling his life without much in return?" I asked. "Because for some of them, that''s what they''d be doing."
"Her family''s been doing it for years, should be easy." Blake said.
"¡"
I slowly turned to look at Blake.
Zwei turned to look at Blake, tilting his head.
Everyone else turned to look at Blake. Except Nora.
Blake paled, as she realized she''d said that out loud.
"¡ ow." Weiss said, face falling, looking like she''d swallowed something bitter.
"Damn Kitten." I said. "I''ve seen artillery that''s less damaging than that, like, fuckin'' hell girl."
"I meant it as a joke." Blake said, turning red. "I was trying to be funny."
"Blake I''m all for taking a shot at the rich, but really?" I asked.
"¡ Sorry." Blake said, looking like she wanted to curl up into a little yarn ball. It would''ve been cute and kinda funny if it wasn''t for the fire she''d almost started.
Weiss simply nodded, her own cheeks reddening.
"¡ Well, if it''s any consolation, at least we know you won''t have any trouble fitting in at the Rally." I said. "Heck, say more things like that and they might promote you on the spot."
Blake gave me a sharp look. Helped cut through all that yarn she was tangled in.
"¡ I''ll take Weiss with me. We''ll take the upper half of town." Yang said, conceding, but firm. "But I call night two."
"That works." I said, shrugging. "Gives Weiss a chance to stretch her legs." I then turned to Ruby. "That means you and I take part of the Industrial and Commercial districts, Tiny."
"Cool." Ruby said, smiling.
"Aside from all this, I think that covers everything." I said. "Nora and Ren will partner with each other the first night, same with Jaune and Pyrrha. We can change it up the second night if need be, and if there''s issues we can meet up part-way through the night and sort them out."
"Sounds good to me." Yang said, tossing another piece of food, this time for Zwei to catch.
"I agree." Pyrrha added. "Assuming nothing goes wrong, it should make for a good start."
"With luck, we''ll get more done in one night than I could do in three." I said. "Most of you seem to have better luck than I do, so it shouldn''t be a problem."
"Aside from that, where would we be looking specifically?" Ren asked. "Vale''s a pretty big place."
"Well, we''d be starting with the bars and clubs." Yang said, flashing Ren a smirk. "Dark and shady places, the seedier the better."
"So any place you''d expect to get mugged outside a coffee shop?" Ren asked.
"Pretty much, and even then you''d have to pay attention to the coffee shops." I added. "You''d be surprised at the number of White Fang stash houses I found operating out of seemingly innocuous businesses. Either the owners were sympathizers or were being coerced into helping."
Ren nodded, furrowing his brow.
"That would explain the clothing store on Maple Street near the park." Jaune said. "Everyone in there had a shifty look to them."
"I think you''re underestimating the world of retail." Blake said, slowly finding the nerve to speak again.
"No, seriously-" Jaune continued.
After that they began to talk about all the weird facets of Vale. Trying to think of any random business that could be a front for the Fang to work out of. It wasn''t hard, given how blank and shadowy working some of those dead-end jobs could leave you. It felt like a lot of the random people I''d see in Vale at night were that way. Stumbling home from some place they''d rather not be. The ones stumbling back from the bars were easier to pick out. Most of them at least had some kind of smile on their face. Or some similarly disoriented guy or gal hanging off them.
It was around that point that the moonshine finally started to kick in. The implants around my heart would begin filtering them out before long, but for a short while at least I''d have a relaxing buzz. So I just eased back and listened to the conversation roll on. Eventually it stopped being about the clothing store, and more a general question of what constitutes someone looking shifty. Then it devolved into a conversation about how realistic crime fiction was, which then turned into a conversation about movies.
Once we started down the path of how realistic the Story of Navy Hale was, I knew we''d gone off the rails.
But I didn''t mind. It was nice, peaceful even. Doing this gave me a sense of nostalgia.
How long had it been, since I''d gotten to sit down with everyone in the Mojave and just relax? It hadn''t been since before I took power. Sure, Boone and I would go hunting, Raul was around, and it wasn''t like everyone else was hurrying to run off elsewhere.
It had been a long time though.
Almost without even thinking about it, I fished my picture of everyone out of my supply box, dog-earing the page in Huck-Finn for later. Needed to do some more reading. Blake''s book was enjoyable. Maybe when I got a second I could go to the library, see if there were any more. Or even just find something new. Seditious or not, the written word was a seductive medium.
One of my hands wormed its way onto Zwei''s head and began absently scratching at one of his ears. He leaned into appreciatively, as I looked at the picture. Funny how almost everyone was in it. Arcade would''ve been only a few blocks away from the 38 at the time. I''d even been on relatively good terms with the Followers. I''d just never run into him until after everything hit the fan. After¡
It was funny. Looking at the picture. How happy it was.
How much it hurt now.
Things never were quite the same again. Never bad. Just not the same.
"¡ Do you miss them?" Ruby asked.
"Hm?" I grunted, tearing myself away from reminiscing.
I looked towards Ruby, and saw her looking at me with a soft smile and a knowing look. A look JNPR, Yang, Blake, and Weiss seemed to be mirroring. Something understanding about them. Had they stopped and I wasn''t paying attention? Or had they asked me a question and I was too out of it to answer? Didn''t matter.
"Your friends back home." Ruby answered. "Do you miss them? I know you''ve been here a few months now, and you don''t really talk about-"
"It''s fine." I said, sliding my photo back into the box. "Just a habit I had when I''d drink back home. We hadn''t been together for a good while even before I came here. Barring the odd excursion to go meet with them. The picture was just from a time when most of us were together¡" I chuckled as a realization hit me. "Y''know, saying it out loud, I realize how sad that sounds."
"Guess that''s a yes." Weiss said, nodding.
"Hm." I grunted.
"When did you take it?" Ruby asked. "It doesn''t seem like you have a lot of pictures, so it must''ve been important."
I shook my head. "Not really, it was just¡ I don''t know, the right place and the right time?" I moved both of my hands under my head as I turned to look up at the ceiling "Cass and I had just finished taking care of some personal business, for the both of us. Just so happened that the day we got it done was a holiday for the founding of the NCR. When she said it usually involved barbeque and day drinking, I was all for it. We met up in the Lucky 38 with everyone, I cooked, we drank, partied, and just generally had a good time. Took the picture before the food was done¡ Just a really happy time is all."
"Definitely sounds fun." Yang said. "You got any other pictures?"
I shook my head. "Not many. I''d take them on occasion, if I thought the sight was pretty enough, or worth trying to capture. But I left most of them back in the Mojave. Only kept the one I felt I needed to where I could find it."
"D''aw." Yang cooed.
"Don''t make it weird." I said. "It was a good time. I wanted to have something to remember it by in case I got shot in the head¡ again."
"I can picture it." Yang smirked.
I just shook my head.
"Did you have a lot of times like that one?" Ruby asked. "You don''t talk about any of them, but if they mean a lot to you¡"
For a moment, I thought about some of the adventures we''d all gone on together. Me and Lily, delving into the Devil''s Throat to handle some of the local centaurs. Raul helping me fix up my old motorcycle, before I went and wrecked it again. Studying under and helping Arcade while we tended to the sick in Freeside. Returning to Vault 34 with Veronica, despite what had happened there. Finding the parts to help ED-E repair his systems, and pull back his recordings. Tracking down Legionnaires with Boone, and hanging around the Tops when we had time off. Said it was where he''d met Carla.
Then there was literally any trouble me and Cass got up to¡
I sighed out through my nose. "More than a few, Tiny. They just tended to be stretched out over the course of a lot of different things¡ It was good while it lasted."
Ruby nodded, and I noted how somber the others became. I''d already made it clear multiple times, and not even more than a few minutes prior, this was a closed subject. There were just things I was never going to be comfortable talking about. All of my companions were like that. Sure, I got them to open up to me. But I didn''t ask them to tell me everything. Sometimes, knowing felt better.
Sometimes, it just hurt.
I didn''t see a reason why they needed to find out.
As they began to move on though Nora, in her usual fashion, came to a conclusion. Having apparently achieved enlightenment, looked at me and grinned manically.
"Alright, I know what my question is." She said, catching her and my teammates'' attention.
"Do you now?" I asked dryly.
"Yep." She chirped. "And I think it''s a good one."
"Mhmm." I nodded.
"It is." She chirped.
"Right."
"It is!"
"Of course."
"It''s a great question!"
"Naturally."
"You better answer it!"
"We''ll see."
"WE''LL SEE!?"
"Will you just ask already!?" Weiss snapped.
Nora paused, before turning to Weiss with a guilty smile. Weiss simply rolled her eyes, and Nora turned back to me. "You better answer it. It''s an easy question, and if you don''t answer it you''re a butt!"
"So I''ve been told." Gesturing with a hand. "Hit me."
"¡" Nora grinned manically.
I instinctively moved away from her, which amounted to me wriggling to the back of my cot. "Not like that- Don''t you dare."
"I''m not doing anything." Nora chirped. "But you better answer, bub."
"Ok, and?" I said, gesturing again.
Nora smiled contentedly, and said: "It''s a really easy question: are there any stories you can tell us?"
I paused and looked at Nora.
It was an unexpected question, if nothing else.
She quickly explained.
"I wanted to ask you about Joshua and his story." Nora chirped. "But you being a secret-y little butt means you won''t tell us anything even if we ask nicely, which I was going to."
''Secreting butt?''
"But then I realized, there''s all kinds of things you don''t want to tell us!" Nora squawked, jabbing a finger at me. "You just don''t want to tell them to us¡ and then there''s the stuff you do want to tell us. And it''s all random! All stuff you just ''happened to in the area for''- Don''t give me that look mister man, you know I''m right!"
I was not giving her a look. Honest.
"You''ve got more stories than you''ve told us about." Nora chirped. "Maybe you don''t want to tell all of them to us, and fine, be that way¡ But they can''t all be like that, you just told us a story about that picture. You gotta have something, and I wanna hear it!"
She settled down again beside Ren and fixed me with a stern look. Which, for Nora, it surprisingly was. She took story-time very seriously. If there was something I hadn''t told them, and there wasn''t, she''d try to find out about it. I''d been on the receiving end of her persistence, and had managed to avoid the worst of it. Most of the time. Still had that dent in my head from her chasing me down.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I mulled the question for a little bit. Maybe stalling for time, maybe thinking of an answer. Really, just trying to rationalize it to myself. There were a lot of reasons I didn''t like telling them stories about my time in the Mojave. Lots of things I just didn''t want to talk about. But they''d proven resilient to some of the more horrible, and outright heinous, things I''d told them. Which meant that it was only the personal things that were keeping me from telling them anything.
They already knew I killed people though, and had mostly moved past it. Seemed to understand that it was just part of life, well death technically, in the Wasteland.
Maybe they could handle a story? Not a terrible one, but something¡ good? No, good was the wrong word¡ hopeful? Nope, still not it.
Fuck it.
My head rolled back down to the box under my cot, and I thought back to those simpler times. When I was just running around the Mojave, trying to find Benny. If I could pull a story from then, before things got complicated, maybe that would work?
"¡ Well? We''re waiting." Nora chirped, smirking deviously. "Haven''t heard a no yet."
"I''m considering things." I answered.
"That sounds even less like a no." she said, a smirk blooming into a smile.
"What are you considering?" Ruby asked, starting to smile herself.
"What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead." I said.
Nora blew a raspberry "Easy, a pound of lea- Wait¡"
I chuckled as she rapped herself on the head. She could be a good sport.
"Is there anything you''d want to tell us about?" Ruby asked, then shook her head. "No, there isn''t- but could you try?"
"Hm." I grunted, honestly trying to think of something. There were so many places, some things, I didn''t know where to begin.
Except, then I did.
"¡ How about I start at the beginning?" I offered. "Feel like I''ve been in trouble since day one¡ come to think of it, if you count my getting shot in the head over a poker chip, I''ve technically been in trouble since day zero."
Nora''s eyes began to sparkle. "You''re going to tell us?"
"Not all of it, just¡ something I am proud I did." I said. "¡One thing I know I did right."
"What''s that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked.
"Don''t worry about it." I said, looking back towards the ceiling. "Lot of stuff in the Mojave, things don''t always turn out alright."
"We''ve kinda gotten that." Yang said.
I nodded. "Looking back¡ suppose that just makes how things turned out that much sweeter"
(¡)
I don''t remember much, about what was supposed to be my final moments. But I remember even less about everything else before them. Helps make them stand out.
Few things stick in your mind like being knelt over a shallow grave with a gun to your head. The guy with the gun, a checker-suit wearing yutz with a bigger ego than he deserved. Rambling on about how ending someone''s life was just a game, one rigged for you to lose from the start. An 18 Karat run of bad luck.
Then: Bang.
Bang.
Into the ditch with you. A few scant shovelfuls of dirt as a consolation prize. Shuffle off to the afterlife and don''t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
"Language," Weiss whispered.
That''s how the story should''ve ended. How it did end, for whoever I used to be. Dropped in a ditch off one of the main roads to New Vegas. Package, life, and memories gone in a pair of strokes. Would''ve been the end of it.
Then, I came to. Just enough presence of mind to begin clawing out of my grave, so I''m told. I was found by someone who''d been sent to make sure the package, the Platinum Chip, was delivered properly. Only allowed to intervene once it was clear I was going to fail. Only to fail themselves in that charge, due to unforeseen complications.
This person, rather robot, was a Securitron dubbed Victor. One of many that patrolled the streets of New Vegas, but so far from home.
"One of the big wheeled ones?" Ruby asked, eyes sparkling. "With the grenade launchers and-"
Victor, having overcome his complications, dragged me from my grave and to the nearest doctor. Resulting in my being taken to the town of Goodsprings. A community not far from the Vegas limits, but separated by a long stretch of bad road and worse bugs. Cazadors, jittery little beasts.
"You mean buggers." Yang smirked.
It was a remote place, out of contact with a lot of the local politics. Secluded enough that any news of a wayward Courier surviving a brush with death would take a few days to travel. Enough time for me to be treated and recover. Made easy through the use of stimpacks, and being taken to someone who actually knew what they were doing. Doc Mitchell-
Weiss cleared her throat.
(¡)
I turned my head towards her "Yes, Snowflake?"
"Stimpack." She said, speaking the word slowly, like it tasted odd in her mouth. "You''ve mentioned them in the past, but brushed it off. Can you please explain what they are now?"
I shrugged against my cot. "There''s really not much point, you''ve already seen them in action. Remember when I had to pull the bullet out of my arm?"
"Unfortunately." Ruby muttered.
"You did what!?" Nora squawked.
"Remember that needle I stuck myself with?" I asked. "That was a stimpack. A cocktail of chemicals, nutrients, hormones, and other substances meant to boost one''s healing abilities. It works well for basic wounds, and helps with more serious ones. It''s not a perfect solution, but in a pinch it works where you need it to."
"¡ So it''s a health potion?" Yang asked.
"A what?" I asked back.
"Nevermind." Yang said, shaking her head and smirking.
"..." I turned back towards the ceiling. "-anyway."
(¡)
Doc Mitchell was the guy put in charge of patching me up. He was a good man, a former Vault resident who''d lived in Vault 21 for most of his life. Only being forced out when Mr. House evicted everyone. He''d landed in Goodsprings, and had been responsible for the surgery that''d likely saved my life. He pieced my brain back together, and allowed me to rest in his clinic for several days. Perfect chance to lie low without worrying about some checker-suited asshole coming back to undo all his hard work.
Unfortunately, not everything was so easily fixed.
Days after Victor had pulled me to safety, I woke up. The first few hours had been some of the most uncomfortable I can recall. Nothing felt right, nothing moved right. Like I was wearing clothes several sizes too large and struggling to keep from getting tangled in them. But they weren''t the worst thing.
The worst thing, was that my memory was gone. Almost all of it. Doc Mitchell helped me work through the motions of everything, tried to reassure me it''d come back with time.
But nerve damage is one of the things Stimpacks struggle with fixing. And the brain is nothing but nerves.
Despite that personally disconcerting hiccup, Doc''s bedside manner was flawless. He ran me through a battery of tests to make sure I was up to snuff. Made sure all my faculties were in order and I wouldn''t have to worry about losing control of my bowels."
"Gross." Ruby grimaced.
Once all was said and done, Doc gave me his late wife''s pip-boy, forever trapping the hunk of steel around my arm. But it was a thoughtful gift. Equipped with every function and monitor to survive in a world that I suddenly found myself lost in. He then returned what few personal effects I''d had on me at the time, what amounted to some leather armor, a hat, and a laser pistol of all things. Though it was broken, and I ultimately traded it for a 9mm not long after. My situation from there was not a pleasant experience either. I was effectively lost. Alone in an unfamiliar region, no memories, no acquaintances or contacts that I knew of, and without a cent to my name. Had I been any place else in the Mojave, I''d have been dead within the hour.
But Goodsprings was a good place. It was in the name. Peaceful little farm town that it was. Most folks that lived there were retired, big horner ranchers, or both. The worst they had to worry about were the odd Gecko coming in to mess with the water supply. Or the odd Cazador that found its way down through the pass. I couldn''t have asked for a better place to get my bearings. It started with simple movement exercises, and basic mental gymnastics. Enough to get everything running right. Once I was mostly down to rights, I set to work helping around the town to earn myself some cash. I didn''t have a clear idea what my plan was, but I wouldn''t get anywhere without some pocket change. In the course of this, I met Sunny Smiles. A hunter and resident peace keeper for the town.
"Sunny Smiles?" Blake said, almost giggling.
"Shh!" Nora shushed.
Sunny was a good woman, sweet as could be. Had a dog by the name of Cheyenne she kept with her. When I went to her, she already knew who I was. It was a small town, word traveled fast. Especially when you''re the new guy and you run around calling yourself ''Courier Six''. But she was patient with me. She gave me a spare Varmint Rifle and helped me get my finer motor skills working. It would be a long time before I got good, if I ever had been before. But she gave me a safe space to sort myself out. Showed me some places around town that were abandoned, so I could practice my lock work. Let me try my hand at repair work, fixing the Radio at the local saloon. Taught me the basics for cooking and survival¡ In a way, I owe a lot of what I am today to her teaching me. She couldn''t have taught me everything, but she taught me what I needed.
It was good.
But it couldn''t last forever.
Week and a half, maybe two after I woke up, another traveler found their way to Goodsprings. A caravaner by the name of Ringo, worked for the Crimson Caravan company, a big trade outfit in the NCR. He was the sole survivor of a raider attack on his group, and had barely managed to escape with his life. Scared, he asked for a place to hunker down and hide. Do much like I did when Victor showed up. And, like they had with me, they gave Ringo a place to hide. An old fueling station, at the outermost edge of town, opposite way he''d came from.
Not long after he''d arrived, trouble followed.
The Raiders that had attacked his caravan weren''t some small-time crooks. They were an organized group known as the Powder Gangers. A cabal of escaped convicts from the nearby NCRCF that had chased him-
"Hold it." Weiss ordered, raising a finger.
(¡)
"Yes?" I asked
"The who?" Weiss asked. "You never mentioned anyone called the ''Powder Gangers'' before. Yet now you make it sound like they were some massive problem."
"At the time they were. To me at least¡ relatively speaking." I said. "After a while, as tensions and bigger problems brewed in the wasteland, Darwinism resulted in them disappearing."
"Darwho?" Blake asked.
"Famous scientist from before the world. Developed a functioning theory on the evolution of life." I quickly explained, before turning back to Weiss. "Short hand, since they don''t matter: The Powder Gangers were NCR convicts that had been shipped outside their territory. The NCR was going to use them as labor to help develop the Mojave, since the settlers they''d sent were expected to try and actually settle the land. The convicts were just expected to build infrastructure while serving their sentences. Build structures, make and maintain roads, general maintenance that''s the backbone of any society. Of course, being violent criminals conscripted into hard labor they resented it."
"Then what changed?" Pyrrha asked.
"The guy in charge of the program had failed basic comprehension." I said. "They needed the Convicts to mine a quarry for stone, so they gave them the tools to do it¡ Including dynamite."
A look of confusion spread over everyone.
"Dyna-what?" Ruby asked.
"¡Explosives." I simplified. "They gave the convicts access to mining explosives."
"¡ they what?" Weiss asked, looking ready to have an aneurysm.
"They gave the convicts access to explosives." I repeated. "The convicts then proceeded to smuggle it back into the prison and stage a jailbreak, killing all the guards. Hence calling themselves the Powder Gangers. Like a powder keg waiting to explode."
Another moment of silence passed. Everyone genuinely appalled at the lack of¡ just any intelligence.
Weiss buried her head in her hands, something I''m pretty sure Kimball did after hearing it too. "Oh my GODS."
"Yeah." I said. "After that, they used the prison as a base of operations and began raiding. Doing everything they could to keep the NCR from coming back. Which meant accosting anyone who happened to pass by. Which leads back to Ringo¡ and back to the story."
(¡)
The Powder Gangers chased Ringo all the way to Goodsprings. Fully intent on finishing the job they''d started. Upon arriving however, they couldn''t find him. The one in charge of the group, a man named Joe Cobb, began routinely harassing the Town''s Matriarch and Saloon owner. A tough woman by the name of Trudy. He made it clear that they wanted Ringo, and as long as he was handed over, the gang would leave the town in peace. Trudy didn''t buy it though, and the town protected Ringo. Though they knew they couldn''t do so forever, and hoped he''d know when it was best for him to leave.
Not long after, I knew it was my own time as well.
I was as close to good as I was going to be, and I couldn''t live off their good graces forever. The only thing to do was to head out into the Mojave, and try to find my own path. Whatever that would turn out to be. The only clue I had to follow was a contract for the Mojave Express delivery service. Signing me as the one delivering a ''Platinum Chip''. The nearest Delivery office was a couple miles down the road. Figured they''d be the place to start, maybe they knew more about me.
But, on the road there, I noticed a group of Powder Gangers hiding not far off the path. Worried they might try to stick me, a lone traveler, I took cover and waited for them to pass. They wound up hunkering there for a while, waiting for more of their number to show up. I got to hear them talk. Mostly nonsense and empty threats.
Then Joe Cobb showed up.
Said they''d be getting back up from the guys in the prison.
Thirty of them, on top of the ten that were already there.
The Powder Gangers were looking to expand their territory. Ringo escaping to Goodsprings had been a happy accident for them.
They were going to raze the town, then set up anew on the ashes.
"Oh no." Nora whispered. "What did you do?"
I wasn''t sure what to do. Most of me just wanted to run away. I''d only just barely survived my own visit from the reaper. There was no way I was going to survive fighting off forty men in that state. I''d die, and then Goodsprings would be destroyed anyway. The smartest thing I could''ve done was collect my things and run when the sun went down. Just like Trudy had hoped Ringo would do¡
But there was a part of me that wouldn''t have it. A small, incessant part of me.
Those people had taken me in, no questions asked, and put me back together. They were honest and peaceful folk. Trying to survive in a place that was slowly becoming less honest and a whole lot less peaceful.
Despite it being the smart move, I knew if I walked away, I''d regret it.
I wouldn''t let the new memories I was making be tainted by regret.
So I turned around and ran back to Goodsprings. I didn''t know what I was going to do, Trudy and the towns folk had been adamant that they didn''t want to fight. They wanted peace. But if they didn''t, they''d die, as it was the odds were already against them. But I had to try, something, anything.
I got back to town and went straight to Sunny and Trudy. Told them everything I''d overheard, what was coming their way. Though Trudy didn''t want a fight, she was convinced that Cobb was up to no good, and took my word. So we got planning, we wouldn''t have long. The biggest issue would be convincing folks to pitch in. We were going to need munitions, ordinance, and medicine. First two for the actual fighting, and the third for patching up after the fact. Doc Mitchell was the easiest to convince, all I had to do was ask. He didn''t want to fight, but he wasn''t going to abandon Goodsprings. He''d built his life there after being removed from the Vault, and he wasn''t going to abandon the memory of his wife. The trouble came with collecting the ammo and explosives. It took a lot of teeth and a lot of pulling to get the owner of the local general store, Chet, to lend a hand. Despite his life and livelihood being worth more than a couple bullets, he insisted that he be reimbursed somehow. Never mind if we lost he''d be killed to begin with.
"What an idiot." Weiss said, shaking her head.
The last person who needed convincing was a retired prospector by the name of Easy Pete. He had his own cache of dynamite from his scavving days, which would level the playing field more in our favor. Though Pete was more pliable than Chet, he wasn''t easy like his name suggested. He knew better than to be putting explosives in the hands of people who had no clue how to safely use them. I had to give myself a crash course on whatever information I could find just to convince him I''d be responsible.
"You mean so you wouldn''t blow it." Yang said.
Somehow we managed to prep ourselves in the nick of time. There were ten of us to their forty, literal four to one odds. But we knew the terrain better, and there was only one way they could come into town. We set up on the rooftops mere moments before they made it over the horizon.
It was show time.
¡
I was crouched on the roof of The Prospector''s Saloon, hiding behind the upper lip of the signage, desert wind blowing through my hair as I carefully held the dynamite in my hand, Varmint Rifle near my side. Peering over the edge of the signage, I could see Cobb''s Powder Gangers coming up the road. They hyped themselves up for an easy job, came armed to the teeth with guns and dynamite. They knew they''d have us on numbers and surprise alone.
We''d taken one of those away from them, it''d have to be enough.
"Here they come." Sunny said, peering over the sign herself. "You ready?"
"Nope." I said, heart thundering in my chest. "On my signal."
Sunny nodded, then turned to look over at Chet''s store. Easy Pete, Chet, and Ringo were hiding on top of it, better vantage point. Across the street, on an adjoining farm house, a few more residents were waiting. More than them, further up the hill just off the main drag. They''d give whatever cover fire they could. Trudy was with them, looking down through binoculars.
We waited as the Powder Gangers got closer, running up the road, firing their guns into the air. If we hadn''t known they were coming, that would''ve gotten people''s attention fast. Caused them to panic.
Instead, we watched them run their way into the town. Waited until they were as close as possible. If we attacked too early, and actually managed to win, they''d scatter. Have time to come up with a better plan. One we wouldn''t be able to anticipate. If we were going to fight, we needed to win it the first time. No chance for repeats.
Cobb''s gang funneled onto the main drag, still hollering and shooting their guns. I could hear glass shattering and bullets hitting the wood. Had to hope they weren''t chucking dynamite into the buildings. Wouldn''t make sense for them to do it if they actually wanted to keep the town afterwards. They kept at it for a minute or two, firing at the empty buildings beneath us. Hoping to kill everyone, or draw out anyone willing to fight.
After burning through a chunk of ammo, the shooting paused. Cobb''s gang fell into a confused silence. They were realizing something was wrong.
Too late.
I lit the fuse of my dynamite.
"Now!" I shouted, pitching the red stick up over the barrier.
There were some confused shouts, for half a moment. Followed by deafening thunder and shockwave that rocked the saloon. Before my ears even had a chance to stop ringing more explosions followed it, as Easy Pete began lobbing his ordinance. The blasts that followed hitting harder and louder.
Somewhere around the second or third explosion a severed arm landed on the roof, next to my rifle. I grabbed it, my rifle not the arm, and came up over the side of the sign. Sunny, next to me, did the same. Almost immediately drawing a bead on someone and firing.
The scene in the street below was carnage. Pete''s aim was either really good, or he was damn lucky. There were craters in the ground where his explosives had gone off, others peppered around them. Some even larger and deeper. A guess says they''d been carrying extra dynamite. Which explained the harder explosions.
There were nearly two dozen men on the ground. I didn''t immediately count them, but I could tell by the way Cobb''s men were scattered a good chunk had been caught in the blasts. Only a few of them were actually dead, but they were the lucky ones. The rest were writhing on the ground, maimed by the explosion. Force having ripped limbs and torn them to raw meat. Fire scorching their skin black.
I drew a bead on another, still trying to recover from the blasts, and fired.
Even if we''d cut their forces in half, that left twenty men left to fight, including Cobb.
We were still fighting an up-hill battle. We needed all the momentum we could build.
Sunny leapt up beside me, and we fired in tandem. I did my best to make sure I was nailing someone each time. I wasn''t a bad shot, but with my finer motor skills still out of whack missing wasn''t hard.
Chaos followed as Pete and Chet continued to toss dynamite, keeping Cobb''s gang scattered and scrambled. They tried to recover, but between the efforts of Sunny, Me, and the farmers across the way, it was clear they''d made a mistake. In a blink, twenty turned to fifteen, as we caught a final few before they could recover. Only after that did they start trying to fight back.
The battle turned when Cobb lobbed a bundle of dynamite at the house across the way. I remember shouting for them to take cover. But I remember the blast being louder. The building caved in with a fiery crash. We pulled them from the wreckage later. I only hope it was as quick for them as it had been for us.
After the building fell I managed to take out two more of the gang before Cobb gave his act an encore. A stick of dynamite landed on the roof with me and Sunny, and we had to dive off it to avoid the blast. I must''ve fallen two stories before hitting the ground. Hurt like a sonnuvabitch. Should''ve been my first clue to avoid high places. Nearly broke my arm on the landing, but managed to scramble to my feet. Miraculously, the saloon didn''t collapse from the explosion. Either I had more luck back then, or the saloon was just built better. I''d lost my rifle in the fall though, and the powder gangers weren''t afraid to seize the moment. I had to bolt around the back of the building to lose them, then cut around the back of the general store. Took the corner back around to the main drag, grabbing the first thing I could for a weapon.
Which turned out to be a shovel Chet left out for grave digging. Ironic.
I''ll admit after hitting the ground that what followed was mostly my trying to dodge bullets. Harder, in a world that doesn''t have things like aura. Meant I had to spend more time running than standing my ground. Made worse by the fact that Pete and Chet had started getting very liberal with the dynamite. There were bodies everywhere, and I knew that even though Sunny and I had lost our position, there were still people shooting. Like all others, our battlefield had descended into chaos after the first shots were fired. The best I could do was try and avoid getting shot, while still trying to take out as many of Cobb''s men as I could.
I actually managed to take out three of them. Which was probably the biggest surprise of that whole mess.
In the span of maybe five minutes of fighting, we managed to decimate Cobb''s entire gang. Cut their numbers from forty down to a number you could count on one hand. They tried to retreat around them, but Sunny and I weren''t having it. Sunny and Cheyenne would chase the rest of Cobb''s men into the hills, and ultimately came back from the incident in one piece. Said she left their bodies for the Geckos and crows to fight over.
Cobb wound up falling to me to deal with.
I chased him back down the road to prison. He spent the whole time trying to shoot me, but kept panicking and missing. We wound up going that way, the whole distance back to the camp I''d originally caught him and his boys at. He made his stand there. Made the smart choice of it too. It was more familiar ground to him than me. It very quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse. Who was which seemed to change with each exchange.
But I think the victor is obvious, given who''s telling the story.
Cobb caught me as I was attempting to pull from behind cover, and hurled a stick of dynamite at my feet. No way in hell I was going to run before it blew.
But I still had Chet''s shovel.
I caught the dynamite in the air and batted it back to Cobb. Funny thing about dynamite, it''s incredibly finicky and unstable. Kinda like Dust. Handle it the wrong way, it''ll explode for no reason. Part of the reason it was later phased out for a substance known as trinitrotoluene, or TNT. Though even that would explode if, say, a set amount of it went off in close proximity.
Cobb was carrying multiple sticks of dynamite on him.
What was left of him wouldn''t fill a pill bottle. Much less a coffin.
¡
It was only a short fight, way shorter than others I''ve been in. But it was the first big one I''d ever involved myself in. It hadn''t been smooth. People died on both sides, and Goodsprings was still damaged in the crossfire. But compared to the mess it could''ve been, the outcome was preferable. The casualties were minor, and the buildings could be repaired and rebuilt. With Cobb gone, the Powder Gangers left Goodsprings alone. They learned from his mistake, the town was small, but absolutely vicious in a fight.
"I''m sure it was a blast." Yang smirked.
After burying the dead and cleaning the town up, we celebrated. Spent a night drinking and dancing in the saloon. I felt¡ good about what I''d done. These people had kept me safe when I''d need it. I managed to return the favor and then some.
It set the town for a lot of what I did after that. I took to covering my face for security''s sake, after leaving Goodsprings. Just to make sure the man in the checkered suit, or any enterprising Powder Ganger, wouldn''t be able to track me so easily. But I didn''t forget about what I''d done in Goodsprings.
Neither did they.
(¡)
"Goodsprings wouldn''t be safe after that." I said, scratching Zwei''s head. "Trouble would still find its way there from time to time, just the nature of things. Sunny and Cheyenne would eventually wind up falling to it, later on. But I never forgot about them, or what they did for me." I paused, thinking about the town, how it''d grown. "I''ve made some bad calls in the past. Ones that''ve gotten people killed. Sometimes it''s simple and easy. It would''ve been easier not to go back. Lot of people in my situation wouldn''t have. I did. I don''t make the right call all the time. But I did on that one. I think I''m allowed to feel proud of that."
My head swiveled, so I could get a look at everyone. They were¡ well, they looked enthralled. My tale might''ve seemed tall, but they were hanging on every word. Especially Nora, Yang, Ruby, and Jaune. Weiss, Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha were still marveling at the story. They were just better at keeping their expressions composed and muted, especially Ren and Blake.
"You saved a whole town of people?" Ruby asked.
"Goes both ways." I told her. "I''d be dead if they hadn''t taken me in."
"Then you led them in a fight against forty people?" Weiss asked.
"Didn''t have a choice- well, actually I did, but no other option I''d have taken." I said. "What else was I supposed to do, Join Cobb and sack the place? No thanks."
"Did you really blow him up with his own dynamite?" Nora asked, practically shaking with excitement.
"Yeah, actually." I said, chuckling. "On a list of pretty wild things, it''s low, but still on there."
"¡ You know, part of me thinks I should be upset that you killed him." Ruby said, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "But it''s, like, how at the end of the movie the bad guy is offered the chance to surrender, and instead he just keeps fighting. Like it should be sad-"
"But he had it coming?" I offered. "Yeah. Except Cobb wasn''t one of those sympathetic sorts. More than once I caught him threatening Trudy and the town. He got what was coming to him."
Ruby simply nodded at that.
"I''m not proud about having to kill those people." I said. "I''m proud that I managed to keep a bunch of folks who I knew were good, safe from a bunch who were bad. Like I said, things aren''t always so cut and dry. They just were at that time."
"I have a question." Weiss said. "You said this was a long time ago, correct? Just after you recovered from being¡ shot in the head?..." Weiss grimaced. "That feels really weird to say out loud."
"It does, every time." I said. "And yes, it was."
"You made it sound like you were more... I don''t know, organized?" She continued. "Given everything that we''ve been doing lately, it does sound possible. But when we first met you, you seemed¡ different. A bit more erratic."
"Part of landing in an alien world." I said. "I was struggling to get my footing, and maybe didn''t make some of the smartest choices I could have¡ Though being honest, I''d been like that for a while."
"Really?" Pyrrha asked, curious.
I nodded. "For a good long while, I was a bit more like I am now, back in the Mojave. Things, I don''t know, seemed more directed and straight forward. I trained regularly, did jobs for people, hunted animals and monsters. It made sense, I guess."
I paused, as memories came back that I''d rather be forgotten. Cold air in my lungs. Cramped wooden walls, the sting of torn sinew and tendon in my hands.
The stink of blood in the air.
I pushed that memory back down. Some things, some people, were better lost to the sands of time.
"¡ Then a few months before I came here, I went on a job." I said. "Had made a promise to someone that I''d help them. It went south, bad. Wasn''t the first time I''d come out the other side of a deal worse for wear, but that one had done a number. In the months before I came here¡ I don''t know, it all just seemed to be a blur. I stopped training, or taking anything seriously. Just sort of¡ fell apart, I guess."
"Six." Ruby said, I looked at her, and saw the soft look on her face. Pinched by concern, silver eyes warm.
I smiled.
"Don''t worry, I''m alright now." I said. "The past couple of months have been a major wake-up call for me. I know who to thank for that."
"Really?" Yang smirked. "And who would that be?"
"Nora." I answered. "Her pile driving my head into the ground got everything moving again."
"Ah HA!" Nora squawked.
That got a chuckle out of everyone.
"Ok, be that way." Ruby said, sticking tongue out. "¡ Just know, we''re here if you need us, ok?"
I nodded. "Of course."
Bullet in the Gun
The Tampico Theater would''ve been a beautiful place in its heyday. The kind of place that could''ve put the Aces to shame. It had everything, space enough for seating and dancing, stage enough for any band, and d¨¦cor that matched the Madre in style and taste. Even after being hermetically sealed for more than two centuries and change, it was still beautiful.
Minus the holograms haunting its corridors.
The way into the Tampico had been mostly clear. The front door had a terminal with the lingering last words of the former employees, and the hall to the theater held some of their remains. Altogether there hadn''t been much cause for alarm, minus a few speakers and radios. If it hadn''t been for them, it was as though the theater had been in stasis. Waiting for the opening Gala to commence and let the crowds in for its inaugural show. One that was long overdue. Almost made me wish I was its intended audience.
As security would have it though, I wasn''t.
I''d stepped up to the stage to collect some items that Elijah and my pip-boy deemed important, when Domino showed himself. He was on a catwalk overlooking the stage, and warned me that the security system had chased him up there. I wasn''t surprised he''d managed to make his way into the Madre, he''d been very upfront about what he wanted from this whole mess. Though I was surprised by the fact he was seemingly happy to see me. Hadn''t figured we''d gotten on very well. But, any port in a storm, enemy of my enemy.
After a quick exchange of barbs, Domino informed me that the security Holograms had chased him up to the catwalk. Then warned me they''d be walking out of the entryway to do the same to me in a moment. With a bit of direction, he had me make my way to house right, stage left, of the Theater. Quickest way out of their sight. Unfortunately, because the system was still engaged, it meant that the exits and most of the doors in the Theaters were still locked down, trapping me and Domino inside. Made me wonder how I''d managed to get inside, but in the scheme of things it was a minute issue. Once I was backstage, I had access to the dressing rooms, and any supplies in them despite Domino''s protests. The two of us were still separated by a sealed door to the Catwalk, so it wasn''t like he could do much to stop me. I found some¡ interesting notes. Added them to a list I''d tallied throughout the Madre.
But I also found something more important: A recording. One for what was probably one of Domino''s rehearsals. Meant to be played when there weren''t any live performers available. The Hologram system really was multipurpose. Which had me realize two things: The system couldn''t keep security going if it had to play Domino''s recording. In addition, if it was a recording for the Grand Opening, it was likely to keep the same security overrides as the Gala itself. In theory, if I played it, I could down the security system in the Theater, if only until the show ended.
I''d been to a few live shows. They tended to go a while.
So I snuck back out into the Theater and kept low among the tables and chairs. The Holograms were very binary in their programming. If they saw me, they''d lock onto me and zap me until I was a charred corpse. But if they didn''t see me, I was completely invisible. They didn''t question if they heard something, or if they picked up movement in the shadows. It was only yes or no, was I there, or not.
With everything in between us, as I walked the rim of the theater, I was as much a ghost as they were.
Making my way to the back corner of house right, I rounded a corner into a stairwell. Behind cover, I quickly climbed up to the projectionist''s booth and set the holotape into the machinery. A couple of keystrokes and button presses, plus maybe a whack or two, and it got working.
On the floor below, I watched with some degree of satisfaction as the Security holograms flickered out. Replaced by copies of a younger Domino and his band on the stage, plus a few observers on the theater floor. Milling about, or seated at displaced tables.
I breathed out a breath I hadn''t realized I was holding. We were out of danger for the moment. I could see Domino across the way, cheering.
"Good thinking, partner!" He shouted, before settling into a chair on the catwalk "Come back over! Should be safe now!"
I nodded and started down the stairs. Without missing a beat, I rounded the corner and started across the theater openly. Happy when I didn''t suddenly come under blue laser fire.
Calmly, I walked back towards the side of house left, where I''d had to work my way from in the first place. Gave me a chance, to watch Domino''s performance from the crowd perspective. Had to say, prima donna though he was, he put on a good show, even to a less than packed audience. Made me wonder what a show at the Fronds would''ve been like, in his day. Even through the centuries old speakers, he still sounded even crisper and resonant than he did at the present. He wasn''t a bad looking guy either. I''d seen his picture before on some posters, had the sharp and defined face shape that Hollywood must have adored. Really showed just how much the Madre and the War had taken from him too.
But then, was it taken, or freely given?
I walked back to house left and backstage. Immediately to the right, the door to the Catwalk. It was unlocked so I let myself in, and was greeted by a long staircase. I could see Domino up at the top, illuminated by a single bare bulb. Without turning to look, he motioned to me to come up and join him. I did so, albeit cautiously. Wouldn''t be the first time a friendly invitation from him turned out to be a trap.
At the top of the catwalk was another console, meant for controlling the stage and its parts. Along with it, Domino and another chair besides the one he was using. Unlike the first time we''d sat together though, these were basic folding chairs. All steel, no cushion to be hiding explosives under.
"Take a seat, partner." Domino said, amiably. "We made it in, might as well enjoy it while we can."
I nodded, and took the seat next to him. He was looking down at the show his Hologram was putting on. Expression was a bit hard to read. Only thing I was getting off of him was bitterness.
"Those electric ghosts aren''t the kind of audience I like at the best of times. At least the ones in the Villa had taste." Domino said, then scoffed. "Don''t even know how I ended up here. Guess the Madre still remembers guests even after all this time. How''s that for history?"
"Better than other kinds, plenty of bad around here otherwise." I said, watching as Domino''s projection danced. "You alright?"
"Yeah, now." Domino said. "Talk about a captive audience¡ or captive entertainer?... Ech, whatever."
I nodded. Taking a moment to pull out my Police Pistol, and reload the cylinder. Had to waste a few bullets on the speakers, better to make sure I was topped off. When I was done, I put it back in its holster.
"Look, I''m more about short goodbyes than long thankful speeches." Domino said, pursing his scarred lips. "But¡ I appreciate you bailing me out of a tight spot there, partner." He leaned back in his chair. "I know you didn''t do it out of the goodness of you heart, so why don''t I give you something a little more practical- A way we both come out ahead in this."
"What did you have in mind?" I asked.
"I''m not an idiot." Domino said, echoing something he''d said to me when we''d first met. "I know the only reason I''m in here is because of the old guy¡ and you." His head lolled to the side to regard me, with a lopsided smirk. "-and you''re wearing a collar. So I trust you a little more than I do the old guy. He''s more controlling than I''d like."
I nodded, content to hear him out.
"Thing is, here''s where being my partner pays off." Domino said, turning back towards the show, smirk growing. "See¡ I know how to get into the Casino Vault."
I felt my eyebrow rise in curiosity. Domino must have been able to tell he really had my attention now. His smirk only got bigger.
"What do you mean?" I asked, mulling his words over with what I already knew. "Explain."
"There''s a private elevator, Sinclair''s elevator." Domino said. "It''s up in the Executive Suites, in Vera''s room. Not a coincidence."
"How so?" I probed.
"Vera. She was¡ my other partner, back before the bomb." Domino answered, his smirk fading, voice getting strangely melancholic. "Took some legwork. Some convincing, made it happen. Sinclair was already puppy-eyed, so all I had to do was the introductions. She smiled, fluttered her eyes¡ showed a little leg." Domino swept his arms up, gesturing to the Theater, the Madre as a whole. "¡ And he built this whole place for her. Made her the key to his vault, like a joke, because of her name¡ Her fake Hollywood name."
"Except Sinclair didn''t know you''d been there first." I said.
"And I could twist her whatever direction I wanted." Domino said, voice falling to a growl. "All she had to do was get inside the Sierra Madre for the Gala, then use her voice to open the door. After that¡ smooth sailing. Would have been the biggest heist in history. Sinclair left holding the bag. Ruined." Domino''s waxy lips cracked into a smile.
"That''s when the bomb hit." I said. "Stopped this whole place in its tracks."
The smile melted off of Domino''s face. "Like the flash bulb on a camera, at the finish line of Humanity''s race. " He said, lowly. "Vera got sealed in here. A few hundred years go by, give or take. Almost the end of the story¡ Then you came along." After a moment, a smaller, more vindictive smile cracked back across Domino''s face. "Now, we finish the job. Rob the Sierra Madre, rip out its heart. Last chapter of Fredrick Sinclair. Close the book."
I nodded looking down to the stage. Letting Domino''s feelings of rage and spite linger for a bit. Let him marinade in them. Two centuries plus, what was a few more seconds. It made him more pliable.
"There''s just one thing I don''t get." I said. "Why? Why any of this? What was your problem with Sinclair?"
"Problem!?" Domino snarled "I''m not the one with the problem, he is. Acting all high and mighty, lording it over everyone. Acting so self-righteous, like nothing could hurt him, touch him." Domino''s hand flared up, lashing outward in large gestures. "Never got mad at anything. Nothing seemed to shake him, even after his life kept getting dragged through the dirt¡" Domino calmed himself, letting his hands fall back to his knees. "Always kept looking on the bright shining future in everything¡ So, I decided to take everything from him."
"¡ Ok." I said, a little more pointedly now. "But what did he do to you?"
"Do to me? What, weren''t you listening?" Domino hissed, looking down at his younger ghost, still swinging at the mic. "He thought he was better than me. Don''t believe me? Look around." Domino gestured to the Madre once more. "This big casino, this colossal monument- You think it was all for some woman?" He chuckled, derisive and mirthlessly. "No, all ego. All self-righteous in lights. Fit him perfectly. Had to take him down a few pegs, bring him down to my level." He shook his head. "''Begin again?''¡ Some things you don''t get back up from. I was going to prove it to him."
"And you''re still going to prove it now?" I asked, my voice growing stony and grave. "How?"
Domino paused, setting his jaw. "¡ Wasn''t sure, at first." He said, after a long moment. "Then, the old man showed up. You showed up¡ Then the woman with the scars showed up."
I felt my stomach enter free fall at the mention of Christine. I knew instantly, before Domino had even started speaking, who''d locked Christine in the Auto-doc back at the Clinic.
"The one who makes all the hand signs, a little tight around the corners of her mouth?" Domino prompted. "It took some work, but the Clinic let me tune her, like an instrument. If she heals up? It won''t be her voice she''s speaking with anymore."
Another realization clicked in my head. "¡ You made her sound like Vera." I said.
"Assuming the Madre hasn''t claimed her, yes." Domino said darkly, then shrugged. "Even if it has?... Well, there''s enough of her still around. What''s a few more years piecing together a few recordings?"
"And if she''s still alive?" I asked, gravely.
Domino smirked "Then she can make some beautiful music¡" His smirk vanished. "I''m personally not banking on it."
I nodded, then made sure I had things right. "So Vera is the key to getting down into the Vault, where Elijah wants to go. If Christine''s alive, her voice can now act as the key to open the Vault."
"If she''s not, you can piece together the remaining bit of Vera''s voice from the recordings." Domino said, leaning back slightly in his chair. "You do that, the Madre spreads its legs, and we''re in business."
I leaned back slightly in my chair as well. "All this, just to find out we need a dead woman''s voice to get inside¡ can''t ever be simple."
"No. Simple is for bass players and mindless starlets." Domino chuckled. "You and me, partner? We''re cut from a different grade of material. We know what we want. We know how to get. It."
I nodded. "¡ Guess all there is to do now is press forward. See what I can do on my end."
"You do that, partner, knock yourself out." Domino chuckled. Without pause, he decided he''d had enough of the show, and stood up. Stretching in a way that made his centuries old bones creak and crackle. "As for me, I think I''ll catch my breath for a bit. Pop down to that little snack bar in the corner there and see what''s on tap. This show''s put a little more¡ pressure on me than I was expecting."
I nodded, but didn''t get up from my seat. Domino walked around my seat and went for the stairs. He started down them at a leisurely gait. Humming along to the music still playing in the background.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Four.
My hand flashed to my holster and drew my Police Pistol. It whipped to my side, in line with my shoulder, and almost instantly drew a bead.
I fired at the back of Domino''s head.
Missed the mark, but caught him anyway.
Blood bloomed from the side of Domino''s neck, as the bullet passed just over his collar. The force of the round ripped through Domino, causing him to stumble forward. It evolved into a full fall, as he rolled forward down the stairs. I heard him connect with each one.
Only after it stopped, did I get out of my chair, fixing my armor.
I''d known Domino was responsible for what had been happening in the Madre. Getting to pick through the place with a fine toothed comb meant turning up a lot of notes, journals, receipts, and records. He didn''t put his name too much, but I could see the connections. To the construction company, to the way things didn''t even seem to keep to schedule. All the pain and suffering everyone had gone through stemmed as much from him as Sinclair''s own poor management.
I''d only learned about his connection to Vera after finding the notes in their dressing rooms.
At the end of it all, I''d only wanted to understand one thing. Something that could turn the whole thing around, and shed some light on the subject: why? What could Sinclair have possibly done to Domino to leave him with the sole, burning desire to see him destroyed. Had it been something heinous, maybe I''d have just let the whole thing go.
But, Domino''s answer?
Sinclair had the audacity to be an even remotely better person than him.
That alone was reason enough to try and sunder him.
Domino made his choice as quickly as I''d made mine. It didn''t balance or even things out. A lot of people, both directly and indirectly, were dead because of the choice Domino made. More would die, as long as the Madre stood.
He didn''t get to walk away.
I''d dealt with enough monsters like him recently. Knowing what needed to be done was old hat.
You had to shoot them in the head.
I started down the stairs keeping my pistol in my hand and at the ready. I could see where Domino had landed. He''d left a lot of blood behind him. Must have caught an artery. But the blood was dragged forward in a smearing trail. As I stepped down, I saw Domino had pressed himself up against the wall opposite the door. His sunglasses had fallen off, and his suit was soaked in red. Both hands, one of which could''ve gone for a pistol, were clasped tightly over the wound in his neck. Blood oozed between his fingers.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and stalked up to him. He watched me with bewildered, confused, and maybe even hurt eyes.
My pistol locked at my hip.
"It''s like you said." I told him coldly. "Some things you don''t get back up from."
I fired.
A hollow pointed wad of lead painted the wall cherry pie red.
¡
I rolled over in my cot to find that I hadn''t spent the night alone. At some point during the night, Zwei had toddled over and decided to join me. Which didn''t bother me too much, cleaning up the dog hair would be annoying but not unmanageable. Though it did annoy me that he stole a sizeable chunk of the cot. Literally laid down in the middle and forced me to try and mold around him.
My sleep disturbed, I got into gear maybe an hour before I otherwise would have needed to. Put me roughly back into the frame of when I needed to wake up to do morning training. Though knowing I had both aura training, and prowling Vale to look forward to later in the day, I opted to take it slow instead. There wasn''t much sense in grinding myself deeper into the ground.
So I got dressed, made a pot of coffee, and headed up to the roof of the dorms. Even carried Zwei with me, because I felt like having company.
I took a seat at the east-facing edge of the roof and waited. My cup o'' bean and chaw juice in one hand, and my tactical support pup using my leg for a head rest. For posterity, I was sipping through my straw. Just safer that way. Most people might not be looking up this early in the morning, but there were more and more transfers coming in everyday for the Vytal festival. Despite it still apparently being a few weeks from actually starting.
But I sat there, on the roof for a while, watching towards the horizon. It''d be coming up over the wilderness at the Kingdom''s edge. The air was cool and damp, for a summer morning. Dew was settled on the stonework and plants below. The heat wave we''d been going through had decided to back off it seemed, even if only for a short while. Though it''d make little difference elsewhere.
I turned and looked over my shoulder, to the west.
And the distant, dark, and nightly silhouette of Vale.
I''d be returning to it in about twelve hours, with a gaggle of teenagers in tow. Things weren''t going to be getting any easier from here, but it was hard to imagine them getting worse either. It was a bridge we''d need to cross and burn together when we got to it.
Until then, why let it spoil the morning?
So I sat and waited, with Zwei, and my drink. Watching as the sun painted the sky like oil on a canvas. The extra humidity in the air promised it would be an exquisite work.
No matter what else happened, it was the start of a good day. If I believed that, maybe I could make it so.
¡and maybe molerats would fly.
¡
I held the armor plating in my hand, lifting it up to get a better look at it.
"How is it?" Ruby asked leaning in over my shoulder
"Better than I thought, but still not good." I mused "Did my best to not get hit, but anything that did needs to be checked over."
The damage from my getting ambushed by the Fang was evident. Dust wasn''t as good about putting holes in things, but they still left marks, divots. I could see a long scratch where Neo had been able to catch me. Pock marks where some spicier bullets had gotten their mark.
Smartest thing to do would''ve been to scrap them and get new material to work with.
But that would mean working to find out what grades of material would be reasonable substitutes. Which would take more time than I had¡
"You wouldn''t happen to know what steel around here would be good for armor, would you?" I asked Ruby. "I''m familiar with some of the scrap available back home, but I''m a little out of my element here."
Ruby pursed her lips for a moment, then shook her head. "Nope. Sorry."
I shrugged. "All good. I''d rather not take the chance if I could avoid it, but shit happens." I set the piece back with the rest. "Most of it still seems serviceable, the material I made the repairs with was of a comparable grade. I just know this stuff has limits. Should be able to take a few more hits though."
Once more in the workshop, my teammates, and JNPR were going over their equipment. Methodically, with a fine toothed comb. Anything that could be a problem would be, and I told them they needed to be ready for tonight. While there were a lot of things that were going to be left to chance, their personal effects couldn''t be. They were the one thing that we had any control over. Last thing I needed was for someone''s gun to hang-up, or get jammed mid-transformation. Just because it hadn''t happened yet, didn''t mean it couldn''t.
The only one who I wasn''t really concerned about was Jaune. His weapon was pretty simple, and as long as he knew how to use whetstone, he was in good shape.
I set my hand to the chin of my mask. "¡ I could scrap the targets from the Range out-back. They''re made to take a beating, so they''d have to be a decent quality material."
"But then you''d be breaking the range." Ruby said.
"¡ Good point, that kills that idea." I agreed, affixing the armor plates back into position. "Gonna need to do some reading. You''re bound to have something around here that can stand pretty close."
"What''s this made out of anyway?" Ruby tapping at one of the armor plates.
"Originally?" I asked. "A high grade, abrasion resistant steel, sealed with an anti-spal coating and belted over a Kevlar tunic. Unfortunately, everything has its limits, so I''ve had to make repairs. Most of the plates are actually an improved layering of ceramic and ballistics steel. Cuts down on the weight, while keeping the protection the same. Though the use of ceramics eats away at its durability, when sandwiched between steel plates, it still serves its purpose."
"Why not use a different material?" Weiss asked, next to Yang across the table, the cylinder of revolver-rapier-toothpick¡ revolrapick?... her weapon hinged open in front of her. The cylinder pulled off its axis as she cleaned the timing grooves with a wire brush. "There are bound to be better solutions than just layering things together."
"Well, yes and no." I said. "Yes, there are better alternatives. But most of them came with their own drawbacks. Material costs, weight, workability, availability, and chemical make-up to name a few. Ceramics and steel were just the more common choices because the facilities already existed to readily produce both. Not to mention formulating them was simpler and easier. Same goes for Kevlar, since it''s just aromatic polyimides synthesized with the appropriate lab equipment."
"Aro-what?" Ruby asked.
"Synthetic fibers brought about by mixing an Amine with Carboxylic acid and applying heat." I explained. "They produce a fiber similar to asbestos that can be woven into cordage and sheets, which are then woven into Kevlar."
Ruby gave me the glassed over look of a dead fish.
"¡ It makes armor." I said, simplifying it, before turning back to Weiss. "Point is, there probably were some classes of material that did make better armor. But with resource shortages and the price of materials, cheaper was better. Wouldn''t be surprised if the higher-end stuff did use some combination of a Titanium alloy and self-healing ceramic"
I knew T-51b and later variants of Power Armor did. That and their electroplated silver coating. It made them a bitch to repair.
"Sounds like a lot of work just to stop a bullet." Blake said, breaking down her weapon on the opposite side of Yang.
"It is, which is why you''re better off not getting shot in the first place." I said.
"Sounds like something you have a lot of trouble with." Yang said, removing the ejector from her shotgauntlet/ballistic fist.
"¡"
My hand snapped out across the table, and I grabbed at Yang''s gauntlet. She was ready for it though, and immediately pulled it out of my reach, my fingers only barely catching on something as she did.
Yang gave me a bright smirk. "Really?" she asked, quirking and eyebrow.
"Really." I said, holding up the piece I''d still managed to get.
The main recoil spring.
The smirk melted off her face.
I placed the spring between my thumb and pointer finger of my right hand. The two began compressing the spring rhythmically. Testing its strength and the amount of resistance it had. I could, almost annoyingly, already see how far it could go if I let it.
"Kinda an important bit, this spring." I said. "You really ought to take better care of it."
Yang''s brow creased, and her voice took on a warning tone. "Don''t you dare-"
I compressed the spring, angled my hand, and let it slip my fingers. It shot off into the air, wiggling and spinning as the material returned to form. Yang''s arm snapped out to catch it. Too slow, as it passed right over her hand. We watched it rise higher and higher into the air, moving in a shallow arc. Upward, five feet. Seven. Nine. Apex at ten.
The spring trailed back down through the air in an easy line. I''d gotten my angle right, so it would''ve landed back on Yang''s weapon. Except Yang had moved forward to try and catch it.
It bounced off her head instead. Springing off it and onto the floor behind her.
As it rolled to a stop somewhere in the background, Yang gave me a soft glare.
"Your spring is worn down." I said, helpfully. "Were it up to snuff it would''ve disappeared. Might want to replace it, last thing you need is for your gauntlets to jam mid fight. You''ve got a good punch, but a gun is a gun."
Yang didn''t say anything, just giving me the stink eye and a sharp exhale through the nose. She pushed out of her seat and went to go find her spring. I had to guess it hadn''t gone far. Most of its momentum was lost in the initial arc. If she lost it, I could spend some time helping her make a few spares.
I focused on putting the plates back into place. Once they were secure, I set the vest aside and turned my attention to my duster. It was in worse shape by a mile. The vest might''ve been able to tank the multiple shots well enough, but my coat couldn''t.
"Can you fix it?" Ruby asked, looking it over.
"Sure, it''d be easy enough, just time consuming." I said weighing things out. "The question becomes: is it worth the investment to make those repairs? If it still works despite the new tears and holes, then I can put it off for a little while longer. If it can''t, it means replacing large stretches of fabric, since stitching individual holes doesn''t really solve the issue."
Ruby nodded, poking at my coat as it laid on the table. It seemed like she was counting the bullet holes. There were maybe a dozen of them, spread across the thing. One in particular stood out on the left sleeve. Byz would be pissed if I brought it back for a fix already. Or maybe not, since he seemed to enjoy having a customer that paid in precious metals. Aside from them, there were a couple small tears, and some dirt and debris, a smearing of oil and what looked like paint chips.
"¡ It''ll have to do." I decided, shaking my head. "There''re more important things I need to do here today, and fussing over my armor isn''t one of them. Clock''s ticking, if it''s not gonna slow me down it''ll have to do."
"It''s just a coat." Yang said, sitting back down.
"It''s a duster." I clarified. "You should try one sometime."
Yang looked at the coat as I folded it up, then smirked. "I wouldn''t say it''s dusty, but it''s definitely dirty."
"Har-har." I said, setting my armor aside. "Next you''ll tell me it''s only a thin coating."
Yang smirked. "Well, if you''re going to say it-"
"That wasn''t an invitation." I said.
Yang rolled her eyes, but kept smirking as she began playing with her spring, her face turning thoughtful as she did.
Armor set aside, I picked up That Gun and started on a basic maintenance routine. It hadn''t taken much of a beating, but basics were basics, and you neglect them at your own peril. I finished it quickly, and moved onto my Lever-action shotgun in short order, snapping open the action. Most of the internals were looking good, not much new wear and tear. Maybe a little bit of residue building up in the barrel, but nothing a quick swab and cleaner didn''t fix. I gave the parts a quick hosing with oil for protection, and lube, then set it aside. Only simple one left was my flare gun, and it was even easier than the other two.
It had served its purpose in spades though, and deserved one last cleaning before retirement back into my locker. I was going to need more than it could give, going forward.
Funny, wasn''t the first time it had made such difference.
I reassembled my Flare gun and set it neatly with my shotgun and That Gun. I then took out Blood Nap and carefully began stropping it on a whetstone among the assembled tools. Felt a snag when I''d used it on myself. Couldn''t have that. Totally wasn''t trying to put off the bigger problems I needed to deal with.
One of which was sitting directly in front of me.
Well, what was left of it.
I''d lost the electrode and seventy percent of the shaft from my cattle prod. What was left, was arguably the more important pieces. The power cell, the controls, and most of the electrical components. The parts that made it work, but not the ones that made it useful.
"What happened to it?" Ruby asked, clearly tracking my gaze.
"Gave up the ghost keeping me from getting cut in half by a chainsaw." I said slowly stropping Blood Nap. "Thought it could take it. Chainsaws aren''t meant for cutting through metal. Turns out, someone else wasn''t happy with that."
"Sounds like something out of a horror movie." Ren said, running a swab down the bore of one of his pistols.
"Felt like it at the time." I said, testing Blood Nap''s edge. It was good enough, couldn''t put it off any longer. Too much to do, not enough time to sit on my hands.
"What do you want to do?" Ruby asked. "We can probably fix it, there''s a lot of spare parts around here, it wouldn''t be hard to make something work, right?"
I shook my head. "No, it wouldn''t, but that''s not the biggest issue. During the fight, I kept having to juggle my weapons trying to keep ahead of everyone. If it were just my shotgun and pistol, it wouldn''t have been so bad. But my cattle prod was good for buying me breathing room." I rolled the remains of the weapon around with a finger. "Simple, effective¡ but ultimately limited by its size. Better than punching someone, but too slow to draw and either required me to lose a hand, or leave it stowed. But it still works."
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"Just not good enough." Ruby said.
I nodded, reaching up to the chin of my mask again. "Fixing it would be easy. It''s all about arcing a current through someone. I could fix it as easily as connecting two nails to the stump and soldering the wires into place. But it wouldn''t resolve the bigger issue, if anything the changes in design would make it harder to draw and holster."
"So that just means you change the design to something that works better." Ruby said, smiling. "We''ve got the tools and stuff, you just need to figure out what would work."
"Hm." I grunted. "That''s the problem then, what would work better?" I loomed over the table, looking at the broken weapon. "Electricity-based weapons aren''t super common in the Mojave. Most of them are ranged weapons."
"Like the Tesla-"
"Yes like the Tesla cannon, Nora." I said, looking over at the girl.
She merely smiled back.
"Don''t sweat it." Yang said. "I''m sure inspiration will strike you eventually."
I rolled my eyes, and turned to address her next. But before the words could leave my mouth, my eyes trailed back down to the table. To Yang''s gauntlets. Almost as soon as my eyes settled on them, I could feel the wheels begin turning in my head.
We didn''t have a lot of weapons in the Mojave that used electricity. Plenty that were powered by it, but few that used it directly.
But I knew about the ones that did.
"¡ Get it?" Yang asked, smirking. "Strike you?... like lightning?"
"Hm, yes, shocking, brilliant, thank you." I mumbled, staring intently at her gauntlet before flicking my eyes down to my busted cattleprod.
''¡ this might work.''
"¡ You ok there?" Yang asked.
"¡ Yang, I''m gonna need to see one of your gauntlets real quick."
She quirked an eyebrow at me "You think after-"
Unfortunately, Yang mistook my words for a question. My hand shot out, and took the more fully assembled of the two from her. She''d probably have protested, but seemed more shocked by the fact I was going to ignore whatever tirade she levied at me. I engaged the weapon, expanding it to its full size, and set it next to the handle of my prod. Comparing the size of the two, and the complexities in each. I wouldn''t need something as mechanically sophisticated as what Yang had. But they were similar in dimensions. For comparison, I compressed and expanded her weapon, Ember Celica, a few times. Getting a feel for the bracelet and gauntlet mode''s sizes and weights.
With each moment my fingers played over them, I could almost see the blueprints forming in my head. Every way the bolts had to be cut, the grooves milled. How her weapon needed to articulate itself to run right.
Then I set it down, and picked up my prod.
The plans were far simpler. Less cutting and shaping, more tacking and wiring.
A few more seconds and I set the weapons down. The pieces were falling into place in my head. But I was missing something. A point of contact¡
I knew one I could provide.
The idea went crystal clear in my head. A crude one, but one I knew would be effective.
Everyone looked at me curiously.
"Six?" Ruby asked.
"¡ I''ll be right back." I said, immediately bolting up from my seat. With a level of urgency I normally didn''t have, I ran back across the workshop to the locker room. Slipping past a couple students blocking the way, and resisting the urge to trip Cardin as I passed him, I went back to my locker and pulled it open. Of all the odds and ends I''d brought with me, I never would''ve thought that I''d need to use them like this.
I pulled a set of spiked knuckles from my locker, along with my boxing tape and the switchblade I broke when first landing here. The former I''d brought with me, but had never been able to find a proper use for. Compared to a lot of what I''d seen they were underkill. Only serviceable in their conceal-ability. The tape I''d found more use for in training, but had ultimately phased out as well.
They''d both prove useful in this little venture.
Weapons in hand, I shut my locker and hurried back out to the workshop floor. Thoughts swirling in my head about what I needed, versus what I already had waiting at the table. Materials, some wire and scrap metal, something sturdy but thin enough to be easily worn. I was going to need tools, too. Tongs, maybe a torch, definitely a soldering iron for the electrical work, and hammer. A vice probably wouldn''t hurt either, but I could probably get pretty close with what was at the table.
Arms stuffed with my plunder, I made my way back to the table and set everything down. I arrayed the materials in a rough diagram in front of me, some vague idea of how they needed to be pieced together. If I''d time to make blueprints, I''d have an even more thorough understanding. But we had what was left of this class to cobble what I might need together. Then it was back into the fight for all of us, tonight.
Didn''t matter how crude it looked, if it worked I wouldn''t care if it was made of booger welds and scotch tape.
"What''re you thinking?" Ruby asked, eying my all of the gathered garbage with a curious gleam.
"There is one electricity based weapon back home, not too different from the Cattle Prod, called a Zap glove." I said, scoring the pieces at the lengths and angles I pictured in my mind. "Thing is, it''s not built to function like it either, it''s meant to be an anti-armor piece of sorts. Acceptable against soft targets, better against robots and machinery."
And power armor, but I wasn''t going to mention that.
"¡A zap glove?" Blake asked, amused by the name.
"Yes." I said bluntly.
"And you''re going to try and¡ make one?" Weiss surmised.
"Not exactly." I said. "More treat it as a guideline. The standard zap glove is a bit cumbersome. It needs the extra amps and voltage to punch through armored targets. Meaning more components, wiring, power cells, and so on." I set the bits down and took up the remains of my cattleprod. I began disassembling it. Any components that could be readily repurposed set aside, anything that couldn''t was set to be scrapped. "I''ve got no plans to try and fry armor, robots, or armored robots right now. I just need it to be more functional than it was."
"But wouldn''t you need to take the time to plan it then?" Weiss asked. "Designing your own weapon can take days, weeks even for you to get everything-"
"I''ve got an hour at most, a weapons enthusiast, a keen understanding of what I''m doing, and a nitpick who''s apparently trying to invest herself in my affairs." I said, looking up at her from my work. "I think I''ll manage."
Weiss stopped, and gave me a sharp look.
"¡ You wanna keep picking my brain, or work on your own stuff?" I asked.
"¡."
Wordlessly, Weiss picked up her stool and scooted around the table, taking my empty side.
"I''ll take that as a yes." I said smirking.
"I merely wish to watch." She defended.
"Sure." I said, passing the materials to her. "Do me a favor, double check the measurements I give you." I then turned and looked at Ruby. "How good are you with power tools?"
Ruby smirked. "I can put an edge on anything."
"¡ Right." I said, decidedly moving the power tools away from her. "You''ll be on de-burring and hand-tool duty." I said passing her a file. "Maybe welding duty if you behave."
"Deal!" Ruby grinned.
"Are you really sure this is a good idea?" Weiss asked. "A set of blueprints-"
"Will take too long to draw, just¡ trust me, alright?" I asked. "I got a feeling about this. Could be I''m about to start a whole new trend in weapons design."
Weiss merely chuckled.
Some people just don''t appreciate genius until they see it in action.
With daylight burning, we dove into our work. I finished marking the pieces and gave them to Weiss to double check, and eventually help cut, I processed them, and passed everything to Ruby for cleanup. We went surprisingly smooth about it. Maybe a testament to the skill of my teammates, or maybe I was just giving good instructions. I had at least some faith it was the former.
After all the necessary pieces were either cut, cleaned, disassembled, or some combination therein, we skipped along to assembly. Started with a basic rig I could strap around my right forearm. A brace at the wrist for stability. Provide a hinge point for the mechanism. A pair of bars on either side of my arm, ribs running between them for support. Provide a mounting point for the power cells and electronics. Additional space for the switch and regulator. Yet compact enough, close enough that it could be easily worn under my duster. No need to worry about finding space on my belt. The tricky part turned out to be the wrist mechanism. But the hinge, spring, and latches from the Switchblade worked, if crudely. I was going to need it to be able to deploy immediately when I needed it. A bit of rod as a guide had it pop out near my palm. Coming out far enough I could slip my fingers through the holes. Would need to practice the motions, figure out how to make it smooth. Bit of counterpressure had it slip back into my sleeve when I let go. A little push to get it completely out of the way, but that was a later problem. Set the mechanism to a hair trigger. Tap it, and it''d release. Likewise, swing hard enough, I could give a follow-up punch with a little extra oomph.
By the time we were done, Yang and Blake were watching us intently. JNPR had slowed down their own maintenance as well, but knew they had their own goals to meet.
"Well, what''d I say?" I asked. "Not bad for a spur of the moment design right?"
"It''s¡ not as bad as I thought it would be." Weiss conceded, looking over my arm.
"Imagine what I could''ve done if I had a napkin to doodle on." I said. "The things I could''ve accomplished."
"Does it work?" Ruby asked, flitting and orbiting around my arm, eyes sparkling.
"Assuming we soldered everything in place right." I said, double checking the wiring we tacked to the spiked knuckles, wrapped with the boxing tape for cushion, plus an extra layer of electrical tape.
I then extended my arm out to Yang, tapping the trigger and catching the knuckles as they snapped forward. I could hear the electronics begin to hum.
"Fist bump?" I asked, smirking.
Yang looked at me. Then my fist. Then back to me. "¡ Nah, I''m good."
"Chicken." I said, lowering my fist to the table. Letting the spikes contact the wood.
The electrical current immediately began burning fractals through the tabletop. Forcibly finding the fastest way to close the circuit.
I let out a low whistle. "Ok, I''ll admit, it''s definitely pulling a better current. Cannibalizing the soldering iron wasn''t a bad idea."
Guess Dust tech had some other facets I needed to take a better look at. Admittedly the fact it''d been a wireless soldering iron had been impressive on its own. Though I thought it strange they were still using lightning Dust to operate it. The end goal was to heat the solder, and fire dust was just as stable as lightning. More strange design choices.
Yang looked at the table grimly. Probably glad she''d listened to her common sense this time. To be fair, it wouldn''t have severely hurt her, probably. It shouldn''t have been pulling the amperage to cause lasting damage. She would''ve been in for a shock though.
"So, what are you going to name it?" Ruby asked, eyes still sparkling.
"Pardon?" I asked, shifting over to Ruby.
"A name." Ruby repeated. "You gotta name her, it''s tradition."
"Maybe around here, but not so much in the Mojave." I said, twisting my arm, looking over my improvised zap gauntlet. "¡ Well, ok, there are some exceptions, but they''re rare. What am I supposed to name it, Sparky?"
"It''s not a dog, it doesn''t need an actual name." Weiss chastised. "Just something that identifies it as your own."
"So still a name." I said, fiddling with the electronics and turning it off. "¡If I gotta name it, I want it simple."
"How about the Cow Puncher?" Yang offered, smirking.
"¡" I looked up at Yang, confused.
"Because you used a cattleprod to make it." She said. "¡ and you punch things with it."
"¡ that''s dumb." I said, unclasping the Cow Puncher from my arm.
"Fine, call it Sparky then." Yang said, rolling her lilac eyes. "Just thought you''d want something with a little more zap." She shrugged. "A little more¡ punch."
"I think you mean zing, not zap." I said. "Lasers zap, electricity zings, gunpowder goes bang." I lifted up my pip-boy and grimaced, seeing the time. "Got maybe fifteen minutes left. Need to keep moving."
Pushing away from the table, I set down the Cow Puncher, and started towards the reloading bench with my supplies. I wouldn''t have time for a trial run of the Cow Puncher until tonight, but I could deal with that when the time came. Don''t think there was any doubting at that point we were going to be punching people in the face. Only a question of when, not if.
Being as it was a matter of when, I needed to make sure I had the right ammo when the time came.
I approached the reloading bench and set my materials down, brushing aside anything that might slow me down. It looked like someone else had been using the table as a catch-all for their crap while I wasn''t looking. Wasn''t surprised, not many knew how to use the equipment, but a table is a table. Without missing much of a step, I set about making the Dust-epoxy mixtures I''d been using in the past. Having found that they''d been viable, for the most part. However, unlike past attempts, I opted for a smaller projectile size. Jumping down from the range of a 12 gauge slug, to a 20.
First step, give myself faster follow-up shots, even if it meant a smaller bullet for now. Which meant a change of weapon. In this case, my shotgun for the flare gun. No time to experiment with styles of shot. Though the idea of pelting people with buckshot that worked like dragonsbreath on Buffout was tempting.
First order of business was actually making the bullets. Slugs in this case. Ice, fire, and ''gravity'' dust had proven stable enough to work with. So I was going to make a half dozen of each. Enough I could load a tube of them if I needed to, didn''t have time to make more. Mixing three different types of epoxies and Dust at the same time, knowing I needed to work with each of them quickly didn''t leave a lot of room for error. I did, however, take some of the leftover epoxy and mix some ''lightning'' dust into it. Lightning and wind made a flash bang, Ice made statues and engine blocks, and ''gravity'' sent people through walls. If Fire didn''t hit people with a fireball, I''d give up on logic altogether.
The epoxies mixed, I poured them carefully into the bullet molds. Watching the mixtures glitter and glow as they settled into the cavities. They were going to take time to set. Probably longer than class, but I could always finish later, after classes were done. Just could spare a lot of time. Working quickly, I began prepping the shotgun hulls. Taking the empties that I had and popping the spent primers out of them, then setting new ones before priming and wading. I could leave them like that, at least for the time being. Until I had the slugs ready. As long as they weren''t tipped over, they''d be set.
My preparations complete, I paused and checked the time.
Five minutes had passed.
Might have jumped the gun a little bit. Now all I had to do was wait.
Which meant my mind had time to wander. Which can be extremely dangerous given some of the places I knew he liked to roam. The only control I had was over the things I was looking at.
Bullets and Dust.
What could I do, with bullets and Dust?
But after a moment, I felt contented, knowing there wasn''t much. I''d worked things out enough to get an acceptable answer.
"What''cha workin'' on now?" Ruby asked.
I turned calmly around and watched her walk up to the table. She eyed the shells and molds, but was smart enough to not touch anything. After watching me tinker and toy with them for the past few weeks, I knew she''d probably started to take some fascination. But she also knew well enough not to tinker with things she didn''t understand. Well enough, at least, to know observing was the first step to understanding.
"Moving to the next step." I said, motioning to the curing slugs. "They''re not perfect, but they''re good enough that I''m willing to start putting them into my main weapons. Made a couple more flash rounds, some more ice, and a few more of the gravity. Saved my tail once, never know when you need to blow down a wall."
"You have a tail?" Ruby asked checking my butt.
"Very funny." I said.
Ruby shot me a smile, then looked at the curing slugs. "Why are you only using epoxy though? Wouldn''t they not be as good as bullets then?"
"Yeah, which is unfortunate, since it takes some of the utility out of them." I said. "But I''ve had time to mull the idea over, and there''s issues with the current setup." I began ticking them off on my fingers. "The rifling of my guns would disrupt the epoxy, and run the risk of causing the Dust to go off."
"Meaning it would explode in the barrel." Ruby followed.
"Which would be bad." I said. "Which limits me to smoothbore weapons. I can''t imagine making buckshot out of the dust or crystals would be hard, but it''d take more experimenting time, which I don''t have right now."
"-and you don''t want to just use Dust like we do-" Ruby said, smiling. "Because your guns are made for Gunpowder, and you don''t want to damage them, and because you like having them hit harder."
"Another excellent point." I nodded. "Lastly, the idea of filling the base of a lead slug with Dust did cross my mind. Unfortunately, if it impedes the Slug''s ability to form to the shotgun, it can affect accuracy and overall velocity. Two things that wouldn''t be worth the tradeoff for the meager power the small Dust charge might provide."
"Which means you have to stick with this for now." Ruby said motioning to the slugs. "Because you can''t come up with anything else?"
"Not at the moment, no." I said, leaning against the table. "A lot of it is trial and error, more error than trial really. The two can be really disproportionate."
Ruby nodded, looking down at the table. "I remember trying to chamber Crescent Rose was like that for forever. I wanted to try and make her as strong as I could and I had to do so much math."
"Don''t you have to do a lot of math as a sniper anyway?" I asked.
Ruby shrugged, blushing "Sometimes- shut up."
I chuckled, and watched for a moment as Ruby began fiddling with some of the sizing dies. As she did, a thought occurred to me. "What cartridge does your rifle fire anyway?" I asked "We clarified it as .50 in the past, but I don''t think we ever really got in the weeds about it."
"Oh, nothing special." Ruby smirked "Just 12.7x152mm."
"Yeah that soun-" As the words left my mouth, I felt my brain hit the delete button. "Duh-um¡ run that back real quick?"
Ruby smiled "12.7x152mm."
"One-fifty-tw¨C holy crap Ruby." I sputtered "That is a massive bullet."
"As big as I could make it and still carry Crescent Rose around." Ruby nodded.
"Uh, you think!?" I asked. "The standard .50 MG cartridge from the back home is 12.7x99. You''re practically double the capacity!"
"¡" Ruby chuckled, biting her lip.
"¡ what?" I asked.
"Mine''s bigger." She chuckled.
This girl, I swear.
I took a breath through my nose and did some quick mental math. Given what I knew of Dust. Things actually started to make sense fairly quickly. Dust wasn''t as good a propellant, so you needed more of it to achieve the desired result. We''d estimated that Dust has about a third the power of Gunpowder, so a larger cartridge made sense to compensate. The heavier round would still carry most of the energy via inertia, so it worked in its own way. Meaning¡
"What pressure is Crescent Rose rated to?" I asked.
"30,000 psi." Ruby said smugly. "I don''t normally put those kinds of rounds through her, but she was rated at around that when I tested her."
I smiled.
"Well, then that makes her half as powerful as the 12.7x99." I said. "We cap out closer to 50K at the low range."
Ruby''s silver eye bulged. "50?!" She squeaked.
"50," I said, shrugging as I leaned a little further into the table. "But, 30 isn''t a bad number, not at all. We''ve got a .50 cartridge rated for that too. Call it the 12.7 Intermediate." I leaned in a little closer to her. "We use it in Pistols and Submachine Guns."
Ruby looked at me aghast. Not because she was horrified by the mention of new weaponry. Oh no.
I''d just called her baby weak, to her face.
"You jerk!" Ruby said, bopping me with a tiny fist.
"You started it." I chuckled, her fist bouncing harmlessly off my arm.
"You take it back!" She said.
"Can''t fight facts Ruby." I replied.
Ruby scowled at me. "Crescent Rose isn''t weak, she''s big! And strong!"
"Which is why she eats pistol ammo." I needled.
"I never got to test her any higher!" Ruby defended hotly. "She could take it, easy!"
"Of course, of course." I said, trying to wave her off. I''d gone a little hard on her, but there was no reason to push the matter.
Then Ruby marched back to the table, messed with Crescent Rose''s magazine for a moment. Then she marched back over. Arriving with a long, silver and red bullet in her hand.
"Unload it." Ruby said, scowling with the fury of a thousand insulted puppies.
"Ruby." I tried to say.
"Do it!" She snapped. "Then reload it like you would one of yours!"
I felt my blood chill.
"¡ I''m not gonna do that." I said, bluntly.
"Why?" Ruby challenged. "Scared now?"
"Yeah, actually." I said. "Ruby, you''ve got no idea the pressures we''re talking about that''d be sitting right next to your face. Calm down and think about this: if something goes wrong-"
"I''d be fine." Ruby said, picking up a reddish glow. "I''ve got an aura."
"Not the point." I said. "C''mon Tiny, I know you''re smarter than this, and you respect your weapon too much to do something that reckless."
Ruby continued to scowl at me for a moment, all fury and puppies. But as the seconds ticked down, the fury began to melt away, following her aura. The red glow she gained instead lingered on her cheeks in a light dusting.
"¡ She''s not weak." Ruby defended.
"She''s not." I agreed. "She''s just not tested to handle¡ that. Don''t get upset about it, she''s your weapon. You can get her there over time if you want to."
Ruby nodded, still pouting and red.
While she did that, I took the bullet from her and set it in the press.
"What''s the normal powder charge in one of these?" I asked.
"¡" Ruby paused, watching as I began to set the dies. "I''m not sure. I never really got into this sort of thing."
I nodded "Let''s find out together then, eh?"
Using the press, I broke down Ruby''s bullet and emptied the charge onto a scale. Didn''t mess with the bullet or primer, we''d need them yet. Only real question was the amount of powder.
It was¡ surprisingly a lot.
"Roughly 250 grains of Dust." I said. "Way more than I''d use to reload a .50MG, but with energy conversions the power isn''t the same."
Ruby nodded, watching intently.
I set the Dust aside and began to levy out what I thought was an appropriate amount of powder. Something in the ballpark of a hundred grains. "This should put us roughly near your established threshold." I said, pouring and tapping it into the cartridge. "That way you have a baseline to work with. If it doesn''t fire properly, we might need to try a different primer size."
Ruby nodded, taking in what I was saying like a sponge.
I recapped the cartridge with the bullet, seated it, then crimped it shut. Gingerly, I handed it to her. "It''s nothing special." I told her. "There''s no dust mixed in there, just good ''ol-fashioned gunpowder. It''s meant to hit a target hard and put a hole in it. A single job, but it does it very well. I''d recommend not mixing Dust into it either. I get the feeling the two wouldn''t play very well."
Ruby took the large, silvery bullet into her hand and held it gently, turning it over in her hands thoughtfully. "¡ So it''s just meant to shoot something."
"To reach out and touch from a distance, yes." I agreed. "And hit them really hard at that."
She nodded, beginning to look more intently at the bullet, pursing her lips. It was perhaps the hardest I''d ever seen her concentrating on something. Couldn''t even tell what it was until she started speaking. "¡ so you can''t mix Dust and gunpowder, and making the bullets out of Epoxy only kinda works¡" Her eyes widened a little. "What about filling the bullet with dust?"
I felt my head tilt slightly. "¡. I don''t follow."
"The bullet." She said, tapping the tip of the cartridge. "It''s solid metal, so it would protect the dust from the rifling and the gunpowder. Since it''s not smoothbore like your shotgun either, you wouldn''t need to worry about accuracy either. If you bore out the bottom of them, you can fill them and have them work the same without losing anything."
"¡" I felt my blood begin to warm a little. The idea was good, but not quite there. "Good idea, but I don''t know if it''d work, Tiny. We''re talking about a much smaller amount of Dust because of the bullet size, and the Dust is still exposed to the exploding powder. With those two factors, the risk for damage is still the same, and we''d be losing power."
Ruby''s brow furrowed, confused. "Then just use a bigger bullet and cover the back in an extra layer of epoxy to seal it."
"¡"
I stared blankly at Ruby, but felt my brain kick into overdrive as she continued to explain her thoughts.
"Bullets are measured by grains, which is their weight beyond their size, right?" She asked. "The only way to add weight is to make them longer, meaning more room for Dust, and then only having a small bit of stuff at the back wouldn''t change much, right?"
"¡" I cracked a bewildered, positively wondrous smile. "You little genius."
"Hm?" Ruby hummed.
"You, yes you, Ruby Rose, are a genius!" I said, beginning to wheel into motion, feeling a surge of adrenaline. "Don''t let anyone tell you differently, the answer was right in front of me, and I couldn''t see it, but you could."
With time against me, I began to work at the equipment. There were a lot of guns I could try with, but only so many I could carry. While further changes to my kit were needed, the safest option was just to take one or two 5.56''s and test out Ruby''s idea. Taking some spare lead, I cast a pair of bullets in a spare mold. The first I kept solid cast, the second I sank a nail into it as the metal was cooling. Try to pre-form the cavity, save myself some work. Once it was reasonably cool, I took a drill to both and bored out the bullets. One thinner than the other, to test the effect. The bigger the bore, the more Dust I could pack in, but the less structurally sound it would be. Though if the thicker of them blew up in the barrel it wouldn''t matter anyway. Would need to try again with a stronger metal for a jacket. Copper would be the next guess. After they were formed, I took whatever epoxy mix I had hanging around and nearly filled the cavities, namely ''Gravity''. Then capped them with a layer of non-reactive material, and un-infused epoxy. Should''ve been more than enough to stop the gunpowder from igniting them.
I set the bullets down, now holding their deadlier payload. "They''re going to take a while to cure. But I should be able to piece them together before we leave tonight."
"Do you think they''re going to work?" Ruby asked.
"Honestly? I have no idea." I said. "But the theory is sound, as long as they don''t tear themselves apart, they should act as a good middle ground between Dust and Gunpowder. They''ll have more pop to them, but still carry some of the effects that make Dust so desirable. They won''t be as good in either department, because the Dust charge will be limited, and the bullet weights will be lower. But it should be a balanced enough compromise to get as close to the best of both worlds as possible."
"The only way to know for sure would be to actually shoot them." Ruby said, nodding as she looked at her singular Gunpowder bullet.
"I wouldn''t be too concerned with that." I said, motioning to her bullet. "Crescent Rose should be able to handle it, especially with your aura."
Ruby turned the bullet over in her hands, pursing her lips. "¡ Do you think I need to make her stronger?"
I shrugged. "Dunno, haven''t shot her. You''d be more knowledgeable than me in that department¡ Has she served you good so far?"
Ruby nodded.
"Then it sounds like she''s fit for what she''s doing." I said, cleaning up my messes. "She was built to handle the greater stresses of what you knew. You didn''t know about Gunpowder, so didn''t build her with it in mind. Could you replace and change parts about her that would make her stronger, and able to handle those differences? Of course. But if the only reason you''d want to make those changes is to prove a point, then is it worth the sacrifice?" I looked towards Ruby as I cleaned off the bench. "Crescent Rose is your weapon, and you''re clearly fond of it, more so than I am with most of the guns I use. While change is a natural and healthy thing, not all changes need to happen. As long as you''re happy with Crescent Rose, don''t let her not being to my standard bother you. I''m not the one using her."
"And what if she''s not enough?" Ruby asked.
"Not enough?" I asked, chuckling. "Tiny, you swing around a gun that would put most grown men on their asses, but to you might as well be a broom. You tell me, how is it not?"
Ruby paused for a moment, mulling the words. Then a smile blossomed on her face, and she laughed.
"That''s the spirit." I said, my eyes flicking up to the edge of the room. I could see Port was starting to wrap up his own work. "Looks like we''re just about out of time anyway."
Ruby followed my gaze and nodded. "¡ Y''know, if I need to work on Crescent Rose-"
"I''d be happy to help." I finished for her.
She nodded, then motioned for me to follow her. "C''mon, we''ve got sparring today!"
I nodded and fell into a slow step behind her.
Unbeknownst to her, I had some plans of my own for that too.
Cards in the Hand (Anniversary 2023)
After a fairly benign day of studying and yard work, we returned to the room. We didn''t have much going on that night. Everything had gotten resolved with Vale for now. Still some lingering questions, still some trouble. But we''d gotten it resolved in as good a fashion as we could''ve hoped. There was some tension in the air I wished wasn''t, but it''d pass in its own time. Only thing left was to go back to business as usual.
Except tonight.
Tonight was poker night.
It started something like this:
"Four of a kind!" Nora squawked, slapping her cards down. "Gimme!"
"Sonnuva Goodwitch!" I swore, slapping down my cards. Thought I had her, Full House.
"That means the pot is Nora''s." Ren said, sliding the pot to his partner. She giggled and tittered with the biggest grin while he did it.
"Come to mama!" She chirped, sorting her winnings and passing her cards back. I took them and collected everyone else''s, shuffling them shortly thereafter. Couldn''t stay mad, we were all playing for fun anyway.
Besides, the house always wins. The money was already mine, and I hardly cared if they pinched a piece or two.
As per the last time we''d played, we set everything aside and moved the tables together to have the space, circling it. Or ovaling it. Hard to circle a vaguely square shaped set of tables.
"We should do this more often." Pyrrha said. "Battling criminal conspiracies is fun, but I think this is charming on its own."
"A nightlife is good for a young mind." I said. "At least a little of one. But a good bit of socializing is good too, I will admit."
"Quite." Weiss agreed, counting her winnings. Which were substantially more than the last time we''d played.
Credit where it was due, the girl started paying a lot more attention after beating me.
I passed the cards across the table to Blake. "Your turn, Kitten."
Blake rolled her eyes, and gave the cards an extra shuffle, just to make sure I hadn''t tried anything. We then posted blinds, got our cards, and made any small bets we wanted. Ruby, having apparently not learned from last time, bet big with an equally large grin on her face. We folded, she pouted, and set the rotation again. This time the cards went to Yang. She passed the cards out in a sullen silence. We''d decided to try Hold ''em this time. Seemed to keep things moving about the same, but I figured they''d be willing to try a slightly different way of things.
"So what are we going to do now?" Jaune asked.
"Dunno." I said, watching as Yang set out the flop, giving me an ace high, but nearly the setup for a royal flush. "But we''ve got time to figure it out, at least."
I sweetened the pot with a few denarii, and watched as Pyrrha, Jaune, Weiss, and Yang folded. Leaving me, Nora, Ruby, and Blake in. They anteed, and Yang set the Turn, placing a Three of Clubs down.
Ruby smirked, looking around at us. Now deciding to try and hit us with an aureus.
Nora and Blake folded instantly.
I called, watching her. She kept the smirk steady on her face, steely.
She was bluffing. Blake and Nora couldn''t see it because they''d gotten used to seeing Ruby over play herself. But she had won a few hands like that in the past. Tiny may have had a terrible poker face, but she got the principle of the thing well enough.
Then Yang dropped the River. A King of Hearts.
Exactly what I needed.
Ruby raised by another two aureus, leaving her with only a handful of denarii.
I called it, but immediately set enough denarii to match hers too.
The smirk melted off her face.
"What''s the matter Tiny?" I asked. "Afraid to live a little dangerously?"
Ruby''s lips pinched together in determination. There was a chance she''d realized I was about to knock her out. But by this point I''d put her in a bind. If she bowed out now, she''d get to keep playing, but I''d have blown her cover. If she played along, went all in, then she''d probably lose, but then it''d look like she hadn''t started to figure things out. It all came down to whatever she chose to do.
I allowed a few moments to pass. Let her come to the decision on her own.
Then she set her jaw and began to push her coins into the pot.
Right before she could say All-in, there was a knock at the door.
She blinked, I blinked, we all blinked, then looked towards the door.
"¡ Getting a strange sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu." I said.
"I''ll get it this time." Ruby said, stealing the excuse to get up from the game.
She quickly went across the room, dodging around us, the chairs, and the tables. She opened the door, and immediately found a quartet looming over her. Made easy by the fact that most of them were just taller than her.
"''Sup?" Coco asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"Called it." I said, slapping my cards down. "Just when I was about to win too."
"You don''t know that!" Ruby snapped.
"Guess we showed up at the right time then." Coco smirked, looking out over her shades.
"Yeah, impeccable timing." I said.
Ruby stepped aside and let CFVY into the room. Better to talk with them behind closed doors than to leave them standing there.
"We interrupting something?" Coco asked, still smirking at us.
"Poker night," Blake said blandly.
Coco''s eyebrow quirked up.
"Gambling game where you draw cards, best hand wins." I supplied.
"Really?" Coco asked, smirking. "Mind if we buy in?"
"Did you seriously just barge in to ask if you could play poker?" Weiss asked.
Which somehow led us to here:
CFVY inserted themselves into the game with all the grace of a hammer and nail. They made pleasantries with everyone, then took seats around the tables. Zwei decided to even come out from underneath and join the party. Velvet let him rest on her lap, giving him a little scratch behind the ears. He didn''t mind more company, especially familiar faces. Even if their added number did make things a little uncomfortable when it came to elbow room. Blake had to get up and crack a window not long after everyone got seated. It''d gotten warm fast.
I explained the rules of Hold ''em for a second time, and we did a couple practice hands. Hold ''em was more about how you played than Five Card was. In Five Card you could substitute poor playing with better cards. Hold ''em you had to work with what you were dealt, or fold. Both easier and harder to play depending on who you were up against. Though we were definitely starting to push things a little bit. Things started to get a little crazy, with that many players. We''d increased our number by half, so it made sense. More people betting meant more chips exchanging hands. More chips meant people played differently, more cautiously, more aggressively.
"Raise." Pyrrha said, voice calmer and cooler than her normally warm tone. Her green eyes calmly tracking over the players as we all either called or folded.
"Let''s actually play here, eh champ?" Coco said, smirking as she met Pyrrha''s bet and raised it further.
We circled around from them again, and almost everyone bowed out then, myself included. Only Pyrrha, Coco, and Yatsu stayed in. Though I could see he was trying, and probably failing, to read his teammate. Of the hands we''d played up to that point, Coco was about as readable as the scratchings of a jet-fiend. She was a cool customer, always calm, always composed. Translated to being good at poker. Always seemed to know when it was good to push, when to fold. The only person I''d put close to her by that point was Fox. Though he seemed less to be about the aggressive play, and more about knowing what cards were worth playing at all.
Pyrrha, coolly, looked down to her card, then at Coco. She nodded, and called.
Flop. Turn. River.
Pyrrha showed a triple of threes, Yatsu a pair of aces.
Coco showed a triple of sevens.
She smirked as she collected her winnings "Luck be a lady tonight."
"Hm, goes by the name of Ms. Fortune." I hummed.
Despite the dour look she was giving me, Yang snorted out a chuckle. And I mean snorted, she was pretty red afterwards.
We set the cards up and played another hand. Coco Folded that one, but Fox won. Pass, shuffle, draw, rinse and repeat. They didn''t have a hot streak, but they definitely picked the game up quickly. Put all of us on our toes. Went from a purely friendly game to a competition in the blink of an eye. Ren won a hand, then Yatsu, then Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Weiss, Me, Coco, Weiss, Fox, and then Coco again, twice in a row.
"Read ''em and weep," Coco said, flipping her cards over as she raked the coins in.
"I am," Ruby huffed, fiddling with her dwindling coinage.
"Y''know you''re not going to be keeping any of that, right?" I asked. "We''re just playing for fun. Most you''re going to get out of tonight is a handful of peanuts."
And a boot in the rear, but I wasn''t going to say that. That would be un-sportsman-like conduct.
"Ignore her, this is fun." Velvet said, rubbing Zwei''s head. "Thank you for letting us play."
"But of course." I said, taking my turn as dealer. "Might''ve stormed in without so much as an invitation, but you four certainly liven things up."
"We bring the party wherever we go." Yatsu chuckled, voice like a plucked bass.
"If you really want us to liven things up, I might have a few ideas." Weiss said, drawing everyone''s attention. A bit out of type for her to show interest in such base things as gambling.
Weiss met the gaze of our teammates, friends, and guests with calm repose. A look of business I''m sure was long practiced. Calm, graceful, yet stern and focused. A more perfect poker face only achieved using a long brimmed hat or mirror polished shades.
"Really?" I asked, curious. "Well there''s a surprise, given how much you didn''t want to play last time."
Weiss''s poker face cracked slightly, but quickly patched itself back together. "Well, that was before I saw its merits-"
"You mean before you realized you''ve got Ms. Fortune at your back." I said.
"- and it grew on me." Weiss said. "However, there is a point to gambling, isn''t there? To gain something."
"¡ So you want us to actually start placing bets?" I asked, looking at everyone. "¡ Alright, coins and caps back guys. If we''re going to be making bets-"
" Not with money." Weiss said, ever so slightly annoyed. "I''m talking about what we bet with last time. I want to exchange favors."
"¡ Favors?" Velvet asked, clearly confused.
"Simple things." I said. "Basically asking someone to do something for you, no questions asked, and followed through on good faith. Y''know, a favor."
"Good faith?" Weiss asked. "Is that what that was last time?"
"I did what you asked." I defended. "You just need to be better with your syntax."
"What did she ask for?" Coco asked.
"A moment." I said. "So I gave her one."
"¡"
CFVY collective buried their heads in their hands. Velvet even bent forward and bumped her into the table. Zwei promptly jumped up and tried to lick her face.
"That about sums it, yeah." Ruby said.
"Has anyone ever told you that you''re just a giant smartass?" Coco asked.
"Wiseass, not smartass." I corrected. "Being smart implies I know better." I then turned back towards Weiss "Although, perhaps I do this time."
"Do I detect a hint of fear?" Weiss challenged.
"Not fear." I said. "I just don''t make bets unless I know I''ve got a decent chance at winning."
Weiss''s brow furrowed for a moment. "I can''t tell if that''s supposed to be a compliment or not."
"It''s called pragmatism." I told her. "And I know better than to bet against someone who drew the winning hand five times in a single game." Then I shrugged. "Besides, betting favors doesn''t work so well here. Makes more sense in Five Card, where there''s no real downside to playing your hand because you change your cards. Here, it''s more bluster and persuasion. You''re forced to play through because you''ll lose anyway, it''s less of a gamble."
"And where''s the thrill in that?" Ruby said, drumming her fingers anxiously.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I was gonna have to keep an eye on her, if she turned into a gambling addict, I''d feel like a heel.
"Point is, it doesn''t work so well in this game." I said. "Probably only really worked last time because it was between the two of us anyway, little miss ''I don''t want to play your stupid card game''."
Weiss flushed slightly. "Well, I was wrong, and I admitted to it. This is¡ fun."
"And here you are wanting to get something out of it." I said, giving the deck a final shuffle.
"¡" Weiss wilted a little. "You know what? Forget it."
I looked at her as I began to deal the cards out. She wasn''t upset per say, but she seemed a bit grumpier, a bit frumpier. There wasn''t anything inherently wrong with her idea, we were gambling after all. But I wasn''t about to take what''d been a friendly game between everyone and turn it into something more serious. Besides the fact, the game would''ve absolutely been stacked in Weiss''s favor. The odds of getting a Royal Flush weren''t a million to one, but damn if they weren''t close. Not even counting she''d gotten dealt it straight five times .
By that same token though, we''d established the favor wasn''t supposed to be anything extraordinary. So it wasn''t like I was going to lose my kidneys, or liver, or left nut trying to pay her off.
I dealt the cards out, and we played another couple hands. Weiss''s mood didn''t improve, even as she won a few of them.
"¡ So, what''s the other version of this?" Velvet asked idly. "Since this is apparently just one type of game."
"There''s a couple versions, really. Hold''em, the game we''re playing now is just the most common. Or most popular." I said double checking my current hand. "Five Card, however, is its direct predecessor. Instead of being dealt two cards, and building a five card hand with what''s set down, you''re given a Five Card hand to start with. Hence the name. You get a chance to trade cards, make any extra bets, and then you show your hand. As per the standard, best one wins the pot."
"¡ I''m not going to lie, it sounds a little more fun than this version." Velvet said, calmly sweetening the pot, everyone else either folding or following after her.
I nodded and folded, cards weren''t good enough to risk it. "Agreed. This version''s good for gambling, and lets a bigger crowd play. But I feel like it relies a bit too much on bluffing. Still fun, but I know my preference."
"Well, thank you for showing it to us anyway." Pyrrha smiled, as they all showed their cards. She promptly dragged the pot towards her.
I nodded, handing my cards back in to be reshuffled.
"Do you think we could try the other version?" Velvet asked.
I shrugged. "We could, depending on if anyone else wants to play."
Velvet looked to her teammates. Yatsu and Fox gave her a quick glance, then the others at the table, before shaking their heads. Coco merely smirked, and nodded. Didn''t take much to get her in, let the boys have their fun.
"Aight, makes three then." I said, before looking to everyone else "Anyon-"
"Yes." Weiss suddenly answered.
"¡ Ok then, anyone besides Snowflake?" I asked.
"I think we''re good over here." Ren said, then eyed Nora, who gave him a questioning brow. "¡ Though we should probably think about dinner soon."
"Noted." I said, looking to CFVY. "One more hand, then we figure out what we''re eating?"
Coco smirked. "Loser buys."
We shuffled the chairs and reorganized ourselves for our quick game. While doing it, I dug back through my supplies for any extra cards I had lingering around. Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly I had enough cards for a spare deck and half. I collected a lot of cards early on.
"Why do you have so many of them?" Velvet asked as we sorted ourselves.
"Collected them for another game we played back home called Caravan. Had to build your own deck to play against other people. Right cards made all the difference, so you''d have to be good about collecting them."
Velvet nodded, pursing her lips "I see, kinda like Red vs Blue then."
"Red vs blue?" I asked.
"Don''t worry about it." She dismissed, almost embarrassedly. "It''s just a children''s card game."
"Because clearly this is meant for a more refined and mature audience." I said, rolling my eyes as I motioned to everything around us. "Only things we''re missing are the cigars and snifters of brandy. Then we''d be real high-class."
Made me wish I still had some of my moonshine but, eh, close enough.
Velvet chuckled, and I shuffled the cards. The four of us circled each other, for a rudimentary and non-indicative definition, and I began to deal the cards.
"So, about spicing things up." Coco said, smirking.
"We''re still on that?" I asked.
"We''re playing the right game now, aren''t we?" she countered.
"We are." Weiss agreed, giving me a sly look.
"Next you''ll be telling me you both planned to have Velvet ask to play this game." I said snidely.
"No, I just wanted to try it." Velvet said. "¡ But I''m not against a little¡ spice."
"¡" I sighed. "Of course you''re not¡ Alright, since we''re only doing the one game anyway. Remember though: Winner only gets one from each of us. And they''re not meant for anything inappropriate either, so keep it clean."
"So no asking you to take your-"
"Yes, Coco, asking me to strip is an inappropriate request. Shocker, I know." I said.
Coco didn''t respond to that, instead fixing me with her poker face.
"Who''s dealing?" I asked.
Velvet inclined her head, and I passed the cards towards her. I instructed her to pass out five to each of us, one at a time while going clockwise around the table. She did, and we each waited. When she finished, we each looked at our hands.
I had a two, four, seven, ten, and a jack. Not much I could do with them off the bat, but I noted the jack, two and four were all of the same suit. Reading my opponents, I could see Velvet hadn''t quite caught the concept of a poker face yet, but Weiss and Coco had.
"So next I remove the cards I want to trade." Velvet said, discard most of the cards from her hand and draw the equal replacement. "Then draw new."
"Correct." I nodded. "Then you pass the deck clockwise and we all do the same. Normally, you''d be allowed to raise after the card exchange, make raises, fold, that sort of thing. Since we''re all-in though, there''s not much point."
"You could fold and make it easy for us." Coco smirked, as she began exchanging her cards. "Give an example for the visual learners."
"Funny." I intoned.
The deck made its way around to me, and I exchanged my seven and ten for a three and eight. But it worked well, they matched the suit of my other cards. Giving me a Flush. Not the best of hands, but when most hands ended with Either a High Card or Pair, it was still worth something.
We finished changing cards and studied each other. Coco was a tough nut, her shades hid where her eyes moved, and her mouth was set firm. Weiss was all ice and business, could get more out of a hard locked Terminal than her.
Velvet looked like she''d just struck gold and was desperately trying not to break out in dance.
"Last call ladies, then we got a winner." I said. "Already got some ideas of what chores I could have you take care of for me."
"Could say the same." Coco countered, a scant smirk at her lips. "I''m starting to feel a bit hungry, how do you feel about cooking?"
I refrained from answering. Though I saw Weiss''s mask crack slightly.
"Ok." Velvet said, looking at everyone, smirking. "Show''em." She flattened her cards out. "Royal flush."
I felt my heart drop for a moment, before actually getting to see the cards. Then a moment passed, and I felt it even back out. She''d made a rookie mistake.
"¡ Those aren''t the same suit." I said.
"Hm?" Velvet hummed.
"The cards, they all need to be the same suit to count as a Royal Flush." I explained, as Coco and Weiss looked over her cards. "Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace make a straight, but all being the same suit turns them into a Royal Flush. You''ve got a straight."
"¡" Velvet''s face turned a bright red that I couldn''t blame on my mask. "Oh¡ S-straight."
"All good Vel." I said, laying my cards out. "Flush, just a bunch of commoners though."
Velvet pursed her lips, and nodded. Silent acceptance of her defeat, and perhaps a hint of embarrassment.
"Oh, is that all?" Weiss asked, haughty and looking pleased as punch. She fanned her cards out onto the table. Three Queens and a pair of deuces. "Full House."
I grimaced, but nodded. It was a good hand.
Then Coco chuckled.
"Oh, is that all?" She mocked, slowly flipping each of her cards out. Nine. Nine. Nine. Five. Nine.
Four of a kind.
"Crap." I muttered.
"Language." Velvet muttered back.
"Four of a Kind." Coco said, smirking triumphantly. "I think that makes mine the winning hand."
"¡ Drat." Weiss said, pouting.
"Which means I''m owed a couple of favors." Coco''s smirk bloomed into a cocky smile
"Double drat/crap." Weiss and I said at the same time. We shared a look, and I''ll admit, it at least made me chuckle. Being on the same wavelength was a weird feeling.
"None of the sass you two." Coco said, leaning back in her chair. "You know the rules."
"Well if that''s how you want to spend-" Weiss started.
"Ah-ah." Coco interrupted. "None of that."
"Hmph." Weiss huffed.
"You''ve got the favors." I said. "I''d suggest using them while you can."
"I''m thinking about it." Coco said, tipping her shades enough for me to look her in the eye. She must''ve thought she was the coolest thing since Iced Nuka Cola.
"Does it really count as a favor when you''re already team leader?" Velvet questioned.
"¡" Coco looked at her teammate for a moment, then made her request. "Can I see your cards real quick?"
Without missing a beat, Velvet passed them to her.
"Thanks bun-bun." Coco said, briefly looking over the cards, then setting them aside.
"That''s one down." I said, resisting the urge to call shenanigans for throwing her a softball.
"Hm." Coco hummed, then licking her lips. "Y''know what? I''m feeling a bit thirsty¡ Snowflake?"
Weiss looked disdainfully at Coco, whose smile was only growing by the second.
"Why don''t you go get everyone something to drink, we''re probably all getting a bit thirsty." She then looked past us to the other players in the room. "You guys getting thirsty over there?"
"I could use a drink!" Ruby chimed.
"Drinks then." Coco decided, snapping her fingers. "Be quick."
Weiss scowled and started grumbling. But being an honorable, humble woman of her word, she got up out of her chair and trudged towards the door.
"Oh, and one more thing." Coco said, raising her hand.
Weiss turned back towards Coco, her eye twitching.
"¡ Curtsy." Coco told her.
Weiss promptly made a very impolite and unladylike gesture with her hands and left the room. It made me want to laugh.
"Now there''s just you." Coco said, leveling her gaze at me.
"Just me." I agreed. "So, what''ll it be?"
"Depends." Coco shrugged, looking down her nose at me. "What would it take for you to take that helmet off?"
"Dinner, a show, a couple of really strong drinks, and a winning personality." I said, collecting my cards. "I''d give you as having two, maybe three of those, dealer''s choice. Unfortunately, asking me to strip violates one of the few rules we established."
"Hm. Oh well, you''re not my type anyway." Coco said, allowing herself to sit normally in the chair again. "Next question, since you never answered before, can you cook?"
I heard the room go quiet, save for the sound of creaking wood. A little over half a dozen chairs shifting to look at Coco.
"¡ perhaps." I answered.
"Cool. Fix us something, make it taste good." Coco ordered.
"And make sure it has vegetables." Velvet added, followed quietly by "¡ please?"
"¡ Only because she asked nicely." I said, motioning to Velvet.
Fight in the Team
Velvet pivoted at the hip, her leg spinning up to catch me in the chest. I braced my aura, and felt the blow roll through me. Hurt, but not bad.
"Was that a mosquito bite?" I taunted, moving in for a counter, aura flowing into my legs as I bounded forward, sending a flying knee to her head. Her arms came up and caught it in a block, the force pushing her back. Without missing a beat, as I began to fall, she spun into a butterfly kick, leg corkscrewing up through the air. I touched down right before her foot would''ve connected and reeled back, watching the sole of her shoe pass my face. Half a second later, her other foot followed it, and I raised my own arm to block it.
"You fight like a girl!" she retorted, a wide smile on her face. Her feet touched down, and she launched into a haymaker, which turned into a feint as I countered it, and her other arm came in low for a shot to my side. I slipped it, only for her to narrowly clip me anyway. But I used the momentum to step in and return it in kind. Managed to catch her square in the stomach, a rarity. Velvet was hard to hit at the best of times. She took the hit and bunny-hopped back a pair of steps, guard up... Bunny-hopped. Ugh.
"Taste the explosive power of my FISTS! " I bellowed, pressing in and keeping the momentum, flickering a quick combo before following it with a cross. Velvet weaved the first two hits, then deflected and countered the cross. Her forearm came up and guided the blow away as she stepped in, her other fist lashing out. I leaned back and let it pass, then brought an arm up in a guard, expecting another butterfly kick to follow in its place. What I got instead was a knee to the stomach as Velvet continued to dig in.
Still couldn''t predict her.
"You''re not so smart now, Cowboy." Velvet said, smirking.
Both of my arms immediately lashed forward and wrapped around Velvet. A look of surprise crossed her face as I dragged her in and held tight. Immediately, she brought her arms up , bracing them against my chest as she assumed I was going to crush her. I wasn''t.
"Roshambo!" I shouted, then lurched backward, lifting Velvet upward so she arched over me. I wasn''t much for grappling or wrestling if I could help it. But I wasn''t a stranger to the suplex, weren''t many who weren''t.
This included Velvet. As I began to reel back and her feet left the ground, she braced both legs against my stomach and began to push off of me. Given she had a better point of leverage, and use of more than just her arms, she was able to break my grapple and buy herself room to move. About halfway into the suplex she broke free and tumbled what would''ve been upward, now forward past my head. She rolled as she hit the ground, recovering.
I abandoned the suplex right before I hit the ground, straightening out so I wouldn''t land head first. Immediately I rolled to the side, moving away from the kick Velvet sent skidding my way as I scrambled back to my feet.
"Are you really the strongest man on your team?" Velvet questioned, deepening her voice before diving in for another quick exchange.
It ended with me landing a Scribe''s Counter on her nose, immediately causing her to back pedal. There was little chance I''d actually done anything meaningful, but I knew I''d caught her off-guard. Rather than push in though, I let her have the moment to recover. After a moment or two, she realized I wasn''t bombarding her, and looked at me, confused.
"¡ Patchouli." I finished.
We both chuckled at the entirely asinine exchange we''d just had.
Navy Hale, Vacuo''s Finest, and purveyor of dumb one-liners.
We were back in the side room of the fighting hall, and running through the basics. After my bout of collapsing during our last session, it was better to make sure I was up to par before diving into the meat of it. While I wasn''t performing at my best, that I was able to keep pace with Velvet at all was a good sign. Even if it was only for very brief spurts.
Velvet was a capable opponent, who I knew better than to underestimate. Trying to read her was like trying to read a book written in three different languages and that constantly switched between them. While also making the reader temporarily dyslexic.
You''d have better luck following footprints in a sandstorm.
I was almost convinced she''d been taking it easy on me.
As the two of us caught our breath, Velvet nodded at me approvingly. "You''ve gotten better."
"Mm, amazing what a few hours of bed rest will do for you." I agreed. "Still not good enough, but I guess it''ll do."
Velvet shrugged. "Compared to the first time you sparred with me, or Fox? Yes, I''d agree."
The two of us turned to look towards her mentioned teammate. He was currently engaged in a fistfight with Yang. He leapt at her with a rising knee that quickly evolved into a straight kick. Yang pulled up her guard and caught the kick rather than try to dodge it, eating the brunt of it, even as I saw her aura glimmer slightly. Something I''d learned to attribute to especially hard hits.
Fox''s leg swept back to the earth, and he jerked to the side, gliding his opposite elbow in for a cutting strike. Only for Yang to catch and counter it, guiding herself around it before sounding a mighty hook into his ribs. A victorious smirk on her face.
Seemed I wasn''t the only one to have found a worthy sparring partner.
Beyond her, I could see Blake tangling with Coco. Slipping and dodging around the older girl''s handbag, yet being unable to have any of her cuts land. Whenever they got close, Coco would simply glide out of the way. Or, as I''d seen once or twice, bring her leg up and catch it in her high-heeled boot. She wasn''t like Blake, or Ruby, who were about fast movement. Coco was the opposite, low mobility, but able to handle the trouble it brought. Less a Stonewall, more a chain-link fence.
Weiss and Ruby, meanwhile, were double-teaming Yatsu. Though they were going about it in an odd way. Both darted in and out at odd intervals, striking at impressive speed and quickly moving before Yatsu could retaliate. Ruby zipping around and leaving rose petals behind her, and Weiss skating around on those circular glyphs I''d seen her use on occasion. Normally it would be an effective way of doing things. Especially against someone like Yatsu, who was only armed with a normal albeit large sword. But none of their hits were connecting. If anything Yatsu was blocking everything with contemptuous ease.
His sword was only a sword, but it was also a massive and solid block of metal. Makes for a good barrier against anything without the right amount of oomph.
They were all sparring, while Vel and I were catching our breath.
"Give them credit, they haven''t been wasting their time here." I said.
"Is that supposed to be a shot at my team?" Velvet asked.
"No, shot at mine." I said. "Those girls make me wonder sometimes how seriously they take this. I''m glad they''ve been trying to improve. Just hope it''s enough."
"Enough for what?" Velvet asked, clearly nonplussed about not getting much of an answer.
"For¡ well, anything, I guess." I told her. "The world''s crazy, and you can''t really anticipate everything, but that shouldn''t keep you from trying¡ Guess I''m just trying to say I''m glad they''re trying..." I looked at Velvet. "Don''t remember if I ever said it, but thank you, for helping with this. Without you guys I''d be a lot further behind than I am, and I know I''ve still got a ways to go."
Velvet''s face flushed slightly, and she gave me a sweet smile. "We''re happy to help. Call it me repaying you for getting Cardin off me."
"I''d hardly call that a favor." I told her.
"Believe me, with some of the things I hear people say, it was." Velvet said, giving her rabbit ears a little wiggle. "Can''t go around punching every person who''s ever made a Maths joke."
I nodded "That wouldn''t¡ wait, Maths?"
Velvet rolled her eyes "Oh, you know. How many bunnies does it take to make a dozen?"
"Uh, twelve, but that''s not-" I started to answer.
"Two, just give them a few hours." Velvet huffed.
"¡" I dropped my question for the moment. "Time out, some dumb motherfu- hugger actually had the gall to say that?"
"Not to my face." Velvet said, frowning.
"¡ Girl, you have the patience of a saint." I told her, shaking my head. "If I were in your shoes I''d have beaten the tar out of people until they got the message."
"It wouldn''t have solved anything." Velvet shook her head. "It''d either be they kept doing it, or they''d fall back on me being violent because I''m a Faunus. I didn''t like ignoring them, but it was better than the alternative."
"As said, patience of a saint ." I repeated. "But I wasn''t going to ask what you were talking about, I was asking why you used Maths instead of¡ well, Math."
"¡ O-oh." Velvet said, her eyes widening. I wasn''t sure but I was pretty sure even her ears suddenly turned red. "W-well, there are multiple types of Math. So it''s Maths rather than Math."
"But wouldn''t them being Maths jokes imply that they''ve got jokes that go beyond basic arithmetic?" I asked. "You telling me they''ve got ones for geometry, or trig, or¡ any of them."
"How do you find a right triangle? Put two rabbits at a point, if they match the lines it''s ninety degrees." Velvet ticked. "How do you find a radius? Put one bunny in the center and the other outside the circle."
"¡ Oh you poor girl." I said.
"It''s fine, it''s not like you''re the one making them." She shrugged. "Most of them are embarrassingly bad anyway."
"So I''d gather." I said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "You''ve got my respect, wouldn''t have been able to put up with it in your shoes."
Velvet fidgeted at the gesture, but gave a soft smile. Wasn''t a lie either. Try hard to keep my trigger discipline under control, but if I''d heard anyone talking about me or my friends like that¡ Well, they wouldn''t have been doing it for long.
Velvet pivoted on her feet and looked at me, stretching slightly. "Ready to go another round?"
Her brow went up in surprise when I shook my head. "Tempting, but there''s something I need to do. You''ve given me a good warm up, but I need to put some other people through their paces." I nodded in their direction. "If we got time left over though, I wouldn''t mind another round."
Velvet followed my gaze, and hummed. She didn''t ask any further questions, but she was a smart cookie. I was willing to hazard she''d figured out what I meant. With a quirk of the lips, she gave a light bow, and motioned for me to carry on.
I began to walk across the hall, watching as my teammates continued to spar against CFVY. I could see Fox had successfully turned his brawl with Yang back around, giving a fist and knee combo to her stomach. Blake, meanwhile, was suddenly on the back foot and only seemed to be losing more ground. Conversely, Weiss and Ruby seemed to be holding it against Yatsu. Despite the near constant barrage, the two weren''t slowing down. Given long enough, maybe they''d have taken him down.
But a two on one isn''t what might be considered a fair fight anyway.
Artfully, I maneuvered my way through the fray, towards the wall near the exit, where I''d taken to leaving my weapons. Gathering dust while I worked my way through fighting with aura. Not the useful kind of dust either. I double checked that they were loaded, sharp, and otherwise ready for use. Fixing them to their usual spots.
Then I heard Ruby make a sound like a kicked bighorner, accompanied by the dull gong of struck metal. I spun around, and watched as a red-clad cannonball came screaming towards me. Though the screams sounded more like a little girl''s and it wasn''t exactly ball-shaped.
I braced myself against the wall, opened VATS for a moment, and caught Ruby as she crashed into me. Back the way she''d come, I could see Yatsu with his sword raised, looking to have caught Ruby with the flat of it. Crescent Rose came skittering across the floor after her in short order. With me raising a foot up to avoid the head of the weapon as it connected with the wall.
"Hope you weren''t fond of the paint job." I said, looking down at Ruby''s weapon.
"I''m fine, thanks." Ruby said, as I let her go. She landed on her feet.
"Figured you would be, seeing as I caught you." I told her, dusting off. I then looked at Yatsu. "Watch your aim, If I was Weiss you''d have actually hit me."
"Hey!" Weiss called.
Only for Yatsu to immediately seize the moment and broadside her, like he had with Ruby. Difference being he sent her flying towards Velvet instead. Though unlike Ruby, Weiss gracefully took control of herself mid-flight, her uncontrolled spiral turning into a graceful series of spins and flips, ending with her landing on another of her mid-air glyphs, this one black, and horizontal facing. She sent a glare down to Yatsu, to which he merely shrugged. Was on her for getting caught off-guard.
Ruby worked a foot under her weapon and flipped it up into the air. She caught it, and arched forward, ready to leap back into the fray.
Before she could, I grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Pump the brakes, Tiny." I told her. "I was going to pull you aside anyway. This just saves time."
"Huh?" Tiny huffed.
As she did, Weiss launched herself at Yatsu again, howling triumphantly with her toothpick thrust forward.
Then Yatsu swatted her with the flat of his sword again, sending her flying again, only this time she didn''t catch herself. I was going to need to have a word with her about that. But then, I was planning to anyway.
I let go of Ruby''s shoulder, and she stepped a little away before turning to face me. Spinning her weapon so the crook of the blade was resting behind her legs. Couldn''t help but think that was unnecessarily dangerous, but I wasn''t judging, yet. "What''s up?" She asked.
"We need to go a few rounds." I told her. "I wanna make sure you girls are ready, you''re up first."
Ruby looked at me, surprised for a moment. Then her eyes started sparkling, and a big grin tweaked the corners of her mouth. "You wanna spar?"
"Yes."
"Really!?" She shouted, getting the others'' attention.
"No need to shout."
"Oh, uh-¡ really?" She asked again.
"Yes." I repeated. "Just keep in mind-"
Ruby started bouncing backwards into the hall as CFVY and our teammates slowly put their fights on hold. Paying attention to the fact that Ruby wasn''t paying attention to where she was going.
"This is gonna be fun~" She tittered.
" Ruby ." I stressed. "This isn''t about having fun."
"Oh don''t be like that, I''ve been waiting forever for my turn." Ruby smirked, spinning Crescent Rose in a quick flourish.
"There something we''re missing here?" Coco asked, letting her fight with Blake peter out.
"We''ve got some business to take care of." I told her. "Before we get to it, I want to put these three through their paces." My hand gestured to each of my teammates as I followed Ruby back out into the hall. "Need to make sure they''re not going to cause problems where I can''t keep an eye on them."
"That we''re not going to cause problems?" Weiss asked, insulted.
"Considering two of you got swatted like a pair of bugs just now, yes." I told her.
"I''m sorry, what exactly are you planning to do?" Velvet asked from across the way.
"Don''t worry about it." I said. "Just better to handle it now rather than later. That''s all."
"What about me?" Yang asked, motioning to herself.
"I''m not worried about you, They''re still fixing the wall last I checked." I told her. "Do you really want to waste our rematch on this?"
Yang pursed her lips, then scowled at me. "Low blow."
"You''ll get your chance later." I told her, before pointing to Ruby. "But me and you? We need to take care of this. Now."
"Yeah!" Ruby said, excited smile beaming brightly, She spun her weapon in front of her, instantly ready for a fight. "On three?"
"Four." I said, instantly drawing That Gun.
Ruby''s smile immediately evaporated as I cracked off a shot. A sharp, strangled note escaped her as she flung herself to the side. It''d been a warning shot, could''ve hit her but had intentionally sent it over her head to get her into gear. The one that followed it was aimed for center mass. It missed however, as Ruby did dash away from it, zipping in a sharp diagonal line away from me and my lane of fire, deeper in. Everyone else immediately took that as their cue to get out of the way and darted for the sides of the room, lest they catch stray fire from either of us. Something I would try my best to keep in mind, but knew would be dangerous all the same.
Not missing a beat, I sprinted after Ruby, pushing my aura into my legs and springing the distance in long strides. Tracking where she''d moved to was easy, just follow the giant ball of flower petals. I wasn''t going to match her speed, but it wasn''t about that. It was about closing her reaction window. Not give her the moment she might need to respond properly.
The petals molded back into a solid Ruby several yards away and she immediately spun to face me. As the tip of the scythe slammed into the ground her hand flew to the rifle''s action. With a practiced jerk and twist, she chambered a round into the barrel, a spent casing from her spar with Yatsu falling out. I could see her eyes track to me, wide but focused as she quickly tried to line up a shot. It wouldn''t take more than a second.
I couldn''t give her that.
With a grimace, my sprint turned into a dive and my arms flew forward, hands clasping on my pistol.
Crescent Rose and That Gun rang in unison. My aim was hampered by my dive and forward momentum, Ruby''s aided by her weapon''s planted blade.
She missed, the bullet whizzing past my head.
I hit my mark.
The 5.56 hit Ruby in the left side of her chest, and she instantly flinched. A pained cry slipped through gritted teeth, as she began to fumble with the rifle bolt.
I hit the ground and locked a bead onto her again. Center mass was an easy shot to make, no fancy business as long as I was hitting something.
Ruby''s eyes widened again as she drew the bolt open. I cracked off another shot. Right before the bullet would''ve hit her, she launched to the side, yanking Crescent Rose from its mooring. She tumbled to the side, the muzzle of her weapon wildly whipping around. She slammed the bolt home and fired.
The bullet hit the ground in front of me with a burst of stone chips and fire. Would''ve hurt bad if she hit me.
Before I could adjust my aim, she scattered into a cloud of petals again and bolted away. I took the spare seconds it bought me to scramble to my feet. My eyes didn''t leave her as I came back to rights, tracking her as she moved in a slow arc away from me.
Then, without warning, the blur of flower petals rose away from the ground. Going maybe ten feet up before sharply arching backward, reversing course. It rocketed towards me at a breakneck speed, the air howling around the mass as it bore down on me, covering over a dozen meters in nearly a second.
Right before it would''ve hit me, Ruby emerged from it, scythe cocked back and ready to swing.
Scythes are tricky weapons, even with the ones not as big as Ruby''s. Their reach and swing speed lend to being very effective cutting weapons. They have a massive cutting edge at that, paired with a thin blade. The angle its set at also makes it so every cut is preceded by a stab. If one doesn''t catch you, the other will. They are insidiously hard to predict because both the cutting edge and tip move in advance of the weapon''s shaft, quite significantly. All married together, it was a dangerous combination.
The trade-off is that they''re not weapons. They''re farm tools.
The blade is set at an angle that aiming for a proper strike is a challenge all its own. While you can hook your opponent, the blade''s cutting power is only at its best when the weapon is swinging. Against armor, they lack the weight to deal meaningful damage. Handling them could also be dangerous to the user, if they weren''t paying attention. The tip of the blade was far trickier to keep track of.
But it ultimately attested to Ruby''s own ability that she could wield it well.
I saw the glint of Crescent Rose''s blade as it sung towards me. With only a half-step back, I avoided the tip of the weapon less than a second before the tip would''ve stuck my ribs. Even then, I felt the back of the weapon drag against my chest.
Ruby gave a challenging smile as she gripped her weapon with both hands. Spinning it by the haft, the spear tip at its opposite end narrowly missed my gas mask as I weaved away from it. The weapon twirled a half circle over her head, before dipping down towards her shoulder. The blade arcing behind her, before looping underhand, slashing upward at me.
I weaved out of the way, and used the opening to crack a quick shot at Ruby, unaimed.
Almost like she''d seen it coming, or maybe she was just lucky, she twirled Crescent Rose in front of her. Letting the receiver catch the bullet, sending spall and spatter away from her, without breaking stride. The scythe then looped horizontally around her coming around for another horizontal slash.
Knowing the weapon''s reach, I began to back step.
Ruby''s smile redoubled.
She shifted her hand and there was a grinding of lubed metal. In the corner of my eye I saw the light around Crescent Rose''s blade change.
At the last possible second, my backstep turned into a squat, letting me fall beneath the blade.
I watched Crescent Rose''s blade pass over my head. It had straightened out, leaving the full length of the blade exposed, more a glaive or spear than scythe¡ No, a war-
The blade passed over my head, arc deepening to the ground, the tip sparking off the hard ground. The blade folded back onto itself as Ruby twisted it in her grip, pivoting at the hip. Almost as quick, she swung backhanded, blade turned my way again.
Knowing I couldn''t throw myself back or to either side, I flung forward instead. Best case I was stepping into close-quarters and had to fight like that, worst I was avoiding the scythe''s blade.
I sprang forward from my squat and folded my right arm, bracing my side with Aura for the hit. Felt the haft-receiver of Ruby''s scythe sting through the leather of my armor. Better that than the blade.
Ruby''s smile faded into a surprised grimace, and she tried to backpedal at the last moment. But I was already too close.
Point blank, I shot Ruby in the sternum.
Won''t lie. For half a second, I swore I''d killed her. Knew aura would protect her, but my mind wandered the moment I pulled the trigger. Caused me to freeze.
It gave Ruby long enough to fall back half a step, free hand clasping at the spot I shot her. She grimaced, and I heard the breath hiss through her teeth.
Then, for half a second, she blurred into petals and pulled back. Only traveling maybe ten feet. Then she was back, skittering to a knee with Crescent Rose''s muzzle pointed at me.
I unfroze right before she pulled the trigger. VATS opened for a heartbeat, long enough for me to see where best she was pointing.
Then it closed.
She fired.
I spun hard to the left, so my side was facing her as I weaved just barely out of the way. The air pressure from the bullet battered my armor as it flew past my stomach. Without missing a beat, as Ruby raced to grab the bolt of Crescent Rose, I spun hard to the right. The cylinder was empty, and I wasn''t going to race Ruby for the next shot.
That Gun left my hand, flying towards Ruby with all the power my now aura enhanced arm could muster.
Hearing me, she looked up. Half a second before five pounds of gun-shaped steel slammed into her face.
She yelped in surprise, hand leaving the receiver of her weapon and flying to her face. It clattered heavily to the ground as she pawed at her nose. "Did you just throw-" Ruby squeaked.
Without waiting for her to finish, I peeled my shotgun off my back and cocked the hammer with the heel of my hand. Right as Ruby''s hand came away from her face, I took aim.
Then I froze, again.
I didn''t know how much more of a beating Ruby could take. I''d already hit her, multiple times. Would it be able to take one more?
Ruby''s hand fell, and her line of sight cleared.
I emptied the shell at her feet. Let the spatter and stone chips keep her off kilter. She shut her eyes again and jerked back, spinning Crescent Rose in a practiced motion that re-opened the blade.
While she did, I charged at her. I''d gotten almost everything I''d needed out of these short exchanges. There was just one thing I needed to know.
Grimace hardening on her features, Ruby spun her scythe with a flourish, trying to clear her eyes. I stopped short of the blade as it passed me, then pushed in while she readied another swing. Her silver eyes opened, and she saw me. She took a half step back and spun the spear-tipped end of the haft at me. I brought up my shotgun and channeled my aura into it, strengthened it enough to take the hit. The tip caught and I blew it off course. Letting my receiver skate off hers as I pushed in again. Rather than back pedal, she tried to force a contest of strength. See if she couldn''t use her bigger gun to keep me back.
I closed the distance for a second time, and only when I was in grappling distance did I willingly move my shotgun. Letting it slip into my left hand as my right grabbed Ruby''s cape.
Ruby''s eyes widened in panic as her cloak began to turn to petals-
I slammed my head into her nose, drawing a noise I''d have expected more from Nora than her. She immediately lost her grip on her weapon, and I pushed her back.
After a moment, Ruby recovered and looked towards me, and her weapon.
My head shook, and my shotgun stayed at a low, ready.
"Well, I think this just about sums it up." I said.
I could see Ruby''s eyes darting. Her weapon. Me. My Weapon. Back to hers. Calculate, calculate.
With a small flourish, I made it easier for her and put my shotgun back over my shoulder.
The confusion was clear in her eyes, so I cleared it up.
"C''mon then." I said, motioning with my fingers. "Come an'' get it."
Ruby scowled at me and, without hesitating, charged in. A vicious war-cry like a battalion of yowling puppies escaped her lips as she cocked her arm back.
My arm shot out at head level and went rigid. She ran into it and stopped short, stiff armed. Her punch whiffed me by about half a foot. When the first didn''t land, she quickly followed it with another, which just turned into a flailing windmill.
Were it not that we''d been fighting quite seriously until a second prior, I might have found it funny.
I found it greatly upsetting.
My arm relaxed and Ruby pitched forward. As she went to catch herself, my hand cupped the back of her head and pushed her down.
Right as I brought my knee up to meet it.
With the added strength, she shot up, pitched back, and landed flat on the floor. Could swear I almost hear someone shout ''K.O.!''. Or maybe it was a pained hiss from our teammates, watching the display.
Either way, I knew it hurt.
I shook my head. "Gotta admit, Ruby, You had my hopes up." I told her. "But this¡ this was a bit disappointing."
From the floor, Ruby glanced at me. Her silver eyes muddled with mostly what I would describe as indignation and frustration. But I could see hurt mingled with them too. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, wincing as she did, reaching towards her nose. "You didn''t even give me a chance."
"You shouldn''t expect me to." I told her. "Were this real in any way, you wouldn''t expect it either."
She fixed me with another look as she rubbed her nose, a grimace of, possibly, acceptance. That was the point of sparring after all, try to imitate a real fight in a more constructive environment. Don''t think she''d really expected me to go easy on her, she just wasn''t ready.
Which, again, was the point.
I knelt slightly and held a hand out to her. After a moment, she took it, and I hauled her to her feet.
"So what exactly did any of that just prove?" Coco called from the sidelines. "Kinda just seems like you attacked her for no reason, kid."
"There was a point." I answered, not turning around. "I''m only going to know how any of you react to a real fight by putting you in one. Get to see your skills and training put to the test in a way I know how to quantify."
"And I did bad?" Ruby asked, clearly bothered by her performance.
"Bad? No." I told her. "On a technical level you handled yourself admirably. You clearly know your weapon and skill set, and are working to improve them regularly. On that front, you''re good."
"O-oh." Ruby said, her expression brightening, but still confused. "Then, why did I do bad?"
"Because when it came to the finer and more intrinsic parts of a fight, you kept making mistakes." I told her. "Things that, in a real fight, making them could mean the difference between life and death. For you, or others."
Ruby''s head tilted slightly, but she was clearly listening.
"Firstly, and this one should be obvious, you''re impulsive." I said.
"Impulsive?" Ruby asked.
"You have been since the first time I''ve seen you fight." I told her. "You take your first instinct and run with it, without stopping to consider things. Sometimes, that''s not a bad thing, quick thinking can save lives. But only if your instincts are keyed in the right direction."
Ruby blinked, as I reached down and picked up her weapon. I held it out to her, allowing her to take it back.
"It''s not the only time it happened, but early on in this fight, when I hit the ground, had you chosen to enter melee you could''ve had me. However, instead of using your aura to tank the hit, or your Semblance to dodge it, you chose to retreat instead, providing me with a chance to recover. I can tell you didn''t do it intentionally either, because the moment you realized your mistake, you turned back and tried to hit me."
Ruby gave me a pained look, but nodded. Whether she denied it or not didn''t matter, since I was just listing off what I''d observed.
"Secondly, and almost as important, you''re reckless." I said. "This goes together with your impulsiveness, but you don''t think about what''s going to happen before you do something. Again, you chose to retreat, I stood up, and when you came back I was ready for you. Being impulsive can have its merits, but being reckless can be more a hazard than a benefit. Not every situation requires you to think about the consequences of what you''re doing, but you need to be aware of them all the same."
"I-I''m not reckless." Ruby tried to defend.
"You charged at a Deathstalker during initiation, alone , and refused to retreat when it would''ve been smarter to do so." I reminded her. "That''s textbook."
"But you did too ." She countered.
"To pull you out." I answered. "The moment I got there, the only thing I tried to do was get you to safety before you got yourself killed." I paused for a moment then acquiesced. "Recklessness in small doses isn''t much different than courage. But too much of it is a bad thing, especially if applied wrong."
Ruby scowled, but didn''t answer.
"Lastly, and this is a big one because it''s probably the one thing that has me the most disappointed in you." I told her, motioning to the weapon in her hands. "You are utterly helpless when you''re unarmed."
That one stung Ruby, she winced. Not even bothering to resist it.
"The moment you were disarmed, you chose to charge at me headlong, screaming like a banshee." I told her, before motioning to myself. "I''ve got over a foot on you in size, and probably close to fifty pounds on you in muscle. In what world did that seem like a good idea?"
"¡ The one in my head." Ruby admitted.
Which earned a chuckle from me, and a blush from her.
"That last exchange was a perfect example of all three problems." I told her. "Rather than pull back and try to find a better answer, you charged me, showing impulsiveness. You did so despite knowing I could go blow-for-blow with Yang, and knowing you''re undertrained, so reckless. The lack of preparedness for what to do when unarmed speaks for itself. I can''t fault you for not knowing how to box, you''ve got terrible reach¡ but Ruby, I''ve got no way to sugarcoat how bad that display was."
Ruby pouted angrily, like a puppy that''d had its chew toy taken away. "¡ So?" She asked. "What''s any of it supposed to mean?"
"It means what you make of it going forward." I told her, turning back towards everyone and approaching them, Ruby fell in step with me. "I''m showing you where some of your faults are, what you do with them is up to you. Try to get rid of them, work with them, or work around them; it''s up to you what happens next."
Ruby nodded, her pout turning inward and thoughtful. I knew enough about her to tell she was at least considering my words. They weren''t meant to be critical, merely guiding. I couldn''t tell her what the answer was, only show her what she should put some focus on.
I gave her a pat on the shoulder, as we approached our teammates and CFVY. "Cheer up. Next time we train, I''ll show you some grappling techniques."
"Grappling?" Ruby asked. "You mean like wrestling?"
"Kinda like wrestling, but less broad." I told her. "Grappling''s focused more on joint locks and grabbing. Better suited for people who don''t have the reach or power for more strike-based forms of unarmed combat. Smaller folk tend to be better at it, like you, Tiny."
Ruby''s elbow suddenly lashed out and caught me in the side, bouncing off harmlessly. Which made me chuckle as she just kept blushing. After a moment though, she sighed and nodded "¡ Thanks."
"What''re friends for?" I told her, which got a little smile out of her.
As we walked back to everyone, I took a moment to pick-up my pistol and reload it. We reached everyone else shortly after. Our teammates watched Ruby as she approached, Blake and Weiss giving her a thoughtful look. Yang just pulled her in and gave her a noogie, which Ruby didn''t really appreciate.
"So what''s this supposed to be?" Yatsu asked. "You''re going to pull them out on the floor one at a time and hit them to figure out what they''re doing wrong?"
"Uh, yeah." I told him. "That''s the point of sparring, considering how we''ve handled the past few weeks it should be obvious."
"You could''ve let us help with that." Coco said, looking at me over her shades. "Instead of just having us sit on the sidelines."
"Didn''t say you had to." I told her, twisting at the hip in a quick stretch. "Besides the fact, I need to know what my teammates'' shortcomings are if I''m going to be fighting with them. Plus, advice from an outsider can come across as condescending and bossy, even if we''re better acquainted by now."
I saw Fox''s lip twitch slightly, like he wanted to chuckle. It matched the small one Coco had in her eye nicely.
"So are we just going to ignore that you threw your gun at Ruby''s face?" Velvet asked.
"Blake throws hers all the time, don''t see how it''s any different." Ruby answered.
"It''s also on a ribbon." Blake cut in.
"Huh, wasn''t aware." I said, pausing to muddle through my memories. "Don''t recall seeing you fight¡ ever really. You were never big on participating with Goodwitch''s class."
"Like you''re any different." She retorted.
"Point." I shrugged. "But I threw my pistol because I knew I wasn''t going to reload before Ruby got another shot off. Not like it was going to do me any good then anyway."
"Sounds like a skill issue." Coco smirked.
I shook my head. "You knock it, but doing that has actually saved my life more than once."
"¡Seriously?" Coco asked.
"It''s a five pound chunk of steel hitting you in the face at a soft-balled 45 miles an hour, without Aura." I told her. "How about we give it a try and see if you can so easily ignore it."
Coco rolled her eyes.
"Careful doing that, they''ll roll out your head if you do that too often." I told her.
"Whatever." Coco answered, sliding her sunglasses back up, a stony look on her face. "So, you got your fight in. We going back to training?"
"Not exactly." I told her, looking towards Blake. "We''re not done yet."
Blake returned the look, golden eyes searching over me for a moment, before meeting my gaze. "¡What, you want me to fight next?"
"Yes." I answered.
"You''re not going to just attack me like you did Ruby?" She smirked.
"No. You''d see it coming." I told her. "Rule four, don''t do the thing your enemy expects."
"Thought there were no rules in a fight." She countered, quirking a brow.
"There aren''t, only in how you choose to engage the enemy." I told her. "Once you''re in it, anything goes."
Blake nodded, yellow eyes locked sharply onto me. I knew the look. She was already looking at me like I was an opponent. Not unwisely either. I''d already proven I was willing to sucker-punch Ruby. If Blake let her guard down, she couldn''t be sure I wouldn''t do the same to her.
"So why exactly are we doing this?" Weiss asked. "Do you really just want to understand how we fight? You could''ve just asked."
"I''m a visual learner as much as a book one." I told her, eyes still locked on Blake. "Plus, as you saw with Ruby, I''m not just looking for what you can do, but what you can''t. Some people are good about managing their weak points. Others need them pointed out."
"I think we all know what we''re capable of quite well, thank you." Weiss snipped, turning her nose up at me.
"Says the weakest link." I bit back.
CFVY immediately looked at me like I''d told her to screw herself.
Weiss, however, stamped her foot and scowled at me. Though it honestly looked kind of cute to see her angry, in a bratty sort of way. "Stop calling me the weakest link!"
"You''ll have your chance to make me." I told her, still looking at Blake. I motioned my head towards her and started back out onto the floor, not turning my back to her.
Smoothly, Blake followed after, making sure her weapon was ready. Likewise, I made sure both my pistol and shotgun were properly loaded. Soon as we were at a respectable distance to everyone, I turned to face her, half expecting her to do to me as I''d done to Ruby. When she hadn''t I laid things out for her.
"Same as the bout between me and Rubes." I told her. "I''m going to come at you like this real, and I want you to do what comes natural to you. This is as much for your own benefit as mine."
"What''re you hoping to find?" Blake asked blandly. "That I need to work on my aim, or sharpen my sword more?"
"Some of that." I answered, quirking my chin to her. "But, just as much, any flaws or gaps in how you fight. I respect that you girls all figured out your own way to fight with your weapons, just like everyone else. But you''re not going to know what your problems are until you''ve run into them."
"You seem to think you''re going to be one." Blake said, subtly moving into a stance. Not subtly enough.
"You seem to think I''m not one." I countered, reaching over my shoulder and grabbing the handle of my shotgun. "So that''s one-"
There was a blur in the corner of my eye, and a whistle of wind.
My shotgun flipped over my shoulder as I stepped forward. The receiver moved across my chest, as I pulled it into a guard, turning to face the sudden attack.
Weiss lunged towards me like a bullet, her toothpick connecting with my shotgun and skating off the hardened receiver. I twisted with the motion of the blade, guiding it and letting both it and her pass me. She continued to fly through the air for several yards, before landing, turning on heel to face me.
By then, I''d already gotten both her and Blake in my line of sight, and had my shotgun trained on her.
"Not cool, snowflake." I told her, tone even and suddenly very focused. "You oughta wait your turn."
"What was that about treating this like a real fight?" Weiss asked coolly, chin raised and eyes narrowed with a sense of regal authority. "There''s no such thing as turns in a real fight, are there?"
I didn''t answer, just calmly let my gaze pass between her and Blake. Gauging their stances, the way Blake seemed to favor the side nearer Weiss. Whether she''d been counting on the help or not, she wasn''t going to turn it down. They''d both seen how I''d gone about things with Ruby. Maybe they felt there was more to gain by working together than just letting me go one to one on it.
Truthfully, I wasn''t going to disagree with them. It was a risk, but sometimes they''re worth taking.
I nodded. "Alright then, I can work with this." I told them. "Saves us some time, if I use the both of you to mop the floor, we cut down on clean-up time afterwards."
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Blake''s gaze hardened. "You don''t really think this is a good idea, do you?"
"''Course not." I answered. "You both want a real fight, and I need to stress test you. It''s gonna suck." I felt a smirk curl my lips. "Promise not to rough you up too bad."
"Just try." Weiss challenged.
''If you insist.''
Without responding to her words, my shotgun snapped in her direction. I paused half a second before pulling the trigger, as Weiss bolted out of the way, glyphs appearing beneath her feet. Could''ve made the shot, leading it means far less movement on my part than hers. But I wouldn''t learn anything from dropping her out the gate.
Turned out to be the smarter choice, because Blake saw an opening and instantly tried to take it. While Weiss circled me, Blake sprang towards me. She drew a bead on me with her pistol and fired, barely had time to react. If I''d been paying attention to Weiss, I wouldn''t have had it.
I threw myself back as Blake fired, bullets whizzing past me as I pointed the muzzle of my shotgun. Despite knowing the shot was liable to miss, I fired anyway for suppression. Was closer to the money that I''d thought at least, because Blake immediately dodged out of the way, using her Semblance to leave another copy of herself behind, one that had a stray piece of shot rip through her head. Could''ve been real gruesome if it didn''t immediately fade into thin air afterward.
My hand worked the lever of my shotgun, the shell ejecting as Blake began to circle me, moving in the opposite direction Weiss had. Almost as soon as I began to track her, I heard the faint whine begin to course towards me, coming from the opposite direction.
I spun to face it, once again catching Weiss as she thrust her blade at me, having it skate off my shotgun. Instead of running this time though, she stayed her ground and tried to press in, her thin silvery blade skating and rebounding off the darkened metal of my gun, what little cutting edge it had scraping against the wooden fore grip of the weapon. Enough to feel, not enough to bite in.
Weiss''s arm retracted, her feet flitting back, before she thrust forward again, toothpick at a new angle. My shotgun rose to meet it again, barrel parrying it aside as I shifted my grip. Wasn''t a weapon made for one-hand, but with aura it felt like one. At least for this purpose. Pistol grip felt right for it, like a war club with a knuckle-bow. Even if the rest wasn''t balanced to work as a club. Her blade skated across my shotgun, led aside as I swung the barrel around. Opened her for a counterattack, so I smacked her in the face with the barrel.
Disadvantage to a weapon purpose built for a single angle of attack: it sucked at everything else. Even as she stepped back and tried to recover, she tried to catch me with her toothpick''s ''edge''. The angle of it was wrong though. Too steep, it couldn''t actually cut me though.
Not missing the opening, I put the pressure on her and pushed in. Smart thing might''ve been to use the space she gave to dump a shell into her. But I''d already picked up a thing or two just from the opening exchange, how we went from there would only reinforce or tweak it.
Weiss''s eyes tracked to my shotgun as I swung at her again, and she raised her weapon to meet it. She attempted to parry it, but the weight of my swing made it easier to guard than counter. I let my wrist relax and let Weiss slip out of the guard. Forced to follow the barrel before she could re-angle her blade for another strike. The moment she did though, the muzzle of my shotgun dipped back towards her. Her eyes widened briefly at the mistake.
Right before I could pull the trigger though, Blake intervened. Her weapon, still in its pistol configuration, flew at my right arm, before sharply curving downward. The long black ribbon affixed to its end before going taut, causing it to snare itself around my arm. My finger left the trigger half a second before it was violently jerked aside. A quick glance showed Blake attempting to restrain me, pulling hard against the floor.
Weiss didn''t waste the opening, immediately seizing the clearer opening to try and run me through.
Recognizing a losing position, I acquiesced to Blake. I let her guide my arm in a straight line to her, while slipping out of Weiss''s way. The sudden shift caused Blake to lose her balance as Weiss''s toothpick narrowly missed the side of my chest.
My head snapped briefly to Blake, helping to guide my aim with her bow. VATS flashed open, closed, and I fired.
Even mid-fall, Blake was already in motion. Right before the buckshot would''ve got her, another copy appeared over herself, the lower one helping to launch her out of the way. The shot tore into the clone, and it vanished.
The ribbon around my arm went slack, and her weapon slowly dropped to the floor. As Weiss began to pull back, I twisted and kicked Blake''s weapon. The momentum caused it to spin back around my arm, unwinding and coming loose from my arm. Even as she pulled back, Blake''s weapon caught her under the chin.
Right before the cat Faunus could regain control of the weapon, it went slack enough that I could slip my arm from it. As it yanked away, I pulled my shotgun in and cycled the action again.
Despite knowing that Blake would take any opening I gave her, I put my attention firmly back on Weiss. The moment she recovered, she would take the opening to keep testing her swordplay against my gunplay. Couldn''t have that, melee beat guns in close-quarters too often for my liking. Only thing I could do was beat her to the punch.
While she was recovering, I closed the distance between us, swinging the butt of my shotgun up. This time I caught her on the cheek, torquing her head to the side. She back pedaled, and I continued to push. Gripping the muzzle and butt of the shotgun, I slammed the receiver forward against her chest. Keeping her off balance as she tried to recover. Feet almost skipping across the floor as the extra force threatened to bowl her over.
She grimaced and grit her teeth, trying to pull into a stance, get some proper footing.
I pointed the muzzle of my shotgun at her and pulled the trigger.
A squeak of a scream escaped her as the pellets slammed into her, sending her tumbling to the floor. She skittered a few feet before stopping, toothpick flying out of her hand.
I breathed, cycled the action, and spun to face Blake.
Only to find her waiting for me. Her weapon back in her hand, blade extended over the pistol, and its edged sheathe in her off-hand, held in a reversed grip.
My shotgun pushed towards her, underside of the receiver facing out as she slashed her blade at me. It scraped and skated across the metal, immediately followed by the sheathe, hitting more like a cleaver. The heft of the sheathe carrying more force, I felt the shotgun shake in my hand. If it weren''t for my aura, that would''ve left a mark, one I''d hate to fix later.
I twisted the muzzle towards her and pulled the trigger. As before, she blurred to the side, a clone eating the blast as she slashed her blade at me a second time. I twisted at the hip and dipped, narrowly missing the blade as it passed, taking a back step.
She seemed to be able to pull out those copies, clones, whatever they were whenever she wanted. They just didn''t last long.
My hand came back to the receiver as I cycled an action. Half a second before snapping it shut, I realized I''d emptied the tube.
Without giving me a moment to reload, Blake took another slash at me with her cleaver. Empty, I snapped the receiver shut and brought my shotgun to guard again. Another trembling blow, and my hand lifted the stock as I swung it by the barrel with my offhand. The handle flying to connect with the corner of her eye. As expected, she dodged and left another clone behind.
Unexpected: The clone remained standing.
The moment the grip of my shotgun passed into it, its form changed. With an icy hiss and a puff of fog, a statue of ice appeared in its place. Meticulously mirroring its previous image.
Except for where my shotgun connected. It formed around the grip seamlessly, trapping it in place.
"What the-" I muttered, genuinely confused.
Then my eyes flashed up to Blake, still retreating. She slashed her sword in my direction, but too far out of reach. A thread of pale purple like arcing from the tip.
It carried towards me, growing larger and faster as it closed the distance.
"Fuck!" I grunted, Releasing my shotgun and throwing myself back.
Too late.
The arcing beam of light hit me, throwing me back several feet. My aura glowed bright, but held, and I tumbled across the ground. It felt like I''d been hit with an I-beam moving at missile speeds. I had no idea what it was, but I was going to need to find out.
I began to scramble to my knee when, suddenly, one of Weiss''s black glyphs appeared beneath my feet. The moment I tried to rise, I couldn''t. I felt rooted in place, even trying to straighten out or lift my arms was a struggle.
Off to the side, I saw Weiss low to the ground, her toothpick pointed at me. She then gracefully stood, holding her weapon in front of her, parallel to her body, her off hand working the weapon''s cylinder. The glyph beneath me vanished, almost in time with the one that appeared beneath her. It glowed with a golden-white light, as she pointed her sword towards me.
I sprang to my feet, pulling Blood Nap into my left hand, drawing That Gun with my right, VATS flashing open as I prepared to fire.
Weiss launched towards me at blinding speed. Even with VATS open, she moved like time hadn''t slowed to a crawl.
She was too fast.
VATS closed, and I had all of a half heartbeat to react. Traded getting a shot off for a half-stumble out of the way. Weiss whistled past me like a bullet, the air practically turning me after her all on its own. I saw her go another ten feet, jerk to a halt, then about face and launch back again, angle changed.
I couldn''t dodge again, so I flipped Blood Nap in my hand and pulled into a guard. A half breath later, Weiss''s toothpick sparked against its blade as she blew past me again, this time checking my shoulder as she went. By the time I turned to face her, she was already coming back. I stuttered VATS open for the little good it did to buy me breathing room. Even pushing my aura, it was close, too close.
And she kept it up. Every heartbeat, she came in and struck, half a dozen times. Each one getting closer than the last, my knife hand trembling each time she did. I felt the tickle of adrenaline along my nerves and dancing in my stomach.
It would''ve only taken one hit to run me through.
Then she launched herself into the air, before planting herself against another of those black glyphs. I recognized it, the same as she''d used it against Yatsu.
Seeing an opening, I locked That Gun to my hip, arm craned up-
Blake rushed in from the front, sword and sheath closing in like a pair of shears at my neck.
Blood Nap slipped in, catching both blades with its own. They skated towards me in a blink.
That Gun snapped down to Blake, firing point blank.
She couldn''t dodge this time. A pair of shots nailing her in the chest.
Then Weiss crashed down on the both of us.
Blake, her senses more keen than mine, dipped out of the way. But Weiss crashed into me like a wrecking ball.
She sent me flying back, weapons skittering out of my hands, aura instantly broken. The world spinning and swimming as I dragged myself to a stop. The impact nailed me square in the chest, making my ribs ache even through the padding of my armor, knocking the wind out of me. One of those rare times where it took me a moment to even start picking myself up.
From the sidelines I heard Ruby and Yang cheering. Not in my favor either.
"That''s what we''re talking about!" Yang shouted "Kick his butt Blake!"
"Go Monochrome!" Ruby chirped.
Then, rather unexpectedly:
"Don''t let them get in your head kid!" Coco shouted. "You got this!"
From my spot on the ground, I looked towards the Peanut Gallery. Ruby, Yang, and CFVY were all looking on in interest. I could note CFVY were watching me with particular intensity.
I grit my fist, and started forcing myself to rise. First to my knees, then to my feet. Once upright, I took a deep breath and looked across to my opponents, some yards away.
They were creeping towards me, ready for a fight, standing close to one another. Blake''s weapons low, Weiss''s high.
"Still think I''m the weakest link?" She challenged.
My eyes flashed past them, then to the ground. My shotgun was still frozen inside a piece of Blake-shaped ice, way behind the two of them. My pistol was several yards in front of me, closer to them still than me.
But Blood Nap was at my feet. A part of me wanted to pick it up then and there.
I didn''t.
I''d been given a moment to breathe. A mercy I wasn''t going to waste.
So I looked at the two of them, as they inched towards me.
A chuckle found its way out my throat. It led to me clapping my hands, slowly. Weiss and Blake looked at me in confusion.
"I''ll admit, I was wrong." I said, shaking my head. "You''re not the weakest link. Frankly, having now fought everyone on our team, I can''t help but feel I''m probably the one most fit for that moniker."
The confusion on both their faces turned to surprise.
"Each of you is incredibly capable." I continued, eyes flitting down to Blood Nap, That Gun, formulating. "While I might have been poking a bit hard there, what I said was meant in good fun, and because I do want to help. I wanted to know what each of you was capable of, because I want to know what I can do to help."
I slowly began to ease back into a stance myself, Weiss and Blake tracking me.
"But it''s clear that I''m still learning too." I said. "You''re both powerful on your own, and even more so working together. Shouldn''t have underestimated you."
"Are you going to give up?" Blake challenged. "Did you get everything want?"
I felt my lips curl up in a smirk I would almost call thrilled.
"Fat chance."
My foot lashed forward, kicking Blood Nap up into the air. I caught it, flipping it over my knuckles. With a focusing breath, my aura washed back over me, glowing green.
"I''ve got two fists, a knife, and an ornery will to fight that scares the piss out of most people." I told them, willing my aura into my arms, legs, everywhere, bolstering my strength. "Let''s dance ."
Blake and Weiss''s eyes flashed to each other, then back to me, set in grim determination.
They nodded, mutually.
Then they launched at me in tandem.
I charged to meet them. They passed my pistol far quicker than I''d have been able to get to it. Knew they would. Even with the boost from aura, there was no beating them in distance. If I was going to get it back, I would need to fight for it.
We collided a couple yards after that. Weiss struck high while Blake swung low.
I dipped below Weiss''s thrust, and kicked out at Blake''s arm as she began her swing, stopping it dead in its tracks. I then lurched back up, catching Weiss with an uppercut, while pressing down onto Blake''s arm with my boot. My uppercut landed, but Blake pulled back, replacing herself with another clone. As Weiss staggered back, Blake snapped her weapon back, folding it into a hook again, and hurled it at me. Ready for it this time, I sidestepped the weapon, opened VATS, and caught it mid-flight. Blood Nap lashed up to the ribbon holding it, and it snapped easily. Leaving the pistol sitting in my off-hand as the cloth trailed back to Blake.
It settled in naturally, as I pointed the muzzle at her. Like holding a 9mm.
Blake''s eyes widened as I began mag-dumping in her general vicinity. Another clone blurred out of her, and she darted away. My arm tracked after her, bullets flying.
One pegged her in the shoulder, no clone that time.
Important information.
Weiss took control of her faculties again and lunged, blade coming high.
I turned Blake''s pistol on her next and fired.
She side-stepped, diverting her stride with a glyph that let her slide across the floor. It vanished, and she spun her hand across the cylinder of her weapon. A pair of glyphs appeared over her shoulders, blinking in succession. From each launched a projectile. One, a giant icicle, the base as thick around as my thigh.
The other was a fireball the size of my head.
I tried not to let their appearance faze me. Admiration and awe later, fighting first.
Neither moved slow, but they weren''t bullet speeds. I slipped past the icicle, and felt the fireball pass so close it fried the hairs on my neck. Without losing the momentum, I met Weiss in her lunge, spinning Blake''s pistol by the trigger guard.
I let it fly, two steps before we''d have engaged.
Weiss saw it coming, and stepped out of the way as the weapon flew past her.
I took the opening, letting Blood Nap skim over her blade, coming in at eye height.
She blinked in surprise, and threw herself out of the way, right before the edge would''ve bit her. Let me get past her.
Which was what I''d wanted.
I bolted past her, knowing she''d need a second to piece out what I was doing. Another to react to it.
By the time she did I was already diving for That Gun.
As I landed on top of it, I heard her blade whip through the air. Heard the whining-chime that I was starting to associate with her glyphs.
My hand snapped down onto my pistol and I flipped over, opening VATS.
Another glyph was appearing at the tip of Weiss''s sword, pointed at me.
Could''ve gone for a headshot. Probably could''ve landed it.
I shot her weapon instead. The bullet hit the cylinder of the weapon. Spatter spraying white-hot over her hand. She yelped, and twitched her aim off. I saw the cylinder move. Lock-up issue, she''d need to address that.
Then a funnel of wind shot out of the glyph. Like a tornado pointed at the horizon. Blowing away everything in front of it.
Even as it missed me, the wind still kicked me and any surrounding dirt up. I pushed off the ground and let it carry me. Used the lift to gracefully pull myself into a series of flips and spins that ended with me several feet away and standing upright.
Frankly I was surprised I''d pulled it off. Acrobatic Marvel or not, that wasn''t the sort of thing I normally did. Even Weiss seemed surprised by it. Good reaction speed on my part, I guess.
Then I saw Blake behind her, making a break for her pistol.
I aimed, tracked ahead of her and fired.
She spawned a clone where I thought she would, blurring ahead.
Immediately taking a bullet to the side of her head.
She tumbled to the ground, clasping at the spot where she''d been hit. No flash of aura, so she was fine, probably just gotten taken by surprise.
''Someone get me a lotto ticket, something''s up with my Luck right now.''
Blake stayed where she was on the ground, catching her breath. I let her. Come back to bite me or not, if she was out then I wasn''t going to strike her. So I let my focus go to Weiss instead.
Weiss watched me with a hawkish gaze. Eyes tracking me as I began to walk calmly to one side of the arena. Likewise I didn''t take my eyes off her, but kept my ears open for her Semblance. It made a very distinctive noise.
She held herself in a ready stance. At any moment, I expected her to launch in my direction, or for another of those black glyphs to open under my feet. But they didn''t. Instead, she was just eyeing. Taking a chance for both of us to catch our breath.
Her Semblance must have been tiring to use. To do the things she did, it had to be. Just like Blake, she had limits. She could only have so many glyphs going at once. She could only make so many of them.
There was a good chance she didn''t have much fuel left in the tank. Not with how hard and fast she and Blake had been coming at me. Enough to be dangerous, always. But only if she was smart.
I still had a round left in the chamber. If she''d been paying attention to that, she knew I''d have a free pot-shot left on her. Then she''d have a window left while I was reloading.
If she was going to end things, either Blake would need to step back in. Or she would need to play fast and smart. With Blake down, she seemed to know the score. The more time she had to catch her breath, the more likely she was to build up enough strength to keep using her Semblance.
Which I couldn''t have.
I opened VATS again and aimed. It closed, and I fired my last shot at her weapon.
The bullet missed, but hit her hand instead. Earning another yelp from her. " Again !?"
A window of my own opened, and I turned, bolting for the slowly melting statue of Blake. It bought me all of three seconds, after that the glyphs began appearing, slowly, each launching giant spikes of ice and great balls of fire after me. Getting more accurate with each one. As I came upon the statue, I practically had to dive into it to avoid them. Which I did, knocking the statue over and shattering it. Leaving giant chunks of ice to trip over.
And a solid block of it, frozen over the receiver. Keeping it shut. I was half tempted to bash it quickly against the ground, try to force it open.
Then a black glyph briefly opened underneath me. Followed by another chiming far behind me.
I could hear Weiss howling with it.
Without even bothering to look, I sprung up, turning and swinging my shotgun by the barrel.
The receiver connected with the underside of Weiss''s ribs. The ice shattered on impact.
She then slammed bodily into me for a second time, sending us both sprawling to the floor, but I kept my grip on my weapon.
Weiss didn''t. It skittered a short distance away from her, as she lost all sense of grace.
With a groan, and flickering aura, I snapped the action open and loaded a pair of shells. One in the chamber and another on the carrier. My hand slapped it shut, and I began to get up.
Then another black glyph opened underneath me, and I was pinned back to the ground.
I heard Weiss huff, then saw her pick herself up on my periphery. She grimaced, casually retrieved her sword, then came back over to me and fixed me with a glare.
She looked completely mussed. Her outfit was smeared with dirt and sweat, her jacket was a bit torn-up, and the little accessory that kept her hair up had fallen out. Leaving her white hair cascading down her back in a tangle.
I idly noted her hair looked better like that.
"Finished?" she asked.
In response, the muzzle of my shotgun began slowly tracking to her.
She rested the tip of her sword on my vest. Right between the ribs, lucky guess.
"I think I''ve won." She said, sounding increasingly tired. "Yield."
"Think you missed the bit about me being ornery ." I grit out, watching as her features continued to strain.
"I don''t want to hurt you." She told me, voice starting to get thin.
"First mistake." I told her. "You know that''s not how this works."
"¡"
Weiss exhaled sharply and the glyph vanished. The weight behind her sword became more pronounced as she suddenly needed the support.
My shotgun snapped up to her, poking into her breast bone.
"Give up?" I asked.
"Never." She huffed tiredly, giving me a deadened glare.
We stayed like that for a second or two. Long enough that Blake was finally starting to recover. Not enough to spring back into the fight, but enough for us both to come to a silent agreement.
"A draw then." I told her, not moving my weapon. "We can pick this up again later, try going one on one then."
"¡" Weiss exhaled, pulling her weapon back. "Agreed."
As she did, I pulled back my shotgun and slowly eased the hammer down. I set the shotgun on the floor and sat up, twisting my back. Don''t know what magical nonsense let her do that, but it''d do a number on my joints if she kept it up.
I went to get up, and found Weiss holding a hand out to help me. Perhaps seeing my stiffness.
My hand clasped to hers, and I began to get up.
Weiss then immediately lost her balance and we both fell back on to the floor. She gave another yelp as she did, before landing on top of me.
"¡ Really?" I asked.
She blushed incandescently. "You''re a lot heavier than you look!" she squeaked indignantly.
"Oh so I''m fat now." I said. "Gee, thanks."
"You two lovebirds having fun?" Yatsu called from the sidelines.
"¡"
Weiss immediately shot up off of me and stalked over to Blake. Leaving me flattened out on the floor.
'' Whatever, the ground is comfier anyway. ''
After laying on the ground for a few moments, I rolled back and sprang onto my feet. Admittedly, that fight wasn''t my best performance. Was really starting to question my recent showings of force. Did I really have this much trouble back in the Mojave? I had to fight smart, sure, but this didn''t feel right. Maybe it was just all the changes in how our worlds fought. No magic rocks and soul magic back home, just science rocks and body armor.
It was going to bug me, I already knew it.
Blake and Weiss came up to me after fully recovering, though Blake was still rubbing the side of her head. Would probably have a nice sized egg after a day or two.
I gave them both a pat on the back and corralled them back together with the Peanuts.
"So, was it worth it?" Blake asked dryly.
"Honestly, no, I''m less than pleased with my performance." I told them, then shrugged. "But I saw enough out of both of you to get what I needed."
"And what would that be, kid?" Coco asked, drumming her fingers on her arm. "Seemed like they handled themselves pretty good."
"Pretty good, not great." I said. "There''s always room to improve." My gaze fell to Blake. "Since you want to know so badly, we''ll start with you."
Blake rolled her eyes.
"Speaking plainly, you''re serviceable." I told her. "Fast, cunning, good reflexes, and plenty of tricks. All good points that work well in your favor. There''s just one problem: You''re a fuckin'' coward."
Blake looked like I''d slapped her.
"You don''t stand your ground, you only look for opportunities to strike when they show themselves, and you only consider fighting straight when you think you''re got some edge on your opponent. Be that they aren''t physically capable, or you know you''ve got an ally nearby." I explained. "Now, there''s nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Fights aren''t fair, and you shouldn''t fight fair if you can avoid it. That''s a lesson I hope everyone of you figures out, or already has, before you wind up in a bind."
"Then how is it a problem now?" Velvet asked. "That sounds kind of¡ hypocritical."
"I know it does, but there''s a point." I continued. "If at any point, Blake had chosen to stand by Weiss''s side and stay there, rather than running off because I fought back, the two would''ve had me. Instead, the moment I put up even a little resistance, she''d bolt off to wherever I wasn''t looking. What''s more is that she, rather you , Blake, showed you have the prowess to do it. If you''d been willing to risk the danger, you and Weiss would''ve been far better off."
"You weren''t exactly giving us openings." Blake frowned.
"Nor should you expect any, which brings us to the second issue." I told her. "You only look for the opportunities that present themselves, rather than trying to make any. Part of surviving in combat is knowing when to get aggressive and stay that way. But your constant tendency to run away and only look for the opportunities, again, hurt you more than helped."
Blake grimaced, pursing her lips thoughtfully.
"I''m not saying you''re a bad fighter, not by any stretch. Clearly you''ve got what it takes." I told her. "But the problem, is that you''ve got the complete opposite of Ruby''s problem. You''re too timid, cautious. You''re practically a one woman army, seeing as you can call up those copies of yourself whenever you want. Use it. You could''ve easily overwhelmed me and lined-up Weiss for the kill."
Blake shook her head. "My Semblance doesn''t work like that."
"Then figure out how it can ." I told her. "There''s going to come a point where not standing your ground could lead to people getting hurt. You don''t want to find out then that you should''ve gone for the throat rather than breaking right."
Blake grimaced a moment longer, then looked up at me. She nodded, and I could only hope some of what I''d said sunk in. I could see a lot of the similarities to how I''d been fighting recently and the way Blake fought. Nothing was foolproof, but I could see where she was getting it wrong.
But compared to Weiss, her issues were trivial. I looked to her, and made it clear she was next on the chopping block.
"¡ Well?" She asked. "What did I get wrong?"
"¡hmm¡" I hummed, trying to find the words.
She quirked an eyebrow at me, waiting.
"Your problem¡ isn''t an easy one to pin down." I told her. "Because, technically ¡ you''re flawless."
Weiss''s face brightened. "Oh?"
I sighed and began ticking off my fingers. "You''re skilled, knowledgeable, fast, your Semblance is multifaceted, your weapon sucks but you make it work anyway-"
" Hey! "
"- You''re quick thinking, aren''t afraid to get hit, and have a level of resolve I''m genuinely willing to respect." I told her. "While your physical prowess is lacking, you''ve got enough going in almost every other area to compensate for it."
Weiss, though glaring at me, seemed to be growing more pleased as I rattled off what I thought. In most contexts, I would say that she had every right to be.
But it also made it painfully clear what her problem was.
"In short, you''ve polished your skills to the point where there''s not much more room to go with them." I told her.
"Naturally." Weiss said, smirking. Then she remembered there was a point to this, not me just stoking her ego. "¡ So what''s the problem?"
"It means you''ve peaked." I told her.
Weiss looked at me in confusion. "Peaked?"
"You''ve gotten as good as you can at this." I told her. "Using all of the skills that you have up until now, with all of the knowledge you''ve gained, this is as far as it goes. Your growth has plateaued."
Weiss''s face fell, a worried light growing in her eyes. "But¡ But that can''t be right! I''m still training-"
"And what have you learned?" I asked. "In the two weeks you''ve spent sparring with everyone, have you noticed any changes in yourself? In the way you fight?"
"W-Well¡" She said, thinking. I didn''t interrupt her, I let her think. I wanted her to determine for herself if I was right or not. It led to me watching as a dreadful, existential fear settled over her. The more she thought about it, the more she probably realized I wasn''t overselling it. "I¡ I haven''t, have I?"
"No. I''m sorry." I told her. "Given everything you have now, you''ve gone as far as you can."
Weiss frowned as I said it. If I didn''t know better, I''d say she almost looked like she wanted to cry. But I knew Weiss, at least a little. She wasn''t the crying type. Tears are wasted on situations that are in your power to change.
And she knew that.
So she took a deep breath, calming herself. Then she looked at me again.
"I''m not stopping." She said.
"Good." I answered, smirking. "Then listen good, because I know how to fix it."
Weiss nodded, paying close attention. Probably would''ve taken notes if she had a pen and paper.
"The thing about stagnation is that it''s all about choice." I told her. "It means making the same choices over and over again, never changing them, or considering better ones. Things become routine because they''re familiar, and few things are more familiar than stagnation. So, how do you break stagnation?"
"By making different choices." Weiss said, following.
"Exactly." I told her. "Lucky you, I can see what choices it is that''s got you stuck."
She nodded, hands resting in front of her, one clasped over her wrist.
"The biggest one is in how you fight." I told her. "You rely too much on your weapon."
Her head tilted. "What do you mean?"
"Just that, you''re using your weapon and not your mind." I told her. "A tool is a tool no matter its shape. It''s not the hand that guides it, but the mind. The moment the mind stops telling it what to do, and just lets the hand do its work, you''ve lost. You''ll make mistakes because the motions become familiar and routine. You''ll rely on the weapon because you won''t consider this is the time it won''t be enough¡" I sighed, thinking on the irony of it all. "You''ll walk yourself into an early grave because you trusted a tool over your brain."
Weiss nodded, confused but listening intently.
"A tool can only be used well if the mind is present to use it." I shortened. "Your toothpick is a toothpick. It''s a finely made toothpick, but a toothpick all the same."
"It''s not a toothpick, it''s a rapier." Weiss huffed.
"Didn''t ask for its criminal record." I told her.
She must''ve been feeling really low, because that dumb joke actually got a chuckle out of her.
"If the fault isn''t with your weapon, then where does it lie?" I asked. "What aren''t you using?"
"If you''re trying to tell me I don''t think enough I''m going to be really offended." Weiss said.
I suppressed another chuckle. But she knew it''d gotten a rise out of me and gave a soft smile. She then pursed her lips thoughtfully, flexing those brain cells of hers. If she could come to the answer on her own, it would work all the better. All I was doing was giving her a push in the right direction.
After another moment of thought, she answered: "If it''s not my weapon, and it''s not my technique¡" The light began to return to her eyes. "Is it my Semblance?"
"I don''t know, is it?" I asked.
"It can''t be¡ can it?" she asked. "My Semblance is hereditary. It''s been passed through my family for decades, and I''ve been trained to use it since I was a child."
"Then wouldn''t that be the most stagnant thing of all?" I asked. "Something you''ve had ingrained in you for so long you haven''t even thought to question it?"
"¡" The light exploded in Weiss''s eyes.
"What possibilities have you closed off without thinking?" I asked. "What can you do now that you have training? That you couldn''t do then, when you didn''t know better?" I placed a hand on her shoulder. "How far do you think you could go, if you put your mind to it?"
"I¡ I don''t know." Weiss answered.
"Then you need to take what I''m about to tell you very seriously, Weiss." I told her. "Because I''m not saying it lightly given what I know present company to be capable of."
I saw my teammates look at me funny. I was probably about to make them a little irate too, but the truth hurts.
"Weiss." I said "You, are easily the most powerful person on this team."
Weiss''s jaw fell open.
"Yo, what? " I heard Yang ask.
"No, I''m not lying." I said, giving Yang a brief look. "Weiss, having now fought you, even if it was a two-to-one I got to see what you could do. And if I could do even half of what you can, none of you could ever stand a chance at stopping me." I motioned briefly to our teammates, then to CFVY. "Everyone here can do something that is strong, and capable of amazing things." I then motioned back to her. "But you break physics . Do you have any idea how hard that is?"
"It''s not that hard." Weiss defended.
"Not to you it isn''t!" I said. "What you do is amazing, and it''s almost second nature to you!..." I took a moment, and calmed myself. "But I know, if I''d fought you solo, I''d have probably beaten you. Easily."
"Not that easy." Weiss said.
"Maybe. Maybe not." I told her, then sighed, rubbing my mask. "¡ You''ve got a lot of potential, Weiss. Your Semblance, what it lets you do, it''s far more than just using a sword could ever hope to do."
Weiss''s gaze fell. "It has its limits. There are things I can''t do because it''s not possible."
"Not possible, or just very hard?" I asked.
Weiss didn''t answer, but the words were visibly taking up space in her head.
I put my other hand on her shoulder. "I can''t give you the same kind of answer I gave Ruby or Blake. Your issue isn''t something I can sum up for you like that. You''ve got power at your fingertips you''ve been trained your whole life to keep in check, use only as directed. You''re a walking artillery unit waiting to happen, and you''re afraid of it, whether you recognize that or not. The only thing you can do-"
"Is choose not to be, and figure out what that means." Weiss said, thoughtfully.
"And not be so reliant on your swordsmanship." I told her. "You''re alright, but defaulting to it is an issue. Should kick whoever told you that was a good idea."
"That would be some of the best swordsmen in Atlas." Weiss answered.
"Of course it was, prideful bastards." I muttered. "Next they''ll try cutting bullets out of the air."
Weiss smirked. Knowing this place, someone had probably already tried.
"Won''t be easy, never is." I told her. "Growth is painful. You gotta be willing to get hurt if you wanna grow."
"¡ok." Weiss said, voice solemn, perhaps with a slight tremble in it. She looked, and I gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Don''t be too down, you''re not the only person on this team with some growing to do. Though I do have a question." I said, looking back to Blake. "What was that thing you did with your swords? That''s the first time I''ve seen something like that."
"Advanced Aura technique." Blake explained. "You extend your aura out through your weapon and it lashes out in a shockwave."
"¡ It can do that?" I asked, then backpedaled. "Wait, no, of course it can, you hit me with it."
"It''s not easy to do either." Velvet added. "Fox is the only one on our team who can do it too, and it''s because he''s spent so much time working on it."
"¡" I looked at Fox. "You can?"
He just smirked, then shrugged.
"It can be used to do all kinds of things with your weapons." Ruby said, motioning to Crescent Rose. "It just takes a lot of practice."
"¡Huh. Magic is magic, go figure." I muttered, earning an odd look from Velvet. "Are there any other special things I need to know about? Can I turn invisible, or use my soul to start flying by learning to dodge air?"
"Now that''s just stupid." Coco said, smirking.
"But you can use your aura to control how you fall." Velvet said. "It''s good if you need to make a long drop, or control where you land."
"¡ Y''know I was half joking, right?" I asked. "You''re saying I can turn my aura into a glider?"
Velvet blushed, then shrugged. "Kinda. It''s one of the hardest things you can learn to do with your Aura. Outside of sword beams¡ or making things explode when you punch them."
"Making them- y''know what, it doesn''t matter right now." I said, forcibly derailing that train of thought. "The point is, I guess there''s still a lot I need to learn too. Feels weird, used to be I knew what my limits were. Now it feels more and more like I don''t have any."
"Oh no, you still do." Coco smirked. "Trust me kid, it''s going to suck when you finally find them."
"But we''re here to make sure it''s all good." Ruby smiled, tagging my arm. "We''ve all got some work to do, right?"
I huffed and nodded, though nowhere as put off by the prospect as I thought I''d be. "Suppose we do¡" I looked down at my Pip-boy, realizing the time. "Juuuust not today. Time''s up."
"Already?" Ruby asked.
"Time flies when you''re having fun." I shrugged.
"Boo, I still wanted to go another round." Yang said, stretching.
"You''ll have your chance." I assured her. Wasn''t like I was going anywhere, yet.
We started to file out of the hall and back into the main arena at roughly the same time everyone else filed out. Despite my interruption, we''d at least each gotten a fairly decent spar in.
"So what was this all about anyway?" Coco asked, slowing her pace to match mine. "Seems kind of sudden, challenging your teammates to a fight like you did today."
"We got something we need to take care of tonight." I told her "I''m not expecting any trouble, but I wanted to know they''d be able to handle themselves. Plus, having a better idea of how they fight means I can help them in kind."
Coco nodded, smirking. "Softie."
"Practical." I corrected.
"So what''s going on tonight?" Velvet asked, casually eavesdropping.
"Nothing big." I told her. "Just a night out in Vale."
Coco smirked. "I''m sure it won''t be too crazy, right?"
"Naturally." I lied.
Back in the City
Beyond the doorway, I could hear a voice calling. Forlorn, scared in a way I''d come to know.
"Sinclair?... Sinclair?!" Vera called. "I''m trapped- please. Oh god, the security systems won''t let me out, They''re keeping me here."
I peeked my head past the door frame, to get a view of the room beyond. It wasn''t much different from others I had passed through, creeping through the Executive Suites. A few beds, a privacy partition for changing, a gaping hole in the wall from decaying construction, a bathroom. Nothing fancy.
Free with the room, a ghostly blue Hologram, its form that of a beautiful young woman, wearing a fancy, sheer-cut dress. A massive slit exposing a leg, all the way from her hip down.
After dealing with Domino and collecting what I needed from the Tampico, there was only one stop left. One that my conversation with Domino had given me more insight on than Elijah could''ve provided. I needed to find Christine.
The ride up to the Executive Suites hadn''t been a particularly smooth one. The elevator still worked, barely. Could''ve sworn at any moment the motor was going to kick out, or the cable would snap. Kept stalling out at random. Last thing I needed was for the aging security programs to kick in at the last moment. Leave me trapped in the building''s skeletal system. But it held together. Long enough for me to get to the floor I needed. How many trips it had left in it, I had no idea, but it wouldn''t take many.
Once I was there, Elijah started chattering in my ear again. I patently ignored everything he had to say at that point. My direction was clear, and my goal was simple: find Christine.
Made even easier, when she reached out over the speakers herself on my arrival.
Somehow, Christine''s vocal chords had been healed. Maybe an effect of another auto-doc, or the Villa mistaking her for Vera. Easy enough to do. Domino hadn''t been exaggerating. Christine''s voice was almost a perfect match for Vera''s. A little more rough, a slight grit to it that gave it a more sultry quality that wasn''t in the recordings. But it was definitely hers. She used it to warn me that security was still active in the Executive Suites. The Holograms were still patrolling the floor. She said she would do what she could to help me get past them, little though it was.
I heard them not long after.
The recordings that Vera left behind for her Ghost, in her final hours. Her voice filled with fear and worry. Desperately clawing at the walls of the cage she found herself trapped in. A security system that was smart enough to recognize her, smart enough to hear her. Too callous to care. Cruel enough to slaughter everyone who could''ve helped her. Leave her trapped in the dark, alone.
I watched as the hologram began to walk deeper into the Suite. I crept past it, walking through the hole in the wall.
"I- I''m going to die here¡ amongst the ghosts." The Hologram played, facing the other way as I slipped past the wall. "I-I''m still being recorded by the Holographic System."
Past the wall and into the hall. The way was blocked by debris, but there was a door that led into a maintenance closet. Big one, looked like it kept most of the floor''s Hvac and water systems. About halfway through, a blue hand wafted through the door on the opposite side. My heart leaped out of my chest, and I bolted behind one of the boilers. The Vera Hologram phased through the door as though it weren''t even there. Carefully, worriedly, I peered from the curve of the boiler. I''d been blasted enough by the Hologram to know how deadly they were. If it saw me now, things would end poorly.
"I came so far to be here¡ now, now I just want to leave." The Hologram played, Vera''s voice scared, filled with pain. "Please¡ Let me leave."
The Hologram walked calmly along the length of the room, and I stepped around the boiler with it. Always keeping cover between the two of us as it went. Soon as it passed, I bolted for the door. I pushed through it and stared down a long hall, doors on either side, another hall splitting off further down. Going by my Pip-boy, I was heading in the right direction. The halls up to here had been labyrinthine, the suites had all collapsed enough at one point or another I had to double back. The path itself was straight forward, it was just a matter of getting past the sealed doors.
I made it to the end of the hall, ran into another one, backtracked to a security office, and found the release. All the while, I could hear Vera echoing through the walls. Her long deceased voice carrying the distress of centuries-old terror.
Despite finding a hunting shotgun, and more than enough ammo, I didn''t feel any more confident for it.
"Sinclair?... Sinclair, where did you go?" The Hologram played, Vera sounding on the verge of tears. "Where did you go? Why did you leave me here?... Why?
I continued to work my way through the Suites, slipping through the rooms, staying out of sight of the Holograms. Harder than it should''ve been. They could hide behind a corner without making a peep, made no noise when they moved, and could move through anything. Only time I''d hear anything was half a second before they attacked. By then it''d be too late.
"Sinclair¡ Sinclair, is that you?" A Hologram screamed, right before I rounded into it.
I dove back and bolted down the hall, hearing as the Hologram warbled, prepared to fire.
"Sinclair!... Sinclair!"
A bolt of blue light nailed me in the back as I turned, ripping open a door. I bolted into the room, desperately ignoring the pain. My heart hammered in my chest as I pulled it shut enough for cover. There were a tense few seconds, as I waited, peering through a crack between the door and frame. Watching as the Ghostly Hologram stalked up to the door, flashing red, watching after where I''d gone. My heart beat faster, and by no means softer, as I watched. Waiting for it to continue blasting me.
After a moment, the red died back to yellow. The recordings resumed.
"The doors, they¡ they sealed." The Hologram said, Vera''s voice haunted and thready. "I¡ I can hear the other guests, screaming to be let out¡ to let go."
The yellow faded to blue, and the Hologram moved on. Continuing to hark to a long dead industrialist in the voice of a dead starlet.
I waited a few moments longer. Longer than maybe I should have. Tried to calm down, get my heart under control. Only when I was as calm as I could manage, did I make a break for it. Bolting back in the direction I''d been heading. I had to be getting close.
As I went, I could hear the voices beginning to overlap each other. More Holograms, playing Vera''s final words in Stereo. Had been for centuries.
But even as the words got louder and louder, I crossed into a ruin suite and saw it.
The emitter.
I took aim, right as the Hologram spoke.
"We all pay for what we''ve done." The Hologram echoed, mournfully. "I''m so sorry Sinclair¡ Sorry, I¡ I should''ve trusted you."
I felt my chest ache as that recording played. Maybe my frayed nerves and tired heart. Maybe more.
Domino had coerced the poor girl. She never wanted any of this, nor did she deserve it.
She died, trapped in a nightmare.
I fired. The emitter burst in a vibrant display of sparks and electrical static.
The entire floor went silent. The last of Vera Keyes'' voice, silenced.
"I''m sorry Ms. Keyes." I said to the dead air. "You suffered longer than you should have."
Finally free of the immediate danger, I walked the rest of the way calmly. Finding the means of opening myself a clearer way back to the elevator. Mending a broken gas main here, hitting a few terminal keys there. All the while, mourning for a woman I''d never met. Not the only victim of this place, but the first.
Once I cleared the way back, I went for the Main Suite. Vera''s.
A pair of ornate double doors opened into a large sitting room, and massive sets of windows. They peered out to the Villa, so far away and below. The dirty light that filtered through them was tainted crimson by the Cloud. The once lavish sofas were now darkened with age and grime, the tacky and ornately weaved rug was now just tacky. Tarnished brass chandelier over a table of fake flowers, as perky as the day they were rushed out of the factory. There was a mini-bar to the right of the room, a chemistry station set on it. Beside the bar, a door. To the left side, a few chairs, a side table, fully stocked bookshelf, a diseased looking portrait, and another door. The door was part way open, showing pieces of a bedroom beyond.
Christine was sitting in one of the chairs, near the portrait. A Big Book of Science cracked open in front of her and a pained grimace on her face. She''d traded the fatigues she''d been wearing for one of the armored jumpsuits the Sierra Madre security were supposed to wear.
She looked up from her book, and gave me a friendly smile.
"Words make any sense to you?" I asked. "Seems more like gibberish to me, sometimes."
She shook her head. Then spoke. "Not anymore, there''s a disconnect between the words and my thoughts... Math makes sense, but I guess poetry''s out¡ It''s like I have static in my head."
"Oh, well, when you put it into words it actually sounds painful." I smirked.
Christine gave me a flat look, and rolled her eyes. Then she coughed, grimacing again. "Still is. Hurts to talk... Let''s try and keep it brief, ok?"
I nodded. "Save your voice, last thing you need is to go losing it again."
Christine smiled again, before looking back to the book. She flipped a page and tried reading again.
I eyed the door to the bedroom. Had a feeling I knew what was in there, but moved towards it anyway.
"Woke up in there." Christine said, looking mournfully at the page. "It was¡ less pleasant."
"¡" I pushed the door the rest of the way open.
It was Vera''s room. Maybe, back when Sinclair first built the Madre it looked nicer. But standing in the doorway, I might as well have been standing at the mouth of a crypt. Fitting, how walking through so much of the Madre had felt like one.
The room was dark, only lit by the stark crimson light casting sharply through the windows. Falling in long, solid streaks. The paint, once solid and golden like the rays of the early sun, was chipped and crumbling. Littering the tattered carpeting in brassy shards. The furniture was otherwise pristine, like stepping into a time capsule. An exhibit of the private d¨¦cor to the social elite from centuries passed. Massive windows to the right, a lamp tipped to the floor near them. Wardrobe and dresser to the left of the door. Closer than both of them, an Auto-doc. Smaller than the model I saw in the Villa. A personal model, easily moved, given there was a terminal mounted to a movable base, the necessary mechanical arms dangling. To the far wall, set between two glowing lamp fixtures, a king size bed. Fresh as the day it was made, even through the thick, undisturbed layer of dust. Barring the visible disrepair, it was as close to being a perfect gilded cage as you could ever hope to see.
Damn shame for the songbird in the corner.
In the far right corner of the room, hidden in the stark shadow made by the window, was a chair. Seated, prim and relaxed in it, as prim and relaxed as could be, was a skeleton. Features long rotted away, leaving nothing but moldering bone. It had been a woman at one point, I could tell by the attire it still wore. Weren''t too many men in the Mojave that wore dresses, that I was aware of. That was private business, none of mine.
But I recognized the dress, knew who it belonged to.
I''d seen it enough, just getting this far.
Vera Keyes sat, reclined, relaxed, and long since departed in the corner of the room. Dress hanging loosely from her boney frame, shoes set primly beside where her feet would''ve been. Heard heels were murder, but they weren''t what did her in.
That would be the half dozen empty syrettes of Med-X at her feet.
Her suffering had indeed ended. She''d seen to that herself. Medical records in the clinic implied she''d been suffering from some kind of disease, terminal variety. Something degenerative and painful, given the chems she was on. Explained the Auto-Doc, and contraband Med-X. Keep things at bay as long as possible. But there were some things even Old-World Miracles couldn''t fix.
Over her bed, there was a final message. Scrawled in a fine shade of red, that could''ve been blood for all I knew.
'' Let Go.''
Two words, lots of meanings.
"Can''t imagine waking up in there." I said, stepping back into the main room. "Or choosing to fall asleep there."
"Wasn''t my choice." Christine answered, grimacing as she snapped the book shut, tossing it aside.
"Have much trouble getting to the Madre from the Switching station?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Straight shot after¡ I hit the button."
I nodded, made sense, she didn''t have to cross half the Villa to get back. "Good¡ how''s it feel to speak again?"
Christine winced. "Different, voice doesn''t sound right in my ears¡ hurts to swallow."
"Makes sense." I told her. "Don''t know what you used to sound like, but you sound like the woman on the radio now, Vera Keyes." I said, thumbing back to the late starlet.
She nodded. "Explains¡ things."
"You can thank Domino for that." I told her. "Bastard thought he could tune you like a piano."
She quirked an eyebrow.
"Long story." I answered. "Short version: Sinclair used her as the imprint for the vault''s vocal locks. Domino thought he could use you as a bypass if he made you sound like her."
Christine grimaced. "¡Could work." She admitted. "Maybe not for long, but it could."
"Then your throat tears itself apart, and you''re permanently mute." I surmised.
She nodded grimly at that. "At least."
"I''m going to guess you haven''t run into Elijah yet either." I said.
The grim look on Christine''s face gained a disdainful edge to it. "He''d be on the floor right now if I had."
"So we''re still doing this then." I said, looking to the far, right side of the room. Behind the bar was a doorway. The only remaining way forward.
Christine got up and followed me as I moved to investigate it. The door was electronically locked, with a terminal mounted to the wall beside it. Christine and I prodded at it for a moment, and managed to bypass it with minimal effort. The other was a short corridor, a right turn, then a left, with only a token curtain to divide them. The left led straight to an elevator, another terminal connected to it.
The entrance to the Casino Vault.
"Fucked up that Sinclair didn''t give the poor girl a bathroom." I said. "Least he could''ve done if he was going to lock her away was make sure she could take care of herself."
"Guess that makes this the end of the line, then." Christine said, eying the terminal bitterly. "That''s what Domino attacked me for? Some stupid lock?"
"Elijah''s little better." I said, looking down at my Pip-Boy. "There''s some pieces of audio I''ve been needing to collect along the way. My guess, Elijah''s own efforts to bypass it. Further proof he was here ahead of us, given he seemed to have already known about it."
Christine slowly raised a hand to her throat. "That just puts him and the Ghoul in the same boat."
"Don''t worry, it''ll be sunk soon enough." I told her, motioning to the terminal. "Let''s see if we can''t figure out the password and get down there ourselves, eh? Elijah''s expecting me to off you. I enjoy your candor though, so I''ve got better plans."
I was hoping my natural charm and charisma would earn me a smile or a chuckle. All Christine did was scowl.
"¡ You alright?" I asked.
Christine looked at me, silently, for a moment. Scowling, not at me but to herself. One of those things you can tell sometimes. "¡ The old man isn''t one for letting things go." She said. "You go down there, there''s a chance you won''t be coming back up. He''ll be coming down after you."
"He''ll try." I admitted. "But I wouldn''t go down without a fight, and I''ve tangled with worse than him."
Christine''s scowl deepened. "No. You haven''t."
"¡" I turned away from the terminal.
Christine paused for a moment. The next time she spoke, her voice was bitter and angry as hot sand. "I''m not letting him down there. After everything he''s done, I¡ I can''t take that chance¡ Whatever he wants down there¡ He can''t have it."
"I wouldn''t let him have it either." I told her. "But¡ The way you make it sound, you''d rather try and end it up here."
"I would." Christine said, shuddering. "I''ve had enough of dark and¡ cramped places, recently."
"¡What''s this about Christine?" I asked. "I know you hate the bastard, but if you''re staying up here, trying to take him on your own is a stupid risk."
"I have to." She said. "It''s all his fault. All of it."
"What?" I asked.
" Everything . What he''s done here¡ doesn''t compare to everything else he''s done." She said. "The Brotherhood Fracturing, losing Helios to the NCR¡ all the people that''ve died¡"
"... He''s the reason, isn''t he?" I asked. "He''s the one that split you and Veronica."
"¡" Christine blinked, the bitter look on her face turning tired, worn down. With the red gloom in the air, it almost made it look like she was trying not to cry. Must''ve been the dust, making her eyes water like that, Cloud stinging them. "¡ I was sent to eliminate him." Christine said. "I''ve followed him so far¡ seen everything he''s done¡ I thought Veronica was dead because of him¡ Him and his obsession."
"But she''s not ." I reminded her. "She''s out there, She''s one of my closest friends."
"I know." Christine said, face setting into stone. "But I can''t walk away from this."
"¡ Why not?" I asked. "Who''s going to stop you? The Brotherhood? The Madre?"
"¡ Me." She said.
"¡" I sighed through my nose, and motioned to the hall around us, to the Madre at large. "Do you know what this place is, Christine?"
She looked at me, still stone faced.
"This place isn''t a casino, it''s a mass grave." I told her. "A grave filled with the bodies of those caught and trapped by obsession. Both other''s and their own. They all thought that what they wanted was worth the cost, but they never bothered to stop and think about what was being asked." I motioned back to the rooms we''d left. "Sinclair built this place to protect Vera, and it cost everyone who worked here their lives, including Vera''s. Domino was obsessed with ruining Sinclair, and it put him in a grave. Elijah, he wants this place himself, for whatever reason, and it''s cost everyone else instead." I lowered my arms and steadied myself. I took my helmet off and looked at her. "Elijah needs to pay. But it shouldn''t be at your own cost. You''ve paid enough."
Christine looked me in the eyes, and I could see that scowl of hers breaking. She was a strong woman, to survive in the brotherhood, in the Madre, she had to be. This was something that was going to take everything she had to do.
"¡ I had a chance once, to settle this." Christine said. "Before coming here, in a place far away¡ But then it slipped away. I can''t¡"
"¡Veronica still cares about you, you know?" I said. "She still talks about you, how much you meant to her, even when the Brotherhood wanted to keep you apart¡ When we travel, make camp for the night, she mumbles about you in her sleep."
Christine looked like I''d just shot her in the chest. There was pain and longing in her eyes. Muddied with a distant light. Something old, but never forgotten. Her scarred lips pinched themselves tight.
"I don''t give a shit about the Brotherhood." I told her. "I couldn''t care less about old tech and lost wonders. I want Elijah dead¡ but not if it means watching someone else get hurt. Whether that''s you, or Veronica¡ He''s taken enough from both of you."
"¡ He needs to die." Christine said.
"Then I''ll make sure he does." I told her. "Just let me handle him, let him follow me down, let him be my problem¡ and if I fail?... Well, at least I''ll have softened him up for you."
Christine mulled my words for a moment, swaying slightly, from one foot to the other. Eventually, one of her arms came up, and gripped the other at the elbow. Fighting herself, grabbing whatever she could for leverage.
After a moment, she nodded. "¡Ok." She answered, softly. "No matter what happens, he has to die."
"He will." I said, giving her a reassuring smirk. "It ends here."
Christine fell silent, as I slid my helmet back on. She looked tired, fighting yourself can do that. Winning didn''t do much to change it.
The only thing left to really do, was figure out how to open the door.
So we stood there, for a moment, in silence, puzzling over it. At least, I had been. Christine had taken the moment to ponder something else.
"¡ Before chasing Elijah here¡ I''d found him in a place called the Big Empty." Christine said. "There''d been¡ someone else with him."
"Really?" I asked. "Who? Must''ve been crazy too."
She shook her head. "He wasn''t, not the way Elijah was, at least¡ He was the one who pulled me out of the machine¡ that did¡ this. " She motioned to her head. "He¡ helped me heal, told me where I could find Elijah¡ Listened to my story. He¡ sympathized. Said he knew what it was like, looking for someone who''d had such an impact on their ''past life''." Christine looked at me and gave me a lopsided smile, the kind that makes you look ten years younger. "You remind me of him."
"¡ Sounds like he had his own obsessions too." I said.
She shrugged. "He said people were like couriers. Sometimes, never understanding the messages they brought¡ That''s who he was hunting for too, a courier."
"¡" I looked at Christine. "¡ Y''know, you could''ve said something."
"Not sure if he meant you or not." She said, leaning back against the wall. "There''s a lot of Couriers out there¡ But, I guess we''ve all got something we''re willing to chase¡ sometimes¡ You just need to be willing to let go."
"¡Yeah." I nodded. "Sometimes, you gotta wish it was easier..." Then I motioned to the building again. "But, I guess that''s what this whole place was about then, right? Begin Again, Let Go. It''s written everywhere."
And scrawled over Vera''s own bed.
Christine chuckled, and it was warm and hearty. "Yeah¡ Begin again, but know when to Let Go."
The terminal across from us chirped. '' Welcome Ms. Keyes ''
With a rush of cool and stale air, we heard the elevator kick into motion. Steadily climbing up to the top floor for the first time in centuries.
I looked at the terminal across from us. Then back to Christine. She looked as dumbfounded as I felt.
"¡and open, says me." I smirked, looking to the Elevator then back to Christine. She was looking at me, dumbfounded
"That was¡ how ?" Christine asked.
"Lucky guess on your part." I said. "Ever thought about using a Vitomatic Vigor-tester?"
"¡"
Christine started to laugh. Then I did too. The Madre sucked balls, and we both needed it.
After a moment, Christine wiped a tear from her eye. "I guess this is it then?" She asked.
"Yeah." I told her, then motioned back to the suite. "Go find some place to hide, let Elijah come down after me. If I don''t come back, bring this place down on top of us."
"How about you come back instead?" She asked.
"Deal." I told her.
She smiled, then turned and started down the hall back to the suite. Left me alone to wait for the elevator. My own thoughts.
We were close to getting out of there, right in the homestretch. All that needed to happen was me putting a bullet in Elijah''s head. Then I could go home. Get back to everyone¡
But something angry inside of me didn''t want that.
Elijah had hurt the people I cared about. Domino and Sinclair had hurt countless more with their stupidity.
And I''d done a lot worse for less.
God was right. Being in the Madre long enough could make you forget. But I''d say I''d kept things straight, well enough.
Elijah wasn''t leaving the vault.
But the Madre was a hazard too dangerous to be left alone and I''d yet to be paid for services rendered.
I was going to take this place for everything it owed. With interest.
¡
As I began to wake, I could hear the snickering of my teammates.
"Shh, quiet." Nora said, something I''d thought impossible for her and was almost reason enough to immediately give her my undivided attention.
Instead, I let my eyes slowly creep open and take in my surroundings, gave them time to adjust.
It was another warm, sunny, mid summer''s afternoon. Could easily be mistaken for any other. Barring the beating I''d had to take during sparring, it almost was. But there were going to be important things happening that night. A lot of things needed to be set into motion. I''d had more than long enough to try and piece myself back together. School was over for the day, and we''d plowed through whatever homework we''d been given.
Tonight was when things got real again.
My eyes adjusted to the mid-afternoon light, streaming through the airship windows. Helped, minutely, by the shadows being cast on me.
Standing directly in front of me were Yang and Nora. The both of them giggling and snickering to themselves as Yang fiddled with her scroll. Though I was able to notice the tiny lens on its backside. A camera, maybe? Scrolls could apparently function in a number of different ways, wouldn''t be surprised if they took pictures too.
In either case, it made a little chirp like a camera after Yang tapped on it.
I took that as an excuse to wake up, properly righting myself.
Yang and Nora''s eyes snapped up from the camera, surprised, but their smirks unwavering. Without missing a beat, Yang closed her scroll and slid it back into her pocket.
"Sleep well?" Yang asked, as if nothing happened.
"Like an armor-clad baby." I answered, fixing her with a look. "What''d you do?"
"Nothing." Nora chirped, with a not so innocent smile. "Just some harmless blackmail."
It took a moment for Nora''s words to register with the waking parts of my brain. Then, after a moment, I began to take note of the weight I was feeling against my right shoulder. With a look to the side, I saw Ruby leaned against my shoulder, snoring lightly. Hood drawn up over her head, red cape curled over her like a blanket, Zwei''s head poking out from under it at her lap.
Vaguely, I could remember feeling her land against me on the trip in. Was more surprised I hadn''t whacked her for it.
I took a sobering breath as I tried to think of an answer. Unfortunately, the best I could come up with was "You''re both assholes."
"This''s for there being no dinner tonight." Nora chirped.
"No, this''s going to make sure there''s no dinner in your foreseeable future." I told her. "How do you expect me to come up with a meal while we''re in town?"
"Dunno, you''re the expert." Nora shrugged, checking her scroll as Yang fiddled with hers. If my understanding of things was right, she''d probably just sent her a copy of the picture.
We were all on the ship heading into Vale. Ruby and I had taken the bench with our bags of equipment and intel. The others had taken to the benches nearby, or were otherwise standing. Watching the ground and horizon pass us by, way off in the distance. Unless your name started with a J and rhymed with lawn. Then you had your head stuck inside a waste bin the whole way, trying not to heave.
Seriously, the ship hadn''t even left its mooring before he''d bolted for a bucket. Don''t know what kind of motion sickness gets to someone like that. Might not have been, come to think of it, may be more anxiety related.
Pyrrha was with Jaune, sitting on one of the benches, helping to limit the ''splash zone''. Blake, Ren, and Sun were near one of the windows, idly talking about something as Vale passed below. Weiss wasn''t too far from them, but she was fiddling with her toothpick. The action broken open, her finger gently spinning the cylinder, brow set in a contemplative arc.
Judging by what little of the landscape I could see in the background, we were approaching the landing zone. Sooner we got to Tukson''s place, the sooner we got set up and underway.
I tweaked my head to the side slightly, stretching before shifting my right shoulder, trying to wake Ruby up.
She promptly tried to punch me in the face.
Her left arm whipped out from under her cape in an uppercut, startling poor Zwei awake. I caught the punch without missing a beat. Not much power behind it, just as shoddy as her earlier attempt. Couldn''t expect changes in just a few hours. Though points had to be given for reflexes.
After a moment, Zwei quirked his head up curiously, yawning as Ruby tried to pull her fist back. When it didn''t move, because I was still holding it, her head turned groggily towards me. Her silver eyes slowly blinked open.
"Sleep well?" I asked.
"B''wah?" Ruby asked as Zwei began to shuffle around under her cloak. She looked down at him groggily, before opening her cape enough for him to get out. He hopped out and scampered to the floor, stretching out his stubby front paws. Only after a solid ten seconds did Ruby turn her head back up to look at me.
Then she realized she was using my shoulder as a pillow.
Her face flushed to the hue of her hood, and she bolted upright. "S-sorry."
"All good." I told her. "Though I could''ve done without you trying to swing at me."
"Eh heh-" Ruby chuckled nervously. "That was a reflex. Yang used to attack me when we were younger."
"No I didn''t!" Yang called, slowly hiding her scroll. "There was only that one time, two tops. No worse than you constantly spinning around."
"I didn''t spin, I shifted." Ruby defended, getting up from her seat.
"Do you know how many times I woke up with a kick to the face?" Yang asked dryly. "I was glad when dad finally got us separate beds."
"Adorable." I said back, dry as Mojave sand.
The airship began its descent, and everyone slowly began to reconvene. Even Jaune, being careful with how he moved his bucket. I could see he was trying to control his breathing, so hopefully he wouldn''t- nope there he went again.
"You gonna be ok?" Sun asked, eyeing Jaune wearily.
"I- I''ll be good." Jaune managed to choke out. "It''s just the airship. The turbulence makes my stoma-* ulp* "
He came a hair''s breadth from losing whatever was left in his gut. I was surprised he had anything left in there. If he kept going though, dehydration was going to be a problem.
Pyrrha continued to help Jaune while the rest of us collected and organized our belongings. Just the necessities for the most part: clothes, weapons, intel, and the small necessities needed to stay overnight. Bad enough bathing would be trouble, but not having a toothbrush would get wretched pretty quick. We''d packed it all in the dorms before setting the room to rights and leaving. If anyone came knocking, they''d be curious where we all went, but otherwise not have a clue what we were doing.
"So how are we doing this?" Sun asked. "We go to this place you have picked out and split up?"
"That''s the idea." Ruby nodded.
"Voice down." I added, calmly scanning the airship. There were a few other people nearby. "We''re not exactly inconspicuous, grouped up like this."
"Whaddaya mean, we''re not inconspicuous?" Nora chirped. "We''re just a bunch of students going out for the night. You stick out more than any of us."
"And going around saying things like that isn''t helping." I said, under-handing a bag that caught her in the chest. "Let''s just try and get to where we''re staying first, then we can worry about hashing things out."
"I just said that." Ruby muttered.
"You missed the part where we actually come up with a plan." I said.
After a few minutes more of waiting, the ship came into its moorings and we disembarked. It was a late Friday afternoon, so the station¡ port¡ place we got off at was packed. Commuters rushing home, students out to party, and the travelers coming in for the Vytal Festival, still an eternity away. Maybe we didn''t stick out as much as I thought, but it''s hard to tell. Maybe to anyone who wasn''t looking we''d pass by, but anybody on look-out duty could pick us up. We needed to remain low-profile-
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Wow, it''s getting busy around here." Nora chirped, practically dragging Ren forward with his bags. "When did all of the decorations go up?"
"Over the past few weeks." I told her. "They''ve been putting more up while I was running around."
"Looks different from the last time we all came here." Ruby said, looking around. Banners and ribbons everywhere, festive lights dangling from rooftops and arching over streets. It was understated, but present almost everywhere, especially in the busier parts of the street. There was a dull roar about the place, brought about by hundreds of footfalls and the calm clamor of conversation. "Really does feel like it''s slowly getting closer."
"The festival will be fun." Yang said. "It''s been forever since the last one, but there''s going to be a lot going on."
"Y''know I actually got to go to the last one in Mistral?" Sun asked, looking around. "Didn''t look like this. Lot more fireworks and stalls."
"Well it''s not here yet ." Ruby said. "But we should all go when it is."
"Not to be the mood killer, but we should probably keep moving." Ren said. "It seems like we''re going to be busy enough tonight already."
"My sentiments exactly." I said, giving him a nod, before looking at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Assuming we''re good?"
Jaune dry-swallowed a few times, then grimaced and shook his head. Now back on stable ground, he seemed to be in better control of it. Pyrrha nodded as well, and we started down the street.
Of the people in the group, I knew myself, Blake, and Yang seemed to have an idea of how to get to Tukson''s. Leaving it up to us to guide our way through the streets. It wasn''t far from where we''d disembarked, part of the reason we''d chosen to land there was how much quicker we''d be able to get there and get ready. As it stood, we were all as close to plain-clothes as we could get. Meaning our usual, non-school related attire. Though I''d erred on the side of caution and gone in something other than my armor. A pair of jeans, my boots from my Riot Gear, and a t-shirt. Something that wouldn''t attract too much attention, even if I wasn''t about to ditch my helmet. Everything else was stuffed in the bag I had slung over my shoulder, then.
The way to Tukson''s slowly took us down streets that were less populated, though well-traveled. Meant we were still a bit odd to see, but there were less around to actually see it.
"Still wish Neptune and the boys could''ve come with us." Sun said. "I''m telling you they could''ve helped too."
"I''m already leery about you and Blake heading off on your own." I told him. "That''s something your teammates wouldn''t have been able to help with, on top of the fact we''ve only met one of them once . Plus you''d leave our numbers unbalanced. We''d either have a party of three, or someone running around on their lonesome."
"Which we figured out is kind of a bad idea." Ruby said, nudging me.
"Hey, it worked for a while didn''t it?" I asked. "Sure, it kinda went sour at the end there, but now we''re doing this, so I''d say it evened out."
"Would''ve been faster if we''d just done it from the start." Blake muttered.
"I''m kinda out of the loop here." Sun said. "What''ve you guys been doing?"
"Breaking the law and making mischief." I told him. "Y''know, the kinda stuff you seem to be about."
"Hey, I don''t break the law." Sun countered. "I just¡ have fun and don''t really worry about the consequences."
"Hence, breaking the law." I said.
A few minutes of walking, and we reached the street Tukson''s shop was on. There were a few people on it, walking, but the street seemed otherwise quiet. As we made our way down it, I scanned it quickly. There didn''t appear to be anyone watching the shop, if they were they weren''t obvious about it. No one clearly camped out, none of the people walking paid us any mind. They could be camped out in the other buildings across the street. Would be hard for us to account for that. But, they also didn''t have much reason to be watching Tukson''s shop either. He''d skipped town weeks ago, and the place would''ve been quiet barring my using it the other night. With any luck, it would still be unlocked. Save me the hassle of having to pick it. The less time we had to spend waiting out front, the less attention we would draw.
Though, as I stepped up to the door, I found I had left it unlocked after all. We''d been in a rush to get back to Beacon that night, so I wasn''t surprised I had.
I stepped inside, then held the door open for everyone to quickly shuffle in after me. Once we were inside, I carefully shut the door and locked it. Made sure that even if we were being followed, any uninvited guests would need to knock first.
Tukson''s shop wasn''t a cramped place, I''d call it cozy really. But with the ten of us all in the showroom, it certainly felt a lot fuller. Even having to avoid all the wreckage and destruction. Everyone spread out slightly, looking over the stock that''d started gathering dust without their owner around. I noted Jaune drifting towards the comic books with Nora, while Pyrrha seemed enticed by the historical section. Though I also noted it was near the romantics.
"What happened here?" Nora asked. "Looks like an Ursa got into a fight with a Puma."
"Tukson got attacked while trying to flee the White Fang." I answered. "He pulled through but didn''t exactly have time to clean up after the fact. That the place is still as put together as it is counts as a miracle."
"Smells musty in here." Weiss said, grimacing as she looked over the destroyed room. "Are we sure that we want to use this place?"
"Do you want to be the one to shell out for a hotel room, or cab fare?" I asked. "We''ve got to make do with what we''ve got."
"It could do with a new coat of paint... and a carpenter-" Pyrrha said, pulling herself away from the shelves. "- and it''s, perhaps, a little cramped as well."
"There''s room in the back, which is where we''ll be staying too¡" I shrugged, recognizing the problem. "Which is where we''d actually be set up too. Ok, not a lot of room, but it''s better than nothing."
"Maybe we should get back there first and see what we''re working with." Ren said, before jerking a thumb to the front windows. "The security shutters can make it harder for people to look in, so if we need to we could sleep out here¡ Though I''d rather not."
"One step at a time." I said, then motioned to the back room. "Let''s figure out what we''re working with back there first."
"I call the corner!" Nora squawked, bolting for the door.
"Isn''t there going to be like, four of them?" Jaune muttered.
We all started towards the back of the store, and once again passed through the door single file. The back room of the shop was even more cramped than the rest of the store. Worsened by the increased number of books being stored back there. The lighting was also significantly worse, and the air stagnant. But it had the benefit of privacy, since there were basically no windows. It didn''t look much different from how I''d left it either. Stool still near a desk, paperbacks and books, staircase to the far right of the room. Just the mess I''d left it.
"¡" Weiss sighed audibly through her nose. " Please tell me there''s at least a bathroom somewhere."
"¡ Um¡." I jerked a thumb towards the right side of the room, where Nora was rearranging things. "We have a corner, and Jaune has a buck-"
" STOP. " Weiss said, looking absolutely horrified.
"I already called dibs!" Nora squawked, continuing to settle in. "¡ And when are we doing dinner?"
"We''re not." I answered, rubbing my mask.
"WHAT!?"
"Alright, look-" I said, trying to clear off the desk. "I know this place sucks, but it''s what we''ve got to work with, ok? You can''t expect everything to go perfectly in the field either."
"But dinner-" Nora whined.
"Does it look like we have time right now?" I asked, looking at her as my teammates and hers continued to look around the room with rapidly dwindling enthusiasm.
As I watched her though, I remembered the stairway beside her. That was an enigma I''d made note of on my previous visit, but had never bothered to check.
At this moment, even if it just led to the roof, it was more space for¡ anything.
I pointed to the stairs. "I don''t know what''s up there, but if it''s anything good, that''ll at least give us some room. So stop whining and prepare for the worst, we''d only be sleeping here anyway. Let''s just try and deal with one problem at a time."
"Right." Ruby said, steeling herself.
The others began slowly trying to rearrange the room as I headed for the stairs. Frankly I wasn''t sure what I was going to find, but it couldn''t have been anything too worrying. It was likely just a crawlspace for whatever ventilation and electrical systems the shop needed. At worst, it would lead into the apartments above the¡
I began climbing the stairs more quickly.
There were apartments above Tukson''s shop. You could see the windows above his sign outside. There had to be another entrance around the back of the building for residents to use. But what purpose would having one connected to the shop be? It clearly wasn''t an emergency exit, and Tukson wasn''t going to let strangers wander through the back of his store, presumably.
Which only left a handle of options, and I was hoping I knew the one.
I tromped to the top of the stairs, and found myself on a cramped little landing, a door to my left. It wasn''t anything fancy, just a steel security door. The kind used for basic industrial building and commercial construction. The kind required by a standardized building code.
But it had a peephole, deadbolt, and normal door handle built into it.
A smile crossed my face as I knelt down and began to work the locks. The door handle was unlocked, but the deadbolt had been set shut. But a bobby pin plus a minute or two of persuasion got it moving how I wanted.
With a *clunk* the lock moved and I swung the door open, revealing the room beyond.
Things were looking up for once.
To the right, I could see the windows that peered out above Tukson''s sign, set into a roughly plastered brick wall. It was a couple yards away, the front wall of the building. Put me maybe two-thirds of the way to what I thought was the back wall. Looking behind me, I could see it went a couple more yards before finally hitting another wall. I could see another door, a more normal, personal one you''d see in someone''s home. The front door.
I took a few steps into the room, confirming that it was indeed abandoned. It looked lived in for sure, but not for some time. Things were strewn about, like someone had been in a hurry. But most of it had settled, with dust even starting to collect.
Tukson knew he wouldn''t have had time to worry about it, plus he was on a one-way trip out of town. Wasn''t his concern what happened.
But this was definitely his apartment. The number of books more than confirmed that.
"Everything ok up there Six?" Ruby called up the stairwell.
I walked back to the steel door, and looked down from it. She was leaning into the doorway at the bottom.
"Change in plans." I told her. "Get everyone up here, but keep your voices down. If there''s neighbors, we don''t need them eavesdropping."
"What''s going on?" she asked, somewhere between curious and concerned.
I smirked, looking back into the apartment, then down to her. "We''re getting an upgrade."
After a moment, I heard Ruby begin rousing everyone, and I stepped back into the apartment proper. It was a sizable space, running the length of the building that faced the street. To my right, the street-facing wall, was one of the windows, connected to a den of sorts. There was a pair of long sofas, sitting end to end at a support pillar, forming an angle. They faced a table set between bookshelves, where I''d imagine you''d keep a TV, in the Old World. To the farside of the apartment, down from the den, was a walled-off area, taking maybe a quarter of the floor space. Through the crack in the door, I could see the vague shape of a bed, so a bedroom. To my left was a proper kitchen, running the length of the wall and up the corner with counter space. Only broken by a fridge and cooking range with an oven. Cabinet space hovering over that. The kitchen terminated in a small space, leaving a path that led to the front door, then past that was a dining table. Before reaching the far side once again, where another set of doors waited. One was completely shut, but the other was wide open, revealing a bathroom.
I crossed the floor and opened the door, just to check. Just a storage closet, though it did have a water heater at the back of it.
Overall, a pretty sweet bachelor pad. Either Tukson made a mint selling books, or rent was really cheap.
I heard the footsteps tromping up the stairs and watched as Ruby once again peered around the corner. A look of relief washed over her face.
"Good news, there''s a toilet¡" I peered into the bathroom. "-and a tub-shower combo."
Yang peered around past her younger sister. "There''s a wha- oh heck yeah!"
"Count yourselves lucky, we''re getting a softball with this." I said.
Ruby and Yang stepped into the room and began looking around, as the others began to meander their way up. Similarly, I could see the relief that came over most of them, Weiss in particular looked like she''d had a weight taken off her. Even Blake looked pleasantly surprised once she was looking around.
"So this is why he always charged so much," she muttered.
Zwei toddled through the door, before making a beeline for one of the couches, bounding onto the cushions. He looked quite pleased.
JNPR and Sun made their way up too. Almost as soon as they did, they spread throughout the apartment. Ren moved to the bookshelves in the den, while Jaune made a bee-line for the kitchen sink, sucking water from the tap. While Pyrrha followed him, Nora''s eyes darted to the partially open bedroom door.
"Di-"
"I call the bedroom!" I snapped.
"¡ Boo." Nora pouted.
"I''ve spent the past four months sleeping on a cot, that bed could be full of nits and I''d still take it."
¡
We went around the apartment in a quick fashion, familiarizing ourselves with the space. I could think of worse places to use as an operational outpost. I''d seen plenty of them. We pitched any personal effects and bags we''d brought with us into the den and set our intel down in the dining room, spreading the map and collected info out on the table. Sure, it was right next to the front door, but we didn''t have much intention of opening it either.
Unlike the fridge, which Nora decided it would be a good idea to check. Despite it having been three weeks since Tukson had left.
We basically pitched everything inside it into a dumpster in the alley. Pretty sure what was inside was either a bioweapon or undiscovered life form. The smell alone was rancid fat festering with fermented cheese and spoiled vegetables. I''ve eaten some foul things, but I was half ready to retch myself.
Once we''d disposed of anything that''d get us tried for war crimes, we did a final run-down of our checklist.
"So, the Teams are me and Six, Yang and Weiss, Nora and Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune, and Blake and Sun." Ruby reiterated, before gesturing to the map. "Blake and Sun are going to the edge of the industrial district for the rally, and me and Six will be taking the locations near them." She motioned to herself and me, before turning towards the others. "Yang and Weiss will take the northern part of town, Ren and Nora can take most of the commercial district, and Jaune and Pyrrha can handle the residential."
"We need to keep constant contact as the night goes on, to make sure nothing gets too far out of hand." I reminded everyone. "And we''ll have a meet-up in the center of town sometime around midnight if possible, just to make sure we''re all in one piece."
"After we get there, I guess we figure out what to do next." Ruby said, looking around the map table at everyone. "Questions, ideas?"
"Dinner?" Nora chirped again.
"¡" Ruby looked up at me. Not bothering to hide the puppy-dog look.
"We''re in Vale, scrounge." I said, but mulled things over for a moment. "¡ If we get through tonight without any of you getting seriously injured, I''ll fix a Continental Breakfast tomorrow."
"Deal." Nora chirped.
"We''ll split the list of places we need to go, then it''ll be time to get going." Ruby said, straightening. "Which means we should probably start getting ready. Everyone made sure to bring outfits, right?"
There was a chorus of nods and murmurs, as everyone knew to be prepared for this.
All except for one.
"Probably should''ve asked before we got all the way here, but where''s your bags, Jaune?" I asked, looking him over.
He''d made the trip relatively plainly clothed, as the rest of us. He''d refused to change out of his armor, which was odd, but not unreasonable. What was unacceptable, was that he hadn''t bothered to bring his weapon either. I''d hoped his items were just stashed with his teammates bags, but having seen them unpack, no, they weren''t.
So I waited patiently for his words of enlightenment.
"¡ Oh, right. Forgot about that." He said.
They were not enlightened in the slightest.
"¡" I sighed through my nose. "You know we''re not making multiple trips back to Beacon, right?"
"I know." He said, pulling out his scroll. "Give me a sec, I put my stuff in my locker, just forgot to hit the button."
Present company all looked at him in confusion.
"What button?" Ruby asked
Jaune just smiled and tapped his scroll. "It should be here in a minute or two¡ should probably go wait outside, don''t want to come crashing through the ceiling."
"What''s crashing through the ceiling?" Yang asked
"My locker." Jaune said, walking back to the stairs.
Curiosity piqued, I followed him back outside, our teammates and Sun in tow. We walked back out the front door, and off to one of the alleys across the street. There wasn''t any sign that something was happening at first.
But, after a minute or two of waiting, the roar of a rocket engine could be heard screaming over the city skyline. Knew it was a rocket, heard enough of them.
From over top of the buildings around us, one of the Beacon weapon lockers came screaming down. Right before impact, retrograde thrusters erupted beneath it, slowing its descent. Wasn''t a gentle landing, but it didn''t smash against the ground either. Without missing a beat, Jaune opened it and pulled out a duffle bag, plus his sword and shield. He then tapped at the keypad, and it launched back into the sky, screaming towards Beacon.
We all looked at Jaune in confusion. He looked back at us blankly.
"¡ did you guys forget they could do that?" he asked.
"¡ We carried all of that here?" Weiss growled, gaze sharpening. "When we could''ve done that!? "
Jaune took a step back, putting his hands up innocently.
To be completely fair, I had nothing but respect. The fact that those lockers could fly had completely slipped my mind. Which I saw as a big problem, because that was a very useful feature to have.
Which led to me asking: "How do you set that up?"
Jaune chuckled nervously, then motioned back to Tukson''s "Why don''t we step back inside first?"
¡
It was actually pretty simple. Apparently there was an application that connected to Beacon''s network and let you access the lockers'' launch grid. You could only call your own, but even that was a boon. It took a little while to get in order, but I had it, since we only had the one bathroom to change in anyway. Didn''t get around to testing it before it was my turn to get changed, but it should work in theory. That was going to have to be a working theory until I could test it.
As I finished fixing my Riot Gear in place, I looked around at everyone, and what they were wearing.
Ruby wasn''t too different from what she normally wore. Her red cape and hood were still big to the outfit. Though the hood seemed to hang more loosely around her neck, pooling like a scarf. But she''d replaced most of the black outfit she''d been wearing with a gray blouse with belts at the cuffs of the sleeves. A black vest-like piece over that, and a red skirt hanging down around her waist, a black rose embossed in the fabric. Her stockings and boots were much the same, though seemed to stick out more with more color in the outfit for contrast.
Weiss wore a double breasted white coat and pleated skirt. The hem work, stitching, and buttons all in black, the collar of her coat popped up around her chin. She wore black stockings beneath her skirt, and a pair of thigh-high boots. Which confoundingly still had high heels.
Some people just weren''t going to get it until they busted an ankle.
It wasn''t any more or less eye-catching or fancy than anything she normally wore. But there was something admittedly more¡ refined about it. Prim and proper, which fit her all too well.
Blake had traded her usual look for a cropped white shirt, with a v-neck and long sleeves. She wore black pants, and had a black half-skirt similar to the one that Yang normally wore. Her shoes were black, heeled boots that came up to her knees, and she wore black wraps around her fore arms. I felt it didn''t do much to actually hide who she was, but I was already planning for that.
Yang''s outfit was¡ something. It seemed to pull from both Weiss and Blake''s outfits, being a black and white vest over a low cut shirt. She wore what I could charitably call a jacket over that, barely covered her shoulders, and was more sleeves than anything. She wore a dangerously short-looking skirt, stockings, and garters that led to, mercifully, a pair of actual boots. Black, but they had these ribbons tied to the back. She even had this purple jeweled necklace hanging from her neck, showing darkly over her-
Oh wow, she even has a nice purple cloth dangling from her waist, like her cape. Makes her hips look-
OH WOW LOOK AT THEM BOOTS!-
-Ren and Nora were a bit simpler. Ren''s outfit didn''t look too much different from his usual attire. He''d just taken the sleeves off and raised the collar. Though he had added these long, fingerless gloves I didn''t quite understand. Nora, on the other hand, ditched her outfit entirely, and went with something I felt more familiar with. Looked like she was wearing a poodle skirt, with a black jacket on top. No actual poodle stitched into the skirt, but the night was young. Maybe she''d let someone embroider Zwei onto it.
Pyrrha was more of a middle ground between Nora and Ren. Most of her outfit stayed the same, but it was amazing what a change in color did for a person. Almost every piece of brown she''d worn had been traded for something black and gold trimmed. Her corset, her gorget, her boots and skirt, practically her entire outfit. She''d even taken to wearing a pair of long gloves not unlike Ren''s, probably a real name for them, but I don''t get fashion. She still had that long band of scarlet fabric hanging from her hip, now chained to a blocky, brassy belt. Brassy grieves over her forearms and legs. I was even willing to forgive her for still wearing heels¡ almost. She''d even ditched that crown around her head, but kept her hair in a high ponytail.
Pyrrha was already an enchanting young woman. Dressed like that, she''d turn heads and cause traffic jams for miles around.
"Well, don''t you clean up nicely." I said, giving Pyrrha a nod.
"It''s just another outfit I had lying around." Pyrrha said, bashfully. "I don''t get many chances to wear it, so I thought tonight would be a good chance."
"It''s definitely eye-catching." I said. "Assuming that''s what you were going for."
"¡" Pyrrha blushed slightly. "I have no idea what you''re referring to."
"This isn''t date night Pyrrha." I told her. "I know you like the boy, but there''s better times than this to try and get his attention."
"When would that be?" Nora chirped. "Me and Ren are around most of the time."
"Oh, well if you know you''re the problem-" Weiss said snidely.
The door to the bathroom opened and Jaune stepped back out. "Who''s a problem now?" He asked.
"Nothing." Pyrrha chirped, quickly sinking the conversation as Jaune-¡
"Well damn ." Yang said.
I was inclined to agree with her.
Here''s the thing about how Jaune normally looks: he''s immature. He dressed like he doesn''t take this seriously, even when that obviously couldn''t be further from the truth. Sure, he wears the armor, carries a sword and shield like some noble knight. But he wears them over a ''hoodie'', ripped jeans, sneakers, and all around looked too relaxed for the job. Couple that with the shaggy head of hair and general puppy-like demeanor, and it was hard to take him seriously. Good kid, but again, immature.
Right now, he was all business, and he looked the part. He still had his armor, the white breast plate and padded bracers, still carried his sword at his hip, ready to go. But his clothes were different. Starting from the toe, he''d replaced his sneakers with a formidable and sturdy looking pair of black boots. Trimmed with white, steel at the toes. His jeans were replaced with a sturdier pair, and the legs had even been given a pair of chaps . Normally they''d look silly, but they were cut low, only a few inches above the knee. Made from a non-reflective material too, so they went with the jeans. There was now a pair of belts, crossing over his waist in an X, with additional support for his sword and shield/sheath. This led into a brown leather vest, buttoned most of the way shut under the armor, over another ''hoodie''. But the ''hoodie'' was different, a short sleeved gray one to the usual long-sleeved black.
He''d even bothered to wet his hair and run a comb through it, pulling it back.
It made him look rather put-together, dashing almost.
He stepped back to the group next to Pyrrha. Who was looking at him like a deathclaw looks at a baby molerat. Like it''d found a snack.
"¡ What?" Jaune asked, looking at everyone.
"Where''d this come from?" I asked.
He shrugged. "They''re just some clothes I''d wear when working at home, why?"
"¡"
"We need to work on your fashion sense." Yang said.
"Oh come on , it''s not that bad." Jaune griped.
"That''s the problem, it''s an improvement." Blake said, which got a chorus of ''yeps'' from just about everyone else.
Jaune just looked exasperated, and pulled at the collar of his hoodie. "Hate wearing it, the vest makes everything bunch¡" He paused, and finally seemed to get a proper look at Pyrrha. His eyes traveled up and down her. She picked up on it quickly, and gripped one of her arms bashfully. "¡ You, uh¡ You look nice, Pyrrha." Jaune said, giving an unsure smile.
Pyrrha''s face started turning as red as her hair. "T-thank you."
"¡ Hey, Pyrrha?" I asked.
She looked over at me.
"Let your hair down." I told her.
Pyrrha''s expression grew confused, but I could see Nora snickering in the corner of my eye. Slowly though, Pyrrha reached a hand up to her hair and clasped at the loop holding it high. She worked her fingers under the band and pried it open, her hair easily falling through it with a shake and a bob. It cascaded down around her shoulders in fiery waves. Made her look more relaxed, at peace. A complete transformation, very mature looking.
Jaune was watching her the entire time.
It was like reading a book, each page telling passages of a young man who suddenly seemed to realize how stunning his partner looked.
The last page had the boy looking like he could use a glass of water and a seat.
" Wow ." Was all Jaune could muster.
Frankly, I think it said enough about the both of them.
"If you two are done making googly-eyes at each other, we should probably wrap this up." I said, looking to Sun as he approached.
He looked¡ exactly the same.
"Really?" I asked.
"What?" He asked back. "It''s not like you''re wearing anything different."
"But I''m also not planning to sneak into a place filled with people that not only know what I look like, but want to kill me." I reminded him. He''d been given a run down before leaving the dorms. Should''ve known better, he didn''t strike me as someone to not take risks.
"I can button it up and wear a hat, if that helps?" he offered.
"Did you bring a hat with you?" I asked.
"No."
"Then why offer?"
Sun shrugged.
"¡ Well, I was going to touch up Blake''s outfit anyway, so helping you wouldn''t hurt either." I muttered.
"What''s wrong with my outfit?" Blake asked, annoyed.
"Nothing, it just does nothing to distract from the fact that you''re¡ well, you." I said.
"In most contexts, that''d be extremely rude." Weiss said.
"Like you''re one to talk." I said, then started trolling the apartment. "Give me a minute, Tukson left in a hurry, so he probably left some things behind."
In a manner that I was both long accustomed to, and a smidge out of practice with, I began my search. Scouring every place we hadn''t reasonably gone searching yet, for anything I could use to obscure Blake and Sun''s identities from the White Fang. I''d only had the odd occasion to actually do undercover work, but I knew enough.
After a bit of turning, I managed to find a few scraps of clothing to work with. A bandana, a fedora, a vibrantly yellow overcoat, a pair of hot-red pants, and a necktie with a bunch of polka dots.
I had to wonder if Tukson hadn''t been moonlighting as a clown before joining the Whitefang.
Without missing a beat, I returned to everyone with my findings.
"¡ You gotta be kidding." Sun said.
"Some of the best disguises are surprisingly overt, actually." I said. "All that matters is that: you don''t look like you ."
"I don''t know whether to judge your fashion sense or Tukson''s." Blake said.
"Blame him, I''m quite fashionable, thank you." I said, divvying the clothes up. "Sun, you get the coat, pants and headband. Blake, you get the hat and tie."
"¡" Blake gave me a dry look. "That''s not going to work."
"¡ Good point." I said, looking at the hat. I took out Blood-Nap and poked a pair of slits in the band. "There we go, now it''ll fit your ears. Very appropriate."
"You''re an ass." Blake said.
"And you''re a princess." I said. "Quit yer bitchin'' and get dressed, don''t want to miss the rally, do you?"
Blake mumbled something impolite under her breath, but took her disguise. Sun did the same, looking at the outfit skeptically for a second, before smirking and nodding. Having apparently convinced himself it would look good.
The two of them made the changes and came back. Blake with the tie done up in a crude bow around her neck, and Sun having pulled on the jacket and pants. It would have to do.
"I think that about does it." I said. "Unless anyone here is suddenly getting cold feet, it''s time to move."
Judging by the silence, it would seem, no, their feet were quite warm.
"Everyone''s got a mask?" Ruby asked.
To my surprise, everyone actually produced some form of face covering. Weiss with an opera mask, Sun and Blake a pair of White Fang masks, Jaune and Pyrrha with goggles, or a strip of cloth with holes poked in it for the eyes.
I looked at Ruby, confused.
She shrugged, pulling her hood over her head and scarf over her face. "If it works, right?"
Wordlessly, we all walked back down to the shop, shutting doors as we went. Once we were back outside, we knew it was time.
"We all meet back up in the commercial district around midnight. Maybe someplace with food?" Ruby asked, before shaking her head. "If anything happens, message the group chat, even if it''s just crossing off locations."
"Remember, we''re each other''s lifelines tonight. If anyone is in trouble, you gotta say something." I said, looking at each of them. "Don''t get caught, don''t get distracted, and don''t die. This is where it gets real folks. When you''re ready¡ scatter."
We all split off into the growing twilight. Not knowing what the night would bring, but hoping we were ready for it all the same.
Wander in the City I
The place we wound up going first on the list was a more chill place. There were a couple of places we could''ve chosen. But I had a feeling this was the place to start with Ruby. Call it a hunch.
It was a laid-back sort of place, not at all like any of the other places Yang had listed. Well-lit, inviting, and lacking the subtle hint of danger I''d come to expect from Yang''s typical haunt. The d¨¦cor was something tastefully urban, but cozy. Something homey, like walking into a cramped apartment someone had put a lot of effort into. The seating was open, spread out. Only a few tables with stools along the outer walls. Any seating further in lacked a table, but the furniture was a bit more plush. Sofas, easy chairs, even an ottoman or two. Couple it with the hanging portraits of past patrons and vases of plants, maybe it was an apartment at one point.
But perhaps that made the most sense.
The place listed was a caf¨¦, not a bar or nightclub.
Had to wonder if it wasn''t listed more as a stop-off for a quick caffeine boost than an actual stop. But, it was on the list, and I wasn''t going to turn down a chance for a quick cuppa.
"Remember, let me do the talking." I said, as we crossed the floor to the register. "This place is pretty tame looking, probably a deadend."
"Got it." Ruby nodded. "You play good cop, I''ll do bad cop."
"¡What? No." I told her. "We''re not doing that, just let me lead."
"Right, then I''ll step in when I need to." Ruby said brightly.
"No, Ruby, just let me handle this." I said, shaking my head.
We approached the counter and waited there for a moment. There were a couple other people there ahead of us. Normal patrons, just chasing their own cups of bean juice. More evidence I felt pointed this to just being a dead end. Though I got the feeling Ruby wasn''t paying attention to it. She was clearly trying to contain herself, look more serious. Arms crossed, face set impassively. But it was a thin mask. I could see the twitch in her fingers, as she drummed them. Saw the way she swayed back and forth despite standing in place. She was already wired, just looking for a reason to blow.
Kinda gave the other patrons even more reason to watch us cautiously. Not that they needed any more reason, of course. I wasn''t exactly dressed to blend in, and Ruby wasn''t exactly inconspicuous with her red cape, or the scarf covering most of her face. Was probably just her luck that they didn''t confuse us for stick-up artists. Told her she should''ve taken the scarf off before coming in, but I was ignored.
After a minute or two, we found ourselves in front of the counter. Behind it, a young woman with short brown hair, streaked with either golden blonde or wheaty yellow. She wore what I assumed to be the uniform of the place, a cropped black button-up over a shorted, pleated blue-white skirt. Sleeves rolled up, a pair of dark tights under the skirt. She was young, probably somewhere in her mid-twenties. High cheeks eyes that seemed to hold a natural sparkle to them. An amazing feat, considering she was a cashier. She was a looker, if ever there was one.
Though the way she looked over me and Ruby did seem to give her pause, she soldiered on. "Hi, how can I help you?"
"We ju-"
"Tell us who''s in the back room!" Ruby snapped.
"¡"
I looked over at Ruby, mirrored by the cashier. Who was somewhere between confused and nonplused by the sudden outburst.
"Um¡ Huh?" The cashier, Roquel, given her name tag, asked.
"Don''t play dumb, we know who''s in the backroom!" Ruby continued to push.
"Excuse you?" Roquel asked, somewhere between annoyed and confused, reasonably so.
"We know there''s something going on back there." Ruby said, pushing up against the counter. "You going to tell us about it, or do we need to go back there and check?"
I think she was trying to be intimidating, make it seem like she''d leap across at a moment''s notice. But her smaller stature didn''t help with that. Made her look both unprofessional and amateur. Not the same thing. You don''t jump to threats until after you''ve read your make. Even then, only if it''s necessary. Wrong person will take it as an excuse to call for help.
Looking at Roquel, she wasn''t looking particularly intimidated at this point, just annoyed and confused. If she thought there was actually a chance for danger, which I didn''t believe there was, her reaction wouldn''t be a good one. People like her, their reaction goes from confused to fight-or-flight in a blink. When you''re questioning someone, having them get combative is less than useful.
"R- Tiny." I said, catching myself at the last moment. If we were going to bother covering our faces, we might as well avoid using names too.
"I told you to call me Red!" Ruby snapped indignantly.
"Quit being Tiny and I''ll consider it." I said. "-and you''re going to want to dial it back."
"¡umm-" Roquel interrupted. "Can I¡ help either of you?"
I looked back to Roquel. "Forgive my vertically challenged friend, she''s suffering memory loss, forgot her manners and all that."
"Vertically challenged!?" Ruby hissed.
Roquel looked between me and Ruby for a moment, before shrugging it off. "Uh, all good¡ can I help with anything?"
"As a matter of fact, you can." I said, putting the necessary Lien on the counter. "Medium coffee, strong, and black." I looked at Ruby "What''s yours, small, 10 creams, 7 sugars?"
"5 and 5!" She said indignantly.
"A toothache''s worth, thank you." I said to Roquel.
Roquel merely nodded, taking the lien and turning to make our order.
"And if it''s not too much trouble, tell me, is there anything going on in the backroom?" I asked.
Roquel looked over her shoulder at me with a somewhat annoyed look. Though it softened when I slipped a few Lien into the tip jar beside the register.
"¡ The owner does card games back there sometimes." Roquel answered, turning back to the brewing. "Pretty sure he''s not allowed to do that, but we get police in here sometimes, so that''s not happening a lot."
Translation: no, there''s probably not a White Fang safe house here.
"I see, thank you." I said, chipperly depositing a few more Lien into the jar. I then turned and leaned back against the counter, soaking in the atmosphere of the place. Better to enjoy the quiet while we could. If we actually found a place, then we were going to be in for it.
Ruby mimicked my action, and pose, leaning up against the counter and glaring forward impassively. Though slowly she craned her head up to look at me, still glaring.
My head calmly swiveled down towards her. We locked eyes for a moment, and I could tell Ruby was trying to convey she wasn''t happy with me. After about ten seconds of prolonged contact though, she must have realized she''d made a mistake. Her glare evaporated, and she broke eye contact, looking towards the door. I kept an eye on her for a bit longer, just for an added bit of pressure. But, I eventually turned my attention elsewhere. Looking around the caf¨¦, I found my gaze drifting towards the front window. There was a blonde haired woman sitting on a stool next to it, slowly tuning a guitar. She had a bit of a hippie look to her, so whatever she had planned had a fifty/fifty chance of being hilarious. Or hilariously bad. Which could be the same thing depending on who you are.
The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Though looking that way, I took note of a small group, sitting on an orange couch not too far from the register. Not much was memorable about them. There were four of them, three guys and a girl, all young adults. Three of them with darker hair, could''ve swore one of them was an actor. Think I saw his face on one of the billboards around town. Shampoo ad or something.
But there was one of them that stuck out to me like a sore thumb. Stocky looking guy in a ruffled suit. Looked like he just got out of the office. Face was long, a little pudgy, and had a big forehead. His hair was slicked back slightly, dark color with little flecks of gray in it.
When I saw him, I almost did a double take.
Could''ve sworn I was looking at Benny. Unlucky bastard.
Though all four of them were looking at me and Ruby curiously.
I gave them a small wave, and they turned back to their own, hushed, conversation. Pretty sure they were wondering if they should be calling the authorities or not. While I was busy contemplating if Ruby and I shouldn''t just make a hasty retreat, I felt my scroll vibrate, and fished it out of my pocket
(Tiny Flowers): ["Did I scrw up?"]
My eyes crept over to Ruby, and I saw her looking ahead, towards the door still. Though I could see her scroll open at her side, in reach of her hand. I resisted the urge to laugh.
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
(Tiny Flowers): ["¡ ur mad, aren''t u."]
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
(Tiny Flowers): ["R u going 2 yell at me?"]
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
Clearly seeing the pattern, Ruby closed her scroll and slid it back into her pocket, absently drumming her fingers on her leg as we waited for Roquel. She ultimately proved quick enough on her feet, and we got our coffee after another minute or so. Quick enough that we probably wouldn''t have to worry about any concerned patrons calling the cops on us. Roquel was even thoughtful enough to provide me with a straw. How she knew to do that I do not know, but it was thoughtful enough to earn her a few more Lien. I could spring for it, easy enough.
"Hey Benny." I said, as we passed the quartet on the couch, heading out the door as the guitarist began her song. Something about a smelly cat, which I thought was highly inappropriate from the little I heard. Even if the song wasn''t aimed at Faunus. Save that sort of thing for Gomorrah. Or the Atomic Wrangler. Definitely cemented that the White Fang wouldn''t want to hang around there though.
We stepped back out onto the street, and I set the pace away from the caf¨¦. Leading Ruby towards our next destination, but doing so in a fairly complacent manner. I didn''t say anything to her, I just let her sip on her coffee in silence. Let her stew in her thoughts for a moment and let her imagination do the work for me. She sipped on her coffee, grimaced, blew on it, then traded it to her other hand when it got uncomfortable.
I did empathize with that. Even through my gloved hand, my coffee felt like it was boiling.
We continued walking for a few moments, before Ruby finally tried to say something.
"¡ Ok, so maybe I screwed up." Ruby said.
"Hm." I grunted.
"Maybe I didn''t listen to you, but it didn''t go bad¡ Right?"
"Hm." I grunted.
"¡ Can you please just give me an actual answer?" She asked.
"No." I told her.
"No what?" She asked. "No you won''t give me an answer-"
"Yes."
"¡" Ruby began sulking and sipped her coffee. She then sputtered, remembering that the amount of molten sugar in her drink was technically a chemical weapon.
"Should be careful doing that, hard to talk with a burned tongue." I told her.
"Hut hup." Ruby lisped, tongue poking out of her mouth.
"First you want me to talk, now you want me to shut up, which is it?"
Ruby glared at me, tongue still sticking out of her mouth.
"¡ Ok then." I said "What did I tell you before we went in?"
"¡ phoo het hoo hawk-" Ruby realized how she sounded and tentatively retracted her tongue. "To let you talk."
"And what do you think I meant by that?" I asked.
"¡ Um¡ trick question?" Ruby ventured.
"It meant to let me do the talking." I told her. "Let me ask the questions, while you watch and get a feel for it. So that, if I let you ask them, you know what to do¡ And what did you do?"
"¡ I jumped-"
"You jumped the gun." I told her, letting an edge of frustration creep into my voice.
"I-I just wanted to get it moving, I was excited!" Ruby said. "And it all turned out good anyway, right?"
"This time." I answered. "What if it hadn''t? You''d have given anyone watching us an ample window to prepare an ambush."
"We could''ve handled it, right?" Ruby postured, confident.
"Maybe, but what about everyone that''d get caught in the crossfire?" I asked. "Did you think about them?"
"¡"
"No, of course not." I groaned.
"Um¡ sorry?" Ruby offered.
"¡" I sighed through my nose. "Sorry won''t cut it when people wind up dead, Ruby. It doesn''t matter that no one did this time, you didn''t know that going in."
"Well¡ did you?" Ruby questioned, looking at her coffee.
"I had a hunch." I clarified. "But a hunch isn''t worth much without something to back it. If I''d have been wrong, it would''ve been bad, but not as bad as what you did."
We paused at a crosswalk, waiting for the traffic to pass. A group of people slowly collected around us, and we put a pause to the conversation until we were across the street. I watched the surrounding group, just to be sure my luck didn''t suddenly turn. It didn''t, and me and Ruby walked another half a block before we were alone enough to talk again.
"¡ I know this is new to you, and it''s exciting." I said, looking at her. "You''re getting to do the things you''ve dreamed about since you were a kid, right? But you can''t let that excitement mislead you. We''re going after people that aren''t afraid to kill bystanders, and will get violent and the drop of a hat. If they see you coming from a mile out, that''s a mile before you can stop them from causing mayhem."
"¡ So don''t let them see me." Ruby said, focused.
"Keep your enthusiasm in check." I told her. "Pump the brakes, make sure you''ve got every angle you can covered, and don''t let them know you''re coming until it''s too late."
"And let you do the talking." Ruby said, giving me a lopsided smile.
"At least for the first few." I told her. "Once you see how it''s done, maybe I''ll let you take a crack at it." I took a small sip of my coffee, scalding my tongue, but powered through. "Full disclosure, I half brought you in there because I thought something like this was going to happen. Better to handle it someplace mostly safe than in an actual interrogation."
"¡ Jerk." Ruby said.
"Better a jerk than tiny." I said.
Ruby''s arm snaked out and punched mine, harmlessly rebounding. Though the lopsided smile was still there.
"Could be worse." I said. "We aren''t the only ones out here tonight¡ Hopefully everyone else''s business goes as smoothly.
Wander in the City II
"So, you think Pyrrha''s gonna make a move?" Nora asked, looking up at her partner.
Lie Ren remained silent, though he looked down at the shorter girl with a bemused smirk.
"Hey, a girl can dream, right?" She pressed chipperly. "It''s the perfect chance!"
The orphaned pair strolled slowly through the streets of their district. The Commercial district was not a small region, part of why they''d had to divide it amongst themselves. It had many different sections to it, all for different purposes. Shopping, entertainment, fitness, and a dozen other distractions and necessities. To any who they passed, they were merely a pair of students, coming down from the Academy to enjoy the start of their weekend. They''d even removed their masks to help sell the look. Though they waited, not far out of reach.
''Maybe it looks like we''re on a date.'' Nora thought, her own emotions betraying her as quickly as they appeared. Though she hammered them away and out of sight. She couldn''t match her partner in that practice. But she''d had more than a decade''s worth of practice in hiding how she felt from who she wanted. She enjoyed being able to surprise people who couldn''t expect it of her.
Something she could only scarcely muster with Ren anymore. She was sure he knew some of what she felt. But only a small amount.
Regardless, she would enjoy the privacy while she could.
"Y''wanna go get something to eat?" Nora asked. "I''m starving."
"Never would''ve guessed." Ren answered evenly.
"Wish Six could''ve told us sooner we weren''t having dinner tonight." Nora pouted, but then immediately began smiling again. "But~ I heard there was this new noodle place that''s supposed to be around here somewhere. Wanna do noods?"
Ren kept his face straight. However, Nora knew he found it funny by the way his eyes twinkled for a moment. "Don''t call them that¡ but it does sound good. How about we cross a few places off, then we stop for dinner?"
"Deal." Nora chirped, giving Ren a manic smile. Her smile always betrayed the energy she had. It was hard for her to contain it anymore. Especially on a night such as this. A night alone, with her closest friend in the whole world. Hunting bad guys, getting into fights, and getting to make stories she''d heard as a child. Stories she was sure most of them had heard as children. Just her and Ren, alone, being awesome together.
Just her and Ren.
Alone.
Together.
As that thought continued to circulate in her head, she followed Ren. He double checked the address in his scroll. Comparing it to the surrounding signage. Making sure they were moving in the correct direction.
"We need to be careful going into some of these places." Ren said. "We''re just asking questions, but there''s no way of knowing what we''re going to find."
"Mhmm." Nora hummed, trying to push certain pleasant, but very distracting thoughts from her head. There were fights to be had, bad guys to chase, and legs to break. She could think about them later. Though she did like the way Ren wore his outfit. He had gotten more muscular in the few months they''d been at Beacon, even if it was all lean and thin. She couldn''t help but think it helped fill him out in all the right ways-
"Nora?" Ren asked.
"Hm!?" Nora chirped, blinking.
The boy turned to look at her, leaning down slightly.
Nora couldn''t help but let her eyes wander a moment longer, before finally gaining a measure of control. "Yep- uh- what''s up?"
"¡ Nothing, you just seemed to be spacing out." Ren answered, looking towards the signs again.
"I''m good." Nora chirped. "Just having a little daydream, you know me."
"I do, and that''s why I asked." Ren said dryly.
Nora responded with a lady-like roll of the eyes, and a childish raspberry. Better that than let her mouth say something she didn''t want it to. She had enough trouble with that already, without having a very good looking Ren standing in front of her- No, without having a Ren standing in front of her-
Nora silently bit her cheek, getting herself to focus. They had things to do. How did everyone do this ''focus'' thing when there was someone like Ren around?
Though she also knew they somehow managed it while she was around.
"So what''s this place we''re starting with?" Nora asked. "Is it a Pancake Shack? Please tell me it''s a Pancake Shack. I still need to get pay-back on that waiter from the last one."
"You know it wouldn''t be the same one." Ren said, rolling his eyes. "But from the note Six made, it''s a¡ Dust shop?"
"Well that''s ironic¡ I think." Nora chirped. "Not ironic¡ it fits I mean, like a sock and shoe."
"You mean a foot and a boot?" Ren asked.
"What''d I say?" Nora chirped, smiling innocently. "¡ How much further?"
"¡" Ren checked the signs, shrugged, thinking. "¡ Maybe a few minutes. Most of them should be close together."
"Wouldn''t it be dangerous to keep a bunch of these places together though?" Nora questioned. "Like, if one gets caught, what about the other ones?"
"You''re asking the wrong guy." Ren said. "Though I don''t know who the right one would be either."
"Six maybe?" Nora offered. "He seems to know a lot about this stuff."
Ren nodded. "Probably¡" He then chuckled. "It''s strange to think, we started school maybe five months ago. Now we''re doing this."
"And we''re friends with a dimension hopping cowboy alien. There''s a rare sentence." Nora chirped. "Oh! You think I should ask him if he''s ever been in showdowns at high noon? Or if he''s ever stopped a train robbery?"
"I''m pretty sure he''s already told us about being in a showdown." Ren answered blithely.
"That one doesn''t count." Nora chirped, tweeting along. "I mean one of those ''glare each other down from across the street and wait to shoot each other'' ones."
"¡ Pretty sure those are only in the movies." Ren answered. "¡ come to think of it, I don''t even know if his world has trains."
"Then that''s something we can ask him." Nora chirped. "¡ You still owe me those pancakes too. For saying I''d never make friends with an alien."
"You still owe me a backrub for scoring higher in the first semester." Ren countered.
"It was one lousy point." Nora pouted.
"A point more than you." Ren chuckled.
Nora blew another raspberry, but conceded the point. She wouldn''t renege on the bets she and Ren made. She knew they were in good fun, they''d been doing them for years, since back before either one of them was good at making pancakes or giving back rubs. It just gave them both a means to keep challenging each other in a healthy way.
Secretly though, it helped her see how Ren was doing. He tried so hard to hide how he was feeling from her, she only wanted to make sure he was doing okay.
He''d been smiling a lot more since the two of them had made it to Beacon. He seemed happier. Getting in had been a labor for the both of them. She''d had to sit down and actually study to make sure she passed the written exam. Ren probably didn''t need her help passing the physical test, but she made sure he was good. Nana Bess had been pushing them both, too. Making sure they could both hold their own. Stand a chance at making it, like Nora''s family had.
Really, she''d probably just wanted them both out of the house already.
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Doing this, getting this far, becoming Huntsmen, it''d been a dream for both of them. Not the way it had been for some of their friends, something more. For Nora, it meant she could fight monsters and travel like she used to. She wanted to see the world, and beat as many Grimm as she could along the way.
Ren though¡ she''d never been sure why he wanted to become a huntsman. Neither of them would ever forget Kuroyuri. What happened there. But they couldn''t change it either. The further away they were from it, the better Ren seemed to be. That didn''t keep Nora from worrying about him. Worried what would happen when they finally graduated. Nora would drag Ren along with her if she had to. But there was always going to be that part of him, she knew, that was still back there. She didn''t know what they would do then.
So Nora chose to not worry about it. Graduation was still years away. She''d worry about that when they got there.
If they did go back to Kuroyuri¡ Well, she wouldn''t let Ren go alone. She was sure of that much.
"We should consider grabbing some soap." Ren said offhandedly.
"Hm?" Nora chirped.
"I don''t know what kinds of necessities are in the apartment, Six probably doesn''t either." Ren said. "We''re probably going to need to get some soap and stuff."
Nora nodded to that. That was like Ren, to be thinking about the small details. Be responsible and all that. Here she was, thinking about pancakes, backrubs, and the future, while Ren focused on what they needed now. She could appreciate it was a good idea. They were probably all going to want a shower or something when they got back. If she and Ren got into any fights, she knew Ren would. He''d really need soap.
Though, as Nora continued to follow that train of thought, an image began to appear before her. One of Ren in the shower, covered in suds.
"Down girl." Nora muttered to herself.
"Hm?" Ren hummed.
"Nothing!" Nora squawked, trying not to blush.
The pair walked a few blocks more, chatting occasionally as they went about unimportant things. Making notes of the things they would need to collect before the meet-up later that evening. Pondering on the minutia of their lives and the current events surrounding them. How bizarre it all seemed. How excited it made either of them feel for whatever came next. Underneath it though, they both felt the current of danger.
The Courier had made it clear that things were going to get dangerous, doing this. They were all prepared for danger, it came with training to be a huntsman. But training for it, and experiencing it, were very different things. Ren and Nora could both attest to it.
In a turn of irony, it left them both feeling more prepared than they might have.
As they approached the shop, they began to don their disguises. For Ren a simple, full face mask. Smooth and the color of eggshells, only having a pair of holes for the eyes.
Nora had gone the complete opposite direction, and was quite proud of her efforts. She had taken several hours to craft a mask from whatever materials she could get her hands on. The shape had to be just right, the colors couldn''t be a shade off. It would be too easy to mistake for a bear, or maybe some off-brand koala. Especially if she got the nose wrong. To her, it needed to be absolute perfection.
As Ren looked down at her, she felt it was.
"¡ I still don''t understand why you went with a sloth." Ren said, chuckling.
Nora merely smiled, letting out a trilling note in answer. The call of a sloth, in her mind.
Without any further pause, the two approached the Dust shop. A small place, sitting squat on the corner of a street. The name ''Gathering Dust, On the Corner'' flashed in the window. They stepped through the door to find a well-traveled interior. There were other stores throughout Vale that boasted a larger selection, they could tell almost immediately. But the varieties lined the walls, sat on small shelves running the length of the store. Both in varied sizes of colored crystal, and in tubes of volatile powder. Different grain sizes, purity ratings, brands, and all manner of minor details. The things that would enable a specialty shop such as itself to exist.
Near the door, sat a singular register, manned by a gruff young man who, Nora noted, looked like a goat. Not in the way that a Faunus would, but something in the shape of his face. It reminded her of the goats that her family would occasionally raise. He even had a scraggly little goatee.
The young man eyed them as they entered the store. Clearly confused as to what a pair of masked individuals were doing entering his store. Perhaps wondering if he was about to experience crime. A curious sensation that''d been happening with violent frequency recently.
"¡I''mma look around." Nora said, voice muffled by the mask. "I''ll let you know if I find anything."
Ren nodded, and the two separated. He approached the counter as Nora began to pace slowly through the store. Hands behind her back, resting just over her weapon. Though she wondered, idly, if she were to launch a grenade in the small shop, would they survive it? Or would there just be a massive crater?
Though she imagined Six wouldn''t be happy with her, and she really wanted that breakfast.
As she began to round along the far side of the store, she could hear Ren beginning to question the cashier. A list of simple things they''d gone over. How''ve sales been? Has the recent crime wave affected business? Why''s everyone else been robbed except you? Simple questions, just to cross him off the list. Of course, they were also just meant to work as a distraction.
While Ren asked questions, Nora would just give a quick peek into the back room. If she didn''t see anything they''d be on their way, no trouble.
She really hoped there would be trouble.
As Nora walked along the back wall, she picked up a jar of Rayne Enterprises lightning Dust. She was fairly certain it was just Schnee Dust that was rebranded under a different name. Although she''d never made her own rounds, so she wasn''t certain. She knew that was something the Courier had shown capable of, and something Ruby expressed interest in. Would they be able to use it?
Then the thought popped into her head, maybe she should ask the Courier if he could make grenades. She loved Magnhild, and being able to make her hit even harder would be amazing, in her mind. Maybe, if she asked nicely, a pretty please with extra sugar, she''d get him to consider it. Sure, he was still holding a grudge about the chair incident, but they were all friends.
She would need to remember to ask him¡ eventually.
As Nora wandered along the back wall, she spied a short hallway. Leading back towards a restroom, and a singular push door, the store room.
Without a moment''s hesitation, she strolled down the hall towards the back door. Her foot came up and kicked the door open, slamming it back on its hinges.
The sight she found caught her off guard.
A small band of White Fang, in the midst of packing their gear. Weapons, tools, uniforms, everything a ragtag insurgency needed to stage an unwanted revolution.
As the door crashed against the wall, echoing and rebounding off it, the White Fang all turned towards her. There followed a brief moment, where the masked Faunus looked at the girl wearing a Sloth mask.
Then Nora smiled. A trilling note escaped her lips.
This was going to be a very fun night.
Wander in the City III
Jaune held the door open for Pyrrha, as she quickly followed him out. With a final wave, and a friendly smile, he looked back to the cashier. "Thanks again, have a good night!"
As he closed the door, Pyrrha noticed the look the cashier gave them. A knowing look, that said she had multiple assumptions about the young couple. All of which were more than likely wrong. But, better those assumptions than her getting recognized. That would''ve been much more difficult to deal with.
"Well, this has been pretty easy so far." Jaune said, falling in step beside Pyrrha. "That''s shop three we''ve managed to cross off so far. Guess we''ve been lucky so far."
"I suppose we have." Pyrrha answered, looking at Jaune. It wasn''t hard for her to keep her mind focused. Though she was pleasantly surprised by how well Jaune could present himself, given the chance. His usual choice of attire wasn''t bad in her eyes, but it wasn''t particularly flattering to the boy underneath.
But, even if the clothes he''d chosen for this endeavor weren''t fancy either, they held character. They reflected her partner in a different and more serious light that she could appreciate.
"So, where do we look next?" Jaune asked, checking his scroll. "There''s a dust shop, a department store, a materials shop, then there''s this dance hall-"
"Let''s check the dance hall." Pyrrha said quickly, before catching herself. "I-I believe it would be the most likely place for trouble to hide, don''t you think?"
Jaune nodded, giving her a pleasant smile. "Make sense, that seems like the sort of place." He then motioned ahead of them. "Should be this way."
The two huntsmen in training continued their trek through the streets of Vale. Adjusting their outfits as they went. Pyrrha''s goggles resting atop the crown of her head, where her headdress once sat. She was not personally a fan of having her hair down. It was very easy for it to get in her way, once she started moving. Though she would admit, the goggles did help hold everything in place, for the time being. Jaune didn''t worry about those things. His simple cloth strip mask was just hanging around his neck in a loop. Pyrrha did wonder in its simplicity, and childishness. How effective would that be? How effective would any of their outfits be if someone tried to recognize them? True it wasn''t their usual attire, but she couldn''t help but feel it wouldn''t matter for much.
Though, there wasn''t much she could do about it either. She hadn''t been recognized, yet. So there must have been some benefit to it. If they did get discovered or recognized, they would just need to handle the situation as it went. Better to think on¡ other issues.
"So¡ have you made any progress?" Pyrrha asked, looking up towards the dimming sky. "Any new ideas? Or plans?"
"¡ You mean with Weiss?" Jaune asked, looking toward her, thinking. "I have one or two ideas."
Pyrrha nodded, urging the boy to continue. She may have held feelings for the boy, but this was the uncomfortable reality she faced. He didn''t see her the way she wished he did. The way he wished Weiss did. But it was not her decision to make, or her mind to change. Better she try and face what she could of it, learn to be at peace with it.
She was sure the pain would go away, eventually.
"Well, I''ve no problem hearing them, at least." Pyrrha said, doing her best to be reassuring. "You know, be a second opinion, and all."
Jaune smiled brightly at her. "Well, if you don''t mind, I do have something I wanted to ask her out to."
Pyrrha ignored the twinge in her chest, smiling and nodding. "What would that be?"
"There''s this dance that Team CFVY is putting together for the Vytal festival." Jaune said "I''m thinking about asking her to it."
Pyrrha nodded, feeling the twinge in her chest worsen.
As the pair continued ahead, they failed to notice how the crowd began to part around them. This was to be expected. On some level, all animals knew when a storm was brewing, and knew when it was best to stay out of the way. Whether they knew it or not, Pyrrha and Jaune walked at the eye of that storm. Anyone who spared them a glance, could see a boy, walking ahead, unaware of any changes. They saw Pyrrha as well, walking behind him with a tight smile and a downer look to her eyes.
And they knew well enough to steer clear of both. Praying for the boy''s safety all the while.
"I''d heard there was going to be one this year, I hadn''t realized it was already getting so close." Pyrrha answered, trying her best to sound as vague as possible. She hadn''t been closely observing the calendar at all.
"It''s still a few weeks away, but they should be starting set-up soon." Jaune continued blithely. "I''m thinking if I ask her now, it''ll be my best chance."
"I''m sure it would¡ come as somewhat of a surprise." Pyrrha answered, knowing that Jaune had made other attempts in the past. "¡ If I can ask, how exactly are you planning to ask her this time?"
Jaune looked back at her with a devilish smirk. For a moment, it was enough to have her forget how uncomfortable this conversation actually was for her. She thought Jaune had a fairly wonderful smile. Seeing a hint of deviousness to it only added an alluring charm to it. Jaune was harmless. But he had a smile that was sweet poison to her.
"I''ve got an idea or two." Jaune said "One of them involves a guitar."
"¡"
Pyrrha merely nodded in response. His answer provided context for some of his recent actions in the dorms. She''d wondered both why, and truthfully where, he''d managed to procure a guitar. Worse, his practice had been rather dreadful. He''d improved though, in the short time since he''d gotten a hold of it.
Nowhere near enough to impress most.
Were he to ply her with it though¡
Pyrrha shook her head. "That sounds like a rather¡ romantic, gesture Jaune."
Jaune nodded. "My mom said if you want someone to notice you, you need to make it easy. Maybe it''s a little overboard, but it works in the movies, right?"
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"Right." Pyrrha agreed. It worked in the movies. The cheesy, overblown romances depicted in cinema and those trashy soap-operas she didn''t secretly adore. Certainly not the ones where the dopey farm boy melted the heart of the big-city girl. That would be so blas¨¦. Ignoring, of course, that she has no knowledge of where or how such a word entered her vocabulary.
"¡" Jaune looked at her, confused at first, his face growing pinched. "Are you ok?"
"Hm?" Pyrrha hummed.
"You look a little upset." Jaune said, slowing his stride.
Pyrrha felt her eyes widen, before schooling her features. Trying to make them more neutral. Though she couldn''t help but feel a minor twinge of annoyance. Of course he couldn''t notice how she felt any other time except this moment. "It''s nothing, I''m fine."
"¡" Jaune stopped walking altogether. "Okay, what''d I do? Is it really that bad of an idea?"
"N-no." Pyrrha said, trying vainly to correct the course. "It really is a nice gesture, everything''s fine."
Jaune gave her a bland look. "Pyrrha, I might be slow, but I''ve heard my mom say that to my dad enough times to know what it actually means."
"¡" Pyrrha felt her cheeks flush with warmth. For a brief moment, she debated how best to handle this change in direction, before deciding a direct approach would be the most effective. So she blew a steady breath, and began to weave through the minefield of conversation. "Jaune¡ can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Jaune said, without hesitation.
"What exactly is it that you like about Weiss?" Pyrrha asked. "You seem so set on getting her to go out with you. Yet she''s been fairly clear and firm in her answer."
Jaune looked at his partner for a moment, confused. But, as his gaze lingered, it grew contemplative. It was a question he hadn''t expected to answer, because the answer seemed obvious. But, of course, when actually asked to answer it, the matter suddenly became quite muddy indeed. Pyrrha knew it wasn''t easy to say with certainty what specifically charmed her about Jaune. She knew what things he''d done to have the effect, but the qualities?... Well, putting words and ideas to them took time. But kindness and warmth sprang easily to mind.
After a moment, having come to a stop on the curbside, Jaune gave an answer. "Well¡ She''s smart." He said. "Something I know I need to work on¡ She''s cold, but underneath it, she''s incredible. She''s graceful, talented- I mean we''ve all heard her sing, right?" Jaune shrugged. "Dunno, I just like her. Plus she thinks I''m cute, sort of, she told Ruby once."
''No she doesn''t, she was being sarcastic.'' Pyrrha thought bitterly. Though had she said it, the sentiment would''ve been a genuine one. "¡ I don''t mean to be critical Jaune, but aren''t those reasons a bit-"
"Shallow?" Jaune offered.
"¡yes." Pyrrha answered. "I can''t really say what it''s like, asking someone out, or trying to go on a date. But liking someone based on their abilities rather than who they are just seems shallow to me."
"But isn''t that how it starts?" Jaune asked. "You see the parts someone''s willing to show, then more of who they are as you get to know them?"
"Perhaps." Pyrrha agreed. "However, we already know Weiss. She doesn''t seem like she''s got anyone she has an interest in."
Jaune pursed his lips, and the two walked for a few moments in silence.
"¡ I know it''s not a good reference." Pyrrha said. "But none of the stories I''ve read or seen about this sort of thing work like that."
"How is it supposed to work then?" Jaune asked incredulously. "The guy comes riding in on a horse like a knight and whisks her off to happy ever after?"
''Well, ideally.'' Pyrrha thought, briefly imagining Jaune lifting her onto a white stallion and cantering off together into the sunset. "It doesn''t need to be that, but they need to be interested in more than just what you see about her. She would need to see more about you, too."
"I already said she thinks I''m cute¡ in a scraggly sort of way." Jaune repeated.
Pyrrha felt herself growing exasperated. She couldn''t force him to change his mind, but she would love for him to see some reason. "So if I told you that I thought you were cute as well, would that change anything?"
The words left Pyrrha''s mouth half a moment before she could stop them.
Jaune looked at her for a moment, and she saw a faint dusting of red flush onto his cheeks. "¡Well, I wouldn''t not appreciate it." He shook his head. "But, we''re partners, it''s different when you say something like that."
"¡ Partners. Right." Pyrrha said dryly, suppressing the defeated feeling that grew in her chest. Here she was, trying to do the same thing as him, and having just as much luck with it. Felt like someone had shot her in the chest with an arrow, and it just wouldn''t go away. She hated acting like it wasn''t there. "It just seems strange that you would go to so much effort for someone who doesn''t seem to care for you."
Jaune paused for a moment, then gave Pyrrha a warm smile. It was a childish look, youthful and brash, but all too sincere in its joy and warmth. The kind of smile she wished was directed at her more often. "Well, I''m not going to know unless I keep trying¡ right?"
Desperately, Pyrrha wanted to tell Jaune he was wrong. She understood that Weiss viewed him, at best, as a friend and little more. More the loss for the three of them, really. But who was she, to say he was wrong? It wasn''t her place to convince him otherwise. Not when her council was sought purely for how he may go about his wooing, not whether he should. The only other person he could seek council from was Ren, who at times seemed almost as lost.
"¡ I suppose you''re not wrong." Pyrrha answered, though she knew it wasn''t the answer she wanted to give.
Jaune nodded, his smile only growing brighter and happier. Only worsening the pain Pyrrha felt. Making her wish it would all end sooner. That they could just arrive at the dance hall already and hopefully find something to fight. Any solace she could find, was in knowing things couldn''t, for the moment, get any worse.
The pair paused at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. A crowd of people gathering at the corner, waiting with them...
No, that wasn''t right. Pyrrha''s eyes ghosted briefly over them. They weren''t looking at the light. Most had their gaze averted from it, or seemed to the moment her green eyes washed over them. There wasn''t anything particularly notable about most of them. Except, for maybe a dogged and hungry look to them that niggled at the back of her mind. Niggle, another word she couldn''t place.
But she could place the feeling in her gut that things were about to get very uncomfortable for her.
"Everything ok?" Jaune asked, looking at her.
"¡ I have a bad feeling." Pyrrha said, eyes locking to the light. The moment it changed, Pyrrha began to briskly cross the street, urging Jaune to keep pace with her. She kept her ears open as she did, paying close attention to how the crowd reacted.
They quickly began to try and keep pace with her.
Pyrrha swore under her breath, fears confirmed.
As they reached the other side of the street, Pyrrha began quickly considering options. They needed to disappear, quickly.
"Hey Pyrrha!" a voice called from the crowd. "Hold on a moment!"
Pyrrha flinched as she heard name be called, but tried to force herself to keep walking. Making sure Jaune kept pace with her.
Unfortunately, Jaune didn''t realize the danger they were both in and turned to look behind them.
"Don''t!" Pyrrha hissed.
The crowd took that as confirmation.
"It''s her!" another voice chimed, their body surging forward through the crowd after it. "Ms. Nikos, a moment of your time, please!?"
"Wha-?" Jaune questioned.
Pyrrha grabbed him by the shoulder and began to pull him forward. Despite all probability, the situation had, in fact, gotten worse. So much worse. She''d have taken fighting every member of the White Fang in the city over this.
Before the two could make it more than a dozen steps, half that score in people appeared before them. Stepping out from the cover of alleyways, beneath the waiting booths for buses.
Cameras in their hands.
They began flashing rapid fire, temporarily blinding the two and causing them to come to a complete halt.
"Prizefighter''s Monthly wants to know: How are you feeling about the coming tournament?" One of the camera men asked.
"Any comment on the state of Beacon academy?" Another asked.
"Who''s the guy?" A third leered.
"I''m not free to comment at this time." Pyrrha said, trying to regain her composure and resume her flight.
She was, however, too late.
The crowd caught up to them once more, completely enveloping them. Voices rising in a chorus of questions, each drowning out the one before it in an incoherent roar.
"Uh¡ Friends?" Jaune asked, trying to shield his eyes
"Worse." Pyrrha answered, both tiredly and aggrieved. "Paparazzi."
"I resemble that remark!" One of the cameramen retorted.
Wander in the City IV
"You know, I forget how upscale Vale can be sometimes." Weiss said, surveying their surroundings. "It''s not Atlas levels of stuffy, but it''s got its own style."
Yang nodded, motioning to a store across the street. "Me, Dad, and Rubes went there a few times on our birthdays for dinner. It was nice, really¡ fancy, I guess." She stretched lightly as they continued forward. "We don''t spend a lot of time in this part of town, but they''ve got some nice shops. And probably the only stylist I''ll let mess with my hair besides me."
"High praise." Weiss nodded, before looking down at her scroll. It''d taken some time for them to walk from the bookstore to this district. If they kept this pace, it was unlikely they''d hit everywhere they''d been planning to before everyone regrouped. "¡ I still feel as though we should''ve brought Neptune with us tonight. He could''ve helped."
"Probably." Yang said, smirking. "I''m sure it doesn''t help he''s easy on the eyes either."
Weiss scowled and rolled her eyes. "He''s capable enough. We involved Sun, so there''s no reason we couldn''t have."
"Uh huh." Yang nodded, not losing the smirk on her face. "Never said he wasn''t, snowflake."
"Don''t call me that!" Weiss snapped, blushing slightly. It was bad enough that the Courier had taken to unknowingly using the pet name Klein had given her. She didn''t need her other teammates to start using it as well.
Though her outburst earned another chuckle from Yang. "Hey, if it fits, right?"
"Hmph." Weiss huffed, trying her best to focus on the task at hand. "¡So this next place we''re going, have you been there before?"
Yang nodded, stretching her shoulders "Once, a couple months ago. Heard there was a bunch of shady things going on, figured it would be a good place to look into. There wasn''t much¡ Well, they were hiding a gang in the backroom, but they were human, and not what I was looking for. The bartender gave me crap for knocking over the pinball machine too."
"¡Well, if you already knocked the rest of the place over, why not give the machine a tilt?" Weiss offered, giving Yang a conspiratorial smirk.
"No." Yang said, shaking her head.
"But¡ But I worked on it." Weiss pouted.
"I''m not mad at the effort, it just wasn''t good." Yang said.
"Yes, because the puns you and Six regale us with are all pure gold." Weiss retorted.
"Oh no, most of them aren''t even bronze." Yang said. "You haven''t seen my silver or gold material."
"I can hardly imagine." Weiss said dryly. "With how often you make them, they must be quite precious for you to not use them."
"¡ Still a no, Weiss." Yang smirked.
"Drat."
The two continued down the street for a short distance. All around them the light was shifting into the twilight of early evening. Another hour or so, dusk would be upon them. If any of the Courier''s previous nights were an indicator, things had the chance to get quite wild indeed. Weiss was almost assured of trouble, given she''d been partnered with Yang of all people. She''d grown quite fond of her teammates, truly, even if she wasn''t sure about how to express it most of the time. They could be infuriating and, at times, quite uncouth. But she found the camaraderie they shared in the short months they''d been together to be exhilarating. So similar to the bond she''d shared with her sister. That did not change, however, that Yang and Ruby''s brash and brazen antics could be most aggrieving. Then there was Blake, whose ''private'' reading material she''d stumbled onto more than once and chose to ignore. Though it filled her with morbid curiosity what her obsession was with cephalopods. Then there was the Courier¡
She didn''t even know where to begin with him.
But their shortcomings didn''t diminish them, and she knew she was far from faultless herself. They were certainly leagues better than some of the vapid socialites she''d been made to rub elbows with. She couldn''t help but silently wonder what that said about her. That she''d rather be creeping through nightly alleys and chasing criminals than being pampered and living in luxury. She knew why she was doing it, but couldn''t help but wonder what it said about her all the same. This sort of life, being a Huntress, was something all of her teammates had spent their whole lives striving towards. Weiss had grown up with the stories her grandfather had told her of his early days, building the SDC with her grandmother. But it hadn''t been until she''d grown to see the state of her family''s legacy that she''d considered the path for herself. She''d worked hard to put herself where she was. Yet it didn''t feel real to her. More like she was watching through someone else''s eyes.
The others didn''t share her background. Had her teammates always seen themselves doing this?
Of them, she knew of two who could remotely compare to her background. But Blake vehemently denied her status as being princess. She''d also spent much of her life training to be part of the White Fang, clearly.
The Courier on the other hand, was Nouveau Riche. He didn''t seem to realize he was as rich as he was. She''d also checked the price of gold recently. It''d gone up another five-hundred lien per ounce since they''d last spoken.
"Seriously, who walks around carrying gold coins?" Weiss muttered to herself.
"What was that?" Yang asked.
"Nothing. Just¡ thinking." Weiss huffed, before pausing for a moment, pondering. "¡ Do you think he ever planned on any of this?"
Yang looked at Weiss, confused. "Who?"
"Six." Weiss answered, pursing her lips, thoughtfully. "In some way, I guess we all planned to do something like this. Being Huntsmen, Huntresses. Apparently, back where he''s from. The wasteland, the Mojave, whatever he wants to call it, maybe what he did wasn''t so different either¡" She shrugged. "I never saw myself being a Huntress when I was a child, I wanted to follow in my sister''s footsteps. Make my family''s legacy worth something¡ But what about him? Do you think he just woke up one day and chose to do¡ whatever he''s done?"
Yang didn''t answer for a moment. Weiss watched as her blonde teammate really considered the question, clearly thinking hard on it. After a few moments, the crowds passing around them, Yang merely shrugged. "Dunno." She said, giving Weiss a lopsided look "I wanted to be a huntress because Uncle Qrow and Dad would tell stories about it. How fun, exciting, and free it was¡ I mean, who wouldn''t want that, right?"
"¡"
Weiss felt a warmth in her, as a smile crept onto her face. Perhaps her reasons weren''t so weak after all.
Yang returned the smile with a grin. "Aw, you can smile after all."
"Oh, hush." Weiss said, trying and failing to wipe the smile off.
Yang let out a smooth breath, and after a moment added: "Maybe you should ask him sometime¡ I do have another reason why I want to be a Huntress. But I know it''s not something I can rush. Like how you want to bring honor back to your family. It''s¡ something I need to work on."
Weiss, her confidence restoring itself, nodded. "Hm. Well, if there''s anything I can do to help, all you need to do is say the word." She reached a hand to the mask at her hip and held it. They weren''t so far from their destination now. "Whether it''s you, or him, it wouldn''t reflect well on me to ignore you would it?"
Yang returned the smile. "What is it with the two of you giving me a pep talk? Do I look sad or something?"
"He gave you a pep talk?" Weiss asked.
"¡ Kinda." Yang said, smile growing ever so slightly warmer.
"¡" Weiss shook her head as she slipped her mask on. She wasn''t much a fan of the pomp and circumstance that came with high society and its gatherings. However, anyone who said she didn''t have a sense of class was clearly blind. A masquerade required little more than a simple masque over the eyes and brow. Snow white and accented by ice blue, to match her preferred palette.
Yang''s idea of a masque, however, culminated in little more than an amber colored bandana. Stretched over her mouth and nose. Weiss was fairly certain it was a part of her normal outfit. Normally wrapped and draped about her knee.
Though, as they approached their destination, Weiss noted further that Yang made no motion to conceal herself. Instead leaving the cloth stashed in her pocket. She clearly sensed Weiss''s confusion however, and gave a simple explanation: "I''ve already been here, doesn''t make much sense covering my face now."
The two turned down an alleyway, leaving behind the polish and gilt of the wealthier portion of town. The deeper they went, the more it felt they were stepping into a time capsule of what Vale might have been decades ago. The smooth stone and mortar of recent works grew cracked and worn. Sleek metal and fresh paint grew tarnished, rusted, and chipped, in desperate need of renovation. Were she not walking it herself, Weiss would never have believed they were walking through the same city. Or, at least, the same part of town.
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At the far end of the alley, sat an old wood framed building, the walls a mix between cobble and poured concrete. Weiss herself was unfamiliar with the name of the style, stucco perhaps. Wood beams crossed over each panel of stone for added support, swatches of old cloth for splashes of color. It sat two stories tall, the second floor stepping inward, set smaller. Bands of bare-bulb lights strung from the eaves, casting pale amber light over the old stone and wood. An awning opened out over the main entrance, double wooden doors set between a pair of windows. The only ones she could see on the building. Over the awning, and thus the entrance, sat a painted wooden sign, fading with age and paint chipping.
''7th Heaven''
Confusingly, the seven was stylized as some sort of dolphin.
"Just let me lead." Yang said. "I know the lady behind the bar, she''s a fighter."
"Why am I not surprised?" Weiss asked drolly.
The pair approached the entrance and stepped through the wooden doors. Beyond them was a dive bar that one might''ve expected from a roadside tavern somewhere in the wilderness. All wood d¨¦cor and neon signage. A small bar to the immediate left of the entrance, seating to the right and jukebox in the far corner. Next to a door labeled as the restroom. Weiss also noted a broken pinball machine straight ahead of them. The air smelled of smoke, and the uncomfortably familiar smell of liquor. The cheap kind, even.
The barroom was mostly empty, despite being something of a mess. Weiss counted a total of three people, outside herself and Yang. Two men, and a woman behind the bar, as Yang had said she''d be. One of the men leaned against the wall, beside the jukebox. A lanky blonde that reminded Weiss of Jaune, if he''d spent more time working out¡ Then again, she''d seen Jaune without a shirt on, and he wasn''t exactly hard on the eyes either. But, the blonde before her was older, with something graceful about his face, lean and angular. He was dressed in a sleeveless, dark blue jumpsuit, with a massive sword on his back. Bigger than the one she''d had to contend with when sparring with Yatsuhashi.
As for the other man, he was darker in his complexion, Vacuo descent if his clothes were an indicator. A brown vest and green cargo pants. Black pouches strapped about him, and one of his arms was replaced with a prosthetic. Its darker color and bulkier build is clearly not Atlesian, but no less functional as she saw the finger twitch. He was far taller and broader than the blonde, despite being seated at one of the tables. The muscles in one of his arms was nearly triple the size of one of the Blonde''s. His features were hard, blunt. The arc of his brow gave him an aggressive, angry look. Like he was insulted the two of them had walked inside.
Behind the bar however, the woman clearly wasn''t happy that they had. She was about Yang''s height, perhaps a few hairs taller, with dark brown, shoulder length hair. She was dressed in less than modest clothing, a top that was cropped just below her, annoyingly bountiful, chest. Paired with a short black skirt, held in place by both a belt, and a pair of suspenders that looped back up to her shoulders. Red bracers running from her elbows down to gloved hands. She scowled with red eyes at both Weiss and Yang, as they stepped further into the bar.
For reasons Weiss hoped were completely unrelated, the woman also had a thick brace around her neck.
"Heya, T~" Yang greeted in a singsong tone, approaching the bar.
"Xiao Long." The woman, T, answered. Voice stiff, gruff, and a bit deep.
"How''s the neck?" Yang asked chipperly. "Heard you had an accident."
"Healing." T bit back. "How''s the bike? Heard you wrecked it."
"All in one piece." Yang answered, smirking. "Funny, the only part I found broken was the brake cable."
"Hm." T answered, eyes flicking to one of the men across the room, then back to the two of them. She exhaled through her nose, then asked, "What do you want?"
"What, a girl can''t come by for a visit?" Yang asked.
"We''re not friends, and you''re not welcome here after what you did." T answered.
"Are you still mad about the pinball machine?" Yang asked, voice getting a slight edge "I told you that thing was rigged."
"You still broke it." T retorted.
"You never told me what I wanted to know." Yang countered, then appeared to ponder that statement for a moment, and continued. "Guess that''s why I''m back here though. Kinda funny."
"Don''t know who you''re looking for, brat." T said. "Even if I didn''t, I don''t feel inclined to help."
"Oh no, I''m here for different information this time." Yang said. "You help me, I promise to leave quietly this time."
T nodded as though she was listening. But Weiss was watching her eyes still. She saw the brief flick they did, again, towards the back of the room. They then settled back on the two of them, before twitching to Weiss. "Who''s your friend?"
"Just a friend from school." Yang answered."She''s helping me with a project."
Weiss could hear the creak of wood, across the bar behind her.
"Yang." Weiss cautioned.
"Why would I want to help you?" T asked.
"¡ Well-" Yang said, flexing her fist. "I could leave anyway. It just might not be so quiet."
T scoffed. "Right, do you think I''m stupid? I heard about what you and your boyfriend did to Junior."
The bright air Yang had been keeping faltered. Had Weiss been paying it more attention, she might''ve been willing to question it herself. "Heard wha-"
There was a rush of sound behind them, and Weiss spun, hand falling to Myrtenaster. As she gripped the hilt of her weapon, the Vacuan man leapt up from his seat, pointing his prosthetic towards them. She saw the metal plates over the forearm of it begin to shift and slide backward, the hand splitting apart. Quickly forming into whatever weapon he intended to use against them. From his spot next to the jukebox, the blonde did the same, pulling the slab of metal from his back.
Although unladylike, Weiss pointed her finger at the Vacuan man with her off hand. Her dominant hand worked the hammer of her undrawn sword. She heard the cylinder whine as she drew power from the Dust.
A black glyph appeared beside the man in a flash. Right as his arm finished changing into some form of rotary-gun. He had a brief moment to look down at the glyph.
Then the effects of Weiss''s semblance took effect, and he rocketed sideways across the room. Colliding with the blonde like a cannonball before he''d had time to react. The two cratered deeply against the wall, before sliding limply to the floor. Only after they had, did Weiss draw Myrtenaster from her side, whipping back around the bar. The tip of her blade coming to head height.
The tip stopped just short of T''s throat, right beneath her chin. The woman had begun to take a stance, as Weiss was moving. But having seen the two people who were clearly her compatriots flattened against the wall, she''d faltered part way into the motion. Instead, only looking bewildered by how seemingly effortless it had been for Weiss to remove them both from play.
It hadn''t been effortless, using that type of Glyph further out from herself was actually quite strenuous. Especially with the amount of force required.
"¡ Wow, T." Yang said, smiling. "Gotta hand it to you, wasn''t expecting you to keep hired thugs around. Thought we were closer than that."
"They''re not hired thugs, they''re my friends." T bit back, voice a venom laced growl. "Who do you think I am?"
"Dunno, depends on the day." Yang answered, before a much more serious look settled onto her face. "Now, what was that you were saying about-"
There was another rush of sound, towards the back of the bar. The squeak of oiled hinges, as a door opened. Both Yang and Weiss turned to face it, as footsteps briefly tromped onto the barroom floor. Seeing who it was that''d joined them now.
It''d been a few weeks, since Yang had last seen him, and the memory didn''t match the image in front of her. Last she''d seen him, he''d been dressed for business. A white button up, crimson tie, black vest and slacks, hair slicked back and beard groomed. But looking at him now, all she could see was a mess. His shirt was heavy with creases and wrinkles. His tie was undone, hanging limp under his vest, now heavily stained. His pants were tattered, shoes scuffed, and his hair was disheveled. He looked as though he hadn''t slept in days. Most tellingly of all though, was his jaw. While thick, it was no longer square. It hung crooked at the bottom of his head. Like it''d been broken and poorly set.
Despite her surprise though, Yang still recognized him, and it brought a smile to her face. He would be a far better lead than T was proving to be.
He looked briefly around the bar, before locking eyes with Yang. A look of fear, like a recalled nightmare, swept over his face.
"Heya Junior~" Yang said sweetly
Bounties in the Chibi
The wind roared past my head as I sped down the crumbling roads east of Vegas. It was surprisingly smooth sailing, despite the several centuries of disrepair. My bike was practically gliding over everything. It was a wonderful feeling really, riding. It''d been too long since I''d had the machine running, felt almost like a dream to have it going again. The roar of the reactor and whine of the turbine like sweet music. Every shake, bounce, and vibration is a long remembered thrill. Made me wish I hadn''t waited so long to put it all back together in the first place.
Of course, that wasn''t the only thing bringing a smile to my face.
Cass wrapped her arms tighter around me from behind, as we coasted down the road. "You can go faster!" She shouted over the wind "Come on! Throttle up!"
"I''m trying to conserve fuel!" I shouted back "We''ve got to make the return trip too. Don''t want to stop while we''re towing a bounty behind us."
An unfortunate necessity of things. I had some medical bills that needed paying, and the only thing that I knew would pay was getting back on the bounty trail. Though, strangely, I couldn''t remember what those medical bills were for. Every time I tried to think, my head got foggy and¡
I revved the engine slightly, keep us at a good pace. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, gotta go fast. I could hear Cass laughing behind me.
Simple job: track down our target, collar them, and trail them back to the office. Also, potentially, pummeling them into submission to get the collar on them in the first place. Most people don''t take kindly to being fitted with an explosive leash, speaking from experience. But it gave them a reason to not waste time getting back to the office either. If they behaved, I''d even give them a lift back. NCR was paying good for live bounties. Helped rebuild their labor force, I suppose. Helped that most of them were either some piece of work, raider scum, or some mix of the two. Would feel a smidge worse condemning someone to hard labor if it wasn''t the case.
The one we were going after now was a real piece of work. Hard to make heads or tails of them. Lot of assault charges, and hunting without a license. Would almost count it as vigilante work, except they weren''t registered with the NCR as a licensed hunter. Had an inkling that''s what this was really about. NCR not being able to collect tax on the bounties they were handling. That''s what it was all about anyway, money.
Last I''d heard tell, she''d been making her way closer to Vegas. Picked up her trail just outside the Gun Runners. A quick chat with the vendor said she''d been planning to make for Freeside. A peaceful enough ride, saved us the trouble of trying to get my bike onto the Strip. Would hate having to waste time trying to get another boot off it.
A short while later, we idled to a stop at the Freeside gates, waiting a moment for somebody to let us through.
"So where do you think we''ll find her?" Cass asked, resting on one of my shoulders, perching to look over me.
"Good question." I answered, had been mulling it for a while "She''ll probably steer clear of the Followers if she can, the Kings too. They might like the help, but she strikes me as a bit of wild card. King might not take kindly to it."
"Right, because he had a problem when you were doing it." Cass said.
"It''s luck of the draw." I answered, shrugging.
"A gamble." Cass agreed.
"A little bit." I nodded.
"About how you play your cards." Cass said.
"¡" I reached a hand up and gave her arm a squeeze. Yep. She was there. "¡Can I just say how much I missed you?"
Cass chuckled. "Not like you''ve ever been that far away. But next time? I drive."
The gate slid open, wheels squealing the whole way, and we slowly idled through it. We had to move through Freeside at a more sedate pace. More foot traffic meant having to dodge people or, more accurately, having them dodge us. I''d rather not have them putting another bounty on my head because I accidently ran over someone''s foot. Was glad enough to be making some extra cash as it was.
After we rolled down the street a little ways, I pulled up to the intersection where Anthony stood. He''d been the crier for Mick and Ralph''s since I''d first stumbled into Vegas. Made a good lookout, got to keep an eye on the city when I wasn''t there. See all the strange people rolling through. I slipped him a few caps and told him who me and Cass were looking for. Said he''d seen her blow through a few hours beforehand. Had bought him a snack, said she was going to take in a show. They wandered off in the direction of the Atomic Wrangler. Few guesses what kind of show she was going for, and I didn''t know any of them. Hadrian had left for the Tops months back. But it wasn''t any more difficult of a ride, smoother even. Nodded and waved to a couple of the King''s men as we rode by.
"You ever wonder if he pays them?" Cass asked.
"Sometimes." I said, shrugging, "But it''s probably not much."
"Mm, little more than a royalty." Cass said, smirk in her voice.
I chuckled. Wasn''t a bad one.
We trundled down the street a short distance from the Van Graff''s former place of business. Nobody out front now. Hadn''t been since a couple contingents of NCR troopers had raided the place a few weeks back. Heard some mutterings that the charges weren''t going to stick. We''d see, Cass had let the matter go, but I''d keep my word if matters came to it.
My bike ground to a halt just out front of the Atomic Wrangler. I swung my foot back and caught the kickstand, canting the bike to the side before setting it to rest. We dismounted, and I adjusted my armor. Making sure my cattle prod was an easy draw, and my pistol even easier if needed. Cass did something the same, cycling the action of her shotgun. Strange though, there was something fuzzy about it. My eyes were playing tricks, couldn''t really see it.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Bet on it." Cass bubbled.
Together, we pushed into the Wrangler.
The atmosphere was about what I could remember it being. Dank, dark, dirty, and with the faint odor of turpentine in the air. Would like to say I''d walked into better looking ruins, but that would be doing Primm a disservice. The main lounge sat open, the lights turned low except near the bar. The stage was lit warmly, the curtain a pleasant crimson. The tables were full and, as expected Hadrian was nowhere to be seen. It was easy to see there was still a show on the way. Shame we weren''t there for it.
But I could see what we were there for.
She was leaning up against the bar, haggling with the bartender. Some black haired girl with a headdress of some kind.
Cass and I strode up to the bar right before the conversation started escalating.
"For the last time, I don''t want whisky!" Our target snapped "I just want a glass of mil-"
"Mojave Red?" I asked.
Our target froze. From where we were standing, there wasn''t much of her. A scant young woman wearing a cloak, stained in the blood of more than a dozen and a half kills. That we had record of. A thick hood was pulled over her head. It quirked slightly as her head swiveled towards us. Couldn''t see her face through the shadows of it.
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"Who wants to know?" ''Red'' asked.
"¡ Mojave Express." I lied "I''ve come to deliver a cease and desist for Trademark Infringement."
"¡ Say wha-?" Red asked.
"The Mojave Express has recently trademarked the fictional character of Mojave Red for advertisement purposes." I continued to lie "Your use of the name is under NCR copyright law statute 4a-20, sub article sixty nine."
A brief silence fell over the three of us, four if you counted the bartender. Red was clearly trying to puzzle her way through what I''d just told her. The most I was expecting was for her to be confused long enough for me and Cass to really get the jump on her. However-
"Are you serious!?" Red squeaked "I filed for it first!"
"¡ Yes, very serious." I lied.
"AAGH!" Red groaned "Dang it! I paid a fortune for that!"
I really wasn''t sure what to say. The fact that it was working was actually fairly surprising. I could hear Cass trying to stifle laughter behind me. If she didn''t keep it down, she''d blow our cover.
"Hey, easy does it Red." I said, watching the way she turned towards us. "We''re just issuing the notice. You come with us, we can go back to the office and get this whole mess sorted out."
"¡ Really?" Red asked, reaching up to her hood "You''d help me?"
"Naturally." I said smoothly "We''d just need your full-"
Red pulled her hood down, and she was smiling at me. She was a pretty young thing alright. Had to have been in her late twenties at least, with a lean face, slightly rounded jaw. She had a bubbly smile, her hair black and fading to a red at the tips, cropped short but unevenly to one side. As her hood fell down, her cape opened, revealing a fighter''s attire. Leather bodice over a buttoned shirt, combat skirt over sturdy pants and combat boots. All in shades of dark and crimson. But most striking of all were her eyes.
A warm silver.
"¡ Ruby?" I asked, feeling something jar loose in my head.
Red/Ruby looked at me funny "Ruby? I''m Mojave Red! I haven''t gone by Ruby since I was a baby."
"¡ Huh?" I said, still trying and failing to understand.
Cass was still laughing behind me.
"Oh, hey, before we go, can I get my drink?" Ruby asked, turning back to the bar, scowling like an angry puppy that''d grown into a cuddly dog. "My milk. Gimme, I already forked over the caps!"
"For the last time, we don''t serve milk!" The bartender snapped, her voice¡
I looked at the top of the bartender''s head, my vision felt like it was clearing. She looked older than memory served too, but it was her. Same shape to her head, and a curve to her hips, even in the uniform. An angle to her brow that spoke of sharp wit and pitiless humor. Her hair was shorter, long black tresses cut into a short bob that didn''t even reach her shoulders. But the things atop her head were what sealed it. That wasn''t a headdress, those were cat ears!
"¡ Blake?" I muttered, head rattling like dice in a cup.
Then there was a squeal from the stage. Feedback from a microphone. Unconsciously, I felt my head turning towards it. James Garret was on the stage, clearing his throat.
"Ladies and Gents, Wanderers and Wastelanders, please put your hands together for the newest member of the Atomic Wrangler family. You know her, you love her, you''ve heard her voice on Radio New Vegas a dozen more times than you could bear, Please welcome: ''Snowflake'' Schnee!"
As James said the words, another familiar looking young woman found her way up on stage. She was decked head to toe in white, almost blindingly white. I have no idea how she could''ve managed it in a place like the Mojave, but she did, pure as fresh snow. Her figure was rail thin and lithe, a dancer''s build, wrapped in a sheer cocktail dress, a small jacket hanging off her shoulders. Her hair was done up in a fancy braid that ran to the small of her back, big, voluminous. There was a hunger in her eyes and a dazzling smile on her lips. She didn''t look a day over twenty-five but something about her spoke of life and experience.
Then Weiss began to sing. The band coming in slowly behind her.
(**BGM**: Why Don''t You Do Right, Amy Irving)
''¡What!?''
The rattling in my head was getting worse. Something wasn''t right. They shouldn''t be here, they should''ve been back on Remnant, why was Weiss a lounge singer? When did Blake learn to bartend? When did Ruby- where was her scythe!?
I began rubbing the side of my head. Hoping the sensation would stop.
Nope. It got worse.
"¡ Uh, Six?" Cass asked "You feeling alright?"
"I''m fine, Cass, head''s just pounding suddenly." I answered, breathing deeply, trying to focus.
"¡ Cass?" Cass asked, sounding confused and off tune.
"¡"
I turned around, and almost did a double take. The pain in my head reached a fever pitch.
Cass didn''t have a mane of blonde hair.
"¡ Yang?" I asked.
¡
My eyes snapped open, strangling a snore mid-nore. My eyes felt gummy and heavy, in a moment they''d start to itch too. Hated when that happened.
I craned my neck, shifting my shoulders slightly. Let my eyes adjust to my surroundings. I was outside, in the woods. Just a short way outside of Beacon, if memory served. Looking down at my legs, yes, I was still a stumpy version of my normal self. Once again, adjusting from the world of dreaming to waking was a pain. Looking just past my feet, I could see where I''d had my campfire previously. The light falling over everything was the dying amber shade of the evening sun. It''d been about mid-day when I''d made camp, as I recalled. Having to give the dorms a wide berth because of¡ lava floors?
That still made no sense to me, but nothing did, it seemed.
After setting camp, I''d come across Port and Oobleck, doing some personal filmography. We''d shared a brief conversation. Then Velvet showed up, and after some brief awkwardness, we''d started in some rather pleasant conversation. For a time at least. I must have nodded off somewhere in the middle of it. A shame, I was enjoying talking about the period of Remnant''s history when they''d transitioned into steam power. Much easier, when you didn''t need to boil water to make it happen.
"Mmn¡"
I felt something shift next to me, and looked down.
My vision cleared up immediately, as Velvet shuffled closer next to me. Her eyes were completely shut, and she was breathing softly, relaxed. No doubt she''d fallen asleep too.
But that did not explain why she''d chosen to start cuddling me.
A moment passed, and Velvet grimaced. Then she yawned, a soft little note, and her eyes fluttered open. Bleary, half-lidded, beady brown eyes looked up at me. They locked onto my for a long moment, before trailing down to the space between us. Or the lack thereof.
In the space of half a second her face was as red as a bighorner''s. Her eye snapped completely open, and a sound like a whistling tea kettle escaped her.
"Um¡ afternoon?" I offered.
Within the half breath it took me to say it though she''d bolted, taking off like a shot. Barely leaving a Velvet shaped cloud of Dust behind her.
"¡ Well, more dinner for me then." I muttered.
Seriously, what the hell was happening?
Meeting in the City I
The bar that Ruby Rose found herself in was more in line with what she''d expected to encounter that evening. Though the Courier had let the business in the caf¨¦ slide easily enough, she couldn''t help but feel more the fool. It seemed so dumb to her now, that she''d mistaken the caf¨¦ for a place where the White Fang could be hiding. But she didn''t take it too personally. She was learning.
Turns out, she had a decent teacher to learn from.
Ruby observed the Courier, as he leaned against the bar, facing the bartender. She wondered if it ever bugged him how tall he was. If it wasn''t for the fact that she knew what he was like, it would be really easy for him to be intimidating. The words he used could easily sound like a threat. Yet when she heard them, it didn''t sound any more intense than the casual way he spoke with them.
"It''s not gonna take much." The Courier said. "Soon as you tell me what I wanna know, we''ll be outta your hair."
The bartender scowled at both of them. "And I told you kid, you''re wasting your time."
The Courier chuckled, a sound that on the surface, Ruby could recognize as genial. But on some lower level, it felt like someone trailed a knife down her back.
"Oh, I don''t know about that." The Courier spoke.
Ruby let her gaze wander smoothly from the bartender to the Courier, then back again. In her mind, trying to imitate the way she''d seen private detectives and police do in those crime shows dad watched. Cold, steely, give nothing away but take everything in. She''d been watching the way the Courier did things, and saw that he missed a lot. But it didn''t stop him from trying.
After the debacle at the caf¨¦, Ruby had decided to follow the Courier''s advice and watch how he did things. They''d moved quickly away from the coffee shop, after Ruby''d made a fool of herself. She wasn''t sure if the Courier had done that on purpose for her, or for both of them.
But, he''d also admitted he''d known she''d do that, so he was still a massive jerk for letting her do it.
They''d moved quickly through a number of the smaller locations on their list. In most of them they hadn''t actually even questioned anyone. Instead, they''d just walked inside, waited a few minutes, then turned around and left. When Ruby asked him why they were leaving, he''d tell her the place didn''t ''read right''. She didn''t understand what that had meant, at first. Each place they went seemed different from the last. When asked to explain, the Courier merely told her to watch the room, the way people acted. She didn''t really get what he''d meant. At first.
Then they''d both come here, and she believed she was starting to understand what he meant. When they''d entered the bar they now stood in, the atmosphere was different than any of the other places they''d been. It was hard for her to describe. A feeling that settled over her the way humid air felt different from dry, or the little tingle that came before a static shock. It was a tangible quality she was starting to recognize. Almost as if, had she tried to observe more of their surroundings, maybe she''d see things that might seem strange, or out of place.
Even for a place as skeevy as the bar they currently stood in.
She desperately ignored the cockroach that scuttled over the toe of her boot. Though she watched as the Courier absentmindedly crushed it when passed by his foot.
"Am I supposed to be intimidated?" The bartender asked, a man somewhere in his late thirties and looking like that many miles of bad road. "The fuck are you hoping to do here, kid?"
"Language." Ruby muttered, earning a scowl from the man that looked like a pothole folded over on itself. She stuck her tongue out at him, but only wound up tasting the inside of the muffler over her face¡ It tasted like hair, and a little like mucous from her breath. She tried not to gag.
"I think I made it pretty clear." The Courier said, tone unchanged. "I just want to know the basics. The who''s, the what''s, the when''s, and the why''s. I''ve already got the where figured out."
The bartender bristled angrily, looming over the counter, one hand on it.
Ruby watched as the other seemed to disappear, just behind them at a casual angle.
She felt her skin begin to prickle, and began to slowly move onto her backfoot.
"I''ve got no business helping the White Fang." The bartender growled. "I think you should stop making accusations. And leave, before I call the police on a couple minors standing some place they shouldn''t."
"You''re not going to do that." The Courier replied, calmly. "Mostly because you know better than to bring the authorities down on you." He motioned to the bar vaguely. "I count at least two cases of illegal gambling, there''s a weapons sale happening in the third booth down, half your patrons are on something, and that''s not counting whatever health code violations I recently stepped on."
The bartender''s eyes narrowed, and he began to tense.
"And if you''re smart, you won''t pull that piece you think you''ve got cleverly tucked up your prison pocket." The Courier said, voice still calm and smooth. "I guarantee, you''re not gonna outdraw me¡" Then he motioned to Ruby. "And hers is probably a lot bigger."
The bartender paused, his eye passing over Ruby.
She took that as her cue to open her hood slightly. Let the edges of Crescent Rose peek out.
The bartender''s eye snapped open, and his hand slowly trailed its way back around the front. Which almost earned a chuckle out of Ruby. His eyes scanned the bar for a moment. Whether he was looking for something, someone, or maybe some way out, Ruby wasn''t sure. But after a moment or so, the bartender let out a low breath. "¡ What do you want to know?"
"About the White Fang, Roman Torchwick, any recent crap that''s happened between the two, and if it involves any crawlspaces or backrooms of this fine establishment." The Courier answered, lowering his voice and leaning in.
The bartender grunted. "Don''t know nothing about Torchwick, not since the war between the Spiders and Xiongs," he answered, scanning the room. "The White Fang, though?... They''d been hiding a group of guys and some weapons in my store room up until about yesterday."
The Courier nodded, drumming his fingers on the bartop. "How long?"
"Couple months, want to say it started sometime back around the start of spring?" The bartender answered. "Came to me saying they needed to make use of my facilities. Told them to go pound sand, but they made me an offer I couldn''t refuse."
"Money, or the privilege of breathing?" The Courier asked drolly.
"Both." The bartender answered blandly. "They paid good enough to help with rent, and told me if I said anything they''d dump me out with the fish."
The Courier nodded. "Reasonable¡ But they''re not here now?"
"Like I said, they jumped ship yesterday." The bartender answered. "You can go take a look in the back, but they took everything with them. Said if I breathed a word of them being there to anyone, they''d hear about it and be back."
"Any idea why they would''ve packed and left?" The Courier asked.
The bartender grimaced and shrugged. "Beats me, kid. They paid, and I didn''t feel inclined to ask questions." After a moment''s pause, he then added, "I did overhear that there was supposed to be something big happening, and they were calling everyone back. What that means, don''t know, don''t care."
"Perhaps you should''ve managed one of the two." The Courier said smoothly. "Either one could save you if the wrong person decides they don''t like your candor."
Another of those phrases that could be interpreted in different ways. This time it wasn''t a dagger trailing down Ruby''s back, it was one angled at her throat. She wasn''t even the intended recipient.
The bartender paled immediately.
"I think I will take a look in that backroom of yours." The Courier said, before turning to Ruby. "Keep an eye on him, ''Red''. Won''t be more than a moment¡" He turned back to the Bartender. "Assuming someone''s chosen to be honest."
Not wasting a moment, the Courier stepped back from the bar, and stalked towards a door at the far side of the room. Without further word, he passed through the door and vanished, leaving Ruby alone in the barroom. Surrounded by strangers, drunks, and criminals. Something that she honestly wasn''t as concerned about as she should''ve been. The atmosphere reminded her of hanging around her favorite uncle.
She stared down the bartender while waiting for the Courier to return. Practicing her listening, trying to overhear conversations, or otherwise make sure no one was trying to catch her off-guard. She was surprised at how simple it was, if a bit strenuous. She couldn''t pick out more than any one conversation at a time, but the ones she did, it was actually surprising how well she was able to follow them. Was this what the Courier did? Or was this just her trying to understand?
After a handful of minutes, the Courier stalked back into the barroom. Ruby watched as he folded something and tucked it into his duster pocket.
"Checked it over, they''re gone." The Courier answered. "Didn''t leave much behind either."
"Told you they didn''t." The bartender said, self-satisfied. Short lived though it was, with another look from the Courier.
"¡ We''ll be going now." The Courier answered. "Don''t give us a reason to come back."
Without another word, the Courier motioned to Ruby and they walked out of the bar. Ruby noted the way the Courier kept his head on a swivel as they did. Still searching for any trouble that might choose then to rear its head.
Once they were back on the street, they set a quick pace away from the rundown bar and its clientele. After some distance, the Courier motioned for Ruby to lower her hood.
"Doesn''t appear we''re being tailed." He said. "From what it looked like, he wasn''t lying. They''d been there, but they closed shop and ran." The Courier fished around in his pocket for a moment, then withdrew a folder slip of paper. "Not normal to find something like this in a place like that."
"What is it?" Ruby asked, eyeing the sheet of paper. There were lines criss-crossing all over it, but she couldn''t determine any of what they may mean in its present state.
"Blueprints." The Courier supplied "For some building, don''t quite know where. Must''ve dropped it by mistake."
"Or they planted it, hoping someone could find it and it''s a trap." Ruby bubbled.
"¡" The Courier sighed. "The fact that might also be possible is a bitch." He then opened his coat once more and slid the slip of paper back into his pocket. "I''ll throw it on the pile when we get back to Tukson''s, we''ll have tomorrow to look it over."
Ruby nodded. "Maybe we can-¡ What''s that?"
While watching the Courier return the slip of paper, she observed an odd glitter of glass. Peeking out from just inside the hem, a long neck and cork wobbling back and forth.
The Courier, looking down, promptly shut his coat. When it was shut, the coat almost seemed to conform to him as though there was nothing there.
"Evidence." The Courier answered. "Collected to ensure that the owner isn''t serving his beverages laced with something."
Ruby looked at the Courier curiously.
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"¡ They were properly compensated." He added after a moment.
Ruby shook her head. "You know, that stuff''s not good for you."
"Most things in life aren''t." The Courier answered. "Don''t worry, I''m not gonna start quaffing right now. I know the importance of keeping a clear head on the job¡ most of the time."
Ruby looked at him pointedly, but nodded. She didn''t like alcohol. It wasn''t hard to see how much of the substance her uncle drank. When she was younger, it''d been a little funny. He''d tell inappropriate stories, and act funny.
As she got older, learned more, she started to see how bad it was.
Even if it wasn''t a problem yet, some small part of her worried.
"¡ You did good." The Courier said.
"¡ I did?" Ruby asked, voice brightening.
"I could tell you were trying to watch everything." The Courier answered. "A bit rough, obviously, but you were doing good. Especially when he made it seem like he was going to get physical. Think the words would''ve been enough, but actions make a nice amplifier."
Ruby smiled, a lightened feeling in her chest. "Just felt right. When we were in there everything else felt wrong."
"Means you''ve got good instincts." The Courier said. "Just a matter of whether or not you know when to listen to them." The Courier reached back into his coat. After a moment his hand withdrew, along with his cup of coffee. Ruby had long finished hers, and couldn''t help but boggle at the sight of the beverage. The Courier raised the straw to his mask and sipped, before recoiling. "-Yep, still boiling hot."
"How did you do that?" Ruby asked, looking at his coat. "Is there some sort of special, super-secret inventory thingie in your coat?"
She almost hoped there was. Talking about all the random odds and ends Six had always tickled Ruby''s sense of wonder. She knew there were things that were basically impossible, like jetpacks, power armor, or an unlimited cookie dispenser. However, there were times it felt like her understanding of logic didn''t apply to the Courier. Seemingly at random, he''d go from doing things she understood, to showing her and everyone things that shook their understanding of what was possible.
It made her really wish he''d just open up a bit more. He really was fun talking with once you got him going.
The Courier chuckled, now a sound that actually sounded mirthful and friendly. When he spoke, it sounded irritatingly like he was smirking at her. "Trade secret, and deep pockets."
Of course, he seemed to love being all mysterious too much to actually give her an answer. So she ignored him with the dignity that is to be expected of a leader and lady. She certainly didn''t roll her eyes and blow a raspberry at him. That would be childish.
The two carried on for a short distance more, watching as Vale''s nightlife started to come alive. Couples out on dates, the marquees of theaters starting to light and glow in soft yellow. There was laughter in the air, mixed with the usual hustle of foot traffic Ruby had learned to expect of Vale. So much to do, so little time, rush-rush-rush.
"So what do you think''s going to happen?" Ruby asked. "With this weekend, and what we''re trying to do."
"In all honesty¡ I''ve got no clue." The Courier answered. "Speaking from personal experience, there''s two outcomes we''re liable to experience. Either we accomplish nothing and things continue to unravel, or we managed to throw enough wrenches in the machine to slow it down for a time."
Ruby nodded, pondering.
"¡ What''re you hoping we get out of this?" The Courier asked, swirling his coffee. "It''s a big mess to be involved in."
Ruby pursed her lips thoughtfully. There were many things she hoped would come out of this. That Blake would feel better. That the White Fang would stop scaring and hurting people. That she''d get to fight some people, and try to make a difference¡
"I think¡ I just want things to be alright." Ruby said. "That''s what it''s all about right? Just trying to make things better?"
"Is it?" The Courier asked.
Ruby paused again, looking at the Courier. "Isn''t it?"
"Again, is it?" The Courier asked. "I can''t tell you what you want. If it''s what you''re hoping will come out of this whole mess, then that''s what it is. But only you can decide that. And whether or not you get it¡ well, only part of that''s in your hands too."
Ruby nodded again considering the words. Then she smiled, it was a pretty obvious answer. "I want to fight, and stop the bad guys¡ But I want everything to be alright."
The Courier regarded her for a moment, his mask boring into her with the crimson glare of its lenses. It was hard for her, understanding the way the Courier thought. But she knew at his core, despite how much of a butt he could be, there was somebody good under it all. Zwei wouldn''t have spent so much time hanging around him if he wasn''t.
Without warning, the Courier started chuckling again. "You''re such a kid."
"Kid!?" Ruby snapped indignantly. "Am not, I-
"Drink milk?" The Courier asked.
"Drink coffee!" Ruby finished, changing her words.
"With sugar¡ and milk." The Courier needled.
Ruby scowled at him, and he started chuckling more. "Ok, you big jerk, what do you want out of this?"
"To not owe Blake a favor anymore." The Courier answered, before pausing, then sheepishly adding, "¡ and to beat up bad guys¡ try to make sure everything turns out alright."
Ruby felt her scowl fall, before melting into a smile.
"What''re you smiling about?" The Courier grumbled.
Ruby didn''t say anything. She just smiled even bigger. It had its intended effect, as the Courier continued grumbling and dropped the subject. However as they carried on, walking down the street, Ruby found herself pondering the question. ''What did you hope to get out of all this?''. The longer she thought about it, the more she resolved herself. But there was something she wanted to know.
"Hey Six?" Ruby said.
"Yeah Tiny?" Six answered.
"What were you hoping to get out of coming here?" Ruby asked. "By coming to Remnant I mean."
The Courier paused for a moment, though not slowing in his stride. He tentatively took another sip of his drink. "Well, I wasn''t exactly trying to get here, so I can''t say I was hoping for much of anything."
Ruby nodded, at first, the answer satisfied her, for a moment. But then she started to think further on it. He hadn''t been trying to get to Remnant, had he? He''d been experimenting with a machine of some kind. Though he''d never elaborated on what. He had to have known it was a bad idea, even if he didn''t think it would land him on Remnant. So then:
"What were you hoping to do?" Ruby asked, watching the Courier. Trying to apply what she''d learned so far.
His appearance didn''t change all that much. He seemed just as calm and relaxed as before. But when he spoke, Ruby could hear the difference in his voice. There was something tense in it. The wit he''d been carrying the conversation with was still there, but it was dry and impassive. "¡ Was hoping to try and save my world." The Courier said.
A simple answer, sounding very much like the one he''d given before, about being there in Vale. Words that rang with an honest conviction.
But, when Ruby heard it, the words couldn''t have sounded any more different.
The words were honest, and that rang through.
But the sadness in them rang louder.
It only made Ruby consider his words even more. He''d been telling them all about his world for weeks now. All the strange, cool, and wild things that filled it. Like listening to something out of a comic or story book. But underneath it all, the truth, that it was real. With that, not everything he''d told them was good. Bad things happened, especially in Six''s world. People died, wars happened, there were monsters everywhere, and he only ever told them what he thought they could handle.
But he''d told them enough to understand, as bad as the wasteland was, the world before it was worse.
Was he trying to fix that?...
"You said, before the bombs fell, the world was a terrible place." Ruby said, resolving herself. She was going to get to the bottom of this new mystery. "What were you trying to do?"
"¡ Save my world." The Courier answered, voice growing terse and curt. "That''s all you need to know."
There it was, again. The moment any of them tried to understand him better, he put a wall between them. One she knew that if she kept tapping at, would just get him angry. On the one hand she understood, they hadn''t exactly been respectful of him or his privacy in the past. But on the other, was it wrong to want to understand?
What was that supposed to mean? ''Save my world.''
It was something almost corny sounding. Like it came from some comic or video game, and he thought he was the hero. Well, he didn''t, actually. The Courier had been quite clear to all of them he didn''t think of himself very highly. But here he was, spouting lines like that.
Ruby let silence fall between them, as she pondered over the words. Whenever someone said something like that, it was easy to take it at face value. They were nuts, or trying to help a whole bunch of people. That seemed possible. But it didn''t match the person she was starting to know. Not completely.
There was an alternative however, one that took root in Ruby''s mind. The Courier hadn''t said ''Save the world'', he''d said ''Save my world.''. He could''ve just been clarifying, but wouldn''t that have been obvious? Saying that meant his world. The only time someone said those kinds of words, was when they weren''t referring to the world itself. They were referring to something that made their whole world. If he wasn''t doing this to save the world, then what was-
As these thoughts circulated through Ruby''s head, she failed to observe the world around her. Failed to notice as the Courier lagged behind her, slowing his pace.
She, however, walked face first into the brickwall standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Ack!"
Ruby rebounded off it, landing on her butt.
The brickwall turned to look at her. It''s voice coming out in a light, high, and slightly squeaking voice. "Oh my gosh, are you alright?"
"Sorry, sorry." Ruby said, rubbing her face. "I wasn''t paying attention-"
Ruby''s words trailed off as she rubbed at her face, forcing her thoughts away for a later time. She blinked, and looked up at the talking brick wall.
In turn the brick wall looked down at her with bright green eyes.
It''s appearance had changed little from the last time Ruby had seen it. Rather, seen her. In fact, it hadn''t changed at all. She was still a small amount taller than Ruby was, a literal hair taller by a single curl sticking from her head. She still wore a beige blouse and drab skirt that hung from her shoulders by suspenders, accented by long black boots and leggings, with green lines that ran vertical at the sides. They seemed to pulse, as though powered. The same for a black and green choker that ran from just beneath her chin to her collar bone. Her face still soft, a quaint and innocent look.
She looked down at Ruby, completely surprised.
"¡Penny?" Ruby asked.
Meet in the City II
Things we¡¯re not going as Lie Ren had hoped. Quite frankly, they were running headlong in the exact opposite direction of where he¡¯d been hoping they¡¯d go. He couldn¡¯t say he knew exactly who to blame either.
While he knew that many might try to blame Nora, they¡¯d have been mistaken¡ mostly.
Even if she was cackling like a mad woman as they moved desperately to lose the flashing lights of the car following in hot pursuit behind them, standing in sharp maniacal contrast to the constant and steady wail of the car¡¯s siren. Or the sloth-like mask she still held over her face, even as they charged blindly ahead.
His mind played back over the series of events that had led to this predicament.
They¡¯d left the bookstore, same as everyone else. Nothing out of the ordinary, just preparing to help take down a criminal syndicate. Surely standard academic affairs. Probably worth a little extra credit. Not that his GPA would ever see it. He was even pleasantly surprised by the accommodations. They weren¡¯t as cramped as he feared they¡¯d be.
Without much stopping them, he and Nora carried on to their first destination, thoughts of food and adventure filling their heads. Though he would also admit that worries of what tonight might bring were also there, lingering in the background like a dark cloud. Though Nora¡¯s usual bubbly cheer had been enough to ward it off. Like rays of tawny haired light hammering their way through.
Then they arrived at the first location they were to be investigating. Ren believed himself a decent judge of character, and thought going in that it wouldn¡¯t amount to much. Everything was too obvious and open to be capable of hiding much. The cashier had even been an open and pleasant conversationalist. As much of one he could be expected to be, given the questions Ren was asking.
Which ended, when Nora kicked open the back room door and found the White Fang squatting back there. Slowly arming themselves for a fight.
Then everything flew out of control, and Ren had no idea where the brakes were.
Before he¡¯d even had a chance to react, Nora had thrown herself at everyone hiding back there. He¡¯d moved to help her, or more accurately keep her from going overboard, when a thought occurred to him. If they were back there, the cashier would¡¯ve needed to know about it. Which was then confirmed when the man tried to shoot Ren in the back. Had Ren not realized it at the last moment, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to dodge it when he had.
Of course, then the entire store exploded.
In hindsight, letting Nora into a room full of unstable explosives hadn¡¯t been his greatest moment.
Despite that, the two of them managed to pull through. A little soot covered, a little rattled, and Nora¡¯s jacket still smoldering. But beyond the superficial, they¡¯d managed to avoid the worst of it.
As had the White Fang. Who they¡¯d dealt with shortly after. They¡¯d been much closer to the blast. Ren was surprised they¡¯d even survived as well as they had.
Unfortunately for the both of them, it completely buried anything either Ren or Nora could¡¯ve gleaned under a mountain of rubble.
Then the police had decided it was time to show up.
And there they were, holding the proverbial bag.
And now they were running.
He could only hope the police had bothered to leave someone behind. Considering what the real problem was.
¡°Six isn¡¯t gonna like this.¡± Ren grunted, feet pounding across the pavement as he and Nora leapt over a crosswalk, peerlessly dodging the oncoming traffic as they did. Jay-walking, another crime they could tack to the list.
¡°I know, it¡¯s gonna be hilarious!¡± Nora shouted, leaping over a passing truck, its horn screaming as it swerved to avoid them. Ren was half blinded by the lights of a sedan that bore down on him to the left, only narrowly avoiding it as the two leapt onto the sidewalk at the other side and kept going, dodging and weaving amongst the throngs of confused onlookers.
The cops were closing on them, quickly.
Ren¡¯s arm snapped out and grabbed Nora by her shoulder. With a yank, he tried to redirect her mid-stride. When Nora dragged him another half dozen feet, she slowed down, and followed where he was pointing. The pair proceeded down an alleyway. A quarter of the way down, the lights of the cop car fell on them, but began to grow distant. There were cries from the streetwalkers and civilians who¡¯d been simply going about their business. Now turned into a barrier to buy the two of them a few moments of running space.
¡°We need a place to go.¡± Ren said. ¡°We¡¯re not going to lose them by just running.¡±
¡°Open to ideas.¡± Nora said, easily keeping stride with him, mask flopping loosely on her head. He was genuinely surprised she could see out of it.
The pair was nearly down the other side when they heard the engine of the police car gun behind them. Ren felt his mind begin to race with it. Surely the police wouldn¡¯t run them down, but how could they escape-
Nora drew her weapon, flipping it over her shoulder. It unfolded into Magnhild¡¯s familiar Warhammer form, the hammerhead planting itself at an angle against the ground.
A pit opened up in the bottom of Ren¡¯s stomach.
It sucked everything into it when Nora grabbed his shoulder.
¡°Adventure!¡± Nora squealed.
¡°NO!¡± Ren shouted.
There was a deafening burst of air and sound as Nora launched the both of them into the air. Normally, Ren would find himself prepared for Nora¡¯s antics and energy. He¡¯d had most of a lifetime to get used to them.
Then came the times where he had to wonder if that was really the case.
With the force of Nora¡¯s weapon, the two rocketed through the air, sailing just narrowly over the traffic below them. It was only through long practice with his aura that Ren understood how to control himself. His careening course through the air slowly twisted and turned, evolving into something controlled and deliberate.
The two crashed into a building on the opposite side, breaking through a store front window. But the manner of their landing was safe, at least.
Though the same could not be said for their surroundings, as the two skidded to a stop. They crashed through displays and mannequins of something soft, both in texture and color. The shelves, tables, and other furnishings scattered around them in a thunderous clamor, followed almost immediately after by the soft and dull flap of the clothes landing against the ground. Ren was only barely able to hear it over the ringing in his ears.
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Nora hadn¡¯t stuck the landing as nicely as him, he observed. She¡¯d hit the ground and rolled with the momentum like a cackling bowling ball, ending when she crashed through a series of mannequins like oversized pins.
As he went to admonish her though, he began to properly take in their surroundings. As he¡¯d observed, they were in a clothing store. Many mannequins and displays of clothing, all in intricate and colorful styles. Nothing that would be so otherwise distracting.
Except the one they¡¯d landed in was for lingerie.
Ren blinked, observing his surroundings properly. He wasn¡¯t one to be embarrassed for setting foot in such a place. He¡¯d spent enough time around Nora to not be as embarrassed about it as most. Certainly he wasn¡¯t comfortable with it, but there was nothing to be embarrassed by. It was just clothing. Meant for very specific circumstances. There existed only one set of circumstances he might find himself given pause.
With a heave, Ren rolled onto his side, looking deeper into the store, after Nora. A brief glance assuring they were alone for the moment. ¡°Was that really-¡±
The words turned to ash in his mouth as he spoke.
Nora lay sprawled a few yards away from him, against tables and racks, dismembered mannequins around her. She was still giggling like a madwoman. Her crash landing had scattered the lacey, and ludicrously expensive, undergarments around her. A vibrantly pink brazier had even landed on her head, folding over it like an oversized pair of earmuffs. Her color, Ren couldn¡¯t help but idly think.
But the thing that had caught his attention was what had landed on her. Draped over her chest, crudely running down to her waist, was a short, lacey nightgown. The material nearly see through, a shade of black embroidered by a pink floral pattern along the hems of the chest and lower edge. It sat splayed over her, as she was sprawled out over the display, her giggles slowly subsiding. Under different, perhaps normal circumstances, it would¡¯ve been ludicrous. She was fully dressed, she was streaked with sooty debris, and she was still wearing that sloth mask.
But absolutely none of it stopped the image of her, wearing nothing but that nightgown from flying into his head like a bullet. The impact was enough to cause his brain to completely freeze on itself, locking like gears with a wrench stuck into the teeth. Precious seconds passed, the image refused to leave, and he couldn¡¯t force himself to move.
It wasn¡¯t until Nora finally regained her composure that she looked across the sales floor to Ren. Appraising him, sloth mask with its small, perpetual smile. Ren couldn¡¯t see what kind of face she was making, or the kinds of thoughts running through her head at that moment. But he could see the vague process of it. How she paused, looking at him for a moment. Then seeing her head crane downward, towards herself. Which must have been the point she saw the garment laying over herself. Which was only added to as the brazier slid off her head and landed inappropriately over her chest.
Another moment passed.
Then immediately, Nora curled over on herself in a covering fashion. ¡°Don¡¯t look!¡± She snapped, her voice an embarrassed squeak.
Despite himself, Ren whipped back towards the street. It wasn¡¯t as though she¡¯d suddenly changed clothing. She¡¯d just crash landed, it¡¯d caught him by surprise. No inappropriate thoughts in his head. None at all. He was a chaste young man. Nothing but wholesome thoughts and sunshine.
Those thoughts grew less wholesome and sunny as he saw the cops, still across the street, their cruiser idling in the alleyway.
Then the doors on either side swung open, and a pair of uniforms stepped out.
¡°We need to leave.¡± Ren said, turning around and quickly scanning the room for an alternate way out. As he failed to find one, Nora came to her feet, quickly bounding over to him, seeing as well that the officers were now attempting to cross the street after them. The only thing that bought them time was a random sedan, which nearly ran the officers down, a response to their hubris of running into oncoming traffic.
Seeing their only opening, Ren grabbed Nora¡¯s hand and pulled her with him as he leapt back through the broken window. She followed him without urging, and they resumed their flight down the street, quickly putting the moment of indiscretion behind them. Attempting to, as Ren found.
Certain thoughts were harder to ignore than others.
Certain things were harder to ignore than others.
¡®She really makes that top work. It makes her eyes and hair-¡¯
¡°Down, boy.¡± Ren muttered. Escape first, ogle later.
The two leapt back onto the street and took off at a dead sprint, their aura empowering their stride, making them faster with every step. Something they knew would also be true for the officers now pursuing them on foot. Evading them had been easier when they¡¯d been limited by the vehicle, and the places it couldn¡¯t go.
Now they were on even footing.
Ren and Nora broke back onto one of the main avenues and continued running. Ren guided Nora as they ducked and weaved through any crowd they could find. As they did, he could hear the police behind them. They were beginning to shout, ordering them to stop running. Ordering people to get out of their way. It wouldn¡¯t be long before the officers caught up to them too.
They needed options, but Ren struggled to think of any. Run, hide, or fight. Those were always the options. There wouldn¡¯t be any bargaining their way out, not in this situation. Fighting was right out too, They weren¡¯t doing this to fight the police. They were already running, and that wasn¡¯t working. If they could break sight with them for long enough, it¡¯d be over. But while Ren knew he could deftly climb and run almost anywhere, Nora couldn¡¯t. She was light on her feet, but he¡¯d always been the more mobile of the two. He wasn¡¯t going to leave her behind either.
The only option left was to hide. But how?
As the police continued to gain on the two, Ren and Nora found themselves briefly passing the front of some fancy restaurant. Warm lighting, open seating, the kind of place where the air is close and inviting. Ren¡¯s eyes scanned the area before them as they went. What few seats were outside, in the open air, were taken by small groups, mostly doubles, couples. People out to enjoy a quiet evening in the town. Date night, as it were. Inappropriate though it was, the image of trying to take Nora to one flashed briefly through his head. Dim lighting, soft music, Nora¡¯s eyes reflected over the candle light as she tore viciously into a steak.
He tried to dismiss the idea.
Then, he didn¡¯t.
¡°I¡¯ve got an idea.¡± Ren said, just as he spied another alley, immediately past the restaurant. Without missing a beat, he ducked down it, releasing Nora¡¯s hand. They wouldn¡¯t have long. He turned back towards his sloth-faced partner, removing his own mask. ¡°Take your mask off.¡±
¡°Huh?¡± Nora chirped.
¡°Do it, quickly.¡± Ren instructed, quickly scanning the alley, knowing they had precious seconds. He spied a garbage bin nearby and went to it, peeling the lid off. He tossed his mask into the bin, and quickly removed the slips of cloth that sleeved his arms. After a moment more, Nora complied, removing her mask, leaving her tawny hair disheveled over her wild eyes
¡°What are we doing?¡± She asked.
¡°Improvising, I think.¡± Ren answered.
Then he took his green over vest off, leaving only his black undershirt on.
He saw Nora¡¯s eyes widen as he stuffed it into the garbage bin as well. He¡¯d retrieve it later, if they somehow made it out of this. Seeing the pattern, Nora threw her mask into the bin, then followed it with her own jacket. Though he saw she was getting flushed, all the running was catching up with them. He hoped it would explain why he was feeling a bit warm too.
Ren slapped the lid down and gave a final look back the way they¡¯d come. Any second.
¡°Act natural.¡± Ren said.
¡°Huh?¡± Nora chirped, again.
He then pulled next to her and locked his arm over her shoulder, pulling her close. He felt the way Nora stiffened under the sudden embrace. Hoped she would understand as they went.
Then they stepped back out onto the street, and he felt his heart race. If this backfired, he would feel quite stupid.
Nora followed along as Ren weaved them back through the crowds. His gaze half on her, half on the crowd, looking for the police that¡¯d been following them.
Five steps away from the alley, the two officers came crashing through the crowd. Running straight up to them.
At the last moment, Nora suddenly came back to herself and hauled Ren out of their path. The two officers carried on, bolting down the alley.
¡°Watch where you¡¯re going ya bums!¡± she squawked.
Ren couldn¡¯t suppress the smile on his face. Almost out of the woods.
Before the officers could react, or Nora could object, he turned and led them both to the entrance of the restaurant. There didn¡¯t appear to be a queue they¡¯d need to wait in, so it was as simple as walking up to the front counter, a hostess waiting for them.
¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± Nora quickly asked, looking around. Ren tried to ignore how soft Nora felt under his arm.
¡°Well, it¡¯s not Noods, but it¡¯ll work, right?¡± He asked.
Nora looked at him curiously for a moment, then back to the hostess. The redness of her cheeks seemed to redouble, in Ren¡¯s eyes. Perhaps the change in temperature.
He looked up at the hostess, who observed them quizzically. ¡°Table for two¡ please?¡±
Meeting in the City III
Jaune wasn''t sure how he was supposed to react to this sort of situation. Having grown up around seven sisters both younger and older than himself, he''d learned one thing quickly: avoid drama. Avoid it like it wanted to suck the marrow out of your bones. You''d never win if you got pulled into it, and thinking you would, typically ended in screams and pulled hair. He would know, he was typically the one having to grow it back afterwards. Enough clumps of missing hair and earfuls from his mother had got the message through to him clear enough. Avoid drama, and keep your nose someplace where it won''t get punched.
Standing there, surrounded by reporters, he couldn''t help but feel someone neglected to teach them the same. Unfortunately, this wasn''t a problem he could solve by just socking one of them in the nose either. Beside the fact that it wouldn''t have been appropriate, he didn''t need to be given an earful about it later.
Besides, Pyrrha looked like she was handling it well.
After the paparazzi had managed to surround them, the two hunters in training had found themselves brought to a standstill. It had taken a moment to overcome the initial shock of their appearance. But even after they''d begun to push past them, the crowd of would-be journalists continued to hound them. Buzzing and flashing around them like some particularly annoying fireflies. Except that wasn''t accurate to him either, because he actually liked fireflies. They were more like flies¡ with cameras.
He sighed to himself. Analogies weren''t a strong suit of his.
Regardless, they''d found themselves slowed to a crawl for the last several minutes, the paparazzi following them in a loose cloud. Haranguing them, or more specifically Pyrrha, with questions and prompts. Trying to get her to say something that he was sure they''d twist for a headline. But Pyrrha, bless her, handled it like a champ. She merely forced a smile onto her face, waved, and politely declined at every request they made. Unfortunately, every step they attempted to take away from the circle of cameras only had them followed. The paparazzi shifted and shuffled to keep whatever camera angles they felt.
Jaune was more impressed by the amount of pictures they were taking. They had to run out of camera space eventually. Yet the fact they were still taking pictures proved otherwise.
He was starting to wonder if it was possible to go blind from repeated flashes. He had more spots in his vision than a sponge. Except sponges had holes, not spots.
"Alright, I think it''s time for us to get going." Pyrrha announced, trying to get the cameramen to let them pass.
"Aw, you can''t be leaving yet, you haven''t answered any of our questions!" One of the reporters jeered. "Come on! Throw a dog a bone would ya?"
"We prefer steak, but bones work too!" Another reporter, an aggrieved looking canid faunus, added.
"I''m afraid there''s nothing to tell." Pyrrha said, still trying to move with Jaune out of the circle. Again, it merely shifted to follow them. Which drew a scowl from Pyrrha, something the camera men took amusement from.
Which irked Jaune greatly. The two of them were just trying to investigate a terrorist cell, was it too much to ask that they do it in peace? Well, naturally it was, but the trouble shouldn''t have to come from a bunch of nosey jerks. The more time they spent trying to get past all of them, the more he felt reminded of Cardin. Bunch of jerks with nothing better to do with their time. Difference being, they were going to sell whatever pictures they could to the highest bidder.
''Did Pyrrha have to put up with this normally?'' he wondered. Because he couldn''t imagine what it must have been like if she had.
Calmly, Jaune walked up to Pyrrha, who looked at him curiously. But her curiosity quickly turned to surprise when he offered her his arm.
"Wanna keep moving?" He asked. "Things seem a bit crowded here."
"¡" Pyrrha blushed slightly. "I would certainly like to try. But I don''t think we''ll lose them that quickly."
"Worth a shot, isn''t it?" Jaune asked, as Pyrrha hooked her arm around his. "Worst that happens, we walk the block until we give them the slip, right?"
Pyrrha paused for a moment, but no more. She gave Jaune a smile he knew could sail a sheet of flips, or a ship of fleets, and he took that as a cue to start walking with her. Unfortunately, as expected, the moment their arms linked, the camera''s started flashing even faster. Also as expected, they traveled with them as they tried to build an even pace. As they kept to the side walk, the cameramen moved and conformed. Though not without issue. Some of them would trip over themselves, or their surroundings. Getting caught on benches, bumping into street lights. He saw one step into the street and get plowed by a delivery truck, disappearing into another world. Somehow, no one else seemed to notice besides him.
"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Pyrrha asked softly, smiling. "If any of these pictures take, people will think we''re dating."
"Pff, no they won''t." Jaune said reassuringly. "We''re just friends, that should be pretty obvious."
"¡" Pyrrha''s smile gained a hard edge to it. "Friends. Right."
He was relieved she agreed, because he was slightly worried about the same thing. Though it was a worry that slowly began to grow the longer they walked. He kept an idle track of how far they walked the entire time. First a block, then a second. The entire time they never seemed to lose anyone, outside of the one. If they went much further, they''d have to lap the dance hall like he''d thought they would. Coming back wouldn''t be impossible, but if they couldn''t lose the crowd, the matter was only going to get worse. If they only had some sort of distraction.
As these thoughts went through his head, he noticed that a part of the circle of cameras began to shuffle and shift oddly. He looked toward it, curious, and watched it begin to shift. After a moment, a small arm popped through the crowd, followed by a shoulder, torso, head, and the rest of a body. A small one, dressed in a sundress and looking nor more than maybe ten. A young red haired girl with orange eyes. She had a timid look about her that Jaune couldn''t help but think made her cute as a button. Like those pictures Saphron had sent of his nephew Adrian, when they''d brought him home. Except less like a small, wrinkly old man.
Unconsciously, Jaune felt himself stop, bringing Pyrrha to a halt with him. She looked past him curious, until her eyes fell on the little girl.
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Mustering some courage, the little girl approached them.
"H-h-¡ hi." The little girl said.
"Hello there." Pyrrha said, her smile softening once again.
The girl froze, like an ice cube, trying to figure out what she should do. After a moment, she began to fidget. But Pyrrha, still hooked to Jaune''s arm, waited patiently, still smiling.
Eventually, the girl found some measure of courage, and asked "You''re Pyrrha Nikos¡ right?"
Pyrrha nodded. "Yes little one, I am."
"¡" The girl''s arms rose up from her sides. Revealing a slip of paper and a pen. "Can I have an autograph?"
Pyrrha made a soft sound, something Jaune was sure he was the only one who could hear. Something like a delighted chuckle, throaty and warm. Briefly he allowed his eyes to scan over the crowd, past the flashing lights. And, yes, there was a woman standing just outside the ring of cameras. He could see the relation to the girl by the color of her hair, and the embarrassed look on her face as she watched.
Jaune felt Pyrrha release his arm as she stepped towards the girl. He watched as his partner knelt down in front of the girl, speaking softly to her. Pyrrha took the pen and notepad, still speaking to the young girl as she did. Getting a name, asking how she was doing. Making polite conversation to someone who was so starstruck.
Jaune couldn''t help but smile, himself. His partner, Pyrrha Nikos. The Invincible girl. Champion of the people. Hero to small children.
Really, really nice girl.
Pyrrha finished scribbling on the paper and handed it back to the girl. As she did, the young girl looked up, cocking her head to look past Pyrrha, at him.
"Are you her boyfriend?" She asked over the clamor of the cameras. Who suddenly grew very quiet at the question.
Jaune noticed the way Pyrrha seemed to grow very stiff and still. He knew she''d been worried about this. But he was prepared for it.
"No, I''m not." Jaune said sheepishly, offering a friendly smile "We''re just friends."
The young girl looked at him, confused. "¡ Why not? She''s Pyrrha Nikos!"
"¡"
Jaune suddenly found himself much less prepared than he''d thought he''d been. "Uh- eh heh, well-" he stammered, trying to find an answer. This was one of those ''Stork'' questions young kids asked and- gods was this what it had been like for mom and dad? He didn''t want to say the wrong thing here, embarrass Pyrrha even further. Last thing she needed was for everyone to think they were dating. Or that he was rejecting her or something. He couldn''t just say the first thing that came to his mind and run with it like it would just make sense.
An unfortunate circumstance, as one of the reporters decided to fill the void for him.
"Because she''s way out of his league!" the paparazzo belted.
Then the rest started laughing. Jaune felt his cheeks warm up slightly, and couldn''t help but notice Pyrrha was looking a bit warm herself. Something about her seemed to tense in an unfamiliar way. Jaune didn''t know why, maybe it was the older/younger brother in him, but he had the distinct urge to walk over to the one who said it and punch him into the street. Hopefully be the next one to meet the delivery truck. He''d hit hard too, Pyrrha had been making sure their time together wasn''t wasted.
Unfortunately, he was Jaune Arc. The only thing he was a master of was the ancient shoe-in-mouth conversational style.
"Uh-hey look! It''s Crazy Steve!" he shouted, pointing across the street.
All of the reporters paused, turning to follow the way he''d pointed. Even Pyrrha and the young girl did, looking across the street. He briefly looked himself-
Right in time for the Courier and Ruby Rose to come barreling out of an alleyway, running full-tilt down the street. The both of them dragged someone Jaune wasn''t familiar with, a girl with coppery hair.
A small part of him marveled that it''d actually worked. The reporters weren''t looking at them right now.
The rest of him was too busy running up to Pyrrha and grabbing her by the arm.
"Time-to-go!" He said, quickly, hauling his partner to her feet, leaving the girl behind as they barreled forward.
"Hey wait!" The girl called. "You didn''t answer my question!"
Without hesitation, the two barreled through the line of reporters and hit the ground running out the other side. By the time the reporters seemed to realize what was happening, there was already a wide berth between them. Before the cameramen even had a chance to try and make up the ground, Jaune guided Pyrrha around a corner. The two then bolted through a crosswalk right as the light changed color. Even with those things on their side, however, Jaune didn''t stop running for another block and a half. Long enough that Jaune knew, even if they were followed, the pair would have a few minutes of privacy.
The two stopped to catch their breath.
"Man, how did they even find us?" Jaune asked between breaths.
"I don''t know." Pyrrha answered, breathing much more evenly, though her hair had fallen out of place slightly, in all the running. "I swear there''s someone watching me. This isn''t the first time it''s happened."
"You''ve been caught walking around with other guys?" Jaune asked.
"N-NO!" Pyrrha snapped, blushing brightly. "That- that was new¡" She calmed herself slightly, fixing her hair. "They''ve caught me off guard before, ambushed me really. Always in the most inconvenient places. Always."
Jaune nodded, doing his best to try and understand. Those guys had been relentless. "Sorry about not picking up on things quicker. We probably could''ve dodged the whole thing."
"It happens." Pyrrha sighed. "Besides, they''d been waiting ahead of us. They''d clearly been tailing us for a while. Hopefully they didn''t pick up on everything else on top of it."
"Can you imagine?" Jaune asked. "Six would be pissed."
"I imagine that Blake wouldn''t be too happy with us either." Pyrrha agreed. "Hopefully it isn''t a slow news week, and whatever pictures they took will just disappear."
"How often does that happen?" Jaune asked.
"Never." Pyrrha sighed. "There''s always one. Hopefully it''s benign¡ The autograph was pleasant enough at least, those don''t happen as often."
''Are you her boyfriend?''
"You looked happier." Jaune agreed, trying very hard to repress the whole event. It had been awkward for everyone, well not everyone, mostly just him and Pyrrha. He looked around, quickly checking the street signs, before double checking his scroll. "Doesn''t look like we''re that far off. C''mon, we can get there before those guys find us again."
"R-right." Pyrrha agreed.
Jaune turned and started down the street. Knowing that if they didn''t keep moving, some little birdy would have them found out again. As he did though, he noticed Pyrrha didn''t rush to catch up with him. Instead, trailing behind him. He thought it odd, but didn''t pay much mind to it. Perhaps she was just embarrassed, feeling self-conscious about the whole ordeal. A notion that became more concrete in Jaune''s mind the next she spoke.
"¡Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"Just¡y''know just¡ as a question¡ am I out of your league?"
"¡"
The question had Jaune pause for a moment. He hadn''t truly thought about Pyrrha in that way before. They''d been together since initiation, it just wasn''t something that crossed his mind, really. With how his life had been going, trying to become the kind of huntsman he''d dreamed of being, it just hadn''t. The idea of Weiss being interested in him was there because¡ well, she''d said something to the effect.
''¡ Why? She''s Pyrrha Nikos!''
Pyrrha though?...
"¡If I had to go off what other people had to say?" Jaune asked. "¡ Yeah, you probably are."
A silence hung between them after he''d said those words. He hadn''t meant for it to be there. But he''d needed a moment to find the words to convey his thoughts on the question. That''s all it was anyway, a question.
"¡But if I had to go off what I know?" Jaune asked again, breaking the silence. "About you, and who you are, and how hard you work, and just how awesome you are?... I still wouldn''t be¡ But I''d be trying very hard to be there with you."
Jaune felt his ears warming as he said the words. He could picture his sisters giggling at him, if they''d been there. There would''ve been no end to the amount of grief they''d be giving him.
It was just an answer to the question. Nothing more. He knew Pyrrha. She didn''t see him that way.
¡
The two continued their walk towards the dance hall, under the growing yawn of evening, silence blanketing them. Smothering like some vastly untouchable blanket. Entangling them.
Pyrrha was grateful for it.
She''d have leapt at Jaune if it wasn''t.
Meeting in the City IV
Junior Xiong had not had a very good night. In fact, in the past few weeks, he''d had a series of progressively worse nights. All of them stemming back from one poorly timed, and ill-planned decision. Things hadn''t been this bad for him since his father passed nearly ten years prior. When he''d lost the majority of his family''s assets to infighting and mismanagement. However, at least then, he''d retained something.
Staring across the bar, at the blonde brat, he was reminded how he''d lost the rest of it.
"Heya Junior~" Yang Xiao Long said brightly, as though greeting an old friend.
"Blondie," Junior said evenly, eyeing the young woman across the barroom. His eyes quickly flashing around the bar to take in any changes. Leave to relieve yourself, and the whole world suddenly turns on its head.
Yang Xiao Long looked better than the last time he''d seen her. That fact alone did more to piss him off than everything else that''d happened in between. But at that moment, being angry was rather low on his list of priorities.
At the far end of the room, he could see T''s associates lying in a heap on the ground. It explained the crash he''d heard before coming out. Looking back towards Yang, it appeared she wasn''t alone either. Which only had the small relief that it wasn''t that crazy asshole she''d brought with her last time. Instead, it was probably some new crazy asshole looking to stab people with that oversized toothpick in her hands. She seemed more than willing to use it, given the tip of it was resting just under T''s chin.
"Funny running into you here." Yang said, turning towards him fully.
"Not many places left to be." Junior growled, looking around the room, searching. He wasn''t here, was he?
"I do remember hearing something about your club getting shut down." Yang said, feigning innocence "A fire, right?"
"You know what it was." Junior growled. No, he wasn''t here, it was just blondie and her new white haired friend. She seemed to be watching the situation rather intently. What was with the mask she was wearing? Did she really think that was going to keep her identity secret¡ Well it did, he had no idea who she was. Yet.
"Whatever you say." Yang said coyly, smiling at him. "But, you''re here. Why don''t you come over and have a drink with us? Catch up."
A nervous, tickling feeling went down Junior''s spine. He knew better than most how bad an idea it was to get within arm''s reach of Blondie. T did as well, he remembered hearing the news about the last time Blondie paid her a visit. Then she went and hurt her neck after the fact, and everyone thought Blondie hurt her worse than that.
Only thing he knew for certain was that sticking around would be bad for his health. His jaw had only just finished healing after¡
Junior pushed the thought away. He needed to get out of there.
"So, who''s this?" Junior asked, slowly approaching, eyes scanning up and down the length of the bar, frantically. "You decide to ditch that asshole Steve for her?"
Yang pursed her lips for a moment then answered. "This is Snowflake. You don''t need to worry about her¡ yet."
Snowflake whined at the use of her name. Junior didn''t care, he could''ve called her Whitey and been done with it.
Junior continued to scan the bar top as he got closer. Looking for some form of opening. "What''re you doing here?" He asked. "Looking to shut down another piece of Vale''s nightlife?"
"Was hoping to get some information." Blondie answered, motioning to the barroom at large. "This place was just on the list. Yours was too, until recently."
"Ha." Junior said, derisively. "Funny. You should consider being a comedian if assaulting people doesn''t pan out." His eyes landed on T. She was looking at him too, somewhere between vindictive and accusatory. Like it was his fault Blondie and her sword wielding friend chose tonight to stop by. How was he supposed to know? He''d stopped in to try and call in his markers. For the little they mattered now.
"Would match what I heard from a certain someone. That''s not nice, spreading rumors about a girl." Blondie said, pretending to sound hurt.
"Not rumors when you know they''re true." Junior growled.
"Well, we didn''t exactly receive a warm welcome last time." Blondie answered.
This time, Junior barked a real laugh. An angry, acerbic, bitter noise that almost sounded more like a snarling dog. "You weren''t welcome the first time. You shouldn''t have come back the second."
"Hm." Blondie hummed, almost seeming to ignore him. "Anywho, maybe you can answer some questions for me."
Junior scowled at her, eyes flicking to T and back again. He stopped walking about half a dozen feet from her. As close as he was willing to get. "About?"
"Oh you know, stuff." Blondie smirked. "Torchwick, the White Fang, what their plans are, where they are-"
"Don''t know, don''t care, got better things to do-" Junior answered, ticking them off in a list as he went. "- and with the guys I lost to his antics, I''d see him dead myself if I knew any of it."
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"-and what exactly the rest of those rumors are, involving me and ''Steve''." Blondie finished.
"¡" Junior paused, as his mind went back to that night in the Club.
Things had finally started to go right for him again, after the first time Blondie had trashed the place. He''d had to spend a lot of lien to get the place fixed, after she''d torn it apart. More Lien than he could manage. He''d had to burn favors, call in markers he''d have rather saved. But they were up and running quickly. Getting a steady flow of income to make a good recovery.
Then she came back.
And she''d brought¡ him, with her.
Junior wasn''t a cautious man, or even a bright one, but he believed he learned from his mistakes. After the first time, he''d made a plan in case Blondie came back. Make sure all of his boys were on standby, try to keep her off her guard. Getting ahold of that Hexen venom hadn''t been cheap. If anyone had known he had it, the cops would''ve been able to put him away for life. But it would''ve been worth it, to spite her.
Best of all, it had worked.
Then things went horribly wrong.
He could still see it all, hear it. Being there, in the darkness of his Club. Waiting for someone to get the power back on, while his men got slaughtered one by one. The stink of something smoky and acrid in the air while that music wailed in the background. The brief flashes of light, when his boys opened fire, when their scrolls swept the room.
His rocket launcher exploding beside his head.
But it all paled to the way it ended. The things he saw, the way the shadows suddenly came to life twisting and turning, ripping his boys apart.
That thing Blondie had brought with her. How it chased him out onto the street. Left him limping blindly through the city until the sun finally came back up.
As he came back to himself, he could feel his heart beginning to hammer in his chest. "¡ Is he here?" he asked.
"Who?" Blondie asked.
"Steve." Junior growled, trying to keep the anger in him burning brighter than the fear. "That freak you call a boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Blondie asked in confusion. "He''s not-"
"Answer the damn question!" Junior barked.
Snowflake''s blade suddenly swung towards him, her face set icy calm and focused. But Junior wasn''t afraid of her. She was frail and dainty. He knew he could take her far more easily than Blondie.
She''d also made a terrible mistake.
"A bit jumpy, aren''t we?" Junior asked.
Snowflake went to speak, mouth opening-
Then T leapt across the bar, cracking her in the face with a hard punch. Blondie immediately wheeled around in surprise. The moment she did, Junior''s leg swung forward, kicking a barstool into her. The stool broke as it crashed into her, causing her to stagger. But it gave Junior all the room he needed.
Without pause, Junior pushed off the bar and ran for the far wall. He angled himself for one of the big windows, and threw himself through it. The glass shattered and scattered across the ground and he tumbled through. He landed roughly, scrambling to his feet as he heard the fight break out in the bar behind him. He wouldn''t have long.
Junior ran down the alley as fast as his legs could carry him, away from the bar. He moved with long and loping strides. He wasn''t quick, but he could cover ground with great speed all the same. Even faster, as his aura began to flood into his legs, pushing him faster.
"Hey!" Blondie echoed from down the alley. "Get back here!"
Junior forced himself to begin moving even faster. He knew they''d be after him as soon as they were finished with T. The only good fortune to come for him tonight was that Blondie hadn''t brought her boy with her.
Even as he ran, rounding a sharp corner and bolting down the street, Junior found himself searching. Waiting for some shadowy, red eyed demon to appear out of nowhere, finish the job he''d started. It''d been like that ever since he''d escaped. He didn''t know if he was still being hunted or not. At least, he hadn''t. Now he was sure he was.
He needed to leave Vale. Go someplace far away from here. Vacuo was supposed to be lovely this time of year. Couldn''t go to Mistral, the Spiders would eat him alive after this whole mess. Wouldn''t bother with any of the mountains there either. He''d heard that there were supposed to be one or two large settlements. But he needed a place near the heart of things. Atlas was always a possibility, lot of upscale clientele. It''d be easy to start fresh there, or down in the slums of Mantle. Though he didn''t like his odds with the Atlas Military being his neighbor.
As his mind raced in tandem with his feet however, he heard the distant thunder of gunfire behind him. Not directed at him, but present, rising over the dull thrum of the city and rhythm of his hammering heart. He recognized the sound. Blondie''s gauntlets. He could remember them going off in his face. Sending him through the front window of his club the first time.
It made him run harder. More desperate to escape. His mind started on a downward spiral.
No more contacts.
No more markers.
No more safehouses.
His resources: exhausted.
His body: beaten.
His mind: in shambles.
All the result of a series of bad decisions and aiding the wrong people. Everything was gone. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered why he was even bothering to run at all.
He turned sharply down an alley-
Blondie leapt in front of him, appearing from nowhere.
Before he even had a chance to react, her iron hands clasped into him and pulled him in. She spun, planting her fist in his stomach. Her weapon fired and he flew back, slamming into one of the alley''s walls.
"Ok, let''s try this again." Blondie said, scowling at him.
Junior had no idea where she''d come from or how she''d caught up to him. But she was alone with him. Snowflake was nowhere to be seen.
"Torchwick and the White Fang, where are they?" Blondie growled.
Junior''s mind raced as he looked down at the girl. Terror and fury, a hurricane of confusion and dismay on his senses as he tried to find his way. But the only thing he wanted to do was flee. Even if there was nothing for him in doing so. There was nothing for him in anything he did.
But as that thought occurred to him, he felt himself calm. The hurricane vanished from his mind, and everything was silent and still in his head.
He had nothing left.
He only had his life.
He had nothing to lose but that.
And the only person he was afraid would take it, was nowhere to be seen.
So he laughed.
"I don''t know, and I don''t fucking care." Junior breathed, a sneer in his voice.
Blondie scowled at him, but he didn''t care. She was clueless in all this. If she wasn''t she wouldn''t have come looking for answers. She didn''t even know about¡
A cold smile bloomed on his face. He could see the way Blondie faltered, this wasn''t going her way.
"You said you wanted to know?" Junior asked. "About those ''rumors'' T told you about¡ Do you really want to know? Do you really not remember?"
A cautious look began to settle on Blondie. It gave Junior a rush of power, a sense of control he hadn''t felt for weeks now. It was more pleasant than any narcotic or vice he could remember trying.
"Alright." Junior said, never losing his smile, it only grew bigger and colder. "Why don''t I tell you about how you and your boyfriend butchered all my boys."
Confessions in the City I
It had been some time since Penny Polendina had been able to slip away from her chaperones. General Ironwood had been made to promise her Papa that she would be safe in his care, while abroad. Of course, this meant that her movements and the little freedom she had were to be greatly restricted. Confined to the various battleships and cruisers that floated in the air over Vale. Going through simulations, tests, diagnostics and a battery of other synonyms. Anything to keep her from straying too far from the General and his forces. During the initial stages of her construction and creation, she hadn''t minded this. It was expected of her. No one knew what would become of her.
But the longer it went on, the more she longed to see the outside world. Experience different people, witness a world that wasn''t sterile, full of calculations and experimentations. All of which she had already met with aplomb. Her Papa had gotten that right in his plans. Whatever metric they set before her, she was determined to exceed it. Even if she was limited by what constructed her.
Needless to say, it left her insurmountably bored.
Unfortunately, the General wouldn''t allow her to wander the outside world so freely. Her movements were limited, requiring she be watched and kept close at hand. Even the slightest hint of trouble, and she''d be whisked back into the sky. To the labs and training rooms, surrounded by walls of reinforced steel.
This wouldn''t stop her.
The first time she''d been allowed onto the streets of Vale, she''d extricated herself from her chaperones in a matter of moments. They''d spent hours looking for her. She, meanwhile, had gotten to thrust herself into a world she''d only gotten to dream of. Even if only for a brief moment.
And in that brief moment, she''d gained something she''d never imagined she''d have. Not in a million years.
Friends.
With an s!
Of course, the initial meeting was a short lived one, and her attendants were quick to spirit her away. However, they were foolhardy enough to bring her back to Vale once more not long after. Finding her friends once more hadn''t been a difficult matter. She merely observed the pattern they''d walked previously, and found them again quickly.
Then they went on an adventure.
It was the first time she''d gotten the chance to really push what she could do, outside of a simulation. General Ironwood commended her efforts after she finally had been corralled.
She''d also been scolded.
Worse, her chaperones had been severely reprimanded for incompetence. Something she knew she was wholly responsible for. She''d been kept from making excursions into Vale for some time after that. Rather, she''d chosen to spend more time aboard the Atlesian fleet. It would be safer that way. She wouldn''t have to worry about inconveniencing Lieutenants Mato and Cuke. She wouldn''t even have been in Vale this evening either. But the General had a demonstration scheduled for this evening, and had insisted she join him. There wasn''t much she could do to argue against a direct order from the general.
So she tried to stay near her chaperones. Sincerely she did¡
But there was this really pretty butterfly that caught her eye. She certainly didn''t walk away the moment they turned their backs. Anyone who said she did was a liar. Even if those people were her chaperones themselves. Perhaps they shouldn''t have been focused on a stall of some sweet she couldn''t taste.
She hadn''t even wandered far. She was still within both of their lines of sight. She was even within the General''s line of sight, should he decide to look their way. Surely that wouldn''t be an issue.
Then she''d been walked into as though she were a brick wall, and had quickly turned to apologize. As one should when their physical nature made them far sturdier than most.
And looking back up at her, had been her friend. Her eyes had scanned upward upon seeing her, and saw that her other friend was there as well!
Target Acquired: Ruby Rose, Human
Status: Ally
Target Acquired: Courier Six, Alien (Human(?))
Status: Ally
Under most circumstances this would be a most joyous reunion.
"¡Penny?" Ruby asked, from her spot on the ground.
Suggested Action: Engage Familial Subroutine (Extreme Prejudice)
¡But these were not joyous circumstances.
Denied
Engaging Avoidance Subroutine 6 (Ignorance Sub-Packet)
"¡Uh¡ I apologize for being in your way," Penny said simply.
As quickly as she had seen her friends, Penny turned away from them. As she began to move however, she heard Ruby pick herself up off the ground and begin to quickly run after her. In the blink of an eye, she rounded in front of Penny, blocking her path.
Ruby''s silver eyes swept over her quickly, curious and incredulous. Almost as though she couldn''t believe it was actually her. She looked to be in good health. Little change from the last time they had seen each other. Though the outfit she wore was ever so slightly different. She held herself differently as well. A shift in her balance she wasn''t even sure Ruby had noticed yet. "Where have you been!?" Ruby exclaimed. "We haven''t seen you since the docks!"
"S-sorry, I think you are¡ confus- *HICCUP*- sed." Penny blinked briefly as she found herself inadvertently pulling air into her system. Odd, she wasn''t built to do that. Must have been a hiccup in her programming. She''d let Papa know. "I- uh¡ I''ve got to go."
Without waiting, Penny began to move past Ruby once again, attempting to weave past her, shoulder-first. As she did however, another hand landed on her opposite shoulder. She registered the added resistance, and turned to look back. Spying the hand, she traced it up the arm it was attached to, and found herself staring into crimson-colored lenses.
He didn''t outwardly appear any different than he had the last time they had met. But Penny could tell Courier Six had changed a lot since the last they''d seen of each other. For one, his aura was active, and she could almost register the way it seemed to pulse and ebb around him. Green and flickering, glowing in the dim twilight sun. He also appeared to have gotten physically larger as well. A result of a strenuous training regimen she deduced, studying his posture and the way he was carrying himself.
One of his hands was holding a cup of some beverage. The other gripped her shoulder loosely. Enough she could break free, should she decide to continue moving. However, she concluded that he hadn''t grabbed her shoulder with the intent to completely restrain her.
"¡ Yep, definitely seems like a Penny." The Courier said, his voice sounding amused and peaceful. "Been a while, girl."
"There seems to have been a misunderstand-" Penny began.
"Definitely got the look right." The Courier mused, looking her up and down. "Right outfit, bit of an odd air, something of a curious expression¡" He leaned in. "Is Blake secretly a man?"
Penny''s head tilted to one side. "No, she''s a faunus¡" She blinked. "Wait- I mean, who?"
"Nah, it''s definitely Penny." The Courier said, chuckling as he stepped back, unhanding her.
"I''m afraid you have me confused with someone else." Penny continued to push, brushing the Courier''s hand off of her. She turned back around and attempted to weave past Ruby once more. Unfortunately, as she did so, her path was once more impeded by Ruby.
"Penny, please, stop." Ruby intoned. "We haven''t seen you in weeks-"
One month, one week, and nine days to be specific, Penny noted.
"- is everything ok?" she asked. "What happened at the docks- it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be."
An accurate assessment. Penny had been kept up-to-date with the goings-on of Vale, in the time between excursions. An uptick in criminal activity, the sudden appearance of a masked vigilante, growing civil unrest, and a general disquiet among the kingdom''s citizens. She was also able to correlate that it tied back to their collective actions.
For a long moment, Penny remained quiet, continuing to execute the appropriate subroutine. It did not, however, have the intended effect. Ruby''s expression only grew more concerned as she looked at Penny.
"I don''t know what happened to you that night, after all the fighting." Ruby said, voice gentle and searching. "But if something''s wrong, or you''re in trouble you need to tell me. We''re friends, remember?"
Of course she remembered, how could she forget?
She had it saved under the heading ''Precious Memories''. Next to the recording of when her Papa first let her explore Mantle.
"She speaks the truth." The Courier said, coming around in front of her, both he and Ruby unintentionally forming a barrier between her and her chaperones. "If you''re in trouble Penny, you need to tell us. Otherwise we can''t help."
Penny remained silent, but she could feel her face contorting into an expression. Guilt? For making them worry? Sadness? For causing trouble? She couldn''t tell.
Terminating Avoidance Subroutine 6
Initiating Familial Engagement Packet¡
"¡ It isn''t safe to talk here." Penny said, looking between the two of them. Then looking past them. Her chaperones were still preoccupied. "I can''t go far either."
Paying mind to the surrounding foot traffic, and vehicle traffic, Penny led them across the street, and a small distance away. Not too far, she felt she wouldn''t be breaking the rules if she didn''t go far. Just far enough for their conversation to be private, but close enough that her chaperones could see her if they so felt inclined. She led them, turning back occasionally, double checking that she was indeed still within sight of them, before finally stopping. Ruby and The Courier still between her and her chaperones.
"¡you being held against your will?" The Courier asked, pausing for a moment, checking quickly over his shoulder.
"No!" Penny answered quickly. "¡ But I''m required to be with an escort after last time."
Her two friends looked at her curiously, before the Courier began to scan the area once more. Ruby meanwhile asked, "Did we get you in trouble for helping us?"
"No more than I got for sneaking out the first time." Penny answered, giving her a sheepish smile. Penny looked past them once more, eyeing her chaperones as they haggled and argued. They wouldn''t have long to speak. "¡ I wish I could help you both, I really do. But I know nothing beyond what we saw that night."
"Then what happened to you?" Ruby asked. "You disappeared when we got taken back to Beacon¡" Ruby looked Penny in the eye for a moment, then turned tracing her gaze. After a moment, she turned back to Penny. "Did those guys in the armor take you away?"
"Atlas soldiers by the look." The Courier noted. "You said you were here to fight in the tournament¡ Babysitters?"
"Why would you sit on babies?" Penny asked, before disregarding the question. "They''re meant to watch me, yes. My father had asked me not to venture out too far, but I''d never been to another kingdom before."
"So those guys were supposed to keep tabs on you, and you went a little overboard." The Courier surmised, still eyeing her chaperones. "A bit overprotective, but I can''t fault someone for wanting to make sure their kid was safe in a foreign land."
"My father loves me very much." Penny agreed. "But he worries a lot."
"Can''t say I blame him much, given recent and current events." The Courier agreed.
"Believe me, I know the feeling." Ruby said, rolling her eyes, giving Penny a knowing smirk. "¡ But why not reach out? You could''ve let us know things were alright."
Penny pursed her lips. "I was¡ asked not to talk to you." She answered. "Or Weiss, or Blake, or Yang, or Six, or anyone for that matter."
"¡" The Courier''s head craned back around to her. "That sounds a skosh more than overprotective."
Penny shook her head. "It wasn''t my father... it was-"
"The General?" The Courier asked.
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Penny blinked, looking at the Courier, curious how he''d deduced that.
"You''re being body guarded by military personnel, and the General is supposedly traveling with the fleet for the Festival." The Courier answered, swirling his drink. "If your dad''s not the one telling you to not talk to strangers, it''d be the guy ordering armed soldiers to be your escorts."
Penny paused for a moment, before nodding in agreement. It was an accurate assumption.
"Well, that would make it difficult." Ruby agreed, eyeing Penny. "I mean it''s cool that you''re here with the General, but that does make it harder to talk with you. You know I was worried that something had happened to you."
"I''m fine, really." Penny reassured them.
"What''re you doing down here now, then?" The Courier asked. "If the General doesn''t want you straying far, then why let you down here?"
"Well, that''s-" Penny started to say.
Then a loud voice began to echo through the streets. She hadn''t realized how close she''d put them to the park. She could see the way Ruby and jolted with a start. The Courier as well, seemed surprised, but he didn''t jolt or tense the way Ruby had. His head instead, seemed to trace back where the sound came from, further ahead of them, behind Penny. She''d been hoping that they''d be far enough away not to overhear it, once it started.
The General''s presentation.
He wasn''t actually present for it. They''d actually requested multiple locations to be set-up around Vale. The General was actually being broadcast via hologram from a room in the CCT tower. Although not the same as if he were doing the display in person, it allowed them to do all of the locations simultaneously.
Penny didn''t try to stop Ruby or the Courier, as they ushered her further along. Far enough that they could come into sight of the small park this particular stage was set within. She could see he''d already attracted a small crowd to the stage. He handled his speech impeccably, perfectly metered, his tone one of excited determination. She wasn''t surprised, He''d been practicing it for several days. Finding just the right words to explain how they were intending to scrap the Knight-130s.
Then within the next breath, he had the Knight-200s reveal themselves. Kicking down a line of their predecessors like they were little more than dead weight. The 200s posed for the crowd, a fusion of Atlesian Military technology and SDC research. They received cheers that Penny didn''t quite understand the reasoning of. Was it really so impressive to see them simply take on a more human shape?-
"Whoa~" Ruby squeaked. "I didn''t know they were rolling out a new model!"
The Courier gave a whistle, but wasn''t as easily impressed. "They''ve probably got some technical oversights still. Bet you five lien that posing was all they could manage for today."
Curious, she had been aware they''d had some technical difficulties preparing for today. Mostly stemming from them trying to maintain balance during the opening kick.
The General continued with his display, promising how the 200s would be smarter, sleeker, and more approachable than their predecessors. Giving a vague introduction date of sometime later in the year. But she knew this was not the end of the presentation, and the general continued. The 200s wouldn''t be the only new introduction to be released within the current year. Citing the major removal of men from the battlefield, but providing that those who would remain, would be far safer.
The further along the demonstration went, the less comfortable Penny felt. She wished very much to leave, to return the small distance back to her chaperones. However, she found it hard to voice her desire to do so. She could just as easily see the wonder on Ruby''s face, as she watched the demonstration. The Courier regarded her briefly, perhaps seeing her discomfort, but observed all the same.
Then the hologram of the General traded places for the crown jewel of today''s demonstration. The Atlesian Paladin. A towering behemoth of machinery and military might. Impressive, even for only a hologram. They''d intended to have a prototype available for several of the demonstrations. However, they''d never arrived. The General had been reticent to say why.
However, the effect it had was obvious, just by observing her friends'' reactions.
"Oh. My. Gosh!" Ruby breathed. "It''s huge!"
"Meh, I''ve seen bigger." The Courier shrugged. "Looks a bit clunky."
"¡ Do you just hate fun?" Ruby asked, turning to him.
"I just call it like I see it." The Courier answered. "There''s nothing that impressive about a bunch of machines that don''t have an iota of self-articulating thought in their head."
"¡" Penny could not voice how crestfallen such a sentiment made her feel.
Ruby wheeled around to look at the Courier, but stopped short, looking at Penny, her expression turning to one of concern. "Is everything ok, Penny?"
"¡ Maybe we should go somewhere else." Penny answered sadly, so far this reunion had become quite-
"Hey!" A voice called from back down the street. Penny''s gaze immediately snapped up to it-
"Oh no," she muttered.
It would appear chaperones had finally taken it upon themselves to notice her absence. They were running towards her now, and she got the distinct urge that she should run. Though she knew it would ultimately prove a futile gesture. She''d just be bringing trouble to Ruby and the Courier. Last thing she wanted was for them to be punished for the crime of merely associating with her.
Seeing the direction of Penny''s gaze, Ruby and the Courier turned to face the approaching soldiers. She could also observe the subtle way the Courier shifted his weight, immediately ready to fight.
"They gonna be trouble?" the Courier asked.
"No, they shouldn''t be." Penny said, reluctantly.
"... hm." the Courier grunted. She couldn''t tell if it was meant for himself or her. But neither he nor Ruby stepped away from her. Still acting as a barrier between her and her chaperones. It wasn''t hard for her to calculate a forty-seven percent chance this would only escalate matters.
Her chaperones slowed in their approach, as they drew closer, but they didn''t stop.
"You''re interfering with official Atlas military business." One of the chaperones, Lt. Mato, ordered. "Step aside and away from Ms. Polendina."
Ruby briefly cast a look at the Courier, before looking back towards the soldiers. "We''re just talking with her." Ruby said. "There''s no law against that, right?"
"That wasn''t a request." Lt. Mato answered. "Step aside. Now."
"Couple guys with guns come running up to a young girl is a bad look." The Courier said. "Especially acting the way you are. Be reasonable, boys."
Lt. Mato, however, wasn''t. Without any hesitation, hand fell to a communicator at his side and brought it up. "Command we''ve got a pair of locals attempting to interfere with official business, please acknowledge."
Immediately, Penny knew that things were about to get quite bad. She was fully aware of the measures Ironwood had set in place for her safety. The last thing she wanted was for her friends to bear the brunt of it for the crime of associating with her. The forty-seven percent odds of escalation had increased to an unfortunate sixty-three. It was as she was registering this increase, that the Courier turned back towards her.
"Do you want to go with these guys, Penny?" he asked.
Penny looked up at him curiously. He was bothering to ask her what she wanted?
"You''ll refrain from speaking to Ms. Polendina-" Lt. Cuke broke in.
The Courier rounded on him without hesitation. "I wasn''t talking to you, dickhead, wait your turn."
Sixty-three to eighty-seven.
Cuke glowered at the Courier. "Watch your mouth, boy."
"Watch your tone." Ruby said, putting her hands on her hip, emboldened.
Without turning back to her again, the Courier spoke. "If you want to go with these guys, I''ll get out of your way. Don''t want to cause you any trouble either. But I''m not going to let a couple of jackbooted morons go making decisions for you."
Her chaperones drew a step closer.
"I¡ I don''t wish to make trouble for either of you." Penny answered solemnly.
"And that''s good." The Courier answered. "But not what I asked you."
"She said she wants you to leave. Now." Mato said. Penny calculated a fifty-six percent chance he would lunge at The Courier.
"No, she said she doesn''t want to make trouble for us." The Courier answered.
"What we''re asking-" Ruby said, sparing Penny a smile, "is if you want to keep hanging out with us. We''ll leave if you want us to, but-"
The world slowed to a crawl.
Lt. Cuke thrust forward, a claw reaching out towards Ruby. Penny watched it happening in a span of frames that almost no other mind could observe.
A different situation had occurred from her predictions.
Hostile movement detected
Deploying interception protocol-
Time snapped back into focus as the Courier slipped between Cuke and Ruby. The latter of whom snapped back around in time to witness the Courier plant an open palm into Cuke''s chest, sending one of her chaperones flying backwards by several dozen yards.
"Wrong move, jackass." The Courier growled. "That''s a court marshal right there, trying to lay hands on a foreign civvy."
Mato wheeled, trying to keep up with what had just transpired. Penny would likely have struggled as well, had she not been equipped with one of the most overdeveloped processing cores Atlas ever produced. As it was she was very quickly calculating the odds of salvaging this situation without it getting any further out of hand. There was a seventy-two-
"Oh you sonnuv-" Mato started.
Whatever he said was cutoff, however, when the Courier popped the top off his coffee cup. He promptly threw its contents, and the cup, in her chaperone''s face. Her sensors indicated it was approximately a scalding one hundred and thirty-eight degrees. How he carried it left Penny puzzled about the laws of thermodynamics, and how a paper cup could circumvent them.
Right as Mato began to scream, however, the Courier''s leg came up. It landed squarely between her Chaperone''s legs, with an astonishing ninety-six percent accuracy. It caused her chaperone to double over on himself.
Unsurprisingly, the odds of peaceful resolution plummeted to thirty-one percent.
The Courier promptly turned towards her and Ruby, who also looked as surprised as someone who''d gotten a faceful of near boiling coffee. "Six why!?"
Then the Courier''s hand clamped onto Penny''s shoulder.
"Cheese it!" He hissed, pushing them both around and into motion. A remarkable feat, as Penny knew she was quite dense due to her mechanical nature.
Without pause, Ruby turned and grabbed Penny by the shoulder, spinning her around. She began to lead Penny away from her chaperones. She could vaguely register Ruby apologizing profusely as they began to flee from the scene.
Was she being kidnapped? Did it count as kidnapping if you didn''t mind who was taking you? She would need to review the legal definitions later. This was almost certainly against the law in some fashion. Which made her quite uneasy.
Yet she was quietly, exceedingly happy that it was. What a strange confluence of emotion.
They bolted down the street, passing the park and its military display, following the sidewalk briefly. Then Ruby grabbed Penny, and led the trio down an alleyway. At the far end of which, they crossed over a street, bolted down another alley, then hooked right. They continued down this new avenue, Seagram''s if her internal map was still accurate, for a few minutes. Then they cut across the street again and continued down another alley. Penny was beginning to feel that she should warn her friends they should look both ways before crossing the street. They''d only narrowly missed catching a cab.
"Why!?" Ruby said, between breaths. "I thought you said we weren''t supposed to be drawing attention!?"
"That was before I saw how they were treating Penny." The Courier shot back.
"I was quite alright." Penny answered. "Though I do appreciate being able to hang out with my friends!"
"... Good enough!" Ruby chirped.
They burst from the mouth of the alley once more and hooked another left. This time they were on Sycamore st. and- was that Pyrrha Nikos?
The trio reached the end of the street, jaywalked across the intersection and cut down another alley. As they did, the Courier briefly broke off from them, going for the nearby dumpsters. Penny briefly observed him scraping them across the ground, barring the path they''d come down.
Then Ruby hooked an arm around Penny, using her free one to flourish her weapon out, pointing the muzzle behind them. She looked back to the Courier. "We''ll meet you up ahead!"
The Courier began to speak, but it was drowned out by the sound of Ruby''s weapon. A burst of sound, and a flash of purple from a ''force'' cartridge, providing them with enough impetus to clear more than half the alley in a single bound. The moment Ruby''s foot touched the ground once more, Penny could sense the way she pushed her aura into it. It wasn''t easy, she could feel the way Ruby strained against Penny''s weight to push the both of them. Despite that though, she still managed it, the both of them shooting forward.
As they did, Ruby''s body began to disintegrate into a cloud of red petals.
Penny''s went with it.
Her body began to disperse into a cloud of tiny green leaves as they propelled forward. She was easily able to register what was happening, determine its source.
This did not, however, keep Ruby from being surprised. The moment she saw what was happening to the two of them, Ruby lost the intensity in her movement, her aura fading from both of them.
"Huh?" she gasped.
Then she lost her balance, the two of them tumbling through the air, before skidding across the ground after a rough landing. Penny''s map indicated they''d landed in the middle of Nordiskt lane. Ruby hissed as they both came to a stop, confused by so many things.
"Ow- ow- ow." Ruby grunted, trying to take in their surroundings. Her eyes flashed to Penny. "Sorry, are you-"
She wasn''t paying attention to her surroundings.
Behind her, flying down the road they were on, was a delivery truck.
Its horn blared.
Ruby twisted to see it.
Aura redistribution complete
Executing
Before Ruby could register what happened, Penny had sprung to her feet, planting them into the pavement. Her balance adjusting, aura allocating, arms stretching out-
The truck impacted them. Its momentum and force instantly transferred into Penny. Her aura deflected it, guiding it away as she refused to budge. The hood and grille of the truck crumpled around her arms as she held her ground, which itself shattered and cratered beneath her, sending shards of stone and asphalt skyward in large craggy fragments. Her systems registered the force and momentum as it ripped into her.
Sudden impact detected. Running flash diagnostics.
The truck bucked briefly forward. Penny could see the shock on the driver''s face as it arced slightly over her. But as she refused to move, the momentum faded, and gravity resumed its course. The truck slammed back into the damaged roadway, bouncing and trembling as its shocks tried to absorb the sudden force.
Penny''s arms shook slightly. Not from the impact, though it would be an easy mistake. The diagnostics were still operating.
Diagnostics complete: Epidermal damage detected. Subdermal systems may require further inspection.
Penny quickly reviewed the data collected by the scan, recognizing where the damage was located.
"P-Penny?" Ruby stuttered, after a moment.
Penny looked down at Ruby, still seeing her friend on the ground. Clearly in shock, but otherwise unscathed.
It would seem her secret had been unveiled.
terminated
As her body released its stance, Penny bent forward and hauled Ruby to her feet. Now it was her turn to lead her friend down an alleyway. Which she did, with rather unrestrained speed and force.
As soon as they were out of sight of the delivery truck, Ruby came back to herself, and pulled back.
"Penny- stop!" Ruby snapped, planting her feet, skidding as Penny slowed down.
As she complied, she looked down the alleyway. Scanning it, she found no evidence that they were being observed by non-allies.
"What¡ what was that!" Ruby gasped, wide eyed and bewildered. "What just happened!?"
"I-I don''t-" Penny tried to speak, only to be cut off by a hiccup.
Ruby stopped, right before she was going to say something. She thought on it for a moment, then said, "Is something wrong? If there is, just tell me. Me, Six, we just want to help."
"I-I *hiccup*... I don''t think you would understand." Penny answered, curling inward.
There was a moment, where Penny wasn''t sure what Ruby would do next. Her ability to calculate the odds was running overtime, trying to determine what would happen next. Too many odds. Too many variables. Too much. Too much.
But then, Ruby took a deep breath. Calming herself, trying not to rush. She approached Penny, slowly, soothingly. Gently, as though she were reaching out to a lost child, she put a hand softly on Penny''s shoulder. "Try me?"
Penny paused for a moment, calculating the odds once more. She could lie, but found it only had a forty-forty percent chance at success. The odds of it weren''t enough in her favor.
And¡ she didn''t want to lie to her friend.
"... do you really want to know?" Penny asked, voice soft, slightly fearful. She didn''t want to lose one of the few friends she had made. "You''re my friend, right? You and Six both?"
"Yes." Ruby said, smiling, calmly gripping her shoulder. "We''re your friends, Penny. It''s ok. We''re not going to hurt you."
She wondered if this was supposed to be an attempt at humor. It wasn''t a matter of hurting each other¡ Was this empathy?
Penny looked down, scanning her clenched hands. Her diagnostics indicated this was where the worst of the damage had transpired. She would need to visit the technicians aboard the Fleet, if she were to have it repaired. She could see her endo skeleton just beneath the surface.
With great hesitance, she unfurled her palms, showing them to Ruby.
"Ruby¡ I''m not a real girl." Penny said, slowly, softly.
She watched as her friend''s gaze lit up in shock. Right as the Courier came barreling around the corner after them.
"...Oh."
Confessions in the City II
Nora wouldn''t lie about how hungry she was. She almost always felt hungry, she couldn''t help it. Even if she didn''t already have an absolutely absurd metabolism, swinging around Magnhild burned a lot of calories. The two together meant she could put away entire tables of food on her own. She normally kept it under control fairly well. Sure, she knew her table manners weren''t good, but she knew not to scarf down everything in front of her. Unfortunately, there were some of these things she couldn''t help but make exceptions too. Ren''s pancakes were an obvious choice, but she liked fresh fruit too, and some sweet things. She also liked vegetables too- ok, that was a lie, no one liked vegetables, but she''d eat them too. She''d even eaten a stick once, just to prove she could.
So, of course, when she and Ren did finally stop to eat, she was going to order something big. Something filling, something meaty. Something that weighed enough she could club someone over the head with it if they were attacked.
Unlikely, but she knew her tastes.
But then Ren went and wrapped an arm around her shoulder and walked her into the restaurant. When he''d done it, she''d just about lost track of everything. By the time she''d had her wits about her again, they were sitting at a corner table near a street facing window.
Suddenly, she was feeling self-conscious about the fact she could eat a whole cow and its shadow.
So she ordered something small and light. They were only stopping long enough to lose the cops anyway, it wasn''t like this was dinner dinner.
Though as she picked at her Bobb Salad, she found herself regretting not getting an extra helping of bacon.
The restaurant the two of them were sitting in was actually a fairly nice place. Almost too nice really. Not some snobby, snotty, upscale and hoity-toity place, but pretty close to it. She and Ren were fairly underdressed compared to what some of the people there were wearing. But at least they''d been let through the door here. There''d been one or two places in the past they wouldn''t let them through the door. They were also not allowed back near them either, but that wasn''t related. In any way that could be proven, at least.
Ren sat across from her, eating slowly from a bowl of soup that''d been offered. They''d both gone for appetizers. Nora didn''t want to even think about trying to run on a stomach full of food, hungry though she was. The soup and salad would be enough for the both of them, something to take the edge off. It helped, of course, that both options were fairly easy on the wallet as well.
"How''s your salad?" Ren inquired, spooning his soup.
"Leafy, needs more bacon." Nora answered, pushing it around her plate, trying to get it on the fork. "How''s the soup?"
Ren lifted a spoonful of the liquid, before tilting it and letting it dribble back into the bowl. "It''s¡ wet." He answered, giving her a wry smile. She returned it with a grin of her own. As it faded though, the self-conscious thought occurred to her that she might''ve had a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth. Ren wouldn''t have noticed, actually he would have, he noticed everything, but it bothered her. She quickly ran her tongue over her teeth, as Ren looked out the window. No, no she seemed clean.
"This¡ certainly took a turn." Ren admitted. "But at least we managed to avoid the police."
"Mhmm." Nora nodded. "We could''ve taken them."
"But that probably would''ve made things worse." Ren said.
"Probably." Nora agreed, finally managing another bite of her salad.
"Wonder if the others are having any luck." Ren said, turning back to his soup. "Guess we all should''ve expected a little trouble."
"I''m sure they''re all getting on alright." Nora reassured, again checking for lettuce. "Only ones we should be worried about are Blake and Sun, right?"
Ren nodded, smirking. "Really have to wonder what we''re all thinking, going along with something like that."
"It means we trust them." Nora said, smiling. "I trust you, you trust me, and if I run head first into a Ursa-"
"I''ll be following right behind." Ren nodded.
"-and it goes both ways Renny, don''t you forget that!" Nora chirped. "I can''t be the only one leading the way!"
Ren chuckled at her, smiling with that warmth that tickled her heart like down feathers.
The two continued to pick away at their food for a time. They wouldn''t be able to stay hidden in the restaurant for much longer, but maybe just long enough that they wouldn''t have to worry about the cops anymore. The two that had been chasing them hadn''t realized it was them when she and Ren had doubled back. So they were probably safe. She really wasn''t worried about it. She and Ren would make it work out. If they didn''t, what was the worst that could happen? They''d just be taken in by the cops, have some charges put against them, hauled in front of a judge, probably get called guilty because they couldn''t afford a lawyer, get sent back to Ozpin, get expelled because they broke school rules, wind up homeless on the street again, have to figure out how to find Nana Bess-
Nora began shoveling her salad into her face, trying very hard to get the voice in her head to shut up. Now was not the time to start the existential rollercoaster.
So it was better to try something else.
"You think we should tell everyone we had a run in with the cops?" Nora asked mid-chew. "We''re supposed to be keeping in touch with each other, so that might be something, right?"
Ren pondered over the question for a moment, before shaking his head. "I don''t think it''s something we need to let them know about now, since we managed to get away. We''ll let them know when we meet up later tonight."
Nora nodded, looking towards the window now herself. It was getting dark out, she could see her and Ren faintly reflected on the window. Reminding her that she was slightly less dressed than she''d started the night. Same with Ren. But she couldn''t help but think it made them look a bit more relaxed.
Her thoughts betrayed her, by thinking it looked like they were on a date. She knew they weren''t, but that treacherous little thought still bit her. To everyone around them, she knew that''s what it almost certainly looked like now. Ren had told her to go with it, when they escaped the cops, meaning he''d figured that much out too. It was a good cover. Nobody had seemed to piece it together.
Not even Ren, who''d suggested the idea! Wrapping his arm around her like some playboy!
There were times she swore he was just as oblivious as Jaune. But she knew that wasn''t true, he wasn''t anywhere near that bad. He was closer to Six, which itself wasn''t good, but still better. Though comparing her situation to Pyrrha''s wasn''t a good thing anyway.
Nora closed her eyes, turning back towards the table, her food, and Ren. She really, really wanted to boop Ren on the head sometimes. She knew he hadn''t really planned for this to happen, but it annoyed her to no end. How hard was it to look at her and ask ''hey want to go see a movie?''? They''d done it when they were younger. Sure Ren was always very reserved and quiet, but they did it more often. Would showing her a little affection really be that hard? Yeah, they weren''t dating, and maybe it would be a step outside his comfort zone, but it wasn''t easy for her either! She felt like if she went too far it would just make him uncomfortable, but she was the one who was trying.
Then came the uncomfortable thought that, maybe, just maybe¡ he didn''t feel the same way.
Nora let out a slow breath, trying to push the thought away. She and Ren were as close to family as either of them had. She knew it wouldn''t ruin what they had. But would it kill him to just try and give her a hug once in a while?
She let out another slow breath and opened her eyes.
And found Ren looking at her curiously. "Is everything alright?"
Nora blinked. Then she chastised herself. Stop trying to make yourself sad in front of him, idiot!
"Everything''s ok." Nora answered, giving him a smile. "Just¡ thinking about all the legs we still need to break."
Ren nodded, not saying anything, but continuing to watch her. Studying her with that quiet intensity and zen he was so good at mustering. Nora wished she could tell whether or not he was actively reading her thoughts when he did that. Because if he wasn''t that was fine, but if he knew what she was thinking and was still being a dummy she''d hit him. Softly, and with her hand, not Magnhild.
This was disturbed, by their waitress. A young, nervous looking woman with brown hair. She approached like a shadow, and grabbed both their attention with a minor clearing of the throat. Which turned into a series of unfortunate coughs.
"H-how are we doing so far?" She asked, collecting herself. "We f-feeling like we''re ready f-for more, or¡?"
Ren briefly exchanged a look with Nora, then answered. "I think this will do for us, lot of stuff tonight. Check please?"
The waitress breathed out, nodding. "I''ll get you two love birds your check. Feel free to pay up front."
The waitress sauntered away from them, allowing Nora and Ren to finish their meals. If her words had bothered Ren, he didn''t let it show. They hadn''t bothered Nora. Nope. Not one eeny teeny bitty bit. She wasn''t horking down her salad just to try and choke the voice in her head.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Once the waitress returned with their check, the two of them finished their meal and returned to the front of the restaurant in short order. The two of them actually split the price between them, which got them a strange look from the cashier. But what had they expected, for one of them to solely foot the bill?
Well, they might''ve been, considering they apparently looked like¡
Nora buried the thoughts. Not now.
With the bill paid, the two of them continued back out onto the sidewalk. Nora didn''t make any effort to conceal her wandering eyes. They needed to make sure the cops were well and truly gone. Given she couldn''t see any, there wasn''t much point in keeping the act up. Without waiting for Ren, she continued ahead. He''d be right behind her, she knew he would be. If they didn''t have to keep waiting, she wouldn''t. The sooner she got her mask and jacket back on, the sooner they could go back to busting legs. Doing that would be easier than trying to deal with the tangled mess she was feeling in her chest.
She turned down the alleyway and kept walking. She could see where they''d stashed their stuff.
Ren said something, but Nora didn''t hear it. She was in too much of a funk-
There was a rush of motion behind her, and Nora began to turn around.
Someone clasped onto her shoulder and pushed her backward. Spinning and leading her so she would be backed against the wall.
"Eh?" she chirped, as she felt herself pinned against the brickwork. Surprised and confused, briefly wondering if someone was willing to help her meet her quota for broken bones.
Instead, she found it was Ren, standing close to her, ever so taller than her. But he was closer than he normally would''ve been. There was a surprised, panicked look in his eyes. Nora couldn''t understand what was happening.
Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw the cops.
They were standing on the opposite side of the alley, smoking and watching the two of them in confusion. A rush of adrenaline hit her, followed by a warm flush of embarrassment.
Nice going idiot, now what!?
Her gaze fell just as quickly off the cops as it had landed on them. Helped by the fact that Ren shifted his arms to either side of her head. He leaned in close. Making it look like he was trying to box the two of them in, give them some privacy. Nora wasn''t even sure what to do, but felt herself relax back against the wall.
"I tried to warn you!" Ren whispered, a nervous gleam to his eyes.
"S-sorry!" Nora stuttered back, matching his volume, not sure where to look with her partner so close. "I-I just-"
Ren shook his head, leaning slightly closer. "It''s ok, I didn''t notice them until the last second either. We both could''ve fallen for it."
Nora nodded shakily. "¡What do we do?"
"¡" Ren remained silent for a long moment, trying to quickly puzzle out an answer, but clearly wasn''t able to come up with one. "Uh¡ um- act natural?"
"¡ Renny, what part of this is natural!?" Nora hissed.
Ren grimaced, and Nora couldn''t help but join him. This was a fine pickle they''d just gotten themselves back into. The only good thing Nora could think of was that the cops hadn''t immediately pegged them for her mistake. But the longer they stood there like that, the more strange they would seem. The cops were paying them only some small mind right now, apparently more interested in some conversation they were having.
If she or Ren didn''t think of something quickly, things would get bad just as quickly.
For a long silence the two of them stood there, scant inches apart. The cops occasionally paused in their conversation to observe them, only to resume it just as quick. How long before either of them decided to dig a little deeper? Did they know about the stuff hidden in the trashcan next to her? Did they recognize either of them?
Unfortunately, Nora found herself having a hard time focusing on those thoughts. Certain other ones had begun to resurface, now that she and Ren were standing so close together. Trying to hide from the police in a way that seemed all too conspicuous. She tried very hard to think of something, anything else. But it was very hard, ignoring the shape of Ren''s jaw, or how tight his body seemed in that black shirt. How intense his eyes looked, even with the nervousness in them. How nervous she felt, knowing he''d unintentionally pinned her in place. If she made any effort of her own to move away, it would attract the wrong kind of attention.
Even more worryingly, she found that she didn''t want to move away either. She couldn''t figure out what to do, and the longer she stood this close to Ren the less put together she felt. Her stomach started doing flips while her brain flopped about like a struggling fish. Was Ren struggling like this? Did he feel this way too right now?
She didn''t know what to do, and the longer they stood together, the more she started to notice that Ren smelled nice. Which made her stomach flip harder because she was almost certain she stank like sweat and that couldn''t be pleasant. She didn''t want Ren thinking she stank like garlic and a bag of farts, she didn''t! It was all the running they were doing and the fighting had made work up a sweat.
Ren turned slightly, looking down either side of the alley. Clearly still trying to figure out how the both of them could run from this place.
Nora tried to take a deep, calming breath, and found it only half worked. Even if she calmed down slightly, the feeling wasn''t going away. She couldn''t get her dying-fish brain to do anything but flip around aimlessly. This was how it was going to end, with her pinned to the wall of an alley by the boy she''d pictured spending the rest of her life with. Knowing that the moment they did anything, the cops would probably arrest them, or at least question them, and try to figure out what they were doing there. Nora couldn''t lie, not good anyway. What exactly were she and Ren supposed to say? Why else would she and him be there¡
Nora''s fish found a puddle of water to land in.
The longer it had a chance to breathe, the more it found traction in her head. Even if it wasn''t an idea she''d have considered under any other circumstance, she couldn''t help it. Everything else was going wrong, but it''d set everything else just right.
Her stomach put up a final, brief struggle, trying to muster one last flip. Before it subsided, an electric thrill went thrumming through her veins.
"Screw it!" she hissed.
"Huh?" Ren asked suddenly, turning back to look at her. Right as her arm snaked under his, before running up his back, the other wrapping around him like an iron band. She wrenched him closer to herself, bracing a hand behind his head to help guide him downward.
Then she slammed her mouth onto his.
As far as first kisses go, it was a bad one. He hadn''t been ready for it, so their two faces mashed into each other for a moment. Carrying the shock of their teeth pressing against each other. She tried to contort her lips to make it more comfortable, but her mouth was struggling to comply. It almost didn''t want to listen to her.
Even more embarrassingly, the both of them still had their eyes open and were staring at each other. She could see the bewilderment in his eyes, and couldn''t help but hope he didn''t hate her. Making such a rash choice wasn''t strange for her, but she couldn''t think of anything else. It wasn''t going to work either if he stood there like a statue.
After a moment, she found herself hissing, "Play along!"
Though what part of this was supposed to be ''playing'' she wasn''t sure. It felt pretty real.
Another moment passed, and the shock left Ren''s eyes. There was a flash of recognition in them, and he began to move, pushing back against her. His mouth began to play off hers, and his eyes slowly began to slide shut. Nora felt hers close as well, leaving her in a warm darkness. She could hear the sound of her heart hammering, feel the warmth and tension in his arms as they began to fold over her shoulders. The longer they kept the act going, the more Nora noticed an odd taste in her mouth: chicken. Had she eaten chicken recently? No, she hadn''t she''d recall if she''d had chicken, she''d had bacon on a salad¡ But didn''t Ren have chicken soup?
This thought sent a jolt through Nora''s chest, she wasn''t ready for this! But they couldn''t stop now, could they? Should they stop? Did she want to stop?
Would it be weird for her to say she almost didn''t want to?
She pulled back for a moment, letting her eyes slide open slightly. For reasons she couldn''t understand, she was gasping for air like she''d just been running a marathon. Ren was too, he watched her with a half lidded, dazed look. Nora saw his lips and had to resist the urge to immediately go back for them. She kept her focus, looking briefly past him-
The cops were still there. Looking very surprised, and a little amused, but still there.
Nora should''ve been annoyed.
Instead, she looked back to Ren and locked eyes with him briefly, giving him a nod. Trying to convey they were still there. It was quickly lost as she moved to resume the matter-
Only to be intercepted midway by Ren, who was suddenly moving with much more energy.
Another jolt went through Nora''s heart.
They played off each other inexpertly, trying to make it look real, not having a clue what that even meant. But the more time they spent doing it, the more Nora thought she got an idea. She hated when they hit too hard, when it felt like their teeth were going to suddenly connect. She unclenched her jaw slightly, it made it hard for her to try and match with Ren. Try to breathe slowly, deeply, too fast feels like you can''t breathe at all.
Soon she wasn''t even needing to help guide Ren at all, he was trying to match her. It was making her head swim. That fish was suddenly swimming in a pool of brandy and it was making her knees wobble. She pulled Ren closer to her for support. Felt his chest push against hers, sending a small shudder through him. One of his arms left her, finding a brace on the wall behind her. They stayed like that, close together, balance swaying.
A tingle went through Nora''s chest again, so close to Ren''s she could almost feel his heartbeat.
Her eyes cracked open ever so slightly. Trying to see things. Her mind was getting lost in a fog she didn''t want to see the way out of. But she knew she needed to try.
But the cops were still there. Looking more and more shocked the longer she and Ren went.
''LEAVE ALREADY!''
Incensed, one of Nora''s legs came up and hooked itself around Ren''s waist. Pulling him even harder against her, causing his breath to hitch. She saw his eyes snap open. He almost looked scared.
However, it had the intended effect.
The cops suddenly paled, pushed off the wall and began leaving the alley at a steady gait.
She held her grip on Ren the entire time, not letting go until the two cops had left the alley. Once they were around a corner, she counted to ten in her head.
Then she lowered her leg off Ren and pulled her head back from his. She gasped for air in his embrace. Lips feeling chapped, mouth tasting like chicken, heart still hammering in her chest as Ren and her embraced.
"T-they''re gone." Nora stuttered.
Ren stood there with her, panting, looking down at her in complete confusion as she slowly released him.
"Sorry about that." Nora said, trying to steady her breathing. "I know it was sudden but it was the only thing I could think of and¡" Nora tried to find the rest of the words, but couldn''t. Now that the trouble was past, she was having second thoughts. Her head had a chance to clear itself, and the gravity of what she''d just done began to weigh on her. "It¡ it was just an act." She said.
Ren said nothing. He didn''t even move.
"¡ Are you going to let me go?" Nora asked, still off kilter in his embrace.
She''d expected him to do so.
She didn''t expect-
"Do you want me to?" Ren asked.
"¡"
A sudden war tore through Nora. Every part of her suddenly screaming ''NO!'' at the loudest volume. Fully content to pick-up right where they''d left off.
But she knew that wasn''t right. He was just saying that to be polite now, after she''d gone and done something so stupid. They had things to do tonight, and the others needed them to do it.
So she chose a non-answer.
"We have work to do, Renny." She whispered, trying to be strong. She was good at that.
There was a long pause after she said the words, and Ren seemed to come back to himself. He released Nora, and she took a breath. He pulled back from her, and Nora took several more. Trying to get her heart to stop thudding in her chest.
It would take a few minutes. For some reason, she felt even hungrier now.
¡
Ren let Nora collect her belongings ahead of him. The pair took their time, putting themselves back together. Letting what they''d just been through wash over them.
He felt ashamed. He should''ve gone ahead of Nora, he''d have seen the cops sooner. They could''ve avoided getting put in that situation at all.
But despite himself, despite his shame, Ren didn''t regret it. Nora''s idea had worked. It had been unorthodox for certain, but it had been quite effective. He didn''t think he''d have been able to make it happen if he''d been in Nora''s shoes. He''d have mulled the idea over until it got them both caught.
He loved that about Nora. Brash as she was, stuff like this didn''t phase her. Which he found himself wishing was more the case for himself. What had he been thinking, standing there, holding her like that?
Without words between them, Ren took point as they stepped out of the alley. He knew the way to the next location, and welcomed the new distraction. Silently thanking its existence, despite the danger it might bring.
He was also thankful he''d decided to wear baggy pants
Confessions in the City III
The dance hall Pyrrha and Jaune arrived at wasn''t like some of the other places that were scattered around Vale. It lacked a lot of the facets that most people associated with the ''nightclub'' scene. The lighting was dim, and there were strobe lights flashing and sweeping over the room. Colors varied, flashes and movements in time with the music. And there was most certainly music, it was quite loud, booming from speakers mounted to the walls, and a far corner booth. She assumed that''s where the DJ was. She could also admit that the place was at least clean. Granted, she would also admit she''d never spent much time inside of the club to begin with. But it was clean, and it was meeting the standard she associated with such places.
It was the appearance of the place that had her questioning things. The club had been set inside a brick and mortar building, with most of the wiring and plumbing exposed. The building was almost more akin to a structural skeleton than what most people pictured when they thought of a night club. She assumed that perhaps it was a matter of style and taste, but she wasn''t sure. Perhaps it was just being lost on her. Mercifully, it seemed she wasn''t the only one, since Jaune also didn''t seem to have much experience with this sort of place.
But, so far, outside of a light ringing in her ears, they''d gotten nothing for being there.
"Isn''t this place kind of loud?" Jaune asked.
Pyrrha felt her brow knit, she was having a hard time hearing him. But he seemed to notice that, and leaned in closer to her, repeating himself.
She nodded. "It is!" She shouted over the music. "I don''t know if we''ll actually find anything!"
Especially, she noted, with the constantly shifting lights and shadows.
Jaune nodded, and motioned towards the back of the club. Away from the dance floor and the speakers. Though it didn''t help Pyrrha much, given how small the building was, she would take what relief she could.
"Thirsty?" Jaune asked.
"Getting there." Pyrrha said, subconsciously licking her lips at the word. The two of them hadn''t had much chance for rest, and the air in the club was stifling.
With a nod, Jaune headed off to a side of the room, one with an open, and fairly busy, bar. It wasn''t far from her, but Pyrrha kept her eyes open all the same. After the earlier events of the evening, she''d rather not get caught off-guard again. Though she couldn''t help but watch him, as he walked up to the bar. The boy who couldn''t help but think that she was on a pedestal over him, but still didn''t see her as any different for it. The boy who admitted he wouldn''t be afraid to try and climb up onto it with her.
The boy she very much wished was doing that right now instead of swooning over a mutual friend.
But what could she do about it? Should she do anything about it? Did she want to-
Yes, yes she did. That was a stupid question and she kicked it out of her head as quickly as it appeared.
It also came with a sad, unfortunate reality: He didn''t see her that way.
Yet, he''d grabbed her hand. Led her sprinting away from exactly the kind of situation she despised most in the world. Did it because he knew how uncomfortable it made it her, or at least could see it. In the back of her mind, she was also hoping the whole thing wouldn''t somehow come back to bite them either. She''d been in the tournament scene long enough to know, once the rumor mill began to turn, it didn''t stop. Especially when you''re a fire-haired young woman, who''s more focused on her fighting career than the gossip of your competition. It was only by some miracle she''d avoided the worst of it.
Now though?...
She continued to watch Jaune as he spoke to the bartender, who looked at him strangely. After a moment, he nodded, and set a pair of glasses down on the counter. He filled them with a hose of some kind, threw in ice, stirred in some neon red-colored syrup, then threw a cherry in for measure. Jaune then produced some lien, nodded his thanks and strode back over to her, a drink in either hand.
"What''s that?" Pyrrha asked, as he held a glass out to her.
"A Ginger Temple." Jaune answered, smiling boyishly. "Saph has a drink she likes called a Black Temple that''s kinda the same, but it''s good even without rum."
Pyrrha smiled, as she looked at the red-tinged drink. She looked back at him. "You didn''t need to do that, water would''ve been fine."
"Yeah, but what''s a little extra sugar, once in a while?" Jaune answered, shrugging but not losing that smile that made her want to drop her drink and drag him back out onto the dance floor. She didn''t know what she''d do once they were out there. But if it kept her from doing anything more embarrassing, it was worth it.
Instead, she merely nodded, sipping the drink through a thin black straw as she swept a lock of red hair away from her face. It was good. A touch too sweet for her taste, but pleasant, and a little refreshing.
"Thank you." Pyrrha said, returning Jaune''s smile.
"No problem." Jaune said, his smile getting even bigger. "Might as well try to enjoy the moment, right? Besides, I''m sure I''m not the first guy to buy you a drink."
"Hm." Pyrrha hummed, mouthing the straw. She''d never been to a club until tonight.
The pair sidled off to one of the walls and posted themselves there, using it as a chance to observe the club in relative peace. Pyrrha was still giving the room cursory glances, as they stood, but she was beginning to doubt they''d find anything here either. She was wondering how the Courier had managed to find what he had, or if he even had. Though, perhaps they weren''t doing things the way he had¡ Perhaps that would''ve been a worthwhile question to ask.
So instead she took her partner''s advice, and enjoyed the moment. The music wasn''t her taste, the flashing lights gave her a headache, and the air was sickeningly humid. But she enjoyed it anyway. After all, she had the right person with her to try and enjoy it with. Maybe it was crazy for her to be as¡ attached as she''d become to Jaune, in so short a time. But who would blame her? She''d never had much of a social circle. It was hard to have one in her circumstances. Even after they changed, it never got any easier.
In perhaps the most comical of ways, Jaune made it easier.
If nothing else, he was the first person to do something as simple as buying her a drink.
"¡ Hey, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.
Pyrrha looked towards her partner, and found him looking at her, his golden bangs hanging slightly over his eyes.
"¡ Do you really think I''ve got a chance with Weiss?" Jaune asked.
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"¡" Pyrrha tried to get herself to say something. But the only words that wanted to leap from her mouth rhymed with dough.
Before she could articulate the words in a way that sounded nicer, Jaune continued. "I know that probably came out of nowhere, given how much we talked about it earlier¡ but that brush with the reporters got me thinking." He explained. "You and Weiss are, like, on the same level."
Pyrrha would be lying to say she didn''t find that comparison flattering.
"-and, well, after that one reporter said you were out of my league, and then you asked me¡ well, now it''s got me thinking." Jaune explained, pausing to sip his drink. "I mean¡ if I''m not in your league, then that means I''m not in Weiss''s either, right?"
"Well¡" Pyrrha managed to say, but found herself struggling to say more than that.
"I mean, it explains a lot, now that I''m actually thinking about it." Jaune said, beginning to frown. "Maybe¡ maybe she has noticed that I''m trying to get her attention but just¡ isn''t interested."
"¡" Pyrrha didn''t know whether to start cheering, or start consoling her partner for his sudden bout of self-awareness.
"It''s just¡ I don''t know." Jaune said, shaking his head. "Should I even keep trying, if she really is?"
Silence fell back between the two. One Pyrrha knew was a poignant and important one. He was asking her for advice, as he had so many times before. But this time was different, far more important than the numerous times past. This wasn''t a question about how to conduct his business, the one she''d heard so many times before. It was the one she''d been waiting to hear: ''should he?''.
In that moment every part of her screamed ''no!''. It was so obvious an answer it hurt her to think about. If Jaune''s feelings weren''t reciprocated, might never be reciprocated, why should he torture himself doing so? It was a chance that she thought would never come, and one that she knew would likely never come again.
"¡"
So why couldn''t she make herself say what she wanted?
As the silence dragged on, she saw the way Jaune''s face began to resolve itself, the way the light changed in his eyes. The moment was ending, her silence an answer that didn''t need to be spoken. One that she didn''t want, or agree with.
She didn''t want or agree with the one she was going to give either.
But it was one she knew she needed to. She cursed herself even more for it.
"¡ You know, this is my first time doing something like this?" Pyrrha asked, swirling her drink, watching it fizz. "Going out for a night on the town, visiting a club¡" She lowered her voice. "Having a boy buy me a drink."
Jaune''s countenance changed, as he turned to look at her.
"No one''s ever done this sort of thing with me before." She said, giving him a sad smile.
"¡ What?" Jaune asked, bewildered. "But that''s crazy, you''re-"
"Pyrrha Nikos." She said, nodding. "The invincible girl. The People''s Champion. The four time consecutive champion¡" She felt her smile falter. "¡ The girl everyone puts on a pedestal."
Jaune watched her now. He was studying her closely. Somehow, she wished he''d bothered to do so at any other time. Paid as much attention to her as he was trying to now. She''d have loved it then. It only made her feel embarrassed now.
"I''ve been blessed with incredible talents, and the opportunities they afford." She went on, looking down into her drink. "I''m constantly surrounded by love, and praise, and adoration¡ but the longer you remain up there, on that pedestal, the more separated you become from everyone who put you there." As she spoke, the words tasted bitter in her mouth. "Everyone¡ assumes I''m too good for them. That I''m out of their league¡ It''s made it impossible to form meaningful relationships with people- because they assume I''m too good for them¡"
Pyrrha looked up at Jaune, still studying her, but she could see the way his face was softening. A look of compassion she knew he meant all too well. She felt her own smile redouble.
"Then I met you." She said. "You had no idea who I was, and even when you found out, you didn''t care. You still saw me for who I was, who I am. Not the girl everyone champions."
"Of course I would." Jaune said. "You''re Pyrrha Nikos, my partner and closest friend. Why would I treat you any different?"
Gods help her, she wanted to kiss him for that.
"It''s because of you, that I''ve made the relationships I have." She said, her face growing warm. "Ones that will last a lifetime, and mean more to me than being on some pedestal ever has¡" She felt expression begin to sour, but she stayed strong and put an end to that. "If Weiss is in the same ''league'' as me, don''t you think she might wish something the same?"
Pyrrha observed Jaune as he listened to her, saw the way he seemed to take her words in like a sponge to water. Internalizing and holding everything she said. She wasn''t sure what he was going to say, but she knew she had to stay strong, whatever he said next.
Which was: "But what if I''m not the kind of guy Weiss wants?"
Pyrrha thought on it for a moment, tried to think of what to say. She was herself caught in the moment, saying the things she felt in her heart. If she were to say what she felt in her heart, she would say: "If I were Weiss, then you''d be exactly the kind of guy I''d want. Someone who''d see me, for me."
Her mouth betrayed her by saying it.
The words hung in the air, birthing a new silence. The bewildered look in Jaune''s eyes redoubled. Pyrrha felt the warmth in her face burst forth in a fiery wave that suddenly left her heart pounding. Had she really just said those words aloud? There was no way she could''ve been so caught in the moment as to let that happen. Yet now she felt her face beginning to burn, heard her heart pounding in her ears, louder and reverberating more heavily than the music bouncing and pounding off the walls of the club. She could only hope that the dim light of the club made it harder for Jaune to see how she looked. She could only barely see his face, after all.
But she could see the look on his face. The saddened, melancholic look was gone. His blue eyes seemed to glow and glitter in the gloom of the club.
"¡ You''re right." Jaune said, a grin breaking out on his face. "I guess¡ I guess there''s nothing I can do but try, right?" He shrugged, pushing away from the wall. "Maybe¡ maybe she doesn''t want me. But that doesn''t mean I shouldn''t try, right?"
"¡ Right." Pyrrha said, feeling her heart begin to calm.
Then feeling it like a lead weight.
It was the outcome she knew would happen. She''d chosen this path. She wanted him to be happy, and that encouraging him wouldn''t ease her own feelings. They would only hurt worse. She could''ve chosen different, tried harder.
But she wouldn''t force him to see her differently. That wouldn''t be fair to him. She might have been a hopeless romantic, in the fictional sense, but it taught her something. That feelings and attraction weren''t something you could force to exist. They could only blossom of their own time and accord. If they never did, then that was the end of it. But that didn''t mean you shouldn''t see if they could bloom.
It was a mess.
It left her a mess.
She hated it. But it was what Jaune wanted, even if it hurt her to do so.
Jaune took a step away, finishing his drink. He looked back at her with a grin and motioned towards the bar. "Let''s go drop these off and keep moving, we''ve got a lot to do."
"¡Yes." Pyrrha agreed, nodding, giving a small smile of her own.
As he led the way for her, Pyrrha took some small contentment. If nothing else, failing her own interests, she kept that smile of his from dimming. Though small a victory, she would take it as one.
¡
Jaune''s thoughts raced a thousand miles a minute. His heart was hammering so fast he swore it was going to explode.
Pyrrha was right. He couldn''t give up, not yet. If what she said was true, then he had to try, at least one more time, to ask Weiss out. He''d been doing it for the wrong reasons. He realized that now. He wished Pyrrha had talked with him sooner about it. This wasn''t about his feelings. Weiss¡ Weiss probably didn''t return them. Even if she thought he was cute, that didn''t mean she felt the way he did, did it?
He''d made a mistake. He''d done what everyone else did with Pyrrha, and put Weiss on a pedestal. The Heiress who could do it all. He hadn''t thought about her as he should''ve from the start. She was his friend, and he''d made a terrible error in judgment. One, the longer he thought about it, he knew his sisters would tear him a new one for if they ever found out.
Weiss and he were friends, first and foremost.
If he lost sight of that, then he''d be no different than every other jerk out there.
So what did that mean then? He wanted to try, one more time. See if there couldn''t be something more between them. He felt it, in his chest, and maybe his gut, that it was a futile effort. Nothing he''d done so far had worked. There was a chance that ship had fully sailed¡ But he knew who he was as well. He needed to try, one more time. Even if it blew up in his face again.
But it would only be the one.
After that¡
''Why, she''s Pyrrha Nikos!''
''Because she''s way out of his league!''
''-Then you''d be exactly the kind of guy I''d want. Someone who''d see me, for me.''
After that¡ Maybe he should ask Pyrrha what he was supposed to do.
It only began to hit him then, as they left their glasses at the bar and left. All the things he admired about Weiss. Her intelligence, her bravery, her grace and fortitude. He didn''t know if she could sing, but¡
Didn''t he admire that about Pyrrha too?
Try as he might not to, he lingered on that thought as they left the club behind them.
Confessions in the City IV
Yang was prepared for a lot of what was going to be thrown at her tonight. When it came to this sort of thing, she was old hat. She''d spent the better part of her later teen years bouncing from shady bar to seedy club. Chasing leads, hounding information, knocking teeth out of more than a few ugly mugs. Out of everyone, barring Blake, and maybe the Courier, she had the most experience with this. There wasn''t anything she didn''t believe she could handle. Going to T''s? Easy. Getting Jumped? Cake walk. Getting a surprise guest? Always a nice change of pace.
Having now chased said guest for more than a block, and having successfully cornered him, did she find herself thrown a curveball.
Junior didn''t look how she remembered, when she''d seen him. The last she remembered, he looked as put together as one might expect, for a gangster. Fine clothes, neatly groomed, and a general sense of composure. The look you''d expect of a larger player in the criminal underworld. And he had been one, once upon a time. Yang might''ve been a little girl at the time, but she''d paid attention to the news, and what her dad and uncle said. The Xiongs had been one of the larger families in the underworld, once upon a time. She''d known who she was messing with, when she went to the club the first time.
Looking at him now though, beaten, broken, and bereaved, it was like staring at an empty shell. She wasn''t dumb. She knew the stereotype associated with her hair type and personality, but she paid attention. She knew about what had happened to Junior''s club. It was easy enough for her to piece the information together. The news story hadn''t exactly been a small one either. Most people pay attention when one of the last holdouts of an infamous crime family go up in flames.
Even if her memory of the evening was hazy, she could piece things together. She and the Courier were there, they had to be involved, somehow. It stood, then, that the fire started because of them.
And on the whole, she didn''t care. Junior had it coming. She had it on good enough authority he was a creep.
But standing there, looking at him, in the gloom of the alley, she couldn''t shake the feeling she got. The twisting in her stomach and the icy spike that sank into her spine. What stood out to her most though, was the look in his eyes. When he''d appeared at T''s bar, he had a fearful, panicked look to him.
Now? Now his eyes held a clear, furious, vindictive, spiteful hatred to them. She recognized it well. It was the look that haunted her childhood nightmares. An unreasoning, incorruptibly pure vitriol that stared back out at you from the shadows of broken out windows and burned-out homes. Wanting nothing more than to snap up lost little girls in their jaws and tear them to pieces.
What he''d just said, had left her back there again, waiting on a silver platter.
"¡What?" Yang asked, confused.
"You heard me." Junior said, slowly, evenly. "Isn''t it obvious? What you and your boyfriend did?"
"¡" Yang grit her teeth and glared more intently at Junior. "We burned your club down and beat the crap out of you and your ''boys''."
"Really, that''s all you did?" Junior prodded. "C''mon Blondie, you''re not that dumb, are you?"
Yang felt her lips curl up in a snarl. He fist slammed into Junior''s chest, planting him against the wall. "I''m not the one currently pinned to the wall, am I?" She asked.
"No, but you can''t even put the pieces together on your own, can you?" Junior sneered. "That makes you really fucking stupid."
"Where''s-" Yang began to snarl.
"I don''t know, and I don''t give a shit." Junior answered, a crazed energy ebbing into his voice. "I only care as much as he cost me a few boys I could''ve had with me the night you and your boyfriend visited."
"He''s not my boyfriend." Yang hissed.
"Don''t care." Junior answered, in the same breath, carrying on. "I don''t give a shit about whatever mess Torchwick is making. You do, and I have to guess that means your boy does too. Bad news for him. I''ve seen what you two do to people."
Yang didn''t say anything, she merely glared at Junior. Letting her gaze burn holes into him. But if it bothered him at all, Yang knew he wasn''t letting it show.
"¡ Do you really not get it?" Junior sneered, mouth curled up in a razor edged smirk. "I mean, maybe you wouldn''t remember, with how much the two of you drank."
Yang tried not to let the words affect her. But she had a clear enough memory of the day after she and the Courier went to the Club. It''d been an important day. The hangover she''d started it with hadn''t been any fun. She wouldn''t admit to Junior how hazy the previous night had been. But she couldn''t recall having had much to drink either. She wasn''t a heavy drinker, not like Uncle Qrow or, as she discovered, the Courier, if Jaune''s reaction to his moonshine was any indication. She wouldn''t have had anywhere near enough to blackout.
But the Courier had also said he''d driven the two of them home after she did.
Her hesitance must''ve been visible to Junior. He latched onto it without a moment''s waste.
"Do you not remember?" Junior asked, voice an animalistic growl. "What you did to my boys?"
Yang opened her mouth to say something, but the words couldn''t find their way out. Things were very quickly spiraling away from her.
"How about I fill you in?" Junior offered. "Give you a play by play."
Before Yang could object, keep him how she wanted, he blustered on. Like Port lecturing about some long past hunt.
"You two strong-armed your way into my establishment like you owned the place." Junior snarled. "Ahead of opening, pushing my men back, acting like you owned the place. When we tried to make you leave, you fought back. And you fought back hard." He shook his head, sneering. "You knew what you were doing, coming to my club. Knew we wouldn''t call the police, for the fat lot of good they''d have done me." A furious, fiery glow ebbed into his eyes. "Oh, but I wish I had. They''d have loved to bring both of you in for what you did."
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Yang made no move to pull back, but she could feel Junior pushing forward, the muzzle of her gauntlet burying itself in his chest. She only barely pulled back enough to keep the trigger from tripping then and there.
"Go on." Junior hissed, words laced with venom. "You want to know, don''t you?... Ask what you did."
"¡" Yang wasn''t buying what he was selling. She knew better than to trust anything Junior said at this point. He was pissed off she''d managed to corner him, was trying to pump him for information¡
But something about what he was saying resonated with her. There were things that didn''t match what she thought she knew. Maybe they would turn out to be nothing¡
But she needed to know.
"¡ Who burned your Club down?" Yang asked.
Junior''s smirk grew. "You did. You and your boyfriend." With each word, his smirk grew into a toothy smile. All thrill and no joy. "After you got through with butchering everyone, you set the fire to cover your tracks. Keep the police from following you, you vicious little psychopath."
Yang took immediate argument with that. Junior had to be lying about that part. That wasn''t like anything she would do. "Oh bullshit-"
"No, nothing but the truth." Junior snarled, leaning further in. "Why do you think I''m here now, in some dirty back alley? You destroyed everything I had left!" The smile melted away from his face, replaced with vitriol and rage. "Do you have any idea what you did to me!? You destroyed everything I had left! My place of business, my crew, my assets! No one in this city will honor my markers now. No one outside it will do business with me!..." He began to compose himself, pulling back enough that it didn''t seem as though he would try to attack her¡ yet. "You fuckers took everything I had left. And you butchered my crew to do it."
Yang tried again to find the words, but they just kept dodging her. Only giving Junior more room to build momentum.
"¡ Do you want me to tell you how you did it?" He sneered. "I can remember it perfectly. Watching how you two tore through everyone. Blood and guts everywhere. Oh how you must have enjoyed that."
"Shut up." Yang said, finally getting herself to speak. Her voice came out distant, unsure.
"You destroyed everything." Junior pressed. "I had over forty men with me that night, forty men! Do you have any idea how hard that should''ve been!?... But you tore through them like tissue paper. Just like you did the first time."
"Shut. Up." Yang snarled, trying to build her anger, find the strength to end this. Why did she feel cold? Why did her chest hurt?
"But this time you couldn''t stop yourself, could you?" Junior sneered, a triumphant gleam in his eyes. "¡ You should''ve seen the smile on your face."
"SHUT! UP!" Yang bellowed.
Her fist crashed forward.
Thunder rang.
Junior crashed back into the wall. The stone walls of the building trembled as he hit. Yang could see the hairline cracks form in the mortar.
Silence hung in the air like a hanged man. The cold that''d invaded Yang pierced her heart like a million frigid needles. She felt her arm begin to tremble. But she couldn''t tell if it was in anger, or something worse.
She realized what she''d done.
Then Junior laughed. A slow, wheezing, half-dead noise that would have been more at home in her nightmares.
"See." Junior''s voice came, a thin, hissing thread like air leaking from a tire. "You just can''t help yourself. Just as much a violent meathead as last time. But you fucked up this time. There isn''t a single fucking thing you could do to me that''ll actually matter."
Yang didn''t say anything. She was frozen.
Junior pushed off the wall, standing. Yang could see where she''d hit him. It was hard for her to make him look worse than he already did. But the spot on his chest, clothes ragged and burnt where she hit, stuck out plainly. He didn''t draw any closer to her, he remained at the wall, leering at her.
"Nice job, Blondie. But, this time, I. Win." He sneered. "You and that freak are made for each other. Now, if we''re done, kindly fuck off back to where you came from."
He turned suddenly and bolted down the alley, running for the mouth of it. Yang could''ve stopped him. It wouldn''t have been hard. She''d caught him easily enough.
But she couldn''t bring herself to move.
So she just watched, as he ran down the alley, turned the corner, and disappeared. It was like watching through someone else''s eyes. Yang couldn''t bring herself to do anything. It took everything she had just to try and stay focused. Ignore the feeling of cold and unshakeable dread that was seeping into her bones.
What Junior had said, she couldn''t have done that, right? After all, the news hadn''t said anything about a bunch of dead bodies suddenly turning up. They would have, if as many people as Junior claimed had died. They would have a field day with that¡ Unless, maybe they wouldn''t? The kingdom was already on edge. If it came out that so many people had suddenly turned up dead, the effect could be devastating. Grimm were attracted to negative emotions. If in the middle of all this, several dozen people were found dead, the damage could be catastrophic. Suppressing certain events wasn''t unheard of. Oobleck said it used to be a lot more common back during the Great War. But who''d say it still wasn''t?
But she couldn''t have done it. She''d remember having¡
Yang shuddered, hugging herself. She suddenly felt as though she''d be sick.
She hoped she''d remember something like that. But the longer Yang tried to remember that night, the more she realized how much of a blank it was. A big blackhole in her memory that swallowed everything dropped into it. Junior could''ve said she''d spent the night drag racing, and she''d be no wiser.
The only feeling that cut through the chill she felt was the pounding in her head. Tried to fit together pieces that might have once matched, but were now like broken glass.
Junior was lying. He had to be. She couldn''t.
But she could have.
That truth was obvious to her. She knew her own strength.
Junior had to be lying.
She knew she couldn''t trust him. But the only other person who was there was¡
Yang felt her heart stop.
A memory came back to her. Not more than a day or two prior.
The Courier had wanted to talk with her.
About what had happened in the Club.
What happened with Junior.
¡ Was Junior lying?
"¡ Yang?" A voice asked.
Yang spun around in an instant, and her heart snapped back into rhythm at rocket speeds. She found herself instantly ready for a fight.
She found Weiss there instead. Watching her, curious and confused. Now cautious as well, as the heiress observed Yang''s weapons warily.
"¡ Is everything ok?" Weiss asked, slowly, mindfully.
"¡ Y-yeah." Yang lied, lowering her arms, taking slow breaths.
Weiss nodded, still eyeing her, then looking briefly around the alley. "I¡ guess you didn''t catch him?"
"Who?" Yang said, blinking.
"Um¡ Junior?" Weiss asked.
"Oh¡ no." Yang lied. "He, um¡. He got away."
"¡ Ok." Weiss said, looking at her in concern. "Is everything ok?"
"¡ I don''t know." Yang answered, dry swallowing.
Weiss nodded, still watching Yang. Studying her closely. How long had the two of them separated? It couldn''t have been for more than a minute or two, could it?
What an impossible pair of minutes.
Yang turned toward the mouth of the alley. She steeled herself, tried to bury the feeling that wouldn''t go away. "C''mon. We¡ we need to figure out where to go next."
"¡ Ok." Weiss said, voice soft, quiet.
The two of them left the mouth of the alley, turning the opposite direction Junior had gone. Some part of her hoped she never ran into him again. A completely alien feeling to her. She preferred it when guys like Junior felt that way about her.
There was nothing Yang could do now. Whatever had happened at Junior''s Club, it happened.
But not knowing would kill her sooner than anything else. The amount of blood that could be on her hands, how was she supposed to live with that? Was she supposed to? Did she even have any on them? The only answer she could see was trying to figure out what was true.
There was only one other person who could tell her.
She needed to have words with the Courier.
People in the Party
Tonight had gotten out of hand really quick. I mean, really quick. Normally the sun would already be set before things started getting crazy. Maybe that was just me, trying not to make things more visible for everyone.
But it was hardly half past five and everything had practically gone to hell in a handbasket.
Over simplified, yeah, it''d really only gotten out of hand in the past ten minutes. But a lot happens in just a few minutes.
Running into Penny again had been a surprise. Good to see she was doing alright, even if she was being kept under observation.
Hadn''t expected to run into an Atlesian military expo, but I''d found them lacking anyway. Maybe a basic display of programming was impressive to most. But outside some improved mobility, doing some simple posing wasn''t anything special.
Then Penny''s chaperones got testy, and forced me to react in a wholly appropriate fashion. For me at least. What followed was us going completely off script and performing what was tantamount to a kidnapping. Yeah, Penny didn''t necessarily resist coming with us, but just because she didn''t see it that way didn''t change that we had. A child might think the nice man offering them a FancyLad might be a nice guy. Their parents, on the other hand, would have a shotgun trained on him in half a heartbeat.
Which was followed by us fleeing completely outside of our prescribed territory. Which made matters worse on both counts.
It somehow got worse when, in the half second I spent covering our tracks, she and Ruby somehow got hit by a truck.
And did more damage to the TRUCK.
Wish I had that kind of Luck.
Despite all that, however, I only just then started to feel out of my element. Right then, as I rounded the corner, in the bowels of yet another alley, having watched a several ton vehicle moving at high speeds, slam into someone, and crumple around them like a rooted tree.
Somehow this was where my line in the sand was.
Think it said more about what this world had done to my standards than anything else. Frankly, I didn''t know I had standards left to get broken until that moment.
Penny and Ruby were standing in a small junction for the alley. Where the dumpsters, fuse boxes, and runoff all ran together before the alley jutted back out the other side.
When I''d gotten to them, they weren''t standing too far from one of the two ways in. Ruby with her back to me, Penny facing towards us both. Her arms hung low, palms of her hands facing up. They were a bit scraped and torn. You''d expect worse, from someone who''d just stopped a speeding truck. In any normal circumstance I''d have been rushing to get her bandaged too. Wounds like that can cause massive problems if not properly treated.
But she wasn''t bleeding. Seeing what was beneath the damage, I didn''t even know if she could anyway.
The skin of her palms had been torn up, couldn''t have been more than maybe a quarter of an inch thick.
There was no flesh underneath, nor sinew, blood, or bone.
Only solid, gray steel. Hinged and articulated in the facsimile of a wrist and scaphotrapeziotrapezoid. Try saying that three times fast.
I could tell this was going to be one of those moments where my understanding of matters was going to be redefined.
"Penny-" Ruby started, head rocking up and down, regarding Penny. "I¡ I don''t understand."
"¡ Most girls are born." Penny explained, pensive, apprehensive. "But I was made¡ I''m the world''s first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura¡" She paused for a moment, her lips pursing as she tried to find the words. Maybe already having found them, but not wanting to say them. "I''m¡ I''m not real."
Her words lingered in the air for a moment.
"¡Not to correct you, being born doesn''t preclude being made." I said. "Most girls, or boys for that matter, don''t just magic themselves into existence. They do technically have to be made-"
"Six!" Ruby hissed.
"I''m trying to process this, I needed something to latch onto!" I snapped back.
"Why that!?" She asked.
"I don''t fucking know!" I answered.
My words, however, did not help Penny. She didn''t get any worse than where she was, but I wasn''t exactly improving her mood either. After a moment, my brain caught up to the situation and started doing what it loved to do when presented with situations like this. Though I myself didn''t always do it.
"¡ So you''re a cyborg?" I asked, choosing to approach the two. As I did, Penny looked up to me, tracking my movement.
"Cyborg?" Ruby asked, processing what was asking. "¡ you mean like the ones from the movies? People who are part machine and- um¡ meat?"
She said the second part with a wince. There weren''t a lot of words to adequately describe them and being brief only made that worse. Though we technically preferred the term Mechanically-Advanced individuals.
"In a nutshell." I agreed, looking down at Penny''s hands. "My understanding of things might be shaky, but I gather you need to be alive to generate an Aura, right?"
Penny pursed her lips again, then shook her head. "I''m¡ I''m not a cyborg, no."
"So a gynoid then." Looking her up and down, nodding. "Damn, that''s actually pretty cool."
"A what?" Ruby asked.
"A gynoid." I told her. "A robot built to resemble a human, specifically a female. The male synonym would be an android."
"I''ve never heard either of those words." Penny said.
"They''re rooted in dead languages." I explained. "But they''re popular terms in sci-fi comics and books where I''m from. Though most use android interchangeably."
Penny nodded, only shrinking further, as though her being a robot somehow made her less. "Just as you say, I''m not real."
"Not real?" I asked. "That''s what you''re going to take away from it?"
"Like you said." Penny said sadly. "Built to resemble a female, a girl¡" She shook her head. "I''m not-"
"Oh stop!" Ruby said.
Penny jolted slightly, looking back towards Ruby, who didn''t waste a beat in closing the distance between her and Penny, catching her by surprise. Ruby took Penny''s hands in her, turning them gently to face her. Making it clear she could see exactly what was underneath. She then gently closed Penny''s hands, and gently clasped them with her own.
"So you''re made of nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts?" Ruby asked, smiling. "So what? You feel pretty real to me."
"I¡" Penny stuttered, looking between the two of us. "I don''t¡"
"Looks real, sounds real, feels real¡" I said, ticking off my fingers. "Three out of five ain''t bad."
"You''re¡ both taking this ex-traordinarily well." Penny said.
"Penny." Ruby said, still smiling. "You are not the strangest thing I''ve learned about in the past few weeks."
"Same." I added.
"-You''ve got a heart, and a soul!" Ruby squeaked. "Those are both pretty real to me. I saw both at the docks, remember?"
Penny didn''t answer. I frankly had no idea what they were referring to, but I''d side with Ruby in any case. Penny looked at her, looked at me, then back to Ruby. The sad, melancholic look about her melted slowly, and she began to smile.
Then her arms shot out like set springs and lashed around Ruby. Ruby let out another squeak, and was promptly dragged into a hug by Penny.
"Best Friend!" Penny shouted. "Best friend anyone could ask for!"
"Ack! Crushing!" Ruby choked out. "Choking! Help! Six!"
Almost like she''d been given a command, Penny snapped upright and spun towards me, her arm beginning to lash out. However, halfway into the motion, she slowed to a stop, arm hanging in the air. Her expression fell again as she looked at me.
"¡What?" I asked, half ready to leap back.
"I know you don''t like robots." Penny said, pulling back. "I''m sorry for startling you."
"Don''t like what?" I asked.
Penny pulled back, giving Ruby one last squeeze, then slowly released her.
"I can see why your dad and the general would want to protect such a delicate flower." Ruby said, rubbing her possibly cracked ribs.
"Well, they did build me." Penny said. "Papa mostly, but Mister Ironwood helped. They''re both very sweet, I''m sure you''d love them if you met them."
"Can''t say much for the general, but credit to your father, to get the kind of security you had, he must''ve cared a whole awful lot." I said. "¡ which means we''re probably going to be in an ass-load of trouble."
"Language." Ruby said, before giving Penny a confused look. "I''m kind of surprised they''d think you need the protection though. Do they really not think you can protect yourself?"
"They''re not sure yet." Penny shrugged.
Ruby sputtered at that. "Not sure!? Penny I''ve seen what you can do! How are they not sure?!"
''Makes one of us at least''
"I''ve got a big responsibility." Penny answered. "They just don''t know if I''m ready yet. I have a lot left to learn."
"Which is why you''re here." I said, recalling some past conversation. "You''re here to fight in the tournament, right? Which I guess makes the rest of us the test bed."
"It''s only meant to be out of respect." Penny explained, quickly. "People fighting in the tournament are some of the best fighters of the coming generation. They''ve already compared me to some of the best soldiers Atlas has-"
"But they need to know how you stack up with what''s coming." I finished for her. "It''s ok, I''m not judging, I understand the method well enough."
"And I wanted to see what it was like in the world." Penny explained, clenching her fist. "I wanted to test myself... but there''s more out there than just fighting, right?"
I smiled at that sentiment.
Not a real person my ass. I''d met centuries old ghouls who couldn''t even figure that much out.
"What do they need you to prepare for though?" Ruby asked. "We''re in a time of peace, aren''t we?"
"Si vis pacem, parabellum." I said, turning to look at Ruby, who looked back at me in confusion. "''If you want peace, prepare for war''. Ironwood might not be looking for a fight, but I''d have to guess-" I motioned up towards the invisible skyline, and the myriad airships there in. "He''s got a pretty decent grasp of the concept."
"That''s not quite right." Penny said, looking confused. "Mr. Ironwood said I needed to be ready for something that was coming."
"Oh¡ well, that''s not ominous in its own right." I said.
Great, even a world away, military leadership was still hyper paranoid and trigger happy.
Though the fact he was at least letting Penny stretch her legs and effectively prepare already put him leagues ahead of Lee Oliver. For the little achievement that was.
The three of us fell silent for a moment. With one massive revelation out of the way, there was only one other problem that needed to be addressed.
"¡ Well, what do we do now?" Ruby asked, looking back the way we''d come. "I don''t think we were followed." She then looked towards Penny. "But we can''t keep going if Penny''s with us, can we?"
"Keep going with what?" Penny asked. "What''re you doing?"
"Troublemaking of its own special breed." I explained. "Which I think both Ruby and I would rather not drag you any further into if we can avoid it."
"We''re trying to help Blake still." Ruby explained. "Like we were at the docks. But what we''re doing isn''t exactly something we can be as open about."
"Oh¡" Penny scanned us both briefly with her eyes before smiling. "So you''re Crazy Steve?"
"¡" I exhaled calmly through my nose. "How?"
"General Ironwood has been observing the White Fang''s activities while preparing for the festival and tournament." Penny explained brightly. "He took special note of the vigilante hampering their efforts. He''s actually quite impressed at how effective they''ve, or I guess you''ve, been."
"Of course he is." I sighed, not annoyed in the slightest. Could only hope neither he nor Ozpin had pieced that much together. Didn''t need that extra annoyance in my life. "¡ Well, yeah, it''s me. Just keep quiet about it, alright?"
"Of course!" Penny chirped. "Your secret''s safe with me¡" She grew quiet and asked. "Mine''s safe with you too, yes?"
"Naturally / Duh~." Both Ruby and I agreed.
"Sensational~!" Penny smiled.
"Still doesn''t change the current situation though." I said. "We need to keep moving tonight, but don''t want to drag you into our mess again. We''re going to need to get you back to your people without getting caught."
Ruby pursed her lips, thinking, and asked, "Are there any more of those expos happening tonight?"
Penny''s eyes rolled around for a moment, clearly processing or thinking. She then refocused and nodded. "Yes, there were to be several of them this evening. Including one at a gala the general is attending this evening."
"That means there''s probably soldiers at each of them too." I said. "Do most of them have any idea who you are?"
Penny nodded. "Of course, most know me as Professor Polendina''s daughter. Only a few people know the rest of the story."
"Ok¡" I stroked my chin, thinking. I''d gotten us into this fine mess, I had no problem trying to be the one to fix it. A moment later I nodded. "¡ Ok. We need to keep moving, so here''s what we''re gonna do:" I turned to look at Ruby. "Though I''m not a fan of splitting up any further, I think we need to here. This is only going to slow us down otherwise."
Ruby thought on it for a moment, but nodded. "What are we doing?"
"I''m going to take Penny to the nearest rally and drop her off." I explained. "I''m the guy who attacked her bodyguards, so if they''ve got eyes on either of us it''ll be me. I''d rather I get caught than you, worst case scenario, it at least means our cover''s not as badly blown."
"What?" Ruby asked. "But I want to-"
"You, meanwhile, are going to head to our next spot and start scoping it out." I told her. "Watch who goes in and out, get a feel for the place, find out how much trouble we can expect."
Ruby gave me a pointed look, clearly not keen on the orders I was giving.
"¡" I nodded, relenting. "If you do, I''ll let you take point this time."
Ruby continued to eye me shrewdly. "¡ Deal."
I double checked my Pip-boy, snagging the location from my map, and explained to Ruby where it was. "I''ll meet you there, assuming the soldiers don''t try to nab me. Remember-"
"Low profile." Ruby nodded.
"Lower than kidnapping Penny was, at least." I said, before turning to the copper haired girl. "You know where the nearest Expo is?"
Penny nodded, a bit more solemnly. "I can lead the way if you want."
"That''d be for the best." I agreed, motioning towards the other path out of the alley. "Better get a move on too. Night''s young but getting older by the second."
The three of us headed towards the second exit of the alley. At the mouth, or perhaps ass in our case, of the alley Ruby poked her head out, checking to make sure the coast was clear of people, and perhaps runaway delivery vehicles. We looked both ways, nodded, and split from each other. I was a little reluctant to do so. Ruby could handle herself, but I knew splitting up always had a big risk of going sideways.
On a night like that?
It was almost a certainty.
¡
Ruby remained as calm and stoic as she could manage, as she hurried away from the Courier and their copper-haired friend. It was tough for her, but she did it. She kept herself contained until she was around a corner and half a street over.
Then she exploded, launching herself forward, laughing.
Ruby Rose had made friends with a robot.
Penny was more than a robot, but the idea was the same. She''d made friends with one. The sheer silly, awesomeness of that fact left her elated. The only way tonight could get better was if Crescent Rose started talking to her. Though she knew that wasn''t going to happen, she was more of a listener than a talker. Though she could be quite loud when she wanted to be.
It was awesome either way.
Ruby felt herself touch down a hundred yards away, and multiple intersections later. A new personal record. On the whole, she felt tonight had been going great. Sure there''d been some unexpected surprises, and she had some questions she felt she really needed to ask now. But things were getting really exciting, and she had a feeling, as the night went on, that it was only going to get better¡
Outside of having to sit around waiting for Six.
That part annoyed her, slightly. She wasn''t a stranger to needing to wait, she understood the idea. Part of her training in combat school was learning what being an effective sniper meant. Which sometimes meant needing to remain still, for extended periods of time, being patient.
She could do that.
She also knew she hated doing that.
It made more sense to find a better angle and take the shot from there. That was more her style.
But, as the night had shown, being calm and patient was useful for more than just getting a good shot. It was about seeing when and where they might appear. Accounting for small details her usual way of doing things might miss, something Six had tried to impress upon her during their sparring session.
Which she totally could have won, had he not sucker-punched her.
But as she trailed her way down the sidewalk, towards the next location, she reminded herself what that meant. Calm. Peaceful.
Six was trusting her to go ahead and figure out what they could expect. That meant she needed to be calm. Focused.
As she approached the next crosswalk, she took a deep breath, steadying herself. She tapped the button on the crosswalk sign, and waited. Even as the traffic around her was effectively nothing. The only thing she could see coming were a trio of vans on the opposite side of the intersection. They were far enough away she could have made it across before reaching her, no sweat.
But she forced herself to wait.
It was slow and boring, and she didn''t want to. But she knew it wouldn''t hurt, trying to practice her patience. So she waited, watching as the vans approached, crossed the intersection at a yellow, or sped through a red in the third''s case, then whizzed past her, letting her see the driver of the lead van, then the driver of the second, and the third. Each one felt like she was watching a copy of the last pass in front of her: Faunus driver, black short-sleeved shirt, white tunic over their chest, hoods hanging around their necks-
As the third van flew past her, Ruby found her head wrenching after it, her gaze trailing the three vehicles as they drew further away.
She swore her eyes had played tricks on her.
But she could feel something turning in her head, as the light of the crosswalk changed.
The vans, reaching the far end of the street, began to turn out of sight.
Something in Ruby''s stomach twisted, and a feeling like a bolt of lightning went through her head. She couldn''t quite place it. Couldn''t quite shake it. Surely there wasn''t something significant to this. They were just three Faunus. Each could own a van. Any of them could have similar taste in clothes. None of it meant anything. If she just made assumptions, that''d be profiling. Which would be incredibly insensitive of her.
The third van began to round the corner.
She turned and bolted after it.
¡
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
If my understanding of Vale was right, Penny was leading us uptown. More towards Jaune and Pyrrha''s portion of the city. I was going to need to trust she knew where to go. The Expos weren''t going to be hard to find, since that would defeat the whole purpose of them, but it didn''t change that I didn''t want to waste time looking for one. Knowing my luck, I''d lose three hours trying to find one while always being one turn away from it.
Penny didn''t say much, as we started walking. It stayed that way for maybe fifteen minutes, as she led the way. I''m no stranger to walking in companionable silence. There were plenty of times in the Mojave where me and my companions would go for miles without saying a word. Partly because we were watching for danger, yes, but also because there wasn''t much to talk about. The company itself was what was worth something.
However, as we slowly plod our way through town, I knew something was off. It wasn''t the fact that the crowds were thin for a weekend night, or the mostly set sun. Both those were about what I was used to for this time. Another half hour or so, things would be more lively. No, the trouble was with Penny. She and I hadn''t had a great deal of time to interact in the past. We were practically still strangers, up until what had happened in the alley. Outside the chat we''d had at the docks, we hadn''t had much time together. But I could tell that something was off. I''d keyed into it back in the alley.
So as we walked, I took a shot at conversation.
"So¡ Nice town, ain''t it?" I offered.
"Hm?" Penny hummed.
"Vale." I said. "Not exactly from here myself. But I''m finding it has some charms."
"Oh!" She exclaimed, seamlessly sidestepping a jogger and their dog. "Yes, I suppose it does."
"Good nightlife, decent food-" I said, rattling off. "-quality entertainment if you know where to look."
"Mm." Penny nodded.
"¡ Y''know what, I''m curious-" I said. "Can you eat?"
Penny looked at me for a moment, pondering, mouth flapping open and closed once or twice. "¡ I don''t believe I can, no." She answered after a moment. "My systems use a rechargeable Dust Pack, similar to the ones that power Scrolls¡ I don''t think Papa built me with that in mind¡ Maybe I should ask."
"Tsk, That''s a shame." I said. "I''m a deft hand with a skillet, you can ask Ruby."
Penny nodded, but didn''t say anything.
"¡ So, seen any good movies?" I asked, then remembered. "Wait, shit, you''ve never even been to a park. You''ve never seen a movie either, have you?"
She shook her head.
"Shit." I cursed.
"Language." Penny said, smiling slightly. "Foul language is discouraged."
"Fowl language?'' I asked. "¡So I can''t call someone a turkey?"
Penny''s brow furrowed, and she looked at me, confused.
"I mean, I don''t want to grouse." I said, knowing Yang would have a field day if she caught me. "But you can''t be expecting me to quail to such a request."
"¡"
"I mean, I don''t want to be ducking your standards either." I continued. "But I mean, geese, you gotta give me a little leeway here."
"¡"
"¡ Cock." I finished.
"¡"
Penny erupted in laughter.
I felt my mouth tug up at the corners. "There we are, much better."
"They have multiple meanings!" Penny cheered. "Words are weird."
"Yeah, yeah they are." I agreed, happier she had an even momentary improvement to her mood.
Which is ultimately what it was, momentary. Eventually her laughter quieted, and we were in silence again, for a time. Wasn''t sure what I could really do to change that.
Then, Penny spoke up. Said something I wasn''t expecting her to.
"Six?" She asked, getting my attention. "I''m sorry."
"For what?" I asked.
"For being what I am." Penny explained. "I know you don''t like robots, but I''m glad we''re friends. You and Ruby are some of the best friends I could ask for."
The moment she said the words, I couldn''t help but feel like she''d just hit me over the head. "Don''t like what? Where''d you get that idea from?"
"From when we were observing the Expo before." Penny explained. "I heard what you said about the new knight model."
"¡ oh. Oh, Penny, no." I said, feeling like a complete ass. I could remember what I''d said just fine. Hindsight''s a bitch. "I didn''t mean it like that."
"It''s okay." Penny said. "I know that I''m just a machine, but I do appreciate you and Ruby being my friends."
"Penny I didn''t mean it that way." I explained. "Even if I''d known the truth before, I''d never have lumped you in with those drones."
"Really, it''s fine." Penny said, giving me a sad smile. "I know what I am, and it''s ok."
I understood what she was trying to do. She wasn''t trying to guilt me or anything. In a different context, that might have seemed the case. But Penny was a simple girl, honest to a fault really. I''d figured that much out. But that meant she really believed what she was saying too. That she was just a machine.
That couldn''t be further from the truth. I wasn''t going to stand her doing that to herself either.
"Penny, when I''d said what I did about the new knight drones, I wasn''t talking about you." I told her. "They''re not you, and you''re not them. The knights weren''t built to be people, they were built to be tools and that''s it. If your Papa-er, dad, wanted you to be a tool, why bother giving you a face, or hair, or anything?"
Penny didn''t answer. She just looked glumly down to the ground. Down to her balled hands.
"¡" I put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at me, eyes gleaming green. "Come with me for a sec."
She didn''t immediately comply, so I had to lead her off to the side. Which was like trying to drag a deactivated Protectron. But she complied after a moment, and we stepped to one side of the sidewalk. Under the shade and eve of a building, not quite away from prying eyes, but more private than we were. I stood in front of her and took hold of her hands. Gently, I began to open them, letting her palms turn up to face me.
"Does it hurt?" I asked.
Penny didn''t reply for a moment, but answered after some hesitation. "I don''t feel pain the same way you might. There are sensors lining my epidermal layer, monitoring outside conditions. Including ones that may damage it." She wiggled her fingers slightly. "It''s designed for my aura to gradually regenerate over time, like normal skin."
"Amazing." I told her. "Definitely sounds human to me."
She blinked and looked at me.
I reached into my coat and fished around among my aid supplies. My hand clasped onto a few cloth bandages and I took them out. Gently, like I would be tending anyone else, I began to wrap them around her palms. "Important rule of first aid, don''t leave wounds exposed to the elements."
Penny''s gaze only grew more curious as I worked. Once they were securely covered, I gently closed her hands. Wasn''t sure how long it might take for something like that to recover, but better to treat her like normal than not.
"¡ I''ve got friends like you, back home." I told Penny. "Friends that aren''t quite ''human'' or ''normal'' as it were."
Penny continued watching me curiously, but it suddenly felt like she was paying real close attention.
"Their names are ED-E and Rex." I told her, softly. "Rex is a dog, what we call a cyberdog. He got hurt a long time ago, and to save his life, they had to implant him with machinery. But that didn''t change who he is. Nor how anyone treats him."
Penny nodded, tilting her head intently.
"And ED-E? He was technically never alive to begin with." I told her. "He was a robot from the moment he was created¡ But someone made him something more than that." I gently gripped her shoulder. "At some point, the person who made him took the time to give him something more. Made it so he could be more. He made friends, he learned about old shows, and wasn''t afraid to try and see the world. Even if the world might not have been as welcoming to him¡" I looked Penny in the eye. "I''ve met plenty of people who''ve got less right to the word than you do, Penny."
Penny looked back at me for a moment, then she pursed her lips. "But¡ But I''m not human. I''m not a Faunus. I''m not normal¡ You and Ruby are better friends than I can ask for. But that doesn''t change what I am."
"What''s normal?" I ask. "No one really knows what that means. It''s a transitive state, lasting brief shifts in the wind and flickers in the light of the sun. It means what you want it to mean. And you seem pretty normal to me."
"¡ Well, you seem pretty normal to me too." Penny answered innocently.
It made me laugh. Bless this girl, she was sweeter than sugar bombs.
"But it''s true!" She protested. "You, Ruby, you''re both normal¡ I''m not."
As I finished laughing, I shook my head. She really had no clue. How could she? Cooped up in labs and airships. Kept away from everything¡
I made a choice.
"Can you keep a secret?" I asked.
Penny stared at me again, for a moment, then nodded.
I took one of her hands in mine, gently nudging her to uncurl her fingers. My back curved and head bowed slightly, as I brought myself down more towards her level. A little awkward, me being nearly half a foot taller than her. But I guided her hand upward, as she watched curiously. What I was doing wasn''t something I''d normally consider letting anyone do. But Penny was a rare case. It''d be easier for her to understand than anyone else.
My hand guided hers around the side of my neck, until I felt her fingers ghost over the back, hovering just around the base of my skull. Gently, I prodded her fingers around, feeling for the right spot. It really stuck out, once you knew what to look for. After a second or two of it, I pressed her fingers against something hiding just under the skin. It was solid, a bit blocky, and ever so slightly important.
Penny''s brow scrunched in confusion, and she gave me a studying look.
"You feel that?" I asked. "That''s-"
Before I could finish, there was an odd, sharp sound. A sort of *ping* that I felt snap through my body like a shiver. I know it was there too, because it felt like it ran directly into my eardrums.
Penny''s eyes went wide.
"Um¡ ow." I said, slowly releasing her hand. "What was that?"
Penny didn''t answer. Instead, her eyes just began slowly trailing up and down over me. Her jaw relaxed, and whatever gloom she must''ve been feeling seemed to disappear. There was a long pause, where she just stood there, looking at me.
"¡ Penny?" I asked.
Penny blinked, refocusing. "I-I''m sorry!" She squeaked. "I-I didn''t mean to pry! It''s just¡" She forced herself to calm down, she seemed almost panicky. "That- that was a harmonic scan. I have them built in for diagnostics. They let me generate images using a high-pitched vibration¡ Do you know what a sonar is?"
"Uh¡ yes?" I offered.
"It''s like that." Penny explained, looking slightly embarrassed. Not normal my boot. "It let me¡ scan you."
"Oh?" I asked, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious "¡ What''d you see?"
Penny paused briefly, looking at me like a child on their birthday, suddenly very eager to unwrap the parcel in front of them. "I¡ I saw the thing on your neck." She answered. "The ones on your spine, your skull, in your chest¡" she shrank slightly. "The ones covering your bones."
"¡ Oh." I said, very surprised. Seems she''d gotten to see a little more than I''d intended.
But then, she looked at me, eyes bright, wondering, maybe even hoping. "Are you¡ are you like me?"
"¡ Not quite." I told her. "But I don''t think you got much ground to be calling me normal either, huh?"
She didn''t answer, for a moment.
First she slammed into me and tried to crush me like an empty bean tin, squeezing a wheeze out of me like a popped tire.
"Best friends," Penny almost whispered. "Best friends I could ever ask for."
"¡" I patted Penny on the back. "No problem kiddo."
What was one more existential secret between friends? Honestly, if I''d ever tried to explain that much to everyone else, how would they believe me? Wasn''t like I would cut myself open and show them.
As I stood there with Penny, however, I heard a faint sound. Though a familiar one, even if I hadn''t heard it in quite some time.
My Pip-Boy chimed, a new notification.
With a subtle motion, I checked it
-You''ve gained Penny Polendina as a Follower.
-Penny has given you the Machine Learning Perk.
As the moment of bone crushing turned into several, I marveled at the odd-timing of the device on my wrist. I wasn''t sure what had triggered it, and it''d been a long time since it''d last happened, especially with someone I''d only just really become close with. I mean, Penny and I hadn''t spoken, or even been in the same area more than a handful of times. I certainly hadn''t managed anything like that with my group at Beacon.
It was strange.
Penny finally decided to release me. She looked at me, eyes almost sparkling. "How did you get like this?" Penny asked
"It''s a long story." I told Penny. "Maybe if you come around for dinner sometime, I''ll tell you about it. But if you''re feeling better, we need to keep moving. The sooner we get you back to your people, the less likely we are to have problems."
"Right." Penny nodded, spinning on her heel. "This way! It''s only a few blocks over."
"Of course." I nodded.
With a slightly lighter atmosphere, we soldiered forward. As we did, I took the time to check a little deeper into my Pip-Boy.
-MACHINE LEARNING
-Some machines are a lot smarter than you give them credit for, eh? While Penny is a Companion, you gain a computational boost to processing power, resulting in a 25% decrease in AP costs.
I blinked and re-read it. Then a third time. The fourth time, I checked the perk icon, a picture of a Vault-Penny sitting at a desk reading a book, then read it again.
No, I wasn''t reading it wrong. It had just confirmed some part of me now considered Penny a Companion. The perk was a nice one too, but I doubted I''d get much use in the few minutes we''d be stuck together.
I felt something strange in my chest. A sense of weightlessness.
Frankly, I didn''t like it.
¡
It wasn''t often that General Ironwood found himself forced to travel by car. He wasn''t averse to the idea, but he had grown accustomed to the use of Manta and Stingray gunships to get from point A and B. He was a busy man, running both Atlas Academy, and leading the Atlas military. It behooved him to make sure he was making adequate use of his resources. Which conveniently, included both his vehicle privileges and time.
However, given the circumstances, he found his usual privileges did not apply. While he''d been allowed to secure airspace for the retinue of airships, the same could not be said for their use within the city''s airspace. Which he found to be fair. Air traffic was a strenuous matter on the best of days, having to account for his fleet in addition to that would not be an easy matter. The most they''d been allotted was a landing zone near the city port. Space enough they could load and off-load supplies and personnel as needed, which he found more than fitting. With Amity Coliseum still en route to the kingdom, they would be claiming more of its airspace soon enough.
So for all that, taking a car was but a small price. Aside from that fact, he found he was actually quite enjoying the chance to see things from ground level once more. He found spending too long in the sky made everything below seem so distant. That''s not why he did what he did. Though the car was also a nice one, which certainly helped.
"Have either of you gotten a chance to explore the city yet?" the General asked, gaze turning away from the window, towards his driver and attendant. Both soldiers were assigned to be his escorts for the evening, a formality from before his time. Both were dressed in the more formal uniform reserved for such occasions: blue and white uniforms, light double breasted coats, and high peaked caps. They were lighter than the standard would have been, back in Atlas. They''d have been roasting in the summer''s heat otherwise. It wouldn''t do for his associates to collapse from heat stroke during such a formal event. Which this very much would be, if all went according to plan.
One of the soldiers, a younger woman chiefly tasked as his bodyguard, spoke. "Not yet sir. We''ve been busy preparing for tonight, as requested."
The general nodded. "Of course¡ see to it that you take tomorrow off."
"Thank you, sir." The woman, a lieutenant Helles, answered.
He nodded, looking back out the window. Only fitting they get the opportunity for some shore-leave while they could. Once the festival proper began, they wouldn''t have such a luxury. They almost never did, with the amount of security and manpower required.
But, part of tonight''s event was to help alleviate that. Assuming everything went according to plan, they''d have a little extra funding, and garnered some much needed public support. The demonstrations were only the first step, the gala would be where things mattered.
Gently, the car slowed to a halt at the curbside, and the General stared out at the street beyond. There were some reporters, cameramen too, already recording and snapping pictures. There were guests out in advance of him, already queued and waiting to enter. The gala was being held on the top floor of the Grand Goudale, one of the ritzier hotels in Vale. They''d tried for the Royale, but found them to be a touch over budget. Damn bureaucrats.
However, he''d seen to the preparations himself, and was pleased with the setup. It would do well for what needed to happen tonight.
"Orders sir?" his driver asked.
"You can let me out here." The General answered. "Park the car and make your way up, I''m sure you won''t have any trouble finding me."
Helles looked back at him. "But sir, our orders-"
"I''m your General, and I order you to let me leave my own car." The General ordered, smirking. "I''m quite capable of protecting myself for the few minutes it will take you."
"¡" Helles face forward once more. "Understood sir."
With a smirk, the General left the vehicle. Shutting the door, it pulled away from the curb and moved down the street once more. It rounded a corner as he approached the entrance to the hotel. He chose to take the side entrance in, rather than waste time with the reporters. He would be having his picture taken for most of the evening, he didn''t need to spend half of it stuck at the front door, preening like a peacock. So he avoided them, and made his way into the hotel.
The number of cameras inside was fewer than they had been outside. Courtesy of security, who were quite thoroughly checking everyone who entered with a press badge. Everyone else was either already broken off into their own cloisters or groups, likely waiting for those still outside. As it was, he was free enough to make the journey on his own.
He approached an elevator, a gilded thing, polished to a mirror finish, and took it up. It rode smoothly right to the very top of the building, and opened out into the hall they''d be holding their gathering.
It was a tastefully old place, the Goudale. It had stood since before the Great War. Carried the style of its era, brasses and coppers bracing, smooth cut and polished stone. Crystal glass dangled from the chandelier overhead like hundreds of glowing icicles, scattering warm hued lights into the dim-lit hall. Tropical shrub and plant growth dotted the room, broken by pillars of stone. Certainly not natural to Vale, or the surrounding countryside. Likely imported from Vacuo, once upon a time. Off to one corner of the room, an old band was keying themselves in. Many stringed instruments, a quartet of violins, a harpist, and a cellist. What it would sound like once they were all playing, he wasn''t sure.
Biggest of all, however, was the far wall, climbing all the way to the ceiling overhead, made up of massive panoramic windows. They cast the warm sunlight into the room, and gave a view of Vale all the way to the coast beyond. Across the northern district, of course. Why would the rich want a view of the poors while they sip wine?
The general passed quietly through the room, noting the few guests that were already present. More than them though, he observed who was serving them.
Jacques Schnee was an absolute ass of a man if Ironwood had ever met one.
But the man knew business.
Programming a non-combat subroutine into the Knight 200 series was a smart decision. One the General knew had been almost purely for Jacque''s own benefit, but beneficial in cases such as these.
He was only able to spare a handful for the evening. But their presence would still serve towards building public support. Every scrap of it mattered.
He knew the war they were poised to fight.
Placidly, the General crossed the great hall, approaching the massive windows, taking the chance to look out over the city, then down to the street below once more. More guests making their way in. Cars passing on the street, many just seeking to offload more guests at the curbside. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Despite that, he couldn''t shake the phantom pain he felt in his mechanical arm.
He''d been keeping abreast of events within the city. The White Fang would see tonight as an easy target.
As hotel staff made their way into the hall, he found himself turning toward them. They were bringing in cloth covered carts and trays of sparkling wine, platters of food fresh from the kitchen. A fair amount of it at that. Unconsciously, he rested his hand on the massive pistol at his side. Were that not enough, he could have the drones ready for combat with a touch of his scroll.
Part of him hoped the White Fang would take the bait.
He''d be happy to help The Professor remove one possible enemy from their midst.
¡
Ruby gasped for air, as she touched down in the alleyway.
Her Semblance made her faster than most, but trying to keep up with a speeding vehicle was pushing it. Much less three of them, with a head start!
She didn''t really know what she''d been thinking, when she''d started tailing them. The only thing she had to go on was a gut feeling, which she knew wasn''t good. She knew that if the Courier found out, or rather when he did, because of how far she''d followed them, he''d be angry with her. She knew she had to watch her impulsiveness.
But Ruby had a feeling. One of those she knew she shouldn''t ignore, even if it meant she''d had to trail all three vans uptown at a dead sprint. Or, her equivalent to one.
She was glad she could practically fly over roofs. If she''d been stuck completely to the sidewalk she''d have probably lost them and made the whole thing pointless.
Hopefully it wouldn''t turn out to be pointless.
Ruby watched from the rooftop as the three vans rolled slowly down the street, forced to worm their way through traffic. There was this large hotel, with a bunch of people standing in front of. Looked like they were going to some kind of party. The kind Weiss would probably know all about, with forty seven different kinds of forks, and a Jeeves.
She wasn''t sure what a Jeeves was, but it sounded fancy.
Ruby watched patiently, trying not to make herself stand out any more than she already was. The vans continued to roll down the street, past the front of the hotel. They then turned down a side alley, falling out of sight.
With a deep breath, Ruby got a running start and leapt off the building. She vanished into a cloud of rose petals and shot through the air.
Ruby felt like she never really understood what her Semblance did. She understood that it allowed her to basically dash between two points quickly. But how she did, didn''t make sense to her. Her body turned into a cloud of petals, she shot through the air in whatever direction she wanted, then landed. That in-between part had always confused her between starting and ending. She could see the entire world around her, but it was more than she normally could. Like her eyes were opened even wider. Trying to actually move her body while she was like that was hard too. She could just barely make out the shape of her body, it was like a red outline, which was probably her Aura. She''d seen it enough times to know the color. But so much of it didn''t make sense to her.
Though it didn''t need to make sense to be useful.
She held the form for the width of the street, then released it, landing safely on the opposite rooftop. For a moment she stayed there, catching her breath, but even as she did, she knew she couldn''t do so for long. Even with her chest heaving, she crept across the rooftop, giving herself a birds-eye view of the alley below. She could see the vans below.
Two of them were currently unloading dollies and carts. The kind used for delivering food.
Ruby felt her heart sink.
Caterers.
She''d wasted all this time following a bunch of caterers.
Even as she looked at them now, yes, the uniforms were ever so slightly different. She watched as they began to bring the food inside through a side door, the first two vans completely unloading themselves. There were maybe a dozen people she could count, all workers.
Ruby wanted to kick herself.
All that effort, for this?
She wanted to turn around and leave right then and there. The only reason she didn''t was because all the chasing had left her piqued.
So she sat there, and waited.
She would need the time to come up with an explanation anyway. She knew the Courier would be angry with her. Especially if she said something like: ''I chased a bunch of white vans because I thought-''
The back door of the third van slid open.
A half dozen fully armed White Fang climbed out.
¡
The gala had begun, and the guests were enjoying themselves.
The general watched, quite pleased, as the various guests interacted with the Knight 200s, accepting drinks and food. The guests regarded the machines with a degree of apprehension, which melted into a placid curiosity a moment later, thankfully. He could not have hoped for a more peaceful introduction.
His personal guard had found their way back to him, a short time after he''d arrived in the hall. Despite the nature of the event, he noticed the vague outline of weaponry beneath their uniforms as well, which was good. Despite the circumstances, he''d rather they didn''t neglect their duties either. The band itself had keyed around that point, and the guests began to stream in. The atmosphere grew close and stuffy. Reminded him of the parties he''d been made to attend with Atlas high society. Never particularly uncomfortable affairs. Though never a place he preferred to find himself either.
As the guest entered, he did as he usually would in these circumstances: he played the diplomat. Meeting and greeting with the upper class of the kingdom, exchanging the ''Hellos'' and ''Good evenings'', he even got the odd ''How ya doin'' ya sonnuvabitch?'' from one of them.
Lively crowd.
But eventually the number of guests began to stagnate, as most of them had found their way in. They milled about, some even danced. As they did, he took stock of the time by virtue of the large windows. The sun was going down, the sky was dyed in shades of deep red, purple, and nightly blue.
Which meant, it was time for things to begin in full.
The general withdrew his scroll and tapped at it briefly. After a moment, the Knight 200s began dispensing glasses of sparkling wine, including one he took himself. He could see some of the hotel staff doing the same, as they dotted the perimeter of the room.
His eyes scanned them, as he approached a small stage to one side of the room. There was a microphone waiting for him. He had a small speech prepared. The standard glad handing pep used for these kinds of affairs. It was all a part of the show. They expected it, he was inclined to give it, and his two attendants were to stand by and wait.
He climbed onto the stage and tapped at the microphone. The small feedback echoed through the hall, garnering the guest''s attention towards him.
"Good evening everyone." The General spoke, scanning the crowd. "I take it we''re all enjoying ourselves?"
A small chorus of agreement rang out.
"Well, before we get onto the real fun of the evening, I wanted to express my gratitude." He continued, still watching the crowd, looking at the staff along the walls. "On behalf of the Atlas Military and Festival committee, I would like to thank you all for your patronage. Without your support, these events wouldn''t be possible. Nor half the fun, am I right?"
That earned a swell of chuckling.
"I encourage you all to relax, and enjoy yourselves." The General intoned, eyes still tracking back to the staff. "Our drones will be operating the entirety of tonight''s festivities, there''s more food on the way, and the entertainment will begin shortly. I''m sure it''ll be something we can all enjoy."
A couple of small cheers.
Still looking at the hotel staff.
Another phantom pain said there was something he wasn''t seeing.
"¡" The general raised his glass, eyes steeled and smirk set. "To peace."
The sentiment was echoed, and the guests began to drink.
His eyes were locked on a server at the far back of the room. Watching intently. The general could tell the server knew it too.
They were watching him right back.
Then he saw it.
All the staff were Faunus.
Pain erupted in the General''s arm.
The server gripped their cart, and ripped the cloth off of it, sending wine and glassware crashing to the floor. From an open space beneath the cart, leapt a fully uniformed member of the White Fang.
Brandishing an assault rifle.
They swung the muzzle into the air and pulled the trigger in a deafening roar of gunfire.
The hall exploded into chaos. People panicked, any immediately near the armed maniac immediately leapt away from them. Almost as instantly however, they found themselves without a place to go.
Every other server in the room mirrored the first.
Before the general''s eyes, a dozen armed men appeared, scattered throughout the room. The number again doubled, as the presumed ''staff'' drew weapons of their own from the carts. Thin, bone white masks sliding onto their faces.
"General!" Helles shouted.
The general turned towards the young lieutenant.
Right in time to see her go down in a hail of rifle fire, her Aura flaring as bullets slammed into her.
Without hesitation, the general dropped his glass and drew his weapon. He spun in the direction the shots had come from.
Only to immediately receive his own.
The bullets riddled him, robbed him of his balance as two scores peppered him. He stumbled back but managed to fall to one knee.
And was then immediately set upon.
Four White Fang pounced on him. The first he managed to counter with a solid cross to the throat, but the next two managed to grab hold of his arm before he could turn on them. He pulled his revolver into his off-hand and buried it into the stomach of one of the White Fang. He pulled the trigger and fired. The shot echoed in the hall, and the White Fang flew back as though he''d been hit by a car.
The general brought his weapon up, smacking it in the face of the White Fang still on his arm.
Then the fourth and final White Fang rounded on him, leaping in from his flank.
Even as the general''s arm freed itself, he turned too slow.
His assailant had an assault rifle. Had he just shot the general, at that distance, maybe the barrel could''ve been redirected.
Instead, he swung it like a club.
The stock of it cracked hard against the back of the general''s head. His Aura ate the brunt of the blow, and he tried to retaliate.
Then the first White Fang recovered and returned the punch to the general''s jaw.
The third followed with a headbutt.
Then the second came running back with a dive kick.
The attacks began to come in series. He tried to guard against them. It ended with him pinned to the floor. They took him by surprise, and he struggled to react. The general had survived worse than a few poorly trained terrorists.
However, getting kicked in the back of the head with a steel toed boot realigns one''s priorities.
He instead focused what he could of his aura into self-preservation, set his Semblance to it as well, to help block out the pain. Tried to grasp what was happening. Watched, through the gap in his attackers, as two dozen men corralled everyone present. He tried to track where his soldiers had gone.
Helles was down.
Where was Alder?
His question was answered when the soldier was slammed against the stage. But he couldn''t see more than that.
The beating persisted for what must have been several minutes, but the general rode it out. His Aura was strong, and he knew better than some how to manage it.
By the time they were done, he wasn''t much worse than he''d started.
But the situation was.
The screams had stopped.
Everyone was held in a tight group by two dozen armed men and women, four of whom were working to restrain him.
Then there was a chime. Barely audible through the blood in the general''s ears. His head turned, and saw as the elevator door opened.
Six more White Fang strode out. Each heavily armed, each ready for a fight.
Leading them, a thin, lanky, almost emaciated Faunus with sharp teeth, pulled up in a rictus smile.
"Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen." The Fang spoke, voice a wheezing crackle. "We''re tonight''s entertainment."
Gunfight in the Gala
***Special Thanks to Mecharic and TheLandMaster for Beta-ing***
Penny and I spent a good while walking before we finally got to the nearest Expo. These things were scattered all over the city for a reason. Wouldn''t make sense for them all to be stacked on top of each other.
By the time we got there it was starting to get late. Ruby wouldn''t have had too much time on her own yet, but I knew she''d start to get antsy if I took too much longer.
The Expo itself was basically wrapped when we got there. The soldiers and drones were in the midst of dismantling everything. Easy enough to drop her off without any extra complications. I''d be gone before they even realized what was happening.
"Guess this is you then." I said to Penny.
"Indeed." Penny said, smiling at me warmly. "It was good to see you and Ruby again. Even if we only got to be for a short while."
"That''s how it goes sometimes." I said. "But even just a few minutes can mean a whole lot, huh?"
She nodded. "Mhmm~"
We stood there for a moment, and I half expected Penny to take the opportunity to start walking away. Maybe turn back, give a wave goodbye, then go back to her people. That''s why we''d walked this far after all. Instead, she stayed rooted in place next to me. Watching as the soldiers and drones continued their work. Didn''t mind it at first. But I knew enough to ask:
"Everything ok?"
Penny nodded. "Everything appears to be in order."
"¡" I sighed. "What''s the issue Penny?"
"There isn''t one." She said.
I waited a moment.
Then she hiccupped.
"Right." I said. "So then you should be going back to them, yeah?"
"¡Right." Penny agreed, looking down. Still not moving.
"Penny." I urged.
She didn''t look at me for a moment. Her gaze seemed to be locked on the ground, studying. Until, rather suddenly she looked up at me. "I want to help you and Ruby."
"¡" I sighed through my nose this time.
"That''s what friends do, isn''t it?" She asked. "I helped at the docks, I want to help again."
"Penny, what we''re doing right now is serious." I told her. "We''re all going to be in more trouble if you don''t go back to your people. You''re helping us by going back to them."
"I can help more by staying with you." Penny answered. "I''m built for this, it''s what I''m meant to do!"
"Even if you are, we can''t have the entire Atlas Military hunting for you, and by extension us, while we do this." I explained. "You need to go to them. I know it might not be what you want, but it''s what we need."
"Then why separate me from my chaperones in the first place?" Penny asked.
"Well they weren''t exactly being peaceable." I told her. "Whole thing probably could''ve gone different had they not been obstinate."
"Yes, we wouldn''t have become better friends." Penny said. "But we are now, and I want to help however I can!"
"I get that Penny, I really do." I told her. "But this isn''t-"
I was cut off by a sharp electronic chime and a buzz in my pants. Normally, something like that would be far less appropriate, possibly dangerous, but in this case it was my Scroll. Penny continued looking at me determinedly, glancing down at where the sound came from. An action I mirrored, before fishing the scroll out of my pocket. It buzzed and chimed again.
I was getting an incoming call.
From Ruby.
"¡Oh boy." I droned, tapping the screen until the display changed, showing a connection between my Scroll and Ruby''s. "What''s up, Tiny?"
"Six?" Ruby asked. "We''ve got a problem- a really big problem."
And I had a sinking feeling in my gut.
"Talk to me." I reiterated. "What''s going on?"
"Well-um-" Ruby stuttered. "After we split up I started going to the next place like you said to, I promise, but something happened."
I could already tell I wasn''t going to like how this conversation went.
"I was, like, waiting at a crosswalk, and these three vans went past. And I thought they were normal at first, so I was like, ''ok, cool, I can wait for them to go past.'' Then one of them ran a red light, and when they went past, I thought the driver looked kind of funny. So I decided to follow them. And I had to go really far to do it, I''m- like, not even in the same part of Vale anymore. But I followed them all the way to where I thought they were going, and when they got there and they started unloading everything I thought they were just a bunch of caterers and then I thought ''well now Six is going to hate me'', but then some White Fang guys climbed out of one of the vans, and they all went inside this hotel-thingie. Then I thought I needed to jump down and stop them, but you said not to do anything without talking to everyone, so I panicked and tried to figure out what to do and now I''m standing here trying to explain everything to you and people could be in trouble and-and-and-"
Ruby spoke her words rapid fire and almost entirely in one breath. I''d have been more floored by that had I not been struggling to process everything else she''d laid at my feet.
"¡ Ruby, what?" I asked.
Ruby took a deep breath. "Please don''t make me repeat all of it, things are bad."
"¡ Fuck." I swore, my mind now dissecting everything she''d said. "¡ Fuck, fuck- ok, do you have eyes on them now?"
"What''s happening?" Penny asked.
"One of those moments where everything spins tighter than a corkscrew." I told her, before focusing back on the Scroll. "Ruby?"
"I¡ I don''t have eyes on them-" she started.
That''s when I heard the gunshots. It was in a strange, staccato stereo, one that was crunched and muffled through the Scroll next to my head. The other was a dull thunder, somewhere off in the distance, over the skyline of buildings and high-rises.
"Ack! Someone''s shooting!" Ruby choked.
"Okay, calm down." I told her. "Do you hear me? You need to keep calm."
"I¡ I-" she stuttered through the phone.
"What''s going on?" Penny asked, watching me worriedly.
I looked at her for a moment, then nodded and brought the Scroll down. I tapped at a button that apparently put the device into a broadcast mode. Speakerphone, or something. I lowered the volume enough to avoid being overheard.
"Ruby, listen to me." I said. "You need to stay focused and keep calm. Talk to me, where are you now?"
"I''m¡" She paused for a moment. When she came back, her voice was more resolved. "I''m on the upper-side of Vale, on the rooftop next to the hotel they''re in¡ People are starting to panic on the street¡ I can''t see what''s going on inside."
I paused, thinking. This was a problem, knew we were going to run into something eventually, but of course it had to happen now. My eyes flashed briefly to Penny. "What can you see? Anything identifying? I got no idea where you''re at, talk to me."
There was another pause, and she answered. "I don''t know. It looks like it''s supposed to be some kind of big party. There were a bunch of people lined up at the door¡" She broke away again, before coming back. "The shots came through the roof, so they have to be on the top floor¡ I think there''s, like, a skylight or something. If I can get up there, I might have a better idea of what''s going on."
"Can you do it without being seen?" I asked, starting to tap my foot, adrenaline was starting to kick up in anticipation. The moment I had a heading, I needed to go.
"¡ I think so. It''s a bit high, but I think so." Ruby answered, breathing sharply. "¡ One sec."
There was a sound of crunching gravel, and Ruby grunted. What followed was the speaker of my scroll suddenly erupting into a roar of wind and what sounded vaguely like leaves. It blared loudly for a moment, then began to weaken and slow. As it did, I could hear Ruby straining, the weaker the wind got the harder it sounded like she was struggling, until it suddenly cut out altogether. A *whumpf* echoed over the Scroll, as well as Ruby making a strained *nyeh!* sound.
"M-made it!" Ruby grunted, sounding breathless.
"You doing ok?" I asked.
"Y-yeah. Lot of running¡" Ruby trailed off for a moment. "¡ Ok, yeah, there''s a giant skylight up here. I think I can see what''s¡"
A moment of tense silence passed. I couldn''t hear any struggles over the speaker, and it seemed pretty good at picking things up. So at least Ruby wasn''t in immediate danger, yet. But the longer she stayed silent the more anxious I got.
"Talk to me Ruby." I urged. "What''s going on?"
Another moment of silence. Then¡
"There''s some kind of party." Ruby hissed. "There''s a whole bunch of White Fang down there with guns¡oh wow."
"What?" I urged. "Words, Ruby, words!"
"General Ironwood''s here!" She hissed, I could hear more gravel scraping. "They''ve got him pinned down on a stage, or something!"
"Seriously!?" I growled.
"The general?" Penny asked, her eyes widening. "I know where that is! It''s the Goudale Hotel! The general helped plan for the charity gala there this evening!"
"Of course he did." I groused, looking back to the Expo. Ever so close, but unfortunately, no longer where I needed to be. My Pip-Boy groaned, as I spoke into the Scroll again. "How are things now?"
"I don''t know." Ruby said. "It didn''t look like anyone was hurt, but I couldn''t see everything¡ I think I hear sirens."
"Fuck!" I snapped.
Ruby and Penny admonished me in stereo.
I ran a hand down the front of my mask. I''d heard my Pip-Boy before, it had done its thing where it magically knows the location. But I had an alternative I was alright with using instead. "¡ Ok, ok- I''m on my way, Penny''s going to lead me there. I''m keeping the Scroll on and you need to keep me updated alright?"
"I am?" Penny asked brightly.
"What do I need to do?" Ruby asked. "I-I have to do something!"
"Not now." I told her. "If you jump in without a plan, you could risk things getting out of hand.
"They''re already out of hand!" Ruby hissed.
"Trust me, it can only get worse." I told her. "Just hold on until we get there. You''ll know if you can''t." I looked at Penny. "You know where it is, right?"
Penny nodded.
"Then you''re getting your wish." I told her. "Give me the fastest route to the hotel possible, we need to be there five minutes ago."
Penny nodded and blinked. Her eyes unfocused briefly, and began scanning the area. I wasn''t sure how she went about processing things, but I could see it was happening quite quickly. Her eyes twitched, blinked head moved side to side as she almost seemed to scan the skyline.
"-Route calculated." She said suddenly. "We can be there in ten minutes if we run."
"We''ll do it in less." I told her, speaking to the Scroll one last time. "We''re coming Ruby, tell us what''s happening."
"¡Ok." Ruby answered, resolved. "I''m ready."
I was glad one of us was.
Without hesitation Penny turned and bolted down the street back the way we''d come. I followed, hot on her heels. The only thing I could allow to slow us down was her guiding us. No matter what else happened, I had to keep pace.
We ran down the street for a dozen yards, then cut sharp into an alleyway. Immediately, she made a massive leap up to one of the fire escapes there, and practically launched off it. She was up to the rooftop in a blink. I followed after her, arms and legs moving with practiced and synchronous ease. Weeks of having to scale them to get to the rooftops had paid-off there. I couldn''t imagine myself doing the same a month ago, Acrobatic Marvel or not. There were few teachers like experience.
I practically flew up five stories in about ten seconds, and scrambled over the edge of the roof. Penny had waited there for me, but was poised to resume her run, which she did the moment I had both feet on the roof. I continued to trail her, pushing Aura into my steps. I could feel the tiles of the roof shifting under my feet as I pushed against them. Probably sounded like someone was hammering as the two of us ran. We reached the far side of the roof, jumped, mantled onto another roof and kept going. We hurdled vents and ducting as we went. None of it slowed Penny down. She moved with precise, snappy, machine-like motions, each probably articulated within a hundredth of a degree with how flawless they seemed. The next roof had us jump an alley, but Penny handled it with aplomb. She hadn''t been kidding when she said that she''d charted the fastest route, she was moving like she did.
"C''mon Six!" Penny called. "You need to move faster or you won''t make this next jump!"
"What next-"
I stopped dead in my tracks.
The way to the next building was across the street. Not an alley, a four lane street. One of the main avenues through the city.
Penny paused as she reached the edge of the roof, waiting for me. "C''mon, we need to hurry!"
"Uh¡ Penny, I''m good, but I ain''t that good." I told her, as I walked up to her.
She smiled innocently. "Don''t worry, I''ve got this."
I felt my head tilt in confusion. "What do you me- urk!"
The moment I was close to her, she pulled me into another bone crushing hug. She looked up at me with a bright smile as her eyes began to glow.
There was a mechanical sound. A whirring of servos and the clack of metal as something about Penny shifted. What followed was a series of rather strange looking swords launching out of her back. Short, single edged blades with a scoop curve to them. They came to a point, then arced back to form the tip of each blade. They splayed out around Penny, connected to hair-thin wires of metal that glinted in the dim light of the late evening.
"What-" I tried to say again.
The swords arrayed themselves behind her, eight of them total. They pulled into clusters of four, orbiting around a point. They began to emit a high-pitched whine.
Then the air inside them began to glow. A bright, almost neon green.
"Hold on tight!" she ordered.
The air pulsed suddenly.
"To wha-" I started.
Then we shot off into the air like a rocket.
¡
"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Ruby lowered the volume of her Scroll. She didn''t know what was happening on the other end, but she would get the Courier to tell her later.
Instead, she focused her attention on the chaos unfolding beneath her.
Past the edge of the building, she could see that cop cars were beginning to clog the street in front of the hotel. Alongside them, a few news vans. Inside the hotel beneath her, she could see that the White Fang were beginning to corral people into separate groups. Four of them, each suppressed by at least five White Fang, and that still left at least ten free!
Plus the Knight 200s she''d seen earlier. Which were rather confusingly just pacing the floor. They were combat drones, where was the combat!
Looking at it all, however, told Ruby it was a lot of people. Too many. Ruby wasn''t afraid of having to fight. She believed in herself, knew what she could do.
The problem was that there were a lot of other people there. While fighting the White Fang wasn''t a problem, trying to keep people from getting hurt would be.
She got the feeling they were a touch late on that front. She could see two people, a woman and a man in Atlas uniforms, kept separate from everyone. The man looked fine, but the woman was badly injured. Had she been shot? Ruby couldn''t tell from so high up. The general was being kept almost on the opposite side of the room from them, and had another four White Fang holding him down. Except their definition of the word involved a lot of hitting and the occasional kick. Ruby watched as one of them slammed their foot onto the general''s wrist, pressing and crushing the limb, trying to pry a massive revolver out of his hand.
Which they succeeded at, when one of them smacked him across the back of the head, hard enough she could hear it through the glass. She saw the general''s aura flare from the hit. Even more disrespectfully, she watched them kick the weapon across the room.
A solitary White Fang trotted over to it, an emaciated and lanky looking man, and picked the weapon up. Regarding it with an almost rabid energy, arm moving in jerks and twitches. Ruby could see him lick his lips as he handled the weapon.
He then pointed the gun into the air and fired.
A bullet flew through a panel of glass a short distance away from Ruby.
"Quiet!" the emaciated faunus howled. Voice dry, snarling. Words spoken in a halting, stilted way. "Quiet!... Or maybe we''ll start the show a little sooner!"
Ruby saw the way the White Fang all motioned to the captive guests. Forced the guests to shrink back.
The general struggled to try and free himself. He was promptly struck in the back of the head again. Another sickening sound.
"Right about now, the police will be outside." The Fang, their apparent leader, said. "We made sure they would be. They''re a part of this too, don''t you worry." Their voice dropped in pitch. "They are a very important part of this. HA!"
There was a squawk from the Scroll beside Ruby.
"Penny¡ for fuck''s sake, warn me when you''re gonna do something like that." The Courier said.
"What happened?" Ruby squeaked.
"Apparently Penny can fly." The Courier responded breathlessly.
"No, I can''t, they haven''t patched it yet." Penny answered. "That was an impulse assisted-"
"It doesn''t matter, Penny..." The Courier sounded like he was trying to catch his breath, but they must''ve still been running. It was an odd sound. "Talk to me Tiny, what''s going on."
"I¡ I don''t know." Ruby answered, peering down. "They''ve got everyone trapped. It looks like they''ve hurt General Ironwood pretty bad, and his soldiers too¡ I don''t know what they want, but the cops are important, apparently."
"They''re trying to keep everyone distracted." The Courier said. "With the general involved, they''ve just opened a massive can of worms for themselves. Don''t-" There was a pause, and a brief rush of wind before the Courier continued. "- know if they thought that part through."
Silence fell between them as the Courier and Penny continued their dead sprint across the city. Ruby listened to the leader of this group of White Fang cackle and rave. He waved the general''s gun around like a mad man. He even shot it, once, and blew the head off one of the drones.
"I need to do something." Ruby said, feeling her stomach twist. "I can''t¡ I can''t just sit here and watch."
"We''re moving as fast as we can, Ruby¡ How bad are people hurt?" The Courier asked. "Is anyone dying?"
"I don''t know." Ruby said, looking down. "Everyone''s scared. People could be hurt and I just can''t¡" Her eyes tracked back to the general, then his soldiers across the room from him. She tried to study them from so high up. It was hard. The man of the duo seemed alright, roughed up, but not as bad as either the general or the woman¡
The woman was bleeding.
She was bleeding a lot.
If it wasn''t for the sudden and sharp gasps she gave, Ruby may have assumed she was dead.
"One of the Ironwood''s soldiers is hurt." Ruby said, trying to steel herself. "She looks hurt really bad."
"How bad?" The Courier prompted.
"T-there''s a lot of blood¡" A feeling of dread washed over Ruby. "I thought her coat was supposed to be red."
"Is anyone helping her?" The Courier asked, something angry in his voice.
Ruby couldn''t bring herself to answer. She was busy trying to steel herself.
She knew what she was going to do.
It was further reinforced, as the emaciated Fang began to stalk across the room towards the two soldiers. The man had said something.
"I''m going in." Ruby answered.
"Ruby-" The Courier started.
"Things are getting worse!" Ruby cut him off. "I''m not waiting for someone to die before I do something." She began to move the Scroll some place it wouldn''t be in the way, and prepared herself. She felt her mind begin to calm, even as her heart began to race. Her hands worked in time. Drew her scarf over her mouth as her hood came over her head.
This is what she trained for. To help people, save them.
The White Fang weren''t Grimm. They were people, pushed too far.
But they were hurting other people.
She didn''t know what she was supposed to be feeling right then. But calm most certainly wasn''t it.
The emaciated White Fang struck the man in the face with the general''s weapon, which had the wounded woman next to him bark something.
Then the woman found the muzzle of the gun pointed at her head.
Crescent Rose flourished outward, the handle spinning in Ruby''s hand as she launched herself upward. The weapon twirled and spun around her, its muzzle aiming into the air. It flared purple, and an impulse of motion slammed through her.
She rode it downward, crashing into the skylight. Her Semblance came alive as she blazed into her fall as a coruscating ball of petals amidst dozens of shards of shattered glass.
The emaciated White Fang snapped up, looking away from the soldiers.
Ruby planted her boot into his face.
Her weight slammed him into the ground as she solidified, glass raining around them.
The hall fell dead silent as she flourished her weapon in her hands, the blade slamming into the floor. She felt her cape billowing around her, flaring.
She scanned the White Fang around her, the gazes of the guests. Looks of surprise, panic, fear.
The White Fang under her groaned."¡ You''re not Crazy Steve¡"
"¡ Hi. The name''s Red Hood." Ruby said after a moment. "This is, like, my second time doing this, and I don''t have anything cool to say¡"
She then promptly flourished the muzzle around to one of the White Fang, cycled the bolt, and fired.
¡
"¡Shit." I closed my Scroll. "Ruby''s gone in."
Part of me couldn''t be too upset. Shoe was on the other foot now, I''d been doing the same thing to all of them. Now she wanted to run, and damn me if I was going to be the one to stop her.
But, damn me, I still needed her to wait for me!
After defying gravity just to cross the street, Penny and I had resumed our mad sprint across the rooftops. There were points where she''d use her sword-array-thing to boost herself up ledges she or I might not have been normally able to make. Some of them I was able to make. Others, I was happy she was there, otherwise I might have struggled to make the grade. She wasn''t lying about calculating the fastest route either. The way we were zipping past everything I''d have sworn we''d had the wind at our backs.
Didn''t change that we were late though.
It would take everything to make sure it didn''t become too late either. With how far away we were, it was hard to tell just how fast we were running either. When every second counted, it made each step feel like hell and that we''d already missed the party. Only thing we could do was trust we weren''t. Trust that Ruby, having gone in on her own, could hold the line until we got there.
And that we''d be enough when we did.
She''d said we''d be going up against several dozen people. I knew an uphill battle when I heard one.
I tried not to think about it, while we ran. Trying to come up with a plan when I didn''t know the area or all the details wouldn''t do any good. Would just make me even more antsy than I already was, and I didn''t need that.
So we ran, jumped, and in some cases flew, as fast as we could the rest of the way to the hotel.
By the time we got there, the police had already arrived. Ruby had said they were, before she''d jumped in. I counted maybe a dozen squad cars, a couple of larger trucks and vans, meant for what I assumed were riot forces, or similar.
We were coming in from the building''s flank, so we could save at least one massive jump trying to cross the street, instead trading it for the one to climb the extra two stories to the roof of the hotel. Even two stories down and behind several feet of concrete though, I could still hear the gunfire. It echoed out the front of the building, off the surrounding ones.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I would take it to mean we''d made it on time, and that Ruby was putting up all the fight she could muster.
Penny waited for me at the edge of the roof, arms open. She''d learned after the first time she did it that I don''t do well with surprises. Though my approaching her was less of an issue. When I did, she locked onto me again, and we launched into the air again. We went higher than we had in the past, and I could feel the impulse from her weapons quickly die off. There was a point I swore they''d cut out before we were over the roof. It was a close thing. We touched down just barely on the lip of it, and tumbled forward the rest of the way.
"You ok?" I asked.
"My targeting vector was off." Penny answered. "My array wasn''t built to carry more than myself either."
"¡ I''ll just count you as being extremely lucky then." I told her.
We picked ourselves up, and quickly moved across the roof. Penny went for the skylight, while I went for the edge of the roof facing the street. The police were there, naturally, along with a crowd of gathered onlookers, reporters too. I could barely make out men in more tactical uniforms huddled together, near the vans and trucks.
They were making plans to move in. Probably pushed to once the gunfire started¡
It might''ve been my eyes, but I could swear I saw some of the teachers from Beacon down there.
My eyes swept up and away from them, quickly scanning the horizon.
There were Bullheads not too far in the distance. I got the sense they were sailing towards us. Vultures coming to see what had died.
With any luck: nothing yet.
I spun and ran back to the skylight with Penny. The gunfire beneath us was ratcheting up. I skidded to a knee beside her and looked down beneath us.
What was there surprisingly wasn''t a complete shitshow.
Ruby was doing that petal-dash thing she could do, and was abusing the hell out of it. There were at least thirty of the grunts, like she''d said there was, but if they''d been organized, they weren''t now. Most of them seemed to be trying to get a bead on her, as she dipped, weaved, and dashed around the room, using these stone pillars that sprang up for cover, never staying still. Bullets were flying everywhere.
Except in the direction of any hostages.
She was doing very good to either keep above them, or out of their way. No small feat from the number of them I could see. Though it annoyed me, to see as many guests as there were yet none of them tried to fight back.
It was a mess, but not one smeared with crap.
But it was going to devolve into one at any moment.
The way Ruby was fighting wasn''t heavy on the offensive. She was only occasionally able to get off potshots with Crescent Rose, or take a swing at someone who got too close. But most of what she was doing was evasive, defensive, keeping the grunts distracted. They weren''t hitting her yet, but that wouldn''t last forever. She could only keep running for so long.
Especially if she couldn''t see they were trying to guide her. I could see her flight paths growing smaller, more controlled.
They were boxing her in.
I opened VATS, bought myself time to plan.
The general was to one side of the room. At least four White Fang on him, only two seemed concerned with keeping him restrained right now.
The hostages were only loosely being held back by about the same, two or three Fang per group. Armed with assault rifles, shotguns. I spied one to the front of the room, near a massive wall of windows facing the street, holding a machine gun.
A few of the drones from the Atlas Expos were currently meandering about. Acting like there wasn''t a pitched fire fight happening. Knew you couldn''t trust the damn things.
Most of the White Fang looked to be lacking melee options. Made sense, a sword or ax wouldn''t be as good for crowd control in an open room like that. Though why they would think this gala would make for a good target escaped me. They couldn''t have seriously thought that attacking a foreign power like this could end any way but poorly for them. But, then again, I''d found a lot of them seemed to be lacking in the brains department, so who knows what they were thinking.
There were only a handful of ways out: an elevator set to the back wall, and what I could assume was a stairwell beside it. There was also a fire exit on the wall opposite the one Penny and I had jumped.
Both the stairwell and fire exit were barred. I had to assume the elevator had been jammed or disabled as well.
Which, again, made no sense. They''d basically put themselves inside a giant cage.
I closed VATS.
"Ok, exits are blocked, they''re closing in on Ruby, and the cops are prepping to kick down the door." I told Penny. "This has officially gone from covert to obnoxiously loud."
"What are we doing?" Penny asked, looking at me with literally steeled determination.
"¡ I have to go in." I said. "Me and Ruby together can keep them busy, but it won''t change matters if the hostages stay there." I motioned to her with a hand. "That''s where you''re going to come in. Do a ten count after I go in, then sneak in after me. You can''t be seen, understand?"
She nodded.
A spray of bullets rattled the skylight about a yard away from us. Spiderweb cracks appeared in the glass. Peering down showed Ruby was fine, but she was slowing down.
"Once you''re in, you need to open the exits and start freeing the hostages." I told Penny. "The guests will be your first priority. It''s going to be chaos once they''re moving, so be careful. Then if he hasn''t freed himself, you go for the general and his people, got it?"
"Guests first." Penny said, nodding. "General Ironwood would say the same thing."
I certainly hoped he would.
"If we screw up here, people die." I told her. "Including us if we''re not careful. Can you do this?"
Penny continued to look coolly at me for a moment, only to smile brightly, confidently.
"I''m combat ready," she said.
"¡Good. Glad one of us is." I told her. My eyes scanned the room below one last time. Ruby was running out of time.
I could see they were trying to line up the guy with the machine gun for a turkey shoot.
He needed to go first.
"How far does one of those blades swing?" I asked, motioning to her swords.
"I can extend them to an effective range of roughly twenty meters." Penny answered. "Why?"
I''m gonna use one to swing down and start with that guy." I motioned to the machine gunner.
Penny nodded. Her eyes unfocused a moment, refocused, and she shot to her feet. "This way." She led me to the edge of the building, near the corner of it. Most of her blades then shot down and anchored her into the roof, while she passed one of the blades to me. She then pointed to a spot on the roof. "If you run off the roof at this point, you''ll achieve the necessary velocity to break the glass and meet the angle necessary to strike your target."
I looked down at the sword she''d given me, then the spot she''d pointed to.
Girl had literally told me to go jump off a roof.
"¡ I''ll take your word for it." I told her.
I then backed up a couple feet. Enough to build myself a running room.
It ended in me standing there, staring at the edge of the roof. I''d jumped off a lot of them recently. But most of the time, it was to a much closer target. Now I was gambling with physics, and my luck wasn''t up to it.
But that wasn''t the only reason.
"¡ Are you ok?" Penny asked, looking at me worriedly. "We need to hurry."
"I know." I told her.
But I couldn''t get my feet to move.
"¡ Are you scared?" Penny asked.
I barked a trembling laugh. The adrenaline was getting to me. "Terrified. I don''t get into fights like this anymore. Used to do it all the time. But I got used to fighting smart, clever. Couldn''t face someone toe to toe and keep flipping the coin, hoping I''d win¡"
Now I was doing it all over again.
This was the first time in who knew how long I''d had to actually stand my ground or people died. No tricks, no ploys, no running. Just me and the meat grinder.
Me, Ruby, and Penny.
A well lit room full of heavily armed terrorists.
And a whole lot of people caught in the crossfire.
Plus some robots wandering around. For flavor.
None of my usual tricks would''ve helped here anyway. The only plan we had relied on us holding the line long enough to get them out. I was always scared, going into fights like this. Nothing was ever guaranteed, you couldn''t tip the scales your way.
Fighting fair was for people with a death wish.
Yet here I was.
I cast an eye back to the skylight. The gunfire was slowing. Ruby was running out of time.
I forced my nerves to steel.
We weren''t enough.
But we needed to be.
I turned back to Penny.
She was smiling at me.
"I calculate a sixty-seven-point-seven percent chance of us winning tonight." Penny said. "That''s a passing grade, most of the time."
"¡"
I smiled back at her.
The steel in my nerves found itself bolted in place.
Funny what a few words can do.
Ready or not, enough or not, we were there.
I hadn''t made it through the Mojave by always playing it smart.
My Aura flooded into my legs, and I shot forward. The roof raced past beneath me. Before I could blink, I was over the edge. Gravity took me, and I began to fall.
Then the wire of Penny''s sword went taut, and it tried to pull free of my grasp. When it didn''t, I fell into a sharp swing. The wind raced past my ears, my heart pounded in them. The world whizzed past me in a blur of dark colors. I arced around the corner of the building, out over the street. I could see the light of the large hall, the light within blazing gold.
I could see the White Fang with the machine gun.
My swing continued to build speed.
The window got closer.
My Aura solidified into my feet and I kicked. They slammed into the glass.
I released Penny''s sword and flew through the window like a missile. Glass flew everywhere, a lot of my momentum disappeared on impact.
But I was flying.
The White Fang with the machine gun began to spin around, half way through he saw me.
Then I crashed down into him, planting my foot in his face. My momentum and weight hammered him into the floor and sent us both skidding forward. I leaned back as I did, keeping the pressure on him, treating him like a child might a sled as he skid across the floor.
People''s attention flew to me. I could see Ruby, on the other side of the room, mouth and head covered by hood and scarf. She''d just fallen out of her petal-cloud. Had seen what was coming.
I opened VATS. My eyes scanned the room. Shots judged. More time than I felt I''d had in a long time.
It closed
I drew That Gun and fired. Bullets split the air, four of them. Each nailed the head of Fang close to me, a cracking staccato that cut through the air like a knife.
As my sled came to a halt, I put the fifth into his head too. Without missing a beat, I wrenched the machine gun out of his hands and hoisted it up.
"Knock. Knock." I growled.
The White Fang began to scatter.
I squeezed the trigger. Didn''t have time to aim. I pointed it high, towards the back wall, away from everyone. It was enough to stun, cause everyone a moment to panic.
Except Ruby.
She launched herself at a White Fang. Her scythe spun in her hands, coming around and hooking them. They were wrenched off their feet and sent flying, crashing into one of the stone pillars. Without missing a beat the muzzle of her weapon swung behind her and fired, the recoil propelling her forward, and the shot nailing a White Fang across the room. She strafed and dodged as bullets flew at her, before weaving behind one of the pillars.
I let off the trigger and followed suit, hopping to the side as I began to fire in controlled bursts. Aimed for Fang that were separated from the hostages, isolated. I managed to clip and nail a few of them, but it was accuracy by volume, none of it meaningful.
The White Fang recovered from my sudden appearance and began to return fire, forcing me to stop trying to suppress them and follow Ruby''s lead. I flipped a table and took cover behind it, briefly. The bullets began chewing through it quickly. It only bought me a few seconds.
Seconds enough.
I took a breath and flew out from behind the table. VATS opened, VATS closed. I concentrated fire on a pair of Fang across the room, trying to share a pillar. Nailed them both in the chest half a dozen times each. Then I bolted for one of the pillars myself, dodging one of the Atlas drones.
About which point, I noticed Penny slipping through a hole in the skylight. A sizable one. But with the chaos, she was largely unnoticed.
Except for this one Fang that was already down. Pretty sure he noticed her landing on him.
My finger pulled the trigger again, and about three seconds later the weapon died in my hands. Hadn''t counted on it having ammo forever. I began to weave past the pillar.
A White Fang was waiting to meet me, shotgun raised in their hand-
I chucked the machine gun at them, the roughly twenty pound hunk of metal hit them like a bowling ball. Their aim flew off and they stumbled.
My wrist flicked and the Cow Puncher flew forward, my fingers locked into the spiked knuckles. I could feel the power thrumming through it.
The White Fang recovered.
My fist crashed into his face.
A crackle of lightning arced between us that sent the man flying back, steam rising off him.
"Holy shit!" I hissed.
I really should have tested it first.
The Cow Puncher slid off my hand and retracted back into its holder, the power clicking off. In the same motion, I snapped the cylinder of That Gun open, slapping my two improvised Gravity rounds into it.
I hadn''t tested those either.
I bolted from the pillar, eyes scanning my surroundings. I locked onto a Fang across the room, distracted with trying to nail Ruby. He made good target practice. That Gun rocked as I pulled the trigger. It fired like normal. The bullet hit him like normal.
Then the Dust-infused projectile erupted, and he back flipped like he''d been hit with a bullet three times the size, then slammed into the floor like a sack of flour.
Dust was magic bullshit.
But boy was I starting to like it.
I re-holstered That Gun, saving the extra bullet, and drew my shotgun.
Several Fang turned their attention away from a group of hostages finally, and opened fire on me. Had to be three of them.
I dove back, scrambling behind a pillar. The bullets hit and rattled off it, sending stone dust and chips everywhere. I could hear Ruby, swinging her scythe. She was giving them more of a hard time than I was.
Another White Fang rounded past my cover. Tried to crack me in the face with his weapon.
I caught it mid-swing, replied with a head butt.
They staggered back.
I followed.
So did the gunfire.
I grabbed the White Fang by the collar and pulled him between me and it.
He caught a dozen bullets before his buddies realized what I''d done. I didn''t count on it freezing them for long. My arm stiffened and I shot forward, briefly using him as a shield. Then I kicked him to the floor, used Aura to push myself forward
Another moment of hesitation, before they resumed fire.
My shotgun blared, magnum buckshot nailing one of them in the chest. Opened a lane of fire. But my Aura still flared, then failed. I felt bullets bite me, crash against my armor.
I didn''t stop.
Before they could react, I was on them. The one I''d already shot I emptied a second shell into. Broke his aura and tore a gaping hole in them. Which surprised the hell out of his friends. Enough that one of them let off the fire. He was the one to catch my shotgun with a swing to his jaw. Then I barred it behind his head, slammed it into my knee, and cycled my shotgun in the same motion, muzzle angled at the last. I fired before he could do anything, more buckshot tearing into his flank, causing him to hit the ground.
I kicked the feet out from the White Fang I wrestled with, slamming him down into the floor. My boot crashed against the back of his head as I cycled my shotgun again. Fired that last shell into the same White Fang, making sure he stayed down.
My eyes flashed to the back of the hall, checking Penny.
She''d already opened the door, took out a few Fang of her own, then directed the hostages to run.
I turned back towards the White Fang I just fought.
Then I realized, I''d just completely brutalized them in front of a crowd of people. All of whom were watching in a horrified stupor. At me or the situation I couldn''t tell, nor did I care.
"¡ WHAT are you waiting FOR!?" I shouted. "RUN!"
That was enough to spur them into motion. They looked around, realized what was actually happening, and practically broke into a dead sprint.
Then bullets began to bite me in the back.
I dove to the side and spun around.
It was one of the Fang guarding the last group of people. He''d broken away from his group, and his buddies quickly decided to do the same. They could see what was happening. Holding the hostage wasn''t going to keep them from getting shot.
I scrambled to my feet, taking stock as I began reloading my shotgun, dashing for the cover of a pillar. The number of people was quickly changing. Most of the hostages were free. The ones that this last group of White Fang were holding were almost the last of them. I could see the general, struggling with the guys on him. He looked to be breaking free.
Then one of the Fang decided to play dirty. He swung his rifle back on the fleeing guests.
VATS opened.
A slug fell into the chamber.
VATS closed.
He began to open fire-
Ruby slammed into him like a wrecking ball. Her scythe spun around her, blade cleaving through the air like lightning. Its arc sent him flying before it whipped and danced its unruly pattern around, catching the second White Fang in the Trio. Right before the third realized what was happening, Crescent Rose shifted, taking its rifle form.
The muzzle was buried in his chest.
Ruby fired.
The White Fang flew back as the equivalent to a 12.7 intermediate round slammed into him.
The crowd ran, none the wiser to what almost happened.
''Good shit, Tiny.''
Now it was just us and the Fang.
I reloaded and bolted across the room to her. She turned, and for a second I thought she was going to hit me. Should''ve been the other way around, but I''d deal with that later.
"I couldn''t wait!" Ruby tried to explain.
"Talk later, fight now!" I snapped, pulling up alongside her. "Penny''s got the hostages covered, we need to handle the rest."
"Penny?" Ruby asked.
My eyes swept over the room as I stuck myself with a stimpack. Better to not let the damage get ahead of me.
I counted about sixteen White Fang scrambling to gain control of the situation and failing miserably. Those five Atlesian drones were still wandering around like they didn''t have a clue. The four that''d pinned Ironwood were still on him. But I could see the look on his face. He was looking for a chance to change that. And then there were two people still left. A young man and woman. Both wore nearly identical outfits, uniforms. I say near, because the woman''s jacket was practically soaked through with crimson, and looking a touch too pale. I got the impression those were Ironwood''s people, both of whom had just missed their train to get the hell out of dodge. I didn''t think there was anything I could do for the woman either. Stimpack or not, she''d lost a lot of blood. Part of me hoped Ruby hadn''t realized that yet.
"We''ve got 10 to 1 odds here." I told Ruby, keeping my voice low, watching as the White Fang didn''t immediately rush into position. They''d survived this far, they knew to be wary. "You pushed us into this, what''s the play?"
"I don''t know¡" Ruby answered, looking around. "I didn''t think we''d get this far."
"Welcome to my world." I told her, calmly reloading my shotgun with dust shells. The Ice ones. A safe bet, fire might burn the building down, and I''d seen what the Gravity ones could do if they hit true. Didn''t want to bring the roof down on our heads.
I could see the White Fang beginning to get antsy. The standoff wasn''t going to hold for much longer. They were waiting to see who moved first. That, or they were planning to open with something big.
"We need to help her." Ruby said, looking briefly towards the two soldiers.
"Ruby." I said, trying not to sound too annoyed.
"She''s hurt." Ruby bit.
"She''s dead." I told her. "She''s lost too much blood."
"You don''t know that!" Ruby said, sounding determined.
"I know what dead people, and those soon to be, look like." I told her. "I''m sorry, Ruby, but we can''t-"
"You have medicine, don''t you?" she interrupted. "Use it on her!"
"It only works if she''s actually got enough blood to use it." I snapped. "It doesn''t just magic more blood into you."
"You wanted the play, that''s it." Ruby said. "We save her."
"¡" I growled. "You gotta be fuckin-"
The Fang moved.
One of them at the far corner angled his assault rifle towards the ceiling. It took me a second to register why.
There was a tube under the barrel.
"-oh shi-" I started to say.
Then the grenade launcher thumped, and a hunk of ordinance hurtled towards us.
My hand latched onto Ruby to push her. Only to find her doing the same and pushing back into me.
"Move!" Ruby shouted.
"What do you think-" I shouted.
Then the world broke away around me. I mean that in the most literal sense as well. The world fragmented into pieces as Ruby pushed into me, scattering like dead leaves and fallen flower petals. I felt my body disintegrate, breaking into hundreds of little pieces as they fell behind me. Motion beyond my control took hold of me, and I moved to the side, the way Ruby had pushed me.
I looked down at myself as the motion carried me. I could see¡ me. But not me. It was like I was staring at a silhouette of my body, color washed completely green. Except for a band of red, hooked around my midsection. Tracing it led back to something I could vaguely describe as Ruby shaped. Still a silhouette, but awash in red instead. Everything else around us was completely blurred with motion, and a cloud of¡ petals. Definitely some type of petal.
Then the grenade exploded where we''d been standing. The shock wave hit us and passed harmlessly through as we carried on our path. I could tell it had though, because the massive front-facing windows exploded outward. Raining glass into the eyes of anyone dumb enough to look up.
We stopped a dozen feet later, and tumbled to the floor. A brief, stunned second passed.
Then I looked at Ruby. "You can do that?"
"I can do that?" she parroted.
Before either of us had a chance to completely process that turn of events, the bullets started flying. I scrambled to my feet first, opened VATS, and sent an ice-slug at the one with the grenade launcher. The slug didn''t actually perform as it had previously, however. Instead of forming into an engine-block sized chunk of ice, it actually held until it reached them, only to then burst into a several inch thick coating of ice. Freezing them into a statue.
Couldn''t tell if the outcome was a result of the slug moving faster than it did from my flare gun, or a difference in the makeup. Regardless, he needed to go before he brought the whole place down on us.
Ruby pushed back to her feet and mirrored me. She planted the blade of Crescent Rose into the floor for support and fired, cycling the bolt fast enough you''d have thought the rifle was semi-automatic. But each shot was clean, tight. Credit to her, what she lacked in close-quarters prowess, she made up for in marksmanship. She nailed at least three of them before I had a new shell cycled. Sent another slug flying towards one with an assault rifle.
I then cycled, spun, and shot one of the thugs looming over Ironwood. A smart move, they''d decided we weren''t paying enough attention to them. They were trying to divide their attention between Ironwood and us.
Their mistake.
The moment Ironwood saw their focus waning he made his move, practically throwing them off of him. He then grabbed one of them by the collar and slammed them into the wall, cratering the plaster.
"Six-" Ruby hissed.
Spin, cycle, shoot- nail another one and freeze them in place.
Four taken out of play, not counting the three Ruby nailed. Those were now eight to one odds instead.
"You really want to try and help them?" I asked. "Then you better actually have a plan."
Ruby nodded, pulling Crescent Rose up with a flourish. "I get you to them, you help them while I clear the way to the door¡" She glanced back briefly to Ironwood. "I think he can take care of himself."
"Noted." I said. "For the record, I don''t think we can save her."
"We''re going to try anyway." Ruby said.
"¡Alright then." I said, gritting my teeth, summoning my Aura back to strength.
Then we charged forward.
The White Fang continued raining fire on us. Multiple angles, but pretty much all of them from the front. Our sprint turned into a strafe as we went. The Fang struggled to try and lead their shots, but I could practically hear the bullets flying past us as we went.
I fired the last two shells in my shotgun, nailing one of the Fang, but only managing to wing another. Though even the one I winged wound up on the ground, arm and weapon trapped in a solid block of ice. I slapped the lever open and began reloading, now with magnum buckshot, but capped it with one of my gravity shells.
As Ruby and I began to close on them, one of the Fang with a shotgun thought it would be a good idea to get closer. Before he even got two steps in, Ruby bolted over to him and swung Crescent Rose at him. The scythe swept low, taking out his legs, before the weapon spun over her arm, planted its blade into the floor, and fired. The muzzle at point blank, the White Fang slammed backward into the floor. Without missing a beat, Ruby had the weapon spun back into her hands, cycled, and was back charging alongside me. Right in time to avoid a hail of bullets spattering where she''d stopped. I wasted my gravity shell on the one responsible, loosening a purple-glowing ball of fire through the air that almost looked more like a tracer-round.
It didn''t behave as the five-five-six had before it. Instead of a concentrated burst of force, it instead went off like a concussion grenade. Or perhaps, more like artillery. In either case, a massive and sudden shockwave of force in all directions. Anybody outside 10 ft. was alright. Everyone within those ten feet though? They went flying back like they''d been hit by a car.
The one I''d hit with the slug flew back and smacked into one of his friends, turning them into a cushion.
As Ruby and I began to close on the two soldiers, dodging one of the Atlas drones, I took potshots at some of the Fang. Trying to buy us enough breathing room to actually work.
Then two things happened at once.
Penny burst back through the door at the now near wall.
"The hostages are secure!" she announced, pausing to look around.
Her sudden intrusion got the attention of the White Fang, who up until that point, probably hadn''t realized she was the one who''d been responsible for that.
Then there was a sharp, electronic trill in the air.
With a sudden and unexpected sharpness, the drone beside me turned towards the White Fang. Their posture changed, adopting an aggressive stance. Immediately, I wheeled towards it and prepared to pump a shell into it.
Except it promptly ignored me, preferring instead to bolt full speed towards one of the White Fang shooting at us, who promptly changed their attention to the man-shaped missile running towards them at the speed of mach-fuck.
Unfortunately for them, metal doesn''t care as much about getting shot.
The effect it had, even with only about five of the drones, was that they stopped focusing as much on us.
"Now''s our chance, move!" I said, taking the lead.
I dashed ahead of Ruby the rest of the way to the soldiers. Though they initially tried to push away from us, they couldn''t do much while already backed to the wall. Judging by their wounds they''d at least tried to fight. But they''d been completely disarmed¡
Though that didn''t explain why one of them hadn''t taken the gun from the Fang currently lying at their feet. A massive, rather snazzy looking revolver.
"Stay back!" The male soldier commanded, pulling his fists up.
"Bite me, doughboy." I told him. "We''re fixing your mistakes as it is."
"Doughboy?" He questioned.
"We''re here to help." Ruby said, shooting me a look. "Just keep calm, your friend''s hurt."
The soldier looked back and forth between me and Ruby. His partner on the other hand was barely looking at anything. Her breathing was shallow and labored. She was practically sitting in a puddle of her own blood by this point. Her eyes were basically shut, and she was slumping over herself.
I ignored anything Doughboy might have done, and knelt down beside her. My shotgun slid back into its holster as I studied her. I could see the spots she''d been shot, but took a few seconds to get an idea of how far gone she was. I''d been down this road already with¡
My fingers snapped beside either of her ears, earning a faint twitch.
She was still in there. Barely.
I pulled a hypodermic from my stash and primed it. Trouble came when I had to tear the chest of her uniform open for a better spot.
"The fuck are you doing!?" Doughboy yelled, suddenly deciding to get physical. It was only Ruby getting between us that stopped him from getting his partner killed.
Primed, I stuck the woman with the needle. It''s hard to describe specifically why I did it this way. Normally you could stick yourself with a stimpack anywhere and the effect would work, even if it would be more concentrated in the specific limb. But as I did, I knew I had to slip it around her breast bone, near her heart. Give the stim-fluid a faster chance at circulation. Despite my knowledge of medicine, I''d never done that before. Looking at her, I just knew I had to this time. As the medicine began to sink in, she gave a weak hiss and groan. I could see her body tensing slightly.
But I could also see the hole in one of her breasts begin to seal itself.
After a moment, she began to relax, her breathing steadied, but still weak.
"She''s stable." I said, looking back to Ruby and Doughboy, both watching what I''d done with slight amazement. "But she''s lost a lot of blood, you need to get her to a medic, stat."
As I stood up, I pried the pistol out of the hand of the White Fang holding it. He didn''t give it up easy, so I stepped on his wrist and pried it loose. Even as I did, Doughboy still wasn''t moving.
"¡ You got a brain in there?" I asked. "Move! Fucks'' sake, is this where all that money on training goes?"
Doughboy scowled at me, but Ruby let him pass to the woman, picking her up gently out of the puddle. I motioned to Ruby as he did.
"We need to finish things here and go." I told her. "Once these two are out, the police are going to storm this place. We''re not going to want to be here when they do."
"Right." Ruby nodded, mirroring me as we looked over the room.
The five drones were keeping the White Fang busy. There''d been roughly fifteen left initially. And each of the drones was managing one assailant each. What armor they had seemed to be enough to last against the sustained gunfire, but I wouldn''t count on it for a prolonged fight. But Penny was also bowling her way through them. I could see she''d already taken out a solid pair of them, her swords slashing out around her in wide arcs. Then to the far corner, I could see the general had acquitted himself nicely. The four White Fang that''d restrained him weren''t a problem anymore, and he seemed to be messing with his scroll.
Ruby brought Crescent rose to a low-ready, blade behind her. "Ready?"
"As much as ever." I told her, holding up my newly acquired pistol.
She dashed forward as I snapped VATS open. I aimed with the new pistol in my hand and fired. The recoil reminded me of my Ranger Sequoia. Impressive for a gun I knew had to only be firing Dust cartridges. The impact was just as effective, my shot instantly felled its mark.
I broke into a sprint after Ruby, opening and stuttering VATS briefly as I did. I fired a total of maybe six shots, only managing four of them. Running and gunning isn''t easy. But even managing four out of six on a gun I was unfamiliar with was impressive.
Ruby reached one of the Fang ahead of me and swung, batting the Fang in my direction. I clocked them on the approach, and they hit the floor without me breaking stride. My shotgun flipped back over my shoulder, and I squeezed off another magnum shell. The shot nailed a Fang right before he''d have sprayed Ruby. She then promptly turned and finished him with a shot of her own, before flipping her scythe in her hand and catching another Fang on the upstroke, knocking them back.
I closed the gap between me and her, and slammed the Fang with the Cow Puncher. Bolts of energy crackled into him, and sent him spasming to the floor, right as one of the Drones sailed over him, tackling and restraining another White Fang, who I took the opportunity to blast with another magnum round.
"Salutations!" Penny called as he flew past us taking out another pair of White Fang with a sweeping strike.
Which wound up leaving only one White Fang left, as the drones restrained the rest of them. He was busy picking himself up, looking completely dazed and confused.
It was only then I''d realized we''d cut through these guys like Abraxo to grease.
Right before either Ruby or I could actually take him down, the general stepped in and slammed him. It was like watching a supermutant punch a tweaked out Fiend, only less messy.
The Fang collapsed to the floor, and the fight came to an end. I could hear the soldiers shuffling to the stairs behind us, and the general approached. I could see the way he was eyeing them. He looked concerned, which I would take as a good sign. A few paces away, he stopped and regarded the two of us.
Then he held out his hand. "My weapon, please?"
He had a surprisingly calm and smooth voice. Almost instantly it brought images of colonel Hsu to mind. Which also raised a few red flags. I didn''t need to be making any friends in the military.
I spun the massive revolver by its trigger guard, finger passing over the cylinder release, opening it. Only as I held it out to him did I realize: I shouldn''t have had any idea how to open it like I did.
But the General took it anyway, a quietly impressed look on his face. "Thank you. I''m to guess you''d be Crazy Steve then?"
"¡ Possibly." I answered.
He chuckled at my response, before looking at Ruby. "And I believe you called yourself¡ Red Hood?"
"The Red Hood" Ruby clarified indignantly, as if it was the most important part of the name.
Again, another chuckle. "You both seem rather young to be professional Huntsmen. You do know Vigilantism is illegal in most Kingdoms, correct?"
"Only if YOU get CAUGHT." I told him. "¡ ARE you going TO detain us?"
The general seemed to think that idea over for a moment, but then shrugged. "It''s not my kingdom, things seem to have turned out alright. I don''t see why I should."
Ruby let out a slow sigh that I hadn''t known I was sharing. "Thank you."
He nodded. "Though I would advise you both make a quick get-away." He said. "I might not need to enforce the law here, but the police will."
"True." I nodded.
"Six! Ruby!" Penny shouted, running up to us, smiling and looking between us and the general. "Everyone''s been safely escorted outside, and the police will be entering shortly!"
'' oh, well, guess that cat''s out of the bag, if it wasn''t before.''
"Thank you, Penny." The general said, returning the smile before looking at her curiously. "But what are you doing here?"
"CHEESE IT!" Ruby shouted.
She then promptly grabbed hold of me and launched us both into the air, turning us into a cloud of petals. Before I could blink, we were both on the roof again.
"I can do that!" She cheered.
"Celebrate later!" I snapped.
We then turned and ran as the Bullheads I''d seen earlier drew closer onto us.
¡
The general looked up after the two huntsmen in training.
He certainly was going to have a lot to speak with the Professor about. It would likely be soon as well. All this commotion, there was a good chance some of the Huntsmen from Beacon had been called in for aid.
"That didn''t answer my question." The General chuckled to the room of restrained criminals and machines "What are you doing here Penny?"
Only silence answered his words.
"¡ Penny?"
¡
¡
My feet touched down on the roof and I skidded to a stop, Ruby landing not long after. I looked back the way we''d come, and could see that the Bullheads hadn''t followed us. Either they hadn''t seen us or had lost interest. Either would be good as long as they hadn''t gotten a good look at either of us. With how tonight had gone, I couldn''t be sure.
"We did it!" Ruby exclaimed. "Holy cats that was scary! There were so many of them and I didn''t have a clue what we were going to do- and then I jumped on that one guy''s head, and you came crashing through the window with a machine gun and were all RATATATATATATA-"
I calmly turned back towards Ruby and fixed her with a steady look.
"-ATATAatatat-at-at-¡at." She finished, observing that I had nowhere near her level of enthusiasm. "¡ I''m in trouble, aren''t I?"
"¡" I took a deep breath. "¡ Y''know what? No. You''re not."
Ruby blinked. "I''m not?"
I shook my head. "You did what I would have done. Despite the fact you didn''t wait for me, you held your ground as long as you believed you could have, and moved in when it was clear things were about to get worse."
Ruby nodded. "That soldier we saved, that guy who stole General Ironwood''s gun was going to shoot her."
"It was your call." I said. "You made it, and we wouldn''t have stopped any of it if you hadn''t been paying attention. So, on the whole? You did good."
Ruby beamed at that.
"Don''t let it go to your head, you still fucked up." I told her. "You didn''t bother to come up with a plan before jumping in. You need to work on the impulsiveness, and learning to come up with a plan is a start."
"I did, didn''t I?" Ruby asked. "I called you, we agreed to do that."
"That''s step one." I told her. "What about two through forty two?"
"¡ Does it really need that many steps?" Ruby asked.
"Depending on what you''re doing? Yes." I answered. "The point is, even if it was just setting out goalposts for yourself, you should''ve had a plan. That way you could''ve kept on task, rather than get bullied into flying in circles until they could shoot you down."
Ruby pursed her lips before nodding intently.
"I don''t want to rain on your parade, you did good tonight." I said. "But you''ve got some work to do yet. Take it for the good and the bad. At least no one seemed to be dead when we left."
"Miraculously, casualties were kept to a minimum!"
"¡"
I wheeled around, looking behind me-
"Oh you''ve gotta be kidding." I said.
"About what?" Penny asked, standing there like nothing was wrong.
Ruby peaked around my shoulder and I felt her stiffen "Penny!? What''reyoudoinghere!?" She squeaked.
"I followed you." Penny announced. "You''re both my best friends, and you''re clearly in trouble, so I''ve decided to help."
"¡ No." I said, drawing my line in the sand. "Nope, No! We agreed you were going with Ironwood. You were supposed to stay back there!"
"No, you said I was coming with you to help Ruby." Penny said. "You never said anything about staying with the General afterward."
"..." I wanted to argue with her, but of all the people I could argue wording with, she wasn''t one of them. "¡ It was implied!"
"Subtext is confusing." Penny said. "Besides, you''re both my friends and I wanted to help!" She put her hands behind her back, trying to appear innocent. "Mister Ironwood won''t mind if I spend some time with you guys. He can always send someone to find me if he''s worried."
Which is what I was worried about.
A moment of silence passed, before I blew out a breath and looked at Ruby. I had an idea of what the answer was at this point, but I asked: "What do we do?"
Ruby thought on the idea for a moment before answering.
¡
We called in an early regroup with everyone. We were maybe an hour or so out from doing it, but the situation demanded it. Unfortunately.
Everyone came back more or less in one piece, the only ones missing were Blake and Sun. Though their circumstances weren''t one they could easily cut and run from. However, we certainly had everyone''s attention when we approached.
"¡Who''s that?" Nora asked.
"Salutations!" Penny announced. "My name is Penny Polendina, and I''m best friends with Ruby and Six!"
Another moment of silence.
Then Weiss looked at the both of us. "What is this?"
I chuckled "We kinda¡ Mighta¡ Sorta¡ Accidentally kidnapped her."
"¡ YOU WHAT!?"
Under in the Cover
To say things had not gone to plan for me and Ruby would be an understatement. Whether that made what we''d done a failure or not was up for debate, but that didn''t change how things had gone. Things had gone sideways hard and fast, and we''d been key-holing our way through everything. Though it was hard to say if everyone else had been faring any better.
As we stood there, grouped up in some back alley, it wasn''t immediately obvious. Naturally, things had gone wrong for me and Ruby, we had Penny for proof. If things had gone off course for the rest of them was another matter. Just looking at them only told so much. As they''d all stood across from us, on arrival, they seemed a bit out of sorts. Weiss and Yang had a strange air about them. Something a bit tense, just going off the little thought I gave it. But it vanished quickly once I laid eyes on Ren and Nora. Those two had a whole different type of tension going that was practically palpable. Looked like they were five seconds from the Mojave Mambo when housekeeping came knocking. Arguably, the ones who looked the least out of sorts were Jaune and Pyrrha. But that just made them stick out more. There was something¡ determined about Jaune that wasn''t there before. The kind of clarity you only got after hitting the bottom of a half-dozen bottles, or a good kick in the pants.
Of course, most of that got washed away, once the three of us showed up. Now they were just looking at us in absolute bewilderment. Which was honestly fair. I''d have been doing a lot worse than that if any one of them had come back saying they''d kidnapped someone.
"How do you ACCIDENTALLY kidnap someone!?" Weiss shrieked.
"Snowflake, please keep your voice down," I urged. "It''s not something you should be broadcasting to the rest of the world."
"¡" Weiss closed her eyes and took a very long, very deep breath. "¡ Explain. Explain now."
"We will, a lot''s happened in the past few hours..." I said, looking over the group again. "¡Where''re Sun and Blake?"
"They''ll be here," Yang answered coolly. "Probably don''t want to make a scene trying to leave."
"So, uh, what happened?" Jaune asked, motioning to me, Penny, and Ruby
"Well- um, things were going normal," Ruby said, trying to convey a calm presence. "We''d been crossing places off our list, totally normal, nothing weird, you know how it is. Then we just kinda¡ ran into Penny on the street."
"Literally," I added dryly, earning me a sharp look from Ruby, before I picked up for her. "We were heading to another spot on the list when we bumped into Penny on the street. Apparently the reason we haven''t seen much of her recently is because of her handlers. Didn''t want her wandering around unsupervised after what happened at the docks."
"Then why was she this time?" Nora asked.
"She- uh¡ wasn''t." I admitted.
"¡" The look Weiss gave me could''ve cut steel.
"We didn''t do anything wrong!" Ruby quickly defended. "We were just talking with Penny, and the people that were supposed to be watching her kinda¡ weren''t."
"Also true, they were too busy chatting up the locals to do their job," I said. "We didn''t even go far either, we stayed close by. When Penny''s handlers finally bothered to pay attention they came running after us and immediately got uppity. We tried our best to be agreeable and disarming-"
"You were?" Penny asked.
"Yes, but they just weren''t agreeing with us." I said. "Then one of them tried to put hands on us and I, kinda, threw coffee in his face. Seeing as Penny wasn''t under proper supervision, me and Ruby took it on ourselves to help keep an eye on Penny for a little while. Do some catch-up on everything that''s happened."
"¡ There''s nothing accidental about that!" Weiss shouted, eye twitching. "That''s just actual kidnapping!"
"Well we were going to get her back to her people!" I countered. "We were literally planning to drop her off with other Atlas soldiers after we were done-"
"Atlas soldiers!?" Weiss interrupted. "You kidnapped her from the military!?"
"¡ maybe a little," I nodded.
Weiss buried her face in her hands. Everyone else just stared at us in silent stupefaction.
"Yeeeah..." Ruby drawled. "Well, we were going to drop her off. Then things got¡ worse."
"How could they possibly get worse!?" Weiss asked.
"Well, then the White Fang staged an attack on General Ironwood," I offered.
If the alley hadn''t already been silent, that probably would''ve been enough to do it. Could hear glass breaking the next street over.
"The White Fang did what?" Ren asked.
"The General was to host a gala this evening in honor of the Festival," Penny answered. "The proceeds would be sent towards funding the Vytal tournament."
"-and the White Fang presumably thought it was worth their time to hit it," I added.
"Six and I split up to try and keep everything moving, and while he went to drop-off Penny, I was supposed to go to the next place," Ruby explained. "But on the way there, I saw the White Fang attacking the Gala, and we had to change plans. Penny helped Six get to the Gala, and we managed to save everyone!" Ruby tittered slightly at that fact.
"But, as we were escaping, Penny decided it would be a good idea to follow us instead of staying with her people," I finished. "Seeing as we were now out of ways to return her to the General and his people, we had to take a step back. Which brings us back to why we''re standing in an alley like a bunch of hoodlums."
Weiss pinched her brow. "Oh gods."
"Yeah," I nodded, then shrugged. "Welp, can''t take it back. Introductions, everyone?"
JNPR looked at me like I''d sprouted a second head. The way I saw it, the damage was done, and there wasn''t much of a way to undo it. So it was better we try to make nice until we figured out how we were going to fix it. What better way to start than to make introductions?
"Um- yeah," Jaune said, waving at Penny with a lopsided smile. "I''m Jaune, hi."
"Ren," Ren added, nodding.
"Nnnnora!~" Nora added, giving a toothy grin.
"Pyrrha Nikos," Penny said, pointing at Pyrrha.
"Hello~" Pyrrha said, smiling and nodding.
"It''s a pleasure to meet you all," Penny said, smiling. "I hope we can all get to be good friends."
A sentiment I hoped we could all share. Help wash the taste of criminal activities out of our mouths. "Seeing as we''re all on the up-and-up now, let''s figure out where we''re at," I said, fishing around in my coat and pulling out the plans I''d lifted from the bar earlier that evening. "Aside from the incident at the gala, me and Ruby managed to find some odds and ends while snooping around. Not sure what to make of them yet, blueprints of some kind. We''ll look over them later tonight. What''d you guys find out?"
"I''m still stuck on the kidnapping," Weiss groaned, rubbing her face. "¡ We didn''t manage to find anything. All the leads we had were dead ends."
"Yep. Dead," Yang added.
"Me and Pyrrha couldn''t find anything either," Jaune said, shrugging. "Pretty much all of the places on our lists turned out to be pretty much above board."
"I wouldn''t say we had a quiet evening, but we couldn''t turn up anything either," Pyrrha added.
"Renny and I did though!" Nora chirped. "We found some bad guys hiding in the back room of a corner store!"
"Well that''s good, what''d you manage to find?" I asked.
"Nothing!" Nora chirped. "The police chased us out before we could really look around."
"¡" I sighed through my nose. "I see, you give us shit for actually doing something."
"You kidnapped Penny!" Weiss snapped.
"But we also managed to find something!" I countered.
"Hey, they did what they needed to, right?" Ruby asked. "We just needed to cross places off the list, and since most of them turned out to be dead-ends, that means we know where to focus."
I nodded, casting a look down at Penny. She was just smiling, enjoying the chaos around her. Hard to say what classified as normal for her, but at the very least this didn''t bother her. We were going to need to get her back to the General sooner rather than later. Last thing we needed was the military going on a manhunt for her. That they weren''t already combing the city for her was at least a reassuring, or perhaps worrying, sign. The only thing we could do for the time being was try to get our own affairs in order before we worried about the rest. Seeing as we''d managed to cross the bulk of it off the list, we were making decent progress. As soon as we heard back from Blake and Sun, we could start in earnest on the next bit of business.
Right as I thought they should be along shortly, I felt my Scroll buzz. Something everyone else seemed to notice too, as we all began to check our scrolls. Group message.
¡
(You): ["Were in truble Torchwik''s at the rally cant get out"]
Blake did the best she could to hide the way she was furiously typing at her Scroll. The crowd around her gave them some small cover, but if any of them noticed, things could get ugly fast.
Things had been going smoothly for her and Sun Wukong for most of the evening. Finding the Rally hadn''t been hard, getting into it was even easier. She was familiar with all the old procedures. The level of secrecy needed for this sort of thing, it was easy enough for her to follow the signs and markers to where the rally was hidden. Though it had caught her by surprise to see a pair of brothers standing outside the entrance, armed. That was a change. Even if the White Fang had grown more militant, it had never visibly bared arms at the rallies. It always sent the wrong message, and made it more obvious where they were. But she and Sun were able to enter without any issue. The small masks they''d needed to put on only helped to make them blend in. Though she had to question the attire they''d been sent in, and the odd looks it had gotten them. Despite that however, after an initial glance, they''d been all but dismissed by everyone who saw them. How that worked, she had no idea. It almost worked better than when she''d normally wear a bow.
However, while getting in had proven easy, getting out was now the problem. She knew it wasn''t going to be easy. Most people who walked into these sorts of situations weren''t allowed to walk away easily. It would be too easy for the authorities to start tracking people down, if they could come and go as they please.
Despite that, she hadn''t expected Torchwick to brazenly walk out on stage. Even knowing the White Fang had fallen enough to start working with the likes of him. It didn''t strike her as a good idea to have him be the one acting as the spokesman. The only worse choice she could think of would have been Bane or, worse for her, Taurus. The former of whom had come out onto the small stage beforehand, and was keeping close to the side of it, wearing a neck-brace she couldn''t recall him wearing before. Despite that however, she hadn''t expected them to let a well-known criminal be the one to do the talking for them.
That it had worked spectacularly spoke more of Torchwick''s own charisma than anything else. Almost every present for his speech had gone from uncertain, to frothing mad by the time he was done.
Now, the flow of the crowd was naturally pushing her and Sun towards him, deeper into the warehouse. Further away from the exit, which she was sure they should''ve been moving towards instead.
As the crowd slowly began to press them forward, her chat lit up.
(Six): ["Crap"]
(Ruby): ["R u sure its him?"]
Despite herself, Blake double checked.
(Blake): [Do e kno anyon lse wearrig a owler hat?]
She cursed the fact that she kept struggling with the keyboard. How could something be both over and under-sensitive?
There was a small break in the chat, and every second that passed between messages felt like an eternity.
"Blake?" Sun asked, voice tense. He was waiting for her to make a move.
"Working on it." Blake answered, watching the chat roll.
(Six): ["Are you sure you can''t get out?"]
(You): ["Knot wihout makking a sene"]
(Yang): ["We''ll think of something, just stay calm."]
(Nora): ["We''ll bust in and break their legs :D"]
(Ruby): ["Blake u need 2 keep hidden, we r coming"]
(Weiss): ["How do we get to you? Can''t remember if you told us where it is"]
(Six): ["I know where it is, we''re coming Blake/Sun, just keep calm and keep hidden."]
The chat stopped after that. Blake thought it went much smoother than if they''d have had the conversation in person. Although she wasn''t with any of them, so perhaps it only looked that way.
"How are we getting out of here?" Sun breathed, only barely beginning to move forward. Others were starting to take notice of them. It wasn''t just because of how the two of them were dressed either.
"They''re on their way..." Blake answered, looking around. They were going to cause a scene if they didn''t move. But if they didn''t keep with the crowd, things would change quickly. Her eyes flicked up to the improvised stage, not too far from them. To the White Fang waiting there, armed. Watching the crowd trickle deeper into the building. Torchwick, who stood there puffing a cigar.
The massive machine behind them.
The majority of its space was occupied by some massive machine she knew Ruby or the Courier could likely identify. One that she knew little about, beyond the fact it wasn''t something she wanted to fight here. Some form of mech suit. Far bigger than ones she''d faced in the past.
Blake watched as Torchwick''s gave seemed to settle onto the crowd. Then it began to narrow as he looked at the crowd. Looked at them.
"¡We need to move." Blake said, stepping forward in earnest "If we get caught, this whole thing will have been pointless."
"¡ok." Sun nodded, looking down at his clothes briefly but following in step with her. He looked calm. More calm than she felt.
Torchwick''s eyes stayed on them as they continued to follow the crowd. Tracking after them as they slowly and calmly made their way to the back of the room, stepping closer to the doorway. Blake tried her best to remain calm. Even she began to feel the familiar tickle of fear in her chest. She''d been undercover many times during her time with the Fang, the only thing ever obscuring the truth being her little black bow. The feeling that she was only ever one careless moment from discovery was a feeling that never went away. Even clad in an outfit as ridiculous as the one the Courier gave her, it was there.
And Torchwick''s eyes weren''t leaving them.
He had to see them.
Had to remember them from that night at the Docks. Even with such a ridiculous outfit on, there was no chance he didn''t recognize them. The only difference to her appearance was a hat and a tie around her neck. Sun stood a better chance of not being recognized than her, but still stood out with the clothes he was wearing.
There was no way-
"What''s wrong, human?" one of the White Fang on stage asked.
Blake''s ears pricked. She only barely resisted the urge to turn and look at Torchwick.
"¡ Dunno," The criminal answered. "Somethin'' funny lookin'' about that one with the hat."
Blake''s heart began to pound in her ears.
"¡ Probably nothin''," The Criminal said, shrugging and turning around to the massive machine. "Now, let''s see about getting this thing outta here-"
His voice trailed off as Blake and Sun passed through the door deeper into the building. Surprisingly, they found themselves in a corridor. Painted cinder block walls, concrete floor, everyone filing in one direction.
"You ok?" Sun asked, looking ahead.
"Will be when we''re out of here," Blake let out a slow breath. She could see White Fang, waiting intermittently along the walls, watching them all as they moved forward, armed with swords and axes. It was only a short hallway. She could see the double doors everyone was filtering out at the far end. "Keep your eyes open. If there''s a way we can get out without waiting for everyone, we need to find it."
The two calmly kept with the crowd as they reached the far end of the corridor. It opened out into a large bay room. Loading equipment sat abandoned near large channels cut into the floor, filled by transport trucks. The channels leading to large bay doors. A loading dock.
The doors were open.
But there were White Fang milling near it, tentatively scanning outside.
"Found a way out," Sun said. "We could make a dash for it."
"There''s people guarding it," Blake said.
"We can take them," Sun said, shrugging. "Or sneak past. If we run fast enough-"
"Oy, you two!" A voice shouted, drawing the attention of people in the crowd, including Blake and Sun, who followed the voice. They found one of the White Fang rushing up to them. A part of Blake told her to prepare for a fight, but the Fang didn''t have his weapons drawn. Neither of them made any unexpected moves. If anyone else was paying attention, any suspicious actions would backfire. They didn''t have a choice but to play along. The Fang, a man with tan scales on his skin, pushed through the crowd towards them. Any who had been curious about the situation continued on, following instruction from other White Fang.
After a moment, the Fang sidled up to them. Another passed before Blake found her voice. "Can we help you?"
"Got need for the likes of you," The man said. "Your traits are easy to hide, you''re to come with me. We got something special in mind."
Blake couldn''t help but look at Sun, who looked back to her in turn. The exit was close enough at hand, and they knew they could be out with only a moment''s run. But, of course, now their objective had chosen to show itself. Whatever was being planned, it''d been their priority to find out. It had been the whole point of coming to the Rally. Listening to Torchwick pontificate had been decidedly less than insightful. Their ruse hadn''t been discovered, so far. But every moment they stayed was another in which it may be discovered.
Unfortunately, running was not an option for either of them at that moment. Blake judged the numbers at the door. Even with her and Sun''s abilities, she''d rather not risk escape against those numbers.
There was only one path forward, and their guide was watching them. Expectant, and growing steadily more impatient.
Blake nodded, stepping forward. "Show us the way?"
The White Fang nodded and motioned for them to follow after him, muttering lowly about the two of them being ''fucking newbies''. He led them away from the large bay doors, and their most immediate exit. They cut quickly through the gathering throngs of people, as they gathered and grouped. Some given uniforms, others loaded into vehicles. Few were staying, it would seem. Blake wasn''t sure where they would be taken, but she knew what would happen. Initiation, training, and an introduction to what it meant to be a member of the new White Fang. A radically different mindset than how it had been under her father.
One whose effective and impassioned twistings of the old ideologies rooted far easier than not. It was easier to make what was wrong feel right when you put enough emotion behind it. And there was always someone willing to feed those emotions. Always.
The trio turned down another corridor, moving deeper into the building. Doorways dotted the hall as they went, feeding into offices, stock rooms, the spare spaces to handle the legal end of whatever the building was in the daylight. Some manner of distribution company, Blake surmised, which explained the adjacent warehouse. Whether that was supposed to be ironic or not, she wasn''t sure. The leadership of the White Fang were less interested in irony than they were in revolt.
As they followed, Blake noticed the way certain other Faunus were being directed to follow behind them. There weren''t many of them, compared to the rest. A scant dozen to the dozens that had attended the rally. There seemed little sense to the way they were being chosen to her either. No concern for gender, or what type they were. Cat, Dog, Monkey, Lizard, mammal and reptile of all varieties. None of insect, avian, or piscine descent though. Which did not surprise her, given how rare it was to see them outside, and even within, Menagerie. But it also didn''t clarify to her what they were all being singled out for.
Their group pulled off into a side office, desks and tables pushed to the side, giving them all room to stand. As the last of them trailed into the room, the White Fang shut the door behind them. A trio of them made their way to the front of the room. Two of them went about preparing something while the third, one with a fluffy tail stood in front of them.
"Alright, pay attention, I don''t want to repeat myself. We''ve got a lot to do before tomorrow rolls around," The Fang said. "Normally we''d reserve something like this for our more seasoned brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, recent setbacks have made that difficult. You''ve all been chosen both for your current lack of notoriety and potential for conceal-ability."
This sent a murmur through the small group. Blake noticed Sun''s head swivel slightly as he scanned the room. But she could understand now. They were being chosen for something covert, where they''d need to be able to blend in with humans.
It also gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Those sorts of tactics were normally used for reconnaissance or espionage. She got the sense this wasn''t going to be the former.
"What you''re going to be doing is critical to the success of what''s going to happen tomorrow," The White Fang explained. "You''ll receive proper instruction once we''re done here, and sent off to your expected rallying points. If you''re concerned we''re throwing you head-first into a firefight, don''t be. If you all do this right, you won''t even need to carry a weapon with you. It''s better if you don''t anyway, most of you would be spotted immediately."
The two other White Fang finished their work, projecting a map on the wall. Blueprints of a kind Blake had some familiarity with. While with the Fang, she would have to study them from time to time when planning. She had an idea of how to read them, recognizing dozens of small rooms connecting to stretches of hallway, at least two floors. Several larger rooms, connecting and branching off of a larger structure. Her eyes scanned to one corner of the document.
''Processing and Holding Cells, Oakholme Wing''
As she read it, the other two White Fang went to the small group and began passing out packets of paper.
"Right now, you''re receiving lists of people you''ll need to get in contact with, along with time frames for shift changes, access codes, and cell numbers if need be. Study them, you have until tomorrow afternoon," The White Fang instructed. "You won''t be able to take them with you once we''re rolling. We had to put a lot of effort into getting that information so don''t lose it. The job you''ll be doing is an important one, so you can''t afford to forget."
"What exactly are we doing?" Sun asked, catching Blake''s attention as he held up some of the papers.
The fluffy-tailed Fang looked at him for a moment, as a small murmur went through the rest of the group. The White Fang smirked. "You''ve got brothers in arms currently held in bondage. We''ll be looking to correct that."
"¡ what?" another member of their group, a man with short cropped, golden dog ears asked.
"We''re staging a jailbreak tomorrow at the Main Precinct up town," The White Fang continued to explain. "With the information provided, you''ll all be responsible for making sure it happens."
There was a brief pause in the gathered group of Faunus, as they all collectively took a breath. After it passed, they began to pelt their appointed instructor with questions. Mostly questioning the sanity of the plan, the instructor, and themselves to be expected to go along with it.
"Quiet- Quiet!" The White Fang snapped. "One at a time, you''ve all got places to be and the less time you spend fighting over one another, the faster you can start preparing¡ Yes, you there, with the tail."
"Uh yeah, what!?" The first asked, a young woman with a fox tail. "Aren''t we going to get caught almost immediately?"
"Not if you do as instructed," The White Fang answered. "You''re giving too much credit to local law enforcement. Most of the instructions are on the papers you''ve been given. How you execute them is to your discretion, but if you''re smart, you won''t get caught."
"But what if we do get caught?" Another, a man with short mouse ears, asked. "They''re going to notice a bunch of people coming in to speak with the White Fang!"
"Which is why most of you were chosen," The Fang answered. "Most of your traits are easily concealed or masked. You''ll find most of what you need to disguise yourselves at your assigned safe houses prior to your part in this tomorrow."
"What if they try to break out while we''re still there?" another woman asked.
"They won''t, we''ve got guys on the inside to make sure of it." The Fang reassured.
The conversation continued in such a fashion, seeming to drag on for a small eternity as she and Sun listened. Basic answers given to people who might find themselves woefully unprepared for what was coming next.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But Blake found she had all she needed.
That sinking feeling in her stomach had turned out to be accurate. She needed to warn everyone, quickly.
Blake felt her scroll buzz. She drew it out low, looking down at it in semi-concealed fashion.
(Sun): ["What do we do?"]
Blake cast a quick eye beside her, and found Sun looking partly towards her. Hard to see his eyes with the mask on them. She gave him a small shrug, dared not answer via Scroll. But she did motion gently towards the door they''d come through. The two of them had gained something of value. Now they needed to leave with it, before they lost complete control. The others had to be getting close.
The only question was, how?
Sun nodded to himself, glanced towards the door, then turned back towards the presentation. He had no idea how they were going to get out of the situation either. Nor would Blake have expected one beyond simply barging out. She''d spent enough time with Sun to know he could be sneaky, but not the kind of sneaky they needed right then. They could fight their way out if they needed to, but then they''d be back to where they were.
Perhaps, if they waited, they could make their way back to the loading dock. Maybe then they could take a chance at slipping away.
Of course, as she thought over this course of action, the door to the hallway opened, drawing everyone''s attention.
Standing there was a rather tall White Fang, broad shouldered and well trained. A male, but she couldn''t pick out immediately of what descent. His outfit looked disheveled, as though he''d just been in a fight, evidenced by their left arm, currently resting in a bulky sling. She couldn''t get a good look at his face. He wore the hood and mask all Fang did, in addition to a bulky metal mouthpiece, a pair of tubes looping down off it, running back behind his neck. His skin, the little she could see, was a fair shade of warm white, pale hair thick on it.
Everyone fell silent, as they observed him. He remained silent, as he observed them as well. When he finally did speak, his voice was deep and clipped. "Ah. There we are."
"What is it?" The fluff-tailed Fang asked. "We''re trying to get them prepped."
"Boss sent me," The Pale Fang answered. "Needed me to grab a pair of them before you sent them out."
"Why?" Fluff-tail asked, almost indignantly. "We need everyone we can get on this."
"Special job," The Pale Fang continued. "Something to do with catching Crazy Steve."
"¡ By the brothers is he still a problem?" Fluff tail asked, shaking his head. "I thought Bane said he wasn''t going to be."
"I''m not questioning it, I''m just doing my job," The Pale Fang answered. "Just need to take two."
The Fluff-tail Fang grimaced, but motioned to him to continue.
"Thank you," The Pale Fang answered, before scanning the group. Blake could feel their gaze as it swept over them. Even if she couldn''t see them, she knew this interloper was watching them like a wolf watches sheep. That sense of primal dread, where a predator looks for the moment to snap its jaws into your neck.
He motioned to the group with his good arm. "You two, Black Cat and Sun Monkey. You''ve got the right look to you."
He chose them.
Blake felt her blood begin to run cold as she began to think of a reason not to play along with things. She knew she could have Sun to back her. It would look suspicious if neither of them decided to go, but it didn''t need to be them, did it?
But then another thought occurred to her, and she knew it should be them.
It was exactly what she''d been asking for. An out.
She nudged Sun who looked down at her in confusion.
"Come on," she said, grabbing him by the arm. After only a moment''s resistance, he joined her, and the two crossed the room. The Pale Fang stepped aside, and allowed them out of the room. Quickly shutting the door behind them, the Pale Fang took the lead.
"Follow, quick," He ordered.
Blake and Sun did as they were bid and fell in step behind him.
"What are we doing?" Sun asked, as quietly as he could manage.
"As soon as we get close, we break off from him and run for the exit," Blake said. "We should be able to get out if we''re quick."
"¡that''s the plan?" Sun asked.
"You got anything better?" Blake asked.
"¡ Good plan." Sun answered.
As they approached the end of the corridor, leading out into the docks once more, the Pale Fang slowed. They came to a stop a few yards away from the opening. He held up a hand, ordering them to stop as well.
Blake and Sun both attempted to ignore it. They shot forward, fully prepared to rush past them, close the remaining distance to the exit.
The Pale Fang, however, lashed out with either arm and pulled them to a stop. Which caught the both of them off guard immediately.
More so, once Blake saw the item wrapped around the Fang''s left arm, having hidden beneath the sling. A metal device strapped to their arm, blocky and heavy.
"Could you both not?" The Fang hissed. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep this act up?"
Blake looked at the Fang in confusion, as she began to piece the matter together. "¡ Six?"
...
Five Minutes Earlier*
After an obscene amount of bickering, we managed to get through to Blake and tell her we were on our way. What followed could be best described as a mad dash. Blake had laid out the rough location of where the rally was supposed to be, but we lost a little time on the specifics. Fortunately, around that time of night, there weren''t many people around. The White Fang wasn''t afraid to take risks either, and had a few people stationed out the back of some paper distributor. They had trucks waiting to more covertly move people, and were doing a decent job of not drawing attention¡ more than the obvious at least.
I pulled away from the edge of the roof, overlooking the exterior of a loading dock. We were on the adjacent rooftop, keeping our heads down. "I count maybe five or so guys stationed around the back there, plus another two doing laps up and down the alley leading in. Safe to assume there''s going to be more inside."
"How are we doing this?" Jaune asked, chancing a look into the loading dock. "You think if we rush in we can take them down?"
"Not without letting everyone inside know we''re here," Ruby answered, drumming her fingers on Crescent Rose. She looked at me. "Do you think we should?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. That they managed to get this far and not put them in a frenzy means they''ve kept their heads down. Charging in would just be kicking the cazador''s nest."
"You mean a wasp''s nest?" Ren asked.
"Same difference," I told him, looking towards Ruby again. "We don''t know the numbers, their arms, or what the building looks like inside. I think we could handle it, but this is a job where a scalpel would be more useful than a hammer."
"Well, our resident ''scalpel'' is currently stuck in there," Weiss noted, motioning to the building. "Just looking at the trucks, we might not have long either."
"Soooo- hammer?" Nora asked, swinging her hammer over her shoulder.
"No!" Ruby squeaked. "er- at least, not yet."
"We don''t have a lot of time, Ruby," Yang said.
"I don''t quite understand why it was necessary for Sun and Blake to go to this Rally," Penny chimed. "Does it have something to do with why the White Fang have been running around?"
"Sort of," I answered. "We''ll explain after we get them out of there."
A tense silence fell over our group as we stayed huddled on the rooftop, studying the loading dock beneath us. I watched the guys stationed at the docks themselves. They were tense, but not jumpy. They were observing the area with a slow meter to their movement. It spoke to a level of competency, experience. Maybe not enough to stop the nine of us if we decided to rush them. But they wouldn''t panic easy, they probably wanted trouble if nothing else. I couldn''t say the same for the pair they had roaming the alley leading to the dock. They seemed a bit more jumpy, trigger happy. Which also had some sense. If they opened-up at the first sign of trouble, the rest of them would know and be ready to react properly. Have everyone in motion before the real fighting started.
But it meant there was no easy way to sneak in. Observing the building, there weren''t many windows to slip through. Roof access was limited, not many doors either. Good pick on their part, lots of chokepoints, defensible.
Made our problem an absolute bitch to get a handle on.
I double checked the group messages. Nothing from Blake since the last bout. No time to try and contact her.
We didn''t have many options.
But I could think of one.
It was one I''d only used a few times in the past, in the Mojave. A touch-and-go strategy that only really works if you were careful and could think on your feet. Using it here would be easily the most dangerous time I''d ever attempted it. If it went wrong, I''d blow our cover and be behind enemy lines when the fighting broke out.
Unless we found ourselves another scalpel though, it was hammer-time, and I''d had enough dancing for one night.
I reached down to my Pip-Boy and flicked through the tabs to the ''quests'' section. I went down to the one associated with Blake, ''What''s New Pussy Cat?'', and set it as active. As I''d hoped, my compass immediately marked her location, pointing into the warehouse. I took a breath, and stood up. "Ok, I''m going in."
The group looked at me in confusion.
"We either make a move or risk losing them," I said. "Outside Blake, Ren and I are the only ones I''d peg as being quiet enough to get in without drawing attention. Of the two of us, conceited it might sound, I''d say I''ve got more practice in this department."
"But if you''re going in-" Ruby started to protest.
"I have an idea," I interrupted. "Trust me, I''ve done this in the past. It''s a long shot, but if I fuck it up we didn''t have many other options beyond brute force to begin with." I pulled out my Scroll and quickly tapped into the group chat, a message. I kept my finger off the send button, but showed it to everyone. "If something goes wrong, or I think we''re about to get caught anyway, you can consider this the panic button. I press it, you need to hit hard and fast."
"I feel like we should be more afraid that you''ve got an idea," Weiss said snidely.
"Absolutely, but I''m not hearing any better ones," I told her.
"How exactly are you planning to get in?" Pyrrha asked, eyeing the loading dock. "I don''t see many alternate entrances."
"I have my ways," I told her, before looking at Ruby. "I need you to trust me right now. Tonight hasn''t gone to plan on most fronts, but I think I can get Blake and Sun out reasonably safe. I''ve got you lot to provide back-up if things go south. Can I count on you?"
"Well, duh," Ruby said, not missing a beat.
I nodded, then motioned to the alley that led into the docks. "Good. Then do me a favor, and avoid looking down that alley for a few minutes."
I spun on my heel and crept across the rooftop. Had to mantle over a ledge as I reached the mouth of the alley, dropping to a slightly lower rooftop, but the further away I was from the loading dock, the more comfortable I felt moving at a less restricted pace. Better though a Faunus'' senses were compared to a human''s, I''d had enough practical experience to know they only mattered so much. A blind Deathclaw can hear better than a seeing one, but stay far enough away and it won''t matter much. Sharper senses only matter as far as the ones using them know how to use them.
The White Fang in the alley were almost laser focused on making sure nothing appeared in line of sight. Observing them, I could see they were at least moving at a slow, stalking pace. Both carried guns, shotgun and rifle, muzzles sweeping the alley gently. Would need to watch their lanes of fire.
I moved along the rooftop until I was in step beside them. Didn''t immediately make my move. I waited, moved with them until they were most of the way down the alley, away from the loading dock. It meant more time backtracking, but less likely they would be discovered. Worth the extra precaution. As we approached what I thought was a suitable distance, I worked the cow-puncher out of my sleeve. My fingers slipped into the knuckle rings, and my free hand fell to the switch, modulating the power. I''d seen what full-power could do, but this was a situation that would require finesse. It would work in open combat, but I didn''t need sympathetic reflexes drawing unwanted attention. I turned the dial down, to about where I''d kept my prod at for more covert situations. No telling if that was going to be overkill now. The Dust components had compounded the power output tremendously. Without testing, I wouldn''t know just how much I was really putting out.
If standard power had nearly fried someone, what would a lower setting do?
With a sense of practice I was finding myself way too comfortable with, I jumped off the roof. It was followed by that brief moment, where gravity grips onto you. When your guts and their contents shift upward in your chest because of inertia.
They snapped back down, as I crashed onto the closer of the White Fang, slamming him into the ground, on top of his weapon. Made a dull thud as he landed. His partner wheeled towards me, but I snaked in with an uppercut before he could get the muzzle pointed at me. Cow-Puncher caught him under the chin, and I saw him tense as he stumbled backward, backing against a wall. With the brief moment it bought, I rounded back onto his friend, still pinned, and punched him in the back of the head. I held Cow-Puncher there for a moment or two, letting the electricity work its magic. Felt him tense, but otherwise stayed silent.
Right as his buddy began to recover, I bolted off one and crashed into the other. He tried to bring the muzzle onto me, hesitated, then tried to use the weapon to block against my punch. The hesitation is what got him. Had he just gone through with trying to shoot me, he''d have wrecked the whole thing even if he''d missed.
Instead, I punched him in the forehead and used the wall as a backboard. The White Fang started to let out a strangled scream, but I clamped my other hand over his mouth. Kept it that way until he collapsed to the ground. I took it as a sign he was going to stay down. For how long would be anyone''s guess, but I only needed it for the vague term of ''long enough''.
Which I judged it would be, when he rather suddenly lost control of his bladder.
Unfortunate, because out of the two of them, he had the pants that were more my size.
Repressing a natural sense of disgust, I chucked the two of them to one side of the alley, and began to take what I needed from them. Namely, their uniforms. Or the parts of them that would fit me at least. Tunic, shoes, hood, mask, gloves, and a pair of pants I noted as being a touch too big for me in the waist. I started with pulling the uniform proper onto me. Meant stashing my armor nearby, felt a bit naked without it, but I knew the feeling would only get worse. Uniform felt well enough that I couldn''t notice much about it that was out of place¡ except for my Pip-Boy. Had to remedy that, improvised a sling that would make it look like my arm was in a cast. Aura let people heal quicker, but I could probably bullshit my way through if pressed. Better than leaving it out in the open. Tucked my Scroll in the sling with it. Be less noticeable than having to dig it out if trouble started.
Pulling it all together, there was only one piece that made me pause.
The hood and mask.
I really, really didn''t want to have to wear either of them. Not the least of which being because the mask only covered most of the face, leaving the mouth and jaw visible. But if I didn''t wear them, and went in with my helmet and gas mask, I''d stick out like a sore thumb. They''d figure out what was going on before I had a chance to actually find Blake and Sun. If it was going to work, I had to commit to it.
So I took my helmet and mask off, stashing them with my armor, being sure to replace them with the mask and hood just as quickly. The mask and hood didn''t keep my hair pulled back like my helmet did. I could feel it trying to slip out from under the hood. Needed a haircut two weeks ago, was starting to get a bit shaggy.
As I pulled the hood into place, my Pip-Boy chimed at me.
You are now dressed as a member of the White Fang*
As long as I didn''t take the clothes off, or did anything stupid, it would keep that way too.
Though, for posterity, I did pull my Rebreather from my equipment and seal it to my face. Just for a piece of privacy. Plus, anything to further obscure the fact that I was a human trying to pass themselves off as not.
With my disguise as good as I could get it, I started back down the alley towards the loading dock. Tried to affect the way I walked as well. Given the roughed up and dirty way the clothes looked from my attack, I tried to work a small hitch into my stride. Give more credence to my supposedly broken arm. Wasn''t hard, I''d had to work around the real thing more than once. Though this was probably the first time I''d tried to have and work it into the disguise itself.
I passed the mouth out of the alley at a hobbled gait, and quickly crossed to the loading dock, doing my best to try and ignore the fact that my eyesight wasn''t adjusted to the darkness. Faunus have natural low-light vision, and my helmet had it built in. Now that I wasn''t wearing it, randomly tripping and bumping into things like I couldn''t see them wouldn''t help my case. Would''ve been a good time to use some Cateye. If I had it. Instead, I had to work off the dim, amber light that showed off the docks. Emergency lighting most likely, good for basic illumination and little else. Not a bad choice for keeping a low profile.
As I hobbled closer to the loading dock, the two manning the side-door took note of me. Their rifles drifted in my direction, but the muzzles kept low.
"Hold!" one of the White Fang called.
I complied, keeping with the act. They hadn''t shot me on sight. Now was when the real test began.
"We weren''t supposed to be expecting anyone," the Fang said, shifting on his feet. "State yourself."
"¡ Mac Styx." I said, throwing out the first name I could think of. "I got news for the big man, let me through."
I had no idea who the big man was, but Blake said Torchwick was there. Shot in the dark said it might work.
The Two Fang looked at each other, then back to me. "Why not use your Scroll?"
"Lost it," I lied, pushing my Scroll deeper into my sling. "We got problems, the job uptown went to shit."
"What do you mean?" the Fang asked.
"Above your pay grade," I told him. "Just let me through, boss man''s gonna want to hear this."
Maybe pushing it a little calling him ''boss man'' but I was trying to keep in character.
The two White Fang looked at me for a moment, then shrugged and moved aside, opening the door. Briskly, I approached and walked into the building, gladly throwing myself out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Inside, the loading dock was what I''d come to expect of a loading dock. Though the presence of the White Fang, and soon to be, milling about was a little less common. They were presently divvying out uniforms and arms, then loading the new recruits into box trucks. Improvised mass transport. Got the sense if we could''ve hit a place like this more often, we could''ve really put a damper on their plans. Wanting to avoid standing around and looking more out of place, I briefly checked my compass and started moving. Not fast, not slow, but with purpose and intent. First rule of thumb for this sort of thing was to act like you belonged. For most of the people present, that would be enough to deter those who asked questions. The few that paid attention might raise them, but the proper disguise would keep them from acting.
As it was, I could tell I definitely earned a few odd looks, both from the recruits, and from the more seasoned White Fang. But the disguise was doing its job. I was just another grunt, trying to do their job, and flying under the radar while doing it. Nobody was going to question what should be obvious right now. If they did, I''d have to trust my ability to bullshit to get me out of it.
My compass led me across the dock floor, towards the far wall and an adjoined corridor. I moved down it with my ever so slightly hitched stride, being mindful of everyone I passed on the way. No one seemed to be piecing things together yet, but it wouldn''t take much. Had to keep calm, keep focused, in and out. The hall grew a bit emptier as I approached where Blake and Sun were. People were moving to get the place cleared out. They''d gladly drag Sun and Blake with them if given half a chance, not even knowing who they were. Would rather that not happen.
The compass pointed to a door off to one side of the corridor, and I assumed it was the end of the line. No clue what was going to be inside, so I prepped a basic line of bullshit for whoever greeted me. I opened the door and was greeted by what I could describe as a mission briefing. Maybe a dozen random Faunus, none that had anything that stuck out about them in particular. Probably would''ve mistaken most of them for humans without a second glance. Had something projected up on one wall, blueprints, couldn''t focus on them. Was busy making sure the three Fang in there didn''t suddenly decide to see through my disguise and waste me.
But there were Sun and Blake. Standing in the group of gathered Faunus, trying not to stand out.
Time to extract.
"Ah, there we are." I said, affecting my different tone.
"What is it?" One of the Fang asked, some girl with a fluffy orange tail. "We''re trying to get them prepped."
"Boss sent me," I answered. "Needed me to grab a pair of them before you sent them out."
"Why?" Fluff-tail asked, sounding like an overworked laborer getting told to pull double. "We need everyone we can get on this."
"Special job," I continued. "Something to do with catching Crazy Steve."
"¡ By the brothers is he still a problem?" Fluff tail asked, shaking his head. "I thought Bane said he wasn''t going to be."
"I''m not questioning it, I''m just doing my job," I responded. "Just need to take two."
The Fluff-tail Fang grimaced, but motioned to me to continue.
"Thank you," I answered, before scanning the group. My eyes scanned over the group in slow and deliberate fashion. Make it seem like I was actually judging who from the batch was actually worth taking. I could see the way some of them flinched. Good, it made them less eager. I didn''t need volunteers, I needed two who were getting voluntold.
I motioned to Sun and Blake with my free arm. "You two, Black Cat and Sun Monkey. You''ve got the right look to you."
Blake and Sun looked startled by the command. I got the sense from watching them that the disguise was, perhaps, working a bit too well. They couldn''t pick up that it was me just from a glance, which was good, but it made it seem like I was there to drag them further away. Which, given their predicament, would be bad. But they were smart enough not to blow their cover either. We''d stressed that enough before they even came into this place. I could judge by the shift in Blake''s body language, she was prepared to make a run for it if she felt she needed to.
Blake nudged Sun and they left the group of Faunus they''d been standing with. I stepped aside and let them out into the corridor, giving a quick two fingered salute before shutting the door.
Erring on the side of caution, I kept the tone for a bit longer. Wait until we weren''t standing just outside the door. "Follow, quick."
I took the lead of us, heading back down the hall. Things were going smooth so far, which could be a bad sign, given my luck. But we were in the home stretch, all that needed to happen was that we walked back out the door. I could manage that.
Blake and Sun couldn''t.
Right before we stepped back into the loading dock, I tried to get them to stop so I could talk to them. There was a clamor of footsteps behind me, and I spun, catching both of them mid-sprint and sending them to the ground, only barely stopping them from spilling out and ruining everything. I suppressed a very heavy sigh.
"Could you both not?" I growled. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep this act up?"
The both of them tensed when they hit the ground, and had probably been about to get up and fight me. After I spoke though, they relaxed, Blake''s head swiveling to look at me. "¡Six?"
"Who the fuck else?" I said, dragging them slightly back down the corridor before helping them up. "Are you two trying to get caught now?"
Back on their feet, the two of them looked me over. Despite the masks over their eyes, I could still see the surprise in their features. "¡ dude, how?" Sun asked.
"Got my ways," I hissed. "Got a tool that can help me find-"
"No, he means how did you manage¡ this." Blake asked, gesturing to my outfit.
"Stole it, the rest is practice," I told her. "It won''t hold if people look at it too closely, so try and keep character, alright?"
Blake nodded, seeming to relax slightly. Then Sun asked, "Where''s everyone else?"
"On a rooftop across from the loading dock," I said. "They''re ready to dive in if we fuck things up in here."
Sun nodded, pausing a moment, as he looked like he was trying to keep himself restrained. "¡ Did you really steal some guy''s clothes?"
"Two guys actually, first guy pissed himself," I corrected.
"¡" Sun shook his head, chuckling.
"I can''t believe that''s working," Blake said, calming.
"It won''t if we blow it here," I told her. "We''re almost out, just keep calm and follow my lead. I was able to talk my way in, should be enough to get back out."
Blake nodded, and I gave both her and Sun a look. As soon as I believed they were ready, I turned and started forward again, this time having them follow me at a close clip, their steps at an even gait with mine. They were wise enough to know that if my disguise was good enough to bluster my way forward, they could easily ride the tail wind. Gave more credit to Blake on the matter than Sun. Blake seemed to have an idea of what being undercover meant. We had to weave around a small group of people that were piling into one of the trucks, but they kept with me. The most we got from anyone was an odd, perhaps too long glance, but were otherwise ignored.
We were across the loading dock in short order. I could see the door in front of me. There were going to be the two Fang standing guard on the other side, and they were liable to ask questions. But I could explain it as needing the two of them as essential personnel. As long as we ran fast enough, they weren''t going to have long enough to question it.
We made it to the door before we got caught.
"Hold it!" A deep, familiar voice called.
I could feel the whole loading dock stop around me. Which it did, most of the sounds of motion died away with it. I spun around, quickly scanning the room, seeing who it was that had made the order.
My stomach dropped the moment I saw him. A giant, broad shouldered Fang, face completely encompassed by a bone-white mask and a massive tattoo on his shoulder. He looked as I remembered him, except for one new detail: a large, circular brace running around his neck, holding his head in place.
The giant Fang from the Warehouse.
The one I''d kicked into a wall.
''Yep, there''s where the bad luck went.''
The Giant Fang approached us at a fast clip. Not running, but moving with the same purpose and stride I had been. He didn''t have that chainsaw with him either, he was unarmed. But when everyone else was, perhaps he didn''t need to be. All he had to say was a word and he could have us riddled.
Blake tensed, as the Fang approached us. She swore under her breath, trying to make herself look smaller, inconspicuous.
I stepped in front of her and Sun, buy them some cover if things took a turn.
The giant stopped in front of us, and he loomed over all three of us.
"Was told you have something to tell me," The giant said. "Leaving so soon?"
"¡Was going to wait for you outside," I answered evenly.
The giant growled, continuing to stare me down. "I don''t recognize you."
"Mac Styx," I told him.
"I didn''t ask for your name either," the giant growled, incensed. A tense moment followed, before he tapped at his mouth and asked. "Why do you wear that."
My rebreather. He was wondering why I was obscuring what little you could see of me. "... Crazy Steve ripped some teeth out," I lied. "It''s helping keep my mouth covered."
"¡ Really?" The giant asked. "Seems convenient. Takes a strong will to overcome that¡ and talk as easily as you do."
"I''m high on painkillers and rage," I told him, adding a seething edge to my voice. "I''ll rip his throat out."
The giant nodded. "And if I ripped it off?"
"It''d be very painful," I answered. "For you."
"¡" The giant chuckled, the sound of a chugging engine. "That makes two of us¡ Well, you have my attention." The giant opened his arms. "What was the message you needed to tell me, about tonight?"
"Our attempt on the General''s life failed," I answered, ignoring the noises Sun and Blake made behind me. "Steve was there, along with some red hooded wretch. They managed to catch everyone but me."
Another tense moment passed, and my grip on my Scroll tightened. If we couldn''t get out of this, our teammates were our only alternative. Assuming they didn''t get antsy and jump in anyway.
The giant growled. "You endanger us all by coming here?" he asked. "You were supposed to be caught you moron, that was part of the plan."
I didn''t respond to that.
That part was definitely a curveball.
"Were you followed?" the giant asked. "Did you lead Steve here as well?"
I shook my head. "N-no, I didn''t."
"¡" The Giant shook his head. "Useless. If you''d said yes, I could''ve at least had my vengeance¡" I could feel his gaze sharpen on me. "Before I dismiss you so I can determine what I should do with you, answer me: why were you taking these two away?"
I found myself floundering for an answer. Big man wasn''t smart, but he was asking the right questions.
Then he threw another curve ball, and leered at Blake. "Better yet, did you know you''re standing next to Lady Belladonna?"
Blake tensed, and I felt an icy spike dig into my spine. Bastard knew who Blake was.
"¡ What?" I asked, turning slowly on Blake, trying to seem confused. Lean into the act. Try to make it while my hand clutched onto my scroll. Only barely resisting the urge to hit the panic button.
Not yet. Play the room. Sell them a story.
The Giant bought it. His attention was elsewhere anyway.
"You didn''t think I wouldn''t be able to recognize you, did you, my lady?" The giant rumbled. "Taurus has been looking for you."
A look of dread washed over Blake''s face, what wasn''t currently masked. I could see her tensing, her arms ready to reach for the weapon at her side.
"You''re Lady Belladonna?" I asked, subtly inching closer to her. I motioned to Sun. "Monkey-"
"Get on the truck, boy." The giant ordered, shifting his gaze to Sun. "Whatever this idiot says holds no authority. Get on a truck, I do not care which. You should know what your job is. Pray you do it better than this one." He motioned to me.
I watched Sun for a moment, and he watched me, lost. He looked ready to fight, run, do whatever the call was in this situation. Maybe fighting was the call. Maybe now was the time everything went up in a puff of smoke.
But I got a gut feeling that said: ''not yet''.
Things weren''t adding up. We couldn''t blow it here.
So I made the call.
"¡ Get on the truck," I ordered.
Sun looked at me in confusion, and I could tell he didn''t like this plan. I didn''t either.
But we were half a word away from FUBAR, we either played smart or got fucked.
"Do it," I intoned.
Sun paused again, almost a moment too long. He looked at the giant, then me, Blake, the room at large. I could tell he really would have rather thrown hands right then and there. Send us spiraling in a massive firefight. We could have, we really could have.
But instead, he nodded. Without a word, he turned and walked to the nearest truck. He climbed aboard, silently disappearing into the crowd. He would be fine. Unlike us, he wasn''t under the eye of suspicion.
The Giant watched me wordlessly. I was half expecting him to suddenly decide I wasn''t on his side and attack me. But then he spoke to Blake once more "How strange, coming back here of all places. Change your mind? Decide to take up the cause again?"
Blake didn''t answer, but I could see her dry swallow. This wasn''t a situation where she was expected to answer, and she wouldn''t have even if she could.
"Idiot," The Giant said to me. "Grab the Lady and help her to my transport. Taurus will be glad to speak with her."
I had no idea who ''Taurus'' was, but I knew a threat when I heard one. Fuck them both.
I reached out and grabbed Blake, seeming like I was going to be rough with her. But I pulled her close enough she could hear me. My voice came out in a tense whisper. "Kick me in the stomach and bolt out the door, now."
"What?" Blake hissed, sounding like she was only now coming back to herself.
"Do it!" I hissed back
She didn''t need any further prompting.
Blake spun and lashed her leg out, kicking me in the stomach. I let the blow force me back, and Blake did that thing she could, a clone of her launching out behind her. The clone, now the real Blake, crashed through the door as the previous one vanished from where it had stood. There was a long pause, as Blake ignored the guards that were standing on the other side and began to book it.
"¡ You bitch!" I roared and bolted after her, ignoring the Giant. I broke out into a dead sprint through the door after her, choosing to ignore the befuddled guards, hoping that I was keeping in character enough to not arouse suspicion. "Get back here ya fuckin'' pussy!"
Deep character. Mac Styx is an asshole.
It proved to be effective, because the White Fang didn''t immediately start shooting at either of us. I lagged behind Blake, but made it appear I was still very much rushing after her. She rounded down into the alley way and kept running. I followed her as fast as I could reasonably believe. We ran until we reached the place I''d acquired my disguise. Both of the White Fang were still there, and not yet stirring. They probably would be before long, we didn''t have time to waste. I grabbed my items from the garbage. No time to change, not here.
"Keep running," I hissed. "They''re going to send more people, we''re not out of the fire yet."
"But Sun-" Blake started to protest.
"Trust he''ll be fine," I said. "Worry about getting out of here or you''ll be in no position to help him."
I tucked my effects under my arm, undoing the sling from around my neck. My Scroll slid open and I cleared the message, preparing to type into the chat and let the others know we were free. Although, I soon discovered they''d already figured that part out.
"HIYA!"
Which Ruby demonstrated by kicking me in the side of the head.
I didn''t see it coming, one second I''m looking at Blake. Then there''s a rush of wind and a boot crashing into my face. Didn''t even have my helmet on for cushioning, just a thin cloth hood and thin metal mask.
It knocked me to the ground, and right as I was about to recover, the muzzle of Crescent Rose was in my face. Ruby loomed over me, foot planted on my chest, scarf and hood covering her.
"I''ve got him Blake!" Ruby squeaked. "Where''s Six?"
"¡ You''re standing on him," Blake said dully.
There was an awkwardly silent moment, as the rest of our friends jumped off the building, eyes either glued on Ruby or me. Ruby however, blinked, and looked down at me. It might have been the coloring of her clothes, but she looked a bit flush.
"¡ did you seriously have to kick me in the head?" I asked, coming back to my senses.
"I didn''t know!" Ruby squeaked. "You were all ''I have my secrety ways'' and then ran off! How was I supposed to know you''d do this!?"
"Or have it work," Weiss said, looking down at me, surprised. "Maybe you should tell us next time. Unless you don''t mind getting kicked in the head."
"I thought you were random thug #372." Nora chirped
"Well now you know¡ Can you get off me?" I asked, feeling less than nice about the situation.
Wordlessly, Ruby got off me and collapsed Crescent Rose. I sat up and felt the hood slide off my head, which was throbbing.
"¡ Huh, so you really are a towhead." Weiss said.
"Is that really what you want to focus on right now?" I asked, brushing a lock of silver-gray hair out of my face. Rather, out of one of the mask''s eye holes. Thing covered up to the top of my forehead, but stopped at the scalp. Had my hair flopping about in a mop.
"Why''s it so long?" Nora prodded.
"Fuck off, I haven''t had time to give myself a cut recently," I said, starting to pick myself up, before Ruby held out a hand and tried to help me. I weighed more than her, and nearly pulled her down, but it was the thought that mattered. Back on my feet, I took stock of everyone. They''d all looked ready for a fight, but otherwise seemed surprised I''d managed to pull it off. Mostly.
"Where''s Sun?" Ren asked.
"They''ve got him," I said. "We couldn''t pull him out, but his cover''s not blown, yet. The big boss pegged Blake the moment he got close."
"Well she is Ghira Belladonna''s only child," Penny added, earning a surprised and questioning look from Blake.
"Then we need to go back for him!" Jaune said. "We can''t just leave him."
"He''ll be fine, we won''t be if we don''t go," I said, looking back the way we came. "They''ll be sending trucks any moment. We get caught, this whole thing will have been pointless."
"Are you sure he''s ok?" Ruby asked.
I looked at her. "As safe as he can be. There''s something else going on we haven''t caught onto yet. If he can be our guy on the inside it''s worth the short risk. But if you want to make it pointless, but make sure he''s safe, we can go back. It''s your call, but I know my choice."
Ruby looked at me for a moment, rubbing her eyes. It was getting late, she had to be running on fumes by now, they all did. Except for Penny, I had no idea what she was powered by, but she was probably pretty much topped off. "¡ Blake, text him and find out if he''s ok. Six is right, we can''t stay here."
"Especially not here," I said, motioning down the alley. "Start hustling, we don''t have long."
Without much further complaint everyone shot into motion down the alleyway. I stayed behind a clip, long enough to switch back to my helmet and revel in its familiar comfort. I started changing as I ran down the alley, rushing to catch up to everyone, taking up the back near Blake.
"¡ Did you seriously call me a pussy?" Blake asked.
"¡ I was in character."
Lost in the Night
We didn¡¯t speak again until we made it back to Tukson¡¯s, meaning the whole walk was a long and quiet one. Especially for one in the dead of night, in the backstreets of Vale. I carried the White Fang Uniform folded under my arm the whole way. Could¡¯ve ditched it, but at that point it had proven useful to keep around. I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to use it more than once before it stopped working as cover. But with the way things had gone, even that was worth something.
Everybody shuffled back up the stairs and into Tukson¡¯s former apartment. After everyone was inside, I locked the door and went to the map of Vale. Zwei, who¡¯d been napping on one of the couches, groggily raised his head to look at us, blinked slowly, then went back to bed. Snarky brat. I marked off the locations me and Ruby had handled, added the spot Blake¡¯s rally had been, and marked where Ironwood¡¯s gala had been. Just another set of dots in a sea of them, adding no rhyme nor reason.
¡°Alright, that¡¯s me and Rubes,¡± I said. ¡°Jaune, Pyrrha, you got anything to share with the class?¡±
When I didn¡¯t receive an answer, I looked up at them. Everyone, sans Penny, looked like they¡¯d been through the ringer. Tired, a bit forlorn, and just a smidge anxious. They¡¯d either taken to leaning or sitting on the couches in the den or walls, digesting the evening. Penny was the exception, because she just seemed to be casually observing the whole thing. Out of everyone here, she probably had the least knowledge about everything that was going on. Even if that wasn¡¯t the case, she seemed to be good about processing things fast. Probably came with being part computer.
¡°¡ Gonna go out on a limb here and say tonight¡¯s been a long night for everyone?¡± I asked.
I got a mumbled chorus of agreement in response.
¡°I found it¡¯s actually been quite short,¡± Penny answered cheerily.
The look Blake shot her showed she didn¡¯t appreciate it.
¡°I know things didn¡¯t quite go to plan for some of us,¡± I said. ¡°But we made it through, and we can rest now. In my book, that¡¯s a good day. We rest up, get our bearings, and hit the ground running tomorrow.¡±
Blake shifted her gaze to me next. It was mirrored by a few others, though most lacking intensity. Ren, Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha being perhaps the least upset.
¡°You call this a good night?¡± Blake asked, only barely keeping a growl out of her voice. ¡°Sun¡¯s been taken by the White Fang, you kidnapped Penny, and we didn¡¯t actually learn anything!¡±
¡°Sun¡¯s fine, Penny¡¯s here of her own accord, and most importantly: no one¡¯s dead,¡± I said. ¡°On a scale of bad nights, trust me, we¡¯re on the good end of them.¡±
I¡¯m not sure what it was, but for some reason Yang started glaring daggers at me.
¡°I actually spoke with Papa earlier,¡± Penny added. ¡°While he and the General are worried about me, they know I¡¯m ok and will probably have someone come find me tomorrow.¡±
¡°... When did you do that?¡± Weiss asked curiously. A fair question, considering we¡¯d been moving together pretty consistently the whole night.
¡°Uh¡ When you weren¡¯t looking,¡± Penny answered diplomatically.
¡°The point is, everything¡¯s as under control as we can make it. That tonight didn¡¯t turn out much worse, makes it a good night,¡± I told her. When Blake¡¯s glare didn¡¯t ease up, I then, rather snarkily, added, ¡°I also told you that going to the rally would be a bad idea. Despite that, I went along with it anyway. You made your own choices here, but we¡¯re all dealing with the consequences of them.¡±
Blake didn¡¯t respond to that, but it was enough to get her glaring elsewhere.
¡°Have you tried contacting Sun yet?¡± I asked.
¡°¡ I sent him a message about halfway back here,¡± Blake said. ¡°He hasn¡¯t answered yet.¡±
¡°Take it as a good sign for right now,¡± I said. ¡°If he got discovered, they probably would¡¯ve taken advantage of that.¡±
Again, no meaningful answer, but she did give a curt nod.
¡°¡ Who¡¯s Taurus?¡± I asked, earning a few confused looks.
A tense, heavy look fell over Blake at the mention of the name. The giant Fang had made mention that he was someone important, and Blake knew him. Though judging by the reaction, I could tell it wasn¡¯t necessarily a good relationship.
¡°¡ Someone I hope we don¡¯t need to worry about,¡± Blake said, bow ears flattening against her head. She leaned against the wall and slid down it, curling up as she sat.
¡°Ok,¡± I said, choosing to let the issue lie for now. ¡°I won¡¯t press, but no more crap, alright? We¡¯re all in this hole together, like it or not, we can¡¯t be tearing each other apart for mistakes. Like Ruby said, we¡¯re all friends. We¡¯ve got to support each other.¡±
Again, Blake nodded.
¡°Now, if we can?¡± I motioned to the map.
Jaune looked my way and gave me a basic summary of what had happened with him and Pyrrha. Didn¡¯t sound very noteworthy, out of all of us, apparently they¡¯d had the most quiet night. I marked off the places they¡¯d visited, then moved onto Ren and Nora, then Yang and Weiss. In all, we¡¯d managed to cross off the last of the questionable locations from the list. Which meant the easy, if tedious work was done.
¡°What happens next?¡± Ruby asked, stretching then walking over to the map.
¡°Tomorrow, or rather, in a few hours, we start hitting what few rallying points and stash houses I¡¯ve got left on the list,¡± I explained. ¡°The places they¡¯d most likely have intel, weapons, supplies. Without them we break any remaining foothold they might have in the city. Tonight was prep work for that. But I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t like it.¡±
¡°¡ They¡¯ve got something else planned, don¡¯t they?¡± Ruby asked. ¡°Something for tomorrow.¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± I agreed. ¡°What we¡¯ve found so far¡ I don¡¯t like it. They¡¯re getting desperate, hadn¡¯t counted on people other than the police to push back. Whatever¡¯s going to happen tomorrow, it¡¯s going to be big.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a jailbreak,¡± Blake answered.
¡°¡¡± Ruby and I turned back to look at Blake. She was still sitting against the wall, looking a little downcast. But she was answering clearly.
¡°Sun and I were pulled into the briefing,¡± Blake explained. ¡°They¡¯ve got a bunch of people they¡¯re planning to send in disguised as humans. I don¡¯t know what the plan is beyond that, but they¡¯ll be relaying information to the people inside. I guess it¡¯s meant to help them escape.¡±
My gaze lingered on Blake, then traced back to Ruby, and landed on the map. My mind began to race. I thought about the gala from earlier that evening. It had been a sloppy, pointless attack. They¡¯d had no hope of actually escaping even if they had killed Ironwood. Why?
Because they hadn¡¯t been planning to escape.
What if they¡¯d intended to surrender? Find some way to be taken in on their own terms. The police wouldn¡¯t have realized that. But it would stack the prison with fresh numbers, people aware of the plan and ready to get everyone into position. Even with Ruby and me intervening, all we did is make sure they were in a position to be taken in.
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The thought of it made my brain buzz. Made my spine tickle a bit with anger.
Maybe having Blake go in had yielded some meaningful fruit after all.
¡°That¡¯s not good,¡± Ruby said, picking up a similar train of thought, she looked back at the map and I could see her face falling. ¡°What are we going to do¡¡± She looked back to Blake. ¡°Do we know where it is?¡±
Blake shook her head. ¡°They said we¡¯d get more information once everyone was moved to their respective safehouses. But if it¡¯s a jailbreak, that means they¡¯d have to go to jail, right?¡±
¡°¡¡± I looked at Ruby. ¡°Where do the police take people after they¡¯re arrested?¡±
¡°Um¡ I don¡¯t know.¡± Ruby shrugged. ¡°I mean, they go to jail- duh- but I¡¯ve never actually stopped and thought about where that was supposed to be¡ Yang, do you¡ um?¡±
Ruby turned and looked at her sister, and I mirrored her. But Yang didn¡¯t answer. She was leaning against a wall, completely zoned out and looking rather dour. Which for Yang seemed all the more notable. She might not have been a buzzing ball of electric joy like Nora or Ruby, but dour was not a word I¡¯d associate with her lightly.
¡°You there sunshine?¡± I asked.
She blinked and looked up. ¡°Huh?... Oh, uh, yeah¡ There¡¯s a place that dad and Uncle Qrow told me about once¡¡± She shook her head. ¡°I can¡¯t remember it right now.¡±
¡°¡ shit.¡± I swore. ¡°¡ Ok, well, this changes things. A jailbreak is going to be a problem. I don¡¯t know how this helps them right now, there¡¯s no chance it¡¯ll keep everyone distracted long enough, but I see it being a problem.¡±
¡°Then we¡¯re going to have to deal with it,¡± Ruby said, before yawning. She tried to stifle it, but it was a big and long one. ¡°¡ Maybe after sleeping¡ and breakfast.¡±
¡°Yay~¡± Nora droned, then flopped forward, landing hard onto one of the couches.
¡°Agreed,¡± I said, eyeing Yang a bit longer. ¡°Whatever¡¯s going on, we need to prep for it. Soon as everyone¡¯s rested and fed, we¡¯ll start going over what we know and try to nip this thing in the bud¡ Can¡¯t shake the feeling that this is gonna turn into a problem.¡±
¡°¡ I call first dibs on the shower!¡± Ruby squeaked.
Before I could say anything, she¡¯d grabbed her bag and bolted into the bathroom. Door locked behind her.
¡°¡ Figures,¡± I muttered. I fished around in my coat and pulled out the bottle of whiskey I¡¯d acquired earlier that night. I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and poured myself a few fingers. In the dim light of the apartment, the liquor had a pleasant amber color. Perhaps a sign of quality, but even being a bit of a Gourmet I couldn¡¯t quite judge this world¡¯s spirits yet. The two of us didn¡¯t exactly have a good track record.
Before I had a chance to remedy that though, I found myself interrupted. As I examined the glass, there was a tap on my shoulder. A quick turn revealed it to be Yang. I might not be the most perceptive man, but I could tell something was up just by the look of her. That dour expression she¡¯d been wearing since we¡¯d all met up was still on display. Made her look tired, more so than most of us surely felt. But, maybe it was just me overthinking things.
¡°Hey,¡± she said, before thumbing back towards the stairwell door ¡°Can we talk?¡±
¡°¡ sure.¡± I said, uncertain where this was going. I motioned for her to lead on, and we headed back towards the stairs. Ren, Nora, and Penny seemed to eye us as we went, but the others were tapped out. Be a miracle if they showered before shuffling off to dreamland. We stepped out of the apartment and descended back into the backroom of the bookstore, being mindful as we went down about how much noise we made. It was getting to be early.
We stepped back into the back room and I shut the door behind us.
¡°¡ Alright.¡± I said, looking at Yang. ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡±
Yang stared at me a moment before fidgeting, shrugging. ¡°You said you¡¯d wanted to talk to me about what happened at Junior¡¯s Club, remember?¡± She answered. ¡°Well¡ There¡¯s not really going to be a better time. You scheduled an appointment, sooo¡ Here we are.¡±
¡°Ah,¡± I said, nodding. ¡°Right. Hadn¡¯t forgotten, just been busy with everything that¡¯s happened in the, what, twenty four hours since?¡±
¡°Hm, time flies,¡± Yang said, expression unchanging. ¡°¡ So, what happened? Why did you want to talk about this?¡±
¡°Well¡¡± I said, trying to find the words, put myself in the headspace to talk about the matter. I knew I¡¯d have to talk with her about it, but it preferably would¡¯ve been any time but after a night like that. Few and scarce though they might¡¯ve been. Beggars can¡¯t be choosers though, even if I had asked for this. Best just to get it out of the way. ¡°¡ Let¡¯s start with this: we both made mistakes that night.¡±
¡°Ok¡¡± Yang said, eyeing me.
¡°We both should have been reading the room more than we were, and we shouldn¡¯t have taken stupid risks,¡± I told her. ¡°We definitely shouldn¡¯t have stuck around for Junior to call his boys on us¡ and I wish you had just told me what you¡¯d done to him in the first place.¡±
Yang¡¯s eyes narrowed at me. She crossed her arms in front of herself and asked. ¡°Is that all you wanted to do? Tell me we should¡¯ve done things differently?¡±
¡°¡ No,¡± I answered. ¡°I¡¯m trying to get myself in the right mindset for this conversation, and it¡¯s not working well.¡± I sighed through my nose. ¡°¡ Yang. Things didn¡¯t go the way they were supposed to that night.¡±
Something in Yang¡¯s expression fell when I said that. I don¡¯t know what it was. Worry? Disappointment? I couldn¡¯t tell.
¡°I don¡¯t want to go into detail about what happened. Things just¡ they escalated once the fighting started,¡± I explained. ¡°I¡¯ve told you girls in the past, what it¡¯s like trying to survive in the wasteland. How a lot of the time, the only options available are¡ permanent ones¡ Junior¡ He put us in that sort of situation. One where the only answer to our problems was going to be a permanent one: Us, or them.¡±
Yang¡¯s expression grew darker with every word I said. It was painful to watch. Yang was a cheery girl, sunny as the hair on her head. Moments of dour self-reflection seemed few and far between for her. Those that I had seen, at least. But it was clear, by looking at her, that there was something reflecting in her head. What thoughts, images, memories or sensations those were, I didn¡¯t know. But I could see it was beginning to trouble her, greatly.
¡°¡ I don¡¯t remember what happened that night,¡± Yang said after a moment. Voice strong, but sounding like she¡¯d had the stuffing kicked out of her. ¡°I¡ I¡¯m trying to remember what happened that night, but the whole thing is one giant blank for me¡¡± She looked at me squarely. ¡°Six¡ why can¡¯t I remember what happened?¡±
¡°¡ Junior drugged us,¡± I told her. ¡°Slipped something in our drinks before the fighting started.¡±
Yang¡¯s expression entered freefall. Like watching crystal-glass fall through a sunset sky. Only to shatter hard against the ground. ¡°...¡± She pursed her lips, looked as though she tasted something bitter. ¡°¡How many?¡±
¡°How many what?¡± I asked, feeling a small pang in my chest.
¡°People,¡± Yang said, finding some steel to prop herself against. Only for her to slowly lose her grip on it again. ¡°How many¡ are dead?¡±
¡°¡ Too many.¡± I admitted. For them, I didn¡¯t feel a thing. They made their choices, walked that road.
But my heart ached for Yang. The whole mess could have been avoided if we¡¯d just been smarter about all of it. I could see she was grasping some of that too. She looked at me like a lost child. So completely out of their depth that no answer could console or guide them. She blinked once, twice. If it were anyone but Yang, I¡¯d have said she was on the verge of tears. But not her. She was a strong one, a fighter. She wouldn¡¯t let one mistake push her there.
She swallowed, and walked up to me. I was reminded then about how nice her outfit looked. Don¡¯t know what it was in that moment that made it stand out so much more than her normal one. But for a moment, she seemed far more mature than I knew the girl wearing it to be.
Yang¡¯s hand landed on my shoulder, and she squeezed it.
¡°¡ I¡¯m sorry,¡± she spoke, voice a raw whisper.
Then she was past me. Before I had a chance to say anything more she¡¯d already returned to the stairwell, and was going upstairs.
¡°¡ Me too,¡± I answered.
There was no taking back the things I did. No un-killing the people I¡¯d taken down. Too many times do I regret needing to.
But I regret the way Yang had to be involved.
It was the kind of guilt that eats a person alive.
Neither of us was the one to bear that guilt though. That fell on Junior. Our own mistakes aside, he made his own choices. He still attacked us. Still made the calls that got his boys killed, likely committed worse before we met him.
For his sake, I hoped we¡¯d never meet again.
For Yang¡¯s, I hoped we could move forward.
But as I turned and headed back up the stairs, a thought occurred to me. I looked down at my Pip-boy, waiting for it to make a noise. It¡¯d deemed what had happened between me and Yang important enough to be a ¡®quest¡¯. But for some reason, it remained strangely quiet. Which was worrisome for reasons that didn¡¯t make sense. How blunt did I need to be for this thing to understand? Especially when Yang had already understood. I exhaled heavily and climbed the stairs. We weren¡¯t gone long. By the time we got back up, I could hear the shower running. The others were mostly zonked out in the den. Zwei was cuddled up against Yang, who was sitting curled against one wall, his head nuzzled against her leg.
Nora swiveled her head towards me, looking bleary-eyed. ¡°So what¡¯d you two talk about?¡±
¡°None of your business, Nora,¡± I said, probably a little more harshly than I meant.
But Nora must have missed it. She merely rolled her eyes, then passed Ren some form of marker, which he pocketed. Wondered what bet that one was about.
I went back to the kitchen, and looked at my glass of liquor.
I put it aside and grabbed the bottle.
I would need a hair of the dog.
Dawn in the Horizon
With heavy feet, I slipped through the doorway.
Right as the forcefield crackled back to life, and the alarm began to blare.
I smiled as I heard Elijah sputter in confusion, standing tall and turning to face the Vault. Through the safety of the humming plasma field, I could see the billowing crimson Cloud, dancing and roiling beneath grates and cat walks. Arcs of lightning flashed and crackled overhead, some of the only light present in that dim place, save for the golden light of the Madre''s vault, all serving to illuminate the ancient concrete walls in brief and brilliant flashes, and dash the rusted metal corridors and frameworks with painful light.
It wasn''t a straight shot to the Vault like I had hoped. The final phase of security was still active. There were automated turrets watching the area outside the vault, and more speakers. Even if I could have managed to slip past the force field, I''d still come under immediate fire. Even if I didn''t, the speakers'' broadcast range was still strong enough it could reach me from inside the metal corridors. Making things worse, they were the properly shielded ones, too. Couldn''t break them anyway.
So I was forced to take a detour down the maintenance corridor. Turned out to be a boon in its own right. Learned from the first terminal that Sinclair had booby-trapped the elevator. Rigged it to return to the Penthouse once the Vault was opened, by default trapping anyone down there with no means to call it back. That wasn''t even counting a ''deadman''s switch'' he''d included within the Vault''s terminal that would permanently lock it in place. A few notes I''d found from the former workers said they were aware it was a deathtrap. But Sinclair countered it by calling it ''user error''.
He''d known what Domino and Vera were plotting.
Hard to say for how long he''d known, but long enough.
Getting through the maintenance corridor wasn''t much of a cakewalk either. With security active, the few holograms stationed down there were still patrolling. Though I made it, fumbling with terminals, and one particularly mad-dash across the crumbling catwalks to avoid them and the speakers. It was all too close for comfort, and if I hadn''t already been wired with adrenaline I''d probably have been shaking.
The whole corridor turned into a giant loop, circling its way around the area of the Vault. It took completing the loop before I found the terminal that let me deactivate the security measures, and in the same breath, send the elevator back to the penthouse, meaning I was trapped down there until someone came back down to get me. I could see that was going to be Elijah''s play. Leave me down there to die of dehydration or hunger.
Which officially made him the smartest and laziest person I''d ever had to contend with by that point. Everyone else seemed content to try and kill me by force, he was the first to get creative about it.
But knowing that he was likely intent on trapping me down there, I was inclined to take my time. Explore my surroundings a bit more thoroughly before entering the Vault. Which is the only reason I know what happened to Sinclair and how the story of Madre ended. It started when I noticed the holotape sitting near the edge of the catwalk, outside the Vault.
Then the skeleton hiding beneath the Cloud.
The holotape had clearly been ripped from a terminal, judging by bits of fragmented code attached to it. A hasty alteration. The note was a vindictive and spiteful denouncing of Vera for her hand in helping Domino. Saying how she''d deserved to be trapped down there with him, and the Vault door was now locked. Permanently sealing them inside.
Sinclair''s skeleton lay strewn over a pipe below, covered by the Cloud, alone save for a copy of Nikola Tesla and You next to him. Only realized it was him based on his clothes. There were just barely enough images of him around the Madre to recognize him. He''d have been one of the only two people with access as well. How he wound up down there was anyone''s guess, but I imagine it had likely been an accident. A slip and fall, crack his head on the pipe, and lose-consciousness-in-the-Cloud-type accident. In a way, it seemed a more peaceful end than anyone else in this place had suffered.
But what he was doing down there, I didn''t discover until I finally went into the Vault.
The door wasn''t even locked.
It was a surreal feeling, standing inside the Vault. Like being inside a time capsule. Most of the Vaults I''d been to in the Mojave, the fallout shelters, were decrepit and crumbling, save for 21. While the Madre''s Vault hadn''t been intended for extensive use, it hadn''t been used at all. Everything inside was as preserved as the day it had been put in there. Not that it would do any good.
Chems.
Food.
A fully stocked armory. Guns. Ammo. Armor.
Mountains of Old World cash.
One of the Madre''s vending machines.
There was even an un-decayed radio sitting in the corner.
But most precious of all: Gold.
Gold Bars. Bullion. Each bar almost as long as my forearm and weighing over thirty pounds apiece. Pounds.
Even if I was inclined to sell them, I would never find anyone who could give me their true worth.
But I took them. All of them.
I took everything that wasn''t nailed down, and would have taken more if I''d brought a hammer.
If there was no bait in the trap, the Madre wouldn''t be much of a prize for anyone. And I was owed a massive bill for having to deal with this place.
Though admittedly, the greed had gotten to me in the end. Getting out with it would prove a challenge.
But there was still one more thing I needed to do.
I checked the terminal in the Madre''s vault. The one that connected to every subsystem and piece of machinery operating in the Casino and Villa.
There I found one final message from Sinclair to Vera.
An apology.
Sinclair knew what Vera had been forced to do. Knew what Domino had coerced out of her. Had she not chosen to reveal the truth to Sinclair, it would have meant her being trapped down there as well. Instead, Sinclair tried to change everything, do everything in his power to keep her from becoming trapped. But he''d built the trap too well. Couldn''t fix it. The note ended with a warning not to access the parts he''d left for Domino to find. There was a final declaration of his love for Vera, one sided though he knew it to be, and his intent to check the pipes outside the Vault. One final vain attempt to disarm the trap. Which explained some of why he was there.
In the end Vera had been trapped all the same.
Domino nowhere to be seen.
Now the tragic tale was finally at an end.
But there was one more monster to deal with.
Sinclair had given me a way to do it.
Elijah contacted me via the computer system not long after. Did what I thought he would do, try to trap me down there. Wait me out in comfort, while I starved and desiccated. But I played the fool, asked questions like I hadn''t already pieced everything together. Made thinly veiled taunts about him hiding, knowing he was actually trapped like the rest of us. I used it to get after what I really wanted: Answers.
Why was he there? Why go through all this trouble for some salvage and scrap?
The answer was more obvious than I''d expected.
He wanted the Madre itself. All the tech it held, all its weapons.
He was going to use them to scour the Mojave and wipe everything clean.
I didn''t like that idea.
I kept the banter up for a time. learned about where he''d gotten the collars from, how he found the Madre. How his mind cracked like an egg during the Brotherhood''s battle to keep Helios One. His visits to places I knew nothing about: The Divide, The Ciphers further west, the Big Empty. How the collar around my neck had once been used to handle pre-war ''compliance'' issues. Figures, one more Old World curse that got passed down. But he spoke of the Courier, the one Christine had mentioned. How they''d been in that place, the Big Empty. A graveyard of Old World science and tech. The birthplace of so much of the Madre''s troubles.
I grew less and less keen on the place the more I heard of it. Only gave more reasons to stay away from it.
Only more so, when he mentioned that the Ghost People got their suits from there.
But then it all drew to a close. I''d gotten everything I could out of there, and couldn''t play the fool any longer. Elijah was going to leave me down there if I didn''t make a play. But in that same gesture, he''d over extended himself. He told me what it was he wanted most out of this place.
He gave me bait.
So I put it in the trap.
Told him all I had to do was start breaking things. He barely understood the tech inside the Madre to begin with. Hadn''t had enough time to start properly dissecting everything. I could destroy it before he ever had a chance to use any of it for himself. Make everything he''d done worthless.
He took it hook, line, and sinker.
The moment the feed between us was cut, I put myself in motion. Loaded up with everything I could carry, and more. I don''t know how I managed to keep myself from being crushed under the weight of it all. But I was still standing, still moving.
It''s one of the few times I''ve ever freely chosen to indulge in chems. Buffout at first. Something to give me the final push of power I needed. Relied on my assassin suit for some extra cover. Would''ve preferred a Stealthboy, but I hadn''t found one. Had to improvise.
Sneaking past Elijah, carrying all that weight, was one of the most tense situations I''d gone through. If he realized I was there, I''d be a sitting duck. No way I could move fast enough to get out of the way, carrying everything on my back. I''d be dead before the rest of me had a chance to know it.
I had to get close to Elijah too, getting past him. I could make out the look of him better than I could over the Holograms. The scraggly, weather-beaten face. The messy and hardscrabble cut of his hair and beard. The look in his eye of madness turned in on itself. How emaciated and wiry his body was, a product of chem abuse.
Everything about him screamed he''d long since left conventional health behind. He was operating on the level of unkillable madness that few possessed, left them wound up tighter than a spring. All the harder to kill.
Maybe I could have taken him, put him down.
But not with the collar. Certainly not with how overburdened I was.
I had to break my own rule about chems a second time.
Turbo is a dangerous drug, far more than any other. But when you need to move fast, faster than anything else, it does the job.
The moment Elijah was past me, I breathed the poison into me and was off like a shot.
It had all been too close.
But I made it.
The alarm blared. The trap sprung.
I just couldn''t help but smile.
"The alarm- what!?" Elijah hissed, scanning the room. Quickly, his scraggly features settled on me, glaring through the translucent wall of the force field. "YOU."
"''Sup fucko," I asked, feeling the Turbo ebb its way through my system. "Enjoying the view?"
He answered with violence.
The weapon he carried, a Gauss rifle, swung towards me and fired. A hypersonic piece of metal crashed into the force field hard enough to shake the corridor. Send ripples through the system. But the barrier of electric blue light held. Nothing passed through it. Not even a whisper of wind.
"Oooh, that was a close one," I said. "Little more to the left next time, could nail right between the eyes."
His trainwreck of a face twisted up in a snarl as he began to fiddle with a Pip-Boy at his wrist, no doubt believing he knew everything he needed to about the Vault.
When security remained active, I watched the confusion roll over his face.
"That''s not going to work," I told him.
He looked at me.
"You''re sitting in a closed circuit," I told him. "No way out, unless someone chooses to free you."
The color drained from his features as panic flooded in. He went back to his Pip-Boy, as his fury tried to rally itself. "You- YOU!" He roared. "Release me! Or I''ll blow your damn collar!"
"Would you?" I asked.
He pressed a button on his Pip-Boy.
There was a warble from my collar, then a fizzle. Nothing else.
Crazy bastard.
I laughed. "The electronic shielding dampens the signals out of here, jackass," I told him. "Looks like you''ve lost your leash."
The panic rushed back into his face.
I took my helmet off. Smiled at him with a big, toothy grin. "Look at me¡ LOOK AT ME!"
He did, not because I ordered it, but because he was at a complete loss. There was nothing more he could do.
"Remember my face," I told him, letting weeks of frustration, fear and anger settle into it. "Remember it! I''m the last person you''re ever going to see." I could feel my breath beginning to hitch, moving in big, heaving gasps. "You''re going to die down here, alone! No one will find you, come for you, nothing! You have no power over me, nor anyone else now. You''ll never hurt anyone ever again, and you will be forgotten¡ Veronica, Christine¡ They''re free of you now." I felt a wave of satisfaction roll over me, and the smile on my face became genuine. "And so am I."
I flipped him the bird and began down the corridor back to the Elevator. The Exit.
"Wait¡ Wait!" Elijah howled. "Y-you can''t!"
I didn''t respond.
"T-the Madre- there''s so much, we- we could rule together!"
I reached the end of the corridor and pressed the call button for the elevator. The door opened immediately.
I climbed inside.
"YOU CAN''T DO THIS TO M-" Elijah called.
Then the door shut. Silence followed.
It was a slow ride back to the top.
I tuned into Elijah''s frequency. Listened to him for a time. Heard him threaten, curse, and bargain with the dead air. Hoping I would return and let him out.
I cut him off halfway through.
That was the last I ever saw or heard of Father Elijah.
After that, it was a smooth ride back up to the Penthouse. I think it only took as long as it did because I was carrying so much with me. The fact the safety cut outs for weight hadn''t kicked in was a stroke of luck, really.
Once I was back up top, the doors opened.
I found Christine waiting there.
An Automatic Rifle was pointed at the Elevator.
She looked at me.
I looked at her.
"¡ Is he dead?" she asked.
"No." I told her. "But he''ll never harm anyone again. The Vault''s a giant trap, he just got caught in it. As long as no one sends the elevator down for a few weeks, time will take care of him for us."
Christine nodded, pursing her lips. She looked me over. "¡ Did you really need to?"
"Take all of it?" I asked. "No¡ But, I mean, something for our troubles, right?"
Christine huffed, then gave me a warm smile. "Thank you¡"
I merely nodded. We were both better for knowing he was gone.
What followed after was the two of us taking our time to go over things, set the Madre in order. We took Vera''s remains and laid them in the bed. Closest we could give her to a proper burial. Lay her to rest, covered by a silken cloth. After that we loaded my haul of crap onto a room service caddy and carried it back down through the casino. After maybe another hour, we were free to go. The security overrides I''d found in the basement re-opened the front door. After centuries of being closed, the Madre was finally open to the world. For all the good that did.
We descended the hill back to the Villa in near silence. Watching carefully ahead of us as we went. But I couldn''t see them. Couldn''t hear them.
The Ghost People were gone. Back underground, hiding in their shadowy corners. Waiting.
But they stayed out of our way.
As we walked back through the Fountain Plaza, I pulled us to the side. Stopped at the trash can I''d stashed all of my salvage in. It was time to leave, and I had no plans of ever returning to this place.
"So this is it then," Christine said. "It''s over."
"Yeah, for me and you," I told her. "Elijah''s not a threat anymore. The only thing keeping us here is five seconds from deactivating completely. Best of all, there''s nothing keeping you from reuniting with Veronica, eh?"
"¡ Yeah," Christine answered.
I loaded my salvage onto the caddy and began to push it towards the gate out of the Villa. "C''mon, don''t know the way back, so this might take a while. Better not to burn daylight here, eh?"
I got no answer.
"¡Christine?" I asked, looking back.
She was turned towards the Madre. Staring up at it.
I began to feel my heart sink. Whatever came next, I knew it wouldn''t be good.
"Christine?" I asked, again.
She turned and looked at me. The scars on her face had softened, and there was a sad light in her eyes.
"¡You need to go," she said. "Just keep moving."
"¡Fuck no," I said, leaving my caddy behind. "I''m not doing that, we''re getting out of here together-"
"No, we''re not," Christine answered, sadness blooming on her face. She swallowed, painfully. "I knew, chasing Elijah, that there was only going to be one way it ended¡ both of us dead."
"But you''re not!" I protested.
"I AM!" Christine snapped, face scrunching in pain as she clasped at her throat. "I never thought I''d¡ have the chance to see Veronica again¡ But the girl she knew? She''s dead, Six¡ I killed her. Not Elijah. Me." Her hand moved up her face. "I don''t look like her¡ I don''t act like her¡" She let out a small, bitter chuckle. "I don''t even sound like her now¡ She''s gone¡ She has been for a long time."
"No she''s not," I told her, bargaining. "Veronica would know, please, Christine, think about her. You have no idea how rough things have been for her, trying to move on with the Brotherhood¡ Please. Please, Christine."
"¡ Veronica would know," Christine answered, her lips pressing into a thin line. Her eyes grew red as tears began to sting them. "She would know that girl is gone too¡ She deserves to hold onto that memory. Not see what happened to her¡ What I did to her."
I tried to think of something I could say. Some fact or quirk of character that could convince Christine she could- that she needed to come back. See just how much Veronica missed her and what they had.
But the only word I could muster, was a pathetic little "No¡"
Christine''s lips pressed into a sad smile, and she walked up to me. She wrapped her arms around me, and paused. She looked me in the eyes, easy without my helmet on. I could see everything in her eyes there, in that moment. The windows to the soul. All that sadness. All that pain and hardship. But at the core of it all, a light. Something that was still burning and refused to go out.
She kissed me.
It was a long, slow, deep gesture that caught me completely off guard when it happened.
When she pulled back, she released me, and gave me a sad look.
"If you''re a courier, find a way to deliver that for me¡ ok?" she asked. "¡ But don''t ever let her know you saw me, where you found me."
All I could manage was "Christine¡"
"¡ Don''t ever come back here," Christine said, voice softening, growing thin. "Don''t tell her¡ Don''t want her here. In danger¡ There''s nothing here but ghosts."
Without another word, she walked away from me. Silently she stalked down one of the side streets, disappearing into the shadows of the Madre.
I took a moment to collect myself. Make the pain and weariness that collected in my chest go away.
That was the last time I ever saw or heard from Christine Royce.
¡
My Pip-Boy chimed not long after I closed my eyes. At least, it felt like I''d only just laid down. No sooner had my head hit the pillow than I found myself roused back to the land of the living.
The only difference being, I was sober again.
That bottle of whiskey hadn''t gone as far as I''d thought it would. The fact it was still lying on the bed next to me, now empty, said enough. It had barely been enough to do anything, I had more of a hangover from the lack of sleep than I did from drinking. Wouldn''t have minded either one, if I could just roll over and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, I had a promise to keep, which meant getting up earlier. At least the bed had been comfier, while it lasted. A bit too soft for my taste, but better than sleeping on a cot.
After taking a moment to loosen up and knock the sleep out of my eyes, I snuck back out of Tukson''s former bedroom. Everyone was still congregated in the living room, fast asleep and sawing more timber than a lumber mill. They were all strewn about oddly, spread over the floor, sprawled on the furniture. A couple of odd notes were Ruby and Weiss, the latter of whom was angled just right to kick the former in the face on reflex, but they were hardly the only strange ones.
If either Nora or Ren were awake to see how I''d found them, I imagine it''d have been hilarious. Never would''ve pegged Ren for the cuddling type.
Zwei was about where I''d seen him the previous night, still snuggled beside Yang, who''d eventually nodded off, after a change of clothes and shower. Blake seemed to have rather pointedly put space between herself and him, having sprawled onto a chair. Oddly enough, Jaune and Pyrrha seemed to be the most peaceful sleepers out of the group. Found them lying side by side. Platonically.
Some people just don''t get it.
Zwei''s ears twitched and his head swung up to me as I slipped into the room. He gave me a doggy grin, and a yawn, before settling back to sleep.
Then I noticed Penny leaning sitting against the wall. Her eyes fluttered open as I moved into the kitchen, fetching my hair-of-the-dog. She gave me a curious look, and I returned a shush-ing gesture in turn. No sense in waking everyone else up. She nodded, grinning, and closed her eyes. I didn''t know if she could actually sleep, or just enter a ''sleep'' mode, but I hoped she was comfortable. Or whatever passed as comfort for her. Never occurred to me before then to wonder what passed as comfort for a robot, had never asked ED-E before. Or the Appliances of the Think Tank, for that matter. I''d have to ask Penny later.
I tipped back my hair-of-the-dog, the taste dulled by sitting out all night, and slipped out the door. A quick jaunt to the front door of the shop had me outside in the early morning air. Cooler than it had been in previous days, but still carried the clinging dew of humidity. The sun had begun to rise somewhere on the horizon, behind the buildings and towers of Vale, dying the early morning sun in shades of ruby and orange. Normally a beautiful sight. But it carried another possibility. Storms. Rain. Hadn''t seen many rainy nights in Vale. Less so rainy days.
Something poetic, given what was coming tonight. We were going to have a long day ahead of us. Between trying to intercept whatever the White Fang had planned, we had to find Sun, and raid their safehouses. Then there was the matter of Penny, and the fact that the White Fang were still actively trying to funnel whatever Dust was still in Vale; out. We were fighting an uphill battle.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
But this first thing would be easy.
I''d promised Nora breakfast, she would get it.
Though seeing as we''d completely tossed the fridge the night before, I didn''t have much to work with.
Which meant a grocery run.
Though I didn''t expect anyone would be up any time soon either. They didn''t seem used to this sort of thing. Would probably wind up sleeping until noon. Which I suppose made this more of a brunch than a breakfast.
The streets were mostly abandoned as I made my way down them. There were a few people out getting in some early morning exercise, a few police on patrol, the former of which actually worked in my favor. I ditched my normal Riot Gear for more relaxed clothing. Was even contemplating doing the same for my helmet. After last night''s fiasco, there wasn''t much telling who was paying attention anymore. Ruby and I had managed to avoid being seen by the police proper, but we hadn''t exactly been subtle in almost any other regard.
Hopefully it would be enough. It was most other times.
Using my knowledge of Vale, I found my way to the nearest supermarket quick enough. The trip there ultimately did stay quiet, and it let me enjoy the early morning in relative peace. Bits of birdsong whistled through the masonry lined streets. A beautiful accompaniment to the stink of slowly warming asphalt. Despite that, there was a charm to the warm sunlight casting fresh rays over the buildings of Vale. Something quaint I couldn''t put my finger on. Like I was seeing a glimpse of the Old World in its prime, before everything went to shit. Even if beneath the surface there was trouble brewing, that didn''t change that even a place like Vale had its charms.
Character is something built over time, and places like Vale had a long time to build it. Especially when the alternative is the ravenous shadow monsters scratching at the gate.
After a short walk, I found my way to the supermarket. Recognized it easy enough. It was one I''d visited on occasion while patrolling. Didn''t need to wait long outside, it was open 24 hours, minus a small window for general maintenance. Had to wonder if any of them ever actually got to leave that place. Must take a massive toll on their mental state, being stuck in a concrete box 24/7.
Once the doors were open, I went in and quickly got about my business. Got the staples: eggs, milk, coffee, flour, fresh fruit, cured meats and sausages. Then I went and collected the dried cereals and pre-made drinks, the juices and morning beverages. I''d promised a Continental Breakfast, and I''d keep my word on that. Considering I was feeding a crowd of nearly ten people, it made sense to grab more rather than less. Especially if I wanted to avoid making a second trip back the next morning.
After gathering enough food to feed a platoon of Brotherhood Knights, I brought my scavenge to the front. The person at the register observed me with the bright-eyed scrutiny of a morning-person. As they rang-up my total, I took note of the odd look they were giving me. That is to say, it was different from the normal odd looks I got. What it was I couldn''t say for certain. It was like the motor was starting to turn over, but wasn''t quite ready to start chugging. Whatever it was, it didn''t matter at the time. They had me totaled and paid up fairly quickly, and I was out the door before they had time to backfire.
Normally, this is where I''d have just gone back to the apartment and started cooking. The morning had been an otherwise peaceful one, and there hadn''t been anything of particular note up to that point. But there was one hitch that spurred up, as I''d been shopping: I recognized the grocery store. It had been the same one I''d had a brief encounter with the White Fang in.
The same one where I''d met some crazy old woman who knew what a Pip-Boy was.
The moment I realized that, my mind spun with the fact that I had an opportunity I normally didn''t. The chance to possibly get some real answers for once.
So, as I stepped out of the supermarket, instead of turning back to Tukson''s, I hooked the other way. My memory was clear enough about the path there, I''d made the trip at least twice from ground level. Once in either direction, technically. So it didn''t take me nearly as long to get there. Even laden with a few extra bags of groceries.
As the sky continued to brighten, and the red hue of the early morning passed, I found myself there, outside of a store that looked no different from any other. Yet twice, now thrice, I''d found myself drawn back to.
''Brown''s Antiques and Knick Knacks''
It was a simple, squat building. Brick and mortar, modern in appearance and recent in its upkeep. Looking fresh despite an understated sense of taste. Something old in it, classy. The massive show window having the shop''s name embossed on it in gold lettering.
Part of me felt I should have paid more attention to it when I went in the first time. When I''d managed to get microfilm for my Pip-Boy. Even if that was something that had existed on Remnant, it should have stuck out more to me. But a lot of things hadn''t, at that time. Still didn''t. But this was a chance to remedy that, even if I was carrying half a market''s worth of groceries. It was only a question of if I felt like playing by their rules or mine.
An easy decision, since the signage said they weren''t going to open until 10.
I had better things to do than stand around waiting for several hours.
A quick glance over my shoulders to make sure I wasn''t being tailed, and I went for the lock. Had it picked with a flick of the wrist, and a second spared to making sure there wasn''t some form of alarm. Or booby-traps, uncommon though that idea was around Vale. Possibly illegal too, can''t imagine the authorities would take kindly to someone rigging their front door with Wasteland-grade ingenuity. But, much like the first time I''d been there, the door was unguarded. No form of alarm was waiting either, electronic or mechanical.
I slipped inside and set my bags down. Mostly so if I needed to use my hands I could, the clothes I was wearing were lacking in pocket space.
The store looked about the same as the last time I was inside. Well kept, maintained, and full of old tchotchkes and paraphernalia. Most of it consigned to shelves and display cases, almost artfully and meticulously arranged. Weapons and furniture, clothes and electronics. There was seemingly no rhyme or reason to what was in the collection. Even the styles of the collected items varied by the item. Some were clearly from the kingdom around Vale, but others must have been from outside it as well. The cold tones I''d associate with Atlas in articles of clothing. Thin, elegant construction in the furniture that I could recognize from pieces of Mistral artwork Oobleck had shown in class, and from Blake''s books. And although my knowledge of what Vacuo''s culture was like was lacking, some of the ceramic and glass work likely came from there. Carrying with them tribal elements that stuck out from everything else. The electronics and computers were another story. It was hard to tell where any of it specifically came from. What there was of the newer stuff, resembled the scroll in my pocket. Physically alien, if functionally similar.
As I crept slowly through the shop, however, I began to take note of things. The way some of the electronics looked, the styles of some of the older clothes hanging about. They were in line with what I would find in some ruins. This wasn''t necessarily a surprise. When I''d come through before, I''d noted how similar our two worlds had been, once upon a time. But now, with the knowledge I had, things began to click into place. I could pick out Old World outfits, even a park stroller outfit like the one I''d once worn. What old electronics and appliances I could see weren''t far off from the vacuum tubes and copper wiring I was familiar with. Even if they were separated from the appropriate power source.
But it was as my eyes passed over a certain item that things clicked into place. That some of this mess once came from the Wasteland. Maybe not the Mojave, but definitely Post-Apocalyptia.
It was a lever-action rifle. One Ruby had looked at the last time we were there.
There wasn''t anything special about it. It was an old rifle for certain, extremely old. The receiver was made of polished and engraved brass, the sights a classic ladder and post configuration. The finish of the wood had long gone dull, but held strong. There was no side gate for loading the ammo, but the lead at the bottom of the tube and mount at the muzzle said it fed from that end.
Beyond its age, there was nothing that stood out about it.
Which is why it stood out.
It was one of the few weapons I''d seen that was, simply, a single weapon.
I leaned in close to inspect the engravings on the receiver. Amongst all the scroll work, I could make out writing that was engraved on there as well. Set in an oval of unblemished and polished metal.
The moment I did, my heart almost stopped.
Lincoln
President
U.S.A.
Of course, it wasn''t the words alone that had nearly sent me into cardiac arrest.
It was the sound of a closing break-action.
"Stay still," a voice ordered. "Move, and I''m gonna have to repaint the wall."
I complied with the instructions, assuming that trying to outrun a trigger like that wouldn''t end well. VATS could make the difference, buy me the few seconds I needed. But I hadn''t come looking for a fight in the first place, I was just impatient.
"Turn around," The voice ordered, a man''s voice, had the croak of age and a drawl to it. The same tone of sagged timbers and heavy stone. "Hands up, slow. Don''t give me any excuses."
Again, I complied, turning slowly and evenly, keeping my hands up and visible. Turned to my right, facing towards the back of the shop. At a door that led into a back room, possibly a hallway given what I could see, there was a man standing in the doorway, naturally. I could recall having briefly met him once before, in that exact store, under different circumstances. He wasn''t a tall man, under six feet. Shorter than me by a margin, which didn''t say much. But he was powerfully built. Could see that through the red silk pajamas and fuzzy slippers. The kind of guy who looked like he would wrestle yao guai for fun. Could''ve mistaken him for a supermutant, if he wasn''t roughly four feet too short. He did not, however, completely match the man I remembered seeing. He was of a darker complexion, mixed race I had to guess. Bit of a rounded head and pointed chin. But he was strong jawed and full lipped, narrow nosed and wide eyed. He was older but couldn''t say by how much, he carried it well. Blue eyes, black hair that was going gray from the root out. Further along now, so likely his natural color. His hair was coarse, but otherwise straight. It was a bit mussed, but done in a fashion similar to a High Rise.
"You ain''t supposed to be here," the man said
"I''m getting the impression neither are you," I told him
"Hell I''m not, it''s my store. And my home," he shot back, then paused a moment looking me over "¡ Ain''t I seen you before?"
"Stopped in once," I told him "Sold me some microfilm maps."
He paused a moment longer, before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh yeah! You came in with that silver-eyed girl!" He shifted his aim, but didn''t lower the gun. "Was wondering if I''d have to worry ''bout you coming back."
"Doesn''t sound like you enjoyed my business," I told him, watching the muzzle of his gun. He didn''t have a Pip-Boy that I could see, but I didn''t want to test his trigger finger. Yet.
"Might enjoy it more if you came back during business hours," He retorted, eyes scanning me in turn. "Wasn''t expecting to run into someone wearing a Pip-Boy either."
"Glad we''re clear we both know what it is," I said, beginning to feel a tingle in my arms from keeping them up. "¡ So how''s this gonna play? You gonna shoot me for trespassing, or are we gonna settle this like we''re in the wasteland?"
"That depends on you," The man answered. "I''m not the one burgling in the wee hours of the morning."
I shrugged. "I ain''t got any intention of taking anything, or causing further trouble," I told him. "Admittedly, wasn''t my brightest idea breaking in, but I''m used to people not dealing straight with me either."
"¡" The man nodded. "Fair."
He still did not, however, lower his aim. Being as he was from the wasteland, he at least knew better. He stayed watching me for a moment, and I him. After keeping it up long enough to make the reality of the situation clear, he spoke: "I''m gonna ask you something, and I expect you to answer truthfully. You manage that, we''ll see how things go."
I wasn''t surprised he might have questions. Frankly, I''d had several raised in these first few moments alone. "Alright¡ ask."
"Does the number 76 mean anything to you?" The man asked.
"¡Not particularly, no." I answered, confused.
The man looked at me like I had a screw loose, and didn''t say otherwise.
As we stood there though, a new sound slowly echoed out of the hall behind the man. It was descending, coming from higher up, the next floor. Must have been a set of stairs behind him. The sound was slow, rhythmic. Tap, Thump-thump, tap, thump-thump. It wasn''t really clear until they''d descended the stairs fully. Removed much of the space for it to echo and muddy. Made me wonder how I''d missed the man in the first place.
Footsteps.
"Who is it, Lee?" another voice croaked. Old, worn, a little crotchety. Unmistakably the softer tones of a woman''s voice.
"''Member that wastelander I told you about?" the man answered, not turning away from me. "He came back."
There was a pause in the descent of the footsteps, before they resumed at an accelerated pace. A moment later, they reached the bottom of the stairs and bounded around the man, revealing a person attached to the sound. A small woman, elderly, with deeply tanned skin and silvered hair. A pair of highly technical goggles were affixed to her face like over-engineered glasses. She held a cane in her hands, the haft of it a thick and twisted wood, the head an ornately decorated blue skull. I recognized the woman almost immediately. Though the last time I''d seen her, she wasn''t wearing bunny slippers. Or a bathrobe so thick with fluff and puff that she looked like an unshorn big horner. As she came around the man, she paused in the hallway and smiled. "Well, hello again young smart-ass."
"Ms. Maria," I answered, nodding. "¡ How are you wearing that right now? It''s like 70 degrees out and the sun''s not even up.
"I''m an old woman, boy, I get cold," she chuckled.
"You know him too?" the old man questioned.
"Yes, Lee, I know him. He was the young man who walked me here after the incident in the grocery store¡" Maria looked past me, towards the front door, likely eyeing my bags. "There wasn''t another one, was there?"
"No," I said, shaking my head. "Was just out doing some grocery shopping this morning, remembered a thing or two you''d said to me."
"So you decided to break into my friend''s home to chat with me?" Maria asked, smirking. "I admire the initiative."
I started to lower my arms, sensing the situation was likely to be resolved peacefully. However, the man, Lee, whatever, only further tightened his aim on me. Right up until Maria swung an arm out and caught him in the stomach, bopping him. Being as she was about half his height, a little higher than, she could''ve caught him in the groin.
"Oh stop, Lee," Maria chided. "You know your aim is terrible, you''ll blow out a window before you hit him. Do you really want to explain that to your neighbors?"
"¡ Don''t like that he broke in." Lee answered, not lowering his gun.
"He''s not going to hurt us either," Maria clucked. "I might be half blind and look like a raisin, but I could take him and you know it." As she spoke her tone grew more playful, and she smiled. "But you know I appreciate that you want to protect me so badly."
"¡Hrm." Lee grunted, face flushing lightly. His hand went over the receiver of the shotgun and worked the latch, dropping the action open. He inclined his head to me, motioning towards the back. "Come in then, but wipe your feet."
I nodded, and calmly approached as the two of them, Lee and Maria, made their way into the back. Had to step around the sales counter, and there was a floor mat at the door for me to scrape off at. Rather than go back up the stairs, my two unintentional hosts had walked deeper into the back room. Which, really, felt more like the home of some hoarder, or tinkering madman. Scraps of clothing lay draped over stacks of books and magazines, Bits of metal and scrap archaically arranged along tables. Weapons hung from the walls, rested in bins and on racks. Most of them were of the overly engineered style I was growing accustomed to seeing on Remnant. But I could recognize the more simplified designs and styles of pre-war weaponry as well. There was everything from furniture and housewares to hunks of scrap and half-empty bottles of adhesive. All of which was, not only fairly pristine and restored, but in duplicates.
Definitely a Wastelander.
Even if it weren''t for the obvious maintenance skills, the sheer amount of crap would''ve made it clear. And that was ignoring the biggest give away.
I walked down the short corridor into a small kitchen, still just as cramped and crammed full of junk as the corridor. As I entered the kitchen I noted the way it was designed, beneath all the clutter. It was reminiscent of the styles I''d seen around the strip, inside the casinos. That pre-war look, solid colors and blocky furniture. Black and white checkered tiling on the floor and stainless steel coated chairs. I''d seen no other place like it in my time there. It must''ve cost a small fortune in interior decorating. Didn''t change the amount of clutter everywhere.
Lee and Maria went over to the table, Lee being a gentleman and pulling Maria''s chair out for her. He then went over to a nearby counter and began fiddling with a small machine. Judging by the look, I guessed it was a coffee maker. They were a lot smaller than most of the ones I''d found in the wasteland. He began dumping grinds into the basket as Maria beckoned me over.
"Come, come," she said. "We''ll be here all morning otherwise."
Considering I had dairy products that were currently sitting out, I decided to oblige. Spoiled milk made for terrible breakfast.
I sat down at the table, across from Maria. After a moment, Lee joined her, leaving the coffee machine to percolate.
"So, what''d you want to know?" Maria asked. "You thought it was important enough to break into my friend''s home. So clearly you''ve got something on your mind."
"Being completely frank, I just wanted to know how you knew what my Pip-Boy was." I answered. "Figured I''d start with that, since no one else should know what that is."
"Not no-one, there are a handful of people who do," Lee answered. "But you''re not likely to meet them in Vale."
"And I kinda started putting the pieces together after I got back in here," I said. "Should''ve put 2-and-2 together the first time I was in here¡ So, which one of you is from the wasteland?"
Lee motioned his hand up. "That''d be me. My turn: where''d you come from?"
"Question for question?... Alright." I nodded. "West Coast. Couldn''t tell you origins, but I was last in the Mojave, before landing here. You?"
"East coast, Capital region," Lee answered.
"Seriously?" I asked. "Surprised anything''s left over there."
"Could say the same for the West coast," he shrugged. "But there might not be anymore, I''ve been here for a long time."
I nodded, looking at him. If he was still in the wasteland, he''d have earned the sobriquet of ''Old''. Couldn''t imagine a man of his age just suddenly appearing on Remnant just a few months prior. Most of the older crowd tended to be sedentary, unless something made them move.
"My turn," Maria cut in. "Have you ever been attacked by giant moths?"
"By what?" I asked. "You mean the little bugs that swarm lights?... No, but I have been attacked by giant bees before."
"Feh, we already have those," Maria scoffed.
"What about giant ants?" Lee asked.
"Those too, make a good fricassee," I answered.
Lee''s expression soured.
"What is it?" I asked.
"¡ Nothing." Lee shook his head. "Had a friend who was doing something with them. Guess it didn''t work out."
"My condolences," I said. Lee just shook his head again.
"¡ How did you get here?" Lee asked, after a moment.
"To Remnant?" I asked. "Fiddled with some technology and Science(!) I shouldn''t have. You?"
"Same," Lee chuckled. "Literally stumbled into it. Saved my life, in more ways than one."
I noted the way Maria smiled coyly at that.
There was a pause, as I tried to think of what I should ask. Most of it was personal stuff, try to get a grasp on the man in front of me. I hadn''t been expecting to run into another Wastelander after months of being there. Considering they''d apparently been on Remnant for far longer than I had, it was probably mutual.
Truthfully, there was something I needed to know. Beating around the bush wouldn''t help either. But it didn''t change the feeling of unease I got in my stomach. Seeing someone from the Wasteland, grown old so far from it.
"¡ I don''t want to be rude, more than I have been already." I said, getting a heavy feeling in my stomach. "But there is something I need to know, since I now have someone else from the Wasteland in front of me."
Lee and Maria exchanged looks, before he leaned forward, against the table. "Alright¡ shoot."
I took a steadying breath. "¡ Is it possible to go back?" I asked.
Confusion grew on Lee''s face. "Go back?"
"To our world," I explained. "I''ve been here for a few months now and¡ well, I haven''t tried as hard as I should have to go back¡ but I need to, and you''re the only other person I''ve met who''s even remotely been in my shoes."
We sat there looking at each other for a moment, eyes boring into each other. I don''t know what it was, but something about Lee grew defensive. "Why would you want to know something like that?"
I felt myself grow frustrated, but managed to muscle past. "I just need to, ok?" I said. "I¡ I''ve got unfinished business back home. I need to finish it."
This didn''t seem to budge Lee. Frankly, I didn''t expect it to. He didn''t know my business, and I didn''t need him to either. I was just some stranger to him, and I couldn''t count on him being suddenly inclined to act charitably. For all he knew, my business was to go back and murder an orphanage and O.D. on Jet. But at that moment, I was willing to be pliable, whether he knew that or not. I just wanted some answers.
Another silence spread out before us. It finally broke, when Lee said: "I might tell you, but I''ve got some things I want to know. You answer me, and I''ll try to help. Deal?"
I mulled the request over for a moment, but nodded. "I''ll try, ask."
"Do you know what the Brotherhood is?" Lee asked.
"Of Steel?" I asked in return, and Lee nodded.
"Good¡ are you with them?" He asked.
"¡ Does it sound or look like I would be?" I asked. "They''re not exactly a welcoming bunch¡ are you?"
"Used to be." Lee answered, scowling. "One of many young decisions I''ve lived long enough to regret¡ But you wouldn''t use this technology for them, or hand it to them, would you?"
"Not a chance," I told him. "I''d sooner step on a plasma mine than do anything that helped those assholes."
"Putting it politely," Maria smirked.
"There''s something else I need to know too," Lee continued. "It''s arguably just as important as keeping this information out of the Brotherhood''s hands."
"A''ight," I said.
"Does the name Dunwich mean anything to you?" Lee asked.
I didn''t answer immediately. Normally I would have because, well, the name didn''t mean anything to me. But as I was about to answer, it occurred to me, the way Maria and Lee were looking at me. The level of intensity in their faces. It was like they were asking me if I had the codes to the silos of the Divide. The name meant nothing to me, but it meant as much to them as my intervention did to Ulysses.
So I hesitated, studied them for a moment, pondering. Dunwich¡ had I heard a name like that? Not that I could recall. Was that a proper name or a sur?... "Who the hell names their kid Dunwich?" I asked.
"¡" Lee exhaled slowly. "I''d like to know that too¡ Not expecting you to answer that."
"Ok, cool," I said. "¡ So, can you enlighten me?"
"¡ It''s complicated." Lee said, after another pause. "Getting back is possible. I made a return trip myself, once, but I don''t know why you''d want to do it."
"Again, that''s my business." I told him. "But it is possible, right?"
Lee nodded. "Like I said, I made a return trip myself. It''s possible."
I let out a slow breath. A weight I hadn''t even realized was on my shoulders began to lift. I could get home. At the very least it was possible.
Unfortunately, that good mood didn''t last.
"Just because it''s possible doesn''t mean it''s easy," Lee said, eying me. "The first time I got here, it was different from how I went home and got here the second time."
"But it''s possible," I said, trying to focus in. "Do you have it with you? They way you got there and back?"
"No," Lee answered firmly, "And if I did, I wouldn''t tell you, and I''d be trying to actively destroy it."
I looked at Lee in confusion. I couldn''t understand why he''d want to do something like that. But then I realized, I likely wouldn''t want to know either. If it wasn''t something he''d want in the Brotherhood''s hands, it was reason enough to make sure it didn''t wind up in anyone else''s. But that also didn''t help me.
"Ok, then how am I supposed to go back?" I asked.
"How am I supposed to know?" Lee asked. "Do I look like one of those magical-science types? I sell and repair antiques."
"Was just hoping for some guidance," I said, shrugging.
"Wrong guy," Lee said, then blew out a breath. "Look, there''s not many people who''d even remotely have a clue about how to make something like that happen. Closest you might get are some of the Bigwigs over in Atlas. If you''ve got some idea of the thing that got you here, or better the thing itself, I recommend trying them. They''ve got some pretty neat stuff."
"¡I''ll take that under advisement," I lied. I was surprised by the suggestion. Taken aback, really. I''d imagine handing anything over to Atlas would be almost worse than handing it over the Brotherhood. At least the Brotherhood would squirrel it away to someplace it wouldn''t be able to hurt anyone else. For all I knew, Atlas would immediately jump into war mode. They''d done the military equivalent of slapping their dick on the table for a festival. That should''ve said enough on the matter.
Of course, they''d also made Penny. So nothing was impossible. Just incredibly unlikely.
"If you don''t mind my asking now, Why do you want to go back?" Maria asked.
"¡ It''s home," I answered.
"¡ Well that''s a load of crap if I''ve ever heard it," Maria said, succinctly. "Lee and I have been together long enough for me to know quite well what that world is like. If that''s a home, it''s an abusive one."
"It''s got its charms," I answered firmly.
"So does Remnant," Lee said, shrugging. "Arguably more than the Wasteland."
"I''m going back all the same. Somehow," I said. "I''ll find my way."
"Without Atlas," Lee said. "Or any other conceivable power to aid you."
"You make me sound like an idiot," I said.
Lee didn''t say anything to that.
"No, just stubborn," Maria said, succinctly. Which Lee nodded in agreement with. I couldn''t argue that either.
Lee rubbed his eyes and looked around the room briefly. After a moment his eyes locked onto a nearby clock. "Listen kid, it''s early, and this is clearly a talk you''re clearly not in the right mind to be having. Do me a favor and come back some time, alright? During business hours."
"So you can keep telling me I should stay?" I asked.
"So I can help you understand you should." Lee said, as if correcting me. "You''ve been here for months now. You can''t tell me you''ve spent that whole time not building some kind of life."
"¡ Sorry for the mess," I said.
Without further pause, I got up from the chair and walked back down the way I''d come. I collected my bags by the front door and was gone just as quickly.
I couldn''t give up.
I wasn''t going to.
I had to get back.
Even if it never seemed like it, Cass was never far off my mind.
I had to get back to her. To Vegas. It had been a few weeks. I needed to check in with Ozpin. See if his friends had made any progress¡
Slowly, I felt my eyes trail up towards the Atlesian Cruisers overhead. They really did have some neat stuff. Neat robotics, neat vehicles, neat resources.
Neat weapons.
They didn''t need me to give them any pointers.
But now I had to wonder if they hadn''t already had some. Though that would also be disingenuous to the hard work some of the actual engineers had put in. It seemed like there were a lot less vacuum tubes around than there should have been otherwise.
Carrying my bags, I started back down the street. I reached into my pocket to get a look at the time-¡
"Oh, what the fuck?"
¡
I made it my business to get back to Tukson''s apartment as quickly as possible. So far as I could tell, outside of maybe the clerk, Lee, and Maria, no one else had seen me that morning. After looking at my scroll, I was intent to keep it that way.
As soon as I got back to the apartment, I set to work getting breakfast prepared. Started with the things I knew could handle being left out for a while, and wouldn''t make much noise while prepping. Fruit salad, making the coffee, mixing the batter for pancakes. About the time I finished making the batter, everyone was starting to pull themselves back to the land of the living. A slow, tedious, dreadful thing that I could tell none of them had any experience with yet. They were all acting like they were hungover. Except Penny, she jumped right to work and tried to help me get breakfast made. Clearly the only morning person of the group. Though her rather¡ exacting commands when given recipes was a bit tedious. Though I''d also never seen a more perfectly browned pancake.
For the most part, the morning started quietly, and I was ok with that, after the talks I''d had, both the previous night, and that morning. It gave us all a lot to chew on and dread for the coming day. Unfortunately, we were only going to get more shoveled onto our plate. The first signs of which came when Jaune checked his Scroll, and discovered what was waiting for him there.
With all the focus and thought of a post-bender drunk I could hear him mutter the word that begins all manner of trouble. He woke up, opened his Scroll, and asked in a stupefied tone of a half-cut jet-head "¡Wha-?"
As I continued to work on breakfast, and the rest of the room came to life, Jaune didn''t. I couldn''t help but notice the way Jaune stayed still, since no one else really seemed to cotton on to what happened. He sat there for about a half hour before he so much as blinked and began messing with his Scroll. By about that point, everyone had at least had a shot at the bathroom and was corralling their beverages. By the time Penny was setting the table, he was back to his senses enough to actually open his Scroll and do something.
"¡ Ok, what?" Jaune muttered, flicking the device.
"What is it?" Pyrrha asked.
"I''ve got¡ a lot of messages from my mom and dad," Jaune said. "I mean a lot¡ and even more from my sisters¡" He paused as he continued flicking through his phone. I couldn''t help but watch because I got the sense he had absolutely no idea what was happening. It would''ve been funny if I didn''t already know things were about to get very bad for all of us. "¡Holy- what? Since when do I have a girlfriend!?"
That got everyone else''s attention at that point. Even in the midst of getting ready for breakfast, drama was the first dish of the day.
"¡ A what?" Pyrrha asked in shock.
"They''ve sent me a dozen and a half messages asking questions about how I got a girlfriend without telling them¡ each." He started aggressively tapping at his Scroll
"You got a girlfriend?" Ruby asked.
"Thank the gods," Weiss muttered.
"No, I didn''t!" Jaune sputtered. "Not yet- I don''t know why they think I did!"
"I can shed some light on that," I said. "Assuming everyone''s ready to eat?"
The collective gaze of our teams rolled over me, then to the spread I''d spent the better part of a few hours preparing. A tantalizing spread consisting of everything from cured meats and cheese to pastry and fruit. Hot sausages, eggs, pancakes, home fries, and bacon on platters. Jugs of juice and hot pots of coffee, and water for tea naturally. Pots of grits and creamed wheat, loaves of bread ready to be fried, toasted, or made into nests. I''d even gotten a jug of milk for Ruby, little miss ''I''m still growing!''.
I''d promised a continental spread, and delivered. Vegas was the ancestral home of buffet eating, I would not be found wanting for it.
"¡ How are we supposed to eat all of that!?" Weiss asked.
"It''ll serve through today and tomorrow." I said. "Everyone plate up and we''ll hash out what''s going on. And who''s on dish detail."
With heavy feet, everyone circled quickly through the kitchen, taking their share of the spoils. Most of the plates were modestly portioned, including Nora''s. Only real outliers were Blake and Penny. Blake by virtue of having a nearly empty plate. Penny by virtue of not even bothering to grab one. Though she was ''nursing'' a cup of juice.
"Ok. We''re sitting," Weiss said. "So what''s going on?"
I slugged back some of my coffee as the others started to tuck in. "Check your Scrolls. Should be a news article."
Weiss''s brow scrunched up in confusion, but she took my advice while the others prodded at their food. Again, I found my gaze drifting back to Nora expectantly. She''d been so excited about having a massive breakfast. But she was just prodding at her meal. There was something off about her, and Ren sitting beside her. The two of them seemed oddly tense, and kept slipping glances at each other. I knew those looks, but there was no chance those two had suddenly gone that far.
"¡ Oh my gods," Weiss hissed.
"Yeah, that was my reaction," I said.
"What is it?" Ruby asked, wedging a piece of toast into her mouth.
Weiss didn''t dain her with a response, instead passing her Scroll to Ruby while she buried her face in her hands. Ruby looked at the device for a moment, then nearly choked on her breakfast.
"Pyrrha and Jaune are dating!?" she choked.
Every stopped moving their food around and looked at Ruby, who began gesticulating wildly. Mostly at Weiss''s Scroll. Jaune, who had still been fumbling with his, suddenly began scrambling with the screen. Muttering something that vaguely sounded like "Whatwhatwhatwhat-"
Then he pulled it up, and allowed his teammates to see as well.
The color drained out of both Jaune and Pyrrha.
Nora on the other hand burst out laughing. Ren just looked at the Scroll in bewilderment.
I''d seen the article earlier that morning. It had been posted the previous night apparently, late. Another piece for the gossip column: "Pyrrha Nikos spotted on street with unnamed suitor! The Argos Fight Queen Claims a Prize!".
It was followed with a myriad of pictures, taken from a dozen and a half different angles. Each one filled with pained and embarrassed smiles from both Jaune and Pyrrha. Though, surprisingly, I saw a few where Jaune looked like he was ready to deck someone. I wouldn''t have believed it if the picture wasn''t there. There was even a nice puff-piece about Pyrrha giving a child an autograph. The whole thing stank of the trashy tabloid pap I preferred to avoid, but in this case, it was about my friends. I had reason enough to pay attention to it, even without the fact we were supposed to be keeping a low profile.
"Wow!" Penny chirped. "Congratulations!"
"But- but we''re not dating!" Jaune exclaimed. "We were just out doing our part of things!"
"Well now everyone thinks you''re doing a part of someone, so congratulations," I said sardonically.
"OH GODS THAT''S WHAT MOM MEANT!" Jaune shrieked, turning as red as Pyrrha''s hair. Who was also looking quite scandalized now.
"What''s that supposed to mean?" Ruby asked, concentrating way harder than she should''ve been "¡Wait¡ Oh¡ oh- oooh¡"
"Ruby¡" Yang intoned, speaking for the first time that morning and looking dead tired.
"Needless to say, this is a problem," I said. "But at the very least it''s low on our list right now."
"You think?" Blake asked, giving me the stink eye.
"¡ You really want to start this right now?" I asked. When Blake didn''t answer, I pressed. "Have you heard from Sun yet? He sent you a message?"
Blake looked sullenly at her meager plate and shook her head.
"Then all we can do is assume he hasn''t been found yet." I said. "Assuming the alternative wouldn''t help anyway¡ Let''s just¡ try and get through breakfast, alright?"
"At least without anymore surprises," Pyrrha muttered ruefully.
knock-knock-knock*
The apartment went dead silent as a trio of knocks echoed from its front door.
I turned to look at it from my seat, and no one said a word. Partly to make sure we hadn''t all collectively hallucinated it.
"There''s someone at the front door," Penny said, looking towards it as well.
"¡ You just had to say something," I groused, getting up from the table. I calmly stalked over to my gear and pulled That Gun from my holster as another series of knocks echoed.
"Oh, looks like it might be multiple people actually," Penny noted idly.
"How do you know that?" Weiss muttered.
Penny responded but I tuned the table out as I calmly stalked towards the door. Ruby went to get up from the table, but I motioned for her to wait. Until we knew what it was, there was no sense in flying off the handle. Yet. I approached the door, keeping my pistol bladed with my shoulder. There was a small peep-sight set into the door, and I looked out through it. It showed the apartment hallway beyond, the second floor of the building. Tacky carpeting, drab paint scheme, and otherwise starkly utilitarian.
The complete opposite of the person standing in front of the door. Impatiently tapping their high-heeled foot on the floor.
"¡" I unlocked the door and swung it open, greeting the four people standing beyond it. "¡ You''ve gotta be fucking kidding me."
"''Sup Kid." Coco said, smirking. "Have fun last night?"
Coffee in the Morning
It took me a moment to fully take stock of what was happening. My morning had already been full of surprises, so I should have expected a few more. But then they wouldn''t have been surprises, because you can''t expect a surprise. As it was, I''d been caught off guard instead.
CFVY stood in the hallway just outside the doorway. Coco was closest to the door, hips cocked to one side in her usual stance, smugly looking in. Velvet and Fox were immediately behind her on either flank. Velvet had her arms casually resting behind her back, a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. Fox had his hands stuffed into his pockets, and his smile was dry and bemused. Then, taking up the rear was Yatsu. Towering over the other three, and standing tall enough the doorframe clipped part of his head off. They all seemed a little tired, but otherwise were dressed and seemingly ready for anything.
They''d even thought to come armed.
How quaint.
"¡ So, you gonna invite us in or¡?" Coco asked, before her gaze trailed down slightly, and her brow crinkled. "¡ Were you going to shoot us-"
My hand snapped out and grabbed Coco by the collar. I hauled into the room and immediately repeated the action with her teammates. None of them really resisted my doing so, but they definitely hadn''t been expecting it. But better that than wait out there for Tukson''s neighbors to come snooping. As soon as they were inside, I slapped the door shut and locked it.
"Lucky I didn''t Malcolm Holmes you," I grumbled.
"Who?" Velvet asked
I ignored her and turned to face the four of them. Who in turn, outside Velvet, didn''t really bother to look at me, and were more interested in the apartment. My teammates and partners in anti-crime, who were effectively still paused mid-chew, were watching with bated breath. Though Ruby did wave ''hi'' when Yatsu motioned to her.
"Sweet place kid." Coco said. "You rent it yourself or you mooching off a friend?"
"He''s out of town on a long vacation," I said diplomatically.
"He leave you in charge of the shop downstairs too?" she pressed.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, ignoring her.
"A little early morning shopping," Coco replied smoothly. "Something you might know about."
"We saw you on the way back here carrying everything," Velvet supplied. "It was actually a lot easier to find you than we thought it would be."
"You were looking for me?" I asked.
"Well, no, not just you." She corrected, before looking at everyone else. "We weren''t really sure who-¡ Penny?"
Penny smiled and waved at Velvet. "Salutations, Ms. Scarlatina!"
Velvet, on the other hand, just looked at her in bemused confusion. "How did you- when- what!?"
"Who''s that?" Coco asked, turning to look at Velvet.
Velvet floundered for a moment, looking for an answer. "I-uh-um¡ why are you here right now?"
"Not important," I said, diverting the conversation. I motioned to everyone currently sitting at the table then to CFVY. "We should be asking you that before this goes any further."
"It''s too early for this," Jaune droned.
Coco leaned past me and looked briefly at Jaune. She smirked, then stepped past me, deeper into the room. "Well it''s really not that hard to figure out, kid." she said, snagging a piece of bacon off the table. She bit into it, before fixing me with a look over her shoulder. "Or would you prefer I call you Steve?"
I didn''t answer that. It felt like I should''ve been surprised, but that button had already been pressed enough times for one morning that the reflex wasn''t working anymore. So I stayed silent for a moment, as did my teammates, who were watching the situation curiously. After a moment, I looked at Coco''s own team hoping to find some explanation as well. They were just watching us expectantly¡ and looking at the breakfast table.
Another moment and I motioned that, yes, they could have some.
As they began to trickle towards it, I ordered: "Explain¡ please?"
Coco smirked, again. "Not too hard to figure out, kid. Some guy in dark armor with red eyes starts showing up in the news about the same time we start training you? You suddenly aren''t getting enough sleep and are collapsing during training? We didn''t need a whole lot of help putting the dots together, especially with all the news reports¡" She then pulled out her Scroll and waved it in front of us. "You all might want to check this morning''s broadcast, by the way."
"We did, Jaune and Pyrrha made the front page," Ruby said, pushing her food around her plate.
Coco chuckled like a cat toying with a particularly energetic mouse. "No, they were a special edition. The headline broke about an hour ago. You''re gonna want to see it, Red Hood."
"Red¡?"
Ruby paled. Immediately, she began flicking and tapping at her Scroll.
"So how do you and Penny know each other?" I asked Velvet, in the midst of devouring a bowl of fruit.
"Dad''s an engineer in the Atlas Military." Velvet explained, looking between Penny and me "I''ve met Professor Polendina and General Ironwood a few times." Velvet then settled her gaze on Penny, clearly confused. "Though never for long."
"Papa had a lot of work to do." Penny said, beaming.
Velvet nodded. "¡ so what are you doin-"
"SIX!" Ruby suddenly shouted. "You might want to check your Scroll!"
"Inside voice, Ruby," I said, noting that the others were now, curiously, beginning to mess with their Scrolls as well. "What''s wrong?"
"They took our pictures!" Ruby squealed.
"¡"
I pulled out my Scroll and began tapping through it. Having gotten used to it by this point, I figured out you could access a branch of the CCT that handled mass communications. Couldn''t seem to transmit large files and things, but messages and news updates were possible. Advertisements too, kept getting these ones for instrument polish and male enhancement supplements. It was part of how I''d found out about Jaune and Pyrrha''s misadventure the previous night.
Tapping a little further along now, I was immediately bombarded by a new headline, released maybe an hour prior.
''Ballroom Blitz and Gala Gunfight! Masked Vigilantes Caught On Film As White Fang Hold Atlesian Military Hostage!''
I felt an uncertain little tickle in my heart as I read the headline. A brief glance to Coco showed her smirk had blossomed into a full shit-eating grin.
"Oh no, please," she said, snapping up a mug of coffee. "Keep reading, it only gets better."
''¡ shit.''
"Hey, it comes with a video!" Nora chirped.
''FUCK!''
Nora promptly set her Scroll down on the table and slid it out towards the center. She tapped on it, and it began to project a hologram into the air, as I''d seen before, displaying the screen''s contents. There was a prompt for a video-playback, a still frame depicting some chaotic looking room, and a blur of red flying through the air over blurs of black and white.
Judging by the look on Ruby''s face, that was her and a snapshot of last night.
"OOOoooo¡" Nora chirped, tapping at the screen. The playback began.
The image vanished and was replaced by a title crawl with the symbol representing the Vale News Network. It was followed by a tinny bit of fanfare and music from the speaker of Nora''s Scroll. It probably would''ve sounded more impressive and grand on a proper display, but sounded cheesy and half-assed otherwise. Every other note was crushed, and the balance was half chewed and spat-out by a Yao Guai. But it was still clear enough to understand, as the title scrawled away and the video began to play. A disembodied voice began to speak, the reporting party.
A moment passed as the video began to play. The guy behind the camera was clearly an amateur, or wasn''t getting paid enough to do the job. The image shook and blurred haphazardly as the person holding it fussed and fidgeted. Granted, they were also clearly being crammed into a crowd of people, so not easy to keep the camera steady. How much of it was their own fault was open for debate. But even with the shaking and thrashing, the image that came through was by all accounts a harrowing one. The cameraman, and the people crowded around him were being corralled. Forced backward at gunpoint. The camera only briefly flashed over the ones responsible, only showed maybe two or three people. But I recognized the gala immediately, the White Fang even faster. There''d been a few dozen White Fangs in total. Not good odds when you''re not prepared for a fight but your enemy is.
The event kicked off before my or Ruby''s intervention. I could tell by the level of control the White Fang had over everything. Gunshots were intermittent, if at all. But I could see one Fang, a skinny looking fucker, who was waving around a massive revolver in the background. He popped off shots at random, cackling.
"It was a harrowing scene last night, at the Vytal Charity Gala and Fundraiser," spoke a male voice. Wanted to say it was Cryil Ian again. "At what was supposed to be an event celebrating the peace and cooperation between Kingdoms, chaos and gunfire erupted." The scene panned over the room, shifting to a different camera, another person who''d been recording at the time. "During the exchange of pleasantries, the fine citizens of Vale and honored guests in attendance found themselves under attack by members of the White Fang."
"All fine and honored when they''re spending a grand per plate," Blake muttered. She was immediately shushed by Weiss, but I noticed Velvet tittering at the remark.
The scene continued to pan over the ballroom. I could tell that most of it had been edited to really emphasize the terror and crisis. Frankly, not a tall order, but if you''re in the business of peddling fear, there''s no such thing as being heavy handed. One second they''d have a panning shot of the White Fang pointing guns at the crowd. The next they''d have a closely cropped shot of the muzzles, fire and smoke flare out of the barrels as they fired. Judging by what I knew, those shots would''ve been taken later, after Ruby or I intervened. There weren''t many bodies from what I could remember seeing.
Almost naturally, the scene transitioned to show another shaky camera. What it was trying to show was initially blurred and out of focus. Though after a moment, the lenses adjusted, and displayed a very disconcerting sight: General Ironwood getting the absolute shit kicked out of him.
I could remember they''d had a bunch of people ganging up on him at the time. It wasn''t until I''d an actual picture of how it happened that I understood. Guy didn''t seem like a slouch, but they went to town on him.
"Despite promises of security and protection, no one was beyond the reach of the White Fang." Cyril continued, the scene lingering on Ironwood in a fashion I was certain wasn''t allowed on TV. "Not even senior officials of the Atlas Military, such as General James Ironwood and his retinue, were off limits." The scene then switched to a still of Ironwood''s retinue, who I immediately recognized. I''d saved one of them from near death while the other was behaving like a jackass.
''Now they''re just milking it.''
"This seems a little gratuitous," Ren said, sipping his beverage.
"It gets better," Yatsu rumbled, smirking as he bit into a pancake he wrapped around a sausage like some kind of sandwich.
"As fitting with an unfortunate theme as of late, the official response from Vale''s Police Force was a touch subdued," Cyril said, as the camera cut to a more professional view of things. An official recording I was almost certain was sourced from VNN itself. The chatter and banter was the usual back and forth I felt was expected between reporters and police. A tense stalemate of both sides trying to get the other to either leave or mind their own business. Though the general tone I was taking from it was that the police should''ve been more receptive. An impression only slightly sullied by the fact that the one reporting it appeared to have been Cyril himself. "However, despite this continued wave of lackluster performance, it would soon transpire that the situation was more in hand than first believed."
Another transition back to the Gala, another shaky camera. The image focused back on the Fang that had been cackling previously. He''d since focused himself on Ironwood''s subordinates. With a disturbingly jovial gait, he walked up to the wounded member of the duo and put his gun to her head.
It was at that moment that something shattered overhead, and a red blur shot down from above. The blur crashed into him like a hammer and crumpled him into the floor, all its momentum fading.
The blur unfurled itself into the shape of a young woman, dressed sensibly in a dark ensemble. Her face was obscured by a scarf, head covered by a red hood that descended into a cape. It flared behind her in a scattering of crimson flower petals.
Held in her hands: a massive scythe.
As far as entrances go, points had to be given for timing.
I could hear the table collectively holding its breath. All except for maybe CFVY, and possibly Ruby. A quick look at her showed something I wasn''t expecting.
Embarrassment.
"¡ Hi. The name''s Red Hood," The girl who might have been Ruby said. "This is, like, my second time doing this, and I don''t have anything cool to say¡"
She then promptly swung her weapon up and blasted the nearest White Fang in the face.
It was all downhill from there. Not sure for who, but it moved fast. Our collective friend group was completely invested in what they were watching, even as multiple camera angles came and went, giving a sense of the barely contained chaos that followed.
"While many have been curious as to the sudden and recent rise in vigilante justice, it would appear others have begun to take it as an example to follow," Cyril continued, as the image of Red Hood swept off to the side in a cloud of rose petals, rifle fire tracking after her. She swiftly flew into a flying kick that caught another White Fang under the chin, then sprang off him, spinning her scythe as she connected with another Fang, and dashing aside as more gunfire roared. "A young woman, referring to herself as the ''Red Hood'' was the first to intervene in last night''s incident."
"That name''s a little on the nose, don''t you think?" Pyrrha asked, amused.
"It was all I could think of!" Ruby defended.
As Ruby defended her choice of pseudonym, herself from the previous night was furiously on the attack. I was again reminded of how impressive her speed truly was. The way she could cross the room in a blink, the only hint of her movement being that trail of rose petals. I watched silently as the scene played out a second time. Even from a different, more limited perspective, you could tell Ruby held her own. The fact she managed to take several of them was proof enough. What was really impressive, however, was her marksmanship. She was nailing people from across the room, while flying. She would nonchalantly reform, aim offhand, fire, and be moving in a window few could match. It wasn''t impressive, long-distance shooting, but damn impressive all the same. Something none of the White Fang could match. It seemed all of the shots went wide of her no matter where they aimed.
"Wow, go Ruby," Nora chirped.
"It really looks like you were giving them a hard time," Ren agreed.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"It wasn''t anything special," Ruby said, trying to sidestep the praise.
"Maybe not, but you clearly were holding your own," Weiss noted.
This was immediately followed by Red Hood shouting: "Look dad, no hands!"
She then promptly fumbled her scythe, managed to catch it, but then smacked against the ground. She was airborne before the White Fang could get a bead on her. But I could tell the guy holding the camera had probably almost pissed himself, watching their one ray of hope bite the ground.
It made our friends laugh. Though for Yang it seemed a more subdued chuckle, seeing as it was her little sister.
"It''s not funny!" Ruby balked.
"Seemed like you were trying to be," I said.
Ruby sent her puppy-glare at me, but otherwise said nothing.
The footage continued to roll as the fighting played out. It only lasted a few more moments, they probably had plenty of it to sift through. But it was a clear transition to see, as Red Hood went from fighting, to largely dodging and remaining mobile. Despite the fierce fight, much as I''d guessed, she''d backed herself into a figurative corner, fighting like she did. The White Fang kept the pressure on, knowing she couldn''t keep it up forever.
"With the intervention of the previously unidentified vigilante, police were bought enough time to properly reinforce their position and begin preparations to stage a rescue attempt." Cyril continued. Again the footage flashed back to the police on the ground, standing around, scratching their asses while wondering why the hell there was suddenly a lot more gunfire. The shot followed their gaze, panning up to the windows far overhead. "However, before they could properly intervene, the situation only further spiraled out of hand."
Cue me, swinging around the side of the building by Penny''s sword, and smashing into the window.
The shot then jumped once more back inside, to one that faced towards the window. I could see the White Fang with the machine gun standing in front of it, taking aim at Ruby.
"Hey, I remember him!" Ruby said.
Then I cannonballed through the window. More glass falling, coat flaring out behind me. It all happened as I remembered it, albeit seeming much faster from an outside perspective. The White Fang turned as I crashed into him, we skidded across the floor, I shot a couple Fang, and then stole the machine gun.
"Knock. Knock." My counterpart growled.
About the same time he opened fire with the machine gun, my friends and CFVY erupted into laughter.
Ruby gave me a smug, satisfied smile.
"¡" I shrugged. "Felt right at the time."
She chuckled. At least I didn''t fumble my weapon.
After that, things played out from memory, lots of fighting and chaos as me and Ruby tried to contain it. The feed itself didn''t last much longer after that. It almost inexplicably cut to everyone fleeing down dark hallways and stairwells.
"With the timely intervention of the vigilantes, the hostages were able to make a successful escape attempt," Cyril reported. "While injuries were documented among those released, in a miraculous turn of events, there were found to be zero casualties among them."
"Well that''s a relief," Ruby said.
The camera then cut back to a scene that played out during the fight. Though the sound was removed, I recognized it from when I''d spurred the hostages into motion. The camera hardly had to track me, as I practically ran towards it. There''d been a few White Fang in front of it at the time, guarding the hostages. I removed them. Cost me my Aura at the time, but it hadn''t been enough to change anything.
Surprisingly though, the footage did censor what I did to the White Fang guarding the hostages. I can''t tell if that actually made it better or worse. The footage froze on a full body shot of me, right as I was about to stomp one of their heads in. Not a good look.
"Damn, you went hard on them, huh?" Coco asked, stirring her coffee. "Not every day the news puts up a censor bar."
"Figured they could take it," I said, indifferent. "Considering what was at stake, I knew my priorities."
Coco shrugged in response. Agreeing or not, there wasn''t much to argue.
The still image of me panned off to the side, another of Red Hood appearing beside me.
"The vigilante, Crazy Steve, and the one known as the Red Hood are unknown to be of relation to each other," Cyril spoke. "However, their intervention in last night''s incident has only further fanned the flames beneath our Kingdom''s judicial system, especially those regarding vigilante intervention in police matters. While Chief Nutte could not be reached at the time of this reporting, it is in this reporter''s humble opinion that serious review of practices may need to be on the horizon. I''m Cyril Ian with Vale News Network. Stay safe out there."
The video came to a close, and an arrow appeared over it, asking if the video needed to be replayed.
"¡ So," Coco said, setting her mug down. "Care to weigh in on it?"
The room stayed quiet for a moment, as everyone''s eyes moved back and forth between me and Ruby. I was silently contemplating if there wasn''t merit in just leaving the conversation behind altogether. But, well, what then? Just keep running around hoping I wouldn''t bump into them again?
"¡ I plead the fifth," I answered.
Coco''s brow quirked at me.
"The what?" Velvet asked. "What does trial by combat have to do with this?"
"Trial by- I meant the right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination," I said. "There''s not much either of us can say here that wouldn''t sound suspicious."
"Not that we''re, like, not not being suspicious right now," Nora said, nomming on her pancakes.
CFVY looked at all of us, as they were eating their selections from the breakfast buffet.
"Alright, since you''re settling in, let me see if I''ve got this straight:-" I said. "You came out here hoping to find Ruby and me, and just so happened to stumble across me while I was grocery shopping?"
"Pretty much," Yatsu answered.
"We were planning to check the dorms this morning and see if asking nicely worked," Velvet added. "Except, we noticed you guys disappeared last night. Then we saw the news, and decided we should try and find you¡" Velvet chuckled. "Definitely shouldn''t have found you that easy though, really lucky."
"Unlucky," I told her. "I''m jinxed, trust me. You found me because it was unlucky enough to count as good luck."
Velvet''s head tilted in confusion. "That''s not how that works."
"It is for me," I said.
"So you found him," Weiss said. "Then you followed him back here¡ How long were you waiting outside?"
"Only a little while," Velvet continued.
"Wasn''t sure if he was going to give us the slip," Coco said. "After we realized there was an apartment above the store, we just took the normal entrance in."
"How pedestrian," I grunted, sipping some drink.
"So, what, you tracked him all the way back here just to ask him if he was crazy?" Blake asked. "Well, congrats, he is, we all are, is that all?"
"We were actually going to ask if you''d like some help," Coco answered.
There was a pause in the air, as we collectively regarded CFVY for a moment. On some level, maybe I shouldn''t have been surprised that Coco would say something like that. But to be fair, I wasn''t expecting it either. Partly because, despite us being on relatively good terms, this seemed a little outside the realm of normal for them. Which is why: "¡ Somehow, that is the worst thing you could''ve said," I told her.
"Thought that would''ve been telling Ms. Goodwitch?" Jaune asked.
"I can deal with her," I said. "More hands stirring the pot though?... Yeah, nah."
I''d have expected Yatsu, Fox, and Velvet to have been annoyed by being brushed off. Maybe they were, but not in any way that meaningfully showed. Instead, they seemed more annoyed with Coco. They didn''t raise any arguments, but I could see the way Fox was looking at her. There was a disagreement there. Coco turned and looked at him, smirking for a moment, before turning back to us.
"Won''t lie kid, we don''t normally do this sort of thing either," Coco said. "But, hey, things haven''t really been normal recently. Normally there''s not gunfights breaking out all over town, or terrorists attacking random people. If things were normal, we''d just let the police handle it and wait until it was time for our next field mission."
"So you''re just bored and looking for something to do?" I asked. "Go read a book, we''re not doing this for fun."
"Pff, fun? Yeah, no, I''ve got better things I could be doing for fun," Coco retorted. "I''ve got a whole wardrobe to play with. No, we''re here because we felt like it."
Velvet cleared her throat.
"¡ And because it seemed like the right thing to do," Coco said, rolling her eyes. "Can''t have all our hard work the past few weeks suddenly get kicked out of Beacon."
"But won''t you be kicked out of Beacon if you get caught too?" Pyrrha asked.
"We get lee-way for being upperclassmen," Velvet explained. "Not a lot, but more than you would if you get caught without us." She then shrugged. "Which might happen, now that they''ve got pictures of at least two of you."
"Four if you count the two love-birds," Coco said, before looking at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Congrats by the way, Champ."
"But we''re not dating!" Jaune protested.
"Whatever you say, Jauney-come-lately," Coco smirked.
"That''s what his mom''s worried about, but not the problem right now," I said. "We''ve got enough crap to deal with right now, and you guys aren''t in the loop. What we''re trying to do isn''t as simple as going around and punching bad guys."
"It really seems like that''s all we''ve been doing though," Ruby said. "That and scribbling on a map."
"If we were having any luck with it, we''d be done already," I said. "But dragging more people into the mix isn''t going to fix anything, especially if they''re not privy to all the details."
"You mean like how Blake''s a Faunus?" Velvet asked
"Yeah, like-¡" I turned and looked at Velvet, everyone but her teammates did.
Velvet just motioned up to her own, floppy, rabbit ears. "You think you''re the first person to try hiding them with a bow?"
Blake''s head bumped against the tabletop. "Is there anybody who doesn''t know!?"
"¡I''m pretty sure Cardin''s still in the dark," Velvet offered.
I rubbed the bridge of my mask. We weren''t getting anywhere at this point, and breakfast was getting cold. I turned to Ruby. "While I don''t think bringing them on board will hurt, we''ve got to weigh things out, do we have time to get them up to speed? Will the extra hands make a difference, or will they just be getting in the way? I''d say we can do without, but it''s you, Jaune, and Blake''s call. Whatever choice we make, it needs to happen in the next five minutes."
"Why me?" Jaune asked.
"You''re a leader, take a measure of responsibility," I told him.
"Sounds like you''ve got more say than they do," Yatsu grunted.
"I''m responsible for the planning, logistics, and early reconnaissance of what''s been done so far," I said. "Since it''s still under my purview, I need them to make a call so we can keep moving, otherwise we''ll waste the entire day here sitting at a table of food."
"Sounds like you''re just taking shots at all of us now," Coco said.
"I''m not trying to be rude," I told her. "I''ve got nothing against you four, really. But with everything already in the state it is, I don''t think we''re in a spot to be calling in more help."
"But we could use it, considering Sun still hasn''t answered us either," Jaune said. "And if they really are planning a prison break, I''m pretty sure we''re going to need all the help we can get."
"Prison break?" Velvet asked.
"Long story," Ruby said, having apparently already made her choice. "We''ll tell you in a minute. Blake?"
Blake didn''t give an answer one way or the other. Until we heard back from Sun, it didn''t seem she much cared about the extra help. She just shrugged indifferently. As close to a yes as anyone was going to get.
"¡ Alright, we''ll start from the beginning then," I said, shaking my head. "Let''s just finish breakfast first, can''t fight crime on an empty stomach¡" I looked around. "Has anyone seen Zwei? Would''ve expected him to jump out at the new company."
"*bark!*"
"Oh, there-¡" I turned and saw Zwei standing on the table with all of the food on it. There was no indication how he''d managed to get on the table, nor that he''d touched any of the food. He was currently staring at all of us with a doggy grin, stump of a tail wagging so hard it was dragging his butt with it. Everyone else took note of it as well, as their chairs creaked at the shift in weight.
"What the-" Coco started.
She was cut short by a thirty-some-odd pound ball of fur slamming into her. Unable to brace for the impact, Coco flopped back and hit the floor, Zwei standing over her, panting contentedly.
Her teammates started laughing. Ruby started panicking, and scrambled around the table in her pajamas. "Zwei! No! We don''t jump on people!"
"I hear chocolate isn''t good for dogs either," I muttered. Pretty much everyone missed it, or ignored it. But I could tell Yang heard it. It didn''t do anything for her.
As Ruby began fussing with Zwei, apologizing to Coco, Velvet asked, "You didn''t answer me before, how do you guys know Penny?"
"Met her a few weeks ago, helped kick this whole mess off really," I said.
Velvet''s brow quirked. "General Ironwood is letting her help with this?"
"Oh no, we accidentally kidnapped her."
"¡ What?"
¡
It took the majority of the morning to try and bring CFVY up to speed on everything. We left out the parts not pertaining to the job at hand, such as my origins, but had a lot of ground to cover. That was without the constant tangents we''d find ourselves tumbling down. Such as: How''d we find the apartment? Or, there are how many safe houses in the city? Better yet: How the hell are you alive? A particular favorite after I had to explain the incident at the substation. Leaving out the mess that followed me trying to get back to Beacon. Then we had to cover everything that''d happened the previous night, and what we''d done then. Most of it seemed obvious, but we had to cover that for our own sake then.
By the time we were even marginally up to speed, it was the middle of the afternoon again. Everyone was mostly recuperated, and coming to terms with the morning''s antics. We still hadn''t heard anything from Sun, and while I wasn''t in a worrying mood, I knew a bad sign¡ occasionally. Knowing that there was going to be some big trouble, and that Sun hadn''t answered, it didn''t bode well. If he''d been made, then whatever became of him was on me. Should''ve had him just blow his cover and escape with us.
"And this crosses off the last of Yang''s leads," I said, marking the map on the table. I looked up at Nora and Ren. "You two are sure you didn''t find anything else?"
"Not after the incident at the convenience store, no," Ren answered. "We managed to cross everything else off after, but didn''t find anything."
"Someone wouldn''t let me check the backrooms," Nora muttered.
I nodded, and straightened out, looking at the map.
"So when do we get to the part where we start kicking in doors and beating the snot out of people?" Coco asked.
"You''ll get your fill of it soon enough," I told her. "Since we handled the last of the more covert locations last night, we''re moving onto the places I''ve confirmed are actually stash-and-safehouses."
"And we''re focusing on them instead of the actual prison break because?" Yatsu asked, motioning to explain.
"Well, we don''t know where they''re going to hit, do we?" I asked in response. "There can''t be too many actual prisons around Vale. But I imagine most of the city''s precincts have some form of lock-up or another. For all we know, they''re raiding all of them at once in an effort to thin the herd or something."
"There''s really only two jails I can think of around here anyway." Ruby said, pointing at the map. First to an open space off it, on the table, and then back into the city proper, at the city''s western edge. "There''s the one on Patch, think it''s Percale Correctional or something, and then Kohl''s-gate Keep here in Vale. Uncle Qrow told me that''s where most people wind up when the police actually arrest them, or Huntsmen bring them in."
"It''s also where they keep the drunk tank," Coco added, derisively.
"¡" Ruby looked at Coco, confused.
"Don''t ask," Velvet responded. "It''s a long story."
"We like long stories, ask Six," Nora chirped.
"Regardless, that does help narrow it down at least," I said, rubbing the chin of my mask. "Name rings a bell, think Oobleck mentioned it in class a couple times¡ what was it used for again?"
Ruby shrugged. "It was an outpost. Helped control traffic, I think?"
"It''s an arsenal," Velvet said helpfully.
"Then they turned it into a prison," I said. "For all the sense that makes." I pushed away from the map. "Alright, not much sense in us wasting time. Everybody partner up and we''ll start moving. Someone''s going to have to triple since Sun''s not here."
"That''s it?" Blake asked. "Just like that, we''re moving on?"
"Unless you''ve heard from him, yes," I said. "You can message him again if you want, but unless he actually answers you might as well be talking to the wall."
Blake scowled and shook her head.
"Do we have a choice?" I asked. "If we don''t keep moving, we''ll fall behind. Considering what they were doing last night, that''s not something we can afford to let happen. It''ll be even worse tonight if they''re actually pulling what you said they are."
"But Sun could be in danger," Blake said. "Danger¡ we both put him in."
"Danger he chose to be a part of," I countered, gesturing with my hand. "Believe me, I get it, and I''m not happy about it either. What do you expect any of us to do, wave a hand and just have him magically appear?"
This was, naturally, followed by a heavy *THUMP* at the exterior wall.
I immediately whipped away from the table, hand on my gun. Something the others did as well. My eyes tracked to the wall, scanning, to the windows facing the street¡
"¡ Sonnuva bitch, there he is," I said.
Sun was hanging in the window, perched on the sill by his toes. Precariously. I could see the way he was bracing himself against the frame.
Not missing a beat, Blake bolted away from the table and across the room. She scratched at the window for a moment, before finally fiddling the latch open. About the point she managed to pry it open, the rest of us were following up after her. I briefly looked down at my hand, before focusing back on what was going on.
"Don''t crowd him," I said, making sure he had room.
Sun rolled in through the window, flopping down between the wall and sill, at the corner, his weapon clattering to the ground as it hung at his hip. He was breathing heavily and sweating, his entire outfit was stained and dirty. His shoes had new scrapes and scars in them, his exposed chest smeared with grease. His hair was clumped together thickly and his eyes were heavy and glazed over. In short, he was a hot mess.
"I''m back, miss me?" he croaked.
"You look like ten pounds of shit crammed into a sock," I told him.
Blake shot me a look, telling me to knock it off.
Sun didn''t even seem fazed. He just leaned back against the wall and sniffed the air, his eyes lighting up slightly.
"Food?" he asked.
"On it!" Ruby said, slipping back into the kitchen.
"Water too!" he croaked.
"You ok?" Blake asked.
"In one piece," Sun huffed, before giving me the stink eye. "Looks like you two made it out¡" Then his gaze drifted past us and at the crowd. "¡ And picked up five more¡ Hey Penny."
"Hi Sun!" Penny chimed.
"And I think I recognize the rest of you guys, team CFVY, right?" Sun asked.
"That''s us," Coco nodded. "And you''re Sun."
"Glad we''ve got that all squared," I said.
Sun pushed back against the wall, sitting up straighter. As he did, Ruby came rushing back in with a plate. Most of breakfast had long since been put away or finished, but she brought him a bowl of fruit, a roll, and a tall glass of water.
The moment the food was into his hands, he tore into it like a wastelander. Table manners were for the well-fed.
"What happened?" Weiss asked. "We''ve been trying to contact you."
"We?" Blake asked.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "It''s an implied we."
"A lot," Sun said between gulps of water. "After we got stopped and I got on the truck, they shut the door and we left. I thought about just escaping, but I figured: ''Eh, not the first time I''ve been locked in a box,'' and went with it. I figured things would work out."
"Then why didn''t you answer?" Weiss pressed.
"You try answering your scroll surrounded by guys who''d sooner shank you," Sun answered, ripping into his roll. "It was awkward."
"I have. Most of the time you tell them to screw off, or shank them first," I said. "What next?"
"They took us to some apartment building up town," Sun said, chewing. "Upscale place, but they basically threw us into random rooms and told us to wait until we were needed. I thought about running, but at that point I figured, I hadn''t been caught, so might as well see where it goes."
"Sounds accurate so far," I said.
"Didn''t even let us shower or anything, still weird," Sun continued. "About an hour ago they finally let me out and took me to a room with a bunch of maps and stuff." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "They told me to go to this address and ask to speak to the person on the note. Then I''d pass the note off to them when no one was looking."
He offered the paper and I took it. I looked at it for a moment, then went back to the map to confirm it. Yes, it was for one of the precincts in Vale. Likely one of the detention centers. The person it would be passed to didn''t matter as much, he was background noise for all I cared. What was attached to the note was much the same. Looked to be codes, passphrases.
"I''ll take it to mean that these were meant to help them escape," Weiss said, looking at the paper. Her nose scrunched up as she studied the map. "But why that one? Doesn''t seem particularly special."
"I don''t know, but there was more in the apartment," Sun said. "I tried to look it over but they didn''t like me looking around. I bolted the moment I was sure I was out of sight." He paused for a moment, downing the rest of his water. "¡ We need to go back."
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"Because the pieces don''t make sense yet," I said. "There''s something else going on and it''s going to be big." I looked back at everyone. "If we don''t get ahead of it now, we''re not going to."
Ruby nodded and looked at Sun. "Can you show us the way back?"
"Yeah," Sun said, finishing his food. "Just give me a minute to get something else to drink."
"Get it in a to-go cup," I told him. "We-"
I stopped, as a grinding noise began to fill the air.
It came from my Pip-Boy.
Velvet looked at me curiously. "What was that?"
"¡"
I looked down at my Pip-Boy.
Quest START: One Piece At A Time
- Investigate the Apartment for more information.
"¡" I took a deep breath. "The start of a very long night."
Strength in the Numbers
We allowed Sun to collect his drink, then we all took off into the late afternoon once more. We tried to be smarter about how we moved. A group our size would be pretty noticeable, so we had to keep somewhat spread out, but we couldn''t afford to be lagging either. We got split up slightly as a result, but not seriously. Sun took point, leading us back, Blake kept close to him as he went, and the rest of our team kept in steady pace behind them.
The place Sun wound up leading us rang of familiarity. Not because I''d been there before, but because it stank of the White Fang''s usual tactics. They''d been keeping to abandoned and unused buildings, or ones they knew to be easily swayed to the cause. A good number of them were either derelict or under construction. The apartment building Sun led us to was the latter, and in the final stages of it, looking from the outside. Were the White Fang not actively using it, the place likely would''ve already been looking for renters. It wasn''t a particularly massive building, three stories, kept it in line with the rest of the skyline, especially in that part of town. The stone and masonry were new, none of the cracking or discoloration that comes with age. There was a two-story parking garage next to it, mostly empty. Mostly.
It was amazing how something could hide in plain sight until you thought about them. Cars, vans, and trucks would be normal to see in a parking garage, until you realized it shouldn''t be open yet, because the building isn''t finished. The unmarked vans the White Fang used stuck out like a sore thumb.
Our collective got off the street, peering out at the building from an alleyway across from it.
"This is it?" I asked.
"Yeah," Sun nodded. "Got away as fast as I could."
"Seems so normal from the outside," Jaune said. "¡Guess that''s kinda the point though."
"No kidding?" Weiss asked drolly.
"Alright, weapons check," I said. "Last thing we need right now is trouble from faulty maintenance."
"On it now," Velvet said, pulling out her own Scroll, an action mirrored by her teammates, and myself. I drew out my Scroll and tapped through the menus, tracking to the screen Jaune had shown me the previous night. I debated for a moment whether or not it would make sense for me to call it now. It was actually a surprisingly simple task, once my Scroll was keyed to it. It would use my Scroll as a transponder and hone in on my location, or auto-pilot to some pre-established coordinates. Most of the time they were fairly quick.
My Scroll calculated the potential time it would take to arrive. Roughly ten minutes to make the journey. That it would only take that long was something of a surprise, given what it was carrying. Which was dampened, somewhat, when CFVY''s lockers arrived less than three minutes later.
They were carrying much less. Flight speed and distance weren''t an issue.
But it was reason enough for me to avoid calling for it, yet. Every minute we spent having to wait was one more the White Fang had to prepare. Once we had a better idea of what was happening, then I could properly gear myself.
As CFVY collected their weapons, I turned to Sun. "How many people are we dealing with?" I asked, trying to keep things focused. "There''s no telling when things are going to kick off, we need to get in there."
"I don''t know," Sun said. "I wasn''t keeping count while running for the exit¡ At least four actual members, more who were picked up last night."
"So somewhere between four and four hundred," Coco said, pursing her lips. "Hmm¡ seems a bit too small for four hundred, maybe two hundred."
"Local ordinances allow for a maximum of one hundred and ninety registered occupants within a domicile of this size," Penny chirped. "More if the individual apartments are intended for families."
Coco looked at Penny over her sunglasses, curiously. Frankly I didn''t know why she knew that either, but whatever. Probably something to do with her being a robot.
"Having a more accurate head count before we go in would be helpful, but this isn''t the first time it''s happened," I said. "We''ll have to move a bit more cautiously, but-"
"Fox says there''s about twenty people up on the third floor," Velvet chimed in.
"¡ Or that," I said, craning my head towards Fox, squatting behind a dumpster. "Can I ask how?"
"Advanced Aura technique, we told you about them, remember?" Velvet asked. "One of them allows you to see and sense the auras of other people."
"Or where one might be missing, like with Grimm," Yatsu added.
"¡ Damn, that''s useful," I said. "Gotta get me some of that."
"Can we not waste time?" Blake asked.
"Right¡ We''re going to need two teams," I said. "One for sneaking in and the other for back-up."
"One to try and handle it quietly, and the other for when it goes wrong?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah," I nodded. "I volunteer myself and Sun for breach duty." I looked towards him. "You''ve got at least some idea of the inside, you''ll have to lead us back to the map room."
"I''ll try." Sun said, cracking his neck. "You think Blake can come?"
"Me too!" Ruby said.
"Blake yes, Ruby no." I countered. "We need quiet and agile."
"I can be quiet," Ruby huffed. "Quieter than you."
"Six is actually surprisingly quiet when he moves," Blake said, shrugging. "I have no idea how."
"Practice," I told her. "And we don''t have a lot of time for debate here, Ruby. You can be first in the door after us, but we need to know what''s actually up there first¡" I motioned to Fox. "You should come up with us, could use someone with X-ray vision."
Fox looked at me in confusion. Wouldn''t be surprised if he didn''t understand, but the concept stood. He could see through walls, he was useful here.
"Take Yatsu too," Velvet said. "He''s good at stealth."
"No offense, but I doubt that," I said. "Unless he''s secretly been practicing his ballet when we''re not looking."
"You do ballet?" Penny asked, amazed.
"I''ve got something that works good for it. Trust me, I can make the whole thing a breeze," Yatsu said. "-and if we don''t move soon, we''re going to miss our window."
"¡" I shook my head. "Fine, whatever, we get caught, everyone is rushing in anyway¡" I stepped out from the alley and quickly scanned the street, then the building. Far as I could tell we weren''t being observed. Yet. "Sun, on me, Blake and Fox take the middle. Yahtzee, Ren, take the rear and keep close."
"I''m coming too?" Ren asked.
"Unless you want to sit back here and make googly eyes with Nora." I needled, quickly scanning the street for traffic.
Ren made no response to that, clearly unable or unwilling to take a joke, and got in position alongside Yatsu. We were loosely stacked up, and as close to ready as we would be.
"Fox, you see anything on the ground floor?" I asked.
I looked back, and a moment later he shook his head.
"¡ Alright," I said. "We''re crossing the street in pairs, Sun and me first. Fox, Blake, do a ten count and follow. Same for Yatsu and Ren. If you''ve got questions check them at the door." I scanned the street. We were clear. "¡ Break!"
Sun and I bolted out into the street, moving smoothly and quickly. Didn''t want to linger in the open, but being too obvious about it wouldn''t help. We crossed the street as a new car pulled onto it. I grabbed Sun''s shoulder and pulled him onto the sidewalk. He looked at me in confusion for a moment, as I waited for the car to pass, pulling him in to make it look like we were just having a conversation. Once it was past, I shuffled him back into motion. We reached the front door of the building, peered through the glass for a moment, then went inside. The interior was well lit and otherwise abandoned. There was new paint and spackle on everything, like they''d only recently finished the construction. The floor was some combination of tiling and stone, expensive looking. Gave an idea where your rent might be going. There was a small bank of mail boxes built into the wall beside the door. On the opposing wall, two doorways, one leading to a stairwell, the other the sliding doors for an elevator.
"What now?" Sun asked, looking around.
"Over here," I said, motioning to a corner of the room, parallel to the stairs and elevator, adjacent to the front door. Loose cover in case someone came from either direction. The two of us slipped over to it and crouched, waiting.
"You hear anything moving?" I asked.
"Why''re you asking me?" Sun asked.
"You''re the one with the enhanced senses," I answered, annoyed at what should''ve been obvious.
"They''re not that good¡" he said, trailing off before shaking his head. "¡ No, don''t hear anything."
''So far, so good, then.''
We waited a few moments before the door opened again. Blake and Fox slipped through, scanned the room and joined us. I took that as my cue to begin stacking-up on the stairwell. I briefly stood on the edge of the doorway, then crossed to the opposing side as everyone took my lead. Left me on one side, back to the elevator, the others on the other covering the doorway.
"Fox, you see anyone on the next floor up?" I asked, looking across to him.
Fox blinked, and looked up at the ceiling as the front door opened again. Yatsu and Ren came into the room about the point Fox shook his head. Next floor up was clear, or at least the stairway appeared to be.
"Alright: Sun, Fox, take point. Sun, you''ll guide Fox and the rest of us," I said, slipping around behind him, urging him to take my previous spot. He was a touch confused but complied. "Fox, you''re on lookout. If you see something we don''t, speak up¡" I tilted my head slightly. "Of all the things I''d never thought I''d say to a blind man."
Fox chuckled and acquiesced, switching spots with Blake.
"Alright, quiet and move as one," I whispered, then motioned with my hand for us to move up.
Sun and Fox turned sharply around the corner, scanned the room, and began to climb the stairs. They weren''t masterfully quiet, but better than I was worried they might be. They were both Agile enough that Stealth should''ve been within their repertoire. Sun practically sprang up to the second landing in a single bound, while Fox took the steps in long strides, both eyeing the way ahead of them cautiously. The rest followed after, quickly. Blake and I took the steps in stride, followed by Ren, who hardly made a sound as he went. Yatsu, however, moved like a Brahmin-bull. His movements were deceptively smooth and quick, but his footsteps were heavy. For all that power and speed, came the weight of the muscle that produced it. Despite that though, there was some merit to keeping him on hand for this sort of situation. A hammer was good at knocking open doors. Especially when it was smart about it.
We cleared the landing and climbed to the second floor. The moment we did, Fox''s head snapped to the ceiling and he shoved Sun through the doorway into the second floor. Recognizing it as a bad sign I paused for a moment and listened.
I could hear footsteps echoing down from above us. They were moving quickly, the slight echo screwed with the specifics of it. Sounded like only one set though.
"Move!" I hissed, ushering Blake quickly up the steps, motioning for Yatsu and Ren to follow. The two of us, Blake and me, cleared the landing and leapt through the door, rounding for cover.
But Yatsu and Ren couldn''t follow us fast enough.
As Blake and I pulled into cover, someone rounded down the next flight of stairs leading up. They were moving quickly, distractedly. A young woman with antlers on her head. She was clutching a small pack of papers and muttering to herself. If I wasn''t aware of what was going on, I''d have just assumed she was another tenant or normal citizen. Whatever she was heading off towards had her rattled though. She missed the four of us hanging in the doorway, peering out at her. But the moment she got to the top of the next flight of stairs leading down, she stopped and stared down Ren and Yatsu. She paused, and I could tell her gaze had immediately tracked to the two of them.
"¡ What the-" She started to speak.
My hand flew to the Cow Puncher and cranked the output to the highest setting. A quick tap to the back of the head, I could have them out like a light. There was a chance it''d backfire, have her scream, but she was already about to.
But before I could step out of the shadows though, something went wrong. The antlered woman stopped speaking, voice cutting off mid-way. She began to sway and wobble on her feet.
Without missing a beat, Yatsu bounded up the stairs and put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her. She remained standing, but I could tell there was something off about her. Such as not reacting to the giant that was currently, very loosely, restraining her. Yatsu turned half-way back down the stairs and motioned for Ren, who, in turn, quickly followed up the stairs, eyeing the deer woman as he passed. He moved behind cover with us, leaving only Yatsu in the open.
Yatsu waited until Ren was completely behind cover, before he began to move. Though I could tell, whatever he was doing was taxing. There was a tension in his face, the kind that comes from bearing a heavy load. It lasted as he released his grip on the woman. Not wasting a moment, he lumbered through the doorway of the second floor with the rest of us and took cover. As soon as he was, he relaxed, the tension leaving his face.
The woman steadied herself, looking around. I could hear her muttering to herself, sounding as though she''d just suddenly awoken. "What?... What was I¡ Where am I?"
She started down the stairs at a slow pace, scanning the plaster walls as she went. There was a long pause as we waited for her to move out of sight completely. We waited until her footsteps had faded completely before anyone said or did anything.
"¡" I looked at Yatsu. "What was that?"
"Semblance," Yatsu said, catching his breath. "I can affect people''s memories. Make them forget things for a short time."
"¡Oh," I said, nodding. "I can suddenly see why having you along was a good idea¡" I nodded towards Fox.
Fox smirked, nodding, before looking up to the ceiling. The smile faded slightly, before he looked at Yatsu.
"He says there''s four people in the room above us," Yatsu said. "Two on the stairs, two near the hall leading that way." Yatsu motioned across the room, leading to a corridor of actual apartments.
"That sounds right," Sun said, motioning with his hand. "I remember going down that way, and there being a bunch of rooms down there¡" He paused, thinking, before motioning to either side of the hall. "I think there were rooms for people to sleep on either side, a supply room, and then the map room was down at the far end of the hall."
"Ok, and of them, Fox said there were twenty that''d be willing to put up a fight. These four cover a fifth of that¡" I looked over at Fox. "How can you tell which ones are going to fight back?"
"Fox can see the way their Aura shifts," Yatsu said, cracking his neck. "It''s kind of like he can see some of their thoughts. Makes it easier to see who we might need to fight."
"¡Y''know, you two make this kind of work a lot easier, I gotta say." I shook my head. "I thought having extra people here would just make things trickier."
"Give us some credit, we''ve done stuff like this before," Yatsu said, shrugging. "Though this is a first."
I nodded, then pulled out Blood Nap and stuck it into the wall, surprising them. Pulling hard, I carved a rough outline of the floor above us into the plaster. I then marked it roughly in four places, the White Fang we knew were up there.
"Alright, game plan," I said. "Fox, I want you to mark out where most of the actual White Fangs are. Blake, Sun, you two will take the elevator up to the next floor and draw the attention of the four visible here." I motioned for everyone to gather around the map. As they gathered, I began laying things out for them. "You''ll take those two, while Ren and I deal with the two near the stairs. The objective is stealth, so try to avoid grabbing the others'' attention. Shouldn''t be too hard."
Fox began to mark out where he could see other White Fang waiting, head twitching back and forth to the ceiling. As he did, Yatsu spoke up. "What are me and Fox doing?"
"You''re going to hang back," I said, raising a hand to stop him as he tried to interrupt. "You''re both capable and have skills that are vital to this. But it''s because you''re capable that you''re playing rearguard. If you''re stuck in the heat of things, it''ll be easier for someone to get the drop on us or alert the others to what''s happening. Plus, a surprise attack is a lot more useful if people don''t see it coming. If we''ve got you, plus the crew in reserve outside, we''ll be good."Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Yatsu grimaced, but didn''t say anything. Tacit acceptance was still acceptance. With the way tonight was going, they''d have their chance at fighting yet. I watched as Fox plotted out the locations of the White Fang on the floor above us. Kept the plan of attack simple, focused. Keep their numbers small and off kilter. We could cleave through them before they had any idea what was happening. In theory. Practice was where things tended to get hung up.
I finished explaining the plan, and looked at everyone. "Questions?"
"Are you sure this''ll work?" Ren asked, eyeing the map made by myself and Fox. I had taken an extra moment to run up and down the hallway on our floor to better flesh it out. If basic architecture held true, it should''ve been relatively identical to the floor above in layout.
"No, not really," I told him. "Every time I make a plan, it goes out the window the moment it gets put into action. But that''s the risk of most things. If we don''t get this done though, there''s a very real chance a lot of people are going to get hurt. Knowing that, hoping it''ll work, and adapting when it doesn''t, is our only real choice."
Ren nodded, accepting the answer.
"If that''s it, then it''s go time," I said, looking at everyone. "Remember, it all goes to shit if we need to engage in open combat, but we''ve got the others outside waiting to back us up. Work quick, quiet, and don''t hesitate."
Everyone nodded, and we silently fell into motion. Ren and I moved out of the hallway and back into the stairwell, as Sun and Blake took the elevator. We waited a moment, as the cabin made its way down to us. As the doors opened, Fox motioned for us to move. Took it as a sign that the White Fang had noticed that the elevator was being used, and were paying attention to it. As soon as the doors closed between us and the elevator, Ren and I took to the stairs. Moving quickly, keeping our footsteps soft.
We rounded up to the landing and paused, scanning up to the next floor. I saw one of the White Fang pass by the doorway, moving to get a better view of the elevator as it continued to rise. He got just far enough out of sight, that both Ren and I could climb the rest of the way. We didn''t say anything as we took position on the next landing. Couldn''t chance the Fang''s sharper senses picking up on us here. We both knew the plan, we just needed to get the timing right. Looking in through the doorway, I could see the White Fang waiting at low ready. Seeming more confused about why the elevator was suddenly being used than cautious. Could be that they thought it was the deer woman realizing she''d forgotten something and coming back up. Technically she had forgotten something, but she wouldn''t be coming back up.
There was a chime and I heard the elevator doors open. I made sure the Cow Puncher was primed.
I heard someone speak, just out of view. "Who the-"
Ren and I rounded out of the corner at the same time Blake and Sun leapt out of the elevator. What followed was a tense moment that, to me, felt like an eternity. That moment when the fighting starts and the adrenaline kicks in. When suddenly fast doesn''t seem fast enough and going slow is an indescribable hell. We were on the Fang in a matter of seconds, but it felt like tens of them to me. Long enough that the Fang could''ve snapped back around and shot me in a blink.
Instead, it ended with the Cow Puncher planted in the back of my Fang''s head. A quick snap of electricity, and they collapsed forward, landing on their weapon. At the same time, Blake, Ren, and Sun connected with their respective Fang. Ren, like me, had it easy because he didn''t have his target facing him. He bolted in alongside me and slammed into his Fang with both his fists extended, one high, one low. The lower in the small of the Fang''s back, the higher one around the base of his skull. I don''t know what Ren did specifically, but it caused the Fang''s body to swell and ripple where he''d hit. Like disturbed water or a flag in the breeze. Whatever it was, more Aura chicanery likely, it instantly caused his target to collapse.
Blake took her Fang out in simple fashion. From what little I observed while taking down my Fang, she used her weapon''s hook form to disarm them, her weapon swinging out and lashing around their gun, ripping it from their grasp. Half a second later it came hurtling back at their head, and they hit the ground unmoving.
Sun¡
Sun summoned two glowing copies of himself, pantsed his target, swept his legs out from under him, and then ax-kicked him into the ground.
Points for creativity, but it felt a little over the top.
But it did the trick. Four Fang down, sixteen to go. Fifth of the way there.
"Alright, Fox and Yatsu will be up shortly," I said, creeping ahead. "Let''s pair off and get this done."
Sun and Blake nodded and started down the hallway ahead of me and Ren. The idea was that we''d split the hall in half between the four of us. Ren and me on one side, Sun and Blake on the other. Trouble was that the Fang weren''t split evenly, so we had to work around that. We decided that Blake and Sun would take the lion share. Largely because their Semblances would allow them to more quickly even the odds. Even if the fighting broke out, Ren and I would still be in position to keep the stragglers from joining in. Add Yatsu and Fox into the mix, and matters were smooth sailing. Or troubled water, depending.
The four of us moved down the hall in silence. Blake and Sun turned left into one of the rooms and shut the door behind them. Ren and I moved another door down and to the one on the right. First door we''d passed was one of the waiting rooms they''d had Sun in. Fox could tell from judging the Auras inside. Instead, the room Ren and I moved into had at least three people waiting inside. Though as Ren cracked the door, I felt that ''waiting'' wasn''t the right description. The apartment beyond was small and cramped, made more so that way by the piles of boxes and weapons crates. Not to mention the bulging waste bags of debris, courtesy of a wall they''d clearly taken down. I''d no idea when workers had been in the building last. They''d probably be pissed to see these jackasses had come in and knocked it down. But the three Fang were in the midst of clean-up, stashing the weapons back into the crates. Two of them were handling the weapons, guns, and swords. The third had been handed the tedious task of reloading magazines. Given all the loose ammunition around, he was having a hell of a time.
I tapped the filter at the front of my mask, redundantly reminding Ren to remain silent. Then the two of us began to creep forward. For the moment, while they were busy with their work, their backs were turned to us. One of us needed to be able to take out someone fast enough to deal with the third. I had the Cow Puncher locked at max output, and I was careful about where I moved my arm. I knew using it like that was a gamble. The weapon had survived its initial field test the previous night, but that didn''t change it was a Jury Rigged prototype. All it would take was one faulty wire or loose connection for it to stop working or, worse, self-destruct.
Considering it was lashed to my arm, that wouldn''t be good for me.
As we began to close in on the three of them, Ren drew out his pistol-knives, their curved blades hanging down from the muzzles like pointed teeth.
We got as close as we dared, and with a nod, leapt into action. I grabbed the one reloading the ammo from behind and clasped a hand over his mouth. My other hand repeated its earlier action, sending high-voltage electricity through the back of the Fang''s head. As he tensed in my grasp, Ren leapt through air, delivering a butterfly-kick to the side of one of the Fang''s head. While this felled them almost instantly, it did nothing to their friend.
The remaining Fang spun on us in confusion as I released his one friend, who fell limp to the floor.
Seamlessly, Ren slashed with his pistol, the knife hooking onto their hood and dragging them to the side. Consequently, towards me.
I shoved their friend down and sprang forward, clocking them in the head with the Cow Puncher. This time wasn''t as clean. They''d started to say something, and it devolved into a strangled string of babbling and screaming as the electricity hit. I let it run a few seconds longer than I probably needed to, just to be safe.
Seven, thirteen.
There was a sound of sudden footsteps, coming from the hole in the wall. It was hard to tell if it was only one set or more, but they were coming. I could tell Ren heard them too, by the way he suddenly moved into cover. A move I might agree with under most other circumstances. Unfortunately, while we could hide, the three incapacitated bodies couldn''t, which defeated the purpose of trying to keep quiet.
As the footsteps approached the hole in the wall, I grabbed one of the swords off the ground.
A White Fang appeared in the hole.
I twisted, throwing the sword.
The sword buried itself into the drywall next to the Fang. The pommel struck into the wall and stayed stuck, leaving the blade jutting out. It did, at least, draw the Fang''s attention off us momentarily. That brief instant of wondering ''Is that a sword? Did I get a sword thrown at me?''.
Couldn''t always hit my mark.
But, since they weren''t paying attention, Ren lunged at them, pistol-whipping them in the head. When the initial whipping didn''t put them down, Ren kicked him in the stomach, doubling them over. He then hooked the White Fang, and half dragged, half-spun him out of the way. The Fang tumbled to the floor.
I bolted forward and kicked him in the head for good measure.
Now near the hole, I could peer into the room it had been used to haphazardly conjoin. It was a smaller room, practically just a closet. It was warm, humid, and stank like someone spent too much time in it.
It also had banks of monitors, computers, Scrolls, and diagrams scattered about.
Plus another two White Fang, who were very quickly trying to arm themselves.
I rushed into the tight room and punched the closest one in the face with the Cow Puncher. Unfortunately, with our element of surprise gone, the effect was more muted. The electric shock still carried through, but the incapacitation didn''t stick like I''d hoped it would, at most buying me a moment.
The second Fang drew a short sword from his side and swung at me, as Ren rushed him. He clambered over a table and planted his boot into the chest of the second Fang, making his strike fall short.
The first Fang struggled for a moment, recovering. He tried to force himself through his initial plan, trying to draw a pistol from his side. My off-hand swept down and slapped his hand off the weapon. I followed by pushing forward and shoving into him, keeping him off kilter. He stumbled back into one of the tables, and I brought my fist down on him in a hammer blow. It connected, and he only stayed off the floor by virtue of the table.
The second Fang, seeing the numbers turning, twisted to the side and took a pair of wild swings at Ren. The first only narrowly missed Ren, but he caught the second in the crook of his pistol-knife. He angled his wrist, locking the two weapons together, before twisting the weapon in his grasp. It forced the Fang to either release the sword or turn with it. When he failed to let it go it arched him forward, and widened his stance to keep balance.
I kicked the Fang''s knee in, and then cracked him in the back of the head with the Cow Puncher, which I could feel beginning to pick up something of a wiggle in the mounting. As I spun to kick the first Fang in the face, just to be safe, I cut the power to the Puncher and let it collapse back into storage. If it was going to break, I''d prefer it not be in the middle of a fight.
Ten, ten. Halfway there.
But we''d had the lighter load.
Ren and I slipped back out into the hall through a door in the small room. About the time we did, the door across from us burst outward, sending another White Fang sprawling into the hall. He was followed by one of Sun''s glowing copies, the first time I''d actually seen one, who landed on them with both feet.
Another moment passed, and the copy faded into a golden glow. Both Sun and Blake stepped out of the opposing room after it, dusting themselves off. A quick peer passed them into the room showed at least one of the Fang cratered into a wall, so suffice to say they''d done their part.
If Fox was accurate, which he had been so far, then that would mean there were only two people left. Two we''d need to concern ourselves with anyway.
Calmly, we all quietly made our way down the hall to the final room. Knowing there were only two people left to worry about, I let Sun kick the door open and the four of us rushed in.
We were treated to the sight of a room full of maps and pictures, spider-webbed and collaged throughout the room. All more or less intact. The same could not be said for the two remaining White Fang who lay folded on the ground like yesterday''s laundry.
Fox and Yatsu loomed over them, smirking as they noticed entering the room.
"¡ What?" Yatsu asked. "You didn''t think you were going to have all the fun, did you?"
¡
After taking a second to toss all the White Fang off to the side, I messaged Ruby to bring everyone in. They found their way up to the third floor quickly, ignoring the pile of unconscious bodies, and joined us in the map room. There were a few of the initiates who realized what was happening, and decided to bolt. We didn''t stop them. With everything else going on we didn''t have time to waste trying to.
"You all made this significantly faster than it normally is," I said. "If it were actually feasible, I''d roll out with a team like this more often."
"Well you could," Ruby needled. "You''d just have to ask."
"Didn''t realize you could suddenly see through walls," I said snidely, I then turned to Sun. "Alright, so, we''re here. What''d you see that was so important you couldn''t just tell us?"
"Uhh¡" Sun intoned, before motioning to the entire room, as though that was supposed to be an answer. "Is this not enough?"
"Not if you can''t explain all of it," I said, studying the pictures. "Words, Sun."
"No, I¡ I think I see what he''s trying to say," Weiss cut in, scanning the walls and connections. "They''re¡ all branches." She pointed to one of the pictures, and I followed her finger. It pointed to one picture that all of the others seemed to grow out from. It depicted a massive stone building, an old one. In some way it reminded me of the old Mormon Fort in Freeside. That was the closest I''d ever come to what I believed the picture was supposed to be of: a castle. It was built atop a hillside, cut into it really. A free way swooped around it, prodding in like massive veins, smaller roads leading down from the hillside.
"That''s Kohl''s Gate!" Ruby gasped, confirming that for me.
My eyes traced back along the trails of papers, maps and photos. Each one seemed to lead back to a building of some kind or another¡ No, one kind. Judging by the sparse signage, they were all precincts. All with some connection to the prison. I looked down at my Pip-Boy, studying the map, and the documents around the room. Everything came into focus as I did.
"These must be the precincts closest to the prison," I said, motioning around the room. I closely studied some of the documents. "Transfer orders, prisoner papers, shift changes¡"
"But I didn''t get anything for Kohl''s Gate," Sun said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "They wanted me to run to one of the other places instead."
"Perhaps they were waiting for you to come back?" Penny offered, scanning every paper in the room meticulously.
"They still wanted you to drop off information, yeah?" Velvet asked. "Maybe they needed someone to get out?"
"Or maybe they wanted everyone out so they could throw a party?" Coco offered.
"Be serious," Weiss snipped. "Whatever they''re doing, it could happen any minute."
"Then maybe we should be out there instead of in here," Coco countered, pointing to the pictures. "Seems pretty simple. Pick a place and go, anything''s bound to help."
"But why these places specifically, why Kohl''s Gate?" Ruby asked.
The room fell silent as we all puzzled over what it meant. All the pieces were in front of us, we just hadn''t put it all together yet. Clearly the precincts were all connect to Kohl''s Gate somehow, the documents showed it. They knew what prisoners were where. They knew when the guards changed shifts. They had all they needed to spring every one of their people from the smaller precincts, why go for Kohl''s Gate? If they were going for Kohl''s Gate why, then, were they wasting time on the smaller places?
It was all connected.
But how?
"Maybe they need a lot of help for what they''re doing?" Nora chirped. " I mean, we need a lot of help for what we''re doing, and we''re not supposed to all be together tonight, right?... Maybe it''s a plan?"
"¡ Sonnuva bitch," I said, as the wheels began to turn, finally. "That''s exactly what it is."
"What?" Nora asked.
"The precincts," I said, motioning to the pictures, tracing them back to the picture of the prison "These precincts, they''re all in close proximity to Kohl''s Gate. They''d be the first ones called to provide support. It''d take longer for the others, or even Beacon to respond¡" I felt the sudden urge to kick myself. "I''ve spent the past two weeks helping stuff them full of people. If they all get word to riot at once-"
"The police will be tied up for the rest of the night," Ruby said, realizing what I was getting at.
"Leaving Kohl''s Gate on its own," I said. "Whatever they''d want to do, they''d only have to deal with the usual staff until the Huntsmen showed up, and that could take an hour, minimum. Not counting if they knock out communication."
"They could free everyone," Coco said, scowl evident in her voice. "And there''s a lot of scumbags in there."
"But why?" I asked, shaking my head. "I''ve seen these guys shoot each other soon as help themselves. Why take the risk? There''s no way they could move the Dust in that time, and the riot alone wouldn''t be enough to do more than kick a hornet''s nest."
"Well it is an arsenal," Velvet said. "They could be going after that?"
"¡ What?" I asked, feeling a chill roll up my spine as I turned towards Velvet. She looked at me, confused.
"I told you earlier, it was an arsenal during the Great War," She explained. "They built the prison around it, but there''s still an Arsenal attached to the castle."
"¡ An arsenal?" I asked, repeating her words in my head. "As in, ''we store our artillery, explosives, and guns here'' arsenal?"
"Vehicles as well," Velvet said. A moment after she said that, the penny dropped for her as well. "Oh¡ Oh no."
"The main service stations for most of Vale''s Bullhead fleet are located in both Beacon and Kohl''s Gate. Along with a secondary field located on Patch," Penny explained, tilting her head curiously. "It''s possible that could be their main interest, if they need to get the Dust out of Vale."
"The weapons and munitions would be a necessary bonus after everything they''ve lost," I said, head whipping around the room. "They''re taking everything they''ve been handed and trying to turn it back around."
Almost as soon as I''d said the words, my Pip-Boy chimed. I''d already had it lifted, so it wasn''t hard to see
- Complete: Investigate the apartment for more information.
- Objective: Warn Vale Authorities to the danger.
Before I could even say or do anything though, Jaune was already in motion. "Then we need to stop them!" he said, pulling out his Scroll. "Everyone call a precinct, we need to warn-"
A sound began to emanate through the wall of the apartment, practically vibrating them. It made my blood turn to ice and my stomach dance. A single, howling note, rising and falling in pitch. Carried out in a steady rhythm.
A raid siren.
"That''s the Kingdom-wide alert system," Yang said. "Why-"
"It''s started," I said, feeling my fists begin to ball. I ran to the nearest window and smashed it open. The sound was clear, passing through the opening as I leaned to look outside.
Far off in the distance, I could see a structure glowing against the evening skyline.
A castle.
Kohl''s Gate.
Between us and them, miles of city, and the steady wail of the siren.
My Pip-Boy chimed.
- Objective Failed: Warn Vale Authorities to the Danger.
- Objective: Run damage control.
I leaned back into the apartment. "We''re too late. They''re already at the prison."
A tense silence fell over everyone as they began exchanging looks. We were officially in the fire now, and someone was about to dump gasoline on it.
"What do we do?" Ren asked, eyes scanning the floor, troubled.
"I don''t know," I said, gripping the window molding hard enough I could hear it creaking under my grip. "There''s too many places for us to get to. Not enough time to stop anything. All we can do is run damage control now. Try to limit what we can."
"¡ Mmm, nah," Ruby said.
I felt my brow crease and I turned to look at her over my shoulder. The others were looking at her too, as Ruby shook her head. Her face set in the serious way a puppy stares down the vacuum cleaner. Not a clue what it''s looking at, but it''s loud, scary, and looking for a fight.
"¡ The fuck you mean ''Nah''?" I asked. "This isn''t a yes or no question."
"Yes it is," Ruby said, puffing her chest out. "If it''s about giving up on trying to stop this, then: Nope. Nuh uh. Not happening, sorry, find some other girl''s time to waste."
"Ruby," Yang started.
"We can''t stop them from attacking the Precincts," Ruby said, standing her ground. "But we know where the real fight''s going to be. If we go there, we can at least try to help. Maybe we can''t change what''s happening now, but what if we can stop them from getting what they want?"
"That''s dangerous, kid," Coco said, grimacing. "We get caught by the police, there''s a real chance that we could all get kicked out of Beacon. The police don''t like vigilantes."
''Oh so now you''re getting cold feet?''
"But if we do nothing, then what?" Ruby asked. "They walk away with everything, and then there''s more people we have to fight!" She kicked the ground. "I mean, I like fighting, but come on!"
"What about Atlas?" I asked. "What''re the odds they offer assistance?"
"There''s a chance they might get approved," Penny answered. "But there''s a number of channels they would need to go through before being allowed to offer assistance. If this were a Grimm incursion, things would be different."
"So it would be just us," I said. "In all likelihood, we will get caught too. We''re running into the lion''s den, and even if the police don''t try to take us down alongside the White Fang, there''s nothing stopping them from trying to cuff us after the fact," I shrugged. "Alternatively, we all turn away now, wash our hands and try better next time."
"Six!" Ruby gasped.
"You want to fight Ruby," I clarified. "It''s a risk you''re willing to take." I then motioned to everyone else. "You can''t expect the rest of us to say we''re on board without considering what''s at stake."
"I''ll help!" Penny chimed.
"Aside from Penny," I sighed. "¡ This is real, Ruby. Every second we waste here talking, things are getting worse. We''d have to get across town, fight our way through the prison, the inmates, probably the guards, and the White Fang. All while hoping we can keep them from taking whatever they want¡" I shook my head again. "Those are long odds Ruby. You can''t expect everyone to just jump onboard with something that blatantly reckless."
"I would," Sun said, flourishing out his weapon, a staff that looked to be completely composed of four sawn-off lever shotguns. "I mean, I came this far."
"Never said we wouldn''t help either," Coco added, smirking. Though I noted Fox didn''t seem as enthused about the notion.
"And you know we''re helping," Weiss said, rolling her eyes. "And I doubt Nora would let anyone on JNPR miss this."
"Are you kidding? ''Course not!" Nora squawked. "I mean, I''ll be homeless again if we get caught, but it''ll be worth it!"
I tried to ignore the subdued look of panic in her eyes as she mentioned being homeless. Didn''t need to worry about that now, enough on our plate.
"What else are we supposed to do?" Jaune asked, confused. "I mean, that''s the whole point of being here, why give up now?"
"People already know what we look like, Six," Ruby said. "We can either ignore this, or we can try to do something about it. I wanna do something."
I looked at the fourteen people crowding the room with me. It didn''t take a genius to see they were all serious about this. Consequences or not, they were in.
So that was that.
Nothing to be surprised about either.
We all knew where we stood.
Once more, my Pip-Boy chimed
- (Optional): Prevent the White Fang from succeeding.
"¡ Alright, guess we''re doing this then," I said, looking outside. "But we need to get across town, fast."
"That¡ will be a problem," Ren said, scratching his chin. "All the airships would''ve stopped running, and the emergency siren will keep them grounded. We''re going to need another way."
I looked back out the window and down to the street. The top level of the parking garage was visible.
"¡ Anyone else know how to drive?"
Prison in the Hills
My experience with operating vehicles is limited, and that is still significantly more than almost anyone else in the Mojave, and even parts of the west coast, can say. The NCR had some functioning vehicles, outside of the Vertibirds, but you weren''t likely to see most of them in the Mojave. The only groups that came to mind in the Mojave with that kind of Mobility were the Khans and, later, the Boomers with the Lady. Between them though, the Khans actually managed a small collection of ground vehicles, which they reserved solely for large movements. I can recall the first time I saw them all in motion: after the second battle for the Dam, when they moved en masse out of the Mojave, eastward. They had an array of vehicles that spanned everything from motorcycles and pick-up trucks to battle buses and highway patrol cars. None in what could be called ''mint'' condition, but each maintained enough to practically fly across the desert flats and over hills of dust and dirt.
Watching them leave was a reminder of how much faster the Old World had moved. Something I only ever got a taste of when I eventually persuaded Raul into helping me repair a motorcycle.
As we tore down the streets of Vale, I was reminded how frightening, and addictive, that speed was.
Unfortunately, it wasn''t an addiction that the others shared, as evidenced by some of the noises they made as I cut a hard left down a side street.
"Are you trying to get us killed!?" Weiss shrieked.
"I told you to strap onto something!" I shot back, hands white knuckled on the wheel. "I said this was my first-" I cut off as I pulled us into a tight swerve back onto a main road. "-time driving a car!"
The wheel rattled slightly in my hands as we hit a rough stretch of pavement, but momentum carried us through it. What it wouldn''t have carried us through was the traffic surrounding us, if I had the bad luck to crash into any of it. We were still in the early parts of the evening, so commuters and night-owls were still out on the street. Trying to avoid them, while operating a vehicle both alien and much larger than any I was used to was a challenge all its own, and that''s without having to account that I had the throttle bottomed out against the floor as often as possible.
It wasn''t by choice either. Most vehicles the size I was driving weren''t built to comfortably carry fifteen people. Nothing short of a bus probably was.
Unfortunately, we only had panel vans to work with.
With the sirens wailing through the night air, and more echoing in the distance, we had to put things in motion quickly. We ran back down to street level and dipped into the parking garage next door, where the White Fang had been stashing their vehicles. We''d sadly wasted time climbing to the upper level to find a van we''d thought would be able to handle all of us, not helped by the fact that there was ultimately only one vehicle that could, and no one else was up to driving. Or up to learning on the fly.
The van wasn''t anything special, or even comfortable. It was a barebones utility vehicle, barely rideable. Barring the driver''s and front passenger seat, the van was open cargo space. More so after we dumped everything not needed out of the back. Despite that, it didn''t change that fitting eight people would''ve been a tight squeeze, much less fourteen, accounting for someone riding shotgun with me up front.
But we managed it as quickly, if uncomfortably, as we could make it happen. The result was cramped, uncomfortably close, and there might have been a few people piled atop one another. It was a workable result though.
Which had left us with the problem of who was driving.
Sadly, I was one of three people in the group who had any clue how to drive. But Yang wasn''t in the mood to try and drive everyone across town, and Jaune¡ We all agreed driving a tractor didn''t qualify.
So that left me. Which also came with the bonus that I was going to ignore every traffic law that might have slowed us down. Plus the negative that I''d never known any of them to begin with.
Though I was pretty sure I wasn''t supposed to blow through a crosswalk with people in it.
I did anyway, but I at least made sure not to hit anyone
"Seriously kid?" Coco asked from the passenger''s seat next to me, watching as we blew past a pair of bewildered pedestrians likely out on a date.
"Do you know how to drive?" I asked, stomping the brakes as we came to another intersection, this one with a turning lane, cutting into the crossroads with a squeal of tires and blaring horns. "Stow it, I''m doing my best, haven''t exactly had time to practice."
"No kidding?" Coco asked, shooting me an annoyed look. "Couldn''t have figured that out from how you didn''t know what an automatic transmission was."
"Which are actually stupid convenient," I said, the engine sluggishly whining to build speed under all of our weight. "I''d hate to be trying to do this while grinding gears."
"I hate that we''re doing this at all!" Weiss called from the back, right as I hit a pothole. "BE CAREFUL!"
"Trying!" I shot back, looking at all the pedestrians that were still out. The few I could lay eyes on for more than a moment or two looked confused and worried. Whether at us or the sirens, I had no idea. Outside that last intersection, traffic had been getting lighter too. Some people seemed to be getting the picture that being out on the streets tonight wasn''t a good idea. Even if things weren''t going to fall apart at Kohl''s Gate, there was a real chance that the White Fang were about to be roving the streets. Them and whoever else the Kingdom''s laws deemed a criminal. Which probably included us, oddly. "You''d think these people would be paying attention to a kingdom wide alert like this." I said, idly.
"There''re a number of shelters around Vale in case of emergency," Velvet said. "On the off chance you can''t get home you''re supposed to calmly make your way to them. Emphasis on calm."
"Right, because Grimm are attracted to the smell of fear and stress," I grumbled. "Which you''re totally not going to get when you hear sirens blaring in the middle of the night."
"Eh, it''s more like early evening," Nora chirped.
"Seven-fifty-nine PM specifically," Penny added.
"Semantics," I said, applying the brake as we approached another crossroads, and a traffic light. Another block down I could see the elevated roads of a freeway system. The fast way to get through the city. "We hop on that, you think we''ll get to Kohl''s Gate faster?"
"Unless you want to keep cutting through backstreets, yeah," Coco said, before gesturing ahead of us. "There''s an on-ramp up ahead on the right. Cut onto it, should take us close enough to the city limits."
"Still taking too much time," I said, impatiently eyeing the light in front of us.
As if to emphasize the point, a half dozen police cruisers ripped through the crossroads directly in front of us, going so fast they were practically a blur of lights and sound.
Three seconds later, the light changed and I slammed on the accelerator. The tires squealed as inertia forced into a slower launch, but we sped through the crossroads and up the block. The lane widened, the on-ramp rising sharply out of the ground, curving up to the freeway. I could hear the van whining as I cut hard into the turn. It didn''t want to make the climb, but managed to handle the steep grade up onto the freeway. The elevated roadway was busier than the lower streets had been, but not enough to be any real challenge. Everything was smoother up there, better maintained and balanced. Important, when you''re a couple hundred feet off the ground. Vegas had freeways like this that were still standing, even centuries later. I''d wondered, when I''d had my motorcycle, what it had been like to fly down them in their prime.
Now I was getting that question answered, but didn''t have the time to enjoy any of it.
Off in the distance, I could see Kohl''s Gate growing closer. I cut the van onto the main road and floored it.
"I''d say we''re maybe a half hour out, minimum," I told everyone, eyeing the speedometer, then the mirrors as a semi-truck hauled-ass past us, horn blaring the whole way. "Any questions on how this is going to go down?"
"A lot, yeah," Jaune said from the back. "It doesn''t seem like this is going to go like we hope it will."
"It rarely does," I told him, eyeing the road ahead.
"Get used to it kids, that''s normal," Coco said. "Whatever we run into, we''re going to have to blow through it."
"Shot in the dark, but does anybody know what the prison''s layout is?" I asked. "It''d help to know our way around."
Predictably, and unfortunately, I was answered by a chorus of no''s. Even from Penny, who I was certain probably did, but knew not to say anything. That girl had access to more knowledge than she probably should have.
"Figures," I said, checking the mirrors. "¡ We''re going to need to get to the outer wall, to start. Which means we probably have to fight past any Fang that''re assaulting from the outside. That shouldn''t be a problem, as long as the police doesn''t start shooting at us by mistake. Always a chance, firefights can be chaotic enough on their own."
"What do we do from there?" Sun asked.
"I think we''ll need to split up," Ruby said, sounding like she was trying to squeeze, literally, into the conversation. "The White Fang''s going to have a lot of stuff going on, we can''t all be together if we want to stop it."
"Divide and conquer," I agreed. "We''ll probably need a group that can help hold the line outside. It''s once we''re inside that''s going to be a problem."
"They''re going to be going after the arsenal, and releasing prisoners," Blake said l. "That''s at least two things, not counting anything else they could be doing."
"Blocking communications, rioting, attempting to breach the prison''s armory¡" I offered. "And they''d definitely be looking to take control of whatever airfield might be attached. Without it, this whole thing will be a bust for them. No plan for escape makes this a suicide run."
"Kinda like what we''re doing."," Yatsu noted.
"¡ Yeah," I nodded. "So don''t nobody pull punches or anything while we''re in there. If you need to take people down, do it. There''s more at stake tonight than we should be gambling with."
"We''ll be careful, you don''t need to tell us that," Nora chirped.
"That''s not what I''m trying to tell you," I said, letting off the gas slightly as we banked slightly into a turn. "I know you can all hold your own. This isn''t about telling you to be careful."
"Then what is it?" Jaune asked.
I could see Coco eyeing me curiously from the passenger seat. I had no idea what kind of looks everyone else was giving me, if they were giving one at all. They''d all made it clear they weren''t going to judge me for what I''d done in the wasteland, even not knowing most of it. I wasn''t inclined to share the grisly details either, seeing as I didn''t like lingering on them either.
But reality isn''t so kind.
"¡ There''s a real chance that you''re all going to see things tonight, that you''re not going to be ready for," I explained, looking ahead at the road flying past us. "A chance that you''ll have to do things you''re not prepared for¡ More than a chance." I paused again and I could feel the air in the van getting heavy. Not helped by the way we were all crammed in there. All those bodies in such a tight space made the already soupy night air feel like swimming in a tepid pool. It made me feel worse for having to have this conversation now. But it needed to be had, even if it accomplished nothing. "I''m saying¡ if it''s a matter of life and death: don''t hesitate. There''s already too much at risk tonight."
"Dude¡" Sun said.
"It''s not going to be like that Six-" Ruby started to say.
"No, it is, Ruby. That''s why I need you all to listen," I said, eyes locked ahead. "This? What we''re about to do right now? All the training in the world can''t prep you for it. We''re not fighting things like the Grimm, or wild animals, things that can''t be reasoned with. We''re fighting people, and worse. Some of them can understand when it''s time to stop fighting¡ But some won''t. Some will keep going because they have already blown past the reasoning stage. They''re dead set on what they''re doing, and short of dropping dead, there''s no changing their minds. Determination goes both ways, and in a contest of the two, the winner isn''t always the one with more of it. Sometimes it''s just the person who knew enough to remove what would slow them down first." I kept my eyes locked ahead, even as they briefly drifted towards Kohl''s Gate, still glowing like some great distant fire. For a brief moment, I thought of the NCRCF, not far from Goodsprings. As much a prison camp as an actual prison. All the damage that had been caused by a host of people''s carelessness.
It almost felt like watching history repeat, and it felt like a knife in my chest.
"¡Kid''s right," Coco said after a moment, easing back into her chair. "We all need to be careful in there¡ if people need to go¡ We''ll help pack their bags."
"But that doesn''t mean we need to kill people!" Ruby said from the back. It sounded like she was squirming to get closer. "Six, we''re not going to judge you for doing what you needed to do to survive and get here. But¡ we can''t just¡"
Before I could say anything, Coco carried the conversation. It went in a way I hadn''t expected.
"You know, they don''t start prepping you for service until second year?" Coco asked, not expecting an answer. "You ever wonder why they don''t send you out on actual field missions until you get here? Sure, they put you out on recon and scouting missions, but they don''t send you to actually help people¡" Coco blew out a steady breath and adjusted her sunglasses. An odd facet, seeing as she was wearing them despite it now being dark out. "You know why, tiny?"
Ruby didn''t answer, no one did. Frankly, I wanted to hear this too. Supposedly we were going to start field missions as part of the curriculum soon, but it was a few weeks off yet. It seemed like background noise now, with everything that had been happening.
"It''s because they want you to know what''s at stake," Coco said. "Come second year, you have to start taking a psychology course with Professor Oobleck. It covers trying to help people in the middle of a crisis. What goes on inside their head, understanding what goes on inside of your head¡" Coco took her sunglasses off, wistfully. "Part of that covers having to kill people. And what comes with that."
There was another silence as we continued down the highway, the sound of the tires howling against the asphalt as we carried on our way. A continuous drone that rang in my ears like a scream. It was the only thing I could hear, until Penny broke the silence.
"Atlas Academy Educational Doctrine states that in the event of war, military service is compulsory," Penny said. "All Huntsmen, whether in training or graduated, are to return to Atlas for proper enlistment."
"Vale is the same way," Velvet said. "I think all Kingdoms are. It''s been like that ever since the Great War ended."
"So they prep you in case it happens," Coco continued. "¡ But it''s not about being prepared for war anymore. Now they teach you about it so you can be prepared for when the trouble isn''t something like the Grimm. When it''s bandits, raiders, assassins, the dirty part of the job that comes with protecting humanity¡" Coco cleaned her glasses with a sleeve. For how impassive and flippant Coco was most of the time, looking at her, that was the closest I''d ever seen her to something like introspective. "They make you take the classes so you know how to cope. Be ready to help, no matter what happens."
"¡ Have you guys ever had to?" I asked.
Coco shook her head and pulled her sunglasses back on. "No. There''s always a chance it''ll happen. But we''ve been lucky."
I nodded, eyes slipping back to the road.
"¡ Judging by how this conversation''s gone kid, I guess you have?" Coco asked.
There was much I could say to that. So for a stretch, I didn''t. What was I supposed to say? My teammates, my friends, they all knew about my origins by then. They understood where I came from, things weren''t always about laws and public order. Sometimes it was just about trying to make it to the next sunrise. To somebody who didn''t know that, I''d just sound like a psychopath¡
But, they''d had to go through Oobleck''s classes. Try to understand the harsh reality of this work.
It seemed like they understood it.
"¡ Before coming to Vale, I had to spend a long time making my own way," I said, cherry picking. "I couldn''t be choosy about what I did. A guy''s gotta eat, and work related to the words ''honest'' and ''safe'' doesn''t always pay well¡ Even when it does, you can''t account for everybody trying to be upstanding." My hand relaxed on the wheel, as I tried to thread it evenly through my grasp, keep the van going straight. "I worked a lot of different jobs. A lot of them dangerous. Mercenary. Security. Bodyguard."
"Courier," Yatsu intoned, and I swear I thought it was Ulysses in the back for a moment. It was enough for me to let it slide.
"Bounty hunter¡" I felt a flare of pain in my hands. "I tried as often as I could to settle trouble peacefully. Convince people to politely go the other way, when they''d listen¡ Do what I had to when it failed. Because where reason fails, violence follows. Always." I let a moment pass again as I tried to find the words. "There''s reasons I don''t talk to you guys about the things I did before coming to Beacon. They''re in large part why they have psychology courses for the second years. Because there really are times where you just don''t have a choice."
"But it doesn''t always have to end that way," Ruby said, almost defiantly, but neither cold nor unkind. "You said it yourself, There were times you didn''t have to¡ y''know."
"And I won''t argue that," I said. "Because I''m not saying this to try and get you all to think ''hey: Murder is great! Let''s go paint the town red!''. Because I know that''d be a lie. Violence and death aren''t always the answer. But that doesn''t mean they aren''t sometimes a necessary one. It''s got nothing to do with morality and everything to do with a simple question: If someone is looking to do harm to you or someone else, and they refuse to stop, who dies first?" I let out a heavy breath. "The moment you take to decide that, it could already be too late."
More silence. But I could see Coco nodding solemnly.
"I don''t want any of you to have to kill anyone," I said. "I don''t want that to be something that weighs any of you down¡ But if you need to, to save someone else, to save yourselves? Take the shot. I care more about you people currently sitting back there in the peanut gallery than I do anyone locked up in that man-made mountain."
"Even me?" Sun asked quizzically.
"Yes, even you, Sun." I told. "You still owe me-"
"Yeah, yeah, dry cleaning," he said. "Heard you the first time."
"So take care of yourselves. All of you," I said. "If you don''t, I''m gonna slap each of you upside the head."
"¡Well, that was¡ almost touching," Weiss said snidely. "¡ But I guess I understand. As crazy as you all make me, I wouldn''t want any of you getting hurt either."
"We like you too, snowflake." Nora chirped, and I swear I could hear a smile in her voice. "And don''t you worry Six-y, we''re all gonna be ok. We''ve all got each other."
"And me!" Penny chimed.
"And my sword," And Yatsu chuckled.
"And my spear," Pyrrha added.
"And my scythe!" Ruby cheered.
"¡" My brow furrowed. "I get the feeling you''re all making a joke I don''t understand."
"Classic movie series, if you''re a nerd," Coco said. "You should watch them sometime."
"They were books too," Weiss and Velvet muttered at the same time.
I just shook my head, and kept my eyes on the road ahead. Despite the easy way they were all trying to speak, I could tell something in the air had changed. The reality of what was about to happen was settling in on all of them. We were all about to do something dangerous in ways that they might not be prepared for. The consequences of it, real. Come what may, we were charging headlong towards it. I could only hope everyone was ready, or able to make themselves so. I''d made that mistake too many times. I didn''t want to see anyone else go through it.
Around that point, I could tell my mood was beginning to sour. So I did the only thing I could think to do, and flipped the radio on. The van had one built into the console. It immediately tuned into whatever station had been on last.
(BGM: ''Too Gone Too Long'', Randy Travis)
The music crackled to life through the speaker. It was a jaunty tune, upbeat. Seemed to be mostly of an acoustic guitar, and the singer''s voice was smooth. Definitely a guy, bit of a croon to his voice that mixed with a twang I couldn''t place, but felt strangely at home with. The song itself wasn''t necessarily a positive one, but it wasn''t bad either. At least, I thought it wasn''t. Better than getting sucker punched by Johnny Guitar.
Coco on the other hand looked at the radio as the music began to play. Then slowly up to me like I''d picked a bunch of static and my crazy had mistaken it for a classic.
"¡You''re joking right?" Coco asked. "We''re about to storm a castle, and you expect to pump us up with country music?"
''This is country music?''
I shrugged. "I just wanted to listen to something. Frankly, I like it."
"¡"
Coco reached out and changed the station.
"Oi," I said.
"Co-pilot gets radio privileges," she shot back, fiddling with the dial until she settled onto a radio station.
(BGM: ''A Thousand Miles'', Vanessa Carlton)
I looked at the radio in confusion, then Coco. The song wasn''t immediately offensive but more alien than more usual tastes. Piano, accompanied by drums in a higher key. It was a female singer this time, a rather pleasant voice to her. I couldn''t help but feel there was something ironic to the lyrics as the song began to play. It likely wouldn''t have been a bad song, just not to my taste. But it was foreign enough to my usual fare that I couldn''t help but feel an immediate disconnect. Coco just gave me a smug smile. "It works."
"¡" I slapped the radio back to the country station.
Then Coco slapped it back to the trash station. Which necessitated I respond in kind. Then she did it again, and I slapped her hand, then she slapped mine and the fight for the radio began in earnest.
"Hey! I know a better station!" Ruby said.
There was a mechanical sound, and the butt of Ruby''s scythe shot out towards the front of the cab. It flew just over our hands connecting with the radio.
Promptly spearing it with the spike butt cap, killing the radio in a crackle of static and fried electronics.
"¡ Oops," Ruby squeaked, a moment later.
Coco sighed. "Great¡ oh well, better silence than that."
"Hm," I hummed, returning my full attention to the road.
I then reached over to my Pip-Boy and turned on the radio, tuning it back to the country station. A smirk plastered on my face as Coco glared at me from the passenger''s seat.
Small victories.
¡
After almost rocketing off the freeway while looking for the exit ramp, our race across the city came to a close. We were at the outer limits of the city, facing towards the southeast. It straddled the line between the city proper and the agricultural district the kingdom kept at its furthest reach. As we came down off the freeway, I could see the land stretch for miles, falling off into forest and mountainous rises in the distance. If my knowledge from Oobleck''s classes was right, the mountains helped form a part of Vale''s security. A natural land barrier that the Grimm couldn''t easily pass through. Disrupted whatever their migration paths might be.
But between the mountains, forests, plains, and even the tilled and farmed fields stood one more defense. It jutted from the ground on a hilltop, a highpoint for miles around. In a time of war, like when it would''ve been established, necessary for observation. Make it so, if anyone is coming past your borders, they have to go through you, one way or another.
Kohl''s Gate was what had sprang out of that hilltop.
Even at a distance I could see the structure as it was, a castle. My experience with them was limited, the closest I could come to the old concept of them was the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside. Going by the technical definition, The Strip and the 38 would be a more contemporary definition of what I knew, even if they didn''t fit the look of a proper castle. The same could be said of McCarran, or the Fort.
Kohl''s Gate, however, was a castle. Built during a time when knights on horseback fought beside machine guns and artillery. As strange as that idea was to wrap my head around. Kohl''s Gate had clearly been caught in that transition, and married the two. A massive structure, broken up and tiered into three sections, from the angle we could see. At its highest point, it must''ve been about five stories tall, mortared stone and parapets. Quickly cutting down to a wider section only three stories tall, each corner marked with sentry towers. Then, a wall, maybe two stories tall, that swept away from the castle. Flags and banners representing the Kingdom of Vale hung from the wall and whipped from flag poles, symbolized by a pair of crossed axes laid over a laurel wreath. But for every historical point, there was something modern nailed beside it. Spotlights beamed brightly against the dark stone of the towers. Lights blinked atop the higher structures. The wail of a raid siren echoed out from its walls, full of mourning and dread, punctuated by brief and quick cracks of thunder, gunfire. Some in quick and mechanical rhythm, automatic fire. Bursts of light from the towers along the wall said machinegun nests.
Between the edge of the city and the prison lay nothing but a flat, open field. I couldn''t see what lay behind the prison, or how far the field swept past it, but between where the sidewalks ended and the castle walls began, there was maybe half a city-block, broken halfway by a waist-high stonewall and barbed wire. The only ways up to the castle from the city were roads leading to this wall, through checkpoints.
For a military base, it was an ideal setup.
Now it was under siege.
The White Fang had posted up at that outer line, spread out across it. Their vehicles clogged the roads leading to the checkpoints. The Fang themselves spread along the walls, probed past their borders before being forced to retreat by machine gun fire. Those who didn''t, hung back and returned fire. Kept things stalemated as the fighting continued.
A brief burst of color appeared between the checkpoint and prison, as an explosion scattered earth and stone. Someone had started loosening the artillery.
We stood on one of the rooftops at the very edge of the city limits. I could feel the very last remnants of the shell''s shockwave pass through me as we watched, observed. I scanned the skyline around and behind us. Bullheads off in the distance, more lights.
The city raged.
And here we were at the heart of the trouble.
After getting off the freeway, we''d cut along a path I''d had to pick out that would take us near to Kohl''s Gate. It wasn''t as direct as it should''ve been, but I hadn''t exactly had time to pick a better spot when we left the Fang''s hideout. I''d just grabbed a place close enough.
It''d also, by pure happenstance, required us to climb onto the rooftop. Which was ever so slightly more helpful than being stuck at ground level. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were all near the edge of the roof, with Sun lingering behind Blake. Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren with them. Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsu were a few paces behind them but watching all the same. Penny and me found ourselves standing beside Yatsu. The distance didn''t really matter, but staying away from the roof''s edge was better for my long-term health.
"This seems a lot quieter than I thought it''d be," Nora mused, looking out at the fighting.
"Everything seems like that from far enough away," I said, eyeing the battle that raged. "You won''t feel that way when there''s bullets whizzing past your head."
"And we need to get past all of it," Ruby said, hefting her scythe, shifting it to peer through its scope. "¡ There''s at least a dozen White Fang at the checkpoint up that road." Ruby lowered the rifle, motioned to the trail down the boulevard we''d taken to get here. "If we''re going to get to the Castle, that''d be the fastest way."
"Assuming we don''t get shot on the way," Ren said.
"Or blown up," Jaune added.
As he did, another shell struck the growing distance of No Man''s Land. Swear that time I saw a body silhouette in the blast. Brought back memories of the first time I''d tried to get to the Boomers.
"If we''re doing this, we gotta get past it anyway," Yatsu said, voice slow, contemplative.
"I''d still rather not be in the middle of a war-crime sandwich.l," I said. "I''ve got an idea or two, but we''re going to need to work fast. We''ve got no idea what''s going on inside the prison right now. The guys on sentry duty might not either."
Ruby stepped back from the ledge and tucked her weapon back behind her. She motioned to our teammates and JNPR to follow. "Ok, ideas?"
"We could use the van, at least to get to the checkpoint," Pyrrha offered. "That could at least get us halfway."
"Assuming they don''t light us up on the way there.l," Coco countered. "No offense champ, but it was enough of a hassle to get everyone out five minutes ago, I''d rather we don''t do it while getting shot at."
"I''m with Coco," I said. "One of those artillery shells hits us, we''d all be red mist. We''re going to need to make our way on foot. Shouldn''t be a problem for most of us. The trouble is going to be making sure we don''t get shot at."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Weiss asked. "It''s not like we can just call them and ask them to not shoot at us until we get to the castle."
"One problem at a time," I said. "Right now, let''s focus on just getting to the checkpoint. They''d have to have some kind of hardline back into the Kohl''s Gate in case of emergencies. Even if they don''t, just getting that far works for a starting point."
As I spoke, another shell went off, and there was a brief pause in the machine gun fire. During which, I could hear the White Fang begin to rally, forcing their way past the outer wall. They wouldn''t get far through No Man''s Land, but they were doing their job, keeping the sentries occupied.
If we couldn''t break the line, it was a stalemate that would hold for the rest of the night.
But it was a line we would break.
Without a word, I turned and made my way towards a corner of the roof. Not sure why it was the corner specifically, but a little further back, and it would''ve landed in the alleyway. A good bit of happenstance.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
I''d called for my locker before we''d hit the road to Kohl''s Gate. I knew it was going to take time for it to actually get onsite, so it would be able to make the trip in advance of us. We''d arrived only shortly before it, and actually got to watch it streak through the sky and land. By the time we''d climbed up to it, the thrusters were cooling, but the thing had clearly struggled the whole way to us. Not surprising considering half of what I had stored in there. I knew it was capable of at least sending a full-sized person somewhere, but having it haul my kit around was probably a tall order. Would need to look into modifying the internal mechanisms, see if I could make it more stable.
What mattered though, was that it had made the trip.
Meaning I had full access to my small armory.
I was going to need it.
As my hands landed on the door to my locker, I punched in the code and pulled it open. For a moment, I contemplated switching over That Gun for my .45 Auto, or the Sequoia. Only nixed the idea because neither offered a large enough advantage to matter. The .45 had a little less pop in exchange for more ammo, and the Sequoia had more pop but less control. Not counting that my ammo for it was far more limited. I liked both, but they wouldn''t help here, and I needed to mind my weight.
Long guns were going to be the order of the moment. I had them big, and small. But what I needed was what could meet in the middle.
So I started by pulling a 25mm APW from the locker. If things were already exploding to begin with, I couldn''t make things worse. It''d clear the way ahead of us until we made it to Kohl''s Gate.
The APW wasn''t a common model, the Gun Runners had started rolling them out just before the battle at the Dam. I picked up a model afterwards, paid for the premium kit. Longer barrel, drum mag, better mechanisms¡ I''d only found use for it a handful of times, but it''d clear a field just as fast as you could pull the trigger.
Damn shame I didn''t trust explosives most of the time.
I took the APW out and made sure it was loaded, setting half a dozen drums down with it. Eight grenades per drum meant forty-eight chances to blow shit up. I could only hope I wouldn''t need even half that, crafting grenades was outside my wheelhouse. More finicky than just reloading brass.
As I set the grenade launcher down, I couldn''t help but notice Ruby eying me from across the roof. She had a quizzical, skeptical, curious look that stuck out her lower lip and raised her brows. "Mm- what''s that?" she asked.
"Semi-automatic grenade launcher," I answered, turning back to my locker.
"A WHAT!?" Nora squawked.
Before I could actually respond to that, there was a rush of air, and suddenly both Nora and Ruby were buzzing around my locker like a pair of¡ not bloatflies. More like those small birds I''d seen flitting around my garden. Quick things, really interested in the flowers, beautiful shade of green to them.
Ruby and Nora were more like that. Looking down at the weapon in question, and only barely restraining themselves from touching it.
"You have a grenade launcher!?" Nora squawked, looking between me and the weapon. "Since when!? Do you have any idea how long I''ve wanted a bomb-buddy for!?"
"I brought it with me when I came here," I said, trying to focus on my locker.
"YOU''VE HAD THIS THE ENTIRE TIME!?" Ruby asked.
"That and more," I answered curtly. "Focus, we need to get to the prison-"
Nora promptly tried to shoulder past me and look into my locker. "What else you got?- Is that another suit of armor?- Why do you need-"
"For repairs," I lied, shunting her back to the side. "No peeking."
Nora blew me a raspberry, but backed off. Ruby on the other hand stared down at the APW, agog. The surprise would wear off quickly, I knew. She knew I had wilder and weirder than that. She just didn''t like that I hadn''t been sharing with her. She was quickly joined by a few others from the group, namely Penny and Velvet, the latter of whom I knew had some fascination with weapons herself. The former. I think. just liked to feel included with her friends.
"What''s it fire?" Velvet asked, looking curiously at it.
"25mm grenades," I answered. "Not as much punch as a 40mm, but more convenient to lug around and work with in an automatic."
"The longer barrel probably gives it more range," Ruby said, cocking her head as she looked at the weapon. "How many rounds?"
"Eight," I said, turning to look back into my locker. "Normally six, but those drum-mags-"
Almost as soon as I said the words, there was a brief flash of light. Followed by the soft mechanical clicking and whirring of a camera''s shutters. I turned halfway back around and saw Velvet in the midst of taking its picture. Nora and Ruby were looking at her, both surprised and confused, but not at all judging. As the light faded back out of my vision, Velvet looked around, slightly embarrassed.
"¡ Y''know it''s not going anywhere, right?" I asked.
"¡ I like having reference images," Velvet said.
"For what?" Ruby asked.
Velvet didn''t respond. She just looked around shiftily. More secrets, it would seem.
"If you''ve got a weapons fetish, don''t worry, you''re in good company," I said jokingly. "I sleep with a shotgun, and Ruby hides weapons magazines under her mattress."
"That''s not something she needs to know!" Ruby suddenly barked, a little red in the face.
Velvet laughed, taking it for the joke it was.
Reaching back into my locker, I pulled out the bag I''d originally used to help carry all of my equipment to Remnant. As I pulled it out and tossed it to one side, more explosions erupted from No Man''s Land. The more time we spent on this, the worse things were going to get.
My hand fell to my hip and drew-out That Gun. The weapon flipped about in my hand by the trigger guard with a flick of my wrist, and I set it into my locker. Normally I wouldn''t leave it behind. I preferred to have some kind of side-arm for the speed they provided in close-quarters. But I''d already burned through the dust cartridges I''d made for it. Worse, if the odds of what we were up against that night were accurate, five shots to a clip wouldn''t cut it. Not when there might be a dozen waiting to replace whatever one I took down. In its place, I tossed my shotgun into the bag, as a backup. The Dust shells I''d made had proven their worth, but I was going to need something a touch more aggressive than a lever-action. But I wouldn''t nix it, seeing as it was the only weapon I had available that could actually use Dust. Besides it, there were a handful of weapons that were very tempting to take with me, but ones I knew would only be useful under different circumstances. I couldn''t take much extra either. So I took the one other I knew would be most helpful and slipped it into the bag, along with as many magazines as I could comfortably cram in with it. I then zipped the bag shut and slung it over my shoulder for easier carrying. Freed more space for the things I''d need in the short term.
I reached back into my locker and grabbed out what extras I knew I''d get some use out of, the least of which were my four remaining Frag Grenades. The APW would be good until we were indoors, then it would start being detrimental. The frags would compensate. But there was another tool I''d get even more use out of.
It sat leaning against the back corner of my locker, next to a silvery blade that connected back into a metal tank. I grabbed the weapon and drew it out by its black handle. Synthetic fiber and a swelled, rubberized grip melded comfortably into my hand. I could feel the heft of it settle back into my arms naturally, nostalgically. Its polished head gleamed cold steel in the moonlight, the adze at the back of the head spurred back and fanned widely into a sharp blade.
I spun Knock-Knock in my hands, a test swing. Of all the steps I knew I''d lost since my bounty-hunting days, swinging an axe wasn''t one of them. With a flourish, it passed over my shoulder and settled nicely beside the duffle bag. I felt comforted by the weight.
With that, I shut my locker and sent it back to Beacon. It left slowly, like a rocket taking off, but it went.
I turned and collected my APW off the ground, arranging the drums where I could easily get to them.
"You''ve really just been saving all this stuff?" Ruby asked, looking both impressed and confused.
"Yeah," I answered. "Considering how I normally prefer to handle things, most of it stays locked away. It''s been a while since I''ve had to show force like this, barring last night."
"A grenade launcher may have resulted in unexpected casualties last night," Penny said. "While directing the projectile is easy, the resulting explosion would affect anyone caught in it."
"Hence why I don''t normally use explosives in general," I replied. "Less control in most contexts. Unlike Nora here, I don''t think I''d survive dropping a building on top of myself."
"Do it once and they never let you forget it," Nora muttered.
I hadn''t known that''d apparently happened, nor was surprised that it had.
We walked back across the roof to the rest of our group. Weiss and Blake were staring out at the prison with the rest of JNPR. Sun was chatting with the rest of Velvet''s team, particularly with Fox and Yatsu. Coco seemed to be listening in, but seemed more focused on whatever it was we were doing. She seemed quietly impressed by something, nodding slightly.
Then there was Yang, who was just standing off to the side, quietly.
Something, I noted, she''d been doing for most of the day.
As we pulled back in, I caught the tail end of Sun''s conversation with Fox and Yatsu.
"- and that''s how I got to Mistral from Vacuo," Sun finished. "Decided to avoid flying SDC after that. It was faster than taking a boat, but they would''ve thrown me in the mines if they caught me. I enjoy my freedom a bit too much for that."
"Surprised you chose Haven instead of Shade," Yatsu said. "From what I remember, most of Mistral isn''t very welcoming to Faunus."
"No less than anywhere else," Sun shrugged. "But Professor Lionheart was willing to give me a chance. It''s been pretty awesome since. The guys are probably going to be annoyed I didn''t tell them where I was going, but they know me, I don''t like to wait."
Fox made some basic conversational gestures, but otherwise said nothing.
"Wha-?... Oh, yeah, I told them what was going on after I got back to the apartment," Sun said. "Figured they were probably wondering what was up. Said I''d tell them more when I got back."
"I guess discretion is something you still need to work on," I said, as we rejoined them. "Part of doing something covertly means not letting outsiders know what''s going on."
Sun turned to look at me, and was about to say something before also seeing the weapons currently arrayed about my person. "Duh¡ overkill?"
"For what we''re about to be doing, I''m hoping it''ll be considered appropriate," I replied dryly.
"Semi-automatic grenade launcher, hand grenades-" Coco said looking me over. "-knife, probably another gun in that bag on your back¡" She craned her head to look over my shoulder "¡ and an axe."
"A Pulaski, technically," I told her. "It''s as much a multi-tool as it is an axe. Plus two guns in the bag."
"Never heard the name before," Coco shrugged. "But if you accessorized and dressed about half as well as you apparently hoard weapons, you''d probably be a decent date."
"There''s a time and place for that sort of thing, and this isn''t it," I said, motioning for everyone to group back up. As we pulled back together, I noted the machine gun fire in the distance. It was growing in amount. Things inside the prison were only starting to get worse.
"Ok, you''ve got guns," Weiss said, eyeing me. "What now? They''re not going to magically get us inside, much less through the field."
"No, but they''ll get us halfway," I said, motioning down to the street below. "Here''s what I''m thinking: we need to clear the checkpoint. There''s a good chance they''ve got a line into the prison, and we''ll need it to keep them from taking potshots at us with the artillery. We''ve got no idea what''s going on inside, so best case scenario we''ll have a better idea of the situation before we get into the heart of fighting."
"What if the line''s cut, or doesn''t exist?" Blake asked.
"Then we need to get there anyway if we''re going to have any chance of getting inside," I answered. "Part 2 of the plan will be straight forward: actually making it to the walls and getting inside."
"And then we need to worry about part 3," Ruby said. "Actually getting inside and trying to help."
"We''ll cross that bridge and burn it when we get there," Coco answered.
"If getting inside is the first problem we need to deal with, then the rest won''t matter anyway, right?" Jaune asked. "If we can''t even make it inside, we can''t do anything about it."
I nodded. "Most I can say is we''ll probably have to divide ourselves. Once we figure out what''s happening and where, we can break off and run damage control where we''re needed most... I''m getting a sense of Deja vu here."
"Ok, so we''re going to go through the checkpoint," Weiss said, furrowing her brow. "That still doesn''t explain why you want us to run there."
"Outside of the whole ''blowing us all up at once'' thing?" I asked half-sarcastically. "They''ve got the checkpoint blockaded with their vehicles. They''re going to have cover to work with and better angles to work off."
"That doesn''t change if we''re walking on foot," Weiss said testily.
"No, it doesn''t," I agreed. "But it does give us a several thousand-pound battering ram to work with."
It took everyone a moment to see what I was angling at, but they picked up on it a moment before I put things into motion.
"Ruby, Penny, with me," I said, moving back towards the fire escape we''d taken up to the rooftop. "We''re going ahead. Everyone else, get ready, as soon as we hit the road to the checkpoint you need to be on our heels."
After a moment''s hesitation, both Penny and Ruby fell in step behind me. The others began to fall into motion as I scrambled back down the levels of the fire escape. The whole way down the prison siren wailed. I couldn''t shake the feeling of dread, just couldn''t. That was part of the point of sirens like that. Get people''s attention so they knew to either take cover or get ready to fight. But I knew it wasn''t helping here. Help wasn''t coming besides us. Despite the big game we were talking, I had no illusion we weren''t enough. We were Camp Forlorn Hope, staring down the barrel of the gun Nelson pointed at us. An impossible task with not enough time, resources, or men to accomplish it. My Luck wasn''t going to allow for a good outcome either.
But, maybe, with all of us pulling together, we could pull something good from this mess. I could only hope.
I landed in the alley, with Ruby and Penny already waiting for me. They hadn''t needed to take the same way down that I did. Not missing a beat, I dashed over to the van, engine still ticking as it cooled from the mad race there.
"So we''re going to crash the van into the checkpoint?" Ruby asked. "Cool, how''re we going to not die?"
"That''s what I need you and Penny for," I said. "Or, you- at least, Ruby. Penny I need for something else." I went around to the back of the van and the two of them followed me. The back of the vehicle had a pair of double doors to it, the only way to access the bed and storage section. I opened both of them, wide enough I could see the hinges and wiring feeding into them.
"Ok, what do you need me for?" Ruby asked.
"I''m going to get the van up to speed and angled at the checkpoint," I explained. "Once it is, I''m going to lock the throttle and steering wheel, and we''re going to bail out. The problem with that, is that we''ll be going, presumably, over fifty miles an hour between there and here." I motioned up and down the road as I examined the hinges and wiring, looking for an easy disconnect. If there was one, my brain wasn''t seeing it through the haze of adrenaline. No sense in being neat about it either, we were going to wreck the van in a moment. One more piece of twisted metal wouldn''t matter.
"And you want me to pull us out?" Ruby asked, confused l. "Uh¡ Six, that''s not how that works."
"Your Semblance seems to say otherwise," I told her. "You figured out you can move more than just yourself while using it. If you grab me, you can launch out the back. Hopefully fast enough to help negate some of the forward momentum."
"But I''ve never tried something like that!" Ruby protested. "And the door will be in the way!"
"Well you''re about to," I said. "And they''re not about to be."
I levered Knock-Knock off my back and flourished it around in a swift motion. I swung down, aiming for the thinner metal of the hinges. Back in the Mojave this wouldn''t have worked cleanly, if at all. I''d have had better luck using the poll of a standard fire-axe than Knock-Knock. But on Remnant, I had a few extra things that helped shift the balance enough to make it plausible. Like boosted strength, and a forcefield that kept me from instantly ruining Knock-Knock''s edge.
The stiff, but thin, metal sheared halfway through on the first swing. Could''ve gone through fully if I hadn''t pulled back at the last moment out of caution. A second swing cut the rest of the way through, and a more confident third swing sheared straight through the second hinge and wiring. With it''s only mountings destroyed, the door hit the ground with a mighty crash. Not missing a beat, I turned and took the other door off the hinges. Another crash, and both doors lay on the ground. I continued to shear them with Knock-Knock.
"¡ Ok, no doors, cool," Ruby said. "But I don''t think my Semblance works that way."
"Just like you didn''t think you could use it on more than one person," I grunted, shearing out a spike of metal. "Lo and behold, you tried it and it worked."
"By accident!" Ruby said.
"There is a precedent for your Semblance working like that actually," Penny said. "While I haven''t fully analyzed your Semblance yet, it does seem to exhibit properties that might allow us to safely leave the vehicle while it''s in motion."
"I trust Penny''s computer brain on this one," I said, breaking the handle and latch out of the door. It''d work well enough to hold the steering wheel in place. "This is what I tried to get through to you guys when we sparred last time. You need to experiment with what you can do, or you''ll never know what you''re truly capable of. You didn''t think your Semblance would let you carry people, but it did. Now you''ve got a viable career in transportation if Hunting doesn''t pan out."
"Oh yeah, suuure," Ruby said with an uncharacteristic amount of sarcasm. "I could call it Six Roses Courier Service or something."
I was tempted to say something to that. Except I found myself stunned by her choice of name. There wasn''t anything wrong with it, it was a good name. Was the first time I''d heard it.
What were the odds I''d hear it again?
Didn''t bother trying to say anything else as we prepped the van. I made sure everything I had was arranged so I could set it up while we were careening down the road. If I screwed it up, we''d hurtle off the road, and I still remembered the last time I did. I had no desire to do it again.
As I was getting set up, Ruby and Penny piled into the back, waiting while I got myself together. For most of the time I was working on it, they didn''t say anything. The only sounds came from the battlefield in front of us. After a minute or two though, Ruby broke the silence.
"Hey, Six?" She asked.
"Yeah, Tiny?" I answered.
"Are we¡ really going to have to kill people tonight?" Ruby asked, tripping over the words.
"It''s a real possibility," I told her. "It is anytime you get into a fight. Whether you realize that or not."
"But Aura doesn''t make it that easy," Ruby pressed. "Part of why we train like we do is we don''t have to kill, so we know when enough is enough."
"There''s the trick," I said, prepping the steering wheel. "Some people don''t know when to quit." I paused in what I was doing, gave the conversation the attention it needed. "Most people want to live, it''s basic instinct. Self-preservation isn''t something that can be shrugged off because, surprise, dying sucks. We want to live, ergo, we make choices based on what is most likely to keep us alive. Fight, flight, or surrender, nature''s holy trinity¡ But that doesn''t mean that it can''t be overcome. People devote themselves all the time to something, even if self-destructive, that they deem more important than their own lives. When they''re like that, getting them to stop becomes even harder. And, try as we might, it''s not always as simple as just punching someone hard enough to knock them out. Sometimes the answer needs to be more impactful. Whether we like it or not."
I thought back to the news reel that''d played earlier that morning. It''d showed me taking down the White Fang that''d been at the Gala the night before. It''d censored most of the gore, and it didn''t say if people had passed. But I wouldn''t put it past anyone to suppress information like that either. The Grimm are attracted to negative emotion, what would seeing something like that cause?
I hadn''t been trying to off anyone last night, but I''d gone in knowing I couldn''t hit softly either. They''d made their bed, and I''d help them get tucked in if they felt like kicking off. But I knew at least some of those wounds likely weren''t fatal either. At least, not immediately. People with better Aura control than me could likely deal with the wounds. Know how to close them better, control their bleeding. It wasn''t my problem in the end, I''d spent enough time worrying about it. I tried hard to do things better, but I accepted that it wasn''t always so easy. Even when I failed, it still made me a better man than many I''d had the displeasure to have run afoul. Ruby would need to learn that.
Then she threw me a curveball.
"¡ I think I killed someone last night," she said, softly.
Ruby said that right as I was about to start the van. On the one hand, I was annoyed by further delays to the situation we were in. On the other, I put the priority of my friends and teammates over outside Brahmin crap. So I waited. If Ruby thought she''d killed someone I wanted to understand why. "¡How?" I asked.
"¡ When everyone was escaping, there''d been this one White Fang that had been about to start attacking them," Ruby explained. "I''d fought a bunch of them before that, waiting for you to get there¡ But that one I know I hit harder. I¡ I used the bullet you gave me."
I didn''t say anything, just listened.
"In all the fighting, and worrying about everyone, I didn''t think about what was going on, I-I''ve never had to worry about it before¡" Ruby shifted in the back of the van. "But now that I''m thinking about it, I''m worried that¡ That I might''ve¡" She didn''t finish the sentence, instead, she started another one a moment later. "¡ Do you think I could have? You use those kinds of bullets more than I do. I don''t¡ I don''t know."
"¡ I wasn''t pulling my punches last night either, Ruby," I told her, after a moment. "If we did leave any bodies behind us, they wouldn''t have been all yours."
Ruby didn''t answer, but I knew my response hadn''t done much to console her. It was hard to console her because I didn''t know how. Ruby was a teenager. Even if this were the wasteland, a teenager shouldn''t have to be thinking about having killed someone. She should''ve been concerned with a microcosm of different issues, wholly unrelated to trouble like this.
I tried a different angle. I knew my Pip-Boy could keep track of how many people, or at least enemies, I''d killed. I hadn''t kept track of the number in a long time, so I wouldn''t be able to tell the difference by looking. But there''d been somebody else with us who had been.
"Penny, you said we''d kept casualties to a minimum last night," I said, reaching for the ignition. "What''d you mean when you said that? Was that purely civilian casualties or did you include combatants as well?"
"Both," Penny answered brightly, after a moment. "My sensors were built to allow me to accurately gauge the Aura levels of third parties while in combat. Papa said it was so I could know when people needed my help, or when they could safely evacuate on their own."
"So as far as you can tell, from the information you had last night, no one died?"
"¡" Penny remained silent for a moment, mulling over the question. "¡From what I recorded?... Not during the fight. I calculate a seventy percent chance of survival for most parties involved, assuming they received medical attention."
"So there''s still a chance I did," Ruby said, glumly.
"A bigger chance I did," I corrected. "Don''t put that evil on yourself." I started the van and put it in drive. I began rolling us down the street towards the road leading to the checkpoint.
"But still..." Ruby said, letting her word hang in the air.
As we rolled down the street, towards the access road, I let the words hang in the air as I tried to think of something to say. Some way to ease her fears. Even knowing we were charging head long to a place that could wind up fueling them if something went wrong. Knowing what I did, I didn''t believe they would, even with my bad luck. My teammates, my friends, they knew better about how to fight in this world. Knew better how not to kill people. They spent their whole lives trying to train themselves to do better. I was the one who''d only recently begun forcing himself to do better. There was still a long way to go. When I tripped, it wasn''t purely out of spite and hate. Sometimes, I just couldn''t find a better way.
There wasn''t time to debate it, time to keep this conversation going. I didn''t want her to do something she didn''t want to, thinking she had to. Not when she did have a choice.
I began to line us up with the access road. "¡ Did you hate them?"
"Who?" Ruby asked.
"The White Fang," I said. "When you fought them, did you hate them?"
"¡ I-" Ruby faltered. "I don''t¡"
"You were angry, I know that," I said, recalling how our conversation had ended. "You were furious they would do what they were doing, righteous indignation is the phrase I think¡ But did you hate them, like they seem to hate everyone else?"
Ruby didn''t answer.
"¡ Did you want to keep them safe?" I asked. "The hostages, Ironwood, the people who were in danger? Was that more important to you, right then?"
Ruby still remained silent, for another of those eternal moments. But it was answered in a small, resolute "¡ Yes."
"Then you''re doing it for the right reasons," I said, gunning the engine, hearing it whine. "Killing because you hate something, someone, it''s a fool''s game. Hatred is petty, needful, and all around worthless. It takes and doesn''t give... You don''t fight for hatred. You fight because there''s something you love, something you care about¡" I closed my eyes, thought back to all the times I''d made that mistake. How different might it all be, if I couldn''t have just figured that out sooner. "¡The fire in you is not one of hate, for your enemies, the monsters that harrow you. The fire is your love. The love for your friends. Your family. That righteous fury that someone might hurt them, hurt anyone, and think they can get away with it..." I looked up into the vanity mirror, back into the storage area of the van. Ruby was looking at me, sad, worried, and lost. But following every word I said, like some breadcrumb trail back to the main road. "You don''t fight because you want people to die. You fight because you want them to live. We can''t always control how things go. I don''t want any of you to get hurt tonight, I made that clear. Penny says we kept casualties as small as we could hope to. We can''t do more than that, not if we actually want to stop them. I hope¡" I gripped the wheel and focused on the road ahead of us. "I hope you girls never have to know what it''s like, to have to live the kind of life I''ve had to. Not in a world like this."
I braced myself against the steering wheel and began to ease my foot onto the gas pedal. Ahead of us, artillery rained and gunfire thundered, lighting the terrain in a flash of multicolored light, as the various grades of Dust unleashed their fury on the surrounding world.
It wasn''t lost on me how hypocritical what I''d told Ruby was. The anger and hatred I''d had for the Legion, the Fiends, for so many of the Bounties I''d chased. But I knew how far away it could lead you if you let it. The stupid decisions you''d make.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned to look.
Ruby gripped me. She looked at me from the space between the seats and back of the van. The worry was still on her face. But I knew she was still resolved in this.
"¡Ok," she said, nodding. "Let''s do this."
I nodded, grunting. "Good answer."
My foot slammed the gas pedal and we shot forward. The engine guttered and whined as we tore down the road to the checkpoint. At most it was a half mile away, flat terrain, only the barest upward grade. The road was straight, the pavement still appearing freshly laid. The van''s engine quickly grew from a whine to a roar as we built speed, the pistons fighting for air and fuel. I could feel the power and momentum gathering through the steering wheel. The inertia slowly pulled back against me as we rocketed forward.
Halfway down the road, we were doing sixty miles an hour and only climbing.
"I calculate twenty seconds to impact." Penny said, she shifted in the rearview, clasping a hand onto Ruby.
I could see the checkpoint ahead of us. Using my foot, I pushed the wedge into the gas pedal, keeping the engine gunned. My hands worked in tandem to keep the steering wheel straight as I barred it in place.
No turning back now.
The checkpoint was barred by a pair of vehicles. A truck and a sedan of some kind. They''d both pulled horizontal across the road, forming an improvised wall against anyone who would try to come at it from the ground. I could see the White Fang huddled around the vehicles, darting around the checkpoint. The checkpoint itself was a simple structure, a roofed structure with a pair of guard houses, large enough to fit maybe two people a piece. One had an arm that raised and lowered on its own to bar road access. Simple, little cover, open.
One of the White Fang that had darted behind the cars for cover noticed the beams of our headlights and turned. A moment passed as he processed what was happening.
I wasn''t sure but it looked vaguely like he mouthed the words ''Oh fuck!'' before promptly running back around the vehicles, drawing his cohorts'' attention.
"Ten seconds!" Penny said.
"Six," Ruby urged, her grip on me tightening.
Just a little closer.
The White Fang all began to turn and look as we barreled down on them. Some of them froze in the headlights. More threw themselves aside.
"Five! Four!" Penny chimed.
I let go of the wheel.
"Now!" I shouted, feeling like my bowels were about to drop out of me.
For a half second longer than I would''ve liked, I was afraid Ruby wasn''t going to be able to pull it off. That her Semblance would kick in, but she''d take off and leave me in the driver''s seat. It wouldn''t be the first time my luck would do something like that.
But then the world fell away in a swirl of flower petals and light. I watched as the world whirled past me as gravity and space lost their hold over me. Weightlessly, I launched backwards, flying through the back of the van and out through the mangled rear hatch. I could feel Ruby''s grip on my shoulder, saw Penny''s feet dangling just outside my vision as we moved away from the vehicle.
Just as quickly, reality came roaring back. In another flurry of petals, gravity caught up to us, and we tumbled against the ground.
What followed was a scream of rending metal and the roar of the engine as it completed its suicidal charge. As I recovered, the van plowed straight into the two parked vehicles, shunting and flipping them as it carried forward, slowly veering off course. Then it plowed into the arm barring the road, sheared through it, and carried a short distance further into No Man''s Land, where it was promptly hit with artillery and destroyed.
So, no, we wouldn''t have been able to just barrel our way to the gate first.
But the turn of events had taken all of the White Fang''s attention off of us. I wouldn''t waste it, as I picked myself up, quickly followed by Ruby and Penny.
"Hey assholes!" I shouted.
A couple of the What Fang recovered enough to notice us.
"That was a warning shot!"
I shouldered my APW and slapped out a pair of grenades. 25mms don''t have the same blast radius as their 40mm older brother. Makes sense, smaller bomb, smaller boom. But a 25mm could still clear a room, and could be fired faster than their older brother. I didn''t have much regular use for either, but they served a purpose from time to time.
For instance, if I wanted to cut a dozen combatants down to about a third that number, it might take a minute. I''d need a couple magazines, the element of surprise, a plan, and a host of other things.
Or I needed two or three grenades, plus a baggie for cleanup.
The APW recoiled lightly into my shoulder when I fired. It didn''t make the same ear splitting bang when fired either, like a bullet might. More of a hollow thump. Grenades like that operated differently from bullets, even if functionally I could handle them like one.
The effect they had though was tremendous.
One grenade struck the first vehicle, the truck, and it went up in a ball of fire, sending out a shockwave of air. The wave blew everyone close enough to it back off their feet, about half the Fang in total. Then the second grenade went off in the open and knocked down the rest of them. Seeing the level of destruction it caused, I knew I''d made the right call in keeping the ammunition standard. High Explosive would''ve been too much to control. I''d probably have brought the whole checkpoint down. It''d take even longer to dig through the rubble than we had. As it was, I could see the checkpoint beginning to sag towards a rear corner, the south-west facing.
Ruby tensed beside me, and I knew she was readying herself to jump in. My arm thrust out and stopped her. She looked at me, confused.
"¡ One more," I decided.
I launched a third grenade, aiming for the supports near the south west corner. The definition of controlled demolitions. Through the rumble of the explosion, I heard the steel supports give out, metal plating twisting and crumpling as the structure twisted and caved. The east facing supports bent, but only bowed, managed to hold their weight, leaving the structure half caved in. More than enough to bury about seven of the White Fang in the Rubble.
"¡ How is that not trying to kill anyone?" Ruby muttered.
"I gave them a warning van, and I told them before I opened fire," I said, chuckling as I reloaded the APW. "I mean, what else did you expect?"
As emphasis to that, people began to move from the structure. The White Fang who hadn''t been caught under the roof when it collapsed staggered out from the more opening half of the building. Maybe about five of them in total.
"See, I even left you some," I said.
Ruby grimaced, not deigning to respond to my cavalier remark. Instead, she launched herself forward towards the checkpoint, pulling up her scarf and hood. Me and Penny followed quickly after her, but knew it was going to be little more than a thoughtful gesture. Quick on our feet as we both were, by the time we actually got close enough to properly engage anyone, they were already down by three. I watched as Ruby took out the third, spinning her scythe in a reverse grip, cracking the Fang in the head. Only for her to spin, knock their legs out from under them as her scythe danced over her shoulders. It hooked under the Fang, and she levered them over head in an arc, slamming them down at the end.
The two remaining Fang, harried by the explosions and little girl from hell, promptly tried to flee, only to make it about ten feet from the checkpoint and meet Penny and me.
I flicked the Cow Puncher out and punched my Fang in the diaphragm. The spikes of my knuckle sank in deep as my fist connected, full voltage coursing into them. Guy hadn''t even been paying attention to where he was going. He doubled over on himself with a garbled howl as he doubled over on himself. I drew my fist back and cracked him on the back of the head with the APW''s stock. The guy who''d run into Penny got it worse. She drew out her blades and swung them out on him in fluid fashion. All eight blades slapped him in the head at full force by the flats of the blade. She made sure it was all eight of them too. He would''ve fallen with the first hit, but each following blade redirected course as it was their turn, making sure they each got a chance to hit him. The effect was Penny bouncing his head against the ground like a ball.
It did the trick, but damn.
That officially ended the brief fight at the checkpoint, doing so in as textbook a fashion as I could hope. We approached the ruins of the checkpoint as Ruby scanned the area.
"Any casualties so far?" I asked Penny.
Penny scanned the ruins for a moment, her eyes glowing. "¡ None that I can detect," she answered.
I nodded, motioning to Ruby. "See? All good so far."
"They''re all buried under the building!" Ruby squeaked.
"And perfectly fine according to Penny," I replied. "Don''t worry about them, the authorities should be here in time to help them. It''s on them for playing this game."
Ruby didn''t say anything. I knew it was still a sore subject. With the amount of scar tissue I had, it was hard not to be curt with it. At least I hadn''t used the High Explosive rounds, or the plasma ones. Though I did note the way she briefly eyed my APW.
"¡ Wanna hold it?" I asked.
Ruby didn''t say anything, but she did nod.
Her eyes glittered as I passed the weapon off to her. I then stepped past her into the ruins. "Reach out to the others and tell them to move up. Penny, with me, this is where I''m going to need your help."
Penny followed me as we left Ruby to wait outside. Frankly, I wasn''t sure if I was even going to need Penny''s help, but better safe than sorry.
"What can I do to help?" Penny asked as we moved under the collapsed structure of the checkpoint.
"Not sure, but we''re going to find out," I said. "Unless we want to try and dodge artillery and machine gun fire on an open field, we need to try and contact the guys on the walls. My working theory is there''d be a back-up line built into the checkpoint here."
"And you think you might need me to help connect to it?" Penny asked.
"Maybe?" I offered. "I''m not sure what kind of security it might have, or what we might need to try and force into working."
Penny nodded in understanding as we ducked into the checkpoint. The fallen structure was a mix of concrete and steel. Felt not too dissimilar to a man-made cave. Reminded me of the tunnels and crypts of the Divide. Fitting, since they were made in a similar fashion. Though the subtle shifting in the stone and steel made an eerily organic moaning noise that seemed to wheeze through the checkpoint. That was certainly what it was.
The one guard station that''d held the arm barring the road had managed to remain mostly intact. Sure, one of the support beams had crashed through the roof, but the station was still standing, and there was even power, evidenced by a small emergency light. We didn''t have to worry about getting through a door, there wasn''t one, so we slipped inside the station. There wasn''t much in the little building. Mostly the controls for raising and lowering the beam running across the road. Though I figured it wouldn''t work quite right with all the extra debris weighing it down. Aside from that, there was a small machine built into the wall adjacent to the controls. Looked to be some kind of projector, so I had to assume it was more of that holographic Dust-tech. Despite the power though, it was deactivated.
"I believe that''s a late model T-Hx 1138," Penny said, tilting her head slightly. "It doesn''t show any signs of external damage. I should be able to reboot it-"
My hand rested against the projector and instinctively grasped at the white paneling that covered it. Common of seemingly all machines that used Dust for electronic purposes. Images rolled through my mind as my hands worked, guiding me. I pried the unfamiliar covering off the projector with ease, and found myself staring down at the guts of the machine. Circuitry smaller and finer than any I was familiar with. No vacuum tubes, no heat sinks, and if there were any transistors, I couldn''t see them. They likely just didn''t resemble what little I''d have known of them. I might as well have been looking at a disemboweled alien, which I was for most intents.
But I still understood enough to know what the power supply looked like. And what overheated wiring looked like. There was a chance the thing would still run, but I was going to need to check the wires for breaks. At the very least I could tell the machine had lost power, but it could also be a small breaker inside that had been tripped. There was a chance my explosion had knocked it out of place. Couldn''t tell just by looking.
I took Blood-Nap out of its sheath and began stripping the wires carefully, feeling for breaks.
Penny leaned in curiously as I worked. "How did you know to do that?"
"Keep a secret?" I asked. "I have no idea. I''ve been getting these weird flashes recently, it seems at almost random times."
"Flashes?" Penny asked.
"Like¡ I don''t know how to describe it. It''s like I can see myself doing something, and get a rough idea of how it''s supposed to be done. It''s not like I''m suddenly able to understand what I''m doing, I''m just¡ doing it," I tried to explain. "There are times I''m doing it unconsciously even¡ I don''t know."
"Could it be your Semblance?" Penny asked. "Do you know what yours is?"
"No, not yet," I answered, examining the wires carefully. "I only just recently unlocked my Aura, my Semblance wouldn''t follow that quickly¡ would it?"
Penny shrugged. "Everyone develops their own in time. Some sooner, some later."
"¡What about you?" I asked. "Do you have one?"
Penny shook her head. "While my body is capable of maintaining and generating an Aura, it''s not a perfect recreation. My soul isn''t capable of generating its own Semblance from the small piece it''s made from."
"Small piece?" I asked.
Penny didn''t answer, and I chose to let the question lie. Whether this was my Semblance or not at work, I couldn''t deny these brief flashes of insight were extremely useful.
Such as showing me that, yes, there was a break in one of the wires.
I peeled the coating back far enough to find the spot where it''d snapped. It was a clean break.
"Alright, found the culprit," I said. "Now all we need-"
There was a hollow thump from behind us, outside the checkpoint. It was followed by the sound of a grenade going off about three hundred yards east.
"¡ Ruby?" I called.
"I didn''t do it!" Ruby shouted back, voice muffled and very clearly lying.
"¡ Safety''s over the trigger guard!" I shouted.
"¡ Thank you!" She answered.
I turned my attention back to the machine in front of me. "I think the wires are just pliable enough that I can make them touch, But they''re shot otherwise. No time for good repairs, and I don''t have a soldering iron."
"The wires just need to be reconnected?" Penny asked. "¡ I think I can help with that. Move them back together, just barely touching should be enough."
Curious, I did as Penny directed and gently urged the wires back together. As I made them connect, Penny summoned two of her blades and positioned them over the break in the wire. I could hear the current the two blades began to pull, the low hum passing between them. A dull green glow emanated between them. As it appeared, she angled the blades, drew the tips closer together. It made the glow brighter, the hum grew louder. The points of the swords hovered over the broken wire for a moment. Half a second later, there was a small crackle of electricity, and she withdrew the blades. As she did, I found the two wires had been spot welded together at the break.
"Impressive," I said.
"Not really," Penny denied. "The weld won''t hold for long, I don''t know how much it''ll accomplish."
"It''s more than I''d have done on my own, thank you," I said, reaching for the breaker. "Here''s hoping it works. I don''t like the alternative."
I flipped the breaker and the projector began to hum, electronics slowly spooling to life. A display came up in front of me, sparking and blinking, barely stable. It flashed quickly through a start-up sequence, before landing on a boot menu. Even as it hovered there, I could tell the system was straining to remain active.
>Please input identification information.
"Pay dirt," I said, nodding. "We need to get through before it craps out on us. I should be able to access the command prom-"
Penny ran her hand over the display, a motion that lasted maybe three seconds. The entire time a series of screens flashed through the display. Bits of code flew past like a gecko tearing through a fresh kill. Even if it was brief, when she drew her hand away, the screen had changed.
Clearance Granted: Contacting Garrison Unit¡
My head bobbed in a quick nod. Perhaps kidnapping Penny had been worth it after all.
The projector shuddered and the display flashed as it tried to process the request. A few moments later, the display changed once more. A face appeared on the stuttering holographic display, huddled in some stone walled room with next to no lighting. It was that of a faunus woman, dog ears on her head and golden haired. She snarled down at the screen.
"For the last time, give up!" the woman barked "You''re not¡"
Whatever she was going to say died away as she looked back at us through the image.
"Gonna assume this thing''s two-way," I said. "Hi, Crazy Steve. Me and the Wild Bunch would like you to not blow us up."
Jack in the Pot (Anniversary 2024)
I stared down Coco with silent intensity, judging her.
In kind, she looked back at me with an impassive and cool mask, her sunglasses reflecting the table in front of her. "So what''s it gonna be, kid? You sure you''ve got what it takes to do this?"
"As much as I ever do." I told her. "The real question is if you want to take that chance. You''ve had a pretty good ride so far. But I play hardball. You can get Ruby easy enough, Weiss and Yang with a bit more trouble. Even Blake if you really try."
"I resemble that!" Ruby chimed in, bitterly.
"But I''m not some open book for you to stare at," I told her. "You wanna get something out of me, you better be damn sure you''ve got everything you need-"
"Call," Coco said, setting her cards down. Ace-king offsuit.
"¡" I huffed. "You missed the whole point of this game."
I set my own cards down, pocket Eights.
"I think I''ve got it pretty much figured out," Coco said, smirking, she then shrugged. "You''re right though, you''re not easy to read. But you''re like an audio-book. The worse your cards are, the more likely you are to start talking."
I clicked my tongue. There was a tell I hadn''t thought about.
"If you''re done, then let me set the cards out," Velvet said, looking between the two of us. When neither of us stopped her, she started setting the cards down. Pretty much everyone had opted out for this hand once me and Coco started going at it. The flop hadn''t boded well to begin with.
After recent events, poker night had to be put on hold for a few weeks. But, seeing as CFVY would be leaving soon, we decided it would be nice to get a couple of games in. A chance to get a bit of gambling in before they got to the big gamble. The one that didn''t take cash, but traded in the currency of life. Frankly, after some of the news I''d gotten recently, I didn''t mind a bit of relaxation. Tomfoolery was good for a healthy mind.
Though just as much for the sake of my mental health, we''d taken our game outside of Beacon. With everything going on with Goodwitch and Ozpin, the less time spent near their prying eyes the better. Plus, our dorm room was basically at capacity. We were cramped when it was just myself, my friends, and Zwei. Throw CFVY into the mix and things got uncomfortably warm in there, fast. Luckily for all of us, we had a better place we could crash at. It even had enough tables for all of us to play more evenly sized games at.
I was presently sitting at a table with Coco, Velvet, and Ruby. Jaune, Yatsu, Fox, and Ren were at their own table; Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, and Nora at another. Even made sure we were going to have enough cards to work with for everyone. Jaune''s game was in the living room at the coffee table, the girls'' game at the kitchen counter, and mine at the table. Zwei, regular little fixture that he was, orbited between the three, stealing scratches behind the ears wherever he could.
Overall, it was a better setup than we''d had previously. Big games were fun and all, but trying to balance everyone was more of a hassle than it needed to be. Had to source the extra cards anyhow, so might as well make sure everyone could do it their own way.
"Here''s the turn¡" Velvet said, setting out the fourth card. "And the river?"
"Bingo," I nodded, she''d picked up the terms quick enough. "¡ Aaaand bingo."
The cards were Pocket sevens, King of Spades, Eight of Hearts, and Ace of spades.
The Eight gave me three of a kind. Just a rank above the two pairs Coco had netted herself. Something she picked up on as Velvet had set the cards out.
"What was that about me talking more when my cards are bad?" I asked, raking in my winnings.
She pursed her lips for a moment, then shrugged. "So it goes."
Fair assessment. There was never a guarantee of things until the cards were all on the table. Actually thought she''d had me for a moment there, Ace-King is a solid combo most times. Both are high suits, and used in the highest value hands. But if those hands didn''t come about, then they weren''t worth any more than their own value.
Either way, it made for a good balance. Especially when the key of the game was trying to bluff your opponent.
We passed our cards back in and Ruby took the deck, giving it an awkward shuffle. Might''ve thought she was trying to stack the deck if it wasn''t for the fact we''d have all caught it immediately. Didn''t matter how many games she''d played, Ruby just couldn''t get a handle on her poker face. That fact aside, she dealt the hand. It was a quiet one by comparison. I folded that turn, could see the cards weren''t on my side. But Velvet managed to pull a win from Coco instead. Though part of me felt she''d thrown her a softball of a hand. Ruby hadn''t, but wound up overshooting the mark instead. The cards passed to me, and I dealt us all in for another hand. Right about the same time, Zwei toddled up to Ruby for his tithe of scratches.
"What do we feel like doing for dinner?" Jaune asked from his spot in the living room.
"Pancakes!" Nora twittered.
"I don''t feel like being on clean-up detail tonight," I said. "Why don''t we do something simple?"
"Pancakes are simple," Nora challenged.
"You''ve never tried making Ren''s recipe," I countered.
"How about pizza?" Yatsu offered. "Could order it, help cut down on clean-up."
"Pizza sounds nice," Ruby agreed. "Girls, Six?"
"Pizza works," Blake agreed, nodding.
"Sounds good," Weiss added.
"Hm, yeah. Pizza," Yang agreed dully.
"I think we can do pizza too," Pyrrha agreed, looking at Nora.
Nora didn''t say anything, but the pout on her face said enough.
"Think we all agree pizza works," I said. "Just need to figure out who''s ordering, picking it up, and paying for it."
"Also what kinds we''re getting," Velvet added. "I''d love a slice of White Broccoli with hot honey."
Ruby briefly shot her a confused glance. I wasn''t one to judge, but it seemed an interesting combination.
"How about the winners get dinner?" Weiss offered, smiling politely. "Considering there can be only one winner in these games, we can let the cards decide."
"Seems fair," I said, nodding towards Coco. "Next hand decides who gets to keep playing. Then we work out who''s doing what."
"I can do that," Coco nodded, shuffling the deck. "One more hand then¡" She looked back towards her male teammates. "You boys feel like switching players around after this hand?"
Fox nodded in agreement, and Yatsu gave his thumb, something neither Jaune nor Ren seemed to disagree with. Changing players would at least keep things fresh. People could play different games if they felt like it too. Really, thinking about it, these nights had just turned into a chance for us all to decompress. Something they needed as much as I did, recently.
Everyone seemed cool with switching tables after this hand, so we went with it. Cards started being dealt, and a thought occurred to me as we were about to start.
"One more thing," I said. "No folding this hand." My gaze drifted over to Weiss. "Should be counted as volunteering, if you decide to give up here."
Weiss didn''t say anything for a moment, but I could tell by the stony look on her face that she''d been thinking that. Her natural affinity for the cards had lent to her being a regular winner. Perhaps that was stacking things against her, but, well, them''s the breaks.
Her eyes drifted from her cards, to me, then back again. "¡ Drat."You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I snickered as I looked at my cards. Ace-Ten Suited. Good setup, lots of potential, but not worth a damn on their own. Let myself smirk as I spoke. "I don''t know about this hand Coco, I think you might have me this time."
"¡Pff, please," Coco retorted. "A hand like this?" She set her cards out, Pocket Twos. "You can beat that easy, anyone can."
"Well, try this on for size," Velvet added, smirking as she showed her cards, Three and Eight off-suit.
"I can beat both of those, see!" Ruby chimed, flipping her cards around. Pocket Kings "See, I have¡ wait¡ Whoops." She deflated as she caught up to the game we were actually playing now. Coco and Velvet only barely managed to suppress their snickers as Ruby''s cheeks flushed. An honest mistake, but no less humorous, or unexpected from Ruby.
"I''m sure you''ll be able to beat this one too," I said, setting my own cards out. I nodded to Coco. "Settle it up so we can make the order."
She nodded and started setting the cards out. Flop-
"¡ Well shit." I muttered.
¡
Of all the times to fall into a Royal Flush, naturally, it had to be the one time I''d actually wanted to lose. Couldn''t have even waited for the Turn and River, had to literally flop onto the table.
Though, in the end, a win''s a win even if you didn''t like the prize.
The other tables finished their games quickly as well. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out what everyone wanted on their pizza and where we''d be getting them. Jaune tried to argue for something called a calzone, but was unanimously shot down. There was also a brief squabble over breadsticks and garlic that''d been tied into knots. Though it wound up going nowhere. We wound up settling on four pies and these rings of fried batter called Cal-Amari. Named after the guy who''d come up with the recipe, apparently.
After fighting about it for a bit, we settled on a place a few blocks down and got down to the real debate. Who was ordering, who was buying, and who was delivering?
Winning such honors had wound up being me, Jaune, and Weiss. It''d been a close thing between Jaune and Yatsu, apparently Jaune just happened to have slightly higher value cards. Weiss had won in a landslide, which wasn''t a surprise. Girl needed to go to the casino more often, she''d have pocket change for days. Not that she needed it.
Which was exactly the reason she got tapped for footing the bill this time. Jaune got stuck with making the call for the order, while I got stuck with delivery, naturally. We couldn''t pay remotely, though Weiss apparently tried that, so she had to make the trip with me to pick up the pizza. Which itself turned things into an adventure and a half. Due to recent events, going out in public was becoming increasingly difficult. It wasn''t like I''d get mobbed every time I stepped foot outside, but I wasn''t exactly incognito anymore. Short of ditching my helmet, there wasn''t much I could do to make myself any less conspicuous. So I had to limit my time outside, and take paths with less traffic. Hence a closer pizza joint.
Though it did have its perks.
"Thank you, come again!" the girl at the counter called. I motioned a hand back in a wave as Weiss and I slipped through the door. We were back out on the street and quickly walking away before the door had fully shut.
"What''re the odds that she''s going to let people know we were here?" I asked.
"Vale''s crazy vigilante and Atlas'' premier heiress spotted buying pizza in scenic Vale," Weiss shuddered. "You saw how quickly they jumped on the bandwagon with Jaune and Pyrrha."
"¡ So I''ll take that as a yes?" I pressed.
"She''s probably calling the News as we speak," Weiss answered primly.
"That tracks," I nodded, shifting the food in my arms. "At least they gave us an extra pie and soda for free."
Weiss shot me a sharp look, then huffed. "Why can''t you just take that thing off?"
"And kill everyone''s appetite?" I asked. "No thanks."
Weiss shook her head, and we continued walking. It was the early part of the evening and the streets were, unfortunately, more active than I''d like, though we quickly worked to change that. Rather than just taking a straight shot back to Tukson''s place, we took the long way, doing our best to take whatever paths were obviously barren and deserted. Or at least less crowded. Whatever worked better for getting away from any prying eyes. It was going to take us a little bit to get back.
"This aside, I needed tonight," Weiss said. "I think we all did after everything that''s happened."
"Wish it was over with," I said. "You''d think after everything we''ve done so far it would''ve gotten the message across. This is just a lull in things though. Whatever game the White Fang''s playing, they''re not done yet."
"I wasn''t talking just about the White Fang," Weiss said, giving me the side-eye. "But, yes, we''ll count them too."
"Hm," I grunted.
"¡" Weiss sighed. "I get there are some things you probably think you need to do on your own, but you could at least tell us."
"Then you''d all just be worrying about me," I said.
"Like we wouldn''t if you just suddenly disappeared?" Weiss pressed. "You know how that dolt is. If you don''t show up, we''re going to come running after you."
"Yeah, I know. I still remember what happened with Blake," I told her. "It''s nice to know you care, but I''ve got things under control. If it''s not, I''ll probably let one of you know before I do something stupid."
"Good," Weiss huffed. "Now if we could just get Yang to stop being so mopey. Having Blake do it is more than enough, seeing Yang do it just hurts."
"Got any idea what''s gotten into her?" I asked.
"None. She''s been unusually tight-lipped," Weiss said. "Ruby might know something, but she hasn''t said anything about it either."
I nodded. "I''ll try talking with her in a day or two and see if I can''t see what the trouble is. I have an idea or two, but nothing that should''ve gotten her like this."
"What is it?" Weiss asked curiously.
"A conversation we had a while back," I explained. "Tried to be up front with her about something and she didn''t seem to take it well."
Weiss'' brow crept upward slightly as she gave me a conspiratorial look.
"There''s no gossip here, Weiss. Whatever you''re thinking, it''s not that," I told her. "Something happened, and I needed to clear the air with her, so I did¡ At least I think I did."
"¡ Fine, be that way," Weiss shook her head. "I''m sure I''ll find out eventually."
We arrived back at Tukson''s and went in through the shop. About halfway back through the shop, Weiss stopped at the register and turned towards me. She blocked the path and made me stop. Her smaller stature didn''t make her a good roadblock, but bowling through her would''ve been impolite.
"Before we go back upstairs, I''m calling dibs on your card table," Weiss said.
"¡Um¡ ok, why?" I asked.
She raised her chin imperiously at me. "I demand a bet of Favors-"
"Oh not this shit again," I said, shaking my head. My feet moved to start bowling.
Weiss put her hands up and planted them against my chest. "Stop, stop! Let me finish!"
"We''re not doing Favors again, Snowflake," I told her. "It was supposed to be a one time thing, and I am not owing Coco another one."
The last one I had owed Coco required me to make dinner. Would''ve been simple on its own, but she kept making demands of how I was supposed to prepare it while I was making it. I only narrowly avoided it turning into a giant waste of ingredients, but swore I wasn''t cooking for her anymore.
Weiss could be a brat, but holy shit.
I tried to move past Weiss, but each attempt required me trying to keep the pizzas balanced. Which gave Weiss more time to get in my way and slow me down. Despite that, I managed to steadily push her back up to the door leading into the backroom. Then she put a glyph under her and made sure she wasn''t going anywhere.
"Oh for- Weiss," I growled.
She stared me down imperiously, refusing to give another inch.
"What is this?" I asked, stepping back so I didn''t drop the pizzas. "What exactly do you want?"
"I want-" she started.
"A Favor, I got that," I said, looking down at her. "But clearly you want it for something, and you''ve got a good idea of what it is too, since you''re trying this hard to get one from me."
Weiss pursed her lips but continued staring me down.
"What exactly do you want from me?" I asked. "You could literally just ask."
Weiss didn''t respond for a long moment. She just continued trying to look down her nose at me. Which had the opposite effect of what she wanted, because she had to incline her head towards me, it required she tip herself back quite steeply. Despite that, she soldiered on with the gesture.
Right up until she got a light dusting of red on her face.
"I-it''s not important," she said.
"Doesn''t seem that way," I replied.
"You''ll laugh at me if I just ask for it," she continued, red hue of her face darkening to a rosy shade.
"You don''t know that," I pressed. "If it''s that important to you, odds are good I won''t laugh."
I worked very hard not to add the ''much'' to the end of that sentence. Truthfully, she was being quite outrageous for something as small as a Favor. Knowing Weiss it was either something meteorically large she was struggling with, or something so basic and simple her pride refused her to be honest about it.
So I stood there having a stare down with her. Waiting for her to cave first. She was the one looking to get something, so she''d better be willing to give a little.
"¡" She exhaled through her nose and lowered her head, suddenly unwilling to meet my gaze. "¡ Promise you won''t laugh?"
"¡ Weiss I taught you how to swim, there''s not much you can say right now-"
"Just promise!" she snipped.
"Fine, fine," I agreed. "Promise I won''t breakdown in guffaws of laughter. Now can we get on with it? The pizza''s getting cold."
"¡" Weiss steeled herself, and spoke her request. Still not deigning to look up at me as her ears began to turn red. "¡ I want another hug."
A moment passed as her words hung in the air. I was still looking down at her, but she couldn''t bring herself to look up at me.
"¡ *snrk*"
"DON''T LAUGH!" Weiss snapped, finally looking up at me. Her face was Bighorner red.
"A hug?" I asked, trying very hard to keep a straight face. "That''s it?"
Her face started twisting up in a pouty little scowl. "This is why I didn''t just ask!" she turned about and her glyph vanished, pushing through the door. "Forget I said anything-"
"Wait, just hold on a second," I told her.
"¡" Weiss looked back over her shoulder at me.
I set the pizza boxes down on the counter and dusted myself off. Then I took a few steps closer to her, arms open. "C''mere."
"¡"
She didn''t say anything, but the speed at which she collided into me spoke enough for her. Weiss''s arms locked around my waist, and I draped my arms over her shoulders, before locking tight around her. I didn''t try to squeeze the life out of her, but it''s a fine line. Whatever I was doing, I was doing it right, because I felt her relaxing.
"Was that so hard?" I asked her.
"-hut hup." Weiss said, words muffled by my clothing. Despite the order, she made no moves to let go.
"I''m not an unreasonable guy Weiss, and this ain''t an unreasonable thing," I told her, gently. "If you need something, just ask. Favors are a business you shouldn''t be trying to get wrapped up in."
"Hmm," was Weiss'' answer.
The room fell silent as we stood there. At that point, I''d have no problem letting her have as long as she needed.
Judging by how tightly she was hugging me, boy, did she need it.
¡
As they fished through the cabinets of the apartment, searching for plates and cutlery, Coco noticed Velvet looking curiously at the floor. There was a small smile on her face.
"What''s up bun-bun?" Coco asked.
"¡Nothing," Velvet said, turning to look at her, still smiling. "Just thought I heard something."
Waiting in the Walls
Fox Alistair was a blind man, but even he could see the way his night was headed. He was a second-year student at Beacon, and wouldn''t have made it that far if he had no clue how to adapt. None of them would have. It was a lesson he''d had to learn early on in life, a necessity given his circumstances. One that had only gotten beaten further into him as he''d tried to chase his chosen profession further. He believed, despite how in the dark he was most of the time, he did a decent job of things. A valiant effort to maintain the maxim of a certain professor of his team''s to: "Stay Vigilant". In a way, he felt he actually had that easier than the rest of them. Blind though he was, he could often see things most others couldn''t.
Such as, for example, how tonight was very likely to put most of their futures up in smoke.
The ride to get to where they were now hadn''t been a comfortable one, what with being crammed into the back of a vehicle and tossed around like a soda can. Though that mattered less to him than what he knew they were trying to do. Having climbed to the roof of some building and scanned out to a horizon he couldn''t even see, and listening to a plan that most would consider harebrained at the best of times. He knew harebrained plans when he heard them. Despite being her partner, Coco Adel wasn''t known for her tactical thinking. Good heart, and a reputation for breaking them, but not a planner.
He felt he could almost say the same of the Courier now.
"What are the odds he doesn''t get the three of them killed?" Coco asked.
''I think Red and Coppertone will be fine,'' Fox answered. ''I think our favorite mailman''s probably going to ship out though. Don''t think he''s got the Aura to tuck and roll.''
Coco nodded her head, a motion Fox could see well enough only through long practice and proper help. His experience with Aura had made it an unconscious ability of his. To see the natural Aura exuded by people around him, whether they actively used it or not. Only further helped through the use of ADA. It wasn''t a substitute for sight, as far as he could tell, but the two working in tandem kept him on par with those who still had it, so he had to guess they were worth something. Small gestures might be lost on him, but ADA''s sonar and his Aura caught most things. It''s how he could tell they were standing on a rooftop. The sonar could only travel so far in any direction before the pulse wasn''t strong enough to work. He could gauge the rest using his Aura. Which was how he was able to pick out all the people currently spread out over the field in front of him.
There were a lot of them. Even having descended from the rooftop and back to the alleyway, his view had scarcely changed.
Team CFVY had been on a handful of missions during their time at Beacon. Mostly scouting missions, a few exterminations, and even one or two re-enforcement requests. Which merely meant they''d garrison in some frontier-town for a week or two, in the event someone else''s extermination didn''t go to plan. That way, they could help evacuate. It gave him the chance, more than once, to see what it was like, looking down at people. Seeing all those different Auras, huddled and grouped together in one location. Coupled with his Semblance, he could sometimes see and feel the emotions that coursed just beneath the surface. The fear and anxiety that came with being in a place like that. When he was a child, and barely had a clue how to control his Semblance, he''d been bombarded with those emotions. It had been hard to learn to control and separate his own from them.
Looking out over the field before them though, Fox didn''t sense fear. With every explosion and gunshot that echoed back, his ADA generated a sonar image. No different than if it had sent its own ''ping'' outward. It gave him a rare, clear view of what was ahead of them. The battle that was being pitched.
Through their Aura, he could feel the anger and hatred the White Fang carried with them.
He wouldn''t waste time wondering what made them that way. People were like that. Human or Faunus, anyone could turn out like that if pushed the wrong way. Some didn''t even need to be pushed. Most couldn''t find their way back.
With all the ambient noise and motion, he could track the vehicle as it raced up the road to Kohl''s Gate. It gunned across the field, gaining speed as it went. There must have been a road. He couldn''t see that part.
"I can''t believe we''re letting him do this," Weiss Schnee, the heiress, said, her Aura cold and brilliant white. "Of all the dumb risks to take, why this one?"
"Well, we didn''t exactly try very hard to stop him," Blake answered, her shade-like Aura twisting and writhing as she moved. "He probably wouldn''t have listened anyway."
"We probably should''ve tried though," Jaune said, Aura strong and pulsing, growing stronger with every second. "Since, y''know, he kinda took Ruby and Penny with him."
"He''s made it out of scrapes before right?" Sun asked, Aura light and dancing. "I mean, c''mon, he''s Crazy Steve of all people."
Velvet chuckled next to Fox. "You know, that''s still quite strange to think about. Most people know how strict the consequences for vigilantism can be. It''s why most active Beacon students don''t tend to break that particular rule."
"How strict is it?" Nora asked, appearing like a pulsing and bouncing ball of pink energy in Fox''s sight. "I mean, getting expelled is bad, but it can''t get worse right?"
"Try having a criminal record put to your name," Yatsu answered. "Assuming Ozpin and Goodwitch don''t get to you first, the police really don''t like it when we stick our noses in. Last two students I heard tried to do something like this, they got expelled and nearly did time."
"I think Port mentioned there was a team from when he was younger who tried it too," Velvet added. "They were the ones who messed up so badly they had to put the laws in place to begin with."
''Clearly that''s what it was, and not all the bribes saying otherwise,'' Fox thought, knowing Velvet could hear him.
"Oh¡ What happened to them?" Nora asked.
"Dunno," Coco answered. "Last any of us heard, apparently some of them now teach at Signal-"
As the words left Coco''s mouth, a sudden shockwave lashed out from the checkpoint. It was quickly followed by several more, as explosions ripped the air. Fox had observed as the three occupants of the van had dislodged themselves from it, stopping. He hadn''t realized they''d bailed out until the first impact. The remaining explosions had likely been part of the scheme the Courier had going on. Two that came quickly after the van''s impact, followed by a distant third, which then collapsed the distant checkpoint in a thunderous crash.
"¡ Well, that''s one way to do it," Ren commented.
"And our cue to start moving," Coco added, moving ahead. "That get anyone''s attention Fox?"
Fox''s gaze swept over the field, checking up and down the wall in either direction. He could still see the White Fang as they fought, many now holding at the wall that marked the checkpoint. But that was the end of it. Although he was certain many of them had vehicles, none were making a move towards the now collapsed checkpoint. A curious choice, but perhaps they considered it not their immediate concern. He shook his head, answering Coco''s question.
"Good, let''s move," Coco said, strutting ahead of everyone.
Wordlessly, everyone began to move after her. They did so quickly and intently, as they crossed the road and began to run up the hill towards the checkpoint. It wasn''t a short distance they needed to cover, and even though the White Fang hadn''t set their sights on them yet, that could still change at any moment.
"Anyone else having second thoughts about this?" Jaune asked, as they ran. "No?... Cool, me neither."
Despite saying the words, Fox could sense the truth from him.
Despite no one else voicing it, he could sense it from them as well. None of them were afraid, not in any meaningful amount, but he could sense the apprehension in them. It came with being able to see their Auras, read their thoughts. Even the ones that were only surface level said more than their faces did, at times. No one present was completely taken with what they were about to do. The consequences, should they be apprehended, should they fail, had the risk of being dire. The ones who seemed most prepared for what was coming were his own teammates. But even they weren''t immune to the reality of what could happen to them. The rest of them, first years who had only been doing this for a charitable five months, lacked that.
Fox could see none of them were afraid for a fight, but the fear of failure laid heavy on most of them, whether they would put it into words or not. Notably, he found that the ones comprising JNPR seemed the most worried over it, followed closely by the heiress. From the last two, the two Faunus in their group, he read something different. The cat was nervous, but for something different. Fox could not tell what. The monkey on the other hand, seemed more nervous for the cat than he did the situation itself. Fox wasn''t sure if that was any better. If he wasn''t taking what was happening seriously, things could backfire, quickly.
Then there was sunshine. The pun-making brawler who seemed to glow like the sun.
Except tonight, or at all for that day, she hadn''t been glowing. The light of her Aura had been muted, her thoughts elsewhere. Even then, as they climbed the hill, her focus was far away from them and that place. Somewhere dark and angry, yet sad and clouded over.
As they ran up the road, another explosion erupted a small distance away. There were better times and places to pry into others'' business, and Fox wasn''t a fan of it in any case. Whatever she was thinking, Fox was happy he couldn''t read it.
She probably wished she couldn''t either.
¡
Outside of the ruins, I could hear the artillery shells continuing to fall. They were growing more sporadic, same for the gunfire. Some of it I could keep in time with the odd amber flash that illuminated the other side of the hologram, casting brief shadows over the guard-woman''s face. She blinked as she tried to process what exactly she was looking at, dog ears twitching on her head.
A moment later she said: "¡ Holy shit."
"Save it for later," I said, not even bothering to do the voice. "You need to listen to me, things aren''t what they seem and they''re about to get worse-"
"Hey- Carl!" The woman said, turning to look off the camera, the display flickering as the link struggled to stay open. "I''ve got Crazy Steve on the checkpoint camera, stop firing and come check this out!"
''Oh for the love of-''
More gunfire stopped echoing through the hologram. A rather muscular man with a bandana over most of his face peaked his head into frame. Briefly. "Cool!" He then ducked back out of view and resumed firing.
"Tonight''s just full of surprises," the woman, Tseren, if I could read her name tag right, continued. I might not have been, because that was an odd combination of consonants. "First a prison raid and now a visit from a different wanted criminal."
"Are you the one in charge up there?" I asked again. "If you are I need you to listen, the White Fang aren''t just trying to get in from out here-"
"Gonna cut you off there, Steve-" she continued, before cutting herself off with another bout of gunfire. "-But of all the places you should be tonight, cutting into our comms isn''t one of them. In case you can''t tell, we''ve got our hands full right now. Yes, this portion of the garrison is under my watch, and in case you didn''t notice, we''re taking fire from all sides. If you don''t mind, I''m waiting for reinforcements to come and beat these guys back. Otherwise we''ve got it handled here."
"Reinforcements from where?" I asked. "If you mean from out here-"
"They''re going to be a while, they''re always slow to respond," Tseren cut me off again. "No, I''ve got guys from inside the prison I''m waiting to hear back from. We know this was coordinated, a riot broke out maybe a half hour before they made a go for the walls. Not the first time people have tried to stage a jailbreak-" There was a pause as more gunfire belted through the hologram "-But I''ll say that this is a pretty determined attempt at it."
"It''s not a jailbreak," I told her. "When did you last have contact with your guys inside?"
"I don''t know, forty minutes ago?" Tseren answered. "Like I said, just before they tried to reach the walls."
My nerves did a dance. That meant she hadn''t had contact with them for the entire time it took us to get here. "Call them, now."
"Look, Crazy-" Tseren tried to say.
"This whole thing is coordinated," I pressed. "They''ve been planning it for I don''t know how long, and it''s not a prison break. They''re trying to raid the arsenal someone thought would be a good idea to shove in there!"
Tseren didn''t respond to that for a moment. But I could tell, by the movement in her eyes, in the way the dim light shifted in them, the gears were turning. She was catching up to what the rest of us had already cottoned on to.
"¡ I''m going to break comms for a moment," Tseren said, the connection growing fuzzy and buzzing with static "Stay there, I''ll call ba-"
Then there was a pop from the machine, and a little stream of smoke. Our connection cut out, as acrid smoke began to rise from the machine. The temporary repairs had proven to be temporary indeed.
I swore, and tried to fan the smoke out of the way, enough I could see what was left of the machine. Superficially it looked fine, but that honestly meant nothing. If the circuits and connecting computer bits were fried, it didn''t matter how the rest of it looked. Try as I might, and I did try, I couldn''t see any way to fix it either. None of those little flashes appeared as I tried to disassemble the machine again. Whether that was because I didn''t know how to use it, or the machine was completely scrapped now, I didn''t know. But in either case it meant the same thing, we''d just lost the brief connection we''d had inside. Given the artillery was still raining, there wasn''t much of a chance we were going to make it to the walls.
"What do you make of it Penny?" I asked, looking at the young girl beside me, made easy by the cramped space.
Penny looked at the machine for a moment, her eyes rapidly focusing and unfocusing, studying it in a way I couldn''t match. Her lips pursed and her brow furrowed as she did. Studying the machine so intensely, she was unconsciously physically exerting the effort to do so. Her tongue even started to poke out the side of her mouth before she finally spoke.
"¡ I don''t think there''s anything we can do to fix it," she said at last. "Many of the parts were already nearly destroyed to begin with, we''d need to replace them. Papa would''ve been impressed we had it work for as long as we did."
I swore, again.
"Please watch your language," Penny chided.
I grunted and looked at the device as I pulled out my Scroll. I looked back and forth between the two items for a moment, before forming an idea that might work. Firstly though, I sent a message.
(You): [If you''re not already on your way here, get moving. Things aren''t looking good inside.]
There was a short pause before someone responded.
(Nora): [We r, ya butt :D]
I had no idea what a colon D was supposed to mean, but at least they were getting closer. My Scroll collapsed on itself and I passed it to Penny. "All these things have to relay through the CCT in some fashion right? Or at least use comparable architecture and components?"
Penny looked briefly at my Scroll before taking it. "Not everything relays through the CCT, but most of them do use the same programming language to help function, same for the pieces."
"Then we might have a chance yet," I said, motioning to the busted machine. "See if you can''t pull the routing and network information from that and give us a direct line inside. If there''s a firewall or encryption we need to get past, we''ll burn that bridge when we get to it, but we need to know what''s going on inside."
Penny nodded and began to examine the machine again, messing with my Scroll as she did so. About the point that she began to move her swords towards the machine''s carcass, I left. She''d have a more intimate understanding of what she was doing than I did. If I stuck around and asked questions she could probably teach me a thing or two, bridge the gaps in my knowledge regarding how computers worked here. But this wasn''t the time, we needed to get inside, and my questions would only slow us down. I could pick her brain another time. Or whatever it was that constituted her brain¡ A computer chip?... Did she have a platinum chip in her head?
As that thought wormed around inside my head, I stepped out from the rubble and back into No Man''s Land. The duffle bag on my shoulder snagged onto a bit of rebar as I went, and I tangled with it for a minute to get unstuck. The sounds of gunfire and artillery still filled the air, the occasional flash of light from mortar shells illuminating the inky void of the night sky. None of them seemed to be reaching beyond the stone wall that demarcated and stretched between the checkpoints. They got close, and I was certain they could go all the way into Vale if they wanted to. Artillery can measure distance in miles, not meters. If they wanted to, they should''ve been able to blow the White Fang off the map already. Internal riots or not, they should''ve been a lot more accurate than they were. It didn''t bode well for whatever was really going on inside.
I came out to find Ruby standing not too far away from the checkpoint, looking out at all the fighting that was happening from the checkpoint line. None of the White Fang were paying us any mind yet. Their focus seemed to be dead set on the walls of the prison. Sporadic fire was still being returned. I got the sense they''d be readying for another go at the walls soon.
Ruby turned to look at me as I approached, my APW hanging low in her hands. "What''d we find out?"
"They''ve got a riot going on inside," I said. "The people on the wall don''t seem to have much of a clue what''s actually going on. The comms down here are fried, and Penny''s trying to patch them now."
"¡ How bad do you think it''s going to be?" Ruby asked.
"How bad will what be?" I asked.
"Inside," Ruby answered. "If this has been going on this whole time¡"
"It''s not going to be pretty," I told her. "The fact that the guards haven''t received support from inside doesn''t bode well either."
Ruby nodded but didn''t respond.
"¡ So was that grenade intentional or-"
"I didn''t know the safety was off!" Ruby snapped, face flushing.
I chuckled, shifting the duffle bag on my shoulder as the two of us waited, observing the battlefield around us. Peering down the road, I could see the rest of our group was trying to quickly make their way up to us. It would take them a few minutes, even rushing. In the time we waited, the White Fang didn''t make their move. They were waiting, and I was trying to see what for. But there wasn''t any noticeable change I could see. Between the machine gun fire coming from the top of the wall and the sporadic shelling, things seemed in-hand. But I knew enough to know something was coming now, and unless we knew what, charging the field was suicide. I could still recall the No Man''s Land between Forlorn Hope and Nelson. I was sure there were even some White Fang laying out in the field to help with the recreation.
The others arrived as a brief pause in the shelling began. They moved with surprising speed, despite the footwear some of them chose. Running in heels has always struck me as a recipe for a busted ankle. Yet somehow Coco, Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha still managed. On uneven terrain no less. Even having been here for a few months, how they did that still confused me. Was it an Aura thing, or practice?... But why would you practice in heels?-
The twelve of them drew up on me and Ruby as we stood there.
"That was your plan?" Weiss asked, fuming. "Throw a car at them and blow it up?"
"It was step one, and it worked didn''t it?" I countered. "No White Fang bothering us right now."
"Then why are we still down here?" Weiss asked. "What part of that plan was supposed to get us the rest of the way to the prison?"
"The part where we hope there was a communications link between the checkpoint here, and the wall there," I answered, motioning between the ruins of the checkpoint and the prison. "And there was, but the thing was busted."
"Before or after you threw a car at it?" Blake asked sardonically.
"¡ It was a van." I countered, which earned me a laugh from exactly Nora and no one else. "Besides, I''m sure they had a blast anyway."
My lame attempt at humor didn''t receive a response either. Maybe it was the fact that people might be dead that killed it. But I''d been expecting Yang to at least say something. She hadn''t. She hadn''t for much of that night either, and it was actually a little concerning.
"Ok, well what happens now?" Jaune asked. "We''ve come this far, what do we do, just charge ahead and hope for the best?"
"Penny''s working on trying to get the comms fixed now," I said. "She''s got a good understanding of the tech, and is trying to rig something. From the little I got out of the people inside, the White Fang is keeping to the plan we thought they were. The guys they had inside staged a riot-turned-jailbreak, and are keeping the guys on the wall from getting reinforcements."
"Looks like they''ve been holding despite that," Ren said.
"They can''t keep it up forever, especially if the White Fang has more in store than just running at the wall," I told him.
"If they don''t answer us, we''re going to need to try and make a run for the wall ourselves," Ruby said. "It''ll be dangerous, but we can''t do anything from out here."
I grunted, looking out at No Man''s Land. "I hate to agree with you, but I do. If we can''t get a clear lane open, then we''re going to need to take the chance anyway. But I''ve dodged artillery fire before, and it''s no fun even being near ground zero of a shell."
"Somehow I''m not surprised someone threw artillery at you," Ren said
"I am!" Sun chimed in. "Dude, the more time I spend around you the more I wonder what the hell you used to do before coming here."If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
"Everything from Courier work to mercenary bee-ess," I told him. "But Ruby''s right in that we can''t stay here."
"¡ I have an idea!" Ruby suddenly said, rushing over to the ruins. Shrugging, I turned and followed her.
As we drew close to the ruins, instead of actually entering the ruins themselves, she circled around it, stopping when she reached the stonewall connected to it. I did well to follow her as she went. Though I did stop for a moment, when I noticed an arm poking out from the rubble that Ruby failed to notice. A quick prodding with my boot hid it back out of sight, and I joined her at the wall. Everyone else followed close behind.
"Artillery aims using maps, right?" Ruby asked. "They need coordinates to concentrate fire on."
"That''s the basic idea, yeah," I told her. "You only use artillery for direct fire if the enemy is right in front of you."
"But the artillery here isn''t, it''s inside the prison," Ruby explained, pointing to the wall. "Meaning they have to be aiming off of whatever coordinates they have."
"Again, yes, that''s normal," I told her.
Ruby turned and began grinning at me. "How do they know where the White Fang are, if communications are down?"
"¡" I got what she was saying, and looked back out at the field ahead of us. "It''s not targeted fire, they''re firing at fixed locations¡ Yeah, I can see it now."
My eyes scanned over the field and I could see what Ruby was saying rolled out before me. There were large swatches of the field that had been destroyed by the artillery, the ground pitted, pocked, and looking about as holey as a coal mine. But it was organized, grid like. I could see large stretches of the ground that had been clearly missed by the shelling. It''s like how it''d been with the Boomer''s artillery line outside Nellis. Short of having a large target to hit, they could only get so close, and had to resort to shelling a set pattern. There was no reason they couldn''t have shelled those houses beyond the fact that they couldn''t quite get the coordinates right.
Though I always preferred the train tunnels not far from Raul''s shack. The Boomers always thought they were sealed well enough to not need coverage. Avoid the explosions altogether, especially after my first attempt at them nearly took my legs off.
"So we''re going to try and run up the hill while having everything explode around us," Coco said, miffed. "Well, that''s going to ruin my outfit."
"You''ve got bigger things to worry about right now than getting your clothes dirty," Sun said. "That''s why you wash them."
"You can''t just ''wash'' cashmere," Coco answered curtly. "You need it dry cleaned. Do you want to foot the bill?"
"No thanks, I already have him chasing me over it," Sun answered.
"You''re gonna have more to worry about than just cleaning up if we don''t move," I said, trying to get them to focus. My hand motioned up to the field, between the various holes dug by the explosions and gunfire. "If we keep to the patches of ground that are still intact, we can avoid the worst of the damage. It won''t be perfect, but we''ll be safer in those spaces than outside them. We''re likely to catch bits of the back blast anyway, so watch where you step. As soon as Penny''s finished with the comms, we''ll make a break for it. Sounds good?"
Ruby nodded. "I think we can make it work," She turned to everyone else. "Questions?"
"Um, yeah?" Jaune asked "How do we not explode?"
"Does anyone else hear that?" Velvet asked, looking around curiously.
Our group paused and listened to our surroundings briefly. I didn''t hear anything¨C
¡
I didn''t hear anything.
"Where''s the explosions?" Nora asked, looking around. "¡ Come to think of it, why''s everyone stopped shooting?"
"That''s not what I was talking about," Velvet said, her ears twitching about. "¡But that is a good point."
"What do you hear?" Ruby asked.
"I hear it too," Blake said, looking behind us, back towards Vale, brow furrowing. "¡ It sounds like a Bullhead."
As she said the words, I could begin to hear it myself. The high-whine of a turbine running at max throttle as the surrounding air struggled to get out of the way. Despite the low light vision built into my helmet, I could only make out so many shapes in the night sky. But I could see something, approaching from the skyline behind us. A dense, shadowy shape, wings stretching out from either side of it.
It buzzed the air as it blew past us overhead, approaching the prison at a banked angle. It flew unopposed over No Man''s Land on an approach to the prison. Only when it was already halfway there, did the gunfire resume, coming directly off the walls. I could see bullets colliding with and peppering the hull of the craft as it flew unimpeded over the high walls of the prison. It slowed somewhere beyond them and began to descend.
"I don''t think they''re with us," Yatsu growled.
Almost immediately following this, a roar rose up among the stone wall, running down the line. In the darkness I could see a flurry of motion as people began to course forward.
The artillery fire hadn''t resumed.
"Si-Steve!" Penny shouted.
I turned and saw Penny hurrying out of the ruins, Scroll outstretched. She came to a stop and I grabbed the device out of her hands. Someone she''d managed to establish a connection into the prison, and Tseren had a feed over the device. Audio only, but better than nothing.
"Are you there?" a voice called, sounded like the female guard again, Tseren. "Talk to me, are you still out there?"
"We''re here, what the fuck''s happening up there?" I asked. "Was that Bullhead with you?"
"No- Shit!" A sudden belt of gunfire roared through the speaker. "It''s not with us, I can''t reach anyone inside. Communications are down, I don''t know what''s happening in there!"
"They took your artillery down," I said, feeling that pit reopen in my stomach. "They just brought their own reinforcements in."
I heard vehicles begin to roar from all around us. The White Fang were about to storm the wall en masse. They''d been planning for this part to work.
There was a pause in the air for the moment, before Tseren spoke. "¡ Steve, I''m suddenly feeling inclined to ask you for help. Where are you now?"
"Ruins of the checkpoint on the¡ southeast facing road. Northwest on your end," I answered, double checking my map and compass. "We''re about to start running."
"¡Ok, one sec-" Tseren pulled away from the link again and started shouting orders, directing people on the wall where they needed to keep their fire. After a moment she came back. "I can''t promise you safe passage, but if you keep to the road, I''ll try to have my people not light you up."
I nodded, readjusting my duffle bag as I looked at everyone. "Best we can ask for. We''ll be there soon, just hold the line," I snapped my Scroll closed and looked at Ruby, motioning for her to pass my APW back. "Change in plans, artillery''s down, everyone start running. Now!" My eyes scanned over No Man''s Land one final time. I could see the vehicles the White Fang were using in the distance, racing towards the wall ahead of us.
"We just-" Coco began to say.
Then VATS opened, and I calculated my angles, adjusting for movement speed.
VATS closed and I breathed out.
"-got here!" Coco finished.
Then I double tapped the trigger and launched a pair of grenades at one of the vehicles, off to the west of us. With the extended barrel, they flew further and faster than they otherwise should have, but they hit their mark, the first exploding just in front of the vehicle.
The second punched through the side of it, then exploded, causing fire and smoke to blow out the windows and windshield. The vehicle guttered to a stop not long after, one of more than maybe two dozen that we could see. I rushed out from behind cover, targeted another distant vehicle, and repeated the action, this time not having the luck to disembowel the vehicle, but blowing it onto its side. I then moved about another half-dozen paces before realizing I was the only one moving forward.
I turned back to see everyone waiting, having somehow either missed or ignored my words.
"¡ What''re you waiting for!?" I asked "You wanna live forever or something? Let''s go!"
"¡ Not forever-" Coco answered, being the first to move. "But longer than this!"
Everyone took that as their cue and began to surge forward after her. Aura enhanced strides launching them faster than should''ve been humanly possible. What I considered humanly possible. They''d all caught up to me, and even began to surpass me in the span it took me to blink.
I turned and ran with them, even as some of them began to surge further ahead using their Semblances, their tools and their own techniques for traveling faster in a pinch. Such as Ruby and her petal cloud, or Nora blowing herself up and riding the shockwave on her hammer. They coursed ahead of everyone, followed immediately by Yang and her shotgun-gauntlets, then Ren and Fox, the latter of whom knew enough of Aura to be more efficient with it. The rest of us fell into a quagmire, not really racing to get there, but Penny and I fell into the rearguard. Not sure why Penny chose to, but I did it to be on the lookout, in case we suddenly got more attention than we''d been counting on. Which was likely to happen, as I sent another grenade at a vehicle racing towards the wall. Then another at a group of Fang that were moving on foot.
That second one is probably what drew the fire from the rest of them after the fact.
A couple moments after I took my shot, there was a small outcry from some of the Fang off to our right. It was followed by poorly aimed gunfire that managed to whiff all of us. Moving targets proved harder for all of them to hit.
Just as easily, I twisted and returned fire to them. Needing to be less accurate meant I hit my mark. The blast caught and scattered them for a moment, but it was going to take more than a moment to matter. The prison was still about a half-mile uphill. Between us and it: pitted ground, enemy fire, and a high chance for vehicular manslaughter. It all depended on how much of it chose to find its way to us, or what we went looking for.
Outside of the odd shell I''d send elsewhere, the Fang did seem more intent to focus on climbing the hill themselves. Probably because they had to handle more suppressive fire than we did. Tseren, it seemed, was trying to keep to her word and kept the road open. There was an odd bit of spray that flew our way, but they were outliers, and generally missed us. I saw maybe one bullet clip Yatsu as we ran, but he managed to shrug it off. Depending on how you wanted to look at it, that explained a lot about the situation.
Noticing that we weren''t taking fire, small groups of the Fang would try to join us. When I didn''t shell them, someone else in the group knew enough to stop them from getting close. I counted at least one time Nora launched a grenade at someone, another where they got close enough for the others to briefly engage them in melee. I tried to not let them get that close, but we didn''t have to try and focus on getting to the wall. Plus my APW only held so many grenades, and the number I had were not as easily replaced as my bullets.
Though the prospect of replacing them with some Dust variant was tempting.
But overall, everyone did a good job of not letting the White Fang slow them down, as we climbed the hill. It might have been a different story if the White Fang had decided to concentrate on us. We''d probably have gotten bogged down and stuck there while things continued to fall apart in the prison. Depending on how the rest of tonight went, that might have been to their detriment, or ours.
As it was, we had to step into a fight when we got up the hill anyway.
The majority of the White Fang hadn''t noticed us, and instead focused on the prison walls. As we approached, I could see the gates that were supposed to let people through. Massive structures that likely would''ve been wood at one point, now massive slabs of riveted steel. Many of the White Fang seemed to be focused on it, vehicles parked around it in a semicircle, sparks flying up into the air. That close to the wall, the wall gunners couldn''t get a good angle on them. I could tell by the fact they weren''t all lying dead in a heap. Anybody who wasn''t at the door was spread out along the wall, carrying extension ladders, clearly scrambling to make whatever way into and beyond the wall they could.
I wasn''t familiar with watching people trying to siege a castle, it didn''t happen in the Wasteland. But the rare occasion Raiders tried to get past the walls into freeside and Vegas, they''d try the same. Go for the main gate or walls. Most would die at the gate even if they managed to get through, they were easy enough to defend. The walls were a bit more trouble due to needing vantage points to actually make the shots, though most Raiders that chose to climb them would die anyway, since there was nothing but fifty feet of air to the concrete below.
Seeing what was going on at the gate ahead of us, I angled my APW high and mortared a grenade. It flew over my friends'' head and landed right in the middle of the knot of people around the gate. Construction equipment and Fang went flying, clearly having been trying to carve their way through the door. It was followed by Nora sending a more direct grenade at them, spinning off of her hammer. She, Ruby, and Yang reached the knot of them ahead of the rest of us. Yang punched one of them hard enough to shunt one of the vehicles aside when they slammed into it.
Lucky bastard got off light, I knew she could hit harder.
As Ruby swept into the knot, swinging and hooking a pair of the Fang, the rest of the group began to dissolve. Ren, Yatsu, Fox, Blake, and Sun ran into the fray. Coco, Weiss, Velvet, Jaune, and Pyrrha stayed back, scanning our surroundings as Penny and I caught up. We could''ve all very easily thrown ourselves into the fight and finished it. But that wasn''t what we needed to focus on, not when we had dozens of other Fang waiting in the wings to replace them.
"What''s the play kid?" Coco asked, gripping her handbag.
"Dunno, didn''t think we''d get this far," I said, trying to think. "I''m still stuck at getting to the wall¡ We need to get inside, so that means up and over or through the gate. Gate''s not opening any time soon."
"I think they need us up on the wall too." Jaune said, motioning towards one of the groups of Fang. They''d managed to extend their ladder and were quickly scaling it. Some had already disappeared over the lip.
I swung my APW towards the ladder, then thought better of it. As my weapon lowered, I looked at Jaune. "Do you and Pyrrha think you can handle being up there alone?"
Jaune looked at me for a moment, before scanning up and down the wall. Pyrrha mirrored him, looking up to the top of the wall. I remember hearing a scream, then something hitting the ground behind me. Judging by the look on Pyrrha''s face it hadn''t been a clean landing. I could only hope it was a Fang. "¡ We can try," Jaune answered.
"Good, go, we''ll figure things out down here," I said, the two of them breaking into a dead sprint for the distant ladder as the White Fang began to take notice of them. Jaune led the way, shield raised as Pyrrha fired her rifle from over his shoulder.
"You actually have a plan for them, kid?" Coco asked.
"Fuck no, I''ve been making this up since we left the safehouse," I told her, trying to figure out what next angle to take as I reloaded my APW.
"How inspiring," Weiss droned, raising her sword and casually knocking down a tower of Fang elsewhere to our left.
"We all need to get off the ground and out of the open," I said, mortaring a grenade at another group of Fang. "That''s step one-"
I was interrupted by a howling war cry as a dozen White Fang began to charge at us. They seemed to realize I was the one throwing grenades at people and charged us with weapons drawn. Rifles, swords, axes, and even a light-machine gun. My APW swiveled towards them and I prepared to fire.
Then Coco''s handbag made a whirring sound, and it began to rapidly expand and extend in size. Motors and tubes lowered from it, a metal housing attached to them. The bag''s sides and lid formed a small cover at the front, and over the housing, a sextet of gun barrels poking out. A massive drum dropped out beneath the housing, curving from one side to the other, the whole thing painted in a brassy-golden yellow.
Coco pointed the minigun at the White Fang, who had suddenly tried to reverse course, and fired. A short, loud, and heavy volume burst of fire leapt from the muzzles of the weapon dropping the White Fang almost instantly. She''d merely waved the gun in their direction for half a second and dropped them.
Coco looked at us and smirked.
I stared down at the weapon, dumbfounded.
"¡ fucking how?" I asked.
"Planning," Coco smirked.
"You fit a minigun into a handbag, that is not planning," I said, trying not to get dragged off course.
"Worry about it later," Weiss interjected. "How are we getting inside? Everyone else is still at the gate."
I took Weiss''s encouragement and focused on the task at hand. We needed to get inside before we started getting swarmed completely. Time wasn''t on our side. I could see Jaune and Pyrrha already making their way up the ladder. The group at the gate were starting to beat everyone back. There really weren''t any options. We couldn''t force them to open the gate for us, that would defeat the whole point of this, which meant we needed to climb the wall as well.
"We''ll have to climb," I said. "Let''s try to barricade the gate so they can''t keep trying to get through it, then we need to move up."
"Better," Weiss said, nodding, looking at the carnage. "We can use their vehicles, I should be able to use my Semblance to move-"
"Incoming!" Velvet and Penny shouted at the same time.
The three of us spun back to look in time to see the truck bearing down on all three of us. In all the chaos, I hadn''t seen it tearing up the road behind us.
Coco and Velvet leapt to the side as I grabbed Weiss and did the same. She protested my doing it, and probably could''ve done it herself, but reflex had me do it first. I''d been hit by a truck, and wasn''t inclined to repeat the experience. Penny, meanwhile, had also been hit by a truck and came out no-worse for wear, so I wasn''t as worried for her. As it was she easily leapt out of the way as well. The truck roared through the empty space we''d occupied and cut into a sharp turn, skidding to a stop. Broadside to us now, I could see there were at least two guys in the bed of the truck aside from the driver, a heavy machine gun set on a pintle mount. Which technically made the truck a technical. A technical technical.
The gunners began to swivel the weapon around to us.
Right as a glyph appeared underneath the truck, glowing white, before transitioning into a darker shade.
The truck then shot into the air like it''d been catapulted, flying back towards the gate of the prison. Weiss repeated Penny''s warning into her Scroll, and our friends suddenly scrambled out of the fray. The truck landed in the tangle of other vehicles, its occupant flying off as it tumbled through the air. With a thunderous crash, the truck wedged itself against the gate, barring it.
"¡ I didn''t know you could do that," I said beside Weiss.
"Neither did I, that was a guess," Weiss answered. "¡ Are you going to let go of me now?"
I realized I was still holding onto her, and promptly released her. We got to our feet and began to move. The gate issue unexpectedly resolved, our next course of action was simple enough. Holding my APW in my off hand, I fished my Scroll out and opened the voice chat with everyone.
"Gate''s blocked, everyone start climbing, we need to get up top," I barked.
"We''re already up here!" Jaune shot back. "Help would be nice!"
I then heard another scream and looked up. Which rewarded me with the sight of Jaune bashing a Fang over the edge of the wall with his shield. The Fang fell and we all began scrambling to find our own ways up the wall. Well, I say we, but it was really only some of us. Ruby, Nora, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Sun had no problem suddenly fielding their Semblances to climb the wall, or otherwise fly up it. Even Yatsu and Fox managed to find their own ways up, springing and climbing off what little handholds they could find, or using the hooked point of their sword to help make them, in Yatsu''s case. I noted that Ren also received some help from Nora, which wasn''t unexpected.
Then Coco and Velvet ran for the wall, and took a separate ladder up. Mundane, even with the massive gun dangling at Coco''s waist.
Which left me and Penny waiting down there. We looked at each other, and she gave me a small smile.
"¡Be gentle," I said.
"Ok!" She said, latching onto me.
She then drew her swords and arrayed them about us again. They glowed, hummed, and then we rocketed into the air. This time, at least, I''d been prepared for it, and didn''t panic as much when we entered the air, though the momentary feeling of weightlessness as we sailed forward was still unsettling. But we managed to clear the distance, and came down on top of the wall. As we did, we dove into a pair of White Fang and slammed them into the ground. A brief look back confirmed, yes, we were now on top of the wall and had done it in a single bound.
It was a lot higher up than it looked from the bottom.
"Ok, we''re up here!" Ruby said over my Scroll. "What now?"
"Everyone regroup, we need to try and-"
Once more I was interrupted. This time by an explosion.
The space beyond the wall opened into a courtyard area, dotted by stone buildings and roads, all leading up to the much larger structure beyond. A smaller distance than the road we''d had to take to get here, but sprawling. I could see the fencing that made up the various yards of the prison. I guessed the buildings were either administrative or maintenance structures. At the farside behind all of them was the prison, and a large stretch of land that swept around to one side and behind it. There was another structure in that distant portion of the prison, but I couldn''t see it at the time.
From behind the prison itself, a red fireball rose, lighting up the sky. I hoped whatever had caused it wasn''t important.
"Fuck''s sake- Regroup!" I barked. "Penny and I are on the wall over the gate."
A hand slapped onto the wall beside Penny and me. We watched as a White Fang began to climb over, making it halfway before he noticed either of us.
I stuck the barrel of my APW against his chest and pulled the trigger. The grenade wouldn''t detonate at that close a distance, but the force blew him back off the wall and into the air. Another victim for gravity this evening.
''One more interruption I swear-''
"We''re moving, be there in a second," Coco answered, something I hoped everyone else would copy. They couldn''t have gone far in the short time it took each of us to get on the wall.
As everyone began to gather, I reached out to Tseren over my Scroll. Whatever Penny had done, it''d kept me keyed into the prison''s frequency for the time being. "Tseren, you still there?"
There was a pause, before a voice came over. "We''re here still, did you make it to the wall?"
"We did, we''re standing over the northwest gate trying to keep the White Fang back," I answered, as everyone finished gathering. Sun let out a whistle, looking over the prison. "You see that explosion before, that you guys?" I asked Tseren.
"No, there''s nothing back at that part of the prison but a checkpoint for the arsenal," Tseren answered. "That Bullhead earlier landed on the roof. They must be making their way back to it."
We hadn''t seen the Bullhead leave either, which meant it was still there, waiting in case they needed to pull back.
"Where are you now?" Ruby asked, stepping up to my Scroll. "This is Red Hood, we''ll come meet you."
"We moved to the eastern gate, they''re hitting hard over here," Tseren answered. "We''re hitting them with everything we''ve got, but they came prepared."
"Ok, then we''ll hit back," Ruby answered. "Give us a few minutes, we''ll be there!"
"There''s no time!" Tseren called. "If they''re already that deep into the prison, what we''re doing here is only delaying them. If you want to help, you need to find out what happened to the guys in the comms room. If we don''t get actual support soon it won''t matter who''s here. We can hold- Carl look out- AGH!"
There was pop in the connection and a skittering noise as gunfire continued to echo over the connection. More shouting followed, but none of it was clear enough to make out.
I closed the connection and looked at everyone. "You heard her, whatever''s going on inside, we''re needed more in there than we are out here. If outgoing communications are down, it''s only going to make it even less likely people are going to get here in time. We need to keep moving."
"But what about them? They need help too!" Ruby said.
"They''ll have to hold their own," I said. "We don''t have time to help them and stop the White Fang. That''s what they''re hoping for."
"Definitely didn''t sound like they were holding their own," Nora piped up, looking westward.
"All the more reason we need to move," I said, motioning towards the prison. "This isn''t a time for debate."
I didn''t like the idea of leaving them hanging either. I''d heard the sounds of losing battle before, and they were never pretty. The guards weren''t there yet, but they would be soon if they weren''t given reinforcement. But time wasn''t on our side either. We were already late to the part, any time we lost here wasn''t going to be made up.
But we didn''t have much choice. At least, ones I wasn''t willing to make, not then.
"You''re right, it''s not," Coco said, moving along the wall, peering off in the same direction as Nora. "West is this way, right?"
Nora nodded next to her. I wasn''t sure how Nora knew that, but really all they needed to do was follow the wall anyway.
Coco turned back towards us. "We''ll split up here. You kids move toward the prison, we''ll handle the gate and catch up later."
There was the choice I hadn''t wanted to make.
"Splitting up doesn''t end well," I said. "We split now, it''s only going to keep happening."
"Then make sure it only happens when it needs to," Coco said, before looking at Ruby. "You think you can handle this Tiny?"
"I''m not Tiny!" Ruby protested, before nodding. "But heck yeah we can." She then looked at me. "I don''t like it either, Six, but we can''t leave them behind. I know you know that."
"¡ Dammit." I turned back towards Coco as her teammates began to gather around her. They watched me as I quickly strode up to them, APW in front of me. I came to a halt in front of Velvet, giving her a quick once over. "I notice you''re the only one here without a weapon."
"I-I''ve got one," she protested. "And I want to use it- It''s just a bit- um-"
I held up a hand, interrupting her. Which was then followed by raising my APW up so she could see what I was doing. "Pay attention," I told her, and began operating the weapon. My hand ghosted over the mag release and popped the drum out of the weapon. My hand then swept back up to the bolt and racked it back, cycling out the grenade currently in the chamber. Which I caught, slipped back into the drum, and then worked back into the receiver. I then cycled the action, reloading it, and fingered the safety on and off, just to make sure she knew where it was.
Then I looked back at her. "You get all that?"
Velvet blinked, once, then looked at the weapon, then me, and then nodded.
"Good, you struck me as a Swift Learner," I told her. I then handed the APW off to her. She took the weapon, completely surprised, as I began to remove the ammo drums from my duffle bag. "The grenades won''t go off at close range, they''ve got a centrifugal fuse that doesn''t prime the grenade until it''s had enough time in the air. It''s a short distance between the two, but you won''t need to worry about blowing yourself up if you accidentally shoot it into the ground.
Velvet looked down at the weapon I handed her and began to examine it, flipping it over in her hands. It definitely seemed like it was a bit heavy for her, but she was maneuvering it easy enough. In fact, she was handling it with a level of finesse that was quite surprising for a ten-second manual of arms. "¡ Cool."
"I''ve got about thirty eight rounds total here, so be smart with it," I told her. "The ones with the red paint are High Explosive, be careful, those ones are even more finicky."
"Understood," Velvet nodded, looking at me curiously. "How am I going to carry them?"
"You can bring the bag with you," I said, fishing around in it. "I just need to pull something out of it, the APW wouldn''t do much good indoors anyway."
My hand clasped onto the weapon I was looking for and I took it out, setting it down. The wood stock and foregrip were weathered to the point the finish was almost completely scratched off. The stock was further damaged by some markings the previous owner had put into it. But they were marks and dings I wasn''t inclined to remove out of respect for said owner. I did everything I could to keep the weapon, an AR pattern service rifle, in working order, even if that meant the foregrip was held together with hose clamps and I couldn''t replace the damaged front sight.
I set the weapon down and fished out the magazines for it, arranging them on myself before passing the bag off. As I picked up and loaded the rifle, I noted the way Velvet eyed it.
"That''s an old looking rifle," She said, slinging the bag over her shoulder. "Does it work?"
"Like a well-oiled machine," I told her, handling a magazine. "Same goes for the weapon in your hands, take care of it, yeah?"
Velvet nodded, then spun around and moved up with her teammates. Coco was smirking at her oddly, but then nodded towards us. "We''ll be after you as soon as we can, save some for us."
"We''ll see!" Ruby called.
They waved us off and took off running down the wall. A part of me hoped they were ready for whatever danger lay ahead. The other parts knew there was no sense in hoping, they were clearly better prepared for this sort of thing than my friends were. They''d done this enough to know the kind of trouble that came with it.
I turned back toward everyone, checking my gear again. Axe still on my back, lever-action slapping against my thigh, and rifle in my hands. As I did, we began to group up, moving towards the nearest flight of stairs down to ground level.
"You really traded a grenade launcher for that?" Sun asked, eyeing my rifle suspiciously.
"It''s got a rich history of defending wayward souls and lost children," I said, chuckling at the irony. "If there were ever a night I was gonna need it¡"
Nora blew me a raspberry as we began to pick up the pace. Though I could see Ruby still peeking at the rifle out of the corner of her eye. Girl had an eye for when something was up.
"It''s also chambered in a cartridge about as powerful as Ruby''s rifle," I said, smirking.
"¡ Oh." Sun nodded, choosing to let that lie.
I could tell it got Ruby''s Bighorner though. If we weren''t trying to rush off into danger, she''d probably have asked a million questions or something. As it was, we already had enough on our plate.
We tramped down a set of lightly enclosed stairs. Steel ones ringed by an industrial grade metal cage. It ran all the way from the top of the wall to the ground. Seemed more like something you''d find at a construction site than a prison. But with how old the place was, the occasional bit of construction was probably necessary. On the ground, everything was lit up as bright as mid-day. If there''d been an alarm going, someone had killed it. The courtyard was abandoned, vehicles and equipment mid-use. Like the people operating them had suddenly evaporated. Up ahead, towards the yards, I could make out people, some in orange jumpsuits, some in guard uniforms. The riots Tseren had mentioned.
If we were going to keep moving forward, that was as good a marker as any other.
I snapped a magazine into the receiver and pulled the charging handle back. It cycled flawlessly.
Randall Clark had taken good care of the rifle. Even when I found it, after centuries of sitting out in the elements of Zion, it was still in working order. For all his hardships, the man didn''t neglect the basics.
I thumbed the safety of the Survivalist''s Rifle, Clark''s rifle, off and gave Ruby a nod. She returned it with a determined grin.
"Let''s go."
Wander in the Dark
As he ran along the walls of the prison, Yatsuhashi wondered how this had become his life. His teammates beside him, it shouldn''t have felt so strange. Together, they''d all been through their fair share of strangeness and trouble. He''d been through some even before that first day, at the initiation ceremony, since the day he''d first discovered his Semblance, for all the trouble it''d caused along the way. Though that, at least, he knew he was the one wholly at fault. Everything that came after was poor judgment on the behalf of himself and his teammates. Not that he would complain about it either. Despite having matured since he''d first discovered his Semblance, he was still very much the boy he once was. There was some part of him that got a thrill out of pushing boundaries and skirting trouble. Even if he was smarter about it than he once was.
They say boys grow older, they don''t grow up. He''d technically done both, but only literally.
Getting put together with Coco Adel hadn''t changed that either. It was also more on her than either of his two other teammates. Fox, he knew to be serious to a fault, and Velvet, long suffering as she was, put up with all three of them. He couldn''t have asked for a better partner in her, even if they''d had a rocky start. The two of them, and their teammates together, had taken Beacon by storm, something he''d have never thought about when first leaving Mistral to hone his abilities. They''d built a reputation for being the top team in their year, and carried that title with them. It''d been a close contest between them and team LZLI, but they''d won it, mostly through Coco''s insistence that they needed to. Fittingly she was also the one with a fan base to maintain. Not that he complained about the attention he received either.
But had Yatsuhashi been told a year ago he''d be storming one of the most fortified places in the kingdom, racing to stop terrorists from stealing military hardware and freeing the inmates, he''d have been gobsmacked. He hadn''t expected a quiet school life, but he hadn''t expected such madness either.
Though, as he ran along the prison wall, he couldn''t help but admire the view of Vale. However brief such admiration was.
"Y''know, when I first enrolled, fighting terrorists wasn''t the first thing on my mind, right?" He grunted as he followed in line with his teammates. Coco and Fox ahead, Velvet and himself at the rear.
"Because obviously we were expecting it too," Velvet said, rolling her eyes. Yatsuhashi assumed she was as well, though he didn''t spare a glance at her.
"Just another quirk of the job," Coco answered coolly. "Can''t say it isn''t exciting."
"Wasn''t going to," Yatsu answered, hearing the gunfire echoing ahead of them. A feeling of apprehension tugged at his stomach. They''d all been trained, and continued to train with Fox, to properly use their Aura. To face the creatures of Grimm, they had to know how to use all of their abilities to stand against them. But they were not about to face the creatures of Grimm. They were about to face the White Fang. Armed with guns, explosives, and a numbers advantage. His team, meanwhile, had one regular gun to their name, and three melee combatants.
Yatsu trusted and favored his sword arm, but even he could do basic math. Dodging Grimm was a lot easier than dodging bullets. Most of the time.
Though there was one small advantage he was silently grateful for. Even if he didn''t appreciate where it came from.
"Think it was sweet that your boyfriend lent you that weapon of his," Yatsu smirked, looking briefly at Velvet.
"OH MY GODS CAN YOU NOT!?" Velvet squeaked as she ran. "I get enough of that from Coco, I don''t need it from you too."
"You''ve got to admit, it was pretty nice of him," Coco needled, briefly spinning around to look at Velvet. "At least he pays attention enough to lend a hand. You should thank him later, maybe he''ll finally get the hint."
"Yeah, sure," Velvet said, rolling her eyes. "Hey, how''s that back-brace working, haven''t heard you complaining about it recently, maybe you should thank him too."
"It''s feeling better," Coco answered coolly, turning back around. "You can tell him while pouring your heart out."
"I DON''T HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!"
Yatsuhashi stifled a laugh, he knew Fox and Coco were too. They all cared about Velvet, really they did. He knew best out of them that Velvet could take care of herself as well. She was just rarely put in a position to do so, both because of the nature of her weapon, and because they watched over her. Something that had only started to change recently, after spending so much time around the Courier. Yatsuhashi could still recall the conversation that''d transpired between the Courier and Coco. It was rare to see her lose her unflappable fa?ade like that. It was appreciated as well.
Just like, as Yatsuhashi could tell, Velvet appreciated it. Both the support, and the gun she''d been lent. He could see Velvet was unaccustomed to the extra weight, but she hadn''t denied the weapon either. Despite being her partner, and one of the people in her slowly expanding circle of close friends, even he couldn''t tell what the truth was. He wondered if Velvet could either. She was easily one of the smartest people he''d ever met, and the smartest he''d ever gotten to know. But that didn''t mean there weren''t times when even she was stumped by a question. Just because she got straight A''s on every test didn''t mean she knew all the answers.
But he also knew pondering on it in that moment was nothing more than a distraction from what was coming next.
Their team continued to race forward along the walls of the old castle, feet gliding over paths long worn smooth over countless patrols and untold soles, easily following the path and the sounds of gunfire that pointed the way ahead, and echoed behind them. They passed a few guards on the way, some of whom were holding their own lines, and nursing wounds. They were sporadic, and few paid them mind. The ones who did, questioned it only briefly. All that mattered was they weren''t White Fang, and they weren''t attacking them. It meant the wall was still secured. That mattered to them, at that moment.
Slowly, their destination came into view, curving around the wall. The gunfire grew ever louder and omnipresent. Below them the battlefield rolled out, as the White Fang began to hunker down, turning vehicles into barricades, firing on the wall with guns that seemed more like cannons. In kind, the upper walls belched fire back at them. The shouts and calls of the guards manning them were lost in the roar of battle. Only the occasional clamor of voices escaped the noise. Like bubbles rising from the foam of crashing waves.
"Looks like this is it!" Coco shouted, unfolding her bag, Gianduja, into its rotary-gun form. She scanned the upper wall. "We can double check with whoever''s in charge after the shooting stops."
''Sounds like a good way to get shot,'' Fox thought
"Bun-bun will stay up here and try to make an opening for you guys," Coco continued, motioning to Velvet and the weapon locked at her hip. "See if that gun''s actually worth something."
''Sounds like an even better way to get shot,'' Fox thought, scowling.
"And to get blown up," Yatsu agreed.
"Quit complaining, it''s not like we''ve got a choice," Coco groused, as Velvet began to move to the wall. She knelt beside one of the parapets for stability, as Coco continued. "I''ll make my way around the other side and drop down. We come at them from both sides we should be able to push them-"
Coco was interrupted, as Velvet fired her new weapon for the first time. It was followed by a deafening explosion below them. A ball of fire rose into the air as one of the vehicles shattered under the impact.
There was a half-second lull in the action, as all sides took note of the spectacle.
"¡" Velvet began to pull the trigger rapidly, sending another four grenades down into the kill-box below. "GET SOME!"
Explosions rang as her teammates all shared a look of amusement. Without another word, however, Coco ran further down the wall, determined to do as she said she would.
"She''s going to get us killed one of these days," Yatsuhashi said, looking off the wall.
''No arguments there,'' Fox nodded, stepping up next to Yatsu. ''In my experience though, life kills you anyway.''
Another grenade fired from Velvet''s weapon, eliciting a laugh from her as it went off. She sounded like she was enjoying herself, and Yatsuhashi liked that.
''¡ You should talk with her, man,'' Fox said.
''¡ I will when I know how she feels,'' Yatsuhashi thought back.
Without a moment''s hesitation, he levered Fulcrum from his back and threw himself off the wall, plummeting towards the battle below like a meteor, sword in hand. Fox followed immediately after him.
He could deal with that more easily than his own feelings
¡
We ran through the courtyard in near silence, able to follow the telltale signs of combat to guide ourselves. Namely, all the shouting and intermittent gunshots. Unlike the wall behind us, and the massive gunfight happening beyond it, the prison interior was far quieter, at least as far as explosions and gunfire went, anyway. Made it easier to determine where we needed to go, just had to follow the noise. Which meant keeping to the roads that were haphazardly paved between the buildings and gates, a heady mix of centuries old paved stone and modern asphalt, haphazardly melded together in patches and splotches of thick tar and stone. What lighting should''ve been active to try and help us was either knocked out or redirected.
Ruby was moving ahead of the group, and I was doing my best to keep close behind her. We were followed closely by Penny, Jaune, Weiss, Nora, and Ren. Blake, Sun, Yang, and Pyrrha took up the rear, and were actively making sure trouble wasn''t about to come at us from behind. We passed through another abandoned checkpoint, a simple chain-link gate, and passed into what I assumed was the main yard of the prison. Maybe a hundred yards between us and where the convicts would be allowed time under the sun. What little light was available was directed here.
Same with the fighting.
The main yard was a massive square of chain fence and barbed wire, only two ways in or out. I could see one fed directly into the prison itself, the other out into the retaining area we found ourselves in. The whole area encompassed the largest part of the actual prison structure to be outside. The massive exterior wall enclosed the retaining area around us, no means to climb out from inside. It was still only barely lit in this area, only the dim amber lighting of emergency power.
Within the cage of chains and wire, I could see the inmates rioting. They were dressed in vibrantly orange jumpsuits and white undergarments, impossible to mistake in any other way. A good number of them were assaulting the second exit point, the one leading to the retaining area. The first, the one leading into the prison, had already been torn open, spilling outward towards us. Clearly they were fighting to get out. But it wasn''t uncontested. At the exit into the retaining yard, I could spy two dozen guards in black and blue uniforms, each armed with heavy clubs, shields, and at least some form of firearm. Most of them were tight knit at the exit, forcing the convicts into a chokepoint. Something the convicts should''ve easily been able to overrun in numbers alone.
But they weren''t. I had a good guess why before Ruby confirmed it.
Ruby raised Crescent Rose and peered through the scope, frowning. "Why are they all fighting each other?"
"Gang-shit," I answered. "They''ve all got their own allegiances inside the prison. Can''t imagine everyone here is White Fang."
"They''re using the chaos as a chance to settle things," Blake noted.
"And will probably focus on escaping when they''re done," I added. "The White Fang is here for its own ends, they just knew they could count on everyone else to do what came naturally to them."
"I''m guessing we need to get through that?" Jaune asked, gripping the hilt of his sword as he looked at the Yard. "What then?"
"We need locations," I said. "Comms room, arsenal- probably the prison armory too if there is one. If the convicts get into that, things will get worse."
"Why don''t we ask those nice guardsmen for directions?" Penny asked, motioning to the chokepoint guards, who were endeavoring to switch people out as they sustained injury. One notably got beaned in the head with a half-brick-inna-sock.
The offending convict promptly disappeared beneath a tide of clubbing and truncheons.
"¡ Well if we don''t address them, we''ll probably be the ones getting the short end of the stick," I said.
"It''s either that, or we try to climb the fences," Ren said. "Don''t think getting tangled in barbed wire will be fun."
"Then let''s stop talking about it and get to it!" Nora squawked.
Without missing a step, Nora promptly broke off from the group and ran ahead, making a bee-line for the choke point like it was Pancake Day in the cafeteria.
"¡Do we really want to let her do the talking?" Sun asked.
"¡ I mean, Ren survives talking with her," I said, shrugging.
Ren shot me a sideways look, but promptly went running after her. Unfortunately, going to them first was the fastest way to get an idea of how things were laid out. Then we could piece out how we were going to tackle everything. I had a pretty good feeling I knew how things were going to need to happen, and I didn''t like it. But I''d sooner focus on what was happening in front of us than what was awaiting further ahead.
We started across the retaining yard after Ren and Nora. They hadn''t gotten much further ahead of us in the few seconds we''d waited, and we caught up with them shortly after they''d reached the chokepoint in the prison yard. The guards had managed a decent rotation, and had pulled at least two of their number back that''d taken a beating. The one who''d taken the halfbrick had blood running down his face, so his Aura must''ve been down when he got hit. The ones not currently holding the line or tending the wounded were double-checking their firearms, rifles and shotguns. They were paying attention to one of the guards in particular. He didn''t stick out much from the others, his uniform was the same as the others. But, now that we were closer, I could make out most of them had name plates plastered to the front of their gear. The one they were listening to was one ''Basil''.
About the time Nora and Ren reached them, he turned his attention towards them, looking them up and down briefly. Then he asked "Who in the Gods name are you supposed to be?"
"We prefer to be called reinforcements," Ruby said, as we stepped up. "Something you look like you need right about now."
The chief guardsman turned towards Ruby, and saw the rest of us approaching as well. I could tell that the other guards were apprehensive at our sudden appearance as well. But they didn''t dive head first into trying to fight us, so already a good start, situation withstanding.
"Reinforcements?" Basil asked, looking at us curiously. "You don''t look like VPD¡ You''re a little young to be Huntsmen as well."
"Well, we are. Sorta," Nora chirped.
"Your people on the wall let us through," Blake said. "They''re currently holding the west gate, we''ve got more people moving to help them."
"They did?" Basil asked. "We hadn''t heard anything since the riots started. With all the gunfire we assumed something was happening. We''ve been stuck out here since, haven''t the foggiest what''s happening inside."
"Tseren said your communications are down," Penny explained. "Whatever they''re doing inside, they''re making sure you get as little outside help as possible."
"We assumed as much, but we''re hardwired to most of the surrounding precincts," Basil added. "There''s no reason they shouldn''t have been here by now-"
"I''m gonna cut you off there chief, we''ve had this conversation already," I said, earning a confused scowl from Basil. "You''re under attack by the White Fang, and they coordinated a mass attack on Vale''s judicial system. No one else is coming to help unless we get the comms working again. On top of that, the Bullhead that flew in before was likely ferrying people in so they could access the arsenal you''ve got out back behind the prison."
Basil didn''t respond, instead just focusing on me.
"If you''ve got questions, ask them, but the longer we spend here the more likely it is things will get a whole lot worse," I said.
"¡ By the gods, you''re Crazy Steve," Basil said, shaking his head. "Bugger me, we really are cooked."
I sighed heavily through my nose. Of all the things we needed to focus on, this wasn''t it. Which became obvious once another knot of prisoners began to rush the chokepoint. The sounding chain-link fence buckled under the impact, followed by the audible clatter of the prisoners colliding with the guards.
"You''ve picked a right good time to show up then," Basil said, turning back to the chokepoint. "But how do you intend to help? We can''t even get back into the prison."
"That''s step one," Ruby said. "We keep trying to ''get inside'' but we keep running into roadblocks."
"I don''t think we''ll be getting inside any time soon," Basil said. "If we don''t keep the barricade up here, these miscreants will be over the walls before we can do anything else."
"Is the door unlocked?" Jaune asked. "We''ll worry about getting inside and figuring things out, we just need to know that we can."
"Lockdown would''ve kicked in when the riots started. Emergency power would''ve kept the locks functioning," Basil said. "For all the bloody good that did¡" He reached beneath his uniform and drew out his Scroll, extending it out. "Which of you are going in?"
We all raised our hands.
"Don''t be dense, who''s leading?" He corrected, annoyed.
"Me, Si-Steve, and um¡ Blondie," Ruby said, motioning between herself, me, and Jaune.
"Right. Scrolls out then," Basil said. We complied, and he briefly motioned his Scroll over ours. A brief message flashed on our screens, ''Access Granted''. "You''ve been given clearance to enter into the prison and some of the command offices. Whatever it is you''re going to do, that should be enough to grant access to what you need. Not as though you could make things any worse."
"Here''s hoping," I said, looking down at Ruby. "Once we''re inside, we need to get the power back on, that should help with a good chunk of our problems."
"Then let''s get in there!" Nora cried out, rattling at the fence like it was suddenly going to reveal a gap in itself.
Basil simply nodded and stepped aside. He motioned for anyone who wasn''t already holding the line to do the same, and gave us as clear an opening as possible. There was still a knot of guards and prisoners blocking the way, but that was going to be our problem to get through, not theirs.
My hands worked over Clark''s Rifle, double checking the mag, bumping the forward assist to make sure the bolt was chambered. As I did, I could hear the others readying their weapons, Ruby''s scythe unfurling, Jaune''s shield expanding. The look Basil gave us showed that he figured now would be a good time to get out of the way.
"Make a hole!" he shouted, stepping aside.
We charged forward before they had a chance to respond. Ruby broke away first, flying through the chokepoint and over the heads of the guards and inmates. Easy for her, she could actually fly. She was followed quickly by Penny, who launched herself over the knot, practically slamming through the inmates as they came back down. Even as that was happening, Nora and Yang flew forward at the knot of guards and inmates. The opening Basil had ordered only barely began to form as Yang and Nora slammed into them, bulldozing the people in their way. Inmates flew back out the other side as Nora whipped her hammer upward and Yang''s gauntlets rang out. A concussive shockwave blew through the air, scattering the convicts and blowing a fifteen foot clearing into the knot of them. It was enough to gain the attention of the rest of the yard, but not enough to distract them from their own squabbles.
Ruby circled back and landed in that opening, then dashed forward into the crowd with Nora, spring-boarding off Yang for the added momentum. Together they crashed into the crowd and began to cleave a path through them. Anyone not smart enough to get out of their way was smashed aside. Anyone who tried to actively slow them down was given a boot to the face or slashed by Ruby''s scythe. Nora''s hammer swung in powerful and heavy arcs around her, while Ruby''s scythe danced and spun. A blur of red streaking with a meteor of silver began to cleave into the yard. The trail they left in their wake momentarily remained open, threatening to close as the inmates regained their sense and began to fight. Before that could happen, the rest of us charged in after them.
Weiss and Ren moved in after them, effortlessly and gracefully sliding through the gap in the guards, hot on their heels. Weiss''s Semblance batted people aside as she fenced and struck with her toothpick, making the whole thing seem effortless. Ren managed much the same. He lacked Weiss''s power, but he made up for it with skill and finesse. Where Weiss metaphorically danced, Ren did the literal. Every swing that came for him was slipped and spun past. Countered swiftly by kicks, slashes of the knives of his weapon. They''d hook his opponents, and with a twist he sent them to the ground, then twist at the waist and shoot his pistol at another, moving deftly and with practiced ease.
Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake, and Sun charged in next. Pyrrha threw her shield and connected with a prisoner that''d been about to brain Ren. The disc of metal bounced back to her as the inmate slammed backward. Jaune rushed past Ren and bashed another with his shield, bringing his sword around in a slash that would''ve gutted an Aura-less man. Blake and Sun moved past even Jaune as they moved to catch up with our teammates, Blake''s weapon lashing out, wrapping itself around an inmate''s leg, pulling it out from under them. As they hit the ground, Sun bounced off their head and scissor-kicked another in the head. One of his clones spawned out and decked another in the groin. Yang then returned to the fray herself, grounding the inmate that''d taken the groin-shot, before rocketing off. She followed closely to our teammates and cleared the way as she went, forcing the path to stay open as the inmates all suddenly began to realize that there were people carving through them moving with all the ease of a hot knife through warm tallow.
Me and Penny were still at the gate, watching the way open before us, and the guards.
"Cor blimey," Basil said, watching the display.
"I haven''t a clue what the fuck that means, but you''re welcome," I said, motioning to Penny. "We''ll be going ahead. I suggest taking control here while you can."
Basil nodded, and turned towards his men. Without wasting a moment Penny and I spared a glance at each other before taking up the rear behind everyone. I swung Clark''s Rifle around front of me as we swept forward, Penny''s blades rising in their array. The inmates stayed back at first, as we kept pace with everyone. But as they managed to get about half-way across the yard, a couple of them found their courage and decided to get in front of me and Penny, trying to separate us. I shot the first one in the face, and the 12.7mm round planted them firmly onto their back, Aura shattered. Didn''t bother pulse-checking him, the bullet would be enough of a warning if it didn''t do its main job. The next person who tried, Penny blew aside with her swords as we built forward momentum, closing the distance. Somebody tried to leap at me from the side, and I swung the butt of my rifle up to catch them under the chin, followed with a light tap to the chest from the Cow Puncher. Someone from the other side of the gap charged at us, and one of Penny''s swords caught him. It slammed downward, point-first, digging into the ground through their shoe, pinning them. I twisted at the hip and double tapped him in the chest, Clark''s Rifle roaring like a cannon. The inmate crumpled backwards and we kept running. I rattled off another pair of shots at two inmates who looked like they might take the chance, and nailed them both. I know at least one of them had their Aura broken in the first place, a massive wound tore itself through their chest where the bullet hit.
12.7mm intermediate had been made to be used against lightly armored vehicles. To crack engine blocks and reactor casings. It''d been relegated to use against large and dangerous game when it couldn''t make the cut.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
It excelled at the latter. Especially when put in a rifle.
We caught up with the rest of our group about three-quarters of the way through the yard. As we did, the inmates began trying to encircle us, closing the gap as me and Penny moved in. But I could see, and hear, from the gunfire behind us it wouldn''t stay that way for long. Basil was trying to move his men after us to keep the momentum up. Given time he''d probably be able to catch up to us inside, we''d bought him the opening he''d needed to start moving again.
As Yang hit another inmate with a one-two combo, another tried to come at her from behind. She spun and heel kicked him, sending him back towards me and Penny, which ended with Penny slapping him out of the way with her swords. I snapped VATS open for a second and nailed one who''d been about to jump Jaune and Pyrrha''s flank. Caused him to crumple onto his back despite carrying forward with inertia. Ahead, I could see Nora and Ruby continuing to press forward, but getting bogged down in the melee. They needed a push.
I slapped Penny on the back, motioning to the front of the pack. "Push them."
Penny nodded wordlessly and shot forward as her blades swept behind her. Turning her leap into a thrust-assisted long jump. She crashed down into the front-brawl like a bombshell, clearing at least five inmates from in front of Ruby and Nora, unclogging things. The two-turned-three continued to surge forward, Penny splitting the way like a wedge. While she did, I spun open VATS briefly to scan the area, noted the three inmates that''d been about to jump us, and emptied the mag on them. Turning back around, I reloaded and closed the distance between me and Yang as she took down another two inmates, punching one in the face, kicking him in the stomach, then using him as a step-stone to bring a crashing fist down on another. Two more surged to take their place, and I nailed them both in the face, coming up behind her as Yang sprang to her feet.
"I didn''t need you to do that," Yang said darkly.
"You''re welcome," I told her, smacking another inmate in the face with the Cow Puncher. Felt that weakness in the mechanism resurge again. I folded it away, needed to be careful.
"I can cover myself," she said, sweeping the legs out from someone else and hammering them into the ground.
"Didn''t say you couldn''t," I added, kicking another in the balls, before kneeing him in the face. I then twisted and bumped off a trio of rounds into another inmate rounding on me with a pipe.
Yang grimaced, before catching another inmate with an uppercut that threw them fifteen feet into the air. Yang and I moved in step, pulling back in with the group, closing in on Jaune and Pyrrha. Yang bolted past them, catching two inmates that''d been about to pincer Sun. She caught one on the side of the head, sending them towards Jaune, who backhanded them with his shield. The other she sent at me, and I stiff-armed him, slamming him with a Ranger Takedown. My hand quickly returned to my rifle, and I shot an inmate that Blake had just narrowly avoided.
"This isn''t the time to be talking," Yang said, casually launching another inmate into a knot of them, before reloading her gauntlets.
"No, it''s not," I said, firing four and nailing three in the knot, before reloading. "But if something''s bugging you, don''t let it linger. Stewing on things rarely helps."
Yang''s scowl deepened, and she roared as she butterfly kicked another inmate in the head. She didn''t say anything more as we pushed ahead.
I''d noticed how uncharacteristically quiet she was being. If it was about what we''d talked about the previous night, then I''d clear the air with her when we had a moment. But she actually needed to be willing to talk with me too.
Maybe it wasn''t a problem I could actually help with.
I shook it off as we reached the wall of the prison building. Nora blew the door off the hinges with a blast from her grenade launcher and we ran inside. We were funneled into a tight corridor. It lead to another set of secure doors, and there was two-way glass in the wall. Checkpoint of some kind, probably necessary. Penny kicked the doors off the hinges at the other end of the hall.
"Thunder Thighs!" Nora cheered as she charged through with Penny, the rest of us just trying to keep on their trail.
We found ourselves moving into shadows and dim light. The same emergency lighting that''d illuminated the yard outside filled the air within as well. Unlike outside though, the noise level was much higher. More space for the sounds to echo and bounce off any available surface. There was plenty of it too. Screams and manic, insane laughter melding with shouts of orders and panic. Gunshots ringing distantly in the mad gloom. The dull and wet sound of metal striking soft tissue, battling the ring of metal against metal. The air smelled of humid sweat and a rapidly warming temperature. Couldn''t hear ventilation, could only hope it was running.
It was a madhouse. We had to find our way through it.
"Ok, we''re here, what now?" Yang asked, scanning the darkness as a trio of inmates blew past us. They were riding a janitor''s cart one of them had set on fire. Swear at least one of them was singing something.
"Dunno, but we need to get to the arsenal," Ruby said. "If they''re already back there, then we need to get back there and stop them."
"I''m going to guess that they are, but things don''t look good here either," Jaune said, beginning to step out into the darkness. He stopped a few feet out, not wanting to get grabbed by a Grue.
"Getting the power back on will help everyone, and it''s the first step to getting comms open," I said. "Place like this should have a backup generator running, so someone''s actively knocking the power out."
"Three different directions doesn''t make this any easier," Weiss snipped, turning her Scroll''s light to help see the corridor better. It was a long stretch, cut down into a hallway further on.
"But all three of them are important," Ren said. "Unless we feel like trying to fix this entire mess by ourselves."
"Hard pass," I said. "I volunteer for enough crap already, I''m not cleaning this mess up."
"Then I guess that means we''re going to have to split up even further," Ruby said, pacing quickly, drumming her fingers on Crescent Rose. "We can all focus on getting the power back on, then take care of what we want. Me, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and¡ Sun?"
"I''ll go wherever Blake''s at," Sun nodded, leaning on his staff.
"-and Sun will go to the arsenal. Jaune, you and your team can focus on trying to get everything back under control in here. Six, you and Penny can focus on trying to get in contact with people outside the prison. Hopefully that''ll be enough."
"I think we can manage that," I nodded. "We''ll come running after it''s squared away."
As I said the words, my Pip-Boy made its ground-out noise, signaling its newest set of instructions. A nostalgic sensation to have it happening as frequently as it had been that night.
-Objective Completed: Run Damage Control
-Objective: Get the power back on
-Optional: Locate a diagram of the Prison''s electrical grid
"Now we just need to know where it actually is," Weiss said, scanning the corridor. Could''ve sworn I saw something moving myself.
"Maybe we can ask someone for directions," Penny said helpfully.
"Who would be dumb enough-" Weiss started to say.
Then a figure lurched out of the darkness behind her, gangly arms wrapping around her. One arced over her shoulder, wrapping around her chest and gripping at her coat with a bony hand. The other came up and around from the opposite side, angling itself beneath her neck.
The shiv in his hand rested against Weiss''s neck.
"Hello pretty lady," the inmate hissed, face looming over her shoulder.
No sooner did he announce himself, than a glyph appeared underneath Weiss. Within half a heartbeat, Weiss rocketed backward, slamming herself and the inmate into the nearest wall at the speed of Mach-fuck. She immediately rebounded, spun and back stepped towards us, drawing her sword. The inmate stayed dazed against the wall, clearly not expecting to get thrown aside like a sack of flour.
As he came back around, he found a dozen different blades, gun barrels, and hammerheads hovering scant inches away from him. Not a word shared between any of us on how we were going to handle this. I liked that.
"On a long list of dumb motherfuckers, you''re easily the dumbest motherfucker I''ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. Congrats, that''s not easy," I said, angling Clark''s rifle at his head.
"Any of you get the number off the truck that hit me," the inmate said, scowling.
"Rude," Weiss said.
"But you''ve also managed to come at just the right time to avoid getting lynched for that stunt. We need directions," I told him. "Tell us where we can turn the power back on, and we''ll leave you with your bits intact."
"Man, you ain''t got-" the inmate started.
Then Ruby buried the tip of her scythe into the wall next to his head. The concrete wall next to his head.
"Temper, temper," I told Ruby. "You''ll ruin her cutting edge like that."
"I can sharpen her," Ruby replied, trying to mimic my tone. "Needed to test the edge anyway."
The gravity of just how badly he fucked up began to settle in on the inmate. He didn''t try to move, but I could tell he wanted to shrink back in on himself enough to disappear.
"You were saying?" I asked the inmate.
"¡ Take the corridor down that way, hook a right, go straight, then make a left into the main atrium," the inmate said "You can find the directory in there. Pretty sure I saw some other guys heading for the maintenance wing a while ago, so that''s probably where you''re looking to go."
A moment passed as we let our weapons linger on him. After it passed, I angled my muzzle upward and away from him. "Now, was that so hard?"
A relieved smile began to work across the inmate''s face.
I slammed my boot into it, cracking the wall behind him. He went limp.
"Let''s go," I said, turning to move down the corridor. The others followed silently behind me. Though I''m pretty sure I heard Weiss call him a ''creep''. It was the lowest on the list of words she could have used, and I would''ve applauded her restraint at a different time. Or maybe scolded her for having restraint. Hard to tell, given the time.
We ran down the corridor at a brisk pace, cutting hard to the right at the intersection. As we went, we only passed a few inmates. Most of them still seemed more focused on settling grudges, or tilting vending machines, than they did in us. There was really only one guy who tried to take a swipe as we went. A quick pop from Clark''s Rifle put an end to that. Far enough down the corridor, we hooked a left down another hall and kept going. The tiling in the floor and paint on the walls changed. We were moving away from the yard, and the architecture was pointing towards something more formal. There were a pair of security doors we had to go past. They''d already been forced though, and given the sounds coming from the corridor ahead of us, it was easy to surmise why and how.
We approached the end of the corridor and entered into the main atrium of the prison. The place was pure pandemonium. The emergency lighting had been enhanced by burning trash bins that the convicts set about. Reminded me somewhat of the wasteland. Orange and yellow flames licked over the lips of them, thick plumes of smoke rising towards the ceiling, leaving the air thick with the smell of charred cloth and burned hair. You learn to identify the two after long enough. The inmates were congregated in their own groups, handling business among themselves, whatever that entailed. There were some that were just actively breaking everything they could find, or breaking into whatever they felt like. Such as a secured office built into one of the walls, separated by security glass, which they promptly threw a chair at, the glass crackling out in a spiderweb. Others were busy shaking, or beating, each other down for one reason or another. Then there were the ones who were just partying. Celebrating the first bit of freedom they''d likely had in a long time. There wasn''t much separating the groups. Some were Faunus, some were human, some were mixed. Some looked like they''d come from white-collar work, others looked like they''d been pulled straight from the wasteland and given a bath. There were stories of bandits and other criminal elements outside the Kingdoms, classic Raider nonsense. If they weren''t being put down, they''d have to land somewhere.
But I didn''t see anything that immediately identified anyone as being with the White Fang. Either they were keeping a low-profile, or had moved to other parts of the prison. Both were probable.
None of the inmates paid us any mind as we moved out into the atrium. My eyes scanned over the walls. Searching for some kind of directory. A place this size would need one, even if it was just a few signposts.
After a moment or two of searching, I spied one halfway across the atrium, one of the interior walls. Looked like sign postings alright, and a map.
Cracking my neck, I walked calmly out into the atrium. After a moment, the rest of the group followed me out. No shooting, no quick or sudden movements to attack. The inmates were busy handling themselves, phrasing, and that would have to stand. We didn''t have the time to deal with them when it was just each other they were eating. I could tell at least a few of them were acknowledging our presence, but otherwise stayed back. If they were just looking to cause trouble, they''d be out in the yard, kicking the shit out of each other and the guards.
"I don''t like this," Ruby said under her breath, looking around. "Should we really just be letting this happen?"
"On a good day, no," I told her. "But today isn''t one. Unless you see them trying to attack you, or going after prison personnel, leave them be. Like it or not this place has its own code for handling business. Most prisons do."
Ruby stayed silent for a moment, hesitant. "¡ I still don''t like it."
"Never said you had to," I agreed.
It''d been like that with the NCRCF and the offshoots from the Powder Gangers. Criminal scumbags or not, they handled their own business inside the prison. It was part of why they could be left alone for as long as they were. Even if they were terrorizing the surrounding area, they were good about keeping their internal problems self-contained. Never would''ve discovered Cooke and his crew if I hadn''t been chased through the area by a sniper. If the prison system was anything like the one back home, most of the inmates had their own way of handling things. Riot or not, gang business came before personal. Few of them would''ve had a reason to bother us either. Guys like the one that''d tried to grab Weiss were the exception. They didn''t tend to last long.
We managed to make it to the directory and map without further incident. But Jaune and his team kept watch on the atrium while me, Sun, Penny, and my teammates began to dissect the map.
"Looks like we''re right about ''here''," I said, running a finger over the map until I found the yard we''d come from, tracing it back to the atrium. "But we need to be¡ ''there''." My finger followed the map, using the directory to guide my finger through the printed paths of the map to one of the maintenance corridors. It was large enough to count, and it appeared there was more than one. Likely to handle plumbing, ventilation, and electrical separately as needed. Place was big enough to warrant it. Each was marked to show which was meant for which, making it easy enough to see the paths we need to take to get there directly.
"We also need to find the communications room¡ right ''here''," Penny said, pointing to one of the upper corners of the map. It was partway into what was identified as the Administrative, or Willowby, wing. What the importance of the name was I couldn''t tell. But each of the wings seemed to have one. Hickorie, Pinesall, Oakholme, and others. Bit of a tree bent to it.
"This should be the exit out to the arsenal too," Jaune said, tapping a point midway between the comms room and power room. It was at a crux between the Oakholme and Willowby wings. Made some sense that Administration might need quick access. "We get the power back on, Six and Penny can split off from us at the door, and we can make our way over to the Arsenal."
"Then we''ll join back up with you when we''re done," I agreed. "We''ve managed to get this far, but we''re running against the clock here. The ones making a go at the arsenal are our priority. We don''t stop them, tonight''s going to be a bust."
"Then let''s stop gabbing and get going!" Nora squawked, drawing the ire of a few inmates, more of whom were starting to give us the stink eye.
I almost wanted to dare them to try something, but we had bigger ants to deep fry.
Though I noted the way one of the inmates was eyeing us. He was a faunus. Big guy, hairy, round ears poking out the top of his head. Kinda reminded me of a yao guai. He was looking at us intensely.
I measured the odds of the White Fang having one or two guys hanging around the prison keeping an eye on things. Didn''t particularly like them, but if I just randomly started taking potshots, I''d be setting off a powder keg. Didn''t need the extra distractions right then.
We turned down the corridor and left.
¡
The Power Room, Maintenance Room, Breaker Room, or whatever it''s called, was bigger than expected. Maybe it shouldn''t have been unexpected, the room was funneling power throughout the entire prison. Which made it appropriately big then, but still bigger than I''d have thought.
The room was newer than the rest of the surrounding structure. I could tell by the way the stone looked, plus the presence of the obvious steel beams being used to reinforce the room. Reminded me somewhat of the turbine rooms inside Hoover Dam, mixed with the substation the White Fang had tried to corner me in. It was an open space, set inside near the heart of the prison. Banks of breakers ran along the walls, converters bunched together on the floor. The space was more neatly organized and planned than the Dam or substation though. The guys tasked with maintaining it had been doing their job. The wiring was properly squirreled away and marked to make sure they couldn''t be confused and crossed. Any piping that had to be run through the room was also carefully kept to the walls and color coded. Whoever was tasked with it probably understood they were in a building built over a century ago and tried to keep things running smooth. As smooth as could happen, anyway.
There was a small ante-room between the breaker room and the hallway, an office the chief electrician or engineer worked out of in case something required their attention, leaving two doorways between us and the breaker room. The extra space came with the bonus of having large windows, at least. Gave us a good view of the room and its occupants while still keeping well out of sight.
I crept to the edge of the office doorway, double checking to make sure I had my numbers straight. There were a number of inmates scattered through the room. At least one group of three near the furthest wall, a group of two along one of the walls running adjacent to the office, perpendicular. A lone one at the parallel wall. Another group of three out on the floor near one of the converters. Then a final group of three along the wall across from the door out of the office. That last group wasn''t all inmates. Two of them were, but the third member of that group was wearing a guard uniform. What I assumed to be one anyway. Button up shirts, vests, and slacks weren''t a prison jumpsuit by any count. Even beside which, they were quite obviously tormenting the guy.
Everyone present, inmates and guard, also had the distinction of being Faunus. Which held well with this being the White Fang''s doing, another piece of their grand plan. My guess: knock-out the power as a redundancy to make sure communications stayed down.
Keeping low to the office furniture, mainly a desk and a few chairs, I crept back out of the office into the hallway. The others were waiting there as I stood up, out of view of the doorway.
"We''re looking at about a dozen people total," I said. "One guard, about eleven inmates total that I can see."
"We can rush in there and take them," Nora said, grinning. "Should be easy enough."
"Would be," I agreed. "But we can''t risk wrecking the room any worse than it is. We need the power on, they don''t."
"Then we need to handle this quietly," Blake said, peeking into the breaker room through the office. "I''ve done this before, you have too, right Six?"
"Always option one in my book," I agreed. "But complete silence is going to be impossible in a room that small, and we need to move quickly. If there''s going to be any fighting, it can''t last more than a few seconds. Lucky for us we''re dealing with one-to-one odds. Plan this out, we each only need to take out one."
"What are we looking at then?" Jaune asked, moving to the wall. He quickly marked out a rectangle on the wall using his sword, then motioned to a corner of it. "This is the room, the corner is the door, where is everyone?"
I moved over to the improvised map and began marking out where the inmates were from where I''d seen. Along the walls, on the floor, and the space between. I also marked where the hardware was we needed to avoid. We didn''t have long to come up with anything fancy, but the way I saw it, things didn''t need to be either. We needed the power back on, and we, probably, didn''t want the guard to die. That was it. Property damage and what got broken along the way wasn''t our concern. We could worry about that after we weren''t running against the clock to stop that whole mess. We quickly divvied up things, and everyone was more or less in agreement on their part in things. Not like we had room for arguments anyway.
Rough plan made, we all slipped quietly into motion. Yang, Nora, Penny, Pyrrha, Weiss, and Jaune moved into position in the outer-halls, using the crude map for direction. As they got into position Blake, Sun, Ruby, Ren, and I moved back into the office and began to stack up on the door to the breaker room. None of the White Fang seemed to be paying attention to the only obvious entrance to the room. Likely figured they''d notice if anyone was approaching. Rookie move, should''ve left at least one guy on watch.
"Are we sure this is going to work?" Ren asked impassively, looking out at his target. "There''s a good chance they''ll notice us."
"Always a chance," I told him. "But we''ve got surprise on our side, and with even numbers, I think we''ve got a training advantage that''ll tip the scale. We hit fast enough they won''t even realize what''s happening."
Ren nodded, quickly scanning the room again.
"We ready?" Sun asked, more furtively glancing around the room, tense and ready to go.
"On your mark," I said. "You know the signal."
Sun shot me a smile, ready.
Wordlessly, Blake moved into motion, followed by Ren and Sun. With the entrance unwatched, they slipped silently into the room and swept into the shadows, moving onto the converters and banks of equipment, almost silently across the room, or at least quiet enough that the White Fang paid them no heed as they crossed to the far wall, towards the group of three the rest of us wouldn''t be able to get to. The tricky one was the guy waiting in the middle, around the converters. He seemed to notice some movement, but didn''t react fast enough to actually catch any of them. But I knew what I was looking for. Their silhouettes stayed in the range of my low-light vision. They lingered in the shadows of the machinery as they approached the distant group, waiting for Ruby and me to make our play.
Everyone was in position.
"You sure you can make the shot?" I prodded, pulling Clark''s Rifle around front of me.
"Pff, easy," Ruby whispered, smirking as she carefully shifted Crescent Rose into its rifle configuration. She eyed my weapon. "What about you? You''ve got iron sights."
"Child''s play," I smirked back. "Kinda like needing a scope to hit a target less than thirty feet away."
Ruby gave me a shocked look. Clearly incensed, her off-hand swept back against the small scope on Crescent Rose, catching it sideways. The scope folded sideways against the receiver, out of line with the sights. Should''ve been annoyed she might try to sandbag herself at a time like this, but we had bigger things to worry about. Besides, that close a distance, the scope would''ve actually been more a burden than a help.
Everyone in position, I silently began a countdown I relayed to Ruby through hand gestures.
Three.
Two.
Go.
We both swung up and out from the doorway, muzzles of our rifles rising as we did. It''d happened so fast that the White Fang hadn''t even reacted as we moved. Just for success''s sake, I opened VATS and made the shot clean. I squeezed back on the trigger the same time as Ruby fired.
Both shots nailed their respective target in the head. The unexpected shots struck home, already more than enough to nearly bypass Aura on their own, the two White Fang dropped like sacks of potatoes. The thunder of the gunshots echoed in the cramped walls of the room, drawing the attention of the other White Fang, all of whom began to whip about, trying to figure out what happened.
They had maybe three seconds to figure it out.
Then the walls came caving in as everyone else leapt into motion. The two exterior walls bust inward as Penny and Nora both made their moves. They hammered through the masonry with ease, Nora''s hammer practically flattened one of the White Fang against the floor, while Penny''s energy blast blew her group apart. As Ruby and I moved out of cover, Yang, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Jaune moved through the newly formed openings. Without missing a beat, they set upon their groups, slamming and hammering them as they made their way in. Easy for Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha, they had the shields, or gauntlets in Yang''s case, to make it happen. Weiss, on the other hand, had been tasked with the guy waiting in the middle of everything. Right as he was about to get some meager form of bearing, a glyph appeared beneath his feet and he was rocketed up into the ceiling. He crashed against a girder hard enough for it to ring throughout the room, then fell a dozen or so feet back to the concrete below. Even before he hit the ground, Blake, Ren, and Sun had practically swamped their trio of people. Instead of a three-on-three, Sun and Blake''s clones turned it into a six-on-three brawl.
They were practically just kicking the White Fang for fun by the time everyone else was inside the room.
Just as quickly the fighting was done.
We were left standing in the room surrounded by incapacitated White Fang and a lone guard, who looked completely out of it.
I slung Clark''s Rifle back over my shoulder and began quickly scanning the room. Everyone began to regroup as I went, slowly moving gathering near the guard.
"W-who are you people?" he asked, an olive skinned faunus, horns jutting out of his head like a Bighorner''s.
"Reinforcements," I answered, still searching, flipping breakers as I went. Seemed they''d been thorough about throwing as many of them as they could. "As close as you''re getting to them anyway."
His eyes narrowed briefly on me. "Wait, aren''t you-"
"We''re here to help," Ruby cut him off. "We''re kinda in a rush so there''s no time to explain, do you know how to get the power back on?"
"Uh¡" the Guard thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, the power got cut out and I got volunteered to come get it back on. Warwick was supposed to be on duty here tonight, I don''t know where he went when the fighting started."
I elected not to tell him there was a body crammed in between two of the converters and kept working. "It seems like they were just throwing the switches. Safer than trying to break everything, the kind of current this place probably runs, they wouldn''t want to risk electrocuting themselves."
"It''s not as fun as it sounds," Nora piped up, slapping the guard on the back. "So, what''re ya in for, bub?"
"What am I in for?" the guard asked, incredulous. "What''re you here for? How''d you even get past the gate?"
"Tseren let us through, she and the guards at the gate are trying to hold the line against people pushing in from outside," Ruby explained. "You guys have a full-scale raid going on right now."
"¡ Oh¡ Well, that explains a few things," the guard answered, scratching his cheek, before sobering up. "Since you know what''s going on, can you fill me in? I have guys I need to get back to."
"The White Fang are trying to raid the arsenal conjoined to the prison," Blake explained. "They''ve got several riots going on inside Vale right now trying to keep everyone distracted, on top of cutting power and communications."
The guard let out a whistle. "Ok, yeah, wow that''s bad. We were wondering how they were able to rush the armory like that."
"Armory?" Sun asked, drawing everyone''s attention, excluding mine. I was paying attention while trying to get the switches flipped. Penny had moved to help get things moving again as well, motioning to which ones were more necessary than others.
"Me, Jameson, Chrome, and Pewter were on armory duty tonight," the guard answered. "When the riots started, we were supposed to hand out equipment, but a bunch of the inmates rushed us and tried to take everything. We had to lock the room down, so we couldn''t get supplies out. We tried to radio in what was happening, but things got out of hand fast. Last I heard most of the available officers had to set up inside the cafeteria, the rioting basically has them boxed in."
My hand rested on the last of the switches to be thrown, and I looked at the rest of my group. I could see the looks on their faces, troubled. People were in danger, and they wanted to help. But we weren''t there to save everyone, we had much worse problems to deal with. But that didn''t change the fact that they wanted to do something about it, I just knew.
I flipped the switch, and sounds began to echo through the room, the click of the breakers and converters re-energizing. A dull hum and whirr could be heard as the ventilation slowly began to circulate air throughout the building again. Penny and I went to rejoin them. Right about that time, Jaune spoke up.
-Objective Completed: Get the Power back on
-Objective: Re-engage Comms
-Optional: Provide support to the trapped Prison Guards
"I guess this is where we''ll be getting off then," he looked towards the guard, whose name tag read ''Thistle''. "Can you show us the way?"
"But what about the arsenal?" Ruby asked.
"You girls can stay focused on that," Ren answered. "Six and Penny were going to split off and help get communications reopened, we''re just doing like they are."
"We can''t just leave them behind when they''re in danger," Nora added. "They''re, like, supposed to have everything under control anyway!"
"Helping them regain control of the prison means help can arrive faster in the long run," I said, nodding but not necessarily agreeing. "But long-run isn''t the name of the game."
"Then I suppose we''d better hurry," Pyrrha said. "We''re all running behind as it is."
I shared a look with Ruby, and I could tell she was unsure about the decision. All of us were capable in a fight, but getting spread out in a situation like this was asking for trouble. We''d already lost CFVY at the gate, and the split for comms repair was unavoidable. This though, this was just taking on more trouble we might not be able to handle.
Despite that, I also knew she wasn''t going to shy away from it either. People needed help, what more needs to be said?
She looked back at them, nodding. "Be fast, ok?"
"And if there''s trouble, say so," I added. "We might not be able to come running, but knowing if things go south is better than not knowing."
Jaune nodded. "We''ll do our best," He then looked at Thistle, nodding. "Can you show us the way?"
Thistle nodded quickly, stepping past them. "It''s this way, if we hurry, we can get what we need from the armory and help the guys in the cafeteria."
He hurried to the doorway and rushed out, quickly followed by JNPR, who saluted and waved at us as they disappeared into the prison. As they did, the lights began to properly blink back on, replacing the dim, emergency red with a vibrant and full yellow glow. The light illuminated the halls and corridors as we worked our way back out into them. It wasn''t much better looking in the better lighting, but at least now I could see without needing my helmet turned on.
"This is where we''ll be parting, too." I said, before pointing down the hall. "If you girls keep to this hall, you should have a straight shot to the door that leads out to the arsenal. I''ve got no idea what you''ll find out there, but I''m almost certain it''s not going to be good."
"We''ll deal," Sun said. "We''ve made it this far, right?"
"This has been the warm-up," I told him. "What''s out there, is going to be everybody they had prepared to raid this place, now moving to better arm themselves."
"It''s only going to get harder from here," Blake agreed, pursing her lips. "We can only hope that whoever''s out there isn''t going to be prepared for us either."
"Personally, I doubt they are," Weiss said. "We might not be prepared for this, but having seen what they''re capable of, frankly, I''m not impressed."
"Keep fighting smart and it''ll stay that way," I said. "Remember, I care more about all of you making it home than I do any of them." I motioned to the still incapacitated inmates. "Do what you''ve got to do. There''s no shame in it."
I noted the way Yang cringed as I said that. Nobody else did.
"Right," Ruby nodded. "Then I guess this is it. See you in a bit?"
"Hopefully," I agreed. "I''ll let you know if anything goes wrong."
She smiled, then turned and took off down the hall, followed by our teammates and Sun. There wasn''t much more that could be said than that. We all had our own tasks that needed accomplishing now, if tonight wasn''t going to turn to hell in a handbasket. More than it already had, at least.
"I feel like everything has gone well so far, don''t you?" Penny asked brightly.
"¡Totally," I said, shaking my head. "Come on, let''s see if we can''t get the phone working."
We turned and followed after Ruby, the way illuminated, but no more certain than it was in the dark.
Life in the Line
Despite the insanity of the night''s events, Ruby Rose couldn''t help but feel a twinge of excitement. As she, her teammates, and their close friends stormed the prison, she felt focused. As though she''s found her element and was staying firmly planted in it. She wouldn''t describe all the fighting that''d gotten them inside as ''fun'', but it''d gotten her heart pounding. With all of them working together, she was sure they could still win here.
Even as everyone had been splintered off, she still felt as though they could win.
Though, now racing down the corridor leading to the arsenal, she felt her confidence waver. Having already watched the Courier and Penny pass her as they went to handle their own tasks, they were now even fewer than before. She still believed, yes, they could win. But losing more than half of her friends to other trouble in the prison had blown a tidy hole in the little plan they''d had. It put a feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach she couldn''t shake, but she trusted them, just as she trusted her teammates. They were going to make it through this and win, grouped together or not.
"The exit should be just ahead," Weiss said, running alongside Ruby. "Do we have any idea what we''re doing once we get there?"
"Nope!" Ruby answered, steadily getting ahead of everyone. "Open to ideas!"
"Typical," Weiss huffed.
"Not hearing any ideas, snowflake!" Sun chimed, keeping pace handily, Blake at his flank.
"Stop calling me that!" Weiss hissed as the group rounded a corner into a long, straight section of hallway. Ahead of them, Ruby could see an opening in the corridor, a concourse between it and a third hall. As they approached, she could see it spilling towards a doorway of reinforced steel, blocked by gating and barred walls. A checkpoint of some kind, she realized, to keep the prisoners from slipping through what would otherwise be an easy exit. But the checkpoint was abandoned. What she could see of it, bins for metal-detectors, chairs at monitors and the like it, were in disarray. Not the chaos of a fight, but as though they''d been abandoned mid-use. With the restored power most of the checkpoint had begun the process of rebooting itself. Something they each discovered, as they ran through the archways of the metal detectors. For each of them it made a shrill chirp, detecting their weapons, the few metal adornments on them.
"Where are they?" Blake asked. "Shouldn''t there be guards waiting here?"
"With everything that''s going on, I don''t think they''d be waiting here for long," Sun said, scratching the back of his neck as he passed through the metal detector, eliciting another angry screech.
"This is a direct path to where Vale stockpiles most of its military hardware," Weiss countered. "Of all the places they should be staying, you''d think this would be one of them."
"People don''t always make smart decisions when the fighting starts," Yang said, glaring at the archway as she passed through it. She then turned her gaze to the reinforced door in front of them. "So I guess we go through there next?"
"Yeah¡" Ruby answered, looking at the doorway. She cast her gaze at the machinery that surrounded it, and approached. The pane of glass set into the wall near the door confirmed that yes, there was a second set of doors past it to help secure the checkpoint. They would need to go through both. "Two sets of doors¡" She looked down at the controls in front of her, searching for an override that would allow her to open both. "Ok, if I can open the first set of doors, we just need to find a way to open the other-"
As she spoke, she heard the sound of metal groaning, and the ping of hydraulics being forcibly over pressured. Ruby looked up from the controls and through the window. As she did, she watched as the interior doors began to buckle outward into the checkpoint, before a sudden gout of fluid burst from the walls and they slammed open. An alarm began to blare in the checkpoint, as Ruby saw the black glyph that''d appeared in the frame of the security door disappear. Despite the ringing in her ears from the alarm, she leaned back from the controls and looked at her partner.
Weiss Schnee stood there, sword thrust into the ground and a similar, white glyph glowing beneath herself. She had a look of concentration about her, as she glared at the space where the door had been. She withdrew her weapon from the ground, returning it to her side as her teammates, and their plus-one regarded her.
"¡ What?" Weiss asked, looking at them in confusion.
"What!?" Ruby shouted over the alarm.
"I asked ''what?''!" Weiss repeated.
"What!?" Ruby tried again over the alarm. "I can''t hear you!"
"What!?" Weiss asked.
"I''m going deaf in here, can we just go outside already!?" Blake interrupted.
"¡What!?" Ruby asked.
Unable to take the noise anymore, Ruby just shook her head and began pressing buttons on the control panel, convinced that at least one of them would allow her to open the doorway to the outside world. She was indeed rewarded, when the second set of doors began to sluggishly move outwards themselves, opening the way back into the outside world. Though it also came with the added benefit of making the lights of the checkpoint flash uncontrollably, and barring the path behind them, leaving only one way forward.
Not planning to turn back regardless, Ruby left the controls and circled back around through the blasted open doorway. She waved her hand. "Come on!"
Understanding the basic message, her teammates followed. They passed quickly through the checkpoint, away from the blaring alarm and flashing lights and back into the night air, now once again dimly illuminated by the exterior prison lighting. The path beyond the door was paved, surrounded on either side by the barbed fencing of the prison. It led away from the building, up the natural rise the prison found itself on. Distantly, light could be seen shining, beyond a thin cover of trees.
Ruby could hear gunfire echoing all around her, both coming from elsewhere in the prison behind her, and echoing from ahead of her. She could not distinguish one from the other. They mingled and twisted together in a discordant cacophony of noise that, on different days, she was actually quite fond of. Though given the circumstances around her, Ruby could not find the charm she normally did.
As they stepped outside once more, Ruby turned to look once more at Weiss. "That was cool!" she said, smiling at her partner. "Since when have you been able to do that?"
"Since earlier tonight, when I flipped a truck over," Weiss mused, stepping briskly outside, joining Ruby.
"You flipped a truck over!?" Ruby asked. "How did I miss that?"
"It had been during the fighting at the front gate," Weiss said, smirking as she shook her head. "Simply forcing my way through things is so uncouth¡ Yet now I''m finding I''m quite capable of it."
"You should''ve tried it sooner," Sun said, stepping out after Weiss, tailed by Blake and Yang. "Could probably have avoided a bunch of stuff if you''d just started throwing things around."
"I didn''t know that I could," Weiss countered with a huff. "That certainly felt like the upper limit of what I could do though. Even then I''m surprised I could do it."
"Guess Six was right that you should try experimenting with it more," Blake said, smirking.
Weiss shot her teammate a dirty look, and huffed. "¡ Well, he wasn''t wrong. I''ll admit that."
Ruby chuckled at her partner before turning back towards the path ahead of them. "C''mon! We need to hurry¡ Oh."
She immediately stopped dead in her tracks, as she gazed at the sight in front of her, something the rest of her team slowly realized was also there. Ruby didn''t know how she could''ve missed it, when she''d first stepped outside. Perhaps her eyes simply hadn''t adjusted to the gloom beyond the prison walls. Or perhaps her excitement and zeal to carry on with the danger in the evening air had taken her attention.
But she found it returned to her at that moment. She almost wished it hadn''t, really.
The smell hit her first. Metallic and foul in a way that made her skin crawl. Despite herself, she found it familiar. It conjured to mind images of the previous night''s endeavors with the general and his subordinates. She hadn''t realized it was there, in all the fighting. It was something she''d only noticed after being able to step outside again and smell the night air.
It never occurred to her that blood had such a strong smell to it.
When there was so much of it, the smell only got worse. Now it was mingled with something else, multiple things. The acidic, putrid smell of vomit and the gut churning stink of festering body odor. It hit her nose like a fist and tried to pull her stomach out through her mouth. In a bid to try and ignore how atrocious it was, foolishly, she tried to breathe through her mouth. She gave up on that the moment she felt it hit her tongue.
Despite that, the sight in front of her was even worse, not helped by the dim lights coming off of the prison.
Weiss stepped beside her and gagged. "Oh¡ oh no."
"By the gods," Blake breathed. All of them pulled around her and surveyed the sight.
Ruby counted at least two dozen people that she could see. What was left of them. In the dim light of the prison she could see the uniformed bodies of the prison guards on the ground in front of her. They were spread out across the ground, weapons in hand, or near where they lay. Some of them lay face down in the dirt, a few on their sides. More were facing towards the sky, faces slack and grayed in the dim light. The light reflected glassy in the eyes of the nearest one, and Ruby couldn''t hear any breathing. Not a single sound to say any of them were still alive.
The state they were in, Ruby wasn''t sure if she should wish they were.
The guards lay twisted and contorted in the best of cases. Merely swept aside as though they were little more than an afterthought. Riddled with gunfire and forgotten, laying in dark and thick pools of gore. The dark ichor spread out in rivulets, connecting all of them as steam rose in the cooling night air. But the worst among them lay in pieces. Chests and stomachs split from ribs to groin, guts lying thick on the ground like snakes coiled on themselves. Others still, slashed across the waist, bisecting them. Bodies cut and cleaved as though they''d been little more than paper. Faces frozen with the thin remains of panic.
Ruby Rose had stumbled onto the site of slaughter.
"¡ Guess we found out where the guards went," Sun said numbly, trying in vain to cover his nose against the stench in the air. "Ugh¡"
"It''s horrible," Weiss spoke, voice brittle. "So¡ brutal."
"I''ve seen this before," Blake said, voice distant as she cautiously approached the carnage. She looked down at the nearest guard, face falling. "Before I left the White Fang, I saw the aftermath of a raid one of our leaders went on¡" She shook her head. "It''s¡ it''s even worse."
Mustering her strength, Ruby stepped forward next to Blake. She reached out a hand and placed it upon Blake''s shoulder. Trying to provide her with a reassurance Ruby herself didn''t feel. She turned and looked down at the pool of gore nearest her boot, trying to keep her eyes from tracking deeper into it. To the body of a young woman who lay on her side in it. Her glassy gaze fixed back towards them, the prison.
"You said it yourself, The world''s not a nice place," Ruby said, unable to find the words she felt she needed to say. "¡ But we can make it better. That''s why we''re here tonight. To stop people who would do something like¡ this."
Despite the urgency of their situation, Ruby found herself stuck at the scene. She wanted to urge them all forward. They needed to stop the White Fang, keep them from escaping with whatever they''d take from the arsenal. But she couldn''t be brought to tear herself away from the scene in front of her. The smell churned her stomach and made her feel as though her heart was gripped by icy claws. It just didn''t seem real to her, staring at all of it. To try and move past it, or accidentally disturb it. Ruby wanted to be gone already. But she couldn''t bring herself to look away either. None of them could.
It wasn''t until Yang spoke that any of them found it in themselves to start moving again.
"We need to go," Yang said curtly.
Without waiting for any of them to answer, without further instruction, and without hesitation, Yang moved. She gave the slowly cooling and thickening pool of gore and ichor a wide berth as she pressed forward along the path ahead of them. Yang moved slowly, watching her step as she made her way around the scene that had stolen the momentum of her friends.
Ruby watched Yang as she went. Calm, composed, and concentrated on the task at hand.
But most tellingly of all, cold.
She couldn''t tell if Yang truly didn''t care about the scene before them, or if Yang was merely keeping strong. But Ruby knew such a reaction was uncommon for her elder sister. The girl who blew-up in fiery rage if someone so much as grazed her hair. Or who would floor anyone who would look at them the wrong way. The very one who had tried so hard to be the very definition of warm and close with her for as long as Ruby could remember.
Yet now she walked past two dozen corpses and acted as though it meant nothing.
Ruby watched her sister as she passed around the far edge of the pool. Her teammates began to follow after. Yang was right, they needed to be on their way. Tellingly, she felt a pair of cool raindrops pop against her nose, and could smell the approaching storm in the air. Instinctively, Ruby pulled her hood tighter against her head, hoping to ward some of the coming storm away.
But as Ruby began to move, Yang turned back, briefly looking over her shoulder. What Ruby saw, she wasn''t sure. Perhaps it was a trick of the dim light. But for a brief moment, she saw Yang, looking mournfully at the dead. A shallow golden glow ebbing into her hair, a red tinge growing in her eyes.
Then pain felled both, and she turned away, back to the path ahead.
Perhaps she was being strong.
Or perhaps, Ruby feared, there was something worse.
¡
Despite now having the lights on, I still couldn''t really appreciate the prison for the old structure it was. In the Wasteland, coming across old buildings was a natural occurrence. Pretty much any place worth prospecting was going to be from before the war, meaning they were centuries old. Which almost always meant, outside the security that might still be lurking inside them, they were chock full of history. Nothing survives that long without holding some kind of secret. Unfortunately, if I was going to find anything like that from Kohl''s Gate, it wasn''t going to be right then and there.
The only thing I got was that the place had been painted over a dozen times since it was built. Could mostly tell that from the glazed look most of the cinder block walls had. That, and the foundation was crumbling in places, causing the paint to peel off in a rainbow of aged colors. Always a shame, when the old buildings start to crumble and no one gives a damn. Though given the present circumstances, there were more important things to be focused on.
We''d had to pull ahead of Ruby and keep running. Left them at the crossroad to go the other way. Having gleaned the map of the prison once already, I was able to fill in the missing pieces of my minimap. Made traversing the place easier, since we didn''t have to hunt down another directory to guide us. Getting there was a different issue, but Penny and I were both light on our feet, so we made it quick.
The Willowby wing of the prison was actually a step up in terms of construction, as we went deeper. It was hard to tell if it was a section of the prison that''d been added later, or if it''d received more funding. In either case, it showed in the general state and construction of the place: the cinder block walls transitioned from paint to proper paneling and cover. The exposed or barely covered piping and wiring was slowly covered over with drop paneling shielding, almost as though they were trying to make the place more professional for the people who had to work there. Really though, that should''ve been the standard throughout the prison. If you''ve got all the electrics exposed for any prisoner to take a stab at, it''s a miracle no one had tried to escape sooner.
As we got deeper in, signage became more common, making it even easier for Penny and I to find our way.
A combination of the map and my Pip-Boy pointed us to an otherwise nondescript door in the middle of a corridor, windowed offices and bullpens before and after it. There were no windows showing inside the room, and only a singular sign dictating the room was any different than those we''d passed. If we hadn''t had the map or Pip-Boy pointing our way, it would''ve been easy to mistake it for a closet. Which was probably part of the idea. The sign itself read ''Observations and Communications 1'', which implied there was probably more than one room for the task, but what we needed was here.
The door to the room had clearly been forced. Despite being of thick wood, the latch and lock had been busted off of it. The door was ajar, canted inwards.
I pulled my lever-action from my side and cycled it, making sure I had a flash-shell loaded. Penny took one side of the door, and I took the other, and we paused a moment, listening. The only thing coming from inside was silence.
"Ready?" I asked.
Penny nodded.
I returned it, and placed a hand on the door. Slowly, quietly, I swung it inward and followed after it, sweeping the room.
Despite the power being restored, the lighting was dim. Overhead lighting was active, but they emitted only a soft and faint glow rather than the full strength of the lighting in the hall. Could feel it playing tricks on my eyes. Aside from that, the air was dry and warm. A side effect of all the electronics in the room, humming and trying to keep themselves cool and operating right.
The room was maybe twenty by thirty feet in size, divided in half. To one side of the room was a massive bank of terminals and computers. The observation half of things, I assumed. Though even with the power restored it seemed the system was still in the process of resetting itself. Didn''t bode well for the communication half of things. The other side of the room contained banks of and towers of servers, which connected back to the terminals in a spider web of wires. I didn''t know much about the operating system, but I had to assume most of it was for memory storage. On the opposite side of the room from the door were several metal storage lockers, each labeled with a wing of the prison on it. Probably the only thing in the room with a sense of cohesion.
We appeared to be alone. Aside from a few chairs and a table in the middle of the room, heavy with papers and coffee mugs, there were no people. Though the chairs themselves were overturned, and a bit of blood on one corner of the table. Safe assumption there was some kind of fight. But there wasn''t a body to be seen.
I silently crept forward into the room, motioning for Penny to follow behind me. She shut the door as she came in, and I moved towards the banks of servers. Cautiously, I dipped among them, swiveling and checking the cramped spaces. It wouldn''t make sense for them to be hiding behind them, especially if they weren''t expecting company. But I wouldn''t know unless I checked. It also gave me a chance to do a quick once-over of the servers for any physical damage.
"¡ Seems clear," I said, stepping back out and lowering my shotgun. I continued to sweep the room as Penny made her way in. I gestured towards one of the terminals. "See if you can''t make a go of it first. Whatever''s wrong with it, I can''t find any physical damage to the servers. Part of it''s likely in the software."
Penny nodded and approached one of the terminals. As she began tapping at the keyboard, I continued to slowly examine the room. There had definitely been a fight. The blood on the corner of the table led to a small pool of it on the ground, soaked into some paperwork. It wasn''t dried yet, but I could see it was congealing. Taking out the comms would''ve needed to happen early on in the riot, so that would make sense. If the blood wasn''t thickened, that would mean it had happened more recently.
But it still didn''t explain where it came from. If whoever had spilled it had survived, they would''ve worked to get the comms open again. They wouldn''t have just disappeared, not without the White Fang or the inmates dragging them somewhere. Didn''t look like that''d been the case either.
If they hadn''t survived¡ well, it would be a question of where they were.
"How''s it look Penny?" I asked.
"I''m not too sure," Penny said, articulating each word. "Papa knows more about how to work with software than I do. I''m running diagnostics on the system now, but it''ll take time to go through everything."
"You won''t need to go through everything," I said, still eyeing the room. "These guys wouldn''t have needed to go through the trouble of hiding whatever they did. Not if they were planning to do all this." I motioned to the prison at large. "Try scanning the more frequently accessed files and locations. They probably would''ve dumped everything there¡"
My eyes traced to the back wall of the room, opposite the door. The metal lockers were all lining the wall neatly. There was nothing about any of them that stood out, at a distance.
I walked over to them and began examining them a bit closer. Most of the lockers still looked clean. In fact, most of them seemed to be a bit dusty, actually. Being that they were the most self-contained and neat thing in the room, that made sense. They didn''t have to go into them as often, so they could get a little dirty.
Except, now that I was closer, I could see that one of the lockers had been disturbed. The dust had streaks of cleaner metal showing through.
The thick and smudgy ichor around the handle was a giveaway as well.
"I think I found it!" Penny chimed.
My hand passed to the latch of the locker and I pulled the door open.
The guard hiding inside stared back at me, face stricken with fear. He was a taller fellow, skinny, pale in the face and with pink hair. Made darker by a massive gash on the side of his head.
His lips tightened as he made eye contact with me.
"¡ Howdy," I said, taking a step back.
"¡ Hi," The guard said, eyes darting around the room. "¡ You''re not with the inmates, are you?"
"Depends, does it look like I''m planning to attack you?" I asked.
The guard''s eyes lowered down to about waist level, and I followed it. Remembering then, that I was still holding my shotgun.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"¡ Fair point," I said, sliding my shotgun back onto my hip. The guard relaxed a bit more.
"What''s going on?" Penny asked.
"Think I found the guy who''s supposed to be running this place," I said, eyeing him. "You are, right?"
The guard nodded. "Name''s, uh, Mark." His name badge agreed with him.
"A pleasure," I said. "You want to keep hiding in there, or come out here and help us get everything running again?"
"¡ That," Mark agreed. "I''d prefer that." Carefully, Mark climbed out of the locker, stretching as he went. "More cramped in there than I thought."
"You wanna explain what you were doing there?" I asked, moving back towards the terminal bank. Penny was still tapping at the keyboard, but it appeared as though she was working to remove whatever files were blocking the system.
"Hiding," Mark answered. "Heard you coming down the hall and thought it was the inmates coming back for something."
"Can''t blame you, seems like this place has been through the wringer tonight," I told him. "What happened?"
"You want the whole story?" Mark asked. "It''s a bit long."
"The short version, if you could," I said, looking over Penny''s shoulder. "We''re already under a bit of a crunch."
"Uh, well, it started about maybe an hour, two hours ago?" Mark said, uncertain. He too loomed over us, looking at the terminals. "Everything seemed fine for the most part, normal night. Then I caught something going on near the Oakholme Wing and tried to get a read on it while getting people towards it. Seemed like a fight at the time."
There was that name again, Oakholme. They''d been planning for things to spiral out from there.
"How''d that evolve into a full blown riot?" I asked, settling at a terminal next to Penny''s.
"Because they turned on the responding guards the moment they showed up," Mark explained. "Normally inmates will knock it off when the guards show up, rather than catch it on their sentence¡" Mark''s face screwed up slightly. "Wait, aren''t you-"
"Crazy Steve, yes," I told him. "Which should be enough to tell you how your night is going."
"¡ Greeeeat," Mark muttered.
"So, the inmates you''re talking about were with the White Fang, and the fight was part of their plan to throw this place into a riot," I explained. "That doesn''t explain how they got here."
"Wasn''t just here," Mark explained. "We''ve got another camera room on the other side of the building. Pretty sure they got hit too. But anyway, I had to direct people from here and it looked like it was contained. At least it did, until a group of them suddenly kicked in the door and attacked me. Caught me with my pants down, so to speak."
"Hope that''s not literal," I said, tapping at the keyboard myself, opening the files Penny had so I could take a look at things. She had already started quarantining them, but the system hadn''t come back up yet. "So they came in, kicked the crap out of you, then uploaded something?"
"Yeah, stuck something into one of the servers and the whole system went down," Mark nodded, tentatively touching the clotted-over gash on his head. "They got a lucky hit in and I caught the table on the way down. Looked bad enough they didn''t bother to check me. After that I stayed down until they left, and have been trying to get any of it to come back online. I might''ve studied to be an engineer, but I''m clearly a guard! What would I know about how Atlas built those towers?"
"This feeds back into the CCT?" I asked, curious.
"It''s how we communicate to the precincts back in the kingdom proper," Mark explained. "We get a direct line running back in. Though considering you''re the one who answered, they must''ve done something to that too."
I tucked that nugget away for the moment, it would probably be useful once we actually got the main cameras running again.
It didn''t take long for Penny and me together to rip through what shut the camera down. Like I''d told Penny, the inmates/White Fang/whoever had simply dumped their handy work in the nearest convenient location. I wasn''t sure how they''d transferred it in, the guards should''ve confiscated anything they''d need to do it. But they''d had people helping them from every angle. Not hard to sneak contraband with enough hands.
What helped was that the overall layout was significantly different from how it''d been at the CCT. Probably got the system from a contractor in Atlas. Made it easy enough to navigate. The main file was an executable that had the cameras pull a system reset and randomize the input and output feeds, then have it keep doing that every time the system detected a proper connection. The end result caused the cameras to softlock themselves into an error screen. Everything was fully functional, and the system security had actually kept it from failing completely.
It was honestly the best outcome we could''ve hoped for. It was half-assed and wouldn''t have worked if Kohl''s Gate had an actual IT staff on hand. But because they didn''t it was enough to shut the system down and not be easily pulled back online.
At least, not until Penny and I got to take a crack at it.
We removed the file and double checked that most of the main system files were still functional. It was hard to tell if any of the data was corrupted, but it didn''t seem that they were. The program had been running off a copy it''d made inside its own subfolder.
"Alright," I said, pushing back from the keyboard. "If that''s all they did, we should be able to get the cameras rolling again after another reset. Without the virus in the way, they should default back to the main files."
"If they don''t, I should be able to figure out where they might have hidden the other files," Penny added. "I know what to look for now, so it should be easier."
I looked at Mark. "You know how to reset it?"
Mark looked towards the servers for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, easy enough. One sec." He headed towards the server bank and disappeared among the towers. A few moments later the terminals blinked off. Another few seconds and they began to each come back online, bootstraps flashing over the screens. One by one they began to display video feeds of the prison. Mostly downward angles, some spinning and panning uncontrollably. Most of the shots were incoherent, containing blurred and out of focus images. There could be a fire going on in any of them, inmates burning to death, and you wouldn''t be able to tell.
"Gonna guess that something''s not quite right," I said, looking at what was either a dance party or somebody getting their head kicked in by twenty people.
"No, no it''s not," Mark said, eyeing the monitors. "System''s back online but they''re all out of alignment or stuck on default mode. They''re going to need to be manually reset."
"Wonderful," I said, shaking my head. "¡ What about communications? The system''s back online, so it should be able to connect to the CCT now, right?"
"It should, yeah," Mark nodded, before pointing at one of the terminals. "That''s the emergency telecom. The moment you activate it, it''ll send a distress signal out through the CCT to the surrounding precincts, and even Beacon Academy. Shouldn''t get any of the students, but the professors will be allowed to respond, at least."
I grimaced at the thought. Having Port or Oobleck respond wouldn''t be so bad, but having Ozpin or Goodwitch show would be. The assistance would be appreciated, but I''d rather not have to deal with the questions and accusations that followed.
Though with the way the night was going, I likely wouldn''t be so cordial with them either.
Regardless, I went over to the terminal and began typing. Immediately I was greeted by a menu requesting an additional keystroke to engage the system. Then another to send the distress signal. Double authentication was normally a good thing, it prevented accidents. Though here it only slowed things down. A second keystroke and the system kicked to life, a progress bar displaying that the system was attempting to issue the alert through the outgoing connection.
It was promptly interrupted by a string of error messages.
"Think that''s not supposed to happen," I said, getting Mark to look at the screen.
"Not unless something''s broken," Mark said. "Which I''m guessing there is."
''Great, just what we needed, trying to troubleshoot an entire building''s worth of I.T. issues.''
I scanned over the message briefly, trying to get the gist of them. Most of them were related to connection issues, unable to find a router or directory. It frankly only meant a handful of things, but they were a handful of things that might take time to fix. Pivoting at my terminal, I examined the back of it, finding wires that ran back into the wall. They were still intact, so that wasn''t the issue.
"Connection issues means they either cut the line somewhere between it and the main hub, or they damaged the hub itself," Mark said, following my train of thought. "They didn''t do it here, but there''s space between here and the hub, could be anywhere."
"Let''s assume they''re not going to waste time trying to break random holes in the wall looking for the right wire," I said, looking towards Mark. "Where is the main hub, it shouldn''t be far from here, right?"
"It''s not. They had to move it to a different room when they upgraded the cameras a few years ago," Mark nodded, motioning towards the door. "It''s down the corridor near Oakholme. They haven''t put a sign on it, but it''ll be the last door on the right before the corridor leading into the Wing. You''ll find the hub and junction boxes in there."
Helpfully, my Pip-Boy updated, adding the location of the room and pointing there on my compass. I looked back towards Penny, still working at resetting the cameras, and doing so masterfully. "I''m going to focus on getting the communications opened up. Do you think you can hold things here?"
"I''m still combat ready," Penny said, shooting me a smile while her hands worked the keyboard with mechanical precision. Had to imagine she was a marvelous multitask-er.
I nodded to her, then Mark. "Anything happens to her, I''m beating your ass first."
"What''d I do!?" Mark asked.
Without answering, I turned and bolted back out of the door and into the corridor. I followed the basic directions that Mark had given me and kept along the main path for a distance. Wasn''t like I could get sidetracked from it, short of jumping into one of the side rooms. Compass would''ve kept me going the right way anyhow.
Taking the opportunity, I pulled up my Scroll and checked my contacts. My teammates, Sun, Penny, JNPR, and CFVY were all still connected, so my communications with them were still open, at least. I pulled open the main-line between us.
"Roll call!" I said into the mic. "CFVY, how''re things looking out at the gates?"
There was a pause, before noise began trickling back at me. It was crushed and tinny, but identifiable. The staccato of gunfire, pocked by explosions, and the occasional nonverbal cry. Coco''s voice came through more clearly over it, the bursts of gunfire from her minigun peppering her speech.
"They haven''t gotten through if that''s what you mean, kid," Coco said, voice not quite a shout. "We haven''t had a chance to actually talk with anyone yet but-"
"GET SOOOME!" Velvet suddenly shouted, a trio of explosions echoing through the speaker of the Scroll.
"Ease it back Vel, you''re on the air," Coco said, a chuckle in her tone.
"Ignore her, do it again!" Nora chirped through the line. "BOMB BUDDIES!"
There was then another explosion, though this one I could tell was inside the prison. I could hear it echoing through the halls, and it shook the building slightly. As I rounded a corner, Jaune got on the line next.
"Nora, please don''t bring this place down, we''re trying to help," Jaune insisted.
"But I hit where I was aiming~" Nora answered.
"How''re thing''s looking on you guys'' end?" I asked, moving on to Jaune. "You get a handle on the armory?"
"We''re dealing with it now," Ren said, followed by a pair of gunshots and the sound of something squishy slamming against hard stone. "There''s only a couple of them here- Nora!"
There was another explosion. A moment passed, before anyone else said anything.
"¡ Welp, Nora just blew the door off the hinges," Jaune said. "That''s not good."
"They pay some to keep that stuff fixed anyway," I said, pausing briefly to scan the doors. Wasn''t quite there yet. I kept going. "Ruby, you girls at the arsenal yet?"
There was silence over the line. It lingered there as I continued slowly down the hallway, making sure I hadn''t gone too far or missed the door Mark had pointed out. We''d only been separated five, maybe ten minutes at the most. They couldn''t have gotten into that much trouble. Nora could, as she''d more than willingly proven, but my teammates had a Snowflake to keep them in check. She would''ve at least sounded the alarm if something was going wrong.
"¡ You girls there?" I asked again, surveying the corridor again.
"¡ We''re here," Ruby said a moment later. "We- um¡ ran into something when we got out here¡ We''re still making our way to the arsenal, trying to move fast."
"Good¡ everything alright?" I asked, noting the lack of enthusiasm she''d had not long prior.
"You''ll understand when you get out here," Weiss answered. "What about you, have you figured how to contact the authorities?"
"Working on it," I told her, spying the hall Mark had said would lead to Oakholme. The door I was looking for was right next to it. "Penny''s working on getting the security system back online, she''s resetting the cam-"
There was a rush of motion as I approached the door, coming from the crossways of the corridor. Immediately I ducked, rolling out of the way as an inmate crashed face first into the wall. I spun to face the direction they''d come from, the corridor to Oakholme. There were four more inmates rushing at me. All of them Faunus.
White Fang.
"-Oop, one sec," I said, launching back to my feet. My shotgun snapped to head level and I fired, nailing the first inmate who''d tried to tackle me in the head. He stumbled to the side, head half encased in ice, and hit the ground, scrambling to get the ice off. I cycled the action and whipped back towards the other four inmates bum rushing me. My aim fell low and caught the closest in the legs with another ice shell. His feet went out from under him and he fell forward, tripping the nearest behind him as they crashed. My hand cycled the lever again and loaded the next shell as the last two closed on me. VATS said they would close on me faster than I could draw a bead, so I didn''t bother wasting the shell.
My shotgun spun around in my grip so I had a handle on the muzzle, and I met their charge. The closest of them, a lean guy with a fluffy and ringed tail, got in first. Only as he got within striking distance did I notice the ground down spike in his hand, a shiv. With whip-cord speed it raced up toward my throat.
With batter-like speed, I cracked the side of his head with my shotgun. Immediately he reeled back, swearing, shiv slipping back, only for his buddy to come racing in next to him, a big and hairy guy with round ears I recognized immediately. Seemed my gut reaction had been on the money. He launched at me with thick arms and sharp yellow teeth. I back stepped and dodged the grapple he tried to pull me into, I wound up and back handed him with the shotgun''s receiver. Caught him on the nose, but he didn''t stagger. His face twisted up, giving a better view at how large his teeth were, and he rounded on me with a massive paw. I raised my left arm and caught the blow on my Pip-Boy, countered with a heel kick to his stomach. As the hit connected, ring-tail scurried back in, stabbing straight with his shiv at my liver. He hit with a trio of quick stabs, connecting with my body armor. As the sharp weapon blunted itself on the plating, he realized his mistake and tried to pull back.
Using his buddy for balance, I pivoted, releasing a hand from my shotgun. My fist shot out and caught ring-tail in the throat with a Scribe''s Counter. He stumbled back and dropped his shiv, clasping at his throat.
Then the two inmates I''d tripped up picked themselves up and began to circle me and round-ears.
Right as round-ears locked his hands onto the leg I''d planted in his stomach and pulled. He tried to drag me off my feet and towards him.
I helped him, springing off my free foot before planting it in his face. The shift in weight threw him off balance and sent him stumbling backwards. The two circling us took the chance to try and make their play. The closer among them, a burly and bulbous man with buck teeth, swung a hammer fist at me.
The muzzle of my shotgun passed around in time to meet his face. A stutter of VATS ended with him getting a face-full of frigid air and ice that planted him on his back. As my hand worked the lever, round-ears'' grip on my leg broke, and I side-stepped off of him, right as the other circling inmate leapt at me trying to latch onto me.
My wrist flexed, releasing the Cow-Puncher, and I decked them in the face. There was a crackle of electricity at the connection, and a yowl from the inmate, a smaller, scrawny man with some kind of shell on his back and a nasally voice. He went rigid before losing his balance. My fist drew back and I snapped out a second strike with the Cow-Puncher, punching downward.
Shelly slammed into the floor and stayed there.
I released the Cow-Puncher and let it slide back into my sleeve as I cycled my shotgun again. With the last shell in the tube, I planted the muzzle against round-ears and fired. A shell of ice flowed over his chest, planting him against the floor. He tried to pick himself, struggling against the weight of it. While he did, I loaded a pair of magnum-shells, chambering one.
At that point, the first inmate I''d blasted finally managed to pull his head out of the ice. He was the only human of the bunch, an odd occurrence. He gasped for air as he scrambled away from the shell of ice shaped like his face.
I blasted him with one of the magnum shells and he blew back against the wall. He slumped to the ground and didn''t move. My hand cycled the lever of my shotgun and I pointed it down at round-ears'' head.
He stopped struggling and looked up at me.
"You REALLY want to try that?" I asked.
Without a further word, round-ears stopped struggling and laid against the ground, letting the layer of ice weigh him down.
I levered the action of my shotgun open again and began reloading. Replaced the magnum shell in the chamber with another ice-round. Needed to save how many of those I had. Making more would need to be a point of priority soon enough.
Sliding my shotgun back beside my hip, I picked up my Scroll again.
"Sorry ''bout that, where was I?" I asked. "¡ Oh, right. Penny''s resetting the cameras right now."
"Just got the gate cameras back online," Penny chimed in. "Wow, you guys are doing great out there!"
"S''what we do," Coco said, audibly smirking through the call.
"I''m outside the CCT junction right now," I said, walking up to the door. Jiggled the handle, found it was locked. I levered Knock-Knock off my back and wedged the adze end of the head into the frame. A quick pull and the door snapped open, the lock bolt shearing apart. Spinning the axe around, I scanned the room and walked inside. "Now I''m inside."
It was a cramped room, even compared to the camera room we''d just been in. Only caveat was it seemed a little better coordinated. Wires were properly labeled, separate, and run in coordinated strands, making it easy to see what went where and easy to test if something wasn''t working right. Had to imagine it was the work of an outside contractor. Probably whoever directly governed access to the CCT. The prison''s own internal systems might''ve been a rat''s nest, but those used to call for help couldn''t be. By comparison, there was only one server bank in the room compared to the dozens in the camera room. There were plenty more wires running into the walls though. Connections for all throughout the prison.
A lone terminal sat at the back wall, CCT command prompt sitting open and waiting.
I shut the door and moved over to the terminal. "Alright, system''s online at least, so that''s not a problem." I ran my fingers over the keyboard, quickly attempting to wake the terminal and access the system proper. I was greeted with a menu, list of submenus, and some basic diagnostics. Listed off connections within the prison itself, signal strength, data flow speed¡ "Shit."
"What''s wrong?" Ruby asked after a moment
"Outgoing connection is shutdown," I said, cycling through the commands. I settled over the diagnostics submenu and began to move through it. Found an option for trouble-shooting the various connections in the prison. "Let me see if I can''t fix that."
I enabled the troubleshooter and another window opened. Progress bars flashed over the screen as it tested the various connections that ran through the prison. One by one they came back positive, showing that most of the network was still operational. Seeing the results come back without signs of error, meant that the trouble lay elsewhere. Instead, I went back to the main menu and worked my way down to the system-wide controls. The submenu that opened for it had an ''Emergency Response'' option as the second one on the list. Right under ''Prison-wide Lockdown''.
I chose the ''Emergency Response'' option and was greeted with an error.
''Connection to CCT interrupted. Please enable admin privileges.''
The outgoing-connection was still fucked.
I went back to the main menu and searched along the list for the option to enable admin controls. They''d likely let me bypass any remaining security. Naturally it wouldn''t be obviously labeled either, so I had to waste precious time searching for it.
"Everything alright Six?" Jaune asked, the sounds of footsteps echoing through the speaker.
"Slow going," I answered. "This thing''s design is terrible. Whatever they did, I''m just trying to bypass security right now to actually turn it on¡ ah, here we go."
I opened the submenu for the system ''Control Panel'' and scanned the options. The option to run the system at administrator level was third down, and I chose it.
A new Error message popped up.
''Error Sys.##$ %^&32$$# % not found. Closing Administrator view.''
Immediately the submenu closed and I was booted back to the main screen. The main screen then crashed, and shunted itself back into sleep mode, before restarting completely.
"¡ Ok, that''s gonna be a problem," I said, talking to my Scroll. "Whatever they''ve put into this thing they''ve made it so you can''t access admin controls the normal way. I''m gonna guess the prison doesn''t keep CCT experts on staff."
"¡ Mark said ''no, we don''t''," Penny answered after a moment.
"Man, how long were they planning this?" Nora asked.
"Long enough," I said, grimacing at the terminal screen. Couldn''t take the easy way in. Would need to try something a bit higher up the ladder. "¡ Penny, does Mark know if this thing is connected straight to the CCT, no other go-betweens?"
There was a pause in the air, before Penny answered. "He said he doesn''t know, he''s not a CCT expert."
Even before he''d answered I was already trying something. I used the same keystrokes I had previously to reopen the CCT''s command prompt. From there, I began guiding the system back through the steps needed to connect to the tower proper. It was slower than when I''d been using the menus. Had to cut through files to try and find the links back. But it was working. I was able to get to the hardcoded screen that would give me access to the CCT.
I just needed admin credentials.
For a moment I stared at the screen.
Then I entered my Scroll number, and a password I''d associated with it. Graham.
There was a pause as the system calibrated itself.
Then a progress bar. It slowly crawled across the screen, before blinking.
My scroll vibrated and I looked down at it. I''d received a message. It put a diabolical smile on my face.
''LOCAL ALERT: WARNING! KOHL''S GATE PRISON IS UNDER SIEGE! REQUESTING IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE!''
It flashed over my Scroll until I sent it away.
"What the- What''d you do?" Jaune asked. "My Scroll just lit up!"
"Ours too!" Coco called. "What''s going on?"
"Had to go higher up the chain," I said. "Sent the message through the entire CCT."
"YOU WHAT!?" Weiss asked.
I couldn''t believe I''d done it either. It''d just been a lucky guess. But the prison was directly tied into the CCT system. I had to guess most municipal systems were, in some way.
And I''d hacked the damn thing. I hadn''t thought about it at the time when I did it, it seemed so easy. Give myself a way back in if I ever needed it. What I''d done was even bigger.
I''d given myself a skeleton key to almost any system even remotely connected to it.
Though I clearly wasn''t practiced with it either. I''d meant for that to only go to the necessary systems. Seems I might''ve overshot the mark. No telling how many people were going to be getting that message. Had to guess it wasn''t going to Vacuo or Mistral, they weren''t necessarily ''local''. But the military detachment hovering in the bay might''ve gotten the call.
Boy, would it have turned into a shitshow for the White Fang if Ironwood showed up. Gunboat Diplomacy HO!
As I sat at the computer, My Pip-Boy chimed again, letting me know I''d accomplished what I''d set out to do.
-Objective Complete: Restore connection to the CCT.
"How did you manage to send it to everyone!?" Weiss repeated.
"I don''t know!" I answered back, only half lying. "I kept hitting buttons until it did what I wanted. Clearly it worked, and should keep working until someone shuts it down again."
"It''ll be a bit before cavalry arrives," Velvet cut in. "But at least they''ll actually show up now, right?"
"They should," I agreed, pushing away from the terminal. "I''m going to get the rest of the system back online with Penny and then we''ll move to reinforce the group heading for the arsenal. How''re you girls making it?"
"We''re almost there," Sun answered. "It''s starting to rain pretty bad out here, but we can still see the path."
"Good." I let the door to the junction room close behind me as I stepped back out into the corridor. "Penny and I should be on our way-"
A scream echoed through the corridor. The howl of a wild animal that''d been stuck with red-hot iron. Full of fear, pain, and a desperate need to escape. I''d heard the sound on occasion, echoing from Legion camps, or from the occasional burn victim.
I turned towards the noise.
It came echoing up the corridor from the Oakholme Wing.
I stayed still for a moment, staring down the corridor. Whatever was down there, it had been important that the White Fang start from that wing and make their way down. Having a moment to ponder, was it just its proximity to the junction? The camera room? If it was, why were there people still down there? Every other inmate had already made their way to elsewhere in the prison.
Why would they waste their time there?
"¡ You still there Six? You cut out," Ren said over the line.
"¡ Yeah, I''m here," I answered. "Just heard something that caught me off-guard. Someone''s screaming down in the Oakholme Wing."
"Why''s that weird?" Nora asked, breathing puffing as she did something from the other end of the link. "People are getting beat-up all over!"
I didn''t answer her immediately. It shouldn''t have stuck out to me. But I got a gut feeling that something was happening in there that was important. They''d put a lot of effort into this mess, what more had they done that we hadn''t seen yet?
"¡ Penny-" I said, speaking into my Scroll. "Ask Mark what the Oakholme Wing is used for."
Again there was a pause in the line, as Penny likely asked Mark what the Oakholme Wing was for. Had to wonder what it was like on her end of this conversation. As far as I knew she didn''t have a Scroll, and she was just tapped into this conversation by virtue of being Penny. Mark probably had a question or two.
After a moment, Penny answered: "He says it''s where they keep the Maximum Security and Solitary Confinement."
I felt alarm bells begin to go off in my head, even before my Pip-Boy made another chime.
-(Optional): Investigate the Oakholme Wing.
''¡ Damn it.''
I looked around the intersection for a moment, before finding the one inmate I''d convinced to stay down. He was staring blankly up at the ceiling, trying to do his best corpse impersonation. His eyes briefly flicked over to me as I approached, and I could see the color begin to drain from his face.
"Give me a second," I said, lowering my Scroll. I knelt down towards the inmate. Getting nice and close. "I''m gonna give you one chance to tell me what''s so important about having your guys down in that wing. Then it''s going to start hurting."
"I-I don''t-" The inmate started.
Then I drew Blood-Nap and sank it into the ground next to his head, his eyes tracking back to it. He blinked and swallowed dryly. One chance.
"¡ I-I don''t know why they wanted us down there, really," The inmate said. "T-they said they wanted us to work with some of our guys who are already there. They''d made a deal with the other guys."
"What ''other guys''?" I growled.
"The guys- the hard timers, whatever you want to call them!" The inmate snapped. "Bandits, some of the old Xiong crew, Spiders, Mercenaries- Do I look like I know who they keep down there?"
"What did they want them to do?" I asked.
"I don''t know, help?" the inmate gulped. "It takes a lot of guys to stage a jailbreak- a lot of them are willing to risk it if the alternative is rotting in here for the rest of their lives."
My gaze didn''t leave the inmate as I mulled over his words. The pieces began to settle into place. The White Fang needed something to use as a distraction, both inside the prison and outside. They had their outside guys attack the precincts to stop outside help from showing up, while the guys inside cut the lines. It would let them use the chaos to get the rest of the way to the arsenal. In exchange, they''d cut loose the worst bastards in this place and give them a good shot at escaping.
Even if everyone pulled together, the guards, the police, Beacon, and any Huntsmen who pitched in, they''d be swamped. It''d mean trying to re-capture every convict that got away. Worse if it meant some of them rebuilt their gangs or crews and went back to whatever had landed them here in the first place. It''d be a manhunt on a grand scale.
No one would have time to worry about the White Fang.
"¡ FUCK," I swore and got up, putting Blood Nap away. Pulled my Scroll back up and looked down the corridor to Oakholme. "They''re cutting the prisoners loose."
"They already did that!" Nora chimed, a dull thud echoing through the speaker.
"Not these guys, Oakholme is max security, it''s where they''re keeping all the top-shelf nutjobs," I told them. "The White Fang are going to use them as the final smoke screen to try and get away clean. Sick everyone inside loose on the city and escape in the chaos."
"There''s no way that''d work¡ right?" Velvet asked.
"Chaos is amazing camouflage," I answered. "It''ll be like they were never here."
The line stayed silent as everyone tried to process what to do. I didn''t need to. I had VATS to think faster with, and had already made up my mind.
"Ruby, you girls are going to need to handle it without me," I said. "I''ll try to catch-up, but this is too big to ignore. If this doesn''t get stopped, it''ll drag tonight out for weeks. There''ll be too many things bogging the system down for anyone to actually do anything."
"We can come back-" Ruby started to say.
"DON''T," I intoned. "The arsenal still matters. We can''t spread ourselves any thinner than we have." I took a moment to breathe, resolving myself. "I''ll try and catch-up. But you need to try and finish things there, fast and smart. I''ll take care of Oakholme."
"But you said it''s full of-" Nora said.
"It is," I answered. "I''m worse."
I closed the line and sprinted down the corridor to Oakholme.
Hell in the Cells
Despite the unplanned detour, Team JNPR was making excellent time. After splitting off from the others at the power room, they hadn''t a moment to waste. Each of them were silently grateful to professor Port. The amount of running and endurance training he''d put them through made their mad dash feel like a light warm-up. Put in comparison with the rest of their night thus far, it practically had been. Though not one of them felt they were ready for what they''d found themselves thrust into. Excited, eager, and prepared in some ways. But this had been their first true taste of combat since their time at Beacon had begun.
As the old saying went: everyone''s ready until they meet Nora. After that, anything goes.
But they''d managed to make it to the armory in time to prevent the people inside from being overrun. Even if they''d inadvertently helped break the door down. Ren couldn''t tell if that was something that could be chalked up to their hard work, luck, or both. Only further muddied by what they were hearing through communicating with their friends.
"I worry we should go help Six," Ren spoke as they rounded a corner at full speed. "I understand he seems the most experienced out of all of us, but what he''s facing right now seems too much for someone alone."
"I''m quite worried about Ruby and the others as well," Pyrrha added. "This whole situation is growing increasingly distressing."
"But it''s what we signed up for," Nora twittered. "Someone has to help these guys, otherwise things won''t change in here!"
"Once we''re¡ done in here¡" Jaune panted, trying to keep pace with the rest of them. "We''ll go¡ help them¡"
Jaune was truly grateful for all the training Pyrrha had given him. Despite both it and his Aura, however, he was beginning to feel quite winded. If they survived tonight, cardio would need to be the new thing for him to focus on. A notion that only solidified as they reached the stairs leading to the next floor of the prison.
The cafeteria they needed to reach was on the second floor.
After securing the armory for the guards, they had opted to go in advance of the guards, clearing the way and more easily enabling them to reach their destination. So far they''d only encountered brief resistance. Only a handful of the prisoners bothered them. Fewer seemed inclined to stay long enough to be of worry. But they all knew that the real problem would begin once they reached the cafeteria¡
As soon as they reached the top of the stairs.
Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha bounded up the steps without missing a beat. Nora even managed to take them two or three at a stride. She could keep going because she''d had a hearty and nutritious breakfast, and was intent to earn it.
Who could possibly want salad when pancakes and bacon existed? If love tasted like chicken, life tasted like pancakes and bacon drenched in syrup. She also knew love did taste like chicken¡ At least, she hoped that was love she was tasting.
Rather than allow herself to get pulled off on a tangent, Nora chose to let that train of thought vanish. She could worry about¡ that situation tomorrow. Or never. Never was also fine for now.
The quartet of Huntsmen-in-training rounded onto a landing and up another flight of stairs. As they went, echoes of waited for them filtered from the corridors ahead of them, rebounding off the old stone walls and cold metal beams that supported the century old structure. No screech of alarm nor blare of a klaxon to warn them of the danger, or those who were trapped by it. Only the reverberating battle cries and raucous laughter of the inmates as they railed against the system that bound them, trading their shot at freedom for the gratification that came with reprisal.
Ren grimaced at the thought of it. He didn''t want any of them to escape. But that some were more focused on simple violence twisted his stomach into an angry knot. It was senseless to him, to all of them.
But they would deal with it. Of that he grimly was certain.
Not long after leaving the stairs behind them, the quartet passed an elevator. It was with an idle note that Jaune recognized it, having been informed by the guards they would be bringing their supplies to the upper level with it. A good confirmation they were on the right track. Also a sign they weren''t far from a fight.
"We''ll be there¡ soon¡" Jaune huffed.
"Do you need to catch your breath?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yep," Jaune wheezed. "I''ll be fine¡ Breathing is¡ for the weak."
"That''s the spirit!" Nora crowed.
Pyrrha smirked as their sprint to the cafeteria began to draw to a close. The sounds they heard echoing through the corridor began to condense and grow in volume, melding into a reverberating clamor that hit their ears akin to a half brick through a plate-glass window. The sight before them was far more clear than it would''ve been some minutes prior. A dense mob crowded the corridor, dozens of inmates and prisoners thrashing about. They pressed against the walls and the steel bars to the cafeteria, thrashing and crashing like the barely contained waves of a stormy sea. The bars of the cafeteria buckled against the strain, the officers pushing back from within.
"We''re here!" Nora announced. "¡ Plan?"
"Flower Power¡" Jaune panted, trying not to double over on himself.
"¡"
All three of his teammates looked at him in silent confusion.
"Flower Power?" Ren asked.
"You and Nora''s¡ combo move?" Jaune answered, gathering himself. "We spent all last week¡ trying to practice it."
"¡ That was supposed to be for combat?" Nora asked.
"Oh just throw him already!" Jaune groaned.
"¡ ''kay."
Nora turned and gave her partner a conspiratorial grin, earning her a soft chuckle. The duo broke into a sprint down the hall, towards the violently shifting crowd. Ren took the lead between them as Nora extended Magnhild''s handle. Her weapon spun about her as she twisted at the hip, grinning wildly as Ren jumped. He twisted in the air as they moved, feet horizontal to meet the swinging head of Nora''s hammer. His head tilted back to meet Nora''s gaze. A quick wink passed from him to her as he was catapulted forward, leaving his partner temporarily stunned as he flew through the air.
As he passed through the air, Ren drew his pistols, Storm Flower, and placed them ahead of himself. With practiced hands he aimed them at a canted angle and pulled the triggers, eliciting bursts of fire from their muzzles. He hardly needed to choose his targets, firing into such a crowd, nor would he even need to fire for long. The speed at which he was flying meant he would only have a short window for it. His gunfire had been, in this case, purely to draw the attention of those they were engaging. With practice, perhaps it could have been more meaningful.
All the same, it had its intended effect.
Bullets collided with inmates as they rioted against the wall. Those who they struck staggered against their fellows, only then to be struck by Ren as he flew into the knot of them, spinning and arcing with the grace of a wire-hung acrobat, the blades that slung downward from the muzzles of his pistols artfully slicing and slashing against the inmates as he opened a path into them. One that would not last long, nor was itself large. But nor was it meant to be.
Quick as lightning and with thunderous might, Nora flew after her partner. She rooted herself into the channel he made and swung her hammer around her, clearing the space, an action as easy to her as brushing aside half-grown saplings. The motion itself expanded the narrow channel to a space several yards wide, a space that would''ve been wider had she followed through with how Jaune had originally had them perform the move.
Though even Nora knew that slamming one of Magnhild''s grenades into the floor was an idea better suited for someplace outdoors. Or, at the very least, someplace neither she nor Ren had an interest in protecting.
But the actions that they''d carried out were effective on their own, building momentum. It carried them deeper into the crowd of Inmates, now fully aware of their presence and thoroughly annoyed by it.
Recognizing their opening had been made, despite the burning in his lungs, Jaune pushed forward. He broke into a sprint after Nora and Ren, Pyrrha falling easily into stride with him. He pulled his shield around front himself, the blade of Crocea Mors low and pointed for the enemy. Pyrrha followed the action with Ako¨²o?, her spear Mil¨® settling into the divots the circular shield. The two pushed against the inmates that their teammates had swept aside, then pressed in at an angle, attempting to control the crowd through basic motion alone.
In front of Jaune, an inmate who''d managed to weather a blow rounded on him. A makeshift club appeared in his hand as he struck at Jaune, only for the younger man''s sword arm to snake upward, his weapon meeting the inmate''s. The two locked together with a twist of the handle, guided away as Jaune raised his shield and bashed the inmate in the face. The blow was solid and harsh, sending the older of the two back.
Although lacking cardio, Jaune was grateful for everything Pyrrha did to help make him stronger.
Moving almost in tandem with him, Pyrrha fought two inmates simultaneously. Her shield moved with contemptuous ease to push back one assailant as her spear shot forward, striking her second attacker as he shield tilted, the edge of it crashing forward where it had previously blocked. Both inmates were brushed aside with ease as she moved to confront a third.
Even as they did, the crowd continued to push back, trying to refill the space that Nora and Ren had cleared, just as water rushed to fill a void in its presence. The two moved back to back, Nora''s hammer keeping them at bay as Ren began picking off inmates with syncopated bouts of gunfire.
"Pyrrha, Arkos!" Jaune shouted.
Wordlessly, Pyrrha responded. Jaune felt the pressure and weight of his shield fall away, carried by some unseen forces. An aura of black hovered over the curved piece of metal, and he began to press forward. He let the shield guide his path as he swung his sword, using the borrowed momentum and power to open a path of his own, letting his sword carve it wider. Inmates fell at the increased pressure. The crowd moved back.
In tandem, Pyrrha moved of her own accord, spear and shield thrusting and clashing against weapons that sought her out. Yet none that never found her, or only met her shield. She could feel the strain in her chest, the power of her Semblance, spread across herself and Jaune. A power she knew full well could be tremendous and at times unwieldy. But it allowed her to be untouchable when she did not wish to be.
With Jaune, she''d discovered it could apply to others as well, under the right circumstances.
The two moved closer through the crowd coming out ahead of Nora and Ren, buying the two space, and allowing them to focus on removing the lesser number of inmates, as Jaune and Pyrrha held back the bulk themselves. They came close together, the edges of their shields connecting into a wall as they pushed back, their Aura-enhanced strength creating a brief gap between them and the inmates.
"Has anyone ever told you how awesome your Semblance is?" Jaune asked.
"Once or twice," Pyrrha huffed, smiling at him.
"¡ Well, you''re even more awesome, then." Jaune said, sparing her a glance, and a smile of his own.
Had they not been in the midst of a brawl, he might have paid more mind to the vibrant blush on her face. Or the way his shield began to press forward with even more power and vigor.
But the onslaught had done what they''d needed it to.
The whole of the riot had turned its attention on them, and away from the bars of the cafeteria. Just barely could Jaune see the guards inside turning their gaze away from the inmates and towards them. He wondered, briefly, if this would count as them breaking a siege of some kind.
His grip on his sword shifted, as he heard Pyrrha shift Mil¨® into its rifle form, the bolt cycling. He tried to think of something cool to say. That''s what you were supposed to do in situations like that.
Unfortunately, even with Pyrrha at his side, and Ren and Nora at his back, his mind drew a blank. He didn''t think himself particularly impressive. He had no special power to boast of, nor training he could call his own.
But he did have them.
A bunch of criminals weren''t going to be enough.
He raised his sword at them, and forced himself to speak with a level of conviction he knew full well he didn''t fully feel. Not yet.
"You''re all going to wish you stayed home."
¡
The further I went down the corridor of Oakholme, the more I felt a growing sense of dread building in my spine. Appearances can be worth a lot, even if they''re sometimes deceiving. So far the prison, despite appearing like a castle from the outside, had been a more modern structure inside. In some ways I could even compare it to the NCRCF, if it had been in better condition. Some proper funding had been spared to keep the place in working order. The Jailbreak and riots were only working to help with the comparison.
Heading towards what I now knew to be the Maximum Security portion of the prison though, things changed. Any pretense that there could be anything but a prison in this building was gone. No paint on the walls, no paneling. Any pipes or wiring that''d been exposed were gone, buried back into the walls or otherwise reinforced. Slabs of concrete and steel made the floor and walls. Basic lighting recessed into the ceiling, dim even with power restored. There were no offshoots, no side rooms. Just the open corridor, running out to the Oakholme wing for a distance that felt all too long.
It butted up to a doorway that would''ve felt more at home in a bank vault. Or maybe even the overseer''s office of a Vault vault. A pair of sliding doors, slabs of steel more than a half foot thick, bolts and pins along their edges, ready to sink themselves into the frames set into the walls and floor. A handle to physically move either door set on both slabs. To the right side of the doorframe, a terminal, this one not as sleek as any I''d come across yet. Bulky, blocky, and likely a part of whatever separate system existed in Oakholme. For such large security doors, it likely had some form of secondary security. Which had failed.
Looking at it, not even seeing what the inside of the Wing looked like, I was reminded of Big MT. Of its various labs and facilities, still functional, if barely so. Full of whatever dangers multiple deranged and genius intellects could dream up.
It told me I would be walking into a madhouse even before I could see what was inside.
The doors were wide open.
I slung Clark''s rifle in front of me and made sure I was topped of, bullet in the chamber. Same for my shotgun, but I was almost certain I was out of ice shells. Had to be close to the same for the gravity ones as well. Maybe had two, three of them left. They were useful under the right circumstances, but I''d rather ghost load them as needed then keep the tube loaded. Instead, I loaded my fire-slugs into the tube and chamber. If there was going to be a point tonight I was going to need them, I got the sense this was it.
Though part of me hoped, likely in vain, that I could avoid all the trouble.
Maximum Security meant controlled entry and exit points, and not many of them. Maybe there were emergency exits, but a part of me had to doubt it. If you somehow managed to wind up in a place like that, you''d probably done something to only be just short of death row. With everything else going on, I was just hoping it''d be simple.
I approached one of the steel doors and gave it a hearty pull.
It didn''t budge.
Just to be sure, I gave it a second, Aura-enhanced pull just to be safe. Still nothing, and judging by the way the door was structured, I could tell why. Even if the door couldn''t lock open, it had hydraulic hosing leading to it, actuating it. The doors themselves probably weighed multiple tons alone. Nora might''ve been able to brute force them closed, but I couldn''t.
Which meant I had to go with option B.
I approached the terminal and began typing at the keyboard. It wasn''t as complex as trying to reconnect to the CCT had been, I wasn''t dealing with server-wide issues. The terminal was simply the control for the doors, likely connected to the secondary systems of the wing. Security to make sure the doors would lock if something went wrong. That they were clearly not locked tighter than a Freeside Virgin meant that something was wrong.
A quick cycle through the options and a selection to shut the doors showed, yep, there was a problem.
The hydraulics began to rumble as they primed themselves, only to back off just as quickly. An error message flashed over the terminal''s screen, giving a code I didn''t recognize. As it did, my Pip-Boy did a sound-off.
-Complete: Investigate the Oakholme Wing
-Objective: Figure out how to re-initiate lockdown
The advice should''ve been self-explanatory. But it also had the benefit of providing me with an arrow on my compass.
It was pointing deeper into the Wing.
I pulled up my Scroll. "Penny, ask Mark if he knows anything about the secondary system in the Oakholme wing."
There was a pause, as Penny did her part. "¡ He says he doesn''t know too much, why?"
"Ask him how I can get the system to reset itself enough to shut the doors," I explained, peering beyond the massive steel doors. The corridor went on for a short distance, but I could see it opening up into a cell-block.
Again another pause, then an answer. "He says there''s an observation post at the opposite end of the Cell Block from the entrance," Penny explained. "Most of the major system functions have to be reset from there¡ He also wants to know why I keep asking him random questions."
"Tell him you''re thinking about being a prison architect in the future," I said, slipping through the doors. "I''m going to have to go in and reset everything. How''re the cameras coming?"
"I''m making good progress," Penny answered. "But I haven''t gotten to where you are yet."
"Do me a favor: don''t," I told her. "There are some things you''re better off not seeing."
I would''ve said this if I''d known I was going to have to get bloody and violent with the inmates. Given who I was going up against, I knew that was a good possibility too.
But that wasn''t why I''d told her not to.
I''d made my way the rest of the distance down the corridor, running as quietly as I could, rifle ready.
Only stopped at the mouth of the cell block once I''d gotten a better look of things.
For a moment, I felt like I''d literally walked into hell, and I''ve been in the Divide. The word conveys the idea of some place that''s physically terrifying or painful to remain in for a long time, for eternity. But stepping into the cell block, it fit the more literal description most people might have in mind. The dark, fire and smoke-filled abyss that reeks of sulfur, iron, and death.
The cell block was a long corridor, solid steel doors lining both walls, maybe six or seven feet apart each. Sets of stairs broke up the cell clusters every couple dozen yards, rising up to catwalks that made a basic second floor, allowing them to double how many people they could cram in. The cells, stairs, and catwalks between them ran the length of the cell-block, all the way to the far end. They curved off slightly then, the far end forming a semicircle. In the middle, a massive tower jutted from the ground floor up to the second. A searchlight on top of it, blacked out windows circling the upper level. A panopticon.
They really tried to see everything. Make sure nothing went wrong.
But it did.
Electricity had to have been restored to the cell block, but any lights had been torn down or broken. It seemed to be that way for almost anything on the ceiling and walls that could be reached. Anything that couldn''t be, they must''ve climbed to. The lack of windows made the room oppressively dark, only barely cut by my lenses'' low-light vision. What little light was in the room came from the ground floor, a few spots on the catwalk that spanned the second level of cells. The outward glow of flames, licking upward from whatever they could get to hold them. Trash bins, overturned lockers, even toilets they must''ve ripped from their cells. If they''d even been allowed those. I had no idea what they were burning, but it smoked heavily, thick plumes of smog rising into the air, heating the expansive room.
I observed the inmates as I stood there, at the mouth of it.
They barely made a sound.
It was like I was standing back at the main hall again, where we''d first seen the map of the prison. No one was fighting, what noise they made was light and inconsequential. Anybody who was moving, did so with purpose and vigor, otherwise they milled about, waiting in groups that spoke in hushed and seemingly aggressive tones. Not all of them were strictly Faunus or human either. The White Fang had already co-opted the inmates they needed, so there were likely enough people willing to cross lines. For now.
Those who didn''t, I could already see on the ground, laying in puddles of their own gore. Or being coated with red Dust and dragged over to the fires¡ ah, that''s where the smell was coming from.
But the number of people still standing massively outnumbered those who weren''t. There had to be more than a hundred people, maybe just shy of two hundred. They were procuring and improvising weapons out of everything they could get their hands on. Some of them even had guns. Only a few, sidearms, a few long guns. Prison issue, probably taken from the people who''d been in charge of the block.
I''d fought more people. I''d fought better armed people. I survived both.
But I knew well enough that I didn''t have the time to waste fighting. Not there, not when everyone else was working to secure everything.
I just couldn''t leave things so they could escape either.
Finally finding my legs, I slipped down into stealth mode and crept out of the corridor, into the block. I kept the muzzle of my rifle low as I went, mindful not to accidentally let it connect with anything. My compass was pointing me to the far side of the block, straight ahead. Good guess was I needed to get into the panopticon. Seemed important enough.
Rather than move along the ground level, I decided the high ground was better. Rather than being down where they were gathered and plotting, I moved where most weren''t looking. I wouldn''t have as much cover to work with, but it was better than being right at eye level, helped by the thick smoke that was filling the air. Any Faunus and White Fang in the room would stand a better chance at seeing through it, but the stench in the air would at least muddy their other senses. I''d take whatever advantage I was offered.
I moved towards the left side of the block from the mouth of the room. As I reached near the wall I began to move deeper, keeping out of sight as I approached the stairs to the upper catwalks. Most of the groups either had their backs towards me, or I bladed with their shoulders. Right before I reached the stairs, one of the inmates, a human male, looked in my direction. He seemed to scan where I was for a moment, and I paused, letting the shadows keep me covered. After a moment, his gaze slipped to the other side of the room, and I kept moving.
Part of me was worried, as I climbed the stairs, that my feet would ring the steps like church bells. They were solid faced with tread plates, but the hollow. A thin surface that rang every time time something touched them. Even supported as it was, I had to watch my steps as I climbed my way up to the catwalk overhead. Some of the Faunus, scattered in the groups near the stairs, stirred slightly. Looking around, but not at me. They could hear me, barely. Not enough to make a good guess of where I was. They dismissed it as I went higher. As I reached the catwalk, I found the platform to be made of steel grating, most of it painted it a lifeless gray. Yet another thing that would make noise if I didn''t watch my step. At the very least everything seemed sturdy and properly made. Anything that wasn''t being actively broken down for improvised weapons, that is.
The smell of burning hair and scorched fat only got worse as I''d climbed the stairs. Being up, almost in the thick of it, was stomach churning. I''d smelled some pretty rank things in the wasteland, but burning bodies always got my hackles up. Did for most people. The hindbrain doesn''t like the idea of us dying to begin with, smelling it just tickled the rest in the wrong way. If it wasn''t for my gasmask filtering out even a small amount of the greasy vapor that hung in the air, it''d be different. I''d be a lot keener to get and stay out of it.
As it was, I could manage.
Carefully, I continued forward along the catwalk, watching my steps, where my muzzle was, and that Knock-Knock didn''t scrape the ground as I went.
I managed to make my way through the first portion of the catwalk, between the first and second stairs. None of them noticed me as I went, as far as I could tell. Imagine someone would''ve raised the alarm if they had. But I did hear something as I went, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere. A soft sound that I only seemed to just barely catch as I went. The cold, crackling scrape of metal against stone. Kind of like the honing of a knife along a whetstone. When I first heard it, I paused and checked over myself, just to make sure I wasn''t making it. Then my surroundings, to make sure I hadn''t been made. But despite both I couldn''t pick out where it''d come from. Regardless, it continued moving independent of me, so perhaps someone was just moving something.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I kept my ears open for the noise as I moved onto the second section of the catwalk. There were three of them that led back to the panopticon. I was going to have to take the fourth set of stairs, at the far end, down to ground level if I was going to get in. Didn''t appear there were any connections from the catwalk. That part would be tricky, but as long as the way was clear it would be easy enough.
Right as I was about to make my way onto the third section of the catwalk, I ran into trouble. The cell door immediately in front of me swung open. To the right as well, so it couldn''t even act as a bit of cover. Immediately following it, hand against the door, one of the inmates stepped out. They were wearing an orange jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up. There was blood splattered on the chest, brown mingled with the orange. Bright red on the bit of white undershirt that showed. He was skinny, his skin a bit pale and sickly. He got one foot out of the cell with an even stride, head and neck bobbing out after him. Hair was shaved down to the scalp, face was a bit boney, had a spider tattoo on the side of his neck facing me, just under his jaw. He had eyes the color of wet rust, and they glanced toward me as he stepped out. They flashed with a flicker of surprise.
My right hand left my rifle and snatched Blood-Nap from my boot. In the same motion I sprang up from my crouch, flipped my grip, and thrust the knife forward.
It sank to the hilt in his neck. Split the spider in half.
My head twisted towards the cell block beneath us, VATS snapping open. I couldn''t move my eyes, but it let me survey the scene. While there were inmates moving and looking around, none of them seemed poised for speed. Their attention was still there, at ground level.
VATS closed, my head twisted to briefly look in the cell, make sure there wasn''t someone I''d miss.
There was.
But they weren''t going to be a problem.
A guard was lying face down inside the cell. He was near the back wall of the cell, which apparently did have a toilet in it. Or, had a toilet. The toilet had been made of steel, and the bowl had been hit hard enough to shear apart, leaving the thing wrenched open, water pouring out of it and into the room.
I couldn''t see much of the guard''s face, or much of his head. But there was blood everywhere, thinned by the water. With how close he was to the toilet, it wasn''t a guess how it''d happened. More a morbid surprise it''d happened at all. I couldn''t guess what the guard had done to deserve something that brutal, if anything. Or why the inmate with my knife in his throat had felt it warranted.
But it didn''t matter to me either. Fuck this guy.
VATS closed and I slashed Blood-Nap down and to the side, away and out for the inmate''s throat. There was a small splash of crimson as the way was opened. They hadn''t even had time to react as they tried to turn towards me.
I shoved him back into the cell and spun past him, carefully shutting the door. I pressed my back to the wall and looked out over the cell block, waiting for either shouting or fighting to erupt. When it didn''t, I knew I''d been successful. There was a bit of splashing in the cell, but it was heavily muffled by the steel door.
Calmly, I cleaned Blood-Nap and put it back in my boot, returning my grip to Clark''s rifle. There was no point in lingering if it''d just get me caught.
The rest of the distance between me and the fourth flight of stairs was uninterrupted. No other surprises or sudden appearances. Even the noise I''d heard previously had faded off. Whatever it was, if it was following me, it was keeping its distance.
At the stairwell, I examined the ground floor below. It was only a couple yards from the bottom of the stairs to the bottom of the panopticon. Another set of stairs, these ones gated in, spiraled up the tower and into the office proper. I still couldn''t see anything inside the office, the windows were blacked out and mostly intact. That was the point of the panopticon, but it definitely didn''t help in this situation. For all I knew there was someone watching from inside of it. All I could count on was that I hadn''t been made while dealing with the inmate. Had to hope it would stay that way.
Descending the stairs, I could see around the opposite edge of the panopticon. There was another group of inmates talking. Something was different with these ones though. They seemed more at odds, stand-offish. I couldn''t make out much of them from a distance, but I knew they were something big in all of this.
At ground level, I did another quick sweep and quickly moved across from one set of stairs to the other. The stairs at the bottom of the panopticon was blocked by a chain-link gate, an electronic lock keeping it latched to the fence frame. However, the lock itself was actually open, released rather than broken. Implied somebody either already had been or was up there. Bonus for me was they''d at least neglected to close the door behind them. I crept through the gate and let it remain open behind me. Maybe someone would follow after me, but I didn''t want to risk the electronic bits making noise of their own accord. Wasn''t worth the risk for a sense of security that would only slow me down in the long run.
I began to once again climb the stairs as they slowly worked their way around the perimeter of the tower. They were steep and a fast climb to the office overhead, but they still brought me around the back of the tower, right in view of the inmates I''d seen back there. I was above them, so the odds were better they weren''t going to see me. But better didn''t mean the odds were zero. I glanced over them a few times as I went. It was definitely a matter of business between them, whatever it was. Had to imagine they represented at least four different groups. Kinda reminded me of some of the deals I''d see going on between the Omertas inside Gomorra. At least one group was the White Fang, another must''ve been for the bandits outside Vale''s walls. The others must''ve been for gangs inside them. The guy I''d pressed for info said there were guys in here for the Xiongs. Made them a relation to Junior. Who I hadn''t thought about since he''d tried to bump off Yang and kill us both. Another problem I''d deal with if I ran into him again. The others I couldn''t pick up.
But they were clearly settling accounts. Wouldn''t be long before somebody decided it was time for the final push.
I finished climbing the stairs and slipped into the office. This door I closed behind me.
The room was dark, and the lights were dim, but at least they were on. I could see the rest of the Wing through the blacked out windows, and knew they couldn''t see me. There were a few lockers in the room, spaces where there should''ve been more. Looked like they''d been meant for holding equipment. There was a meeting table in the center, which had papers on it, files for the prisoners. Along one edge of the room was a bank of controls. Had to imagine they were meant for the lights. Aside from them was another console and terminal set up. It had multiple displays, and what looked to be a map on one of them.
I made my way to the terminal and pulled my Scroll up.
"Penny?" I called, keeping my voice low, even being behind cover. "I managed to make it to the office at the back of the wing. The terminal in here should be able to reset everything, right?"
There was a long pause as I made my way over to the terminal. But eventually, Penny''s voice clipped back in. "Yes, that should be it. But he doesn''t know how to."
"I''ll handle that," I told her. "Just be on standby in case I need something."
Standing full, I reached the terminal and began working at it. Quick judgement said the map was a list of the cells and their doors. Judging by a number of flashing lights, their locks had been disengaged. Either by a loss of power, or somebody choosing to release them. At this point there was no sense in worrying about that, so I ignored it and began parsing through the menus, checking what options were available to me. I needed to figure out what, again, simply wasn''t working, and what was actually broken. Similar to how the server had worked, there was a tool for diagnostics. A couple keystrokes pulled it up, and a simple black and white readout flashed on screen.
*CELL 1-01 POWER:ERR. / LOCK:ERR.; WARNING: CELL INTEGRITY MAY BE COMPROMISED
*CELL 1-02 POWER:ERR. / LOCK:ERR.; WARNING: CELL INTEGRITY MAY BE COMPROMISED
*CELL 1-03 POWER:ERR. / LOCK:ERR.; WARNING: CELL INTEGRITY MAY BE COMPROMISED
*CELL 1-04 POWER:ERR. / LOCK:ERR.; WARNING: CELL INTEGRITY MAY BE COMPROMISED
*CELL 1-05 POWER:ERR. / LOCK:ERR.; WARNING: CELL INTEGRITY MAY BE COMPROMISED¡
There was a long list of items like that on the list, and I scrolled past them. I''d already figured that much out, and needed to get to the part that would actually help me. Which I did, more than halfway down the list.
*EXTERIOR TERMINAL 01 POWER:ERR. / OPERATIONAL STATUS:ERR; WARNING CELL BLOCK SECURITY COMPROMISED
*LOSS OF POWER DETECTED SYSTEM REBOOT REQUESTED. ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION MAY BE REQUIRED.
The responses didn''t put me at ease, but they took the edge off. The power had been suddenly cut and the system likely couldn''t handle it. The reboot might''ve corrupted some data and left unresolved queries. A proper reset wouldn''t fix it, but having a clean slate would still have the same effect as my overriding the server. It would let me access the controls at the security door and seal the wing off. That''s all I needed it to do.
I closed the readout and began looking through the menus. The system command menu was nestled inside a couple of others, when I found it. A quick flip through the options led to the administrative option to begin a system reset. A button tap later and the terminals went black. Immediately they blinked back to life and began scrawling code over the screen. Startup processes, runtime checks.
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 0.0%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 0.5%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 1.2%
''Come on- SERIOUSLY!?''
I figured that the system reset wouldn''t be fast, but it was measuring progress in tenths of a percent. There wasn''t anything I could do for it either. Either I waited for the system to properly reset itself, or left and took my chances elsewhere.
All it meant was more time for things to go wrong.
I looked out through the windows of the panopticon and watched the inmates as they went about their business. How long it was before they made their play, I had no idea. But they were getting restless. If they left before the system was actually ready, it would all be pointless.
Rather than think about the negative alternative, I put my mind elsewhere. Pulling up my Scroll again, I switched back to the main channel with everyone, volume low.
"Alright, I''m working to get the wing sealed off," I said. "Things are looking a bit tough in here, how''s everyone holding up?"
"We''re pushing them back!" Jaune answered, almost sounded like he was shouting. "The guards from the armory are trying to get their people armed. We''ll at least have them helping us soon."
"Not soon enough," Ren grunted, shots rattling off near him.
"Sounds like you''re all having fun in there," Coco answered, a roar echoing around her voice. "We''re holding up out here¡ Think I can see Bullheads in the air over Vale. Looks like they''re moving towards us."
"What''re the odds they''re not on our side?" Yatsu asked, sounding more amused by the idea than annoyed.
"Not high," I told him. "The White Fang are doing this because they need the hardware. They''re not going to risk what they''ve got left if everything''s going to go wrong."
"I hope so," Velvet huffed. "I''m running low on grenades."
"How low?" I asked, mentally cursing.
"Low, but I''ve got a few left," Velvet answered, chaste. "Sorry, I know you said to watch how many I used."
"Don''t be," I told her, rubbing my chin. "Better they get used trying to hold the line than sitting useless in my locker."
"I''ll help you find some more!" Nora squawked, the heavy thud of her hammer blows echoing with her. At least she was restraining how much she was using the grenade launcher.
"Yippee," I droned, letting the line fall silent for a moment. "¡ You with us girls, Sun?"
Again the answer wasn''t immediate. There was a stretch where the air was just open and dead. That it was silent meant that they weren''t fighting, and could mean they weren''t in position yet. It also could mean they weren''t fighting and were in trouble.
Half into a heart attack later, Ruby answered.
"We''re at the arsenal," she said. "We''re¡ surveying?... is that the word¡ Yeah, that."
"Ok," I said, letting out a slow breath. "How''s it looking?"
"¡ Not good," Ruby decided. "They got a bunch of people here, a couple wearing uniforms¡ They''re working fast, and we''re trying to figure out what we need to do to stop them¡" Another pause. "¡ Okay, I think we know what we''re doing. We can''t wait for you to get here, they''re going to escape if we don''t do something."
"I understand," I said, checking the terminal again. The system was loading faster. Just not fast enough.
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 56.2%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 61.7%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 68.9%
"¡I''ll be with you as fast as I can," I said. "I''ve got faith you can do this."
"We do too," Ruby said, a smile in her voice. "We''re going to have to do this now, see you soon."
"Same," I told them, and let the line close.
That''s how it was going to have to play. I couldn''t get to them until this was done. Couldn''t risk leaving it half finished. But I knew I was running out of time. The inmates below were starting to rally themselves. It wouldn''t be long before somebody gave the signal to start moving, and things would really start getting out of hand.
I wasn''t going to let anyone leave, not if I could stop it. Just didn''t want to face those odds if it came down to it.
Waiting for the reset to finish felt like it took an eternity. All the while, the inmates were grouping up. I spied through the glass that the leaders were starting to move back around the tower. Soon they''d be making for the exit of the cell block.
My gaze flashed back and forth between them and the terminal.
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 93.3%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 97.2%
*SYSTEM RESET IN-PROGRESS: 99.1%
*¡
The terminal screen blinked, and I was back at the console''s main menu. Quickly I ran back through the menus, fighting through the system''s buffering, trying to race my typing speed against how fast the inmates were walking.
Voices started to clamor from the front of the tower, echoing through the block. They were rallying.
I ran the diagnostics tool. All the errors began to flash across the screen again. The ones I wasn''t going to have time to fix. But I didn''t need to. The one I needed to make work was the only one I cared about. I shot to the bottom of the list.
*EXTERIOR TERMINAL 01 POWER:NOMINAL. / OPERATIONAL STATUS:ACTIVE;
*EXTERNAL LOCKDOWN ADVISED
Accompanying this, my Pip-Boy let out its telltale grind of accomplishment.
-Complete: Figure out how to re-initiate lockdown.
-Objective: Re-initiate lockdown.
I let out another breath, this one tense.
It worked. The system was fucked but I could at least shut the damn door.
Now came the problem of getting back to it.
Stepping away from the Terminal, I began to plot how I''d get back to the mouth of the cell block. As it was, I needed to get back there fast, before any of the inmates could make their play. Once guys started getting out, I''d have to deal with them opening the place back up. Better to just get ahead of them. Getting noticed wouldn''t be as much a problem as long as the door was actually working. If it wasn''t I''d have the lot of them bearing down on me while knowing it wasn''t going to close. The catwalk had at least proven I could move over them without being caught. If I could at least get back to the first set of stairs, I could probably make a break for the doors. If everything was actually working right, I could get the doors locked down before they had a chance to react. If they weren''t, then I at least had them going through a choke point while I worked out what to do.
Other than that, the only thing to do was get there. Assuming there wasn''t a secondary override inside the tower. No pressure.
I slipped back through the door out of the tower and flew down the stairs. There was no one close by, for now. Most of the inmates were still moving closer to the mouth of things, congregating about halfway to the corridor, in the middle of the cell block. The group that''d been near the panopticon, leaders I guessed, were starting to get their attention. By the point I hit the stairs, people were stirring. I climbed two steps at a time and came up onto the catwalk. Would''ve slid into a crouch if the grating wouldn''t have chewed me to pieces. Instead I had to lower myself into one and begin quickly waddling my way back across the room, racing to do it before the guys in the center of the room wrapped up whatever speech they had planned.
"Alright, listen up¡ Hey¡ HEY!... SHUT THE FUCK UP!" one of the leaders shouted, trying to get them all to pay attention.
In the interest of escaping, I kept moving and hoped he hadn''t just seen me. Put a feeling in my gut that only intensified as the collected inmates actually stopped clacking their jaws.
"You gonna listen now?" the leader asked, a woman. Brief look said she had tattoos and dark hair. Couldn''t pick out more than that. "¡ Good. We''ve come to terms."
"Breaking lockdown and getting this far was a good bit of work," another said, a man, lighter voice. "But we aren''t done yet. As most of you can see, we''re not out of here yet."
Had to applaud his grasp of the obvious, but refrained from doing so.
"You''ve all only gotten this far because of my group''s efforts," yet another voice spoke. Male, sounding like he had a wad of phlegm at the back of his throat. "The White Fang pays its debts. We expect ours to be paid in kind."
There was a small grumbling of agreement from the gathered inmates and criminals. While the old saying went that there was no honor among thieves, I''d spent enough time around criminals to know the truth. Everyone was willing to stab each other in the back if the price was high enough, or they had no ties to each other. But all the same, there was a hierarchy and order to things. The Powder Gangers had one, the various organizations during my bounty hunting days had them, and even the Fiends had one. Best example I could think of were the Khans. Brutal, lawless, and gray as they were, even they had some standard they held themselves to. Unless they were given a damn good reason, they kept to their word, and didn''t try to stab you in the back.
Granted, they''d stab you in the front instead, but at least you knew why they were spilling your guts.
That much didn''t change here. Especially when they all had a common goal.
"The way''s opened and freedom is on us to get," The first woman spoke again. "We''ve all got our own people waiting on the outside to help us disappear."
"Unless you''re a Xiong, in which case you''re fucked," a voice rose up from the crowd.
"Screw off Schmidt!" another voice called from the crowd. "At least we don''t have to go back to molesting cattle!"
"It''s rustling!" The first voice retorted.
"Both of you shut up, or we''ll leave both of you behind to bleed!" a fourth voice, another female, shouted. Sounded like another of the leaders.
Silence settled back over them as I continued creeping. I was at about the halfway mark of the catwalk. Just a little further and I''d be in the clear to make my break.
Recovering from that little outburst, the White Fang''s leader continued. "My people are currently doing their part outside the prison''s walls, and we will be moving to join them shortly. That they haven''t breached them yet, means that something has not gone according to plan. However, I don''t think that''ll be enough to stop anyone here, will it?"
There was a general murmur of derision. Of course that wouldn''t, they were the guys in Maximum Security, not the general population. They had a lot less to lose.
"Assuming Mr. Everglade was correct in his assumption, the authorities will be too occupied to stop us," the phlegmy one said. "As long as we can escape, simply going to ground will be enough to satisfy all parties. Though I''m sure we''ve all got personal business to attend to as well."
"If anything, the White Fang encourages you to pursue them. At your own risk and leisure, of course," their leader added. "What rewards and gratification you seek will be your own, regardless of whether you succeed. The simple fact that you''d try at all works to our benefit¡" There was a pause as they spoke. Again I got that feeling in my stomach as I moved. That momentary churn that felt like their eyes were on me. But then they resumed. "¡ However, if any of you intend to act in a fashion that would impede our mission, I will warn you now. Don''t. This warning is purely a courtesy, and the only one you''ll be getting. Our mission here in this Kingdom does not concern you."
Three quarters of the way there. Just a little further and I''d be in sprinting distance of the stairs. I''d already passed the door of the inmate I''d knifed, the bloody water finding its way under the door said he was gone.
"If you, or those you work with, decide to make our mission your concern it shall end in one way. I will tell you all now: we do not take kindly to interlopers." The leader pressed on, an edge in their voice. "The war we''ve fought has been a long and bloody one. It started with our revolution, and has not ended since. We''ve killed, maimed, and destroyed more people than any of you will ever know for the sake of our beliefs. We have died for them as well, and will do so fearlessly again. Our goals have evolved. Our means have not. You all do as you do to profit. Work in concert with and respect us, and you will find yourselves rich indeed."
Right as I reached the last door on the catwalk, I had enough and stood up.
"Cross us, and only a few of you may survive long enough to understand the true meaning of the phrase ''to suffer the consequences.''" The leader was almost growling now. A final hammering of how thoroughly he wanted his point understood. "An emphasis on the word suffer."
My feet bolted forward, carrying the rest of my body with them. I shot past the first door and rounded onto the stairwell. I practically slid down the rails rather than touch the steps as I flew down the, reaching the landing in a blur. Feet touched down and I bolted for the exit, pushing my Aura into my stride. It was happening fast enough that no one had responded yet. No alarm, no shouts. I just had to keep moving.
Then a pickup-truck launched out of the shadows beneath the stairwell, moving at full speed.
I heard the footfall echo off the concrete behind me, hammering the ground like a supersledge. Hard and powerful strides, something metallic crackling and scraping with each impact.
My body wrenched around mid-stride and snapped VATS open. The only thing I''d done was react in time to fight back, but what I saw was blurred and shadowed. The low-light vision of my mask only had time to show me a massive body, thick with muscle and a flash of teeth.
VATS closed, and my finger rattled against the trigger, loosing a trio of shots that rang through the cell block. Three 12.7mm slugs hammered the target at center mass, their Aura flaring at the impact. But it didn''t stop them, it hardly even seemed to slow them down. Their hand shot out at me, as I wrenched back around, and I rolled forward. It killed my run, but put me out of their grasp for a moment.
Immediately, I rounded back on them, strafing towards the side, trying to keep myself angled in line with the doors. My assailant was on me even as I cracked off a fourth shot, this one only barely missing their side.
"Come here!" the voice boomed, gravelly, and growling. His massive hands clawed at me and I backpedaled, barely slipping one strike, narrowly catching the tip of another. Even that small blow carried great force behind it. Threw the muzzle of Clark''s rifle away from them.
But even as I tried to keep away from them, and move towards the exit, they bore down on me. Trying to strafe ahead of me, lead me the way they wanted. Their stride gave them a distance advantage, even if their size should''ve said they needed to move slower. There was even a brace around one of their legs, supporting the knee. But quickly they outpaced me, cutting off my path to the exit. They swung at me again, diving towards me, a scaly hand only narrowly missing my head as I ducked and sprang back.
I whipped the muzzle of Clark''s rifle towards them again and fired, rattling off another trio of shots.
Again they ate them. This time their Aura didn''t even flicker. Either it''d broken, or I''d gotten past it.
They didn''t stop as they continued their assault.
"I''ve waited for this!" my assailant roared. "You got lucky last time!"
Realizing being conservative with my ammo wasn''t going to save me, I dumped the magazine into them. The shots were deafening as the noise filled the air. Their effect, minimal, if anything. At the same time I continued to try and reorient myself, get around them and out of close quarters. They wanted to drag me into a brawl and I couldn''t let that happen.
Even as I tried that, the other inmates had taken notice, and people were moving. I could hear them all moving, like waves washing to the shore.
My hand released the mag and tried to slap a new one in. But I was too slow.
My attacker made another lunge for me, and I went to dive away from him.
He swung his tree-trunk of a leg and caught me bodily with a kick. Blew me clear back the other way. I kept my grip on Clark''s rifle, but I couldn''t roll when I hit the ground. Instead I hit back-first, skid a short distance, head snapped back against the ground. The cushioning of my helmet dulled the blow, but not much. Whiplash had me seeing stars as I still tried to get a fresh magazine in.
My attacker dove at me, aimed right on top.
I rolled to the side and they landed beside me by a hair''s breadth. Their jumpsuit was torn, and I could see their scaly skin reflecting the firelight around us. I caught the yellow glow of their eyes, and the ivory gleam of their pointed teeth.
When we''d met before, I hadn''t seen him without his mask and hood. Kept me from noticing things. Like the way his ears were cropped off. Or how wide and vicious that razor-toothed smile of his was. That it wasn''t a smile. That something ripped his mouth open that way.
Waylon was an ugly sonnuva bitch without the uniform.
Despite having missed me, Waylon didn''t wait for me to react. His hand lashed out wrapped around my throat. Hard enough my Aura immediately flared green. I could feel the pressure of his grip as he nearly crushed my throat. He rose slowly and powerfully, dragging me up with him. At his full height, still trapped in his grip, he had me dangling off the ground. I felt myself kicking, searching for a point of purchase. I dropped Clark''s empty rifle and it clattered to the ground. My hands grabbed onto his wrist as I tried to writhe in his grasp. Use him as my point of leverage as I struggled to draw a breath.
With dizzying speed, Waylon surged forward, driving me backward. Before I could blink, think on what was happening, I slammed backward against a wall of concrete. This time the padding wasn''t enough. My head swam as stars passed through my vision. I couldn''t breathe. My leg swung forward in a sharp kick, catching against Waylon''s stomach. If he felt it at all, it must not have bothered him. Instead, he pulled me back and slammed me into the wall again.
"The pain you''ve put me through has been terrible," Waylon growled, squeezing tighter. I could feel my Aura wavering. "I''m going to put you through worse."
I couldn''t breathe. He wanted to talk about pain, he should try the terrifying lightheaded feeling that a lack of oxygen brings. It''d only been a few seconds, but I could already tell my grip on things was slipping. I couldn''t breathe. It was going to kill me. I needed to breathe.
No, I needed to think.
I opened VATS. Tried to extend what frantic time I had for as long as I could, before my nerves lost to panic and got me killed. If I didn''t get Waylon to let go of my throat he was going to kill me. My Aura would go first. If he didn''t crush my windpipe instantly, him bashing my head against the wall would do the job. Oddly, the bashing would be less painful. The brain damage would make it harder to tell I was in pain.
But the clock was ticking. If I didn''t come up with an answer, VATS would close and I''d be screwed. I tried to think: how did our last fight go?... Oh, right.
I closed VATS. Immediately reality flooded back in and I could feel my Aura waning. If this was going to work, I needed to do it fast.
Summoning whatever Aura I could spare, I flooded it into the muscles of my leg.
Then drove my foot into the knee Waylon currently had wrapped in a leg brace.
Waylon roared as I drove my foot into his leg, and his grip on me released. I gasped, practically choking on the air as it rushed into my lungs. Waylon stumbled back, a hand flying down to his knee as he seethed with pain and rage.
As I struggled to catch my breath, my hands flew down to my shotgun. The muzzle of it swung upward as I drew it, angling from the hip. Waylon''s gaze turned back to and locked on me, as he looked ready to dive back at me again.
I pulled the trigger and fire leapt from the muzzle.
Literal fire.
The slug shot from the barrel and immediately ignited in the air. The epoxy caught like petroleum as the Fire Dust reacted with the air and heat, forming a fist-sized comet of fire that only grew brighter and bigger as it traveled forward.
The slug landed square against Waylon''s chest and exploded in a wash of fire, heat, and light. A wash of brilliant orange and yellow flame cascaded over and wrapped around him, acting as though he''d just been hit with a splash of napalm. It lingered over him burning and crackling as it found new fuel, the original fiery glow dying back with intensity as it took to the new fuel. Burned them the same way it burned everything they''d throw into the fire bins around us.
Waylon began to roar as the flames consumed him. At the same time, the inmates began to rush forward, realizing what was happening. Or at the very least that the interloper in their midst was proving far more dangerous than expected.
My shotgun slapped back against my side as I shot forward. My Aura was stressed, but not broken. I used it to push me forward, faster, quicker. As Waylon struggled with the fire I darted past him, swooping low to the ground and grabbing Clark''s rifle. My boots skidded on the ground as I immediately turned, correcting course. I sprinted for the door without a moment''s hesitation.
The inmates began to shout as I passed into the corridor, the doorway directly in front of me. I could hear Waylon, his voice echoing after me as I pushed to reach the end. Mingled with it, the slowly strangled cries of the inmates. Struggling to cram themselves into the bottle neck of the corridor. A simple tactical error that would buy me even just a few precious moments.
I leapt through the steel security door and rounded onto the terminal, adrenaline shaking my hands as I began to punch the commands in.
''Come on, come on-''
*WARNING: CELL SECURITY COMPROMISED. WING LOCKDOWN AUTHORIZED.
*INITIATE CONTAINMENT? Y/N
I punched the Y key, or as close as Remnant''s script had to it, and the system kicked into motion. I could hear the hydraulics begin to spool and rumble, fluid moving through the hoses. The heavy steel doors began to rise slightly off the ground, the pressure building enough to lift them. Slowly, the doors began to drag themselves towards the center of their frame.
It was working. The doors were going to shut. Anything that tried to stop them was going to get crushed.
I took a step backwards as they did, peering back down the corridor. The inmates were shouting, and I could see the looks of panic on their faces. Before they''d even had a chance to do everything, their whole plan was about to go up in smoke. Would''ve flipped them the bird as the doors slid into place. Let the last thing they see until the guards eventually came to retake the wing. Would''ve been completely fine with me.
But that''s never how this sort of thing goes.
A roar echoed from the far end of the corridor.
With fury and power, Waylon cut through the crowd like a runaway train. Body still engulfed, flames and smoke licking off him as he ran. His teeth gleaming in the firelight and scales almost an obsidian black. Anyone who''d been stupid enough to stand in front of him was mowed down. Anyone who hadn''t been peeled away from him, fearing the fire.
He broke from the crowd and made for the door.
It wasn''t even halfway shut.
''-fuckFUCKFUCK-''
Clark''s rifle swung upward as I slapped a new magazine into the receiver. In the same motion to level the muzzle with Waylon I pulled the charging handle. Without choosing my shots I began rattling them down the corridor. I knew a bunch of them went wide, they nailed the people behind him instead and dropped them. But others were hitting them. He just acted like they weren''t. A sense of confidence that worked, because it only seemed to be making him faster.
He slammed through the doorway as they were halfway closed. The fire that''d been lingering on him smoldering to embers, smoke wreathing him. Without slowing down, he launched at me.
I hit the deck and he flew over me, coming down past me and crossing the corridor, only coming to a stop as he slammed into the wall, cratering it. The muzzle of my weapon spun around to him and I pulled the trigger.
In my panic, I''d emptied the mag again.
Not missing a beat, I popped the magazine and started reloading.
"You think you just get to run away?" Waylon growled pulling himself from the wall
"Waylon!" a voice called from the security doors behind us.
It faded as I heard the door hiss shut. The cold and heavy thud of the pins sealing the door shut. I briefly looked back to it as I picked myself up, still trying to get the magazine in.
"There''s no running for you," Waylon growled, rounding on me. Bits of drywall and mortar flecked off him, where he''d hit the wall. As he moved I could finally start to see him better. The fire had burned away most of his clothing, scorched his green scaly skin black, left what remained of his jumpsuit smoldering and charred, embers flecking off it.
I could see where my bullets had hit him. All center mass, ripping massive holes into him.
But the wounds were puckered shut. Not healed. I could see them weeping, but they were shut. Like the scales on his skin were forcing them closed. The places where he''d been burned, it was almost like he hadn''t been. The scales were shiny and blackened, but unbroken and untarnished.
I''d hurt Waylon.
He was just tough enough not to be bothered by it.
My Pip-Boy signaled me. Even knowing I''d succeeded in my objective, I knew the one that replaced it was about to be just as complicated.
-Complete: Re-initiate lockdown.
-Objective: Reunite with your teammates at the arsenal.
Waylon''s body tensed, as I finally got my new magazine in.
His teeth gleamed.
"I''m going to eat your heart."
Waylon charged at me, roaring bloody murder.
Killer in the Croc
"We''re at the Arsenal." Ruby said, trying to keep her voice soft "We''re¡ surveying?... is that the word¡ Yeah, that."
She almost felt as though she didn''t need to.
Getting to the Arsenal hadn''t been a difficult task. After mustering the strength to move past what they''d seen at the Prison gates, their pace had quickened. Even as the weather had begun to turn against them, the young huntress knew that they could not afford to slow. The winds blew hard against them, and the rain struck them in fat droplets as the shower grew into a mid-summer storm. Distant thunder rolled through the air like cannon fire, and she''d almost feared they were too late. That the White Fang may have begun using the Artillery for some other nefarious purpose. It was a strange feeling to her to be comforted instead by the overhead flashes of lightning that preceded them. By the faint re-assurance that the White Fang hadn''t begun actively sieging Vale alongside their thievery.
She knew the re-assurance would not last long.
A short jaunt and climb up the hillside later, and the huntresses and huntsman reached a thin wood-line. The edge of a small ring of trees that surrounded the Arsenal. Their path from the prison cutting through it. Through the woods they went, for but a brief distance, before they saw the Arsenal. Walls of hewn stone and mortar twenty feet high and capped by coils of razor wire. The only immediate entrance they could see lay at the end of their path. An archway beyond the wall, a barrier and guard post blocking the way. Both of which lay shattered along the ground, no sign of those who may have once manned it.
None of those present chose to dwell on what may have become of them.
Instead they spoke briefly among themselves as the rain continued to build. Understanding that what they did would carry consequences, should they fail, the five of them came to a decision. One that led to them needing a better view of the Arsenal.
Ruby and Blake chose to approach the Arsenal from separate points, seeking higher ground. Vantage points where they may spy inward beyond the walls.
With ease they''d scaled the trees that encompassed the Arsenal walls, and peered down into the camp. Letting her gaze pass through the scope of Crescent Rose
The Arsenal was a wide space, beyond the walls. No structures within rose above the upper lip of the walls. Instead choosing to sprawl along the ground at length. The only high points within were the walkway along the wall itself, beyond the razor wire. The space was filled with weaponry she was familiar with from old war movies and video games. Artillery pieces, guns so massive they needed to be set to wheels to be properly moved and aimed. If not, then mounted to purpose built vehicles. Some long, some short, a few small enough they hardly seemed any more special than what a huntsman might carry. Then ones so large she thought it a wonder they moved at all. Given a chance she would''ve loved to take the time and just admire them for what they were.
But there were more pressing matters in her sight.
She did her best to ignore the bodies she saw strewn about, few though they were. She didn''t want to think about them. Not when there were more demanding issues.
Aside from the Artillery pieces that filled the yard, two other items filled the space. One was a sort of rounded metal hut that Ruby also recognized from old war movies. The kind made of ridged sheet metal that curved over itself. The name escaped her, they were a type of hut, a whats-it by any other name.
Aside from the whats-its huts, of which there were at least a dozen, there sat another two dozen Bull-heads. The winged craft used by Vale, Beacon, and Huntsmen alike. Only a small contingent of what could be found in the kingdom, but valuable all the same.
Evidenced by the way Ruby watched the White Fang, as raindrops and wind pelted her, scurrying about. Moving between the huts and the artillery. There was only one thing she could surmise they were attempting to do.
"Ok." The Courier answered through Ruby''s open Scroll "How''s it looking?"
"¡ Not good." Ruby decided "They got a bunch of people here, a couple wearing uniforms¡ They''re working fast, and we''re trying to figure out what we need to do to stop them¡" She paused "¡ Okay, I think we know what we''re doing. We can''t wait for you to get here, they''re going to escape if we don''t do something."
Ruby motioned to her teammates waiting below, Weiss, Yang, and Sun. Ruby then motioned to Blake, perched in a distant tree, and she began to return.
"I understand." Six said, pausing himself "¡I''ll be with you as fast as I can. I''ve got faith you can do this."
"We do to." Ruby said, giving a smile she herself did not entirely feel. "We''re going to have to do this now, see you soon."
"Same." Six finished.
Without a moment''s pause, the line between them closed.
Ruby let out an uneasy breath and let herself fall off her perch in the tree. She fell silently and easily through the air, letting her aura slow and control her fall as she approached the ground. Her cape fanned out around her as she touched down, planting her feet as she did. A moment more and Blake swung out of the trees beside her, skidding to a halt.
"You guys heard Six?" Ruby asked.
"We''ll have to do this without him." Weiss affirmed "This isn''t the first time we''ve had to fight the White Fang, and he wasn''t around for that either."
"Where''d he go that night anyway?" Sun asked "He just kinda came back all banged up."
"Ask him the next time you see him." Yang said dimly, "We''ve got to do this now, if we''re going to do it."
"Yeah¡" Ruby said, watching her sister carefully "¡ There isn''t really any other way inside. We either go through the front door, or go over the wall. Blake, how did things look from your side?"
"There weren''t any other ways in." Blake confirmed, shifting nervously "I think I''d be able to make it over the wall, we all probably could if we tried. But I don''t think it would help us."
"Maybe not, but getting stuck at the front wouldn''t help either." Weiss hemmed, resting the tip of her weapon in the dirt "But if we come at them from multiple angles we could probably avoid that. Only then we wouldn''t all be able to work together."
Ruby paused for a moment, thinking. Trying to decide what would be the best course of action based on everything that had transpired around her. She knew how disastrous simply charging in could end, having nearly experienced it herself. But simply sneaking around wouldn''t solve the issue either. Her partner, however, had given her a useful seed of information. She knew she wasn''t good at making plans, but for a spur of the moment one, Ruby knew she could''ve done worse.
"We''ll do both." Ruby said, motioning towards the Arsenal walls. "Weiss, you and Yang can take the front, and draw everyone''s attention. Blake, Sun, and I can go over the wall and help cover you by making sure you have a clearer path. That way we''re able to focus on anyone who''s too spread out, while still having an attack with some power behind it."
Her teammates looked at her for a moment, considering the plan she''d laid out before them. Ruby knew that it wasn''t some work of genius. Strategy was something Weiss was better suited for. But strategy required time, something which they all knew they lacked.
A part of her wished the Courier had been able to come join them. She knew that relying on him in such a fashion was a crutch. But at the same time, it always seemed like he had a plan. Or barring that, always seemed to be prepared to react to whatever was coming. She couldn''t tell if that was something natural to him, or a result of living in a world such as his Wasteland.
The moment passed, and Weiss spoke. "I think it could work." She agreed, smiling "We don''t really have much time for a better plan, do we?"
As if hearing her words, through the wind and rain, a sound began to echo over the walls of the arsenal. A high pitched shriek, that grew into a whine and wail. The spooling of turbines. Peering through the rain, the young huntresses and huntsman looked towards the arsenal. They watched as a pair of lights appeared over the Arsenal, rising out from it. One of the bullheads that''d been kept within. Then, without hesitation, the vehicle peeled off and away from the walls of the Arsenal. It disappeared beyond the treetops, away from them. The first of what could be many.
"It''ll have to do." Blake said, motioning to Sun. "C''mon, I''ll show you where you can jump from."
"Cool." Sun said, choosing to follow after. The two quickly racing off the path and into the wood line. Disappearing into the gloom of the rain filled trees.
Weiss suppressed a shiver as a cold wind caught the rain and blew against her coat. While her petticoat offered more coverage than her normal attire, she still felt it a bit thin for the amount of rain. She was sure she was slowly being drenched. She wasn''t sure How Yang wasn''t feeling it, being dressed in even less.
"I''ll go around the other side." Ruby said "I''ll let you know when I''m in position, then we''ll wait on you guys, ok?"
"I can do that." Weiss agreed, nodding as she looked at Yang "How do you want to do this?"
Yang didn''t answer. Which drew both the heiress and her younger sister to regard her. She was standing close to them, arms hugged about herself tightly. Her clothes were wetted by the rain, her normally voluminous hair weighed down around her head. She shook, slightly, as the wind blew against them. Her lilac eyes focused on the ground. As far as Weiss could tell she was, indeed, being affected by the cold that the storm carried with it. Even so, she could tell there was something else wrong with the image in front of her. She felt as though she was looking at Blake more than Yang.
"Yang?" Ruby asked, trying to get her sister''s attention.
Yang, however, did not rise to meet her gaze, nor suddenly blossom against the winds the buffeted her. She merely stood against them, as she nodded, a small sign to show, yes, she''d heard them. Or, yes, she was in agreement with the plan. Or simply, yes, and little more.
"¡ Is something wrong Yang?" Ruby asked, feeling both the pressure of their circumstances, and the desire to stop and help her sibling.
"¡ No, I''m fine." Yang said, mustering her strength. Calmly, she began to step forward. "Let''s get into place Weiss, we''ve got to hurry, right?"
"Um¡ right." Weiss answered, nodding as Yang began to move ahead of her.
Weiss looked toward her partner, her brow raised silently, curiously. The only answer she received was from Ruby, who nodded in acknowledgement, but could only shrug as an explanation. After everything that had transpired around them throughout the evening, neither could tell where the issue lay. Only that more stood on the horizon, and they were expected to meet them sooner.
For all the trouble leaving issues to fester may cause, they had little other choice at that moment.
Allowing the conversation to fall, Weiss moved to follow Yang as Ruby raced back up into the trees. Her body briefly melding into the wind and rain as a flurry of petals and errant gusts. Intangibly whispering and whipping through the space weightlessly and pointedly. She formed back into herself as she reached the lowest bough of the tree and kicked off it, once more losing her shape. With ease she flew higher and higher as she raced closer to the walls of the Arsenal. Only briefly reforming on the limbs and crooks of the tree so that she may find her balance, catch her breath,
Until, all at once, she found herself over the walls and hovering in the dark air over the Arsenal. Only barely beyond the reach of the light posts that illuminated the space. She could see the White Fang as they hurried beneath her, running between the whats-its and the Bullheads. Some attempting to move what artillery they could closer to the Bullheads, as more began to Spool. Others leaving the Whats-its with their arms laden with crates. Munitions, weapons, tools and more. Everything and Anything Vale may need in the event of an incursion, but a lack of hunters to aid them.
Now being stolen by those who would certainly use them for ill-intent.
Ruby let herself fall once more, gliding down onto one of the Whats-its, just barely beyond the glow of the lights. She endeavored to make it so she landed as softly as possible. Not knowing just how thin the material was with the interior of the Whats-it. Though Ruby landed with aplomb, and was happy she didn''t stumble off the rounded surface. Even as it was slicked with rain and the wind whistled around her. She balanced herself and surveyed the Arsenal that now surrounded her. A hand slipped down to her scroll, and she spoke.
"I''m inside, on top of one of those metal-tent thingies." Ruby said, unfurling Crescent Rose from behind her. She knelt down as her weapon transitioned into its rifle configuration. The blade of the weapon split into a bi-pod, and she balanced it on the roof, kneeling. "I can see the front gate."
"We''re moving in now." Blake spoke.
Ruby tried to see where her teammates was entering from, but couldn''t see her. She blended well into the shadows near the walls passing beyond them as though she were a specter. Sun however, was not as invisible and intangible. Ruby spied him as he touched down onto the walkway that ringed the wall. He spied the space below, then swung down off the walkway, down to ground level.
"I''m in." Sun said "Already took one down."
"I''m not far from the entrance." Blake added "I''m ready."
"Alright." Ruby said, surveying the White Fang on the ground below. She watched them briefly, as she began to take aim, looking for anyone who might be leading them all. Though she found it a tough assignment. They all looked the same and the chaos of their raid made distinguishing a worthwhile target difficult. But she knew simply picking a random target wouldn''t be very helpful. If she was going to be taking shots at anyone, she''d make sure it was at the ones that were running things. Though she had some idea what she should be looking for.
If movies and videogames had taught her anything: Go for anyone dressed different, or bigger than the rest. They were almost always the people in charge, or were just more dangerous.
As she surveyed the area, she spied someone who might be worth focusing her attention on. One particular member who was currently walking among the rows or artillery pieces. They weren''t wearing the uniform, but Ruby was sure he was one by the mask he wore over his eyes. He was gigantic compared to the rest of the White Fang around him. Practically the size of Yatsuhashi. While she wasn''t accustomed to shooting at people, she knew a larger target was an easier one.
"Yang, Weiss, we''re ready when you are." Ruby spoke, relaxing herself for the shot.
All at once the front entrance to the Arsenal crashed inward. Gunfire echoed from Yang as she flew like a rocket into the space, colliding with whoever stood in her path. In her periphery, Ruby watched as the White Fang were blown back by her sister''s approach. But in Ruby''s direct line of sight, she could still see the giant White Fang. Around him, the others began to panic, rushing to see what was happening.
The Giant White Fang merely looked off in the direction, curiously, calmly as someone strode beside him.
Ruby''s aim steadied as she let out a slow breath. Crescent Rose pressed tight into her shoulder as she aimed. So close that she didn''t need to worry about trajectory or wind speed. It was sniping at its most bare and basic. Odds of missing: none.
Ruby pulled the trigger.
¡
As Three Hundred pounds of muscle and hate launched at me, there was only one thing I could think to do.
Get the fuck out of the way.
Clark''s rifle dipped out of the way as I all but threw myself to the aside. Narrowly avoiding Waylon as he barreled down on me. Even as I did, he was already turning to follow me. He moved with an agility and nimbleness that shouldn''t have been afforded for someone his size. Even with the open ground of the corridor for us to move in, it felt as though I couldn''t move fast enough.
But I did, barely. My shoulder scraped against the wall as I went, but I was able to rebound off it, steady myself. Waylon on the other hand, caught a handful of masonry as he collided with it. Heard the claws on his hand scrape the concrete and stone with the shrill noise of a chisel. Felt shards of it impact my back, pelting my coat, the respirator extension on my back. That was probably fine, I rarely connected to it anyway. Put it on the list of things to fix if I survived tonight.
I stumbled forward a step, spun around, fired a pair of point-blank shots on Waylon and took off running. Now with the open corridor and the hallway in front of me. Having gone toe-to-toe with Waylon in the past, it wasn''t an experience I was keen to repeat.
Unfortunately, Waylon very much did want to repeat it and was going to have his rematch if it killed me. I could hear him behind me as I Bolted down the corridor, away from the barricaded doors. The brace on his leg slamming against the ground at an off-beat rhythm. One that seemed to get faster each time it furiously struck the ground.
I poured my aura into my legs and kept running. Knowing for a brief moment I would be able to keep ahead of him. That was all I could think of doing in the moment. Putting some breathing room between myself and him. VATs could stretch a second into ten, a dozen into an eternity. But they weren''t going to matter if nothing I threw at him did any lasting damage. A frightening reality, given he''d tanked multiple hits from Clark''s rifle.
The end of the corridor came racing towards us, and I skidded hard around it. Forced back down the way I''d come, towards the camera room with Penny. The inmates I''d left behind were still there. Including the one who''d been smart enough to quit while he was ahead. He''d picked himself up and was trying to wake one of his buddies. His gaze tracked up to me for a moment as I rounded past him, bounding over the bodies of one of his other friends. I kept running as the inmate looked away from me, down the corridor.
Then Waylon came crashing around the corner, barreling into them. He must not have expected to crash into someone other than me, and they crashed to the ground. Momentum causing them to tumble all the way to the wall. Taking a chance, I spun back around briefly, slinging the muzzle of Clark''s rifle up. I opened VATs for the split second I would need to aim. Was treated to the prolonged sight of Waylon having smashed the inmate against the wall. Hard enough that it''d caved his chest in and crushed his skull. Blood was smeared along the floor where they''d tumbled, wounds ripped open by Waylon''s scales and claws. From the way Waylon was pushing off of him, trying to rise, I wouldn''t have been surprised if the inmate would wind up disemboweled.
For his sake I was hoping the impact had killed him.
VATs closed and I fired a trio of shots, clipping Waylon''s shoulders and planting one in his head. Something I''d hoped would''ve been enough to end things then. But it wasn''t, as Waylon''s razor toothed mug craned up to glare at me.
I spun back around and resumed running in the fastest direction away from him. Straight ahead, in that case.
No sooner had I begun moving than something slammed into me from behind and sent me flying forward. Caught myself against the ground and rolled with the hit, as something tried to tangle me up. Managed to keep momentum enough to launch back to my feet, even as my aura flickered. A brief glance to the side showed the mangled body of a prisoner. The damage was worse up close than it''d been at a distance.
I could feel the draw on my aura as I pushed myself to run even faster. The unexpected hit left its mark, as the earlier blows did. My aura wasn''t broken yet, but I wasn''t going to get the time I needed to re-enforce it. Not while I had Waylon nipping at my heels. Which he still was. I could hear him grunting and snarling as he scrambled back to his feet and resumed chasing me. The syncopated rhythm of his brace crashing to the ground with every other step like some massive engine trying to turn over.
Getting faster and gaining on me with every step.
Another corridor came up on my right and I turned sharply down it. Something to break line of sight with Waylon. Even if he knew I''d made the turn down it, the less time I could spend where he saw me the better. Couldn''t tell how good his senses were over a distance. He grabbed me through a wall the last time we''d fought, but I couldn''t tell if that''d been guess work or if he''d actually known.
The corridor I cut down into had a number of doors along it, offices and conference rooms. Bull pens, maybe. Each one with massive windows that showed the interior of each room and their contents. But each was also dark, blacked out. No sense in having the lights on if no one was home. I ran a couple paces down the corridor and tried one of the doors, finding it unlocked. Without missing a beat I ran into the room and carefully closed the door before hitting the deck. Immediately cramming myself underneath the windowsill. Out of sight of the hallway.
Waylon''s footsteps scraped around the corner into the corner door, I could hear them through the wall. Muffled but there, he was breathing in the hard, frenzied and ragged way adrenaline gets you. How a mix of excitement and bloodlust kicks your heart into gear for a chase or fight. I''d have been breathing the same way, if I didn''t value my focus more.
Unlike what I''d hoped though Waylon didn''t go careening down the corridor. I heard him stomp a few paces into the corridor, then stomp to a halt. His breath still came in hard, ragged bursts, a reptilian hiss rasping through it. With every breath he moved, maybe twisted, looking about and searching. I couldn''t see him, not without chancing him seeing me. I kept my head low and breathing slow, grip tight on Clark''s rifle, legs tensed against the wall. Ready to kick off it at a moment''s notice, launch myself away from the window and door.
My eyes quickly scanned the interior of the room. As I''d thought, a bullpen. A podium at the front of the room, rows of heavy wood tables. The far side of the room was a solid wall, but the left corner of it had a door in the adjoined wall. Connecting to the next room down. Hadn''t gone far enough to see what that one was.
Waylon moved.
The shrill shattering of glass echoed through the room mixing with the grating rumble of broken masonry. The heavy rumble of several hundred pounds of stone cascading against the ground. It shook the floor as it impacted, and I could hear Waylon''s roar.
But he''d chosen the wrong room.
He''d gone for the one across the hall.
I saw my window and took it.
Carefully, I began to crawl across the floor, keeping low to the ground, under the tables. I tried to restore my aura as I moved, but I could feel my nerves making that difficult. As I move, I gripped my scroll.
"Penny¡ Penny, are you there?" I asked, keeping my voice low, turning the audio of my scroll lower, just in case.
"¡ I''m here, what''s wrong?" Penny asked, mirroring my tone in a way I''d have found funny if I wasn''t currently sneaking away from rabid death. Though I was glad she''d known enough to assume something had gone wrong.
"I closed the way to Oakholme, for now at least." I explained "The inmates should be sealed, but we''ve got a problem. One of them got loose."
"Which one?" Penny asked curiously "Going by your compiled record you should-"
"A big one." I said, cutting her off. Cautiously, I curled my way around the edge of a table. "One I fought before and had left for the police to deal with. He was a tough customer then, but something''s different now. I need to know if the guards here have dealt with him before. Can you access the prison records?"
"¡ No, not by myself." Penny answered after a moment, probably having just tried to see if she could "One second¡"
At that moment, there was another shift in the masonry beyond the wall, and I could hear Waylon again. He''d moved back out into the corridor. Carefully, I peered from beyond the table while keeping to the ground. Waylon was in the hall again, illuminated by the sparse lighting. Silhouetted by it as he lumbered back into the hallway. His head slowly trailing back and forth as his body shook raggedly. His hissing breath still sniffing the air.
He crossed the hall in a swift motion and sent a fist through the glass. The pane shattered inward in a peculiar fashion. Instead of the normal sharp and needle-like shard I''d expected, it broke in large, geometrical chunks. Some sort of reinforced glass. Waylon broke it anyway, and it shattered inward.
I didn''t freeze, but I didn''t move either. My head ducked back beneath the table and I tried to press myself further against the floor. Make myself as camouflaged as possible in the dark room.
Waylon didn''t move. Unlike before, he didn''t immediately tear through the wall like it was tissue paper. Instead, he stayed waiting there in the window. A dark shadow against the brighter backdrop. His body tensing with every breath as he hissed, taking in the air. Every exhale like the pressure release on a boiler or reactor. A deep hissing note that was only barely keeping the system from overloading and bursting. Barely constrained.
Whatever had changed between when we''d first fought and now, it made a difference. Had I encountered this Waylon back when I was first learning to use aura, I''d have been a dead man. Still could be.
Cautiously, the hand over my scroll tapped the mute button.
For five eternal seconds Waylon peered through the broken window into the darkness, and I remained frozen. Certain that any movement or noise might prove to him I was there.
Then, all at once, he about-faced and moved further into the corridor. He moved on a diagonal to the next room down the corridor, across the hall.
Carefully, I let myself breathe and slowly began to move again. My finger ghosted over the mute button on my scroll as I moved from cover.
"-it was a big incident, and apparently a few of the guards needed to be evacuated for emergency treatment." Penny explained, completely missing what had happened.
"What?" I asked, trying to get caught up.
"Waylon mauling several of the guards." Penny said, confused "I was trying to tell you why he was put in the Oakholme wing."
"Penny, I''ve got him trying to hunt me down like a rat." I told her, trying to keep myself calm "I need to know how to- um¡ neutralize him. Or at least get away from him." My thoughts swirled as I tried to piece the parts of the conversation together. "¡ How''d the guards deal with him?"
"¡ Mark says he''s not entirely sure." Penny explained "He was off that day and had to file the recordings after the fact¡ Waylon''s file has it recorded that his semblance seems to discard his aura''s protection in exchange for massive boosts to his power, endurance, and healing. The video evidence also suggests it massively boosts his aggression as well. With prolonged activity only increasing the effects."
Translation: Waylon was getting more dangerous with each passing second.
"But how did they stop him?" I pressed "I need details Penny, he''s currently trying to eat my heart."
"Mark''s looking, but he needs a moment." Penny said, trying to be soothing "I''m trying to find you on the cameras now¡"
Not feeling at all soothed, hearing Waylon out in the corridor, I carefully reloaded Clark''s rifle. Even if he was healing from the damage done, if enough of it stacked up it would start to matter. I hoped. It was better than not even trying.
Waylon roared, and I could hear it echo through the corridor. It was something animalistic and furious. I was a rat in a box waiting for the cat to come for a bite.
I finally reached the back wall of the room and began to creep towards the door. Taking my chance, I got high enough to unlock the door and crept into the next room. My guess had been accurate again, a personal office. A few degrees and commendations pointed to it belonging to a member of the upper ranks in the prison. But the room was dark too, smaller. Either they hadn''t been here this evening or had been called away. They had a desk with some form of terminal on it. If I had time I could''ve searched through it for some record of what''d happened with Waylon myself. But if I had that kind of time, I wouldn''t have needed to. There was another door along the wall that led to the corridor.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Waylon''s silhouette was looming in it.
Quickly I moved behind the desk, diving under it into the leg space. Couldn''t tell if Waylon''s back had been to me or not. Just needed to hope it had been, that he would keep going and ignore me like he had.
"¡ Mark says the footage shows them having to inject him with something." Penny explained "A large dose of something they''d gotten from the med bay. It tranquilized him enough for the guards to restrain him. But it wasn''t enough, it took ten guards over an hour to finally restrain him afterward."
A part of me had wanted to swear. Loudly. They hadn''t been able to physically force him into compliance, they had to resort to trying to drug him. That was a dodgy method on its own, and I had to assume they were overshooting their mark too. Despite that, it still took ten guards an hour to completely wear him down.
I didn''t know how long they been trying to contain him, or how long he''d been using his semblance. But if he got worse the longer he used it, then the longer this dragged on, the worse my chances looked. I''d have just accepted being able to escape him. Save restraining him for more people who were better equipped to contain him. But escape was seeming a less likely option with each second, and winning was a non-option. Not if he could keep fighting like that.
The only silver lining was it gave me an option. A heavily tarnished one.
"Where''s the med bay?" I asked "If I can''t lose Waylon then I''m going to need to pay the doctors a visit."
"One moment." Penny said "I think I''ve almost got you on the cameras¡ Oh wow, is that Waylon-"
The wall to the corridor suddenly erupted inward in a crash of stone and splintered wood from the door. I was violently pushed forward as the debris collided with the desk, shunting it into me. Shifted me awkwardly under its weight.
Waylon stood in the opening he''d just made. I couldn''t see him, not completely, the desk was between us. But I could see his shadow casting under the desk from the light in the hall. Could hear his ragged breathing again, as he took in the air of the tight room.
He gave a hiss that sounded almost delighted.
"I smell your fear." He growled.
He began to step through the rubble into the room. The stone work and cement crackling and grinding under his feet as his shadow tapered forward. He didn''t move fast, just at a steady, stalking gait.
There weren''t many places I could be hiding in such a small space. He had no reason to hurry.
"Six?" Penny asked "¡ Six, is he in the room-"
I muted Penny again. Waylon knew I was here already, but I needed to concentrate. I had an idea of how to get out of there, but it was going to be close. I needed Waylon to think I was scared shitless, or at least not thinking clear enough to be doing anything of value. For all it mattered, I was. What I was going to try would''ve been suicide by any other means.
I was a rat in a box. Waiting for the cat to come get his meal.
"Kill you. Rip your heart out" Waylon growled, stepping ever closer "Pain like you''ve never known."
Waylon''s footsteps stumped to a halt in front of the desk, mere inches away from me. I could see his feet through the small opening. Count each of the black claws on his toes. I gripped at my chest as I carefully began to twist around, putting my back to the floor. Pressing my shoulders against the ground as I braced my feet against the desk.
"Kill you." Waylon said, his voice straining "I-"
I aimed Clark''s rifle up to the bottom of the desk and began firing. Tried to put them at an angle that would hit Waylon, for all the good it would do me. I didn''t have any illusions that, even so close, I was going to hit anything good. I couldn''t see my target. Instead the cramped space roared with the close gunfire, ringing my ears, and blinding me with the muzzle flash.
I dumped seven rounds into the desk before pausing. Waiting to hear anything. My gaze passed to the floor. Waylon''s feet hadn''t moved.
"You miss." Waylon hissed, a sneer in his voice.
That''d been the point.
Pulling on my aura, I explosively pushed outward with my arms and legs. Launching against the desk and floor. The heavy wooden furniture flew upward as my aura strained, flying off my feet like a kicked can. The extra force from my shoulders pushing me off the ground as the desk rocketed upward.
Bullets weren''t working. But something heavier might.
The desk slammed into Waylon, its larger mass catching him off guard and pushing him back. He stumbled and tripped backwards like a felled tree. He crashed hard into the debris on the floor, and I took my opening. I launched up from the floor, springing on to the desk as it temporarily weighed down against Waylon. It wouldn''t last long, I''d only briefly stunned him. Immediately, I bounded off it and leapt for the opening Waylon had made. Passing through it as I felt something nip at my heel. I caught my balance as I landed in the hall, spun, and pulled one of the frag grenade from my chest. The pin left it in a flash and I gave it a half-hearted toss back into the office. Not wasting a moment for it to detonate, I sprinted forward down the hall, resuming my mad-dash. Waylon roared as he threw the desk off of himself. It crashed out into the corridor behind me as I ran, smashing into the opposite wall. Must''ve thrown it.
It was followed by a concussive blast of thunder and air bursting from the hole in the wall. My grenade, I guessed. But I didn''t wait around to survey my work, no time. I bolted down the corridor, rounding the corner as I unmuted Penny again.
"-tting up!" Penny gasped "That''s impressive!"
"Amazement later, help now!" I snapped "I don''t know where the med bay is and I don''t have time to play cat and mouse. Can you direct me?"
"¡ I think I can." Penny said, after a moment "I have a rough layout of the prison through the cameras. Why are you going to the med bay?"
"Waylon needs his medicine." I said back "Just point me the right way."
"Ok¡ turn right down the next corridor!" Penny chimed.
Following her instructions, the next intersection I reached, I hooked a hard right and kept running.
"No not that right, the other right!" Penny corrected.
"You mean left!?" I growled stumbling to a stop.
"My right, not yours, yes!" Penny said.
I growled, spun around and broke into a sprint once more. Waylon hadn''t been immediately on my tail, otherwise I''d have been cursing up a storm. That was an incredibly human error on Penny''s part, and on the one hand it annoyed the shit out of me. On the other, I knew I was going to laugh about it later, if I lived. As long as it didn''t happen twice.
I cleared the corridor in a short clip, and barreled down one that appeared to my right. Penny got it right that time, because turning left would''ve had me slam into the wall. The corridor led me past a few more offices on the way. I could tell I was moving out of the Administrative wing, or at least nearing its edge. The conditions steadily became less professional the further I went. But I could tell I was at least moving in the right direction when I noticed the signage pointing towards the medical offices. Penny''s directions proving more and more accurate.
Distantly, I could still hear Waylon. His voice roaring through the corridors behind me, echoing off the walls and dulled by space between us. Despite that, I could hear the fury and rage in him. Sounding even less coherent and controlled than it had even moments prior.
Calling a condition that slowly erodes your rationality a super power is insane. That didn''t change that it was also terrifying for anyone on the receiving end. It''s why a lot of Fiends preferred psycho for raiding. Even if it didn''t inherently make its user dangerous, the psychological effect on their enemy was notable. Sometimes it''s not about how bad it hurts, but how bad they think it''ll hurt.
Right then, I was pretty sure that Waylon would make it hurt just as bad as it sounded. That was not a comfort. Especially when I could tell Waylon was trying to very quickly close that gap between us.
As he drew closer, I came upon the Med bay. The room visible to the hallway behind wire-reinforced security glass. Sealed behind a set of, rather inadequate looking, security doors. The kind that had a card reader built into the door over the knob. Likely meant to accept a scroll and check for the required clearance. Something I didn''t have.
So, once more, I took Knock-knock and slammed it into the space between the frame and first door.
"Penny, do you or Mark have any idea what they used on Waylon the first time?" I asked, paying very close attention to the way the roaring was steadily growing closer.
"¡ Mark doesn''t know." Penny said after a moment "Give me a moment, let me see if I can''t get a better look."
"I don''t exactly have time for you to do an archive bin-" I started to say.
I was interrupted as an ear-splitting siren erupted over head. The lock holding the door had just snapped as I was speaking. Should''ve figured they''d have an alarm attached to the door in case anyone tried to force entry through the doors.
Waylon''s roaring faded beneath the wail of the siren. I couldn''t tell if he''d stopped on hearing it or not. But I knew there was a good chance it''d just given away where I was and what I was doing. Whether or not Waylon was coherent enough to piece that all together at that point didn''t matter. He was running off pure aggression and bloodlust, like an actual rabid animal. All he needed to know was where to take-off running.
"One second." Penny said, nearly inaudible beneath the alarm.
I shook my head and peered through the window in the door. Trying to get an idea of the space before I made any moves.
As I prepared to break into the second door, an idea occurred to me. I looked back at the first door, briefly checking that its handle was intact enough for the idea. I was missing some parts, but if the Med bay was stocked right, then I could improvise something.
The idea formed in my head, I returned my attention to the second door and swung. It busted open with about the same level of resistance as the first, and the way was cleared. The smell of antiseptic hung in the air that rolled out, filtering through my mask. The air was cool and comfortably damp. The room was open, with maybe a dozen and a half beds lining the walls. Collapsible partitions running between each, the beds fitted with the necessary mounts for restraining their prospective patients. Wouldn''t want any of the inmates getting ideas while near where the prison kept its medicine.
I wasn''t going to have long before Waylon arrived, so I set myself into motion. In the far right corner of the room were cabinets, beside another security door. After bolting across the room, I found that the cabinets themselves weren''t locked. Fittingly, they only contained the disposable medical equipment. The gloves, masks, scrubs and the like. The things a good doctor can account for needing to regularly discard or destroy depending on what they encountered. A sanitary practice the Wasteland didn''t always have the luxury to accommodate.
Sitting neatly on a stack inside of the cabinets were multiple reels of surgical tubing. Perfectly wrapped and clean, waiting to administer aid.
Wasteful though it was, the aid I needed wouldn''t be what it had been made for.
I took a reel of the tubing and quickly ran back to the doors. Grabbing an IV post as I went. I would need something that could act as a fulcrum. Back across the room, I slipped back into the space between the two doors and set to work on quickly barring the first door with the IV post. The latch to shut the door was damaged and I didn''t count the post to be strong enough to stop anything. Even feeding it through the door handle wouldn''t do anything to stop Waylon. But I fed and looped the line between the two anyway, before affixing the last piece of the plan to the top of the post. The IV tubing looped through it tightly. I had to hope the material was strong enough to do what I wanted.
No sooner had I finished and ducked back into the room than I heard Waylon barrel into the corridor. His yelling almost drowned out by the wailing of the overhead alarms. I cast a glance back at him as I continued moving quickly towards the locked door at the back. Where I had to assume they were keeping the more important supplies.
Waylon eyed me through the window. The look on his face one of fury, but also something more animalistic that tickled my hindbrain. Like he was eyeing me with the hungry resolve of a starving predator. His sharp teeth glistening in the light of the corridor. Jaw hanging loose and ready as he took ragged breaths. His clawed hands pressed against the security windows, palms open. The glass crackling under the weight of him pushing on it. I realized then, that I hadn''t entertained the thought that he might try and go through the window instead of the door. After all, he''d have to be out of his mind to be making things harder for himself than he had to be.
But, this was also the guy who''d, not five minutes prior, had blown through the wall rather than open the door. Logic and him weren''t on speaking terms at the moment.
I began quickly backing towards the locked door as I watched Waylon. The glass began to crack under the force of his hands. Long and jagged slivers streaking through the material, even as the steel wire held him back. Waylon only began to press harder against it, the material beginning to buckle.
"Kill!" Waylon roared "KILL!"
A corner of the window buckled away from the wall, and I took that as my cue to start running. The window wouldn''t hold for long, but it was slowing him down. I turned and bolted towards the locked room.
"Penny, a little guidance here!?" I barked into my scroll as I reached the security door. Once more using door opening technique of knocking, I snapped the bolt open with a jerk of my wrist. The door violently swinging open as glass from the window shattered out of the frame, hitting the floor. Around that point, Waylon began actively beating against it. Each strike shaking the wall and raining large shards of glass. I could hear the wiring strung through it popping strand by stand in a tense staccato. Without wasting a moment I entered the storage room, levering knock-knock over my shoulder. I was greeted with shelves of labeled baskets lining either wall. Supplies, medications, the equipment not so easily replaced.
There was a long moment where Penny didn''t answer, and I scanned the shelves. Hoping that something I recognized would jump out at me. Unfortunately, everything was under brand names and pseudonyms that I knew nothing of. Med-X might be a brand name for Morphine, but Rad-away was Rad-away. The only thing I recognized immediately were the hypodermics stored in one of the shelves nearest the door. I grabbed one as I began quickly scanning the shelves, hoping to see something that might work.
As I did, I could hear Waylon''s roar echo through the Med bay. The sound of the steel wires ripping loose as something big and angry tore into the room.
"It''s¡ Um-" Penny stuttered. I wasn''t even aware she could stutter.
I grabbed one of the hypodermics as I heard the window give way. Waylon came crashing into the room, and I could hear every step like someone was slamming a kick drum.
"Penny!" I pressed.
"-Ketalar!" Penny answered "They used Ketalar at a dosage-"
VATs stuttered open and closed as I began rapidly checking the shelves, trying to figure out how things were organized. Each stutter dragged out the boom of Waylon''s footsteps as he raced for the door. The shelving was numbered, items alphabetized. Search for the K- or the equivalent- Then the E-
I found the bin right as Waylon rounded into the door way. His frame looming in from the edge of my vision. His arm lashed towards me as I was forced let VATs end. My hand shot into the bin and grabbed one of the glass ampules, managing to wrap around a one of them.
Right at the point that Waylon''s hand got a grip on me.
With a force I could readily compare to being hit by a truck, I flew out of the room by the collar of my coat.
"Six!" Penny chirped. It was the only thing I could hear from her. The rest was lost in the whirl of me being flung back out into the med bay ass-over-end. I sailed the whole way back into the room, and then the rest of the way across the room. The whole way I tried to react, angle myself so when I finally hit the other wall it wouldn''t suck as much as it had any other time. I had to fight the effects of stuttering VATs as I did, making my movements stiff and jerky. The end result was I flew across the room, a good twenty to thirty feet, and hit the wall at a strange angle. But with the caveat I was ready to try and catch myself on impact. So instead of cratering into it and then flopping to the floor, I managed to fall to a knee instead. The light of my aura flickered around me, broke. My hands wrapped tightly around the hypo and ampoule. Somehow managing not to crush or drop either in my flight.
Waylon whipped back around towards me as I remained on my knee, fighting off the aftereffects of VATs. With a savage hiss in his breath he raced across the room towards me. Part of me wanted to get out of the way. Part of me knew I should. But the rest of me knew that, no matter how it happened, I had to get close to him. He wasn''t about to stick himself with the needle and save me the trouble. So I jammed the tip into the ampoule and pulled the plunger back. Feeling the resistance as I filled the syringe with fluid. At that point I didn''t care about medical practice, I wasn''t his doctor. If he O.D.''d or got an embolism, it''d save me some trouble.
I brought my arms up into a guard right as Waylon crashed into me, separating the nearly full syringe and ampoule. The force of the impact slammed me back into the wall again, and I felt it buckle behind me. The sheer force behind him reminded me of when Lily lost control. The roar in his voice only driving the resemblance home as he lashed his head towards me, snapping his jaws. Even through my gasmask his breath was horrid. Given the pointed and nasty look to his teeth, I had to imagine dental hygiene wasn''t high on his list. Though less important than the fact he was trying to sink them into my throat. Just as I felt his massive arms hammering me into the wall like it was a backboard. Without the protection of my aura, I could feel every hit straight down to my bones. Which would''ve easily broken if it wasn''t for my Adamantium Skeleton. But it did nothing for my soft and squishier innards. The less said about what that felt like, the better. Being that I was backed to the wall, I wasn''t going to get away from it either. The only way out was forward.
But Waylon was right where I needed him to be.
With his head jutting forward, I swung the needle up to his neck and stuck him with it. Hoping it hadn''t bent on his scales, I sank it as deep as I could and squashed the plunger down.
Waylon hissed angrily as the drug flooded into his neck. Then snapped his head back in surprise when I smashed the ampoule against his head. It ripped the hypodermic out of his neck, the mark it left sealing itself. Instantly, Waylon countered with a wild, clawed haymaker that tore at the sleeve of my coat and skated over my armor.
I dropped the empty needle and tried to guard against the blow with my arm. Knowing the haymaker could turn into a string of them, I retaliated with a scribe counter. My fist crashing into Waylon''s face, against the crushed, flattened thing he called a nose. Through the haze of rage and his semblance I doubted it registered as more than a momentary sting. But it was a moment I needed.
Using the wall as I brace, my legs shot off the ground, connecting with Waylon''s stomach. With strength enough to lift half a ton, I pushed back against Waylon. He stumbled a step back, then a second and third, before recovering and rearing back towards me. But it bought me the space I needed.
Knock-knock fell into my off-hand, as my right shot forward with an open palm. My Ranger Takedown slipped past his outstretched arms as he ran at me, finding his face again.
This time, he flew back and hit the other side of the room himself. He cratered into the frame of the supply room, collapsing it. But even as he hit the ground, he was already scrambling back to his feet, bringing the shelves of the supply room down as he thrashed for leverage. The smartest thing I could''ve done right then was get running while I had the opening. Led him on a chase until the chems I''d put in his system took effect and dropped him. Take the chance on fighting him once I knew he was weakening.
But I had no idea how long that would be. The adrenaline and movement would keep his heart pumping fast, but it took an hour the first time it''d been done. I didn''t have an hour. But I did know a trick that would make sure the chems were likely to spread faster, take the fight out of him just as fast if it went long enough.
Blood loss.
I gripped my axe and charged at him, Meeting him as he clawed his way back out of the closet. We clashed closer towards his side of the room, his arm swinging out in another bid to grapple me. I slipped underneath it, swinging Knock-knock horizontally and catching him in the ribs. The blade ripping through him as I passed around his side, tearing the wound wider. Even as I felt his body trying to close around it, I could see the blood trailing out of his wound. Like I''d tapped a tree for sap. He roared as I went around his flank, ripping my axe out.
Immediately, he rounded on me, tree trunk of an arm swinging at me in reverse. His back hand met the guard I raised to catch it, and the force sent me sideways. I let it carry me, controlled as I dove over one of the hospital beds, coming to my feet and letting it stay between us. Single-minded as he was acting, he charged at me again and crashed over the bed horizontally. I sidestepped him, swinging my axe down and catching him in the right shoulder, biting down into the bones of his arm. The roar of pain he''d given before howled out again as he rolled towards me, the motion trying to rip my axe from my hands. But I pulled back with it, drawing more blood as I sidestepped Waylon again. He rolled onto the floor, and I swung a leg up as he fell, catching him in the face. His head snapped back and he hit the floor as I brought knock-knock back around in a mauling downward chop.
Before the blow could connect, Waylon launched himself off the ground, lunging at me. He tackled me backwards, throwing my swing off. Knock-knock slipped out of my hand, sailing backwards as Waylon connected with me. His weight crashed down on me and we both hit the floor again. Immediately, I tried to counter the momentum shift. My off-hand bracing his head back as we hit the floor, My right cracking him across the jaw. As it did, I tried to wedge my legs between us, work to push him off me again.
Then Waylon''s fist came crashing against my head like a sledgehammer. I felt the world go black for a moment with the impact, reminding me of how hard he''d hit me the first time we fought. The difference was night and day. But that he hadn''t popped my head open meant whatever I did must have been working.
Without missing a beat, Waylon blew past the hand holding his head back and slammed down into my shoulder. His jaws sank into the soft meat between it and my neck. Stopped only by the layers of cloth and soft armor covering it. Even with them I could feel his teeth pricking against my skin. Just as quick, Waylon reeled back, tearing the material away, teeth dragging against my skin. He spat, and a chunk of my collar landed on the floor next to us.
"You fucker!" I spat blearily. My coat was already in need of a replacement, now I had to pay Byz a visit.
My legs reversed course, instead of trying to push him off me, I wedged them between the floor and him. With a jerk, I pushed off the ground, flipping us both. Waylon tried to stop me, but my fist snapped forward and caught his throat. Putting all the strength I could muster into my legs, I flipped us to the left. Waylon hit the ground and rolled to his back, and I braced myself on top of him. My aura fled from my legs and into my arms and shoulders as I caught my balance. The last of the momentum had my off-hand crashing downward into his face as my right pulled back. He swung his arm up at me as I did, and I dipped to the side of it, only narrowly keeping my balance. Then I sent my right arm crashing back against his face, cutting low with an elbow strike. It caught him in the corner of his eye, and I felt the bones shift under his skin and he hissed in pain.
Waylon bucked upward and I toppled forward over him. I let my balance shift that way and rolled with it, hitting the ground just ahead of him, closer to the door. My hand shot forward, reaching for Knock-knock. Only for it to slide back from my grasp as I was dragged along the floor away from it. A quick look over my shoulder, and a clamp around my leg, showed Waylon trying to pull me back towards him.
My hand fell to the lever action shotgun at my hip. Its length and bulk kept me from drawing it. One of the big things that kept me from doing it normally. But in that case, I didn''t need to.
I angled the muzzle away from my leg and squeezed the trigger. Fire leapt from the barrel and collided with Waylon''s face, as the fire-slug burst against his face. He roared as loud as the gunfire as his hands shot back to his face, howling in fury and pain. I worked the lever on my shotgun as I scrambled back to my feet, away from the blazing lizard-man. My hand ghosted over Knock-Knock as I rose, grabbing it and slinging it over my shoulder. My boots skidded on the rubble-coated floor as I wheeled back towards Waylon. He swatted furiously at the fire that engulfed his head, at the same time forcing himself to get up, putting the weight on his braced leg.
With a long stride towards him, my axe arced downward. The bit cleaving into the side of his kneecap. I ripped it forward as Waylon scrambled to decide between which wound he should focus more on. As he howled in pain, scrabbling at the fire on his head and gash in his leg, I slowly began backing away. Towards the front of the room, angling for the barely closed checkpoint, besides the gaping hole in the wall. I let myself draw closer to it, slowly. Waiting for Waylon to either collapse and let this end, or keep fighting so we could move this along.
With his scalp and uniform still wreathed in fire, gash knitting itself together, his gaze tracked to me in wild fury.
"That all you got?" I asked, trying to even out my breathing.
He only let out a snarl in response, pushing off his wounded leg and lunging for me.
I turned and bolted. Waylon''s footsteps landed heavy behind me as I threw myself through the doors of the checkpoint. I crashed through the inner door and promptly slammed it shut behind. Followed by my slamming through the outer door. It''d been a necessary motion. Needed to keep the tension right.
Otherwise I wouldn''t have been able to release the grenade bouquet I''d planted for Waylon in the first place.
They all clattered to the ground behind me as I threw the outer door open. Lighting the fuses in them that ran anywhere for three to five seconds. Almost as soon as they did, I could hear Waylon slamming into the door behind me.
I leapt out into the Hallway pushing my enhanced strength into my feet and began to rac-
¡
"You''re ok." Cass said, dragging me forward, my feet scraping the cave floor "You''re going to be ok."
¡
The world spun and my ears rang. Pain wracked and throbbed through my body. My breath came back to me with a start that only made it worse. It''d been blown out of me. I was lucky it hadn''t popped my lungs on the way out. There was something solid against my chest. The spinning in my head made it hard to tell whether I was leaning on something at first. As the spins slowed, I realized it was the ground. Began trying to pick myself up as my ears continued ringing. My balance was evading me though. There was something itching in my leg.
I should''ve been keeping count.
The fucking bouquet had gone off before I''d been more than a few feet away. The walls and door of the checkpoint had eaten the bulk of the explosion, but not all of it.
I flopped over, forcing my vision to straighten out. The blast had thrown me back a few yards, and otherwise obliterated the checkpoint. A grenade could hardly take down a building, but three of them in a tightly confined space? Yeah, that''d do. It''d left the air filled with smoke and masonry dust. Hard to see through, harder to breathe in. Once more my mask was proving some small benefit.
My leg itched again, and I forced myself to sit up and look down at it. There was a chunk of masonry speared into my calf. Even if that hadn''t been there, the overall way I felt told me a stimpack was in order. Didn''t need to check my pip-boy for that. My fingers numbly fumbled around inside my coat, and grabbed one. I pulled out the bits of masonry from my leg and stuck myself with the needle. The sensation of the stim-fluid healing me flooded my body, feeling all the worse with how I already felt.
Then Waylon reappeared.
He came listing out of the wrecked checkpoint, churning the clouds of smoke and dust. Fire still flickered and danced on his shoulders and scalp. His body had been shredded by the explosion. Scales and skin ripped free from his chest and arms. The brace that''d been on his leg was hanging limply around it, providing no support and clattering as he moved. His breaths were heavy and labored, sucking in the plumes of dust and puffing them back out. He''d been ripped raw by the blast, leaving blood with every step.
And he was still healing. It wasn''t fast, or clean. But I could see the scar tissue forming in place of his scales. Watch it grow ridged and stiff, then flake off and grow shiny as something new moved to replace it. Lines and cracks forming as it took on a mossy green hue. The blood that he shed didn''t dry, not any faster than before. But his body shed the ruined skin and tissue that had been damaged, regenerated something new and stronger.
His head swiveled towards me as I felt the stimpack ebbing away. Patched enough I could at least stand.
Waylon''s eyes locked on me from beneath a brow that had grown thicker and harder with scales. Looked so stiff I doubted he could even move it. When he proved me wrong, it was sluggish and heavy motions. The energy that''d been feeding him was finally tapped out. Or close enough to it that he was back to being normal Waylon. Not much better, but better than the one I''d just met.
His breath came out in a ravenous hiss as cold hatred burned in his gaze.
"Lived through worse." Waylon hissed "You won''t."
I scowled and forced myself up, bracing myself on knock-knock. "Keep telling yourself that."
Didn''t matter it was going to take, or that I felt like death warmed over, I wasn''t stopping. Not until Waylon was down. The Blast had taken a lot out of him. Just not enough. If I''d kept all four grenades, maybe that would''ve made the difference. No sense in crying over spilled whiskey though.
Knock-knock shifted upward into my hands, haft in front of me. Waylon trudged towards me, steps heavy. There was a whining in my ears that wouldn''t go away. It started getting louder, and I had to resist the urge to smack my ears to try and clear it.
Then Waylon looked up, confused.
I realized then, that the whining wasn''t in my ears.
From behind me, Penny flew down the hall like a rocket and crashed into Waylon with a flying kick. Her swords were arrayed out her back, blasting green light and crackling with energy. She hit Waylon like a truck, knocking him off balance and staggering back. Even as he ate all of the momentum she fed him, Penny didn''t let up. Before gravity took her, the swords arrayed at her back flipped around front of her, still locked in their clusters and glowing. With a whine and crackle, two bursts of vibrant green light shot forth and slammed into Waylon. Immediately hitting him even harder than Penny had and sending him sprawling back through the smoke. The shockwave from Penny''s attack helping to blow and clear it from the corridor.
She landed on the ground with a bounce and turned back face me, giving me a resolute look.
"I''m here to help!" She declared.
"¡" I looked at her a moment, then at Waylon now several dozen yards away from Penny''s attack "¡ So kind of you to show up." I said dryly "You have trouble finding me?"
"No, I knew where you were from the cameras." Penny explained.
"¡ Then what took so long?" I asked.
"¡" Penny flushed slightly and looked at the floor "I panicked."
"¡"
I wanted to laugh, but it probably would''ve hurt me as much as it would her.
Frankly, I should''ve been surprised she could even panic in the first place. Wasn''t sure if that was a good or bad thing. But in either case I would take her helping me over having to try and deal with Waylon all on my own.
Knock-knock lowered in my grasp and I looked down the cleared Corridor towards Waylon. Slowly, he picked himself up off the floor. His breathing heavy and labored as he pushed himself to a knee. As he did, I let knock-knock settle onto the floor as I levered Clark''s rifle back around front of me. I changed magazines and started to take aim.
Only for Penny to take aim with her swords again and fire another shot of green energy at him.
The blast hit and slammed Waylon into the ground. He made no moves to get back up.
"¡ Maybe you can help next time." I said.
"That explosion you caused must''ve caused a lot of damage." Penny said "It''s impressive you did in fifteen minutes what it took a group of men an hour to do."
"¡ It''s been fifteen minutes?" I asked.
Penny went to answer me, but whatever she was about to say, she didn''t finish. Her pupils dilated and flashed strangely as her expression went blank. She then looked down the hall towards Waylon. When he eyes stopped flashing, the semblance of life returned to her face and she gasped.
"They''re reopening Oakholme!" She spoke.
"They''re what?" I asked "How¡" I shook my head "You''re linked into the surveillance system now, aren''t you?"
"Come on!" Penny exclaimed, taking off down the hallway.
"¡" I shook my head and took off after her "Should''ve just brought you with me."
¡
Retracing my steps back down the corridors I''d come from, Penny and me found our way back to the crossroad. Sure enough, Penny had been right. The inmates had managed to reopen the doors to Oakholme. Part of me wasn''t surprised. I wasn''t fully sure how the system actually operated, nor did I know how they unlocked the doors in the first place. Given what I''d seen inside, there was a good chance they''d figured out how to override the doors from the panopticon. What I''d done was only meant to be a stop-gap until actual help could handle the issue.
Unfortunately, as Penny and I arrived, I could see there was some grain of truth to that idea.
We arrived as groups of inmates were streaming out from the corridor, turning sharp down the way opposite of us. From what I''d overheard, they''d had a plan in place, and probably figured out what the fastest route out was. That way they could actually keep themselves on schedule. The only silver lining was that they hadn''t moved en masse. These people didn''t like working with each other to start with, so coordinating something on that scale would''ve been impossible without infighting. Having everyone move in smaller groups at least kept that to a minimum.
As it was, a group of maybe twenty people was already making a break for it when we rounded the corner. We had a choice of either stopping them, or doing something about whoever was still there.
We both knew what the answer to that quandary was. Penny probably knew it better than I did. Estimates, odds, and that general field of math was something a computer could map out faster. More accurately as well, if their model was right. Fighting a group that was constantly replenishing was a losing proposition.
So we dealt with the crowd of them first.
Which was a lot easier when one of us was practically a walking siege weapon.
We''d gone halfway back down the corridor before Penny did her part. Using her sword array, She unleashed a single, massive green beam of energy. By that point, I''d seen her unleash the smaller ones, and wasn''t surprised she could do it bigger either. Though that we had to get closer for it to work showed it had some drawbacks. Considering it swept the hallway of inmates in a matter of seconds, however, they were manageable ones. Whatever other downsides using such a weapon had, I wasn''t privy to. There undoubtedly were other ones as well.
But for our purposes, it served well enough.
Penny drove the inmates back to the vault doors and we pushed them in. Anyone who tried to kite around her, I dealt with using Clark''s rifle. Which I found far more effective against people who weren''t high off bloodlust and rage.
So we kept pushing until we were back to the thresh hold of the wing. Only then did Penny let off the power.
"BEHAVE!" I bellowed through the door "Next time I COME BACK HERE, I''m TORCHING all of YOU!"
I hit the button and the doors began closing themselves again. Nobody tried to make a run for it this time, and they shut without issue. Once they did, I motioned for Penny to weld the mechanisms in place to make sure nobody got any funny ideas this time.
A few moments and a few sparks later, Penny leaned forward wearily. The glowed in the places she had cleaved together, and was rapidly cooling, surrounded by a rainbow of thermal oxidation colors.
"Will it hold?" I asked.
"It should." Penny said, sounding strained "The welds are minor, but they should be enough to hold everything until the guards have regained control."
I nodded, looking at her "You alright?''
"I''m combat ready." Penny said "Although doing things like this wasn''t part of my pre-programmed training."
"Funny thing about live combat." I said "You learn that there are a lot of other important things than just breaking stuff."
Penny looked back at me and gave a childish smile. "It''s fun!"
I nodded. In a way, when all the madness wasn''t happening, it was.
But we weren''t done yet. Not while there were still inmates making a break for it.
I pulled out my scroll and slipped into the main group call. "CFVY, heads up, we managed to get Maximum Security closed off but a bunch of the inmates made a run for it. They''ll be heading your way if they''re not already there."
There was a pause in the air, before Coco responded.
"I wouldn''t worry about that, kid." She spoke "Back-up from Beacon is already on the way. They''ll be here in five minutes. Less."
"Good." I said, breathing a sigh of relief "At least someone has their head on straight."
"Keep that energy when trying to explain to Ozpin and Goodwitch why we''re here." Yatsu grunted over the line "They''re gonna be the first ones here."
"¡ Less good, but still better." I said, shaking my head. I''d figured there was a chance we''d have to deal with them after this mess, but had hoped to be gone before it happened. "¡ JNPR, how you guys holding up?"
"We''ve secured the cafeteria and are moving for the front gate." Jaune said "We''ll see about intercepting those inmates."
Penny smiled at that. Things were going smoother than we could have hoped.
It put a sinking feeling in my gut. Because the prisoners weren''t the White Fang''s objective.
"Right¡ Ruby, how are you and the girls making out?" I asked, then waited for an answer
A moment passed.
It turned to several. Each passing one widened the pit in my gut.
"¡ Girls, are you there?" I asked "¡Sun?"
Silence. Seconds feeling as though they turned to tens with each one that ticked by.
Then, all at once, a noise broke through. A sharp and grainy sound. The result of the microphone only barely able to pick up the tones being produced. Crushing them as they tried to pass through the speaker. The sound of rent and twisting metal, crashing hard against the ground. Gunfire briefly carried alongside it.
Then it was gone. Silence once more.
Penny looked at me, concern in her eyes.
My gut was right. Things had gone too smooth.
I looked at Penny. "We need to go. NOW."
Rwby in the Arsenal
There was no way Ruby could miss, and she didn''t. Everything was working towards her advantage. She had the angle, the close distance, the bigger weapon, and the element of surprise. Altogether, she knew they would be enough to make the difference. Any other night in any other place, she knew things would have gone without a further hitch or wrinkle.
As she discovered, however, this was not any other night.
The shot Ruby had fired flew true and straight. Despite the brief shake and rise of her scope from the recoil, her sight picture was clear. Her shot had flown exactly where she had wanted it to. Unfortunately, it did not reach its mark.
What must have been fractions of a second before the shot would''ve connected, Ruby found her attack intercepted. Instead of the bullet striking the giant Fang she spied through her scope, it struck something smaller. A streak of red flashed into the space between the two. The bullet struck against the projectile, sparks cascading as the two pieces of metal collided, the softer of them shattering and spattering apart.
The whole world slowed down for Ruby.
The Faunus who had appeared beside the giant stood, arm and hand outstretched. A sword stretched out from their hand, the metal a crimson shade that matched their hair. He was dressed in a fashion that Ruby felt familiar, all black and splashes of red. Black slacks, red shirt, and a black coat that reached down to mid-thigh, all tinged and fringed in a similar crimson to his hair and sword. A floral flourish to the hem of his coat. His jaw was sharply pointed, lean and angular. His eyes covered by the bone-white mask of the White Fang, accented with fluidly flowing flourishes of red.
Above the mask, a pair of black horns jutted from the crown of his head.
Even as the world began to creep back into motion for Ruby, the red-haired Faunus craned their head up. Almost automatically, his gaze seemed to track perfectly back to her. She could almost feel his gaze peering through the scope back at her, as the giant Fang beside him began to react to what had happened.
Ruby saw the red-Haired Faunus'' lips curl upward, revealing teeth in a way that mocked the very idea of a smile.
¡
Adam Taurus had grown quite sick of how circumstances had progressed, both pertaining to the revolution, and to the matter in Vale he''d found himself dragged into. He knew it was only a matter of time until he would have to set his sights, and the White Fang, in the Kingdom''s direction. But he''d rather have them in his time, under his lead.
Not that of a human, so that his people could serve another human. The only benefit he saw was that all of the supplies they had gathered were left to his people''s disposal. Weeks of planning and careful stalking of the Kingdom''s streets had lent itself to being quite beneficial indeed. A small amount of balm that only barely assuaged his bruised ego. That was, until he found his efforts being stalled, seemingly on all fronts, by some phantom enemy. It got to the point that Bane had to be sent to handle the issue directly. Only to then accomplish nothing in the process.
The sum total of these losses had put Taurus in a bind. He''d lost too many members to be ignored, and the continued losses meant they would soon be losing more in Vale than they could recoup. If any of his efforts, and the support of his personal followers, were to continue then this had to change. Further failings and losses could not be tolerated. Drastic measures would need to be taken. A decision only further cemented once he''d learned his dear Lady Belladonna was involved.
An assault on one of Vale''s oldest standing facilities had been a pipe dream. One that would require more support and supplies than he knew he would be able to secure under different circumstances. But fortune had it, then, that the pieces had been set in place for him. All he needed to do was make the move.
Everything from there had gone off without incident.
The riots in the smaller prisons would keep Vale distracted. The chaos would incense the Grimm enough that Beacon''s main concern would be with containing them. His supporters who were already within the facility itself would ensure that the true objective wouldn''t be accounted for. Not until it was far too late.
Taurus could not have asked for matters to proceed any more smoothly than they had.
Until, of course, someone finally intervened.
He lowered his blade, Wilt, from in front of his lieutenant and sheathed it into its scabbard, Blush. Through the wind and rain of the brewing storm he could see where the shot had come from. Even in the darkness overhead, the vibrant red of their assailant''s cloak stood out. Almost as clearly as the gunfire and explosions that echoed from the gate of the arsenal.
"It would seem we''ve finally been discovered," the Lieutenant growled, a massive arm passing to the chainsaw, hanging over his shoulder. He brought it to bear around in front of him, taking a step forward. "What do you want us to do?"
The rest of the lower initiates turned to look at them, all looking for direction as they worked. Waiting for his word to stop what they were doing and begin to fight back. Just as he knew they would. But what they needed was to have that night be a success. Something that could be accomplished without distraction. He and the lieutenant would suffice, give or take a handful of others.
After all, now he had something it had not occurred to him he would like to have.
Interlopers. People he could freely make an example of.
"Stay the course," Adam ordered, gaze remaining locked on the red cloak caught in the breeze. "Get the Bullheads and supplies in the air. Take some people and deal with the ones at the gate."
Another crack of thunder, and Taurus'' weapon rose in front of him. The blade barely left its scabbard enough to catch the bullet aimed for his chest. He could feel the power behind it begin to pool amongst the reserves in his aura. Waiting.
"They just haven''t figured it out yet," he sneered, smirking up at the roof of the hut. "We''ve already won."
Without another word he darted forward, his Aura-enhanced stride reducing him to a blur that only few could track. One that even fewer could hit. Evident as another shot rang out, missing him completely as he raced towards the hut. In mere moments he''d reached it and launched himself from the ground, rebounding off of a light post as he climbed. Within a blink he was at height with the hut.
Just the same as the little red sniper whose head snapped up towards him.
His feet touched down on the roof, and Blush''s action fired. Wilt leapt from the scabbard with bullet-like speed as Taurus'' hand caught it, directing it. The crimson blade arced out in a slash that had bisected bigger and stronger things than the tiny girl in front of him. His strike missed as the girl threw herself sideways, dragging the massive rifle in her hands with her. In the same motion, dragging the muzzle of her weapon towards him as gravity began to drag her down the side of the hut. Taurus'' left hand pulled Blush from his side, the scabbard catching the muzzle of the rifle as she fell, the next shot flying past Taurus'' side as she fell. The girl''s weapon began to shift its shape as she began to gain speed, falling towards the ground. The rifle''s bipod pulled together into a massive scythe blade.
Taurus threw himself down the side of the building after her, the muzzle of Blush aimed at her.
The girl''s eyes widened as he fired. Rose petals flared around her, briefly, before the bullets hit their mark, and her body solidified.
Taurus kicked off the roof, spinning into a slash as he fell with the girl.
Just before his blade reached her, the rose petals reappeared and the girl fell apart into them. The petals formed into a cloud that moved under a wind of their own, flying away from Taurus almost faster than he could move. Almost.
Before his feet even touched the ground, Taurus'' blade snapped to the side, digging into the hut. He redirected himself off of it, ripping it free from the hut as he did. He sheathed it back into Blush as he hit the ground, charging after the storm of petals as he held the weapon to his side, the charge leading them out into the open ground between the huts, initiates only barely avoiding them both as they moved.
In the middle of this ground, the girl became solid once more. Her foot dug into the ground as Taurus caught a better look of her. Young, dark red and black hair, with silver eyes. But most telling of all: the oversized red cape and hood. It was then that he recognized her.
The ''Red Hood'' who''d intercepted their efforts regarding the general.
He almost felt he should thank her for helping set everything in motion. Then he decided he would. Cleaving her head from her shoulders would be quick enough to count in its own right.
As her booted foot sank into the dirt, she spun, her scy-fle arcing back around at him. But Taurus hardly even needed to slow his stride. He dipped beneath the weapon as it swung, avoiding the haft and blade. Red Hood''s gaze tracked him as he went, a light of surprise and focus mingled in her eyes.
Once more his blade sung outward through the air in a draw strike.
Red Hood''s weapon shifted in her hands as she reached the end of her swing, the haft lifting vertically between Wilt''s blade and her body. Its crimson edge skated over the metal of her weapon''s receiver. Just as quickly the scy-fle began to spin her hands as she began to angle the blade for another strike.
As the receiver moved away from her body, Blush''s muzzle angled from Taurus'' hip. Her eyes widened again as thunder and fire echoed between them. The shot hit Red Hood in the chest and barreled her backward. A pained cry escaped her as she tumbled backward. More cries and gunfire echoed in as she hit the ground, coming from the gate.
Once more, Taurus closed the distance between them, thrusting his blade down at the girl.
Barely aiming her weapon, the girl pulled her weapon''s trigger and the muzzle flared. The recoil blew her to the side right before his strike could reach, his sword''s tip burying itself into the dirt. The recoil, however, did not send the girl far, only a few scant feet as her body skidded against the ground. Only as she came to a stop did the muzzle raise once more, angled for Taurus.
Again, his own blade rose to meet it, Wilt''s blade carving through the dirt as it rose and catching the bullet and muzzle flare, both syphoning into Taurus'' growing reserve. Even as they did, Red Hood sprang to her feet, blade whirling about her and singing through the air. This time Taurus did not dodge the strike, instead he brought Blush up to catch Wilt as he sheathed the two, using both to guard. The strike caught on the closing blade and only further fed themselves into his reserves.
Red Hood''s gaze darted quickly between his weapon and hers, trying to understand what was transpiring. She missed as the scabbard was aimed at her head.
Pulling the trigger, Taurus fired the hilt of Wilt at Red Hood. The blade flew out at blistering speeds and struck its target, the hilt of it crashing right between the girl''s eyes. She staggered as it did, the blade dropping through the air as she pulled. Hooking the blade of her weapon further helped Taurus close the gap. He launched himself forward and caught Wilt as it fell, the handle falling naturally into his hand. Its crimson edge gleamed, reflected itself in the light of the girl''s eyes.
Then his blade finally struck her.
He slashed to the side, and the blade caught itself against the girl''s Aura. He felt it drag along the length of Wilt''s edge as he cut at her, its honed edge snagging at her clothes, only kept from them by the thin protection of her soul. Another cry escaped her as the blade finished carving its path.
In the same motion that it did, he leapt, spun, and kicked the girl in the side of the head.
With surprising tenacity, the girl retained herself. As the kick rocked her, she swept to the side, collapsing once more into her petal cloud. The mass of petals and wind swirled past Taurus, and he tracked it with ease. She did not go far, only barely behind him before reforming. When she did, her eyes were on him with intense purpose and focus. Her scy-fle had already begun blurring into a swing, the blade extended outward into the wide pattern of a war scythe. Taurus smiled as he spun Wilt to connect with the strike, guiding the blade past him as he slipped beneath it. As it did, the blade pivoted on its hinge, back into its crooked blade as she spun the weapon towards him again.
For a moment, Taurus contemplated ending the fight between them. He knew he could, with the power he''d stored from her strikes alone. But he didn''t.
He didn''t need to.
Right before the girl could strike him again, a large hand snapped out from behind her. Before she could even realize what was happening, an iron grip closed around her throat and hauled into the air. One of the girl''s hands remained on her weapon as the other rose in surprise to the one around her throat. Her head struggled to turn, see who held her.
Then Bane dragged her to the side and slammed her head against one of the metal huts. The sound rang as loud as any gunshot.
"Cocky brat," Bane spat gravely.
He reeled his hand back as the girl looked blearily up at him. The spot on the hut where he''d struck now had a sizable dent in it. Taurus sheathed his sword as Bane''s grip tightened.
In his free hand, Bane began to rev his chainsaw.
Fear lit in the girl''s eyes and she struggled against the grip of the larger Faunus. But Taurus knew she didn''t have the physical strength to escape. Few who''d found themselves in Bane''s grip lived to speak of it. Even as she kicked and swung her legs at him, trying to find purchase, she was too short to manage it. Her face was quickly becoming a shade of purple-red as well, as she struggled to breathe. Her arms fumbled to grip her larger weapon, only to have it batted aside by Bane''s saw.
Taurus turned away from the girl as he let Bane take charge of her. He''d wanted for his lieutenant to take care of matters at the gate, but he did not mind going to tend to them himself. Or, he would have.
"Ruby!"
Were it not for the sound of an all-too familiar voice.
Seamlessly, Taurus spun towards the voice and leapt towards it, sailing upwards into the air to intercept it. Wilt launched from Blush once more, caught in his hand.
Crimson steel connected with the blackened blade of Gambol Shroud, the swords skating against each other. They swept past one another as Lady Belladonna revealed herself, falling from the dark and stormy air. But even as she carried on past Taurus, he spun towards her. Blush left his side as he fired, the bullets phasing through Belladonna as a copy of her appeared on the ground. The copy spun as her blade collapsed into its pistol shape, and she fired.
Gravity took hold of Taurus and he began to fall, catching the bullets with Wilt as he did. A quick use of Gravity Dust had him crash all the faster to the ground, before launching towards his new target. His blade swept out in a crimson arc, and clashed with the cleaver-sheath of Gambol shroud. Lady Belladonna only narrowly drew in time to catch the attack.
Taurus'' smile redoubled, as he saw the way Blake looked at him. Somewhere between hate and anger, tinged subtly with a shrinking fear. He hadn''t wanted their reunion to happen at a time such as that.
But he would take what was given to him.
"Hello, my darling." Taurus spoke.
¡
Were the circumstances any different, Blake Belladonna wouldn''t be there. For as much as she wanted to change and make amends for the things she''d done, she knew there were things she couldn''t do. Chief among them, was to be anywhere near Adam Taurus. In her time with the White Fang, she''d come to understand one thing about Adam Taurus: he was dangerous, beyond anything else that he was, and that Blake knew to be true, Adam Taurus was dangerous. The bodies he''d left behind and destruction he''d wrought could stand as evidence to it.
Even more so, he was stronger than her.
She had countless hours of training and mental scars that could attest to that.
Enough to tell her that, even as the two of them circled each other, weapons drawn, she would lose. There had been a clear reason why she had abandoned Adam rather than confront him. It was clear what had happened to anyone else that''d tried. Some part of her had known that, at some point, she might have to confront him. That in continuing down the path she''d chosen to walk, she would have to face him again.
She''d only hoped it would have been a long time ahead in the future, not scant months after having left him. But it appeared fate would have other plans. Ones that not only involved her facing him then and there, but surrounded by her former brothers and sisters. All while they continued with the same acts she had left the White Fang for. It made her heart race and ears ring, almost loud enough to drown out the whine of the spooling Bullheads. Which, at the corners of her sight, she could see were continuing to peel away, slowly, laden with the White Fang''s spoils.
The initiates near her and Adam began to slow, observing the fight. They recognized her, she knew they did.
"Adam," Blake spoke, resolving herself. Even as every part of her screamed to run away.
"I was hoping I''d see you again, dear," Adam said, sneering at the endearment. "Hadn''t thought it would be so soon." His smile grew cold as his stance shifted. "But I don''t mind making a little time."
The two continued to circle each other, as Blake saw more members gathering around her. She tried to take in everything that she could. None of them were moving to intervene. Something that could change in a heartbeat. More pressing though, the reason she''d intervened at all.
Bane still had his hand around Ruby''s throat. Even as he watched the situation unfold, she struggled in his grip, legs thrashing, arms trying to grip her weapon and muster a swing.
"Where are you looking?" Adam asked, almost hissing in her ears.
Blake blinked and rolled backward, only narrowly avoiding the blade of Wilt as Adam lunged forward in a draw strike. The weapon shifted in his hands and came about in a second strike, one that Blake parried off the cleaver of Gambol Shroud. As the blades connected, Gambol Shroud shifted from its sword to pistol mode. The weapon spun wide and she pulled the trigger twice, aiming for center mass on Bane
Almost lazily, Bane pulled his chainsaw between the shots and himself, lowering Ruby slightly as he did.
In response the muzzle of Blush spat fire into Blake''s chest.
Blake had less than a second to react, and had trained to do so. Her Semblance activated as she swept to the side, leaving a frail shadow of herself where she''d been standing. The blast from Blush destroyed the shadow as she flew back, firing her pistol thrice more. Each projectile collided with Adam''s blade as he parried them. She chastised herself silently for this. Blake knew how Adam''s Semblance worked. There was no telling how much power he''d already passively stored.
"A disgrace that you would abandon the cause to begin with," Adam said, diving for her with another swipe of his blade. Wilt parried off her cleaver as her pistol shifted back to her blade. She slashed at him and caught nothing but air as he side-stepped the strike. "But to think you''d even turn against it."
"I didn''t turn away from anything!" Blake shouted, swinging her cleaver at Adam, before reversing her grip on her sword and whirling into a trio of strikes with the two weapons, each deflecting off of Adam''s blade and scabbard. "You''re threatening innocent people!"
"There''s nothing innocent about these ''people'', love." Adam retorted, Blush spinning around his hand, the haft of the scabbard colliding with the side of her head at the deflection of her last strike. "You should''ve kept running."
Blake''s head rang as the strike connected, the feeling of it sharp and sudden even through her Aura. She rocked to the side with the blow and parried the next strike that followed. Gambol Shroud rose to parry it, and she called on her Semblance once more, an act she found more draining than the first use. Wilt connected with her shadow''s blade as she passed behind Adam, spinning her leg low to catch his knee.
She found the muzzle of Blush pointed in her face, aimed under Adam''s arm.
Her shadow vanished as Blake threw herself to the side avoiding the shot. She aimed Gambol Shroud and fired quickly once more. One shot at Adam, another through the crowd at Bane. The first shot missed as Adam swept to the side. The second managed to clip the arm still holding Ruby, who Blake noticed was struggling less. The shot lowered Ruby enough, however, that her feet could touch the ground.
Even as she did, Adam pressed in, his sideways sweep rising into a kick that caught Blake in the chest.
"Still using the same tricks. The ones I taught you," Adam sneered.
"Sienna taught me," Blake bit back, the blade of Gambol Shroud collapsing back into its sickle form. She threw the weapon low, arcing it out on her ribbon. The length of it passed near Adam''s leg.
Then lashed around the haft of Blush, wrapping around and taking hold of it.
"And I made sure they stuck," Adam retorted.
He jerked back on the ribbon, ensuring it was wrapped as tightly to him as it was Blake.
Blake''s gaze passed between him and Bane. Ruby was grasping tightly onto the larger Faunus'' arm with her free hand. Her feet found purchase on the ground, and scraped as Bane began to approach them. The circle of White Fang grew tighter as more members closed them in.
Adam noticed this as well, seeming to think on what to say, as the members recognized her. When he spoke, it was with grim certainty. "She''s a traitor to the cause and a coward," He announced. "She''s betrayed everything the revolution stands for, and her parents stood for."
"They don''t stand for this!" Blake shouted.
"They don''t stand for anything," Adam replied coolly. "They hide in Menagerie as our people suffer in the mines and factories. Eaten by machines and dying of Gray Lung." His blade pointed at her. "Just as you''ve chosen to run and hide."
"OH YEAH!?" A new voice snapped.
A trio of figures came crashing from the sky above Adam. Two glowed with the golden-yellow light of the sun at high noon. They came flying at Adam in tandem, one wielding a staff in an overhead swing. The other, two pairs of nunchucks, whirling from disparate directions. The first sailed over Adam''s head as he ducked the blow. The second had their strikes parried, and counter-struck with Wilt''s blade. Both glowing figures vanished almost as quickly as they appeared.
The third was Sun Wukong.
He leapt in as Adam''s blade hung in the air from the counter-strike, landing on the blade itself. His weight drove the tip into the ground, lowering Adam''s arm and guard as Sun''s leg snapped up in a kick.
The blow caught him under the chin, and forced him to step back, releasing the crimson blade. But Blake could still feel her ribbon tethered to Blush. She pulled back on it, and Adam''s grip kept him from going far.
Despite this, Adam still raised Blush to guard against the Sun, as his staff spun around in front of him. The two collided with the hard clack of wood and a ringing of hollow steel.
"She''s still here, isn''t she!?" Sun growled.
Then, two more things happened.
The first that Blake saw, as she recovered herself, was seeing Sun''s staff snap in half, taking the shape of its twin shot-nunchucks, both snapping toward Adam from disparate directions and forcing him to sidestep the strike, still anchored to Blake.
The second announced itself to Blake in a flurry of wind and rose petals. One that slammed its way through the crowd of White Fang surrounding them like a wrecking ball. It barreled its way through Adam and Sun, breaking the contest between them, and forcing Blake to move with them at the same time. As the flurry of petals flew through the space, they solidified, but didn''t lose their speed.
Ruby Rose balled on herself, before slamming both of her feet against the mass of Bane''s chest. The force and speed of her petal burst sent both tumbling and rolling. As she hit the ground, she planted Crescent Rose''s stock into the dirt and the muzzle in the space between her feet on Bane''s chest. She squeezed back on the trigger, firing.
All of the combined force ripped Ruby free of Bane''s grasp, and sent the larger Faunus flying. He crashed through the other side of the crowd and carried on for a distance, impacting another of the metal huts.
Free of the Faunus'' grip, Ruby hit the ground and began gasping for air. She coughed and wretched as the fresh, rain-filled air hit her lungs. Her body skidded along the ground in a low crouch.
"Ruby!" Blake said.
"I-I''m fine," Ruby gasped, body shaking with adrenaline.
All at once the Faunus around them began to break apart, reaching for weapons. In a blink they were surrounded by dozens of guns and blades.
Worse, as Blake observed, when Adam grabbed Wilt from the ground, released from under Sun''s foot. Her ears could pick out the growl of Bane''s chainsaw as he picked himself up.
"Well, this isn''t going to plan," Ruby said, chuckling nervously, voice hoarse.
"On the contrary," Adam sneered. "This has gone almost exactly how I wanted it to." He glowered at Blake. "Getting this chance at an early reunion is just a bonus. Isn''t that right, dear?"
Blake''s stomach did a flip at the word. Try as she might, she couldn''t keep the small tremble out of her blade hand. They both knew the effect he had on her, and it just made Adam smile coldly.
Behind them, far back towards the gate of the Arsenal, more and more gunfire could be heard. The sounds of Yang and Weiss doing their share of the work.
"Isn''t this the part where everyone else goes running to see what the problem is?" Sun asked, almost casually. "Leave the heroes to duke it out with the bad guy in a showdown?"
"Shut it, traitor!" one of the myriad White Fang snapped, earning only a cursory look from Sun.
"The only problem worth worrying about is the one already before us," Adam spoke, calmly sheathing his blade, a normally peaceful gesture twisted by the one doing it. "A human, a traitor, and a monkey."
"That the best you''ve got? I''ve heard better," Sun countered, smirking.
Blake shifted on her feet as Sun tried to banter with them. Despite the casualness he was giving them all, she could tell he was stalling. Buying Ruby time to recover and Blake time to think. That Adam hadn''t simply resumed the attack meant he was also taking the situation seriously.
"We should all expect better," Adam said, gesturing to all of the White Fang that held them in their sights. "Look at what they want to make us!" He addressed them. "Little better than weapons against the cause, against what we''re due! None of us are safe!" Adam''s gaze then fell back onto Blake. "Not even Chief Belladonna''s daughter!"
"I''m doing what''s right!" Blake shouted. "This is insanity, Adam¨C!"
"This is justice!" Adam shouted, cutting her off. "For all of us! For all those you''ve chosen to turn your back on! To serve the likes of her!" He gestured to Ruby, as she recovered herself. "Look at yourself, Belladonna! Reduced to little more than some guard for someone like her, dragging others down with you!"
"I''m not her property!" Blake retorted. "I''m her friend! The only one dragging people down here is you! You''re murdering innocent people!"
"None of them are innocent, Belladonna," Adam replied. "Not for the crimes against our people. You''re the only one who''s seemed to have forgotten that."
It was all lies, and Blake knew that. Just as she knew none of the people surrounding her cared. They all fervently believed what Adam said. They wouldn''t have followed him there if they doubted him. Everyone who''d died that night had died because of Adam. Just as everyone who''d died because she''d followed him once, died because of her. She only wished that they could see what they were doing.
But they wouldn''t. She knew that.
An explosion echoed from the front gate of the Arsenal. It drew more of the attention from the surrounding White Fang. Including that of Adam''s lieutenant.
Adam visibly exhaled in annoyance, before gesturing with his hand. "Bane, take some people and go deal with that, if you would?" He then gestured to the rest of the White Fang. "The rest of you, finish what we came here to do." Adam''s attention then returned to the three of them. "I''ll handle things here with Lady Belladonna."
A moment passed through the air, before the White Fang began to move. Bane made a sharp noise and gestured for a number of the White Fang to follow him. They broke away from the group, as the rest resumed their work, lowering their weapons. As they did, Blake heard Ruby speak. Her huddled form touched her Scroll.
"Yang, Weiss, there''s more people coming-" She breathed.
"Called it," Sun smirked, spinning his weapon around him in a flourish.
"No. You haven''t," Adam said, scowling coldly. Blake could feel his gaze still fixated on her. "When we''re finished here, the kindest thing I could do is drag you back with me. Educate you on where you went wrong."
"We''ll stop you," Ruby said, huffing as she finally began to catch her breath, standing. "Blake''s right, the only thing you''re doing is hurting people." She readied her scy-fle. "We''re going to stop that here."
What Adam did next tore a pit in Blake''s stomach.
He chuckled.
"You have no idea what''s coming for you," Adam spoke. "If you even survive tonight."
A blur of motion followed as She, Blake, and Sun all launched themselves at Adam.
His sword flashed out from its sheath. A resume to their struggle.
Because Blake knew, full well, this wasn''t a fight they could win.
¡
Weiss preferred to be smart, and tactful, when using her Semblance. This came with a good reason: it was a hereditary ability to her family. One that had been passed down from her grandfather, to her mother, to Weiss and her siblings. Likely having been in the family even before her grandfather. Hereditary Semblances were not common on Remnant. Many tended toward being individual and unique. Even when there were undercurrents and similarities running between them, it was scarce to find any two Semblances that were exactly the same. Or, so close as to be near identical. How her family''s hereditary abilities had manifested, she did not know.
What she did know was that by the time they''d reached her, how to use them had been engrained. It was almost as thoroughly known as the abilities themselves. How she was expected to use them was documented, what her Semblance did was mapped out and formulaic. Her Semblance had almost literally come with an instruction manual on how to use it. Including how Dust reacted with its usage. She was certain there were things she had not yet discovered how to use. Advanced techniques and combinations, reserved for when she knew how to reliably use her abilities. But the basics, those were expected to be mastered flawlessly. How they were expected to be used, measured in a meticulous enough fashion that deviation was unacceptable. Impeccable measure, meter, and control were expected in their application. In much the same way, she had at one time realized, were no different from singing. A wrong note, a moment off tempo, or a hitch in the voice, and the song was lessened. The music lost its charm as it changed away from what it was intended.
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In much the same, she had to match what was expected of her Semblance. Grace, control, and flawless execution. Never brutish, never inelegant. Always ''just so''.
As such, utilizing it in some ways was something she had never considered.
For instance: Utilizing Gravity Dust in conjunction with her force glyph to launch a door off its hinges. As she''d proceeded to do when she and Yang forced their way into the Arsenal. The effect had almost been like a bombshell had gone off.
Which was to say, completely inelegant and as graceful as a sledgehammer to a fine Mistralian teacup.
Some small part of her found it extremely gratifying, though she would never admit that. She had an image to maintain.
It had also allowed her to create the opening she and Yang needed to put their adversaries on the back foot. The more physically prone of the pair had used the explosion caused by her semblance to charge in. With intense focus she had begun pummeling everyone who stepped in her way. Worryingly, the only sound Weiss heard from her as Yang went was the sound of her weapon, the thundering of her weapon''s shotgun ringing through the air with each strike. But Yang herself said nothing, and made no noise beyond the occasional grunt and huff of breath as she fought. No jokes, no laughs or cheers. Only the intense, focused silence required of serious combat. Weiss felt she should have been happy with how serious her normally bubbly teammate was taking the matter.
Instead, she was worried. Brooding and sulking was already more the territory of two other teammates. She did not need that to expand to three of them, lest the general demeanor of things become insufferable.
She did, naturally, also find silence unnerving. Just as her partner had, when they''d noticed it outside the Arsenal.
Unfortunately for the lot of them, that time was not the right one to address it.
Weiss was not sure what had become of her teammates after they had forced the doors. But she could surmise that something had gone wrong. A feeling she only grew to acknowledge as more White Fang from elsewhere in the Arsenal seemed intent to focus on her and Yang. The few that didn''t only moved to do their work faster. Though she felt her focus should not be on them.
A glyph appeared before Weiss as a stream of bullets was concentrated on her. The projectiles collided and sparked against the glowing wall of force she raised between them. With grace, she darted from behind it and allowed the glyph to fade as she summoned another. The cylinder of Myrtenaster glowed a cool blue-white as she drew on the Dust in it to feed her Semblance. From the new glyph, a trio of thick icicles grew, flying forward from it as missiles of solid ice. Each tracked and aimed for their own target. She watched as two of them struck their targets, sending them sprawling to the ground, or into the walls of the huts. The third failed to reach where she had aimed, but had struck the ground with force enough to blow the assailant aside. Seeing the opening, she let the glyph fade and summoned another from beneath her feet, letting the power of it force her forward, as she swept over the target with her blade. This second strike sent the target skidding away, in enough of a fashion that Weiss was confident they wouldn''t be an issue. As they flew away she summoned another glyph in time to ward off a sword-wielding Fang, who rushed her defiance of her display. Almost effortlessly she parried his sword, circling it off the blade of Myrtenaster and thrusting forward. The strike bound them backward, in time to be caught by Yang, who punched them into the dirt as she passed to another combatant.
Weiss thought about how the Courier had said she''d needed to expand beyond her swordsmanship, and felt gratified. She knew the weight and intention of his words were well met. Had the situation permitted, she''d have spent more time thinking on his words. However, that did not change the degree to which she believed in the capability of her hand at the blade. In this moment, that was perhaps more important than what she could do otherwise.
As Yang raced towards another member of the White Fang, Weiss followed quickly with her. A glyph appeared beneath Yang''s feet, launching her all the quicker to her target. She responded to it with proper speed, and flew into a punch that sent her target flying, cratering them into one of the metal huts.
"I''ve got this," Yang said dismissively.
"I know," Weiss answered. "But last I checked, we were supposed to be working together."
"We are," Yang said. "You just need to spend less time talking."
Without another word, Yang flew away from Weiss, resuming her assault as she sailed between White Fang like a pinball. Rebounding with each strike of her weapon and punch thrown. Weiss wished she could carry the conversation with her blonde teammate further than just a few words. Any other time there was no excuse for her not to. Sadly, this was not any other time. She could hardly fault Yang for not wanting to converse in the middle of a fight, most sane people didn''t try to do that. It was the same as asking to be sucker-punched.
Understanding that, she tabled the conversation, right as a pair of White Fang leapt from the alley beside her, hatchets and swords in hand. They got no closer to her than the mouth of the alley, where the first of them met a black glyph, and was cannoned back into the second. Uncouth, but effective, she found.
Though their plan of action had been limited, Weiss knew they needed to regroup quickly. The longer they spent apart, the more likely it was that the White Fang would push back against them. She knew their goal was to escape with whatever wasn''t nailed down. But the numbers weren''t on her team''s side. How they were supposed to succeed was a matter of whether or not the White Fang could escape. Hence, they needed to make sure as few Bullheads as possible left the arsenal.
Something she knew they were failing at, when another lifted into the air over the arsenal and listed away.
Considering where she knew Ruby, Blake, and Sun had entered from, it didn''t bode well.
"More Bullheads are leaving!" Weiss shouted, trying to grab Yang''s attention.
"Ruby''s handling it!" Yang countered, catching the blade of an attacking White Fang before hitting him with a combination punch. Even as she did, Weiss saw bullets strike her from the flank, as another White Fang scurried from the cover of the metal huts. Bullets sprayed from a sub-machinegun as they fired from the hip, sidestepping to the next piece of cover.
Before he could reach it, Weiss launched herself from another glyph. Her graceful flight threw the air landed her between the White Fang and their prospective cover. They twisted at the hip, attempting to point their weapon at her. As they did, she parried it off her blade and stabbed at them thrice in quick succession, each one blowing them further back and off-balance. Her blows guided him backwards against yet another glyph she summoned. As their foot landed on it, spires of ice erupted from the ground, encasing and trapping them. She then struck them in the face, ending the fight.
"If she was handling it, they wouldn''t be escaping!" Weiss shouted. "Something''s wrong!"
"Blake and Sun are with her!" Yang shouted back.
Weiss looked at her blond teammate, at the same time deflecting the axe blade of another attacking White Fang. She gracefully spun to the side and let them sway past her, before striking them twice in succession. The blows caused them to stumble far enough that they landed on another of her glyphs. Which then unceremoniously catapulted them away, over the wall of the arsenal and out of sight. Just as unceremoniously, Weiss turned her attention back towards her teammate and began racing towards her.
With hardly any effort at all, Yang weaved between the bullets that flew by her, doing so with as little effort as she did the swings taken at her. Her focus was razor fine on the fight that transpired around her. She was not open to taking any chances, nor accepting a hit she did not need to. Not then. Even if she knew it would fuel her semblance to do so, her anger and frustration wouldn''t allow it. She wanted to be the one to do the hitting rather than be the one to get hit. Yet all the same, it put a churning sensation in her stomach every time she swung. Even as she skirted danger and struck solidly against the enemies in front of her, she could not shake the feeling. It gnawed ceaselessly at her, as she floored and ground everyone who stood before her.
Ember Celica roared as she threw a straight into the face of another of the myriad goons attacking her. Again her stomach lurched as they hit the ground. Still, she pressed on.
Two more White Fang had emerged from one of the metal huts, carrying crates of something. Explosives, supplies, it didn''t matter to her. They dropped the crates as she flew towards them, teeth bared in a scowl and a growl in her throat. It erupted into a roar as she struck.
Only for her fist to crash against a wall of ice. One that appeared with a flash of light and a hiss of freezing air. The connection between it and her weapon sent a spider-web of cracks through the material. But its thickness kept it from shattering, aside from the small blowback from where the ice and her fist met. Cool mist fell from the wall as she observed it, the ice just transparent enough to see through. Her targets were on the opposite side of it, encased mid-fall. Both stunned momentarily, before attempting to free themselves.
Before Yang could react, more of the ice began to surround her. The ice flashed up in walls that almost fully encompassed her. Not trapping her, but clearly blocking where the White Fang could enter from. Ensuring that she couldn''t just fly off towards another group of them.
Yang scowled, and turned towards the one responsible for the frigid interception.
"What is your problem tonight?" Weiss asked, storming towards her teammate.
"My problem!?" Yang barked. "We''re in the middle of a fight! You can''t expect me to spend every five seconds talking to you!"
"Something''s wrong Yang!" Weiss protested. "Ruby, Blake, and Sun could be in danger right now, and you''re brushing it off like nothing''s wrong."
"Because we''re in danger right now!" Yang snapped back. "We have our own thing to do, don''t act like we''re just here for kicks¡" Yang''s shoulders slumped slightly. "They''ll be ok without us."
Weiss''s gaze narrowed on Yang as she looked at her blond teammate, her brow furrowing as she tried to understand. Ultimately though, when she couldn''t, she resorted to a more obvious method of information gathering: "¡ Yang, what''s the matter with you?" Weiss asked. "You''ve been acting strangely all day, even Ruby''s noticed."
The frustration in Yang''s features redoubled. "Nothing. Nothing''s wrong, we''re just fighting."
"¡ Yang, I don''t want to be doing this here either," Weiss told her, primly. "I know this isn''t the time. If I could hold this off until tomorrow, or even a few days from now, I would. But this? This isn''t like you. You''re Ruby''s sister and Blake''s partner. You should be charging straight for them if you thought something was wrong." She observed the field of ice around them. She could''ve sworn she''d heard something humming. "Talk to me, because this isn''t the time to be taking dangerous risks with any of us."
Yang continued to glare down at Weiss. The thought briefly passed through her head how close Weiss was in height to Ruby. Perhaps the biggest difference in them being that Weiss preferred higher-heels than Ruby. She and Weiss were closer in age than either of them and Ruby, but it caught her in that moment. Gave her something else to focus on than the swirling emotions inside of her.
In that moment, all at once, that churning in her stomach erupted. Returning to her as it had throughout the day.
Since her conversation with the Courier.
Sadness.
Fear.
Confusion.
Dread.
Loathing.
A relentless desire to find the nearest toilet and puke her guts out.
She had absolutely no idea how to deal with any of it. All the years she''d spent training with her father, and it had somehow prepared her for none of what experienced in that brief moment. The only thing she could do was allow it to be for that brief moment. Before she crushed it back down with all of her anger. An anger she couldn''t direct at anyone or anything.
Least of all, her teammates.
"¡ I don''t know," Yang told her. "I¡ I can''t talk about it right now. I don''t know how."
Weiss searched Yang''s eyes for a moment, trying to discern if there was some other meaning to her words. But she could not see it. If there was one thing she could count on her blond teammate as being, it was honest. She didn''t lie. It just wasn''t a part of who she was. So if she couldn''t find it in herself to talk about it, then it wasn''t just because she was trying to act as though nothing was wrong. Not like certain other people.
Weiss swore she heard another buzz in the air as she spoke to Yang once more. "Well, we''re all here for you. I know I''m not the person who should be saying it, but we are. If something''s wrong, then you need to say so. We can''t help if we don''t know what''s wrong."
"¡ I know¡" Yang looked around, curiously. "What''s that noise?"
Almost in response to Yang''s question, the buzzing hum that had been in the air redoubled. Enough so that both of them could easily track it.
The noise came from behind one of the walls of ice that had been raised. As it grew louder, Weiss recognized what it was. The rev of an engine. As she did, she watched as a massive, chained-saw blade chewed effortlessly through the wall, as though the structure had not been near to two feet thick, but rather a mere inch of some weaker material. The toothed-blade arced through the ice before retracting and arcing back through it at an additional angle.
Then the cuts that had been made were kicked open.
Beyond the wall of ice, and climbing through it, was a massive White Fang. Weiss likened him in size to Yatsuhashi of Team CFVY, perhaps even bigger. His entire face was covered in a bone-white mask. In his hands, a positively massive chainsaw, handled in a way that was more akin to a sword. A chainsword.
The White Fang lumbered through the opening he had made. Weiss could tell the moment his gaze locked onto the both of them.
He chuckled darkly.
"How lucky," He growled, voice like a myriad of bass-like instruments. "I''ve always wanted to kill a Schnee."
Weiss wasn''t not put out by that statement. Despite what the knot in her stomach protested.
Yang slid into another stance beside her.
"I don''t know how I feel, but I know how we''re going to deal with him," Yang intoned. "Can we please put this away for now?"
It almost sounded to Weiss as if Yang was begging her to do it.
Though not necessarily happy about it. Weiss assented. For Yang''s sake.
She raised her sword. "We''ll deal with him first."
¡
Ruby felt her boots scrape along the ground as she slid backward. Crescent Rose spun in her hands as she handled it, the weapon shifting to its rifle configuration, the blade splitting into its massive bipod as she planted it into the ground. Her head quirked down to the weapon''s scope as she braced it against her shoulder.
Through the looking glass and past the razor''s edge of Crescent Rose, Ruby saw the scene as it played out. Watched as the red haired Faunus did battle with her friends, the brief flashes of metal clashing against metal as the storm around them worsened. Blake dived towards the bull Faunus with a slash of her blade, as Sun swung his staff down from the other direction, only for the bull Faunus- ''I''ll call him the Bull'' - to intercept both. Blake''s blade parried off of the Bull''s, as Sun''s staff connected with the sheath raised to meet it, blades ringing soundly as the sheath and staff cracked against each other. With a flourish, Blake''s blade was easily redirected, casting her aside as the Bull rounded on Sun. As the blade came to connect with him, Sun''s staff broke apart into its shotgun-chuks. Both hinged weapons spun in Sun''s hands, arcing over the sheath, and spinning to connect with the blade, the action cycling as the muzzle aimed for the Bull''s chest¡
Only for the red haired Faunus - ''I''ll call him the Bull'' -to kick the muzzle upward and away from him, right as it flared with gunfire. He twisted his sword and wrenched it free from Sun''s weapon, spinning and planting a heel kick into his chest. Forcing Sun backwards, the Bull spun towards Blake, his crimson blade flashing up as Blake fired her pistol at him, her shots colliding with the edge of the blade, sparking and blossoming through the gloom of the storm that swirled and danced around them, only to be broken when the Bull raised his sheath once more, firing a shot of his own, forcing Blake to dodge to the side.
Ruby took the opening and fired.
She missed.
Just as effortlessly, the Bull''s crimson blade arced over his shoulder. Its edge connected with the metal and dispersed in a way that made the blade briefly glow. For a brief moment, the Bull spun towards her and smirked back at her through the scope.
Ruby''s hand cycled the bolt of Crescent Rose as she readied another shot. One she found herself unable to take as a bullet whizzed past her head. It was followed by another as the bull Faunus harried her, forced her to dash away with her semblance, uprooting her scyfle. She blurred around the fight in an arc, keeping ahead of the Bull''s aim. As she flew, she could see the motion of things. Watched as Blake ran towards the Bull, as Sun summoned a pair of clones. How the two clones dove at the Bull with a kick and whirl of shotgun-chuks. How they clashed against his sheath and sword as Blake swung at him with sword and cleaver in a cross-slash. Seamlessly the Bull''s feet slid backwards and away from the attack, dipping out the strikes the two clones had thrown at him, both vanishing as they hit the ground.
His summons ended, Sun began to flourish his shotgun-chuks. The weapons flipped and articulated around him by their levers and chains. But every motion and pass began and ended with their muzzles pointed at the Bull, who pulled back and away from the shots, his blade only rarely rising in an attempt to catch the shots. Not due to being unable to catch them, Ruby realized.
As Sun''s assault continued, Ruby and Blake resumed their own. As Ruby briefly left her dash, Blake summoned a copy of her own, springing off of her and coming down with an aerial strike, one Ruby added to with another shot from Crescent Rose, then followed by resuming her dash, launching towards the bull Faunus.
Despite Sun''s assault, the Bull handled the efforts of all three. Easily he slipped around Blake, putting her between himself and Sun, forcing Sun to pause in his attack, lest he hit her. This opening allowed him to parry Blake''s heavier strike off his sword, then counter slash as she passed him, his sword carving into her Aura as gravity carried her down. No sooner had she reached the ground than his sheath swung back towards her. The long face of it cracked downward against the back of her head, the base of her skull.
Just as Ruby closed the space, swinging Crescent Rose in a horizontal slash at the Bull.
Still he met her.
After striking Blake, the Bull took a step toward Ruby, the sheath spinning around in his grip. Right as she would have been able to strike, the distance was closed before she was ready. Crescent Rose was still mid-swing.
But the muzzle of the sheath was against her chest.
With hardly a moment to react, Ruby began to dash, feeling her form fall away. Rather than pullback, she pushed towards the Bull, knowing she would not be able to get away in time. For a moment, she felt the Bull begin to lose his form as well, her Semblance dragging him forward in a way she was only just beginning to understand.
Then his weapon flared against her chest, the bullet crashing into her.
She felt her dash fail, her form solidifying as the built momentum washed uncontrollably over both of them. With little control or grace, she crashed past him, tumbling to the ground as the tip of Crescent Rose bit to the ground errantly, only serving to further rob her of control.
The Bull reacted with aplomb, rolling across the ground and to his feet, using the momentum to launch himself at Sun, blade and sheath flashing back to his side.
"You left us for this, Blake!?" the Bull demanded. "A child and a traitor no better than you!?"
"We were attacking innocent people!" Blake shouted, clawing her way up from the dirt, her head clearly reeling as she struggled to rise. "I didn''t leave, the White Fang was supposed to bring peace!"
"We fight for what we were denied!" the Bull roared, catching both of Sun''s weapons as they swung, sheath and blade batting both aside as Sun spun and caught them. With just as much ease, Sun collided the two weapons in a practiced motion and reformed his staff. Together they parried and batted off of the blade and sheath as they danced and rang with each other. "For what we deserve!"
"Dude, chill out!" Sun grunted, his staff rising in a short, quick strike aimed for the Bull''s chin. It failed to connect as the Bull''s sheathe rose and rebounded it once more.
Ruby grit her teeth and sucked as deep a breath as she could muster. Her chest hurt, her lungs ached. Breathing, necessary as it was, suddenly felt more akin to a luxury she''d rather do without. The pain of it bouncing around between her ribs. She''d been struck like that before, a few times. By Yang, when sparring, her father and uncle while learning the basics. Once, when they first got Zwei.
The ache in her chest was most like that last one. Zwei had been a lot more rambunctious in his younger years.
Then there was that really big White Fang that had slammed her into the wall minutes earlier.
Despite the pain, however, Ruby forced herself to a knee. Her eyes cast quickly towards Blake. Her teammate was struggling to get right herself as well, only managing to get as far as her knees before swaying and stumbling back down. A reminder to her how all it took, sometimes, was a single lucky shot.
But the Bull had not managed such on her.
Balancing Crescent Rose low, she forced herself to her feet and leaned forward, her gaze honed to a razor''s edge in front of her. She steadied her breathing, forcing her way past the pain in her chest. Then she flew forward once more, body erupting into a flurry of furious red petals, rapidly building momentum as she rocketed towards the Bull.
As the Bull continued his assault against Sun, Ruby swung Crescent Rose in a horizontal slash. Pulling the scythe-head back in a reaping motion as she did, the blade missing its mark, one she had known would, a feint, as the Bull raised his sheath to block the strike again. When the blade came up short, it took him by surprise.
For the first time since their exchange had begun, Ruby Rose managed to land a strike.
Crescent Rose flipped in her hands, the blade hinging forward into its war scythe form, leaving the Bull no time to counter or parry the strike. The elongated blade raked across his back, skimming over his sheath, the force of it catching on him and pulling him sideways. A brief moment of failure that created a second opening for Sun to fill, his staff rising in an upward stroke aimed for the underside of the Bull''s chin. One that the Bull swept his sheath around to intercept, catching the staff at length.
Only for the staff to hinge itself as well, releasing the length of chain that made one of the pair of shotgun-chuks. The muzzle hinged upwards at even greater speed and landed the blow, the Bull''s chin snapping upward with the force. Seeing his opening, Sun pressed inward, reversing the spin of his staff into a downward blow.
But the blow missed.
Despite the hits he had taken, the Bull easily swept around the staff. His sword slid gracefully off it as he stepped towards Sun, slashing him with the blade. Sun sucked a hissing breath and pulled a step back as the Bull reared his leg up, then planted it into Sun''s chest, driving him back.
As he did, Ruby spun Crescent Rose over her shoulder and brought it head back to bear. The blade hinged itself back down and exposed the muzzle of its rifle. Her hand fell easily into the trigger of the weapon as she cycled the action and chambered another round. At near point blank range she fired.
The Bull spun and slashed the bullet from the air, sparks cascading off his sword.
It was only because she was so close that Ruby could see something she had missed before. The way the Bull''s Aura seemed to glow and warp over his blade, as he caught the bullet. Like water disturbed by a single drop, flowing back into itself as his red hair began to glow.
"Pathetic."
He then seamlessly switched targets and attacked Ruby instead. Ruby narrowly raised the receiver of her weapon in time to catch the blade as he swung. She could feel its edge biting against Crescent Rose as it dragged upwards across her. As the blade began to arc back down, Ruby weaved out of its path, only to slide into the way of the sheath. The haft of it only narrowly missed her head. As it did, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose close and swung in a short counter-strike. The scythe blade skated across the Bull''s blade, raised once more to catch the strike. As it passed, that same rippling glow passed over its length. The sneer on the Bull''s face shifted into a vicious grin.
The muzzle of his sheathe came within a hair''s breadth of her head and fired. The bullet missed, but the muzzle bloomed and thundered beside her head all the same. She reflexively recoiled all the same. Her body shifted to intercept something that wasn''t even there.
The Bull''s leg snapped up and kicked her in the ribs before she could even see it coming. Crescent Rose flourished in Ruby''s hands as it did, trying to buy her room. It hit nothing, she didn''t know whether or not it should have, but it did nothing for the sharp pain in her side. Even as her weapon whipped about, the Bull shifted his posture, his hands snapping his blade back into its sheath and letting it fall back to his side. Hugging it close, grip on the weapon shifting.
Ruby knew what was coming next, she''d seen him do it several times already. A draw strike.
But something was different. She didn''t know what it was that triggered the thought. A difference in his posture, the tightness in his grip, or the look on his face. All Ruby knew was that something was different.
Something bad was about to happen.
It was as though his very Aura was bleeding malice.
Whatever was about to happen, she knew it was coming moments before it did.
Then she felt something wrap around her waist, and she was wrenched backward. Her gaze cast downward briefly as she flew, spied the black ribbon that dangled from the hilt of Blake''s sword, saw the pistol and blade hooked around the length of it. Ruby let it carry her, spinning through the air as she went, her boots scraping along the ground as she landed, skidding. She found herself stopping back beside Blake once more. Her teammate now recovered from the blow to the head, panting heavily.
Ruby''s head swiveled back around towards the Bull.
He stood at a distance, scowling towards them, blade ready in his hand.
Just as Sun came crashing down over top of him, staff swinging outward with all of his power and weight behind it. Just as effortlessly, the Bull turned towards him. Sheathed blade cracked against staff as Sun''s strike hit home, and he came to ground. He then sprang off the ground and thrust the staff forward, before spinning it in a motion that vaguely reminded Ruby of rowing. The whole of his attention on the Bull in front of him. Which was rewarded with the Bull drawing his blade, accelerating it with the firearm built in the sheath. The blade flew forward at great speed, the Bull more catching and flicking it than swinging it. Sun''s staff split once more into its shotgun-chuks as it did, the more agile weapon hooking around the blade as it swung towards him. Its edge canted away from him as Sun swung his own in kind, the muzzle flaring as it passed through the space where the Bull''s head had been, then dipping away from the attack, retracting his weapon once more. The muzzle of Sun''s weapon flared as both pairs of shotguns flourished and swung at the Bull.
"We''re not going to win," Blake said, her voice tense and hushed. "We can''t."
"Yes we can," Ruby said, insistent. "We''ve got him on the ropes."
"You don''t know him. I do," Blake answered solemnly. "He''s playing with us."
"We can take him," Ruby said, unfaltering as Sun continued his assault. "We just have to do it together."
"It won''t matter!" Blake hissed. "I''ve seen him take on dozens of people at one time! we''re hardly slowing him down."
"He''s never fought us," Ruby told her. "We can do this¡" She turned her gaze back towards the fight before them. "¡ Ladybug."
"Ruby," Blake insisted.
"Ladybug!" Ruby shouted, followed by her bolting forward, dashing with her Semblance.
Despite her hesitance, Blake followed. If Ruby was determined to go through with the maneuver, then Blake failing to would only put her in direct danger. They had practiced the move long enough for Blake to know what she was supposed to do.
As Ruby moved, she saw Blake hurrying alongside her, running as fast as her feet could carry her.
Then Ruby arced upward into the air, flying over her intended target.
The Bull parried off Sun once more as he watched her fly over him.
Then dashed at him, reforming and slashing Crescent Rose outward at his flank. At the same time, Blake flew in from the other side, sword and machete drawn up and ready. They then crossed the Bull at the same time, slashing him as they went, momentum carrying them as they went. Only a few meters away, they found themselves skidding. They slid as they arced back around and crossed again, striking once more. They continued in this formation, moving faster and faster with each successive strike, blurring together faster and faster.
The Bull caught the opening strikes, kept pace as they moved faster. But he began to falter when Sun saw his opening and struck, waiting for them both to pass as he swung his shotgun-chuks, faster and faster, louder and Fiercer.
Until, after one strike too many, the Bull scowled.
"Fine," the Bull growled. "You first."
Blake and Ruby arced past him once more, and Sun combined his shotguns once more. The staff swung down towards the Bull in an overhead strike.
The Bull let it fall. His hands lowering his weapon to his side, sheathed.
That same feeling flooded back into Ruby. A sense of dread she couldn''t name.
It wasn''t for her.
As she and Blake ran towards the Bull once more, Ruby could see her face.
There was a look of dawning horror in it as well.
"Sun!" Blake shouted.
"Wilt and die," The Bull spoke.
He drew his sword. A flash of light issued forth.
Sun flew backwards as Ruby skidded to a stop. The world seemed to slow down as she watched the scene play out before her. The way Sun''s staff collided with the Bull''s blade. The way the blade''s crimson steel cleaved through it as though it weren''t even there. That same rippling energy, his Aura, racing out along the edge of the sword, flashing out in a wave that preceded the weapon itself. This energy alone cleaved through Sun''s staff.
It would''ve cleaved through Sun as well.
But with perhaps a moment''s more attention, Blake intervened. Her weapon flew out towards Sun, just ahead of the Bull''s strike. Her weapon collided with Sun''s head and sent him reeling backward.
The bulk of the attack flew past him. What didn''t lashed outward against his bare chest. A brief howl escaped him as it seared his skin and flesh, the force carrying him away.
But the Bull wasn''t finished.
As Sun''s weapon clattered to the ground, The Bull flew towards him.
Sun caught himself, moving to find his balance. Arms moving in front of him, somewhere between a guard and a flail.
Only to catch on the muzzle of the Bull''s sheath.
A single crack of thunder issued.
Sun howled.
His arm wrenched against itself in the wrong direction. A gaping wound of blood, Aura, and bone burst from his elbow.
It was followed just as swiftly by a kick to the stomach that sent Sun to the ground. His Aura shattered, blood pouring from his wound. Without missing a step, the Bull spun around and faced Ruby and Blake. Not giving them even a moment to react.
Ruby''s mind raced to process everything that had happened. She felt her blood chill and stomach drop.
"You just don''t get it," the Bull spoke, voice cold and furious. "You hurt me, Blake." Without looking back he stepped over Sun, who struggled to do little more than keep his own wound shut. Not even as the Bull readied his blade over Sun''s head.
The Bull''s gaze rose to both of them. But when he spoke, Ruby knew who he was talking to. It wasn''t her.
"I''m going to destroy everything you care about."
His sword began to fall.
Ruby and Blake came back to themselves, flying into motion.
Then a massive blast engulfed them all.
¡
*Two minutes earlier*
Yang Xiao-Long loved a good fight. She was pretty sure she got that from her dad. There was a visceral thrill that came with it that she tried other ways to emulate. The closest she''d ever come was when she''d first started riding Bumblebee, her motorcycle. The adrenaline, the wind in her hair, the sense of power and freedom as everything flew past her. All with just a hint of danger to it that emphasized every piece of a given ride. It was as close a substitute as she could find to fighting without trying things she knew would be bad for her health. Something she knew would only be a substitute as well.
But, in that moment, at that time, Yang almost found herself wishing she was anywhere but where she was. Being astride Bumblebee would''ve been a reprieve that would allow her to put her thoughts elsewhere.
Instead, she felt the shock of every punch she shot back through her arms. Heard the ring of Ember Celica as each blast issued from its muzzles. Saw the flash and glare of each gunshot that was fired blur in her vision. But the only thing any of it instilled in her was an emotion she couldn''t put to words. Something sad, angry, hurting, and hateful that wouldn''t go away and was directed entirely at her. It had been there all day. She hadn''t let it slow her down.
Not until she''d seen the bodies outside the prison.
Then it came rocketing back to the front of her mind. A sense of gravity that dragged her along with it. Even as they''d begun trying to fight the White Fang at the arsenal, it was there.
Now was a time she could fight without restraint. Do what she needed, to topple whoever was in front of her. She should''ve been ecstatic.
Instead, she was afraid.
Of what, she couldn''t even say. Not to anyone but herself. No one would believe her, or understand why she felt the way she did. The only person who could''ve helped her had only gone and confirmed her fears all the same.
Now she was fighting for her life.
Silently terrified all the while.
"Yang, look out!" Weiss shouted.
Before Weiss had even said anything, Yang had already been weaving out of the way. Sweeping to the side as the giant White Fang that attacked them swung his chainsword. The teeth chattering and chewing effortlessly through everything they touched. In that instance, the dirt and ground beneath them. Yang knew enough about mechanics to know that should''ve ruined its cutting edge, especially after the first time. But the Giant had already struck the ground half a dozen times and was still cutting effortlessly. She had to chalk it up to aura, maybe a semblance. A semblance explained more things.
As Yang moved out of the way, a trio of ice-spikes flew through the spaces. Two were immediately swept from the air as the chainsword swung back up to them. The third hit its mark, striking the Giant in the shoulder. Only for the ice to shatter on impact seeming to have no effect upon him. Despite this, Yang forced herself back into the close fight. Leaping high as she slammed her fist into the side of the Giant''s head. Ember Celica roared as she struck, and as Yang began to fall, she let off a combo punch, striking the Giant solidly in the chest.
All three blows hit their mark.
But the Giant, mister Big, was unfazed. Just as easily and as though she was little more than a fly to him, Big released a hand from his weapon. The massive paw swept out and struck her backhanded.
The blow hit Yang, and it felt to her as though she''d been hit by a wave at the beach. Immediately she was thrown backwards. Semblance unable to meaningfully absorb any power from the blow. Yang spun as she went, firing Ember Celica so that she could control her fall and direction, landing herself beside Weiss.
"Man, what is with this guy?" Yang groused.
"I don''t know." Weiss answered, glaring at the space beneath Big''s feet. A black Glyph briefly appearing beneath his feet. Only for him to make the slightest motion with his shoulder, and the glyph would flicker and disappear. She didn''t even know that was possible.
"I''m just more than you can handle, little girl." Big rumbled.
Yang scowled at the Giant, a part of her more than ready to make him eat those words, despite her state. But having been trying for several minutes to deal meaningful damage, and failing, she didn''t rise to the obvious bait. Not when her Semblance wasn''t anywhere near boosted enough.
All around them, members of the White Fang who had been either fighting them or moving equipment watched. They cheered as Big tossed them about, shrugged off their efforts. They hadn''t interfered since the opening moments of the fight, when one of them had tried to join in, and been cratered into the ground for the effort.
Things were not going well for them.
"I''m starting to think you were right about Ruby being in danger." Yang admitted "We need to shake this guy and find her."
"I''m glad you recognize that." Weiss answered, looking sternly at the Giant "How do we do that?"
"I don''t know, you''re the idea one." Yang countered.
"Mind if I cut in?" Big asked, charging towards the both of them, chuckling at his own stupid joke.
His massive chainsword chewed through the air as Yang and Weiss weaved away from the strike. The Giant turned and followed after Weiss, choosing to single her out. He had been throughout the fight, since he announced his intent to ''Kill a Schnee''. He only paid Yang any attention when she''d gotten close enough to attack him.
As she did then.
Firing Ember Celica to launch herself, Yang flew up behind the Giant and came crashing down into him. Her fist hammering into the back of his skull, shotgun ringing out.
The Giant''s head didn''t even so much as flinch.
"I didn''t forget you." Big growled "Wait your turn."
One of the Giant''s hands reached back and caught Yang as she began to fall. His hand wrapped around her face, fingers digging in as he flung her around forward of himself. Where she went crashing into the ground in front of him.
Immediately, she raised a guard over her.
The giant''s boot came crashing down onto it, the unerring force behind it stomping past her arms and crushing her into the dirt. She felt the wind be driven from her lungs.
"Yang!" Weiss cried.
"Stop running, Schnee." The Giant growled "Stand, fight, and die." The force of his heel dug deeper into Yang''s chest. "Or I can start with the blonde one instead."
Even as she was being pinned to the ground, Yang saw the toothed edge of the chainsaw pass near her face, idling. Each hooked tooth gleamed coldly.
Yang pushed back with all the power her aura could spare, but the Giant refused to move. All that training and this is what it earned her? She knew how strong she was, this guy should''ve weighed nothing to her.
Her eyes started to sting. She hated everything about how this day had gone.
"¡Fine." Weiss said, voice furious and cold "You want me to fight you?"
Yang heard the sound of Weiss'' glyph summoning, saw the black sigil beneath her, beneath the giant again.
"Get off my friend first." Weiss commanded.
The moment she did, Yang allowed her Semblance to activate. With a roar, she erupted in a wreath of fire and force, launching all that power upwards at the Giant. Pushed harder By Weiss'' glyph, as though launched from a Cannon. The Giant lost his balance as he did, buckling backward scant inches.
Enough for Yang to roll out from beneath his boot.
Not missing a beat, she planted Ember Celica into the ground and fired, launching herself up. She spun as she rose, lashing her leg out and kicking the Giant in the head with her heel. Before Gravity could take her, she lashed her fist out and struck the giant, the recoil spinning her the other way. Which let her other leg snap back around to catch the Giant square in the face. She felt both strikes connect, felt the Giant shift under the blows. They''d been working.
The Giant swung his chainsword towards Yang as she fell, and she fired Ember Celica a final time. The blast launched her out of reach as her hair trailed fire. He lurched towards her, ready to give chase. But found himself struggling to move.
Yang saw that Weiss''s glyph had changed. It had grown smaller, shifted its place. It now sat under only one of his feet, the boot locked hard against the ground. Yang''s gaze trailed back to Weiss as she stood there, the effort and strain clear in her face. Her aura beginning to glow visibly in the dark and stormy air. A brilliant white.
"Just so you know:" Weiss said solemnly, her focus intense on Big "I have no idea what''s going to happen next."
She raised her sword in front of her, tip pointed towards the sky. The cylinder at its hilt began to glow as he palm passed over it, one of the chambers lighting with an electric blue.
The glyph beneath the giant''s foot vanished.
Only for another, smaller, white glyph to appear at the base of Weiss''s blade.
With a flourish she whipped her weapon out towards the Giant, tip directed at him. With each passing second her aura only glowed brighter, grew stronger. Until Yang felt she was almost painful to look at.
With a sharp yell, Weiss released her attack.
A spark of lightning Dust jolted from the cylinder of her weapon, traveling down the blade. As it went, it became encircled by the glyph. The two flew forward along the blade, to its tip. Growing faster, bigger, brighter and, as Yang could hear, louder. Until it reached the end of the weapon.
Where they leapt off, and the glyph faded.
In its place, a bolt of lightning flew from Weiss''s weapon, catapulting through the air. It flew wild and jagged in its path, branching and turning and roiling wildly as it coursed towards the Giant.
Where it missed.
Big leapt to the side, away from the bolt of errant and unrestrained wrath that had been thrown at him. It continued to sail through the air, past where he had been.
It flew and crashed through the doorway of one of the metal huts behind him. The bolt slagging the door with ease and striking what lay inside.
Munitions.
A half second passed, as the world held its breath and everyone present saw what came.
"¡dra-" Weiss began to say.
Everything else was lost as a wall of force and thundering furry crashed into her, Yang, and all of the surrounding White Fang.
¡
When Yang awoke, she found herself surrounded by rubble and debris. Her semblance had been deactivated, and she felt as though her aura had been broken. Evidenced, she found, by the small cuts bleeding on her cheek and arms. Her world spun and head hurt, dust filled the air around her. Both the magical and mundane varieties. The rain only slowly helping to drive both back to the ground.
She picked herself up slowly, disoriented. The explosion had felt worse than anything else she had experienced, which said a lot to her. Had she not already activated it, or had her aura broken, she imagined she would''ve scary strong afterwards.
As it was, Yang just felt hurt, and she felt it everywhere.
Slowly, painfully, she began trying to pick herself up.
"Weiss¡" Yang struggled to say, ribs aching "What¡ was that!?"
Yang didn''t receive an answer. Not one she could hear over the ringing in her ears.
As the dust continued to clear, more of the arsenal came into view. By some miracle, Weiss hadn''t set off more than the one hut. But even that one hut had left a massive crater in the ground where it had been. Gouts of fire, pillars of ice, and newly formed rocky spires now dotted everything. Even appearing on top of the metal huts, no trace of their origin. Whatever lightning Dust may have been stored within had seared and slagged the ground around them.
Genuinely a miracle it hadn''t hit any of the other buildings.
Yang continued to look around the space that had been cleared by the blast. Many of the huts had been toppled. She could hardly see any of the White Fang that had been around her moments before.
But she saw Ruby.
Some dozens yards away, she could see her sister now. She was struggling to her knees, leaning against Crescent Rose for support.
"¡Ruby?" Yang asked.
The dust cleared more.
Her hearing cleared and focus returned in an instant.
She saw Ruby.
But she was the man with the sword looming over her too.
"Ruby!"
Victory in the Storm
¡°-Ruby, how are you and the girls making out?¡± The Courier called over the Scroll.
Ruby tried to respond, but she was finding it hard to. Even with her eyes closed her vision was swimming, and her brain was drowning. Her body ached from the impact of the blast that had struck her. She had no idea what had happened, only the vaguest idea of where it came from. She hoped, as the thought struggled through her mind, that the others were ok. Because she certainly didn¡¯t feel that way.
¡°¡ Girls, are you there?¡± The Courier called again. ¡°¡ Sun?¡±
Ruby¡¯s eyes slowly managed to open, only to find the world as disorienting as when they¡¯d been closed. It had almost made more sense when she¡¯d had them closed.
Dust and smoke filled the air where Ruby lay, slowly settling onto the ground. Bits of debris laid scattered across the surrounding ground, a bit of metal sheeting lay over her lower half. She briefly realized she was lucky it hadn¡¯t landed on its edge. Rain continued to fall from overhead, slowly pushing the clouds of dust down. Ruby flexed her grip slightly, and found Crescent Rose was still in it. Shakily, she began to push the debris off and pick herself up, her hand briefly moving to her Scroll to respond. She cleared her throat and went to speak.
She was cut off before she could even make a sound.
Another wall of force burst through the air. It sliced through the dust and smoke around her and scattered the rain, briefly, opening a clearing around her that revealed the state of the Arsenal.
As she had feared, the blast had come from further near the gate. Where Yang and Weiss had been sent. Several of the whats-it huts had been knocked over, laying in heaps over their original contents. Several of the White Fang who¡¯d been passing between them were recovering, slowly. Some who had already recovered were pulling their comrades to their feet. Overhead, roaring through the air, Bullheads fled. Ones she had no doubt were from the very airfield they were trying to protect. But they only served to further scatter the dust and smoke as they began their flight.
The one to blow it all away was the Bull.
He stood with his blade drawn and ready, arm extended at the end of a stroke, looking a bit dusty, but otherwise unharmed. A cold scowl crept over his face as he stared Ruby down.
¡°Where were we?¡± He growled, feigning forgetfulness. ¡°¡ Oh, right.¡±
The Bull charged towards her, sword flashing back into sheath. Ruby¡¯s hand returned to Crescent Rose. Its muzzle thundered as she fired, quickly cycling the action to loose another shot. Even as she did, the Bull caught the bullet on his blade once more in an act she was growing familiar with. The second shot landed in the same fashion as she forced herself to her feet. Right as the Bull was upon her and drawing his blade, Ruby back stepped, giving her room to raise her scy-fle. As the Bull raised his sword to strike her, she dashed forward, raising her scythe blade as she passed. Her Semblance granted speed to her swing she wouldn¡¯t have normally managed. Despite this, the Bull weaved to the side of the strike. Her foot struck the ground, skidding as she tried to reverse course. Crescent Rose swung back towards the Bull once more.
And once more, the Bull weaved to the side, moving to close the gap. Instead of drawing his blade, he pulled the trigger on his sheath while his weapon remained undrawn. The resulting blast rocketed his blade forward, hilt first. The pommel of the blade struck Ruby squarely between the eyes, and she felt the full brunt of it bounce into her skull. Instinctively, she flourished Crescent Rose, batting the tumbling sword to the side, her eyes blinking closed at the hit.
Then next thing Ruby knew, something crashed into her leg and swept it out from under her. She tried to recover, diving to the side. But the only thing she could do was fall to a knee or risk flopping to her side uncontrollably. There was something else that kept her from doing it as well.
The tip of something sharp and hard pressed against her throat.
She opened her eyes again. The Bull was looming before her, stark shadows cutting over him in the gloom of the rain, his red hair illuminated by a similarly crimson aura. He radiated nothing but malice and hatred for her. She¡¯d never even met him before tonight!
¡°Everything she cares about.¡±
His crimson blade flashed away from her throat, arcing outward.
At that moment, Ruby Rose realized she would die.
The thought froze her.
¡°Ruby!¡±
The voice of her sister shattered that hold.
A hair¡¯s breadth away from the blade striking her, Ruby threw herself backward, allowing her back to hit the ground as she flung Crescent Rose in front of her. She grit her teeth and cycled the bolt of her scy-fle, lining the end of the barrel with the chest of the Bull. His swing carried through as he realized that he missed.
She fired.
Just as quickly, she missed as well.
At the last moment, the Bull bladed his body with the muzzle of her weapon, teeth set on themselves, his blade away from her, the muzzle of his sheath pointed to the ground. Already, he was preparing himself to resume the attack. Thunder roared.
Then Yang came flying in from the side, arms lagging behind her, providing an impulse of thrust. They curled into her sides as she flew up beside the Bull. She came so close she almost crashed into him. But her fists landed first, lashing out simultaneously in a pair of three-inch punches, her gauntlets thundering as they landed.
The combined force blew the Bull back as Yang skidded to a stop, the shells exploding out from her gauntlets as they emptied themselves. With deft and practiced ease, Yang whipped a pair of shell belts from her pockets and wrapped them back into the magazines of her weapon. She cycled them just as quickly, ready to resume before the Bull even had a chance to realize she¡¯d even needed to reload. It was a speed that left Ruby dazed.
¡°Back. Off,¡± Yang growled, radiating heat with an intensity that would¡¯ve made Ruby believe her semblance was active. The lack of fiery hair proved she wasn¡¯t.
The Bull recoiled, calmly finding his feet. He looked at Yang, then Ruby, and scowled once more.
¡°It seems Blake¡¯s been busy,¡± the Bull said, returning his sword to its sheath once more. ¡°So quick she is to build a new life.¡± He fell calmly into another stance, ready to fight as though he had not just been struck. ¡°She¡¯ll abandon you just as quickly.¡±
¡°Stay away from my friends,¡± Yang said, not moving an inch.
¡°Yang, be careful,¡± Ruby said, her ears ringing, body trying to replenish her Aura. ¡°Me, Blake, and Sun fought him and couldn¡¯t beat him, he¡¯s dangerous.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got this, Rubes¡¡± Yang said, not turning to look at her. ¡°Just hold tight.¡±
¡°You should listen to¡ what¡¯d you call yourself again? Red Hood?¡± the Bull asked, chuckling, mocking Ruby¡¯s choice of name. ¡°Could¡¯ve gone with something better. Like Short-stop. Or Body-bag.¡±
Yang flew at the Bull and swung. Seamlessly, the Bull weaved around the punch, Yang¡¯s gauntlet flying silently passed his head before retracting. She followed it with a combination punch that missed on the first strike as well, and was caught by his blade as he raised it in a guard. As Yang¡¯s fist retracted, the Bull continued taunting her.
¡°Since you¡¯re the second blonde Blake¡¯s got with her, I guess that makes you Another-dumb-blonde-joke,¡± The Bull sneered. ¡°I didn¡¯t laugh at the first one. Maybe you¡¯ll be more entertaining.¡±
Yang roared as she lashed her fists downward, gauntlets launching her upward, knee lashing forward. The strike missed, and she transitioned into a downward punch, once more caught against the Bull¡¯s blade. Rather than let her fall continue, the Bull flipped backward, legs catching Yang in a kick. The two somersaulted backward through the air, before hitting the ground, Yang rolling and springing to her feet even as the Bull casually landed on his own. As they did, the Bull moved to steal the fight from Yang. He spun on his heel and drew his blade, and its keen edge scraped along Yang¡¯s gauntlets as they flashed up in a guard. The blade passed and her guard lowered as she moved to strike, only for one of her arms to rise to it once more, as the muzzle of the Bull¡¯s sheath took aim. The bullet fired and deflected off her smaller guard, only for the Bull¡¯s blade to come singing around once more. Her other arm rose to connect with the strike, the blade skating off her guard as her other fist snapped out in a counter-punch.
The Bull effortlessly dodged the strike once more, his leg swinging out in a counter-strike of his one.
Yang caught the Bull¡¯s leg and twisted at the hip, tossing him to the side.
The Bull twisted as he flew through the air, landing on his feet once more. Before he¡¯d had a chance to retaliate, Yang lashed out with her gauntlets. A pair of glowing projectiles flew through the air at the Bull, one missing as it flew past the Bull and crashed into one of the Whats-it huts exploding in a gout of fire. The heated air further cleared what dust remained in the air, revealing to Ruby that the rest of the White Fang were already recovering and rousing themselves.
With ease, the Bull caught the second projectile with his blade, the explosion arcing over its edge. The tongues of fire that erupted from it curled back towards the blade, folding into the metal as it rippled and glowed.
As it did, Ruby could see the White Fang around them, the ones who had spent their time and attention on stealing from the arsenal. Now their attention was on the fight that was transpiring.
How quick they were, to take up arms. Seeing them do it reminded Ruby of just how many of them there were. How much harder their fight would¡¯ve been if they¡¯d all taken up arms instead.
Within seconds, more than a dozen gun barrels had begun pointing haphazardly toward her sister.
Some at Ruby as well.
¡°Yang!¡± Ruby shouted cycling the action of her scy-fle. She dashed forward and flew straight for her sister, throwing what little Aura she could muster into her Semblance, her body only briefly reformed as she wrapped her arms around Yang. Surprise briefly passed over Yang¡¯s face, as Ruby began to drag her backward, dissolving into a cloud of red and yellow rose petals.
Half a second after she did, a storm of bullets hammered down on the spot Yang had been standing.
Ruby did not carry her sister more than a meter or two, enough to take them both out of the line of fire. As soon as they were, she let them both reform, her Body spinning past Yang¡¯s as she slung the muzzle of her scy-fle up. With a practiced hand she fired the weapon, the first shot striking its mark as she worked the bolt and loaded another. The second striking its mark and causing them to stagger back into another of the White Fang, causing them both to stop. She continued firing as the White Fang each attempted to adjust their aim.
She then swung the muzzle of her weapon forward, away from the White Fang. Right in time with the Bull, who came crashing towards her and Yang, his blade carving downward as Yang deflected the strike, skating it off her gauntlet. Before she could counter punch, the Bull¡¯s sheath rose sharply, cracking against her chin as it spun around. It then flew and caught the muzzle of Ruby¡¯s scy-fle, knocking it to the side of him right before she pulled the trigger. Ruby held her fire as the muzzle veered off course.
¡°Just another bad joke,¡± The Bull huffed, smirking coldly
¡°JUST ANOTHER BULLY!¡± Ruby snapped, her ears ringing again. ¡°-needing to be saved by his @$$hole friends!¡±
Her hand flew up to the receiver of Crescent Rose and pulled back on the handle. The blade of the scythe snapped out, then forward. The spine of the weapon struck the Bull¡¯s ribs as it swept into its war-scythe configuration.
The Bull hissed and pulled back, his head dipping backwards and only narrowly avoiding the uppercut Yang threw, the muzzle flare lighting his face in stark gold. He broke away from them and swung the muzzle of his sheath towards them. He returned the shot immediately, the muzzle aimed for Ruby, only for the blast to be intercepted by Yang, who moved to shield her sister. Ruby felt her heart jump into her throat as Yang did. She knew her sister could handle the strike, but seeing her do it sent a spike of worry through her.
Ruby knew she had little Aura left to use, and no time to replenish it.
How much more did Yang have?
The Bull steadied himself, leering at them. The rest of the White Fang steadied and fixed their aim on them. Some even from the wall that ringed the Arsenal.
All at once it was as though the world was holding its breath. The dust settled and the storm around them came racing back into focus. Ruby found herself surrounded by destruction and mayhem. Her friends missing. Her Aura low. Not enough time to call for aid.
Surrounded by people who wanted her and Yang dead.
The White Fang were going to win. That thought settled on her just as heavily as the realization she¡¯d been about to die, had.
It just made the ringing in her ears even louder.
After a moment, however, Yang quirked her head to the side ¡°What¡¯s that noise-¡±
¡
¡°Come on!¡± I shouted, sprinting full-tilt down the corridor away from Oakholme, passing the body of the inmate Waylon had smeared. My hand flew to the receiver of Clark¡¯s rifle and dropped the mag, a new one flying into the well and locking it in place, before swapping it for my lever-action. I topped the tube off as we ran, then let it fall back to my side. Penny kept even pace with me as we went. Likely could¡¯ve outran me if she¡¯d wanted to. She knew the map of the prison on a level of detail I couldn¡¯t. I don¡¯t know if she was taking pity on me for everything else that had just happened or not. But right then, I wouldn¡¯t mind the boost she¡¯d given the night before.
There was nothing fast enough to get us from A to B short of teleporting. Which itself was limited by the speed of the wave frequency. Not that it would¡¯ve done any good indoors anyway. But I knew Penny¡¯s control over her thrusters, boosters, whatever they were called, wasn¡¯t the best. Adding my weight to it only gave her more to try and account for, on top of doing it in the confined spaces of the prison. She might have been as good at math as any other computer, but I knew there was a limit to what she could do.
Following the corridors back through the prison, we made our way back to the server room. From there, it was easy finding our way to the arsenal checkpoint. Not much more than a turn really, though it was even easier to find since the alarm for it was blaring. A constant, high-pitched note that was somewhere between a big-horner bleating and tinnitus made manifest. That, plus the flashing lights, said either the White Fang hadn¡¯t paid much attention to procedure, or my teammates hadn¡¯t. Either was possible, completely realistic, really. Further evidenced by one of the sets of doors having been forced completely open, a pool of hydraulic oil spreading over the floor. Made passing over it a hazard, slippery floors always were, but there was enough dry ground yet for me to safely pass. Penny skipped the whole mess by launching herself over it. It would be disingenuous to say the oil hadn¡¯t looked a bit more like blood, under the flashing lights of the alarm. Just the right dark shade that it looked like it through my mask. I knew it wasn¡¯t though.
I had more than enough to compare it to outside.
No more than a dozen feet from the door I was hit with a smell I never got used to. Had encountered it more than a few times in the Mojave, from various places. The metallic tinge of blood mingled with the gases and odors the body builds between the organs. A smell that was, under the best circumstances, repugnant. A hind-brain reaction, made to warn you that there was a dead human nearby. Make you be cautious while having your skin crawl.
We found where it came from shortly after.
Just beyond the doors was the sight of a massacre. I didn¡¯t have time to pick out the gory details, and I didn¡¯t need to. The White Fang had sent a party out in advance to the arsenal. We¡¯d seen them come in on a Bullhead. The guards responded. They weren¡¯t ready.
Result: a dozen butchered men and women. Guts left spilled out and blood seeping into the ground.
Different time, different place, I might have waxed poetic about the horror of it. How senseless all that violence was.
But not then. I¡¯d seen and done the same, if not worse. Even if the banner was different.
My friends were in danger. There could¡¯ve been a mountain of them and it wouldn¡¯t have mattered beyond telling me what I was up against.
Though I could tell by the reaction Penny had, it wasn¡¯t something she could stomach. It probably hadn¡¯t been for the girls and Sun either. Another one of those small things that blurred the lines between her and ¡®people¡¯.
¡°I-I-...¡± Penny tried to say.
¡°Don¡¯t,¡± I told her, holding a hand up, trying to divert her attention away from the bodies. ¡°They¡¯re already gone. The ones that did this; They¡¯re the ones currently fighting our friends. Focus on that. On trying to keep them safe.¡± I looked back at her, locking eyes. ¡°We can¡¯t do anything for these ones.¡±
She looked at me for a moment, her green eyes glowing in the low light. There was worry and heartbreak on her face at what she¡¯d seen. But her eyes were clear. I could see them dilating in small, quick motions, her mind running whatever qualified as a computation for this. She looked down at the bodies, briefly, sadly. ¡°¡I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said, mournfully
She then took pace with me as we ran past the scene.
We¡¯d honor them by stopping that mess. That was the best we could do.
After clearing the massacre we left the lights and cover of the prison behind. Immediately the wind and rain of the storm that¡¯d been gathering crashed down onto us. It had probably been going since about the time we¡¯d separated, and it had only just now gotten around to unleashing itself. It came crashing down in massive sheets of water and wind. Even if it hadn¡¯t already been dark out, it would¡¯ve been a challenge to see anything more than a few feet ahead of you. Despite that, the path to the arsenal was clear enough to follow, the structure itself illuminated by industrial light.
Penny raced up alongside me as a green glow began to surround us. I had a feeling I knew what was coming next. Despite that, she asked, ¡°Ready?¡±
¡°Can you handle it?¡± I asked back.
¡°I¡¯ll only be able to sustain thrust for a short time,¡± Penny explained. ¡°But I calculate I can clear this distance 77.38% faster than running. That¡¯s accounting for the current weather conditions.¡±
¡°¡¡± I nodded, accepting what was about to happen. ¡°Be gentle.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry, Friend Six,¡± Penny chimed, smiling as her arms locked onto me. ¡°We¡¯ve got an 86% chance of landing safely.¡±
¡°¡ Wait-¡± I said, my stomach dropping out. ¡°What do you mean 86-¡±
Green light emanated from behind us as Penny¡¯s blades arrayed themselves, eliciting a high-whine. We rocketed upward into the stormy air, the ground disappearing beneath us, the wind and rain pelting against the lenses of my mask increased exponentially as we gained speed, the force streaking them off just as quickly as they appeared, which didn¡¯t do our clothes any favors. With my coat being in near tatters by that point it wasn¡¯t doing much to protect me. Penny wasn¡¯t even wearing anything beyond her normal clothes. Though I also didn¡¯t know if she needed to be either. If the look of focus on her face was any indication, she at the very least wasn¡¯t outwardly bothered by it.
There came a point where our ascent leveled out and we seemed to be just flying forward through the gloom. The thrum from Penny¡¯s blades grew louder and more discordant in their tone. With the wind hitting us, it was impossible to tell if she was struggling to bear the combined weight. But she remained focused as she carried us both through the storm, the tatters of my coat whipping and snapping at the rain. I could see the lights of the Arsenal getting closer, the structures beginning to loom out of the rain and gloom.
Just like the tree-line we raced headlong into.
¡°Oop-¡± Penny squeaked, pivoting sharply. Her grip on me briefly wavered as she suddenly reeled backward, her array lurching ahead of us to try and slow us down. Despite that, we still went crashing through the upper limbs of the trees. Most of them, thankfully, thin enough to break as we passed.
I tried to grab one or two as we went, slow down our sudden collision course.
Our descent began shortly after. And I could see where it was going.
Right on top of a thicker limb.
¡°Brace for landing,¡± Penny chimed, her blade arrays practically roaring in my ears as she tried to bring us to a halt. I tried to angle myself with her descent, make it so our feet connected with the bough. They did.
But then the rain made it so I slipped, and bumped my ass on the way down.
Then the bough broke from our combined weight hitting it, only managing to slow us down.
¡°Sorry!¡± Penny squeaked, continuing to angle her array, now just trying to make sure we didn¡¯t go completely crashing to the ground. She gripped me tightly again as we continued forward aiming for a thicker sturdier branch.
This time, when we hit it, she managed to push us completely to a stop. The tree limb beneath us creaked and groaned, but otherwise held.
¡°¡ 14% chance of failure,¡± I mulled, heart hammering in my chest. ¡°Guess that makes sense, didn¡¯t think we were going to be aiming to land up here.¡±
¡°This was actually an 8% chance of landing up here,¡± Penny replied sheepishly. ¡°The remaining 5% was my Vector being wrong and having us crash into the ground.¡±
¡°¡ Oh.¡±
I tried to take a deep breath after that nugget of information. Well, at least math was one of her strong suits.
I took another deep breath to get my heart under control and tried to survey why we were up in a tree. It became clear, when I recognized how close we had landed to the arsenal, perhaps only a few yards away from its outer wall. The layout reminded me a lot of Nellis, albeit scaled down significantly and with better fencing.
My brief bird¡¯s-eye told me that a bomb had indeed gone off. Several, for that matter. One of what appeared to be several Quonset huts had been detonated by something. The blast had taken a chunk out of the arsenal and flattened a few other huts. How extensive the damage was, I couldn¡¯t tell, but I could see several other huts had been flattened or bowled over. A miracle their own contents hadn¡¯t been detonated. Most artillery munitions were stable to begin with unless armed, so it must¡¯ve taken something powerful to cause something like that. The lingering after effects of Dust littered the Arsenal as well. Fires, ice spikes, and rocky outcrops sitting in places they¡¯d no earthly place of being. No signs of how they got there beyond the mind-numbing but obvious answer. The visibility was even worse due to the ice and fire filling the already clouded air with a backlit mist.
There was one spot, however, that appeared clearer than the others. It was helping to rapidly clear the rest of the mist and dust from the air as well. It was near what appeared to be the arsenal¡¯s airfield.
I was annoyed by the sight of seeing several Bullheads were already missing, about maybe seven of them. How many were because of the White Fang, I didn¡¯t know. But I knew more than a few of them were.
But more pressingly, I saw Ruby and Yang. Both fighting some red-headed dipshit dressed all in black.
I could understand why they hadn¡¯t answered now.
Clark¡¯s rifle slung back around my shoulder, my hand wrapping easily around the grip. Penny was tracking my motions, and I knew she could see what was going on better than I could.
¡°What¡¯re the odds you can launch us into the middle of that?¡± I asked.
¡°95.3%,¡± Penny answered. ¡°4.7% chance we overshoot it by an inch.¡±
My eyes tracked Ruby and Yang as they fended off the red-head. He was fighting with a sword, looked like some class of katana, and a gun built into its sheath. He was doing it wrong, supposed to be using two hands. Was winning anyway. I opened VATS long enough to spy at least another six White Fang who were obviously visible. The silhouettes of maybe another half dozen. Each armed, firing on Ruby and Yang, pressuring them back.
¡°Launch at the one in black,¡± I told Penny. ¡°We need to buy Yang and Ruby room.¡±
¡°What about the others?¡± Penny asked. ¡°I can see at least thirteen in their immediate vicinity, more elsewhere, and I don¡¯t see Weiss, Blake, or Sun.¡±
¡°Make them your priority once we¡¯ve helped Ruby and Yang,¡± I said. ¡°But we should start with the guy who¡¯s dressed like he¡¯s in charge first.¡±
Penny nodded, and began angling her array once more. ¡°Calculating¡ Ready when you are.¡±
I flicked off the safety on Clark¡¯s rifle. Took a deep breath.
¡°¡Hit it.¡±
With only the brief sound of Penny¡¯s array spooling, we rocketed out of the tree line, gravity and the thrust of her array blurring everything around us as we cleared the trees. A blink after that we roared over the top of the Arsenal walls, passing into what was left of the dust and mist, only to them immediately come crashing out the other side of that as we came into the arsenal proper.
As soon as we did, VATS opened. Mere seconds to work, stretched into tens.
VATS closed.
Clark¡¯s rifle swept across the upper wall as we fell. Shots rattled off as the muzzle passed over each of the White Fang there, seven total. Center mass, best chances of hitting the mark. Only winged one of them. The rest were blown back.
As the ground raced up to meet us, the muzzle of Clark¡¯s rifle swung down to its last target.
The red-headed dipshit whipped towards me and Penny.
I rattled the trigger of Clark¡¯s rifle at him, center mass.
With impressive speed, he managed to bring his sword around, slashing the bullets out of the air, right before they¡¯d have gotten him. Three shots emptied the mag.
He only caught two. The last one slammed into his chest and he recoiled bodily, feet sliding back along the ground.
I dropped the magazine out of Clark¡¯s rifle and slung it back over my shoulder, whipping Knock-Knock into its place. The axe head swung down through the air and connected with the sword and sheath he narrowly raised to catch it.
Unfortunately for him, physics applies to everyone, and me and Penny were no exception.
The momentum from our descent continued forward and down onto him, all that extra speed and force transferring through Knock-Knock¡¯s edge. At the same time, the combined weight of Penny and me bowled into him.
He was blown back like a mortar had gone off where he¡¯d been standing.
Physics is a bitch.
The red-head went crashing back as Penny and I stuck the landing. No sooner had we come to a stop did her arrays shifted, splitting from the large clusters that had boosted us there, into the weapon groups. Three of them, each consisting of three blades. Her eyes glowed a brilliant green as they took aim with equal speed and unerring accuracy. A low hum elicited from each of them as they fired green bolts of energy.
Would need to pick her brain on what those were, when we had a minute.
The bolts of green light flew out and struck the White Fang who were on ground-level with us. They hit their mark. Anyone who wasn¡¯t hit was forced to scatter to avoid tasting the proverbial power of the sun. Penny released me, and I slipped Knock-Knock back over my shoulder. I drew my shotgun and started over towards Ruby and Yang.
They looked at me in surprise. Both of them were looking bedraggled, drenched from the rain and grimy with dust, the two combining together to form a thin film of muck on them. Their clothes were torn, and I could see bruises form on what little skin was visible. The closest thing there was to visible damage while Aura was active. The paint on their weapons was scratched and the material nicked, but otherwise appeared functional yet.
They were beaten, they were battered, and they were almost bloodied. But they were breathing.
¡°When I call, you answer,¡± I said, sternly, approaching them. ¡°Get that through your heads. You can¡¯t expect me to come crashing-in every time something goes wrong.¡±
¡°Look out!¡± Ruby shouted, her gaze trailing upward. I already knew where.
I hadn¡¯t forgotten about the one I¡¯d winged.
I twisted at the hip and angled my shotgun up at him. He¡¯d been doing the same to use with the weapon in his hands. Submachine-gun of some kind.
But I was faster on the draw. My shotgun rocked back in my hands as a fire slug flew from the barrel, as far as I could remember, the last one. Wasted too many of the others trying to stop Waylon, needed to do a headcount. The glowing slug zipped through the rain filled air, practically trailing fire as it went. Unlike before, I hit the Grunt at center mass.
Unlike the other times I¡¯d used them as well, the slug proved far more effective on a smaller target.
The round burst on impact and fire blossomed over them. It was like watching a bucket of napalm get dumped over him and lit from a single point. Which would¡¯ve likely been even more reactive had I tried it with smaller projectiles, such as shot or flechettes. More experiments for later.
But the fire washed over the White Fang Grunt in a blink, causing them to howl and panic almost as quickly. They let off a quick belt of panic fire as they flailed their arms out, before stumbling backwards, sending them over the ramparts and off the wall of the arsenal, out of sight.
I cycled the action and prepared to turn back to Ruby and Yang. Instead I did a full one-eighty when I caught the glint of red-steel from the corner of my eye. I spun and raised my lever-action to catch the strike. The red-head had come back on the offensive. Even as I caught the sword, he was swinging his sheath around. Trying to angle what I knew was a muzzle at my head.
My grip on the shotgun tilted, and I let the blade slide down to catch against the lever. A small twist and I locked the blade¡¯s edge between the lever and receiver. All it took was a shove to push both it and the muzzle wide of my head, missing me completely.
¡°Shame on you,¡± I growled. ¡°Life is short, and you¡¯re really going to waste the five minutes you¡¯ve got left like this? Wait your turn.¡±
Pushing the barrel of my shotgun downward, I leveled it with his chest and fire, this time making him catch a chest-full of Magnum Buckshot. Combined with the 12.7 round, that should¡¯ve been enough to punch a hole in his Aura. As it was, he at least took that as cause enough to give me room. Further so when Penny began to rocket towards us. He dove out of the way, and I finished backing toward Yang and Ruby.
¡°I¡¯ll save judgment for after this is over,¡± I said, casting them a quick look. ¡°What happened, and where are the others?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Ruby answered quickly. ¡°We had a plan until we got stuck fighting him.¡± Ruby inclined her head towards the distant red-head, who was glowering at us. ¡°Blake, Sun and I were fighting him almost the entire time, then something exploded.¡±
¡°That was me and Weiss,¡± Yang said, scowling. ¡°There was an accident, I don¡¯t know where she is right now. I saw him attacking Ruby and moved.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know where Sun and Blake are either,¡± Ruby finished. ¡°They were caught in the blast¡¡± She paused and when she next spoke there was some dread in her voice. ¡°Sun¨C Sun was hurt. Bad.¡±
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¡°¡Fuck,¡± I cursed, and returned my focus to the situation at hand. Penny joined us and began quickly looking over Ruby and Yang. I could tell she was checking them for injuries, assessing their Aura and similar minutia. As she did, I could see more of the White Fang beginning to rally themselves, crawling from the wreckage. Before long they¡¯d have a handle on what happened. Then they¡¯d be back to fighting, or stealing, whichever had been happening.
Their goal was still to steal everything that wasn¡¯t nailed down. I wasn¡¯t going to bet that a few teenagers attacking them had changed that goal. All that had changed was that our goal was now split. We had to both try and stop the White Fang from stealing anything else, and make sure we were all ok.
The writing on the wall made it clear how unlikely at least one of those objectives was.
But, fuck it, after everything else that had happened, what was one more hiccup?
I spied more than a dozen White Fang pulling themselves together. More on the way.
¡°Penny, can you locate Weiss, Sun, and Blake?¡± I asked, not taking my gaze off the red-head still fuming at us.
She paused for a moment, then nodded. Not answering how she could.
¡°Then take Ruby and Yang, go find them,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll take things from here.¡±
¡°What!?¡± Ruby squeaked. ¡°But Six-¡±
¡°If Sun¡¯s hurt he needs medical attention,¡± I told Ruby calmly. ¡°If Weiss and Blake are just as bad off, they may need it, too. We¡¯re on the losing end of this thing here, Ruby, and back-up from Beacon¡¯s on the way. The smartest thing to do right now is make sure our friends are ok.¡± My gaze tracked the White Fang as they joined with the red-head, still spread out, avoiding being clustered together. ¡°What I¡¯m doing isn¡¯t smart. But it¡¯ll take some of the pressure off you while you try to find them. Go.¡±
¡°But-¡±
¡°Ruby,¡± Yang cut her off. She turned and looked at her sister, and I could see something unmistakably tired in her eyes. Like that warm glow she normally had was dying back to coals. It came with the understanding of how bad things were.
Just knowing that set my blood boiling. They were out here for one purpose: trying to stop things from getting worse. All the while surrounded by the ones actively making it worse.
And they were failing.
We were failing.
Anyone who could find the bright side in that was a fool.
But I would¡¯ve paid for there to be one.
Reluctantly, Ruby nodded, accepting what was being asked of her. I doubted she didn¡¯t understand the importance of making sure everyone else was ok. But I also knew she didn¡¯t want to let this lie, not after everything that had been done. I could understand that. But priorities had to be kept.
If letting our friends die was how we were going to accomplish things, then we¡¯d already lost. Especially over something like this.
¡°C¡¯mon,¡± Yang said, ushering Ruby to the side, Penny moving with them. They couldn¡¯t well and cut back through the gathering crowd of the White Fang, they were going to have to skirt around them if anyone was in that direction.
I watched the red-head¡¯s gaze track them. Easy enough to do as he turned his head slightly after them. It was as he did, that I noted the black shapes jutting from his hair, likely his skull. A pair of horns.
Calmly, I pulled Clark¡¯s rifle from my back and popped a new magazine into the receiver.
¡°I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re the one they call ¡®Taurus¡¯?¡± I asked, in about the same way I did when speaking to any number of undesirable people I¡¯d come across in the Mojave.
The red-head turned back towards me and sneered. ¡°And you look like the mess Bane told me about. So I guess that makes you ¡®Crazy Steve¡¯?¡±
¡°You sound unimpressed,¡± I answered neutrally, paying careful mind to how far the girls were from us.
¡°For someone who¡¯s supposed to have caused us so much trouble, I was expecting more,¡± Taurus answered. ¡°Thought you would be some strong, headfirst fighter. Instead I find a beaten down pile of rags, hiding behind traitors and young girls.¡±
¡°I¡¯m a firm believer any one of those girls could¡¯ve taken you in a straight fight,¡± I answered, watching as Yang and Ruby were just about out of sight. ¡°You¡¯ve got it backwards too. Hiding behind them would mean I wasn¡¯t dismantling the rest of what you¡¯d done in the prison. I¡¯d have been here with them otherwise.¡±
¡°A joke and a coward,¡± Adam scoffed, smirking derisively.
I didn¡¯t answer him until Ruby, Yang, and Penny were completely gone.
¡°¡ In two weeks, I¡¯ve dismantled the majority of what you¡¯ve done. Brought your work to a grinding halt,¡± I said, calmly. ¡°All while doing it in a far less effective and efficient way than I otherwise know I can. Because I¡¯m trying to do better.¡±
¡°Because you lack conviction,¡± Taurus spat, shifting into his stance. Thinking he was subtle enough that I couldn¡¯t see it.
¡°No,¡± I answered, still calm. ¡°Because I¡¯m surrounded by those who cannot fathom the word.¡±
Without speaking, Taurus launched at me. His Aura blurred his stride, making him so fast it was like watching a cazador in motion.
But he wasn¡¯t as fast as Weiss.
He¡¯d be lucky if he was as fast as Ruby.
Taurus closed on me and slashed his sword at me, one hand on the hilt, the other on his sheath.
I weaved to the side of the blade with equal speed, throwing my Aura through my core and legs. I felt the muddy ground churn under my feet as the blade narrowly missed my armor. Taurus realized he missed almost as soon as it happened, and his sheath swung towards me.
But he¡¯d already left himself open long enough.
My right hand flew from Clark¡¯s rifle, lashing out in a Scribe Counter as the Cow Puncher snapped forward. Power output at max.
Electricity arced and crackled off the knuckles as the rain hit them, burst outward in chaotic Lichtenberg patterns as I struck him in the side of his face, arcing every which-way to ground themselves. Even as Taurus took the full brunt of the strike and tumbled backward, I could feel the electricity tingling and feeding back through me. Felt it tingling through the Cow Puncher.
I shut it off and let it return to my side. It wasn¡¯t going to do me much good in the rain, and I got the sense that risking it would be bad for my health.
It definitely was for Taurus¡¯.
He flew hard to the side, tumbled to the ground and staggered to his feet, shifting and wavering as he.
He hadn¡¯t been wary of me before when I sucker punched him. Pride told him it was a fluke.
I¡¯d just proven it to be a fact.
The rest of the gathering White Fang immediately grew restless, and began rallying themselves. Quick scan said there were roughly two dozen then, more coming still.
¡°You hold your sword with one hand,¡± I said, calmly, hand falling back onto Clark¡¯s rifle. ¡°Swing it around like a machete rather than wield it like the work of art it should be. You attack people who can¡¯t or won¡¯t fight back for the sake of causing chaos. You spill blood because restraint requires too much. Violence because you lack the will and words to be heard.¡±
Taurus began getting to his feet.
¡°I¡¯ve seen words work just as readily as they¡¯ve failed,¡± I said, calmly. ¡°But you¡¯d forsake them in the name of endangering countless lives, ending them should it suit you. Because you¡¯d rather let your blade be the messenger?¡± I shook my head, disapprovingly. ¡°No. You¡¯re the joke. You¡¯re a coward. You¡¯re so far from knowing conviction, you¡¯d mistake it for whatever self-serving dogma you¡¯ve put into your head.¡±
A White Fang leapt from the gloom, a machete in his hands, voice raised in a howl. He came out of nowhere and thought I wouldn¡¯t react in time for it to matter.
I batted his machete to the side with the bracer on my forearm and kneed him in the stomach. He came to a grinding halt in front of me.
Then I blew his knee out with a shot from Clark¡¯s rifle.
Blood and bone splattered apart as he collapsed to the ground, screaming.
A ripple went through the White Fang like water. Like a bunch of lakelurks that could smell that the water had been chummed. I couldn¡¯t tell if they¡¯d realized what was about to happen to them, or if they cared.
But I could still see Taurus. Saw the way he watched what I was doing.
He couldn¡¯t have cared if I¡¯d ripped the Fang¡¯s guts out.
It told me enough.
I walked around the Fang as he clasped at the gaping wound in his leg, screaming. I put one in his head and began to back slowly into the gloom. Knowing the White Fang were about to follow after.
¡°Why don¡¯t I show you?¡± I offered, calmly. ¡°What that word really means.¡±
I stepped further back into the gloom of the rain, further and further separating me from Taurus. His gaze didn¡¯t leave me as I did, but he didn¡¯t rise to immediately give chase. I¡¯d clocked him good, so I knew that wasn¡¯t going to happen. Even knowing the White Fang was bearing down on me, I kept an even pace through the gloom. Moving until I was mingling with the wreckage of the Quonset huts.
Then I broke line of sight and started to run.
Not far, not to escape.
Just so they couldn¡¯t find me.
I ran a hut over and leapt into the wreckage of one of the huts. As I did, the Grunts went barreling past me. They could¡¯ve seen me if they tried, I was sure. But the only thing they knew for sure was I¡¯d just tweaked their leader¡¯s nose and put down one of them. If they even cared about that sort of thing.
As soon as they¡¯d completely passed me, I posted up on the rubble with Clark¡¯s rifle. The foregrip braced against something to help with my aim.
As the grunts reached the end of the yard that Taurus was at, they slowly came to a stop, clamoring. I could tell they were trying to figure out where I¡¯d gone.
Taurus already knew.
He bolted for the alley I¡¯d disappeared down.
I didn¡¯t wait for him to get far.
With the support of the wreckage, I opened fire on the grunts. A pair of shots split the heads on two of the grunts, dropping them immediately. I followed it with three less-well-placed shots, striking three more of the Grunts as they hurried to react. One in the chest, another in the shoulder, the third in the throat. Got a better idea of how impactful the rounds were with the last one. Waylon had skewed it due to his Aura, the soft tissue damage should¡¯ve been far greater than it had been. The one who got hit in the throat dropped back no different than if he¡¯d been hit in the head. Impact force, I imagined. Would¡¯ve been enough to collapse the throat, damage vertebrae in the neck.
The five of them hit the ground as the rest of the grunts began to wheel around in the direction I¡¯d attacked from. But I was already in motion, passing the rest of the way through the ruins and back out into the open. Rattled off another three shots as I left concealment completely. Floored at least two more, before turning on heel and pressing my Aura into my legs. Boosting my stride to clear the ground back out of sight. The shouts and calls the grunts made said that at least a few of them saw me.
I knew that Taurus had.
As I¡¯d sprinted back across the ground, he¡¯d practically leapt over the crowd to chase me down. Had cleared it by the time I¡¯d returned to the cover of the ruins. I hit the ground and slid underneath beams and fallen sheet metal, passing crates of munitions, disassembled artillery. Surrounded me well enough that there was no seeing in or out. Passed through it to a hole on the other side. Came back out into the storm, sprang off the ground, turned and fired.
Came up in time to catch Taurus right before he¡¯d have met me.
He skidded to a halt on the wet ground and raised his blade, catching the shot. His Aura warbled over the blade where my shot struck. A shake went through his arm as it did, all the excess force and energy having to transfer somewhere else. Another point against, for not using both hands. It resulted in his attempted counter slash coming at me more slowly than it should have. I dove backward, landing on my back as I fired another shot at him, emptying the mag.
Rather than try to bring his sword around, Taurus weaved sideways and let the shot pass him, using the momentum to swing the muzzle of his sheath towards me. He pulled the trigger on whatever gun was built into it, rifle, pistol, couldn¡¯t tell. I hit the ground and rolled to the side, heard the shot hit the soggy ground next to me, blowing up muck and rain water. As I did, I let my arm fly out and pull some of the wreckage over me, a bit of the metal that had made the hut¡¯s roof. The shot that followed the first hit that and punched through, but hit my armor even slower for it. Landed more like a hard punch than a hammer blow.
I dropped the mag and slapped a new one into the receiver, releasing the bolt. Taurus leapt to close the distance again, sword flashing around to stab down at me. I kicked the sheet of metal off me to intercept him, his blade punching through the thin metal, slowing him down and making his blade cumbersome. He reared back from me and kicked the sheet off his blade, leaving him briefly open.
I opened VATS and closed it just as quickly.
Clark¡¯s rifle raised and I got a shot off, hitting him center mass. His Aura broke, and he bared his teeth in a pained grimace. I followed it with a second shot that almost caught him the same as the first, both roaring as loud as the thunder of the storm. Despite that, the second shot missed. Taurus swept out of the way of it and wheeled backward. The shot was followed with a third and fourth, both missing their mark as Taurus retreated.
Getting hit with Clark¡¯s rifle twice and still maintaining that level of clarity was no mean feat. He was either smart enough, or cowardly enough, to know that standing his ground and trying to race it was a bad idea. Ruby¡¯s rifle would¡¯ve had near the same power, just not the rate of fire.
As I got back to my feet, some of the grunts came to replace Taurus, peering from beyond the wreckage. I shot one of them in the face before resuming my mad sprint. Even as I did however, I knew the crowd of them were going to begin swarming the spot I¡¯d been. Find their way around the wreckage.
Or in some cases, returning fire.
More bullets riddled the ground and walls around me as I ran, puffs and splatter of muck and masonry popping out from any place the bullets hit. Felt some tug at the fringes of my already ruined coat. I didn¡¯t bother trying to return the favor. Panic fire could sometimes buy space, but it wasn¡¯t worth the ammo that time.
I went the span of one, two huts, then ducked into one of the intact ones, my boot coming up and kicking-in the back door, ripping it off the hinges. Inside the hut was a multitude of crates, all varied in age. Some newer, sporting polymer and plastic shells. Some older, being made of treated lumber and having tufts of straw poking from them. Most of it was still crated up and closed. Some of it was busted open, either by hand or by having been knocked to the floor. Whatever explosion had ripped through everything had been enough to rattle the place something fierce.
There was a White Fang inside, who appeared to have been getting his wits about him. Had probably been beaned by a falling box and was only just now coming-to.
I shot him in the face as I passed through the door. Slowed my pace slightly as I weaved around the crates. Watched my step as I avoided stepping on what appeared to be munitions of some kind. Though I paused as I went over them, looking down at some of them. They were shaped oddly. Too blocky to fit into what I knew to be conventional weaponry, what little that it applied to the weapons I¡¯d seen around Remnant. They were also arced as well, curving backwards slightly. There was also text on the surface of it that I could read, printed into large, raised lettering.
It read: ¡®Front Towards Grimm¡¯.
A moment of studying it, and I realized what it was. Or as close to what I understood it to be. I hadn¡¯t brought any bottlecap mines with me. But I recognized it was likely a similar design.
¡®Must be Christmas¡ in July.¡¯
I grabbed two of the mines off the floor and perched one of them on one of the weapons crates, front facing back towards the door I came through. I armed it and resumed my run through the hut.
Right before I would¡¯ve stepped out the front door, thunder roared from the back of the hut. Like a shotgun the size of a howitzer had gone off. A brief glance back as I went out the front door showed half of the back wall blown out. Not sure how many it took with it, but it would¡¯ve taken someone to set it off.
I turned back forward and stepped out the door of the hut, sweeping with the muzzle of Clark¡¯s rifle.
Taurus dropped down on me from above, the tip of his sword thrust down. It led just barely ahead of him, and was the only warning I¡¯d had that he was there.
My Aura flared and I launched myself forward in a roll, spring to a knee and spinning back around as he landed. His gaze was locked on me as pulled his weapon back from the dirt, similarly on one knee. His sheath was locked under his arm, one hand still on the trigger, the muzzle pointed at me.
But the surprise on his face was greater when I planted the second mine in front of me. Saw his brow shoot upward, and his mouth opened in sudden panic.
It gave me the one second I needed.
I rolled back on a diagonal and dragged the tripwire with me, triggering the charge.
Taurus reacted nearly as quickly. A torrent of explosive force and shrapnel flew at him, back into the hut. I saw it shred the sheet metal of its outer walls like paper as he threw himself to the side, sheathing his blade. He scrambled away and scowled back at me.
I¡¯d already gotten a bead back on him.
My finger twitched, and the rifle cracked back against my shoulder.
With the same level of ease he¡¯d avoided the blast, Taurus weaved to the side, only narrowly avoiding a solid bullet through his shoulder. Instead it clipped the side of it. His Aura, which he must have regenerated briefly before engaging me again, shattered once more. The result was the round tearing a massive channel through his upper shoulder, ripping a chunk of meat with it. Pity it¡¯d only been his off hand. Would¡¯ve been happier if it was his sword arm.
He shouted in pain as it happened, his good arm flashing up to the wound, still clasping his sword. His gaze traced back to me in a snarl as I cracked off a follow-up. This one he was ready to catch with his sword, and did so with a quick spin of the blade, the crimson steel flourishing and wind-milling with surprising dexterity.
Couldn¡¯t do that with one hand, I¡¯ll admit. But most people couldn¡¯t catch bullets either.
Taurus had only proven he caught them both ways.
Before I could get another shot off, Taurus moved for cover, and the rest of the crowd began to catch up.
I pushed to my feet and turned to face them. Despite having taken out several of them by that point, there were still more than two dozen of them. More had been moving to join the fight, abandoning their original objective. Fewer of them had managed to grab firearms than the ones that I¡¯d taken out at the start. But few weren''t none.
I fired the last two shots in the mag at a pair of grunts carrying sub-machine guns. One got shot in the chest and flew back. The other had the shot go high, but since it had only been center mass, it just translated in another blasted-out throat. Even as they fell though, the crowd was still rushing towards me, more than a few getting close.
Clark¡¯s rifle slung back over my shoulder and pulled my lever-action in its place. The first of the White Fang to get close earned himself a mouthful of magnum 3/0 buckshot. More than he could chew, since it took the top of his head off. I cycled my shotgun and gave the next one who got close an upset stomach, and he collapsed, clutching at it. Not trusting it¡¯d gone through his Aura, I cycled the last shell in and put it through the top of his head. To be sure.
Even as this was happening, I was already in motion. Trying to clear the open ground back to the other side of the Arsenal. Back to whatever cover the huts provided. My hand slipped into my coat and gripped a handful of magnum shells, the other breaking open the action. I began trying to load them as I ran. I only managed to get two of them in before one of the grunts came charging at me. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, like some kind of banshee. I snapped the action shut and showed her my shotgun was louder.
But even as I did, I knew I wasn¡¯t gaining enough ground quick enough. Even as she hit the ground, three more grunts came running to replace her. I cycled the action once more and dropped another of them with the remaining shell. As the others began to close in I threw my lever-action back to my side, and shells into my coat. My hand reached back and levered Knock-Knock around in front of me as the other two grunts closed on me.
I let my Aura pulse through my shoulders and back, swinging Knock-Knock as hard and fast as it would allow.
The first grunt practically ran head first into the axe bit. It cleaved through their Aura and sank half-way through their head and face on the first swing, stopped them dead. The second one saw this as they approached and quickly pulled to a stop. Even as they did, my boot reared up and kicked the first grunt off my axe, tearing chunks of bone and viscera with it. They flopped back as I rounded on the second one who raised their weapon, a sword, to block the strike. It worked, in that Knock-Knock didn¡¯t cut them. That didn¡¯t change the difference in mass, however.
Knock-Knock¡¯s edge hit the flat of the blade and the thinner weapon flexed heavily on impact. All the extra kinetic energy passed through the blade and into the wielder. The grunt bent from the impact as a result, and buckled out of the way. Knock-Knock passed where they¡¯d been as they staggered forward. They took the chance, even as they struggled to find their feet, and slashed upward.
I caught the strike on Knock-Knock¡¯s haft in kind. Let it slide down to the butt of it as I shifted my grip, then swung it at them in a counter-strike. The haft-butt connected and caught them on the jaw, making them cry out.
My hands flashed back into place on Knock-Knock, and I swung it on the backhand. The adze at the back of its head shot back with the swing and buried itself in their face, cleaving through their mask. A quick twist of the handle did something wicked to their head, made their final moments rather gruesome. They let out a death rattle as I pulled back, dropped their corpse forward.
I was back in motion just as quickly, keeping my hands around Knock-Knock as I made for cover. The crowd was getting closer with every step. I was going to need a moment to get another mag into Clark¡¯s rifle, shells into my lever-action. I needed to break line of sight first. Something that was easier in the rain than on a clearer night. But it was only buying me so much room. Especially since I knew whose senses were sharper in this case. Wasn¡¯t counting the fact that Taurus was actively looking for openings to attack from.
The alley between two of the huts loomed in front of me as he made another play. He came rushing up behind me, managed to get another good hit in. It passed through my Aura, as such attacks do, and caught itself against my armor and coat. But I could tell it wasn¡¯t the sort of thing to take lightly either. Even if the harder components of my armor were holding, it would only take so much. The same as it was with Knock-Knock, it only did so much for the blunt force of it as well.
I spun and back stepped into the alley, facing towards Taurus. He kept low as he moved to strike again. Favoring his sword arm, his off-side hugging closer to himself, not attempting to use the sheath¡¯s gun-function. The sword slash missed as I weaved around it, swung my axe back hand. Taurus leaned back and the strike missed him as well. Despite that, I continued to retreat into the alley.
Then the crowd was on us. Blocking the space behind Taurus.
But it was a cramped space, between the huts. No more than for one or two of us at a time.
Taurus was getting first dibs.
Seeing the odds in front of me, I did what I thought best.
Gave Knock-Knock a flourish and flipped Taurus the bird.
We then charged at each other swinging.
¡
Ruby Rose hated herself.
It was a feeling she didn¡¯t normally have. She knew, at least in this case, that everything going wrong wasn¡¯t their fault. They¡¯d done everything they could in their power to try and do things right. There were things that were just beyond their power to control. Or change.
But it burned her up inside because that had been the whole point! They¡¯d been trying to change things for the better!
Instead, all she¡¯d accomplished was getting beaten senseless, choked out, and blown up.
She suppressed a shudder as she recalled what it had been like, when the one large White Fang had grabbed her. There was no time in her mind previously where she¡¯d felt as helpless as that. Save for, perhaps, initiation. Even then, Six had run to help her.
The hatred redoubled as she, Penny, and Yang continued to run through the Arsenal. The White Fang they had previously been fighting didn¡¯t even give them a second look. They either gave her and her sister a half glance, and went back to hauling crates. Or, worse, they ignored her entirely and ran straight for the fight that was happening behind them. Something that, if she¡¯d been allowed to join, might have alleviated some of what she was feeling. Or, at the very least, masked it.
Instead she was left to sit with the fact that they were being ignored. So low on the White Fang¡¯s radar they might as well not even exist.
¡°Over here!¡± Penny shouted, running through the wreckage of the Arsenal. ¡°Weiss should be over this way!¡±
Ruby cringed, slightly, at the casualness with which Penny was acting. Yang wasn¡¯t aware of Penny¡¯s nature, and wouldn¡¯t know how Penny was able to find Weiss. Despite that, perhaps due to the funk her sister was in, Yang didn¡¯t seem to pay it any amount of attention. She was being as sullen and moody as¡ Well, Blake and Six. Something that also worried Ruby and made her, rather irrationally, hate herself even more. She didn¡¯t even do anything wrong!
Pushing those negative feelings down, Ruby kept pace with Penny and Yang. The former of whom led them to a pile of rubble made from battered steel and ammo crates. Wordlessly, Penny began lifting the material away, which was soon copied by Ruby and Yang.
Ruby gripped one of the larger pieces of steel and began to try and push it away. The weight of it was massive. Even with her Aura, Ruby struggled to move it. Even as her sister and Penny joined her, the three of them struggled to move it. As it finally began to shift however, Ruby could see why. The metal had been reinforced. Given structure to support it, beams that had been broken by the blast and left to point downward jaggedly.
Just beneath the wreckage, they found Weiss.
A glyph was glowing beneath her, and she stared up at her teammates, a look of intense strain on her face. Ruby¡¯s stomach did a scared little flip as the thought of her teammate being injured suddenly dawned on her.
¡°Are you alright, friend Weiss?¡± Penny asked innocently.
¡°¡Fine,¡± Weiss answered, stiffly, after a moment. Her glyph faded behind her and she slowly sat up, gripping her sword. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to get my bearings since the explosion. Only had enough presence of mind to keep myself from being crushed.¡± Shakily, Weiss picked herself up and began trying to dust herself off. A futile effort as the rain quickly began to sink the grime into her coat. Not that laying in a puddle of the muck hadn¡¯t already accomplished that. She grimaced as she looked around them, recognizing the situation. ¡°¡ Why are they ignoring us?¡±
¡°We¡¯re not worth worrying about,¡± Yang said bitterly. ¡°They¡¯re either finishing what they came to do, or going to go fight Six.¡±
¡°Oh, I guess he is here,¡± Weiss said, suddenly recognizing that Penny was there.
¡°I really want to ask why everything exploded, but we need to find Blake and Sun,¡± Ruby said. ¡°Sun got hurt right before the explosion happened. If we don¡¯t find him he might¡¡± Ruby shook her head. That was a reality she wouldn¡¯t accept. Not with everything else that was happening.
Penny, understanding the next part of her objective, began to swivel her head about, scanning. After a moment, she locked on a location and took off running. ¡°They¡¯re over here!¡±
Weiss watched after her as she went. ¡°How¡¡± She shook her head. After everything else, Weiss felt she should be more concerned about having a concussion.
The three of them followed after Penny once more, skirting their way around the wreckage as they went. A few of the White Fang gave them the side eye as they went, but didn¡¯t bother to try and stop them either. Ruby almost felt tempted to attack one of them on principle. They were a threat, dang it!
¡They were supposed to be.
Penny made her way back through the wreckage, arriving at a point that seemed similar to the one they found Weiss in. However, unlike the one Weiss had been found at, this one had already been overturned. Leading away from the wreckage, a trail. Or rather, the churned and tramp dirt of someone being half-dragged away. It did not take them long, either to follow this trail to its end.
Where they found Blake.
Sun as well.
The scene might have been something sweet, in other contexts. If it hadn''t been pouring rain, or in the middle of the night. If they hadn¡¯t been previously pitched in the middle of a life or death fight. If the way was tending to Sun didn¡¯t obviously betray the fact she was trying not to break-down.
If Sun¡¯s arm wasn¡¯t dangling from his body by little more than tendons and a prayer.
They found Sun and Blake together, the blonde Faunus resting his head in Blake¡¯s lap, his back to the muddy ground. He was unconscious, and some part of Ruby realized that was a mercy. His weapon lay beside him, wrecked. His arm near it, forearm bending the wrong way from it. The pools of mud were stained with the blood he had lost. The sight sent Ruby¡¯s mind back to what they had seen not even an hour prior, just outside the prison. All the death and destruction.
The only thing that kept Sun from joining it was the black ribbon pulled tautly around the stump of his arm.
Blake¡¯s head swiveled up to them. It had to have been the rain. That¡¯s what was running down Blake¡¯s face.
¡°I don¡¯t¡ I don¡¯t know what to do,¡± Blake said. ¡°I¡ I tried to stop the bleeding¡ I don¡¯t¡¡±
She quit trying to speak, bowing her head.
¡°¡We need to get him out of here,¡± Weiss said, gathering herself, taking command of the situation. ¡°He needs a doctor, surgery, not having his arm sitting in muddy water.¡±
¡°Sure, let¡¯s just drop everything and run,¡± Yang said. ¡°Because that¡¯s going to change anything. The nearest hospital is back in Vale!¡±
¡°Well I¡¯m trying to think of something!¡± Weiss snapped back.
¡°Please,¡± Blake begged, not even raising her head to look at them. ¡°Don¡¯t start fighting.¡±
Weiss and Yang looked at each other for a moment longer, before letting their gazes fall as well. They knew there wasn¡¯t anything they could do. Fighting each other didn¡¯t make either of them feel better. Reality was settling over them as the adrenaline of combat faded. Sun was likely going to die. The White Fang were going to escape. Everything they¡¯d done had been pointless.
They¡¯d lost.
The rain continued to wash over them, and the cold began to seep in from it.
Ruby Rose hated herself.
She hated how powerless she was to change any of what was happening. All she had succeeded in doing was endangering her friend¡¯s lives and getting one of the mortally wounded. Left another to fight for his life as they cleaned up their mess.
That hatred began to spill over inside her. Grasping, touching, and tinging everything it passed. All her memories, her struggles, her hopes, dreams, and anything that it could grasp at. She could feel it sinking downward in a spiral. All pointing toward the ones responsible for it. She hated it. She hated them.
She hated the White Fang.
Ruby felt her hand closing over the handle of Crescent Rose. Her gaze began to track through her surroundings, eyes burning and her heart hammering in her ears. Adrenaline started to wash back into her as she locked her gaze onto the nearest member of the White Fang.
She could see it as it happened.
Crescent Rose swung up.
Its muzzle flared.
The high-impact rifle cartridge splattered their head like some cheesy slasher movie.
She started to run, Crescent Rose unfolding from behind her as Yang shouted after her. She charged to the nearest White Fang she could see and cut them in half. Dashed away from them to the next. The weight of her blade made cutting easy. All she had to do was give it the momentum. It could cleave through people just as quickly as Grimm.
Through the White Fang.
She kept going. Hack. Slash. Scream.
Anger.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
¡°Did you hate them?¡±
The Courier¡¯s words snapped Ruby from her thoughts. Brought her back to reality faster than the ice-cold rain hitting her face. The words he¡¯d said to her played back through her mind as she watched the White Fang run away. No more than a few seconds had passed.
¡°Hatred is petty, needful, and all around worthless. It takes and doesn¡¯t give¡¡±
Ruby felt all the anger she¡¯d held suddenly lift off her shoulders. It hadn¡¯t gone away. She could still feel it there inside her. Eating a hole in her. But it had lessened, as though she had been choosing to let weigh on her.
¡°You don''t fight for hatred. You fight because there''s something you love, something you care about. The fire in you is not one of hate, for your enemies, the monsters that harrow you. The fire is your love. The love for your friends. Your family.¡±
The White Fang had hurt them now. Hurt her family and friends. Wanted to hurt so many more.
For what?
What to them was worth all this now?
There was nothing that Ruby could think of that would justify it. Menagerie existed, the civil war was long over. Faunus weren¡¯t always treated well, but she didn¡¯t know many people who treated them badly either. They were just as capable as anyone she¡¯d ever known, and some were even cooler!
There was nothing that justified it.
That thought alone lit Ruby¡¯s anger.
¡°That righteous fury that someone might hurt them, hurt anyone¡ You don''t fight because you want people to die. You fight because you want them to live.¡±
Ruby closed her eyes and steadied her thoughts. Let the beating of her heart leave her ears. Tried to calm her mind so that the only thoughts in her head were about saving everyone. That¡¯s what she needed then. Not to fight, or kill, or anything else. Just try to save her friend. Even if the rest of it hurt no matter what else she did.
¡°¡I hope you girls never have to know what it''s like, to have to live the kind of life I''ve had to. Not in a world like this.¡±
Ruby¡¯s heart calmed, yet she felt a tickle in it.
How often had Six needed to do something like this? Had he always been able to?
Why did it take a situation like this for her to learn how important it was?
No wonder he was always such a grump. If it was something like this he¡¯d been worried about, things made so much more sense to her. It did nothing to change how she felt. Did nothing to change what had happened. But, amidst all the storms and rain she felt she understood her strange friend a little bit better. Perhaps that was why he had taken so much time to learn so many strange things¡
Ruby¡¯s eyes opened wide.
The night world flooded back into her vision, sharp and clear. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and took everything in.
Her heart began to hammer again, but this time she was in control. Not the wild and furious emotions within her.
She knew what she had to do.
She had to hurry. Ruby didn¡¯t know how long Sun had, but she couldn¡¯t afford to wait. Not if she wanted to stop one more thing from going wrong that night.
Ruby turned and began to leap back through the wreckage the way they¡¯d come.
¡°Ruby?¡± Weiss asked. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
Ruby looked back at her and didn¡¯t bother trying to hide the smile on her face. She was upset. She was tired. She was achy all over, and she knew there was no way of turning everything around. But she smiled anyway. Hopeless as everything was, she was going to try anyway.
Her teammates saw the smile on her face. Warm, strong, and glowing like moonlight.
But they saw something else as well, and couldn¡¯t tell what it was. Even Blake found her head rise to it. It was curious to them, and had no rhyme or reason. Against the gloom of the storm and the dark of the night, it was impossible not to see it. Perhaps a trick of their tired eyes. Weariness from everything that had happened.
There stood Ruby Rose. Dirty. Tired. Tattered.
A brilliant smile on her face.
Her silver eyes almost seemed to glow.
To Ruby, she knew exactly what she needed to do and, gosh darn it, she was going to do it.
¡°I¡¯m going to get our ¡®doctor¡¯,¡± Ruby said. ¡°Keep Sun safe, ¡®kay?¡±
Without another word, she turned and dashed forward into the night. Letting the rain meld with the rose petals her body scattered into.
¡
Taurus swept to the side of my axe as I swung. His blade skated past it in a counter-strike. In turn it only grazed over my armor as it swept by. Both of our arms reeled back in time to backhand our weapons into each other.
One of the grunts tried to cut in and I struck him back into the crowd with a Ranger Takedown as I slowly crept backward down the alley.
Turned out that forcing them to only come at me like that had been a sound move. Most of them were content to try and support Taurus than they were to face me themselves. Something that became more obvious to both them and me after I¡¯d put down another two who had tried ¡®cutting in¡¯. Unfortunately I knew I was also setting myself up to be backed against the wall as well. Eventually I was going to run out of alley and have to go a different way. Once the grunts realized they could flank me, things were going to start changing.
But until that point, I bought time trading blows with Taurus. Every second was one more for my teammates to lick their wounds. One more where back-up got closer.
I¡¯d no intention of this being a last-stand, but I¡¯d at least set myself up for a good one.
Taurus flourished his blade at me, and I could see the exertion in his face as he swung. Between only having the one arm, and marginal movement in the other, he was losing steam.
¡°What¡¯s wrong, boy?¡± I growled. ¡°Not so fun when you¡¯re not picking on little girls?¡±
Taurus scowled and threw himself at me, whirling around in a slash that took almost the entire width of the alley.
I ducked beneath the strike and swung Knock-Knock up as I moved, catching him in the leg. He tumbled forward and managed to roll back to his feet, lurching around to return the favor. I parried his blade off the head of my axe and sprang back towards him, rising so I could bring my axe down in a mauling chop. As I did, I realized I¡¯d allowed him to put himself at the back of the alley and his grunts at the front.
Fucker had flanked me doing a bullshit move.
I¡¯ll admit, I hadn¡¯t seen that one coming. He was more skilled than I was expecting, but that was clever.
A smirk crept onto Taurus¡¯ face as the grunts realized their opening and began to charge at me.
Not wanting to be sandwiched, I spun and swung Knock-Knock into the siding of one of the huts. Using the leverage that earned me, I launched myself off the ground using my Aura and onto the quonset. As my boots gained purchase on the wet roof, I ripped Knock-Knock upwards and began trading over the curved roof.
Taurus launched up to meet me, blade slashing outward.
I raided Knock-Knock in a guard and let him crash into me, letting gravity and the slope of the roof push back on him. Let his attack serve to balance me. As he did, I stuttered VATS, surveying the surroundings.
Most of the grunts I had to worry about were still gathered at the mouth of the alley. The kind of space that would¡¯ve been nice, if I had any of my grenades left. But even then, it meant that I had more open ground to work with. Those that weren¡¯t were still making to try and get away with the Bullheads.
I knew I needed to stop them. That we needed to. But with the rest of the madness, I couldn¡¯t justify that objective to myself. Not then. All I could do was try to thin the herd.
VATS closed.
I pulled a Khan Trick, throwing whatever random-bullshit I had in my pocket into Taurus¡¯s face.
No clue when I¡¯d picked up an ash-tray, but the three-pound hunk of hardened glass worked. It flew out of my hand and cracked into Taurus¡¯ face of the bias, staggering him. Gravity shifted, and he began to tumble backward, down into the alley.
I turned and ran as gravity tried to take me with him. About five strides later, I launched myself off the hut and back into the open field of the Arsenal. I managed to land on my feet and keep running, flourishing Knock-Knock onto my back. I replaced it with Clark¡¯s rifle, loading a new magazine into it
That was as far as I got, before a hunk of rubble landed at my feet and a voice roared.
¡°YOU!¡± it boomed.
I turned towards it and was surprised by the distance that it both carried from and the debris had flown.
Back in the direction Ruby, Yang, and Penny had gone, an old challenger approached. Still big. Still menacing. But after dealing with Waylon earlier, I didn¡¯t feel anymore intimidated by him than I did anyone else in that place.
The same Big White Fang with the chainsaw I¡¯d seen the night previous trudged through the rain towards me. Acting like I owed him some kind of grudge match.
¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for this!¡± the Big Fang Roared
¡°¡ D¨¦j¨¤ vu,¡± I muttered, raising Clark¡¯s rifle. Lined the bead up with his forehead and was a hair¡¯s breadth from activating VATS again. Was saved needing to though.
A ball of rose petals crashed into the Big Fang, sucking him in like a sandstorm. The flurry of petals cleared the distance between me and him in a blink, before racing past me, towards the Bullheads. As it did, it slowly began to arc upwards.
Then the Big Fang was spat out and he went flying out onto the airfield at fifty miles an hour, the ball of petals arcing backwards and up through the air. Going until it was right over top of me.
Then it faded, forming back into Ruby.
She plummeted back to the ground and had Crescent Rose out in a flourish of red steel. Her feet hit the ground beside me, and she slid into a low crouch, before steadily righting herself. Her face was focused, determined, and just barely obscured by her red hood.
For a brief moment, I swear I saw something glowing underneath it.
¡°Nice entrance,¡± I told her.
¡°Thanks,¡± she said, not looking away from the grunts. ¡°Sun¡¯s hurt worse than we thought. I need you to help him.¡±
¡°Kinda can¡¯t do that from here,¡± I said, nodding towards the White Fang.
¡°Then we need to deal with them, or let them run,¡± Ruby said.
Her answer caught me off guard, and she must¡¯ve noticed.
¡°I¡¯m not letting someone die over this,¡± she said
¡°¡¡±
I didn¡¯t know whether to be happy she had that as a priority, or sad knowing how much learning that must have hurt.
¡°We did this to stop them,¡± I reminded her.
¡°We did this to stop them from breaking everyone out of jail,¡± Ruby said. ¡°You said it yourself. We were too late to stop this from happening.¡±
The grunts began to rally, pulling back from the alley to face us. Seeing them and knowing what was coming, I wanted to keep fighting anyway.
¡°There¡¯s still a chance we could,¡± I said. ¡°I take the dozen on the left, you take the dozen on the right?¡±
Before Ruby could answer me, the crowd of grunts began to part. Taurus walked through them and stared out at us from across the way. Sword now in its sheath, still looking beaten and absolutely pissed about it.
¡°¡ Whoa, you actually managed to hurt him,¡± Ruby said, almost amazed.
Taurus looked at the both of us and scowled, before letting his head turn to the side. Towards his true objective.
¡°¡ Everyone clear out!¡± Taurus shouted. ¡°Move it! We¡¯re leaving!¡±
There was a brief pause as his words echoed through the air, as everyone processed them. But, without complaint or argument, the grunts began to do as they were bid. They began to run for the airfield as the Bullheads began to spool en masse. Not all of them, perhaps six or seven total. But that was still more than I was happy to be losing.
But Ruby had made it clear where our priority needed to lie, then. We couldn¡¯t stop all of them without losing Sun.
Taurus¡¯ gaze fixed on us as the White Fang made for the bullheads.
¡°This isn¡¯t over,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll deal with you in the same way I¡¯ll deal with Blake.¡±
¡°Buddy, I¡¯ve had worse hangovers than you,¡± I called back. ¡°You¡¯re delusional, chump.¡±
Taurus smiled coldly. ¡°That so? Well, here¡¯s something to sober you up. Consider it a parting gift.¡±
His Aura began to glow.
Before I could react, a bright light emanated from his sheath as he drew his sword.
¡°Look out!¡± Ruby squeaked. She grabbed my arm, and before I could protest, she dragged us both upward into the air as a flurry of flower petals.
I was glad she did.
Beneath us, a wave of energy rippled out, lashing at everything it touched. It flew from the edge of Taurus¡¯ blade, and burned through everything in its path. Unimpeded, it carried on to the far side of the arsenal, washing over the wreckage as it petered out.
Had Ruby or I been standing in it, the result would¡¯ve been bad.
I could see, then, how Sun could¡¯ve gotten so hurt.
Ruby¡¯s Semblance faded and we both plummeted back to the ground. We hit it in a muddy heap, throwing water and muck everywhere.
As we regained our wits, I could hear the spooling of turbines. My eyes tracked to the nearest of the Bullheads, the others already taking to the skies.
Taurus was climbing aboard. He turned back with a smirk and gave us a one fingered salute. Mouthing the words, ¡°see you soon.¡±
I swung my arm towards him, VATS snapping open as Clark¡¯s rifle whipped in his direction. It was a fast and dirty motion that would¡¯ve just been a waste of ammo. But I did it anyway.
Clark¡¯s rifle cracked back against my palm, blowing wildly off course.
I missed Taurus.
But the head of the grunt next to him blew apart in a shower of gore and bone, catching him completely off guard.
Then the craft lifted off with the others and disappeared into the storm.
We were left with nothing but the rain.
¡°¡I¡¯m sorry, Ruby.¡±
¡°I know,¡± Ruby said, giving me a sad, pained smile. ¡°I guess this means we lose. Huh?¡±
Messengers in the Storm
Coco held Gianduja locked at her hip as she surveyed the battlefield below her, the entire space cratered and covered with wreckage. Everything from the mangled metal husks of vehicles to the blasted-out holes of the artillery strikes. Smoke rose through the air from all of it. White Fang lay scattered and strewn throughout the space. Dead or merely unconscious, Coco couldn''t tell, and she knew better than to make that her concern. Her team had been there to prevent them from accomplishing something worse. What happened to them was, understandably, low on her list. She wasn''t sure how long they had been in a pitched firefight for either. Time had a funny way of bending when you were running off adrenaline and gunshots instead of minutes and seconds.
It was only after she''d seen the Bullheads appearing over Vale that things began to change. The gunfire slowed and the combat began to crawl to an end. Not all of the Bullheads she saw moved towards them, however. A number of them, most of the air fleet, broke off and moved elsewhere, away from the city limits and into the dark air of the wilderness that surrounded the prison. Even as they did, though, that didn''t change the obvious shift in the fight.
"They''re pulling back!" one of the guards shouted, gripping at his Scroll. "The White Fang are retreating, Get people down there now!"
The guard then turned to another of the guards, a faunus woman with dog ears. She''d been laying against the wall, trying to give orders, her midsection wrapped heavily with bandages from a wound she''d received prior to their arrival. He helped her up, and the woman looked at Coco.
"We''re going to rally everyone, check our wounded," The woman, Tseren, Coco believed her name to be, said. "You should get your team together and be ready to help whoever arrives."
Coco didn''t answer her, merely nodding. Silently thinking, noting how cute the guard was as she was helped away by the man. Not quite her type, but she could still appreciate a pretty face. And was a sucker for a good sense of style. Coco didn''t know how Tseren made a guard uniform work for her, but damn if she didn''t.
Pivoting at the hip, Coco turned to look further down the wall, back in the direction she and her teammates had first come from. Velvet stood, braced against the wall, with that ridiculous looking weapon the Courier had given her, the same one that had decimated the White Fang for most of the fight. Velvet straightened out and quickly surveyed the ground beneath them, before turning to look at Coco. Who, in turn, pulled her Scroll up to speak more clearly into it.
"That''s a wrap," she said brightly, almost bemused. "You boys can come back up top now. Good hustle out there."
Coco pulled the release lever on Gianduja and allowed the weapon to fold inward on itself, resuming its original place on her side as a handbag. A very heavy handbag, but one she had gotten good about holding. Even easier now that she had proper back support.
Her pride demanded that she take that particular secret to her grave, however.
Casually, Coco returned to Velvet as the latter examined the weapon in her hands. A small, very amused smile on her face.
"You have fun?" Coco asked.
"Yyyyyyup," Velvet said, smiling. "Glad I could finally stay back for once and use something different." She pulled the charging handle of the weapon back and examined one of the few remaining grenades it held. Then let her gaze fall to all the empty casings on the ground. "... Probably over did it."
"He said not to worry about it," Coco shrugged. "Just take it as an opportunity to have something to talk with him about."
Velvet huffed, smirking. "Because clearly wasting all the ammo he gave me is what I''d want to talk with him about?"
"What else would you?" Coco asked, smirking back. "It''s not like you talk about anything besides fighting and comicbooks."
"Do you know how hard it is to find anyone who''s actually read Navy Hale?" Velvet asked. "People quote and joke about it all the time but no one''s actually read it."
"They''re like sixty years old, who would?" Coco asked. "Doesn''t it end with him and his girlfriend dying to a bunch of Grimm anyway?"
"That''s one way of looking at it." Velvet said, rolling her eyes.
Silence fell briefly between them as the rain continued to fall. Their Auras protected them from the worst of it, but the chill of the damp air was slowly beginning to creep in as they waited for their male counter-parts to rejoin them.
"¡ Did you-"
"Yes, I took a picture of it, Coco," Velvet huffed. "I actually really like this one too."
"So do we," Yatsuhashi said, joining them. "Was a little close to the explosions, but it was nice having that kind of power for once."
As he spoke, Fox appeared beside him, walking along the top of the wall, very careful in his approach towards his partner.
Fox knew Coco''s tastes and preferences weren''t aligned with men like Fox and Yatsu. However, he also knew she had a very particular way of showing appreciation and affection. A very handsy way.
"What''s the play?" Yatsu asked, looking out towards the Kingdom, watching as the Bullheads approached "Do we go meet up with the rest, or wait for the cavalry? I know I''m not the only one who heard all of those explosions before, right?"
Coco opened her mouth to answer, but was cut to the quick. Her Scroll chimed, just the same as the rest of her team''s. She looked down at it and felt a small chill run through her she knew didn''t come from the rain. Wordlessly, she looked out towards the Kingdom. Through the dark and the rain, she could see one of the Bullheads on the approach to the prison.
As it did, she could practically hear the voice of the person who''d sent the message.
It was clear to her, to all of them, that they were about to be in very deep trouble.
"Please remain where you are, Ms. Adel. We will be with you all shortly."
¡
It was safe to say that things hadn''t gone to plan. Or, maybe, they had gone to plan, but we hadn''t known what the end goal was. In either case, It didn''t change where Ruby and I found ourselves.
In a heap. On the muddy ground. In the pouring rain.
With our enemies having escaped. Objective accomplished.
Mission failed on our end.
I hadn''t ''failed'' a lot of the jobs I''d taken on back in the Mojave. Simple thing to do when failing most jobs was the same as dying. Sure, there were sometimes tricks and twists to jobs. Situations that required me to do a little outside-the-box thinking if I wanted to see everything done right. But even then, failing wasn''t a common thing, and really only applied if I could view what I''d done as a failure. In effect, because my efforts had been overall worthless. Like when I''d finally tracked down all those damned bottle caps.
I''d made it a point to publicize what the Treasure of the Star was after that, but still.
What happened there that night, at the prison, is hard to say if it was anything short of a failure. Our intended goal went unaccomplished. The only thing we''d succeeded at doing was wasting a ton of ammo and effort.
And getting hurt as well. Couldn''t forget that one.
Being left in the ruins of everything we''d tried to prevent, it was hard to not feel like we''d failed. It was pretty obvious we had.
Despite that, however, Ruby didn''t waste a moment of it moping. Not one that I could see, anyway. She sprang up from the ground beside me and extended a hand down.
"We need to hurry," she said, concern as clear on her face as the sadness in her voice. "Sun''s hurt worse than we thought. I think you can help him though."
I looked at all the death and destruction around us. Memorized it, captured it clearly in my head. Then I shelved it. There were more important things to worry about at that moment.
"¡ How bad?" I asked, clapping a hand into Ruby''s. She nearly fell back onto me as she struggled to lift me, but it was the thought that mattered.
"Like ''it''s a miracle he''s still alive'' bad," Ruby said, brow set and gaze focused back in the direction she''d come from. "Blake''s with him right now, Penny''s probably scanning him. But there''s not much any of us know how to do that can actually help him."
I nodded, turning back the way she was looking and beginning to move. "Show me. I can''t help him unless I know the extent of things."
Ruby nodded and took charge leading me back through the ruins of what had once been the arsenal. I took the chance to fully reload my weapons as we went. I was all but certain the fighting was over by that point. All the same, I''d hate to be caught lacking if someone decided they wanted to test their luck. Though as we carried on, I knew that it was less and less likely there was any actual chance of that happening. The only White Fang that were left weren''t in any condition to be fighting. Or breathing, for that matter. Anyone who hadn''t jumped ship with Taurus would''ve known it was time to retreat, running whichever direction that meant. More than a few of the ones who couldn''t do that were the result of my own efforts.
Ruby got to see them as we passed. I knew she saw them as well despite her best efforts not to. I could tell she was trying to keep her gaze trained forward. Focus on what she needed to do, not what had been done.
But I could tell. Just from the brief moments when she did look. The small shake that went through her. She knew how horrible it was. Wish it could''ve been avoided.
We both did.
But there was no point in arguing the morality of it. Not after everything that had happened. Not with everything that was still happening. If there was to be any talk about it, it would need to be shelved. Unpacked at a time when we didn''t have to worry about keeping our friends alive and safe. Which could be anywhere between a few hours and a few days from then. All depending on how bad things were looking when we finally managed to regroup.
Safe bet was it''d be a few days before the proper unboxing of things.
For now: triage.
Ruby led me back through the arsenal, towards what I assumed had once been the gate. It''d been blasted open, by the girls or the White Fang, I neither knew nor cared. However, from the surrounding wreckage, I could see Yang, Weiss, Penny, and Blake huddled together. They moved slowly, cautiously, and with a clearly great amount of effort. Not because it took the four of them to move what they were holding, but because it took that amount of care not to make things worse.
Even from a few yards away, I could see Sun wasn''t doing good to begin with.
"Oh shit," I muttered, immediately picking up the pace as I saw the state of him. Ruby and I sprinted the remaining distance as the others set him down again. The rain was still pouring over everything, leaving no dry space to actually lay him. Not that it would''ve mattered, he was already drenched. With his Aura broken, there was nothing to protect him from the elements. He was already sopping wet from the downpour. I wished that was the only thing wrong with him.
As we drew close, I got a better look of the damage. Someone had put Sun through the wringer. The least of his issues were the minor bruises and cuts no doubt caused by the explosion from earlier. They looked worse than I knew they''d actually be. Superficial damage that served more to highlight the damage done to him. The kind that would be gone in hours if his Aura was active, minutes even. But with what else his body had to contend, it''d be lucky if it was handled last. The next most grievous of his wounds was slashed diagonally across his chest. I wasn''t sure that was the right word for what it was though. The wound wasn''t clean and neat like a blade. It was something more like a burn that hadn''t cauterized the wound, something in the third degree. Like they''d taken a grinder to his chest and scratched an inch of skin off. Normally, it''d be a wound like that I''d count as being high priority. Infection will kill you just as good as anything else, and a wound that size was fertile ground for a lot of nastiness. It would take something even worse to distract from it.
Naturally, Sun had something worse, and was one bad move from it being even worse.
His right arm lay limply at his side, Blake''s ribbon pulled taut around the bicep just over his elbow, tight enough to keep the blood from flowing out of the wrecked bone and torn flesh beneath it, where his elbow should''ve been. Replaced by flaps of tendon, skin, and meat. Bone fragments laid in the mix, looking to grind against each other. None big or whole enough to have been the original joint itself. The gaping exit wound said the original pieces were currently misplaced.
It was a miracle the arm was even still attached.
"Holy shit, what the fuck happened to him!?" I asked, taking in the damage as a whole, trying to ignore the mud that was seeping into his open wounds because, holy fuck, that was going to be a nightmare.
"That guy with the red hair did it!" Ruby explained. "He caught Sun with that thing he tried to hit you and me with, and tried to kill him when his Aura was down."
He seemed to have gotten pretty close.
I moved next to Sun and knelt down, minding his arm. My fingers fell to his neck checking his pulse. His skin felt cold, but I couldn''t tell if that was from blood loss or the rain. I then moved them under his nose checking for breathing.
There. Barely.
He was clinging to life. Which meant we weren''t too late. But we''d need to work quickly. My mind began formulating a plan, figuring out what we''d need, where to go. There was a lot I could do for him, but it needed to happen fast. Even outside of infection, the longer his arm stayed in the condition it was, the harder it would be to salvage it. Not even accounting for healing time and recovery.
"It''s all my fault," Blake said.
"Hm?"
"I-I should''ve known he''d be here after last night."
I looked away from Sun and focused on Blake. Her Aura must have been down as well. She had rain streaking down her face. It was washing grit and dust into her eyes, irritating them to a red shade.
"I should''ve known," Blake said, almost choking on the words. "After everything we saw last night, I should''ve known Adam would have been involved in this."
"Adam?" Weiss asked
"Taurus," I supplied, pinning the name to the face. "The guy who wanted to have ''words'' with Blake last night. Part of the reason we''d had to abandon Sun." I looked at Blake more evenly. "Does he have red hair and dress like he''s Ruby with even less fashion sense?"
"HEY!"
"Adam Taurus is on the list of people known to be actively associated with the White Fang," Penny supplied. "His whereabouts are currently unknown, but the kingdom of Atlas is currently pursuing him in connection to multiple thefts, murders, and additional crimes against-"
"Stop," Blake said, interrupting Penny. "Please, stop. You don''t know him. Not like I do. He''s dangerous, more dangerous than we can handle."
"¡Why didn''t you tell us sooner?" I asked.
"¡ I couldn''t," Blake answered, her voice small, quiet as she shrank in on herself. "Not after everything¡ I did."
A quiet moment filled only by the rain passed over us. Reality was sinking in. We''d lost. As far as I was concerned, it had nothing to do with the presence of some red-headed dick. One who would be dead had it not been for it being more important to tend to Sun than dig his grave. There was a sting of hypocrisy, that she hadn''t told us about him after everything I''d been forced to share. But that''s how it had been when I''d been with my companions as well. Unless you had something that brought the past up, you just let it lie.
This time it came back to bite her.
"¡ We''ll deal with him later," I said, I craned my head around to the other girls. "Yang, Ruby, Weiss, help Blake carry Sun back to the prison. Penny, I want you to lead them back to the infirmary. It''s going to be a wreck after everything that''s happened, but if we''re going to help Sun, it''s going to have to happen there. I don''t have my doctor''s bag on me."
"You can help him?" Yang asked, disbelieving.
"You''re not pulling a bullet out of his arm, Six!" Weiss said, at her own wits'' end. "He needs an actual doctor-"
"Who will tell you that his arm needs to be amputated due to prolonged exposure and damage to the underlying bones making recovery a pipedream," I told her. "That due to the conditions he was left to sit in he''ll likely be facing both gangrene and additional infections, and need multiple skin grafts to cover the damage done to him. If he survives fighting off everything that could''ve infected him and if he doesn''t turn septic." I was trying my best to be calm, but I was furious. Not at Blake. Not at Weiss. Not at any of them.
I was furious at the red-headed little shit that had done this. Despite my misgivings with Sun, he''d proven himself. He had a good heart, and wasn''t afraid to help his friends. Not even when it put him straight in the line of fire. He knew the risks and took the gamble anyway.
Because it was what he thought the right thing to do.
I''d be damned before I let some quack maim him just because they couldn''t do what I could.
"You all need to trust me," I said, looking at everyone. "Believe for five minutes that I actually know what I''m doing, long enough to do it¡ Blake."
Blake''s head swiveled up to look at me, the rain still soaking her face.
I gently pressed my hands against either side of her head and made sure she couldn''t suddenly look away. The motion caught her completely off guard.
"Look at me," I told her. "Listen very closely to me. You''ve done nothing wrong here. None of this is on you. It''s on Taurus, the White Fang, Torchwick. It''s on everyone who set tonight in motion. But it''s not on you. You didn''t know this was going to happen, and guilt tripping yourself isn''t going to change anything. The only thing you can do, is what you choose to do. Right now, Taurus isn''t here. He ran away because he knew he was going to lose if he didn''t. Because of that, everyone here, right now, is going to live. But you need to be stronger than whatever he thinks you are. Because you are."
"I''m not," Blake said weakly.
"Sun believes you are," I told her. "Yang does, Ruby does, Weiss does, Penny does, and I do. That''s Six to one, you want to tell us we''re all wrong and he''s right? Don''t lie to me."
Blake blinked hard, her head trembled in my hands. She was scared. Whatever Taurus had done to her, he''d long sunk his claws into her. That wasn''t something you could shrug off. I''d spent long enough between The Madre, The Big Empty, The Divide, and Utah to know some things stick around. But you can move past them if you try hard enough.
Blake hadn''t.
But that didn''t mean she couldn''t move.
Both of her hands came up and gently clasped around mine. She gently pulled them away from her head, and I let her pull back. She took a deep breath, focused.
She couldn''t leave Taurus behind.
But she was willing to move. That''s all we needed right now.
"¡ Ok," Blake said, breathing deeply, looking at Sun. "¡ There''s got to be something we can use as a stretcher to carry him down. We need to hurry."
"I think I''ve got that covered," Weiss said, spinning the cylinder on her sword. A moment later, a glyph flashed onto the ground and the rain began to cool and condense as mist filled the air. Ice began to rise from the glyph, forming slowly, controlled.
When she was done, a thick block of ice sat on the ground. About as long as Sun and wide enough to hold him.
"We can push him on this," Weiss said. "It''s not perfect but it''ll work better than trying to carry him by hand."
"That''s using the old noodle," I said, smirking. "-ice idea, snowflake."
The stink eye Weiss fixed me with was almost enough to make me laugh.
Wordlessly, the six of us lifted Sun onto our improvised carrier and did our best to make sure he stayed there. There were going to be other issues if he stayed on it for too long, but they were small potatoes compared to, say, not bleeding-out or losing an arm. Once he was situated, I broke off from them.
"You go on ahead, Penny knows the way, I''ll catch up in a minute," I told them, moving back into the deeper parts of the arsenal.
"Where''re you going?" Yang asked.
"There''s something we''re going to need, the Arsenal has it, and I''ll need it to save Sun''s arm," I explained, trying not to let on what I was about to do. They might''ve objected to it if they''d have known.
Instead, they prioritized what I''d told them to and began to push off, following Penny beyond the gate of the arsenal, shoving the giant block of ice ahead of them. I watched them go, for a moment. Trusted they could get him there in one piece.
Then I turned and headed back into the Arsenal.
My Pip-Boy chimed briefly and I checked it as I began moving
- Complete: Reunite with your teammates at the arsenal.
- Objective: Practice Medicine.
It wasn''t a lie. I knew what I needed to fix Sun''s arm. The infirmary wouldn''t have it, most hospitals wouldn''t either. The damage done would require either a bone graft of prosthetics to replace. Either one would need to be sourced.
I just happened to know where a couple of donors were laying around. Think they call that recycling.
¡
Sourcing the necessary replacement wasn''t a quick thing, and I knew it wasn''t going to be. I needed someone at least the right shape and size for Sun. I could shorten some pieces, but it needed to be close all the same. After managing to find one close enough I then had to liberate it from its donor without causing any unnecessary damage. Would hardly do any good for Sun if I broke it before it even got to him. Not counting some of the things I''d need to do just so I could attach it to him.
I worked as fast as I could all the same, and then broke into a dead sprint to catch up to everyone. The hillside back down to the prison passed me in a blur of rain, fog, and dark trees. I broke out the other side of the tree line and practically slid the rest of the way down the hill. Carried by the mud and slick grass beneath my boots, I sprinted the remaining distance to the prison and dodged around the remains of the previous massacre, the blood and viscera now mixing with the muddy waters. Idly noted it might be another place I could find a replacement for Sun''s elbow if I needed. Though it''d feel wrong desecrating their bodies over the White Fang''s. The guards hadn''t deserved what''d been done to them in the first place.
Though it did give me a brief pause to worry about whether or not I''d have to consider blood types while attaching the new bone. Hopefully Aura made everyone a universal donor.
I reached the doors back into the prison and ran inside. With power restored it was easy for me to find my way back to the infirmary. By the time I''d reached it, I''d managed to catch up with the girls as they were working to shift Sun into one of the beds. I''d have preferred an operating table, but it would have to do. His arm was the only I would need the extra space for anyway.
They saw me as I hurried in and shucked out of the tattered remains of my coat, letting it fall to the ground. Without missing a step, I began hurrying about the room, collecting whatever I thought I was going to need. Painkillers and sedatives to keep Sun from waking up mid-surgery, blood bags to keep him sanguine. Scalpels, forceps, retractors and a brace. On top of them, tweezers, disinfectant, and sutures.
The whole nine yards of what I would need to make sure I did it right. If I was going to save his arm, I would need that.
During my time at Camp Forlorn Hope, at what felt like an eternity ago, I''d had to help a lot of wounded men, one of whom would''ve lost his leg in the worst case if I screwed up. I''d learned a lot more about medicine between then and now. Aside from which, private Prichard walked with a limp for a while afterwards, but he kept the damn leg.
I arranged my tools on a table near Sun, collecting a few powered implements I knew I was going to need. That settled, I laid his arm out and began cleaning it in preparation for surgery, wiping it down to remove any muck still on him and doing the best I could to disinfect everything. As it was, I had the tools resting in a sanitizing bath.
"What do we do now?" Ruby asked.
"Rally the troops and be ready to leave," I told her, giving Sun''s arm another swab. "In the best case, after I''m done here we''re going to need to leave. Fast."
"How long do you think it will take?" Weiss asked.
"If I''m smart, half an hour," I answered, stepping away from Sun and beginning to cross the room. There was a sink with soap. Considering what I was about to do, any attempts at sanitation were going to be better than none. "If I had time to do everything the right way, it could take me an hour or two, maybe more. We don''t have that kind of time, so I''m going to have to play things fast and loose."
"This isn''t like fixing a broken machine, Six," Yang pressed. "This is Sun."
"I know," I answered, beginning the careful process of ''scrubbing in''. "I''m not going to treat him like one either. Have a little faith, I''ve seen people worse off than him and managed to help. I know a thing or two."
"Is there anything else we can do to help?" Ruby asked, silencing any further attempts at dissent.
"¡No," I said, drying my hands and working sterile gloves onto them. "I appreciate it, and in different circumstances, I''d appreciate someone to pass me tools. But I remember how you all acted the last time I did something like this. I can handle it from here. We''ll save lessons in medicine for another time."
"Then what can we do?" Blake asked, almost desperate.
"I told you. Rally the troops and have faith," I said, walking back towards Sun. I stepped up to the bedside he laid on and grabbed the tracked curtain that ringed it. "I suggest leaving the operating theater too. Penny, show them the door?"
Without waiting for an answer, I pulled the curtain closed between all of us. There was silence for a moment, before footsteps began to echo through the room, a clear sign of my teammates walking back out through the ruined doorway. I wasn''t trying to be curt with them. With everything that had happened so far, I was getting too close to my own limit. If I was going to help Sun, I needed to be focused. As it was, this was going to be an uphill battle.
But I had things that would make the difference. Knowledge. Experience. Tools.
Stimpacks.
Mostly stimpacks.
But stimpacks couldn''t regrow lost bone. The body has a blueprint for how it''s supposed to be and is good about making sure pieces more or less shift back into place. Couldn''t do that if the pieces were completely gone. Same applied for healing with stimpacks. Can''t heal what isn''t there. One of the bonuses to having an Adamantium Skeleton was bone destruction being a non-issue. Just from a cursory glance, I could see Sun was missing a large chunk of his lateral epicondyle. Likely blown out the back hole, along with the associated capitulum. Which also meant it took a large piece of the radius'' head and neck, plus the ulna''s trochlear notch and olecranon. If I was going to save the arm, I''d need to start with the bone. Cut down to something stable enough to graft onto.
I set the replacement on the table, doing my best to keep it sterile as well.
With surgery as prepped as I could manage, the only thing left to do was to begin. I started by filling a syringe with an appropriate amount of ketalar and sticking Sun with it. Don''t ask how I knew it was an appropriate amount, I just did.
He began to relax as the drugs slipped into him.
"Listen up, monkeyboy," I said, carefully picking out what debris was still in the wound, using just enough stim-fluid to close the parts that were only going to bleed everywhere as I worked. "You got hurt bad out there, it''s pretty fucking ugly."
Sun, naturally, didn''t answer. If he did I would''ve given him a second dose of ketalar. He wasn''t going to want to be awake for what was coming next.
"Sometimes I wonder how it is guys like you seem to get all the luck. Then shit like this happens, and I guess it evens out," I muttered, making sure the back of his arm was healing nicely, and gave the wound on his chest a small dose. "But my friends, your friends, you''ve got them worried pretty badly. You''re in good hands, but you''ve made them worry. I don''t like that."
The flesh that was knitting itself back together in his arm began to slow. I couldn''t give him anymore, not until I''d finished the graft.
The real procedure was about to begin.
"The doctor''s in, and he''s going to do everything he can to help you," I told him. "You owe me money. That means you don''t get to quit on me, got it?"
I grabbed the oscillating bone saw and turned it on. Somehow it was even more menacing to hold than the normal, muscle-powered one.
My hand passed over the tourniquet on his arm, letting blood creep back into the slowly healing limb. Watched to see that it was going to be able to recover from everything that had happened.
Then I started cutting.
¡
As the Courier set to his work, his teammates did their best to ignore the sounds of the equipment. It was another of their friends it was being used on. Even though the Courier had told them to have faith in him, the images conjured to mind were less than pleasant to linger on. To help keep from lingering on them, the group of them moved a short distance down the corridor. At the far end of it they found the wall cratered and caved in upon itself.
"What happened here?" Ruby asked. "First the infirmary was a wreck, now there''s a hole in the wall."
"That was me and friend Six," Penny answered brightly. "After securing the maximum security wing, one of the more dangerous inmates escaped. Having to fight him was why we both took so long to reach you."
"This place has caused us nothing but trouble," Weiss huffed. "At least we managed to keep anyone from escaping."
"Except the White Fang," Blake said, sullenly. "The one thing we were actually trying to do tonight."
"I mean¡ that''s not so bad, right?" Ruby asked. "I mean, we stopped everyone in here being let loose into Vale, that has to count for something."
"Ruby, you heard Six back at the apartment," Yang huffed. "Everything that they did here tonight was to undo everything that we''d done to stop them. It''s like nothing we did actually mattered now."
"But it did!" Ruby protested. "Can you imagine how much worse things would be if everyone in here was let loose into the Kingdom?"
"That''s just why they chose to do it," Blake said, arms hugging around herself. "Because they knew what we''d deem more important. We still lost, Ruby." Blake deflated as reality weighed on her. "Now Sun''s paying for it."
Ruby tried to think of what to say at that moment. Asking if Blake thought he''d be okay would be stupid. Saying he would be okay wouldn''t magically make it so. Six had asked for them to believe in him, and Ruby did. But even she knew it was a lot to ask, especially with how fast it needed to happen. Things were going to be okay, somehow. She believed at least that much. Even if she didn''t know how they were going to fix Sun''s arm, stop the White Fang, escape the prison, not get caught by the police, make it back to school without getting caught now that her and Six''s faces were plastered all over the news¡
The more she thought about it, the less optimistic Ruby was of the odds stacked before them.
But she wasn''t going to give up either.
"Friend Six will be able to help Sun," Penny said, smiling. "The preparations he made, while rushed, were still close to appropriate medical procedure. He said to believe he can help Sun. Aren''t friends supposed to believe in each other?"
"¡We''re supposed to," Yang answered.
Silence fell back over the group. The dull whine of the surgical implements echoed down the corridor behind them, eventually dying away as the procedure carried on. The air between them didn''t improve the longer it carried. There was nothing any of them could think to do to change where they were now. The only thing they could do was wait. It did nothing to set them at ease.
"¡We should let the others know where we are," Weiss said after a moment. "They need to know what''s happening. So we can leave before things get even more out of hand."
"Who''s bright idea were the anti-vigilante laws anyway?" Yang asked. "It seems like they don''t really do anything besides keep people in trouble anyway."
"They didn''t get me in trouble," Ruby said. "I stopped Torchwick and some of his jerks the night I first met Six. I didn''t get expelled or anything."
"Didn''t dad have to pick you up from the police station?" Yang asked, eyeing her sister curiously. "After being dragged there by professors Ozpin and Goodwitch?"
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
"Well¡ I mean, yeah," Ruby shrugged. "But it''s not like they''d have had the pull to keep me out of trouble though. None of us were even enrolled in Beacon to start with."
"¡ Didn''t you get to skip a year because Ozpin admitted you early?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, why?... OH."
"Maybe it won''t be so bad then," Weiss mused. "Losing something we never even had in the first place."
Ruby dug into her pocket and drew out her Scroll. She opened it and began typing.
(You): ["Hey guys, r u all ok?"]
A moment passed before she received a reply.
(Jaune): ["We''re good. Managed to help re-contain everything. We were about to head out to meet up with you guys.]
(Coco): ["Same. We need to talk. Now."]
Ruby took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
(Ruby): ["W r back in kohl''s gate now. Things went rong at the arsenal. Sun''s hurt bad. We r at the infirmary now. Meet us here, we r going to need to hurry."]
A moment passed as Ruby pressed the send button on her Scroll. It would take a moment for her message to register. When it did, she was greeted with two simple responses.
(Jaune): ["We''re coming, we''ll be there as fast as we can."]
(Coco): ["Same. Sorry in advance."]
Ruby looked at the line Coco had sent and wondered for a moment what that was supposed to mean. However, ill or good, she knew she''d know soon enough. She put her Scroll away and looked at her teammates. Saw how tired and beaten they all looked. Each of them soaked and covered head to toe in dust and mud. Perhaps a miracle they''d all made it through in one piece¡ Well, not all of them. Ruby wondered if having everyone there at the arsenal would''ve made a difference. Could they have tried a different plan and had it work? Were they doomed from the start? She didn''t know.
She wanted to believe they could''ve done it.
She just didn''t know how they could''ve, then and there.
Her hand fell to Crescent Rose and she idly drummed her fingers over its receiver. Stroking a hand over it as she thought over what she could''ve done. What she would need to do, once they got back to Beacon. The repairs and maintenance-
Ruby''s eyes widened. "O-oh- shoot!"
"What is it?" Penny asked.
"We left Sun''s weapon back in the Arsenal!" Ruby said, spinning on her heel. "Hold on, I''ll be right back!"
In a blink, Ruby vanished, dashing off through the air in a whirl of rose petals, leaving her teammates to wait for her return, and the reunion of their friends.
"¡ Didn''t the police already catch us all at the docks?" Weiss asked, furrowing her brow. "Wouldn''t that qualify as grounds for expulsion because of the laws?"
"It would''ve been if the police had been more actively involved," Penny explained. "Mr. Ironwood said that due to the nature in which we were found, the police weren''t able to tell if we were breaking the law or not. Professor Goodwitch''s interference kept them from holding everyone long enough to find out as well."
"Fat chance of that happening again," Yang said. "Not after everyone who''s seen us tonight."
"We knew the chance we were taking when we took it," Weiss said. "We should''ve thought about what would happen if we failed¡ I guess this means we''re going to be expelled now, doesn''t it?"
"Probably," Yang said. "Maybe land in jail too."
"¡ A place like this?" Weiss asked, motioning to the prison around them.
"¡Probably," Yang answered, shrugging, then giving a sad chuckle. "That''ll be the headline tomorrow: Heiress Expelled and Jailed."
"Don''t joke about that," Weiss dismissed with a huff. "It''s not funny."
"It''s not," Yang agreed. "None of this is."
The sound of footsteps echoed from down the corridor as they stood there. One by one they cast their gaze down the corridor towards it, found its source among familiar faces. Friends.
Team JNPR raced down the corridor at a dead sprint. Compared to them, JNPR looked dry and clean. The worst done to them came from the sweat they worked out while fighting. They appeared otherwise unharmed and collected. They did not slow in their run until they had reached the girls of team RWBY, and their plus one-cum-two. Eventually, they came skidding to a stop, eyes quickly scanning around them.
"We came as fast as we could," Jaune said, eyes scanning. "What happened? Where''s Sun?"
"Who did it?" Nora asked, lacking much of her usual cheer. "Mama''s gonna break some legs!"
"Sun''s in the infirmary with Six," Blake answered. "He''s¡ doing everything he can to help."
"Friend Ruby went to find Sun''s weapon. It got left behind at the Arsenal," Penny added brightly.
"What happened?" Ren asked. "It seemed like everything was under control when Six last called."
"It was," Yang said. "Until it wasn''t."
"The White Fang had two of their higher ranking members with them," Weiss said, looking sideways at Yang. "They put up more of a fight than we thought they would."
"I didn''t know they would be there," Blake said weakly.
"None of us did," Weiss affirmed. "¡ We did everything we could. It just wasn''t enough."
"You don''t mean¡" Pyrrha said, her face falling.
"They stole what they wanted from the arsenal and escaped," Weiss answered, nodding. "They won."
Silence settled back over the group as JNPR heard the news, shock rippling through them as they looked at each other. The realization of how futile their efforts had been was settling in.
"¡ You''ve gotta be kidding me!" Nora belted. "We couldn''t have done all this for nothing!"
"Nora," Ren said, gently trying to calm her.
"But we didn''t, Ren!" she protested. "We did all this to try and help people!... We''ve risked everything being here."
Her words came out softer and weaker than any had heard Nora speak, save for Ren himself. Even as soft as they were, her words echoed the feeling they all shared. The acknowledgement that their failure was real and what they stood to lose because of it was far greater than they realized. Their careers at Beacon were likely to end. Any hope any of them had of legally pursuing careers as Huntsmen likely vanished with it. All the things they''d hoped to accomplish, redemption, adventure, the hope of a brighter tomorrow, gone. Now only as certain as the haze that hung in the air just beyond the prison walls. The very walls who may confine them as well, if the law was against them.
"¡ Maybe we can still fix this," Jaune said, trying to rally himself and his team. "We just need to get everyone and go. If we hurry we might be able to¡ I don''t know, change something!"
"I''m afraid you''re a little too late to be doing that, Mister Arc."
"¡" Jaune felt his spine freeze solid as the voice travelled through the air. He didn''t bother to turn and face the new voice. His frozen spine would''ve prevented him from doing so as well. The looks on the faces of his friends'' faces said enough.
What the rest saw, was the final nail in the coffin of their terrible evening.
Glynda Goodwitch walked purposefully down the corridor with Professor Ozpin, team CFVY following in tow. There was another person with them that most did not recognize, a young woman with deeply tanned skin and black hair. She wore a blue beret, matched by an equally blue skirt, and her chest covered by a white and gold button-down short sleeved shirt. Her hands and arms were covered by long, black, fingerless gloves, her legs by boot-chaps that covered her black shoes and were long enough to reach mid-thigh. She looked about primly, properly, and in a completely measured fashion.
The two teachers she traveled with, by comparison, were far less composed. Both appeared half dressed, but nonetheless professional. As though they had both only just begun preparing to lay down for the evening. They approached the two teams of underclassmen purposefully, pointedly.
And as everyone but Jaune could see, quite sternly. The only thing he could hear was the echoing of their shoes against the tiled floors of the prison.
"Children," Glynda spoke, approaching the group with the others. "It would seem you are out well past curfew. Would you care to explain why? More importantly, why are you here?"
None of them answered, their tongues seemed to glue themselves to the roofs of their mouths. As if the situation could not get any worse for them, they were caught before they could escape. Not even a prayer at it before being caught. What they could see of team CFVY showed it was not a feeling they were alone in either.
Only one of them had the temerity to speak.
"¡ Hello Ms. Soleil!" Penny chirped, waving to the woman in the blue beret.
"Good evening Ms. Polendina," Ciel Soleil answered, a small nod of her head.
"Why are you here?" Penny asked innocently.
"You know why I''m here."
"¡ No I don''t."
"¡"
"¡ *hiccup*"
"... Hm," Ciel hummed, checking the watch on her wrist, the display glowing. "We have, perhaps twenty minutes before we must leave." She turned towards the professors. "I would rather we don''t waste all that time staring silently at each other."
"Indeed," Glynda answered, looking imperiously at her students. "It seems clear to me as well that they''ve underestimated the severity of what they have done here as well." Her gaze then shifted to the side, looking back towards their upperclassmen. "I thought I could''ve expected better from you and your team, Ms. Adel."
"W-we can explain," Nora said
"Hm. I would certainly hope you could," Glynda answered, turning back to face Nora and her team. The gleam in her green eyes was like that of daggers. "Because you don''t seem to grasp the gravity of your current circumstances."
"You are all in a great deal of trouble," Ozpin spoke, stepping forward, cane tapping the ground. His voice was even, un-accusing. "While the entirety of why you are here tonight remains to be seen, allow me to enlighten you about what Professor Goodwitch and I see." His eyes began to trail over them. "I see three teams from my academy. One of the best current second year teams, and two from the first year who have untold potential and promise. All of whom have very bright futures." He exhaled through his nose, calmly. "All of which is now in jeopardy, due to the choices you have made this evening¡"
Ozpin reached a hand to his face and adjusted his glasses. When he spoke next, his words remained calm, unaccusing, and even. But the severity of the matter was clear in his tone.
"If there is anything you would like to say about this situation, I encourage you to say it now. Before the authorities arrive. When they do, we will be forced to cooperate with them. Regardless of what''s happened here tonight."
"B-but we didn''t do anything wrong," Jaune said.
"That will not matter to them," Ozpin spoke. "The law is clear on what has happened tonight. Unless you would rather have to face that than myself and professor Goodwitch, I encourage your honesty."
Another moment of silence passed over the students present. Team CFVY was slowly ushered to join them, as they all came to terms with what was about to happen.
"¡ Where''re Tiny, Sun, and the cowboy?" Coco asked.
"¡ Ruby will be back in a moment," Weiss answered. "She had to run back to the Arsenal."
"The Arsenal?" Professor Ozpin asked, his brow creeping up slightly.
Weiss was torn between answering the Headmaster and her fellow student. Knowing the former would be getting the full-story shortly, she chose to answer the latter.
"Sun''s with Six in the infirmary," she continued. "Sun''s¡ been hurt really bad."
Another moment passed as Coco''s face fell. Worry crept into her teammate''s faces as well. Perhaps they had assumed the evening had been successful on all fronts, save for being caught.
As they would soon discover, that was far from the truth.
There was a rush of wind and a whirl of rose petals.
"Hey, I found-" Ruby started to speak as she reappeared, holding Sun''s wrecked weapon under her arm. The words trailed off as she realized who else had joined them. "¡ We''re about to get yelled at, aren''t we?"
¡
Despite my best efforts, I could tell Sun was beginning to stir as I finished stitching his arm back together. In a way I guess that meant I''d used the right dosage, or at least enough to keep him out for the duration of what I''d needed to do.
I''d managed to remove the right amount of bone on both ends to properly fit the graft. It was also fresh enough that the stim-fluid could knit the pieces together. Not a perfect joining, but close enough. Sun would have to figure the rest out over the course of recovery. As it was, it would take time for the graft to properly strengthen itself even with stimpacks. The rest of it was easy compared to that. The stitches would fade with time, same with the scars. But they''d linger, both the ones on his arm and his chest. There was no taking that away.
As I pulled the suture through and tightened the seams together, I stuck him with a final shot of fluid. He started coming back as it ran its course. Stimpacks were great at healing you, but the process wasn''t always comfortable. Or clean, going by all the blood left behind on the operating table.
"Hnn?" Sun groaned.
I removed the bracing from his arm and collected the tools. With a swing of my arm I opened the curtains back out to the infirmary.
"Operation complete," I muttered. "Remain where you are until the doctor can assess you."
"Hn," Sun groaned, again. Couldn''t tell if he was clear enough to understand me at that point. He''d lost a lot of blood.
I walked back to the sink and dumped the tools, disposing of the medical waste. As I did, my Pip-Boy chimed again.
- Complete: Practice Medicine.
- Objective: Retreat.
I washed my hands off and made sure I was as clean and sterile as I could be before returning to Sun.
"What happened?" Sun asked.
"You got hit," I told him. "What do you remember?"
"¡" Sun''s eyes shot wide open as he came racing back to the world. He bolted upright in the bed. "Blake!"
Immediately, he lost his balance and went tumbling out the side of it, landing on his face. "¡ow."
"Careful, you lost a lot of blood," I told him. "It''s a miracle you''re even awake right now."
"Where''s Blake?" Sun asked. "That guy-"
"He''s gone. The White Fang are too," I told him, helping him sit up, against the bed. "They got what they came for."
"They escaped?" Sun asked, breathing heavily. "¡ Dude¡" He looked down at his chest, then his arm. "¡Guess I didn''t imagine getting hit. Surprised I still have my arm."
"It was touch and go," I told him. "Count yourself lucky. How''s it feel?"
"¡ Off," Sun said, moving his arm, flexing at the elbow. "Doesn''t feel quite righ- ah!"
Sun immediately stopped flexing his arm and began clutching it instead. I had an idea what it was, but figured I''d confirm it.
"Arm pain?" I asked.
"Feels like I hit my funny bone," Sun answered, wincing.
"That''s a good sign. Means the nerves are still intact."
Actually a sign they''d properly regenerated. Stimpacks could restore the physical thing, but they couldn''t reconnect the original pathways. That required relearning the motions. Considering the damage that was done he''d have to start from scratch, but the majority of the other pathways being intact meant he''d probably rebuild things faster than the first go around.
"This is gonna suck," Sun grumbled. "Any chance it''ll stop?"
"Probably not until it''s fully healed. Off and on for the most part otherwise," I told him. "Go easy on it for the next few days, the bones need time to heal."
Sun looked up at me. "You do this?"
"I''ve had practice," I told him, offering a hand up. "Come on, we can''t wait. The police will be here soon."
"¡ Dude," Sun breathed, shaking his head and chuckling. He grabbed my hand with his good arm and I hauled him to his feet. He stumbled, but I steadied him. Gave him something to lean on as we began walking for the door. I grabbed the tattered remains of my duster as we went and tucked them under my arm. Wasn''t much I could do for it, but I''d hold onto it until either I got a verdict from Byz or had the chance to make scraps from it. I was going to need to see if he could make it from a sturdier material. Or at least sell me the supplies needed to properly repair it after nights like this.
Sun and I limped back towards the hole that''d been blown where the door once was, being mindful of the rubble. Last thing Sun needed was to fall wrong and fuck-up his still-healing injuries. In hindsight, I was going to have to see about making some super-stimpacks. They wouldn''t do much good in the field, but would be good for any future post-fight recovery. One more thing for the list.
Carefully, we left the med-bay and began making our way back down the hall. I could see that the girls had chosen to move a short ways off to give me some space to work. Surgery wasn''t exactly quality entertainment for most people, so I didn''t blame them for not wanting to watch. Especially when it was one of our friends who''d been in dire need of it. I could see that they''d moved down the hall towards where Penny and I had left Waylon, who was also gone by the time we came back. No telling what''d become of him. Either he''d escaped, or he''d been taken to a holding cell. Either way, he was gone for now. Could only hope he stayed that way. Knowing my luck, he wouldn''t.
In the interim of surgery beginning and ending, they''d sent messages out over our Scrolls. I''d paid them only a small amount of attention, which itself was probably more than I should''ve been. But I''d known they''d reached out to JNPR and CFVY. Told them it was time to regroup so we could get out of there. As I half-carried Sun down the hall, I could see them there.
But I saw something there that also tickled the slow-simmering anger that was still sitting in my chest.
Ozpin.
Goodwitch.
¡ Some new girl, dressed way too preppy and perfect for my liking.
They were standing in front of my friends, dressed like they''d rolled out of bed and were ready for a fight despite it. Unlike my friends, however, I could tell they hadn''t actually been in one. They looked too damn clean.
My Pip-Boy chimed, again, and I checked it as I went.
- Failed: Retreat.
- Objective: Face the music.
I could see Ruby standing in front of our group, talking with them. Quite emphatically at that.
As Sun and I got closer, Goodwitch raised her hand, silencing Ruby.
"-Allow me to summarize." Goodwitch spoke. "Despite having learned about Vale''s stance on vigilante justice, you chose to come here anyway. You chose to drag two additional teams of your fellow students here, into the kingdom, to help you subvert the laws in place, knowing full well the consequences that could wait for you, and have been caught, on camera no less, breaking the law. Despite that, you still chose to intervene in a situation such as this. Knowing you had an even greater likelihood of being caught, and putting yourself and your fellow students in harm''s way. Which, as you say, ultimately has come to pass, as you now currently have one of them in critical condition¡"
Goodwitch exhaled sharply through her nose. "¡ Tell me, is there any part of this we''re missing?"
"The part where he''s stable and walking around," I called out. "Or, y''know, you can keep ragging on us for actually getting here in time to help."
Everyone turned to look down the hall towards me and Sun as we limped our way towards them.
"Y''know, just a thought," I said. "Considering you''re the ones who were late to the party."
"Sun!" Blake exclaimed. Immediately she broke away from the group to meet us, and was similarly followed by Ruby, Weiss, and Yang. Blake ran up and all but took Sun''s weight off of me, though it seems she wasn''t up to carrying him either, with how they sank to the floor "You''re ok!" She looked dumbfoundedly at the mark on his chest and the stitches in his arm, then at me. "How-"
"I told you. I''m a doctor," I said. "You should learn to give me some credit after everything." I nodded to Ruby, Yang, and Weiss before moving past them, keeping my attention on Goodwitch, Ozpin, and Preppy-girl. "So. You want to keep having this conversation? Let''s start with: what took either of you so long to get here?"
Ozpin and Goodwitch shared a look, not judging or reprimanding, and answered. "We were responding to the incidents happening elsewhere in the Kingdom," Goodwitch explained. "The amount of chaos and fear created by the various attacks throughout the city were stirring the Grimm into motion. As it is, most of Beacon''s staff and upperclassmen have been dispatched to observe and quell any gatherings. Unless you''d rather add a Grimm incursion to this evening''s list of incidents?
"Not as such," I told her. "But I don''t think you grasp the reality of everything that''s happened here tonight."
"The White Fang attacked this place to incite chaos and steal what they deemed valuable equipment," Ozpin said. "We are aware of what''s happened here tonight, Mister Six. If there is anyone lacking in their understanding of what''s happened here tonight, it will be the authorities themselves. Which will be a massive issue for you, and the three teams who took it upon themselves to be here tonight, all of whom have actively coordinated with the prison staff this evening. With clear evidence they were not here on official business in the first place."
"And that''s a problem?" I asked. "Fucks'' sake, do you have even an iota of an idea of what we managed to stop here tonight?"
"As far as the authorities will be concerned, you''ll have stopped nothing, and they''ll have captured the vigilantes that have been running around for the past several weeks," Ozpin answered evenly. "Which is why we will be handling matters before they arrive. With any luck you''ll be safely returned to the academy. Before they can realize it was any different from Professor Goodwitch and myself leading a group of you to aid in securing this place."
"None of you understand the severity of the laws you''ve broken today," Goodwitch continued. "Whether you agree with them or not, these laws are in place to prevent unqualified huntsmen from endangering people''s lives."
"People''s lives were in danger anyway!" Ruby protested, only to immediately shrink back when Goodwitch shot her a sharp look.
"¡Including Mr. Wukong''s?" Goodwitch asked. "Including Ms. Polendina''s? Who, I might add, should not be here."
"Kidnapping is a crime on a different scale," The preppy-girl said.
"¡ I''m sorry, who the fuck is this?" I asked, motioning to the girl "And why should I care about you?"
"Ciel Soleil," the girl answered, neutrally, like I was some annoying task she''d been assigned to. "I was tasked by the General with coming to collect Ms. Polendina after last night''s incident at the Gala." She raised her hand. "Before you ask, no, he''s not going to press charges on you. It was Ms. Polendina''s choice to remain with you these past twenty-three hours and fifteen minutes. However, unless she returns with me, the matter will be handled more seriously. Something you seem to be getting informed of quite a bit at this moment."
"Aw, but I wanted to stay a little longer," Penny answered, almost missing the entire tone of the conversation.
Ciel, however, hadn''t and gave Penny an annoyed look. Were I not keeping my temper squarely on the real issue, I''d have been half tempted to pop her on the nose.
"We understand why you''ve all done as you have this evening," Ozpin answered. "It''s in the spirit of being Huntsmen and Huntresses to want to help however you are able¡ but you are not there yet. If you''re caught here, tonight, you never will be." He looked over all of our teams again. "The best of your year," he said, eyeing CFVY before turning to JNPR and my team. "And some with the greatest promise I have seen in a long time¡ Do not squander your futures like this," He turned and began to step slowly down the hall. "There are two Bullheads waiting at the gate. I bid you, follow me."
I could see the looks on everyone''s faces. The ones filled with conflict. Sorrow. Sadness. There was no denying that we''d failed at what we''d wanted to do there that night. We''d given everything, Sun nearly bought the farm. But the White Fang still got what they wanted. They didn''t give a shit about the law and operated outside it, consequences be damned. After all, the police had to catch them first. Sometimes, it was even what they wanted.
But we still had to abide by it. Let it choke us despite being some of the ones most readily able to do something about it. We had done everything right and still lost.
I could remember the last time I''d been in a situation like that. One where it didn''t seem to matter what I was going to do, I was going to lose anyway. All because laws, red tape, and bureaucratic nonsense kept me from doing things the ''right'' way. So that I''d lose, no matter all the good I''d done.
Now it was sitting squarely on everyone else as well.
Was this what they trained for?
Was this what they fought for?
Was this what they were willing to give everything up for?
A bunch of laws that were clearly and heavily skewed against those who tried to do the right thing.
I looked at their faces.
I saw the same defeat I''d known so long ago.
The very same as what led me to Zion.
Just as I did, that day, under a rain filled sky, something happened. Something changed again.
My mind cleared. I saw things as they were, understood everything I needed to. Knew who I needed to be again. Because there wasn''t anyone, then, with the strength to be it.
The anger I felt boiled over. But it didn''t come out in a roar, or a bang. It came out in a small, steady, strong tone that I should''ve listened to sooner.
''Oh, so now you can hear me?''
"Enough."
"Mister Six, whatever protest you have for how this is to be handled, I advise you to consider your options carefully," Ozpin answered, turned and ready to walk away.
"I already have," I replied in turn, eyeing both him and Goodwitch. "And I have to wonder if this is what being a Huntsman is. Being as worthless as a dog without its teeth or a bird without its wings."
"¡" Ozpin turned back towards me. He, Goodwitch, Ciel, and all of my friends were looking at me.
"When the wolves are at the door, you''re expected to let them in and act like it''s normal? As they destroy everything you hold dear, you''re supposed to grin and bear it?" I asked. "When you''ve got the power to change things, help those in need, you''re expected to sit on it and stick your head in the sand. Is that what you expect?"
"It''s the law, Mister Six," Ozpin answered, tiredly. "Licensed Huntsmen-"
"Want nothing to do with this mess," I cut him off. "I''ve been doing this for almost a month. Not once have I seen anyone who fits the bill you claim. Not until tonight. I know, now, why I haven''t either." I felt my fist begin to clench. "That despite all the purported authority they supposedly wield, Huntsmen are expected to kowtow to this? To let the world burn while they sit on their hands. Because some useless law forbids them from openly acting against the things throwing fuel on it? That sit with their teeth at people''s throats, while they''re expected to sit and watch."
"Being a Huntsman is not being a superhero," Goodwitch answered, something different in her tone. Something hurt, angry, just like Ozpin. Tired. "It''s a job and a duty, Mister Six. One whose bounds cannot be overstepped. We can''t fix the world by ignoring every rule just because we don''t like them."
"It''s not ignoring every rule, nor satisfying any whim that comes to your mind," I told her. "Nor is it abiding by every broken and twisted command¡ I can''t claim to know everything that''s right. To avoid everything that''s wrong¡" I looked over everyone else. My friends, allies. The ones who''d come to bat that night and did so because they understood something important. Even if it wasn''t what they dreamed it would be. "It''s to know when something is wrong. To plant your feet in the sand and hold back against it. Because, whether it''s the Grimm, the White Fang, or whatever gang''s looking to control your world, it comes down to one simple thing. What they''re doing is wrong. Allowing them to do what they wish, at the cost taken from those who can''t resist? That''s wrong."
"You''re talking about a problem every Huntsman has faced since the beginning," Goodwitch answered. "We cannot be everywhere. Even if we could, the world isn''t black and white."
"You don''t get to speak of a world of gray when you cling to the law as an absolute." I hissed back at her. "You miss the point. Being a Huntsman isn''t being a weapon against the Grimm. It''s not being a soldier, a superhero, or some low-paid jobber¡ It''s the same as any time a weapon is raised to protect the things you care about. You are one thing. Do you know what that is?..." I looked at my friends, who were listening closely to what I had to say. Even if the words weren''t sinking in, they were hearing me ramble. "Do any of you?"
My friends looked at me, then each other. Even as tired and worn down as I could see they were, I could see it. They were trying to understand. Either what I was telling them, or where I was going with this. They didn''t understand, but I couldn''t expect them to either. How could they? They were learning. I couldn''t hold that against them. I wouldn''t either.
But I knew they would understand.
"It''s being a messenger," I told them. "Everyone is one, one way or another. Every job, every person. We all have a message to deliver to every person we meet. But the one being a Huntsman delivers? It''s supposed to go something like this:-" I looked Ozpin in the eye. "We''re here. Because we''re here, you can lay your head down. Rest, knowing you won''t be taken in your sleep. We''re here. You can build now. Make something that''s never been seen before, knowing it will be safe from the enemy at the gates. We''re here. You may put down your roots. Grow, flourish, and be plenty in the knowledge that you don''t need to be afraid¡"
I looked at all of them.
They looked back.
Whatever I was saying, I could see it had struck a chord in each of them. Maybe not the same one, maybe not the same way. But they could all hear it. All feel it.
"¡ I am here," I finished. "As long as I am here, you need not be afraid. Of the things that lurk in darkness, beneath the pale light of the moon, or the glory of the blazing sun. We will meet them wherever they are. They go no further this day, or the next. We are Hunters. You need not be afraid."
I looked Ozpin in the eyes again. When I spoke, I made damn sure he was listening.
"Tell me, headmaster. Am I wrong?" I asked. "Is that not what a Huntsman is supposed to be? Or has its meaning and purpose been lost? Stripped away by a world that''s forgotten. That you can fight back. Tell me. What is a Huntsman supposed to be, and is this really what we''re supposed to be fighting for?"
I already knew my answer.
This wasn''t for me.
But I needed to know what they would do. If this was the limit that he could muster. That to him this wasn''t more than a job. How could they, Ozpin, Goodwitch, ever expect anything good from their students if this was their standard? Keeping to the letter of something that was actively getting people hurt?
I''d seen no Huntsmen in Vale.
Not until I''d seen Ruby risk everything for people she didn''t even know.
I knew why now.
If this was how they could draw the line, then I knew what I would do next.
A long, poignant silence stretched out between us. One begging for an answer. One that would only begin to wildly and violently shift after it received one. I was ready for it, no matter what he said.
"¡May we step to the side for a moment, Mister Six?" Ozpin asked, voice tired and worn down.
I gave no response, save a small nod of the head, and a jerk of the thumb back towards the infirmary. Silently, he began to stride towards me, Goodwitch at his side.
"Headmaster, the authorities-" Ciel began to pester.
"Will do nothing to you," I cut her off. "If it comes to that matter, the only reason any of you were here tonight, was to help apprehend a wanted vigilante. You had no part in it beyond that."
As Ozpin and Goodwitch joined me, and we began to walk down the hall, I saw the understanding settle over everyone else. If it came down to that choice, I would make it. They didn''t get to lose their futures due to my own incompetence.
But that would be only if it came to that.
We walked a good distance away from everyone, until we were almost parallel with the med-bay''s doors.
"You''ve spoken quite passionately and strongly," Ozpin said, looking at me. "More so than I have heard you before. You believe what you say?"
"More than you do," I told him.
Ozpin smiled.
It was like watching a porcelain mask crack in half. Getting to see what was hiding underneath. There again I saw something, tired, worn, old. Just as quick, it was gone again, the mask healing itself.
"No. You grasp the nature of it," Ozpin said. "But the reality is a harsh one."
"We didn''t come here tonight just to make it seem as though your efforts are meaningless," Goodwitch answered, something sounding akin to empathy in her voice. "We came because we understand. We were only too slow to be here."
"And you know why?" I asked them.
"We do," she answered. "But that is the reality. We can''t be everywhere at once and fighting every fire that''s sparked. We have to focus on the ones that we can see."
"Fight them as we''re so allowed," Ozpin added. "Or face the uncertainties and consequences that come with them. You''ve seen them tonight."
I didn''t argue that point. Sun''s injuries and near death. The destruction caused by the fight in the arsenal. The people lost defending the prison. All because, in many ways, we''d failed. Not counting the legal consequences that could land us locked in the prison ourselves.
"But if the law is the cause, then it needs to be changed. Or abolished," I told them. "I won''t pretend you both hadn''t cottoned on to what''s happened these past few weeks. But you cannot tell me this wasn''t avoidable as well. That Beacon couldn''t have students actively out with the police. Or patrolling with their teachers. Making sure the kingdom is safe, beyond chasing Grimm on expeditions and missions."
"It would need to be shown that such a thing is possible," Ozpin answered. "These laws exist for the exact reason you give. Because students in the past have tried what you suggest, only to have it fail spectacularly. Since then, the only time students are allowed to do anything in Vale is when they''re doing course work. Directly under the supervision of the authorities."
"Thus, supervision. Just not the kind needed," I responded firmly. "There''s no convincing me that what we''ve done here tonight was wrong. That it deserves punishment. The only ones who should be punished are the ones committing the crime."
"And what do you propose?" Goodwitch asked. "That we simply let you go? Let you continue to risk all of their futures simply because you believe it to be the right thing to do?"
"I''m not risking their futures," I told her. "I''m asking them, the same as I''m asking both of you: between doing what''s right, and doing what''s demanded of you, which do you choose? I''m offering a choice. No matter which they take, there''s consequences for both. Succeed or Fail."
Ozpin and Goodwitch looked at each other. Considering my words. They turned back to me and Ozpin asked.
"How do you intend to leave this place without facing the consequence of failing? You''ve been seen. If you do not leave with us, there will be no protection for you against what''s coming."
I looked at Ozpin. He had a point. Getting out and acting as though we weren''t there wasn''t a simple thing. The police would be there before long. Ruby and I were already ID''d by the news broadcast earlier that day. The net was closing in, and we didn''t have a lot of room left to run.
But we weren''t trapped yet.
I looked at Ozpin, smirking even if he couldn''t see it. "I''m going to ask nicely."
¡
I knocked on the door to the camera room and waited a moment. A few seconds later, Mark came to the door and opened it. He looked tired enough that he could sleep for a month. After the night we''d all had, I could understand it.
He looked at me in surprise all the same.
"I need you to put a message out over the loudspeaker for me."
¡
The message was for all available personnel to gather in the main atrium of the prison. The same place all the prisoners had been gathered when we first arrived. Now most of them had been either escorted back to their cells or escaped. Likely the former, from everything I understood. The prison wasn''t completely back under control, but it was on its way to it. It was likely only minutes until the police arrived. I was going to have to be quick.
My teammates, JNPR, CFVY, Penny, Ozpin, Goodwitch, and Ciel were all nearby. Waiting and watching what I was doing.
The space was filled with everyone who could be spared, including some of the people we''d interacted with directly. I spied the dog-eared girl from the checkpoint, the riot-officer from the yard. Everybody who could be spared was there.
I''d have to hope it was enough.
I climbed up onto a vantage point, some place high enough to be seen, letting my voice carry over the room. Even before I''d spoken, I was already getting their attention.
Which was annoying. I hated public speaking. Didn''t know many people who didn''t, even Kimball hated it, professional ass-kisser he was.
"Good evening everyone," I said. "I''m going to start by saying I''m sorry for the trouble you''ve faced tonight. Were the situation better handled in time, none of this would have happened. I''ve got no doubt you all have some idea who I am, though I''ve only had the pleasure to be acquainted with a few of you."
None of the guards said anything, but I knew they were listening by the way they all were looking up at me.
"Me and my associates came here tonight because we caught wind of what was going to happen. Tried our damnedest to stop it once we had. Despite that, we couldn''t stop everything. I apologize for that. I know some of you have likely lost friends and co-workers tonight, and that won''t be easy to recover from."
A small murmur came from the crowd. They knew that already.
"The reason I''ve asked you all to be gathered here, now, is to ask you a question about this evening. You see, me and my associates weren''t really here," I explained to them. "As a matter of fact, the ones here this evening were the teachers and staff from Beacon Academy. They rode in on Bullheads and helped you to settle things as fast and as cleanly as they could. Just as quickly, they were gone, going to face the Grimm gathering near the kingdom''s borders because of what''s happened tonight."
As I explained this, I saw the guards looking about, spying Ozpin and Goodwitch not too far away. I could tell they were watching me curiously right now. Wondering just where the hell I was going.
"It happened so fast that, by the time the police arrived, they were already gone. Any questions about what happened would need to be directed to them during the Academy''s normal hours," I continued. "After all, vigilantism carries a heavy penalty, one that brooks no arguments for the good it may provide. The law would require that anyone caught performing it be considered no different than the very people who attacked you tonight. Thus, it must have been the Huntsmen of Beacon who saved you. No one else."
The crowd began to fall silent again as they grasped what I was telling them. It wouldn''t work forever, eventually we were going to get caught. Have to face the consequences of a broken system.
But it didn''t need to work forever either.
Just long enough.
"So the question I''m going to ask you is this:" I said, pausing a moment, for effect. "... How many of you can see and hear me right now?"
A moment passed, as the entire atrium seemed to collectively hold its breath. I waited, watched. Hoped that my words meant something to them. That out of all of them, I could get some understanding.
"¡ OH SHIT, I THINK I LEFT THE OVEN ON!" one of the staff said, promptly bolting out of the crowd and away from the atrium, disappearing from sight.
It was the same as the first of a fall''s leaves. One went, and the others quickly began to follow.
In almost a blink the entirety of the atrium was empty.
It worked.
Which meant we needed to leave. Immediately.
¡
We followed Ozpin, Goodwitch, and Ciel quickly back to the gates, where two Bullheads sat waiting, turbines spooling. The kingdom of Vale stretched out behind them. I could hear the wail of police sirens and see lights flashing.
They were coming.
Ozpin and Goodwitch stood in front of us.
"Tonight has not gone as anyone expected," Ozpin explained. "This situation is a tense one, and I wish you all had not placed yourselves into it. Before we leave there are some things to be made clear."
"Firstly, Ms. Polendina will be returning with Ms. Soliel," Goodwitch ordered. "The incident surrounding her is already a difficult one. Further exacerbating it will not be tolerated. She''ll be returned to her people without further delay. You''ll all be satisfied that any consequence that comes from it will be minor in comparison to what could be waiting for you."
Out of all my teammates, Ruby was the only one who looked as though she was going to protest. The others were still too worn down from everything. Didn''t have the fight left in them for it, not then. I would''ve protested it as well. But I knew it was the right call. Even if Penny had proven invaluable over the course of everything, her situation was a tangled mess we didn''t have time to get caught in. Not then. So when Ruby went to protest, Penny merely put her hand on Ruby''s shoulder and shook her head.
"It''s ok," Penny said, smiling. "I''m so glad I got to spend the day with you and Six. But I need to go home. I think Papa''s a bit worried about me."
"We''ll do it again soon," I said, giving her a nod and letting my voice relax. "That''s a promise."
Penny gave me a toothy smile, as Ciel went and hooked onto her.
"Our time is up," Ciel spoke curtly. "Come along, Ms. Polendina."
Easily, Penny turned and began to walk with her.
"¡ Oh, one more thing," I said.
Penny and Ciel turned back towards me. The latter glowered at me, but the former was curious.
I stepped calmly up to them, reaching my hand out, then a finger.
It gently booped Penny on the nose.
"Tag, you''re it," I said, smiling, then easily glided back into the spot I''d been.
Penny''s smile grew vibrant against the rain around us, and she giggled. Ciel, thoroughly annoyed, grabbed Penny and all but hauled her back to the Bullhead. An impressive feat, Penny was heavy. They both clambered onto the Bullhead, and the vehicle slowly listed upward. Within moments they were high into the gloomy air and gone. The sound of the turbines disappearing beyond the wind.
My Pip-Boy chimed. Again.
- Penny has returned to the Atlas Custody
- Penny has returned to Flagship Shawcross
- You have lost Penny''s Machine Learning Perk.
The second of those messages confused me, because there was no way Penny had moved that quick.
"Now that one issue is put to rest, we''ve others to deal with," Goodwitch spoke, eyes drifting over us. "The first of which will be you, Mister Wukong."
"Bwah?" Sun asked blearily
"With your injuries, I think it''s required that the medical staff at Beacon further examine your wounds. Ensure that you''ll be healing properly," Goodwitch explained. "As such, you will be returning with us immediately."
"But-" Sun tried to protest.
"Aside from which, I''m sure your team would very much like to know what''s become of you," Goodwitch continued. "Seeing as you''ve been missing for nearly two days, and will be returning quite injured."
Any further protest Sun would''ve made seemed to die on his lips, devolving into a chuckle as he gripped at his recovering arm. Couldn''t imagine the rain was making it feel any better. Bad weather makes old wounds ache, and that was going to be a bad one.
"You''ll be escorted by Team CFVY," Ozpin explained. "Who, per Mister Six''s tale, would have been present for the defense of Vale. Being that second-year teams are granted leniency in such matters, they were already out in the field fighting when they were recalled."
"Nice," Coco nodded.
"After returning him, Ms. Adel will be informed that her team is to return to the kingdom''s limits and continue defensive measures," Goodwitch continued. "Her team''s dedication to the kingdom''s defense will be noted, and their responsibilities regarding missions reprioritized for higher levels of urgency."
"¡Less nice."
Translation: You did a good enough job to earn yourself more work. Congrats.
"I would encourage you all to help Mr. Wukong onto the Bullhead. Quickly," Ozpin said, gesturing to the craft.
Slowly, CFVY did as they were bid and began moving towards the Bullhead. There wasn''t much that could be said between us then. they came to help, and had. We didn''t want to see them go in this fashion, but it wasn''t like they''d been exiled.
We''d see them at the Academy. We could talk then about everything if they felt up to it.
They settled into the cabin of the Bullhead as Ozpin and Goodwitch set their attention squarely on us. I could hear the sirens getting closer. We needed to leave soon.
"As for the rest of you, do not assume there won''t be consequences for what''s happened tonight. For both the White Fang, and for you," Ozpin spoke, evenly. "You are all walking a thin line, losing your balance carries penalties I promise none of you deserve or should receive. But that won''t be my decision to make. Had we the space, I''d see you return with us all now to the Academy. As we do not, I instead encourage you all to return there immediately. Likewise, I expect to see all of you in my office, bright and early, on Monday morning. Am I clear?"
¡ Oh. Oh, so that''s how it is.
"Oh, believe me, we will."
Interesting.
I still hadn''t forgotten the conversation I''d had that morning. Hadn''t forgotten why I''d done all of this. Once this issue was settled, me and Ozpin were going to have words.
We all nodded and murmured acknowledgement. A dull sound, that didn''t carry the optimism it had earlier that evening.
They hadn''t heard what I did.
With his acknowledgement obtained, Ozpin and Goodwitch quickly strode to the Bullhead and climbed inside. The turbines spooled, the craft began to rise. Everyone onboard looked back at us. Worried, calculating, wishing they could stay with us.
But not Ozpin. I could see him, looking back at me, as they pulled away.
A smirk on his face.
''¡ clever fucking bastard.''
The Bullhead left, and we were left there, standing in the rain. The police was closing in, and we only had minutes to make our escape. As they approached, my Pip-Boy chimed one final time.
- Complete: Face the music.
- Optional Objective Complete: Stand your ground.
- Quest Completed: One Piece at a Time
''Huh. Hadn''t realized that was an optional one.''
"¡Welp, better get to it then," I said, striding forward. "Come on, the night''s young and we''ve still got stash-houses to canvas." I turned back and looked at all of them as I schlepped back into my tattered coat. "Better off not staying here."
I wasn''t greeted by a cheer to get back to the grind. I was met by eight, tired teenagers who''d just watched everything implode around them.
"Six¡ we lost," Jaune said. "They got away. None of what we did here matters."
"Doesn''t it?" I asked, motioning back to the prison. "The walls still stand, the criminals are back in their cells. I''d say that counts for something."
"But the White Fang got away, Sun almost died," Blake said
"But he didn''t," I told her. "And maybe they did, but so what? We slowed them down. Maybe they got what they wanted, but it didn''t come cheap. There''s no way they could start their escape tonight, not with the kingdom buzzing like a kicked cazador-nest¡ No, we''ve got time."
"But Ozpin-" Nora started to say.
"... Told us to meet him in his office on Monday¡" Ruby said, gaze slowly rising, expression lightening. She looked at Nora. "¡ Today''s Saturday."
The realization rolled through them all like lightning.
"He can''t support us, or protect us," I told them. "But he doesn''t have to stop us either. So he''s not. He just expects us to talk with him afterwards."
"Which means..." Ruby said, something hopeful in her voice
I smiled. Bloodied. Beaten.
Unbowed.
"Buckle up kids," I said, preparing to dash off into the rain. "We got twenty-four hours to put this bitch to bed."
Diamonds in the Rough
I stomped out the embers of my campfire and started walking back out of the forest, working out the cricks and kinks as I went. The ground wasn''t kind to people sleeping on it, but I hadn''t been any less comfortable than I could recall. Better at least than trying to navigate a floor made of invisible molten rock.
There still hadn''t been an explanation for that, or anything else. Frankly I was getting sick of it.
Despite my best efforts, it felt like any attempts to try and get answers about what was going on were being ignored. I couldn''t be the only one who thought that all of this made no damn sense. The only one with questions. It had all happened so suddenly, there was no reasonable way to work around it. No way to just say, ''oh well, that was weird''.
We all woke up one morning and were left shrunken, the whole world with us.
How was no one else freaking out about it? They were just going on with their lives like it was no big deal. Ruby was the one who should''ve been complaining the most about it. Little Miss milk-drinker.
Now the floor was made of liquid fire and apparently that was a normal occurrence. That wasn''t normal! I''ve been here for months! Weird as this place is, the floors weren''t normally on fire. Unless Ren was dancing because, damn, that boy could move.
Unfortunately, the only way I was going to get any answers to my questions was if I went back and asked. Which meant navigating a floor of liquid fire, if they hadn''t found their way back out by then.
Had to wonder about the floor being made of lava and not cooking them to death. Or how it didn''t eat through the ceiling of the level beneath us and kill everyone the next floor down. Though I quickly stopped wondering about it when I realized it was a Sisyphean task. The floor was lava and it didn''t eat through the building. Simple as that, logic clearly wasn''t something I could count on right then.
Despite that, trying to get a divorce with logic was like trying to get a Marked Man to use sunscreen: pointless and painful for everyone.
All I could do was trudge forward until I could figure out things.
As I began to walk back among the paths of the Beacon campus, I stumbled onto Jaune. Miraculously, he wasn''t sporting a black-eye from the other night. Shouldn''t have been surprised, his Aura was insane. Considering some of the things I''d seen him do with it, I guess it was a miracle I''d knocked him out at all. Even with it being a sucker punch.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"H-heeyyy, Weiss- uh- Schnee, this is Jaune- Arc¡ or the Arc family- last name Arc," he stuttered, his Scroll up to his head. "Aaanyways, I was just wondering what you were doing Saturday night- because I''m doing¡ Nothing!... uhm- which means- I could be doing something with you¡ yeah!"
I shook my head and walked past him as he suddenly tripped over a pebble and did a perfect backflip. He landed squarely on the top of his head as his Scroll flew out of his hand.
Could''ve said something snarky, but I wasn''t going to. Poor kid had been through enough recently. Thought he''d given up on Weiss, but I guess grief makes people do strange things¡ yeah.
I continued a little further down the path and was rewarded by running into two more people: Blake and Yang, both of whom I was glad to see had escaped the dorms no worse for wear. Maybe that meant the floor finally cooled down. Or maybe they''d taken the window down to the ground floor, I had no clue.
As it was, Blake and Yang were hopping about on the pathway, Blake easily dodging and slipping away from Yang as the latter tried to grab her. I wasn''t quite sure what they were getting at, but they seemed quite enthusiastic about it.
"Just¡hold¡still!" Yang growled between lunges. Blake, being catty, refused to comply, always staying just out of reach.
As they continued their bizarre dance, I casually walked up to them. Blake was the first one to notice me, and smirked as I kept pace with Yang.
"Hey Six," Blake said, dodging another grab from Yang.
"Hey girls," I replied, Yang turning and finally noticing that I was there. "Seems like you two are having-"
Taking the opening my appearance provided her, Blake suddenly backed away and shot off down the path, leaving me and Yang alone.
"¡ Ok then, I guess I''ll just ask you," I said, turning to Yang. "This might seem like a weird question but have you-"
Yang''s open palm suddenly slapped against my chest, blowing the wind out of me.
"Tag, you''re it!" Yang huffed.
Both of her Gauntlets then burst with gunfire as she rocketed away, almost the complete opposite direction of Blake.
I stood there, a moment, clutching my chest.
"¡ Fine, if that''s how you want to play it," I wheezed, angrily turning around.
I marched back down the path the way I came.
Not more than a few yards away, Jaune had returned to his feet and was still yammering into his Scroll.
"Hey- Weiss, um¡ I''m guessing you didn''t get my call from before," Jaune said, pacing in the pathway. "Maybe the tower''s messing up, or-"
Jaune cut off as he saw me approaching him, calmly.
"Oh, hey, Six," Jaune said. "What''s up?"
"You notice anything weird recently?" I asked curtly.
"Umm¡ not that I can think of?" Jaune answered, uncertainly.
"¡ Really?" I asked, gesturing to everything around us, along with my stump legs. "Nothing at all?"
"¡Are those new boots?" he asked.
"¡"
*whap*
I struck an open palm against him and bolted the other way. "Tag, you''re it!"
"¡ HEY!"
I didn''t give him time to catch up. Wasn''t going to get caught up in that any longer than I had to¡
Maybe Ruby and Weiss would know something.