This was a random idea I got in my head and couldn't shake out. Take it for what you will. I really ought to be studying for midterms.
Mercury Black considered himself to be good at his job. Exceptional, even. He had been trained to kill ever since he could walk, and even had the dubious distinction of being recruited by the premier group of evil doers in all of Remnant. He could fight fully trained huntsman, though he rarely gave them the opportunity. Why risk your own ass when poison or well placed explosives got the job done so well? The so called heroes of the world rarely expected such tactics, so caught up in defending mankind that they forgot what other humans were capable of.
On top of that, he had maintained an unblemished criminal record, despite his line of work. Dozens of high value targets that lead to nothing but dead ends and framed suckers. In fact, until the debacle in Vale, which he could and did blame on the utter incompetence of his boss, ordering an assassin of all things to break cover, no one had suspected him of anything worse than jaywalking. He had coasted through the Vytal Festival Tournament, cutting through the best talent the academies had to offer like paper mache, and was personally responsible for a great deal of headaches for Ironwood and his cronies in the following year.
Taking all that into account, his most recent bout was far closer than it deserved to be. The bruises and abrasions that zig zagged across his upper body, the drained aura and the faint streams of blood leaking from his wounds were a testament to that. But the prone body on the ground was medicine enough for him.
He tried to place the name, because he swore the figure before him was familiar. Someone from Beacon, he was certain of that. Local or transferred for the Festival... local. Why someone like that was in Mistral of all places was a mystery to him, and one that was not worth solving. He should have remembered anyone capable of giving him trouble, and this kid didn't make that shortlist. He sighed, leaning against the walls of the narrow corridors for support, indulging himself for the briefest of moments before he had to deal with the shit storm that had engulfed the rest of the base.
' Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Pyrrha Nikos...' he recalled, trying to piece together their files in his mental state. Yang's strength and durability were enough to give her a real chance to beat him in the finals, even if he wasn't ordered to throw that match. 'Still probably could have taken her.' Her runt little sister hardly seemed like much, just an overgrown four year old on a sugar high with a semblance to match. But those silver eyes... he had seen the number that girl had done on Cinder, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of that. And the late, invincible Pyrrha Nikos, who had managed to hold her own against the Fall Maiden, which was very respectable. He wasn't sure if Cinder's previous defeat of Ozpin was a point for or against the Spartan. She wasn't in a position to care about her score.
His eyes widened in recognition. This was Pyrrha's partner! Joan ... Jacque? Jaune. Jaune Arc. The nobody who had cheated his way into Beacon. The fool who could barely hold a sword, whose skill had placed him in the same threat level as a newborn puppy. Whose naive, friendly smile was matched only by his determination to get knocked on his ass, and his total cluelessness towards the opposite sex. Whose so called 'strategic genius' came across as a desperate attempt to avoid total obscurity in a school he had no business being anywhere near.
Those timid eyes were the same ones that had locked against his own, nothing but cold observation and determination bleeding through? The tactical prowess he had so callously dismissed the same that had lured him into a small hallway, where his mobility advantage had been entirely negated, and tricked him into opening his own defenses time after time while stubbornly keeping up its own? That scrawny rookie had managed sword and shield play that gave almost as good as he got, and had an aura capacity so large that Mercury feared he might never pierce through it? That utter weakling turned out to be the one who nearly did him in?!
Mercury lasehd out, kicking the wall repeatedly, leaving three large dents and a long crack in the abused stone and metal. 'No use getting angry about it now. He's dead anyway.' But still, for a while... no. Thinking like that was pointless. So what if this was the closest he'd come to death since his final bout with his father, when he had lost his legs and whatever remained of his tattered innocence?
He shot the body a cross between a glare and a salute. As screwed up as he may be, Mercury respected strength, and his opponent had shown it. " Jaune Arc. I'll remember the name." He muttered, before turning around, and walking away. Thankfully his legs were in full working order, the steady prosthetics entirely immune from pain. He preferred them actually. No matter what else happened, he'd still be standing. If he had been so inclined, he could say there was something poetic about that.
"Funky to Jury!" The radio crackled, as Mercury scowled.
"More pests."
"Funky to Jury, do you copy? Do you have the package?"
"Jury 3, over" a high pitched, familiar, dangerous voice replied. " We have the papers, and are headed to the evac point." The reaper paused. " Hey Weiss... where is the evac point?"
Even over the static of the radio he could make out a long suffering groan. "It's the docking bay we came in through you dolt! Can't you remember anything?".
A deeper, annoyed voice called out through the radio.
"Funky 1 to Jury 2. You do realize this is an open channel?" Mercury grinned involuntarily, imagining color the former heiress' face must be right now.
"We'll cover you, just be regroup, be ready to fight when we get there, and be quiet!"
Neither of the partners was willing to reply to that. That was fine by him. ' Assuming that both teams are full, there are at least three more hunters in the building, maybe seven. Hopefully FNKI is only going to be at the evac point. That still means three combatants, at decent strength, if the guards I roughed up were an average for what counted for muscle around here.'
Those odds were manageable if he could find them throughout the building and pick them off one by one, quickly enough that they couldn't figure out what was going one. But the brat and the bitch were almost certainly traveling together. And one of them was at the top of his flee on sight list. And he was exhausted to the point where even a semi-competent fighter could finish him off.
' I can get enough aura to block one or two shots in ten minutes. I can't delay any longer, and that's not going to cut it.' For a moment, Mercury considered cutting his losses, waiting for them to leave, and telling Watts exactly where he could shove it. He was only here waiting on orders from up top. Defending some podunk base on the outskirts of Mistral wasn't his job, and certainly wasn't worth dying for.
But he was sure that those papers were important, somehow. They probably had information on other locations, logistics, and the identities of moles within the enemy forces. Watts had a bad habit of keeping stuff like that written down, for the sake of his sacred 'organization', and Mercury couldn't think of anything else worth deploying two teams of increasingly scarce fighters away from the hordes tearing through Mistral. Salem would not be pleased if those details fell into Ironwood's hands.
'And Watts will pin the whole thing on me.' He thought grimly. He could see it now. 'You were present' he'd say in his pompous, condescending tone, 'and you failed to prevent a group of children from crippling our efforts.' He'd be Beowolf food, if he was lucky.
'Damned if you do, damned if you don't.' Ruby was fast, but she had to keep pace with Weiss in her high heels, and the office was about as far from the docking bay as you could get. If he hurried, and beat team FNKI, he could rig a couple fuel tanks, set them off at just the right time, then hoof it to the nearest settlement until one of his contacts found him. It was possible that one of the smaller airships was still intact, but he couldn't count on flying his way out.
So caught up was he in his murderous fantasies that he nearly missed the sword slashing from behind him. Years of training and hardwired instinct were all that saved him from the ancient bite of polished steel that opened up another gash on his back as he leapt forward. Turning back, in shock, he saw a bloodied mess of blond and white, trembling, but standing, and very much alive.
"That was close, Jaune." He remarked, nonchalantly, blocking out the agony in his back with a mixture of malice and mirth. "But not close enough."
"You're... not going to lay a finger on any of them." Jaune forced out, holding his stance and preparing for the inevitable counter blow. "Not... ever... again."
"I've gotta say, buddy," Mercury stated. "You are hard to put down." He kicked, sending a blast of air at just the right point on Jaune's shield, knocking it out of his grasp and across the floor. 'Stupid' he thought. The Jaune of two minutes ago wouldn't have made that kind of mistake.
"But you aren't half as smart as I thought you were." Mercury growled. He wanted to laugh at the pathetic parries Jaune's blade gave his kicks, delaying the inevitable by one moment more. Finally, one connected on his chest , a glancing blow, unfortunately, that knocked the shaken swordsmen to his knees by the equally battered wall. The blond refused to fall down, pointing the tip of his blade forward in preparation for one desperate, futile thrust.
"If you were, you would have stayed down."
Mercury prepared to pounce. A shot rang out. It wasn't his.
He howled in pain as the round grazed his arm, forcing him back. He whipped around, surprised to see another shock of blonde and gold approaching. His blood ran cold as he recognized the crimson eyes and voluptuous form of number two on the short list. Yang Xiao Long stood, five yards behind the knight, pure hatred in her eyes.
"Nice arm." He chuckled, looking at the smooth black metal that had once been flesh and and bone. "Personally I think a good prosthetic only helps your looks. Just look at yours truly." he gestured playfully towards his own legs, buying time.
Unfortunately, the beauty before him had no interest in small talk, closing the distance nearly as fast as he could backpedal.
He escaped her tunnel vision for a brief moment as she noticed the broken blond kneeling next to her. If it was possible, her gaze grew even darker, the sheer loathing cutting across the room as flickers of fire sparked around her, reminding him eerily of Cinder on a bad day. A bad day like this one.
Yang would have been a headache to deal with at top form, manageable, perhaps, but warranting caution. But now, when he was already near death's door, and outnumbered, as that boy, no matter how beaten he was, had proven he couldn't be underestimated, she was a death sentence. If he didn't think fast an angry Salem would be the least of his problems, and that was never a good thing.
Ten feet behind him there was a metal door, 5 inches thick and able to be electronically locked, for situations just like these. It could withstand Yang's fury for a minute, not two, but long enough for him to get the hell out of there. Getting behind it and closing it before she reached him was the hard part. She raised her good hand, Ember Celica's remaining gauntlet cocking for the incoming barrage on his unprotected flesh, and a brilliant idea sprung to him.
"Hey hot stuff,", he yelled, "think fast!" Before she could reach him, he fired off a storm of air bursts. None connected, at best throwing her own shells slightly off course, but he wasn't aiming for her. The abused wall, right next to Arc, suddenly began to creak and crumble from the impact, and the nearby roof panels sure to follow.
"It's either me or him, gorgeous." He winked. " I know you'll make the right choice." For a moment he felt a remarkable kinship with Jaune Arc. He had proved to be his near equal in combat, and now, both their fates laid in the hands of the blonde brawler. Either both lived, or both died. Yang didn't hesitate.
"Jaune!" she cried out, rushing back to block the incoming debris from crushing his defenseless form. Mercury leapt beyond the threshold and punched the combination in rapid fire. As the door closed he caught a glimpse of the buxom brawler struggling to hold a ton of concrete up long enough for her friend to scurry out of the way.
"You have shit taste in men!" He called victoriously, before rushing away as fast as his legs could carry him.
Jaune always tried to look on the bright side of things. The way things had been going lately, it was the only way he managed to stay sane. The silver lining of being beaten nearly to death was that you were still alive. The silver lining of a massive heap of stone falling two inches in front of him meant that he wasn't crushed and bleeding any more profusely than he already was. The silver lining of having Yang Xiao Long shaking with fury and turning a hefty portion of that stone into powder was that she wasn't furious at him, yet. Fragments of steel and stone bounced harmlessly off her aura as she dropped what was left of the wall.
"That dirty son of a bitch!" She started, and Jaune felt compelled to cut her off before a more colorful string of expletives followed.
" We need to warn the others." She frowned, before agreeing, and pulling out her scroll. "Jury 1 and 4, over. We've got one of Cinder's inner circle in the building. Mercury Black." She spit the names out like they were the foulest curses in her extensive repertoire.
"Any casualties?" Flynt Coal replied, nervously.
"I'm wounded, but I'll live." Jaune replied. He glanced at the team roster on his scroll. Yang's aura was deep in the yellow. His was nonexistent. "Jury 1 and 4 are both low on Aura."
"Copy. Link up with Jury 2 and 3 and head to the evac point. We'll be on the look out for new VIP."
The scroll stayed silent for a moment. Yang's eyes flicked over his wounds, irises tinting red before fading into a more tender lilac.
" He really did a number on you, Vomit Boy."
" Yeah."
Both fighters stayed still for a moment, both very acutely aware of how close this fight had been, how easily Jaune could have been just another friend lost, another statistic. It was humbling, to say the least.
The somber mood was broken by Yang, who inexplicably perked up, reminding Jaune that appearances aside, she was definitely Ruby's older sister.
" But never fear! Your guardian Yangel is here!" Jaune let out a pained groan.
"I am not in mood right now." The blonde wore an impish grin.
" I can tell. You look pretty Yanged up."
"Oh, you are just on fire today, aren't you."
She clapped his shoulder pad, doing her best to ignore his pained flinch. "You're learning!"
Jaune sighed. Blond, battered, taking on dangerous enemies alone and making puns?
"It's contagious."
Yang wagged a finger in his face. "I'll have you know that I am by far the best STD you'll ever catch."
"... Dammit Yang."
Yang's scroll buzzed, breaking the growing tension. "Ruby and Weiss will be here in five minutes." She glanced at the time, then him. "Take off your armor."
"Awfully forward today, aren't we?"
She lightly punched his arm, in a place she hoped wasn't hurt.
" No, but I am playing doctor. Give me the med kit."
Yang took a moment to appreciate the surreal quality of this exchange. Jaune carried the med kit because it was usually his job to treat the rest of them. It was rare that anything dented his aura enough for him to need it.
His torso was criss crossed with bruises, the gaps between his plates littered with cuts and scrapes, and his favorite hoodie was a complete mess.
" I have no idea if there's a seamstress alive who can fix this."
"Don't worry Jauney" she cooed " when Dad started teaching me and Ruby how to hunt at home , the first lesson was on how to Patch someone up." His eyes narrowed.
"If you want to kill me, you can just swing. One punch is all it would take."
She scraped away blood and shrapnel harder than she had to.
" That would be too easy Vomit Boy." She said, cheshire grin growing by the second.
" Why would I kill you when you're so much fun."
Jaune winced again, this time from the disinfectant, and gave her a resigned stare.
"Hit me with your best shot."
That was profoundly unfair. Yang had almost no time to come up with material.
" Well, I have wondered what you'd look like on your knees."
Jaune cocked an eyebrow at her as she bandaged one of his larger cuts. She got the message. Is that really the best you can do? Months ago, that would have had him stammering and red in the face. However, Jaune Arc had grown up with seven sisters, and then been teamed and roomed with two, and then three, very attractive young women. More importantly, he had been exposed to Yang on a daily basis. All these factors gradually chipped away at whatever remained of his modesty. Her teasing had lost quite a bit of its punch.
"Why, like something you see?" Yang gaped. He had also learned to counterpunch.
"I... I am so proud of you!"
"Eep!" Around the corner two familiar faces came around, one averting their eyes anxiously, and the other looking straight forward and non-plussed.
"For Dusts' sake, Jaune, put your shirt back on. You're almost as bad as Sun."
He looked down. Rendezvous was now, apparently. He could have sworn he'd have longer, but Ruby had probably sped all the way here, partner in hand. This was as patched up as he was going to get.
He tenderly replaced his torn up hoodie on his body, before linking together each plate of armor on the surface.
"Oh lighten up Weiss Cream."
"If you keep this indecent nonsense up you'll corrupt Ruby. Doesn't she have enough psychological issues?"
"Hey!"
"I was treating his wounds!"
"Is the banter really appropriate?"
As touching as this team building experience was, truly, Jaune felt the need the break it up. He forced himself to walk over to his shield and sheathed his weapon back at his hip.
"We need to move. The sooner the better."
He turned to Ruby. "Can I see the package?"
" Sir, yes sir!" She replied, childishly waving a large manilla folder filled to the brim with papers before shoving it back into her pack.
"Good."
Finding the urge impossible to resist, he turned his attention to Weiss. " As bad as Sun?" The faunus who was ridiculously toned and ridiculously comfortable displaying that fact?
" That's the closest thing to a complement you've ever given me."
The white haired girl harrumphed and began walking forward, cutting through the hole in the wall before turning towards their destination. Yang turned to him conspiratorially as he began walking of his limp.
" I think she's more of a Neptune."
"Oh well ."
"Better luck next time lady killer."
Weiss began walking noticeably faster, regal strides growing longer and longer. Ruby turned back with a smile and a stage whisper.
"I think the two of them are off right now." Weiss sped up further, until she was as far away from the group as safety would allow.
Yang dealt the finishing blow, relishing in the on/off/on relationship of her icy team mate. "Scandalous."
Weiss glared daggers, then froze in front of the entrance to the docking bay. Jaune pulled out his scroll. "Jury to Funky, we are at the evac point? Do you copy?"
For several seconds you could hear a pin drop as everyone awaited the response.
" Copy that, bullhead inbound, ETA 100 seconds. Clear the area and await pick up."
Jaune straightened up and turned to Weiss.
"What are we looking at?"
Weiss concentrated as a thin grey glyph spread out across the ground.
" 17 guards, standard weapons. Sub par skills. No aura users."
Of course. After their entrance, the building had been too quiet. The survivors must have all headed to the docking bay after it was announced as the evac point.
"Any explosives?"
"Aside from some scattered dust and fuel, no."
"Alright. Yang and I will take point, Weiss, provide support with your glyphs, Ruby, stay back and provide covering fire."
This was basically standard procedure for these situations. Ruby and Weiss had a more varied arsenal and excellent mid and long ranged weapons. He and Yang were the damage soakers.
"Hold it." Weiss handed him a pistol. " I picked this off one of the goons after your encounter with Mercury . You're in the back with Ruby."
Jaune was about to point out that he couldn't hit the broadside of a Beowolf but Weiss gave no room for argument. Of course the fact that his aura was completely drained would make his career as a bullet shield short lived. "Just stay back and try not to die."
A sea of rose petals engulfed her. "Oh Weiss, you do care!" Ruby cried, arms wrapped awkwardly around the older girl. Yang and Jaune glanced at one another and then broke out into laughter.
"Get off me you oaf!" Weiss shook the red reaper off with increasingly petulant movements. "I am just trying to ensure that no one gets killed before they have to."
Ruby shrugged. "It's progress." She turned to Jaune, grinning from ear to ear. "Sniper squad?" she asked, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. In spite of himself, Jaune smiled back. "Sniper squad."
The ensuing melee was madness. The guards nearest to the door went down instantly, one from an uppercut to the face, and another from a rapier to the throat. Long gone were the days of non lethal force. These were soldiers serving Salem herself, the creature who wanted to raze civlization into nothing but ash.
Another six were taken out by sniper fire in the following five seconds. All of those kills, naturally, belonged to Ruby, who easily carried the 'sniper squad'. The best Jaune managed to do was force one of the goons behind cover so he couldn't shoot at Yang. He really lacked accuracy in any meaningful sense, so he had to angle all of his shots away from his team. Which, when two of them were in a close combat melee with all the other fighters, was difficult.
Luckily, the two of them hardly needed help. Weiss had frozen two soldiers in ice in as many seconds, electrocuted the third and after some effort incinerated the fourth.
Yang was an angel of death, fists pounding relentlessly on everything she could get her hands on in a golden maelstrom of shattered bones. She was also reckless, more so than usual, falling back into old bad habits and letting too many hits get through. On the ninth and final minion, her aura flickered and died. The man grinned eagerly, before a single, semblance fueled punch knocked him halfway across the hanger, skidding painfully across the floor. The fight was over as soon as it started.
"Well, that takes care of that." Jaune said, unconvinced, and dodging a high five from a disappointed Ruby. He looked over the surrounding area, watching for any sign of Grimm. 'It's not paranoia when the world is out to get you.'
"Jury 2 to Funky, we have cleared the evac point."
"Copy, we have eyes."
Jaune looked up and saw an Atlesian bulkhead preparing to touch down, with four junior huntsman watching dully from it. They were supposed to provide support in case of a hard exit. Now it seemed they were getting a milk run.
Of course they weren't, Jaune thought, as soon as he heard the sound of artillery and saw the shaking airship get pummeled as it approached.
" I thought you said it was clear!" At this point Flynt had dropped all pretext of code names.
"It is!" Ruby replied hastily. "We took out all the guards, and we disabled the AA guns when we got here!"
"Are you like, sure about that, because a few explosions beg to differ." Another, irritating voice came through.
"Neon, now is not the time!"
"I'm just saying that if we were sent in there, we would know if the guns were on."
Jaune scowled. "They were off. Someone must have turned them back on."
JWRY exchanged knowing glances.
"Mercury?" Ruby asked.
"Mercury."
With a lurch, the bulkhead turned around, and four hunters in training leaped onto the platform. Flynt approached quickly, surrounded by Neon and two unfamiliar faces.
"Lets take care of introductions. Kane, Ivory." he gestured to his two team mates, one with black hair and the other with silver, one carrying a disco-ball flail and the other what appeared to light sticks filled with dust. FNKI had weird weapons, but they were always formidable. "Team JWRY".
Jaune nodded abruptly. "How much time do we have?"
"Five minutes. The bulkhead took a beating and it's running low on fuel. If we don't take out those guns, we aren't getting out of here."
"Why did you come down, then?"
Neon interjected herself into the leaders' conversation. "Because it was so boring up there. We've been stuck in the air for hours playing C&C while you guys have all the fun."
Jaune cocked his head and pointed to the myriad bandages covering his body. "It's been riveting."
Ruby, meanwhile, had rushed behind them to the center control panel. " I've got this. We disabled it even when we had to sneak past all those guards, and we can do it again!" She manically reached for the keyboard as Jaune frantically grabbed her.
"Don't touch that!"
"Why n-" Ruby began, before a deafening blast filled the room. Jaune had pulled the petite girl back just in time, her aura shielding both of them from the worst of the blast. The remainder of the squad were also knocked back, stunned.
"What the hell was that!" Yang yelled, frantically looking her sister over for injuries.
"Mercury rigged the console to blow after switching it back on." Jaune said, brushing off more debris and feeling the new singes on his abused jacket. " He knew we'd try and turn the AA's off."
As the group shook of the shrapnel and regained their balance, Kane asked the obvious question.
"How did you know he would do that?"
Jaune shrugged nonchalantly. "It's what I would do."
The group remained silent for a moment, before Flynt broke the tension.
"Remind me to never piss you off."
Jaune's lips cracked upward sardonically ."Sure thing."
"So what now?" One of Flynt's team mates, Ivory, asked.
"Now we have to split up." Jaune began reluctantly. "There are two AA guns, about 100 yards apart, on the East and West sides of the hangar. Weiss and Ruby will take the east, Ivory and Kane can take the West."
Those were the players he assumed could deal out the most destructive damage at the moment. Yang could cause quite an impressive explosion when she wasn't bone dry , but Aura exhaustion tended to limit your options. Flynt and Neon seemed to be more suited to man to man combat than unbridled destruction. Kane and Ivory... well, he couldn't be sure about them, but they looked the part.
The assembly broke as the respective partners went off to do their jobs, KI with a respectful nod, WR with a grimace and a grin. Every foot they spread apart made Jaune more nervous.
"What are we supposed to do? Stand around! I'm sick of doing nothing." Neon moaned.
"Yes."Jaune said.
"You don't seem to happy about this." Flynt noted.
"What clued you in?" Jaune asked, perplexed. He had hoped he wasn't that easy to read.
"Oh, I dunno," Neon began, "maybe the paranoid flitting of you eyes across the entire hangar, the look on your face that screams 'we're going to die!', and the fact that every muscle in your body is as taut as a rope that's about to snap."
Yang chuckled. "So? This is Vomit Boy's resting expression." Neon's eyes widened.
"Vomit boy?"
Flynt sent Neon a look that begged 'Don't ask', so of course she did.
"It's a joke from how we first met."
Neon's tail wagged in delight at that.
"Oh!" she squealed. "That sounds SO romantic."
Flynt sent Neon another one of his looks, and if Jaune had to wager it was the 'not all partners are couples, please shut up' face. The detail of that signal was incredible given how little Neon seemed to care about it.
"I barfed all over her shoes." Jaune deadpanned, very happily killing the mood.
That seemed to leave Neon speechless, which was a rare event as far as Flynt was concerned. The blessed, blessed silence lasted for several precious seconds, the calm before the inevitable storm. 1...2...3...4..
" AND YOU'RE STILL ALIVE? HOW? YOU SHOULD BE SIX FEET UNDER BY NOW!" she shouted incredulously. If Flynt had so much as touched her skates when they first met he would be bloody paste under the Atlas sewers.
A look of sadness flashed briefly across Jaune's face, followed by a red glint in Yang's eyes, and if Flynt had to wager, this was a sore spot for them, and a can of worms he did not want to open.
He tugged on Neon's tail, paralyzing the faunus and ending what was becoming a very painful conversation.
"You were saying, Jaune?" He asked hopefully.
" I wanted to say," he started " that Mercury's probably going to attack us."
Jaune pointed to two small airships, simple to pilot and built to carry no more than 2 men, each about 15 feet away from them. "If he can't kill us, he at least wants to leave. Setting up the AA would stop reinforcements from arriving, and hopefully kill whoever tried to disarm the console, but it was also a way to send our attention away from the ships and towards the guns. Once the AA's are offline, he can slip past us and take a ship out of here. At the very least, he's pulled all the heavy hitters away."
"So we split into teams of two and each guard a ship so he can't get away?" Flynt asked.
"Yeah." Jaune turned around again, looking for any signs of blue or grey that would give his opponent away. "I could be paranoid, but my guess is Mercury would rather not walk miles across Grimm infested territory when he could fly."
The territory surrounding the Kingdoms had always been a hotbed of Grimm activity, with the creatures waiting for the might walls to crack just enough for them to crawl in. With the maddening war without rhyme or reason, and dozens of gangs all knowingly or unknowingly serving Salem, and all the suffering that came with it, the situation went from bad to worse. Anyone would be pushing their luck walking around in Mercury's condition.
"Also, Yang and I are both exhausted, which makes us soft targets." Jaune began.
To his surprise, Yang nodded. Funny, she wasn't usually the type to admit that sort of thing.
"So, you want me and Neon to pair up, while you and Flynt cover the other ship."
"Yeah. That way, there isn't an obvious target."
Booms and shudders began to fill the hangar as their team mates laid into the AA guns. The skies would be cleared for flight sooner rather than later.
" We don't have much time, we need to split up now!"
Flynt moved to join Jaune, but in that moment, he released Neon's tail. Furious did not begin to describe her reaction.
"Are you insane?" She yelled, stopping the boy in his tracks. " You know I hate it when people do that, Flynt, my tail's sensitive."
She glared at Yang and Jaune as well, anger spreading out for whatever reason.
"And I heard everything. No way in hell am I partnering up with Vomit Boy or Vomit Girl!"
"Hey!" Yang shouted indignantly "you can't call me that!" ignoring the obvious hypocrisy of that statement.
"Neon, be reasonable!" Flynt began.
" I am being reasonable. What's unreasonable is paralyzing a girl by grabbing her tail when she isn't ready! You know that there are only a handful of circumstances when you can do that, and in public is not one of them!" Neon paused, glaring at the two onlookers. " And if you ever want to do it again, then you and I are sticking together now."
Flynt looked helplessly over at the two blondes.
"Flynt," Yang said dangerously. "Didn't you just say you never wanted to piss Jaune off?"
The boy hesitated, but apparently, when given the choice between and angry Jaune and an angry Neon, he chose Jaune. Seeing the ever calm Flynt Coal dragged away by the tail of his angry ... partner? ... would have been amusing if it didn't significantly increase his chances of dying today.
"That boy is whipped." Yang muttered, getting into position while Jaune looked inside the craft, making sure that Mercury hadn't already slipped inside.
" I know." He replied, rolling his eyes. "Crazy what some guys are willing to do to get some tail."
The joke was punctuated by two very loud bangs and an eager call of "Yes, combat skirts for the win!". The AA's were off line, and their own ship still about two minutes away. Show time.
" Jaune Arc!" Yang called out. "That is my line!" She pouted as if someone had taken her favorite toy right from under her nose."You're stealing my thunder!"
"Well" he drawled, " in times like this, you can either laugh or cry, and weeping right before my inevitable doom sounds very bad right now." He slumped against the metal of the fuselage, knowing that if Mercury was ever going to make his move, it would be now.
"I really have been a bad influ-"
Whatever Yang was going to say was drowned out by the high pitch whine of a rocket propelled grenade slamming right into Flynt and Neon's airship, right in the fuel tank. The explosion probably wouldn't kill them, full aura was useful like that, but it would certainly keep them out of the game long enough for the assassin to escape. Which meant his new target was them. 'Wonderful'.
A blue blur darted towards them, faster than either could easily make out. Yang fired twice, each shot connecting but not having any effect on their target. 'Of course his aura's back.' Jaune thought angrily. 'Because everything that can go wrong will.'
Once the gap between them was closed, Mercury shot out a jet of wind from his legs, harsh enough to cut through flesh. Jaune couldn't blame him for targeting Yang first, who at this point was obviously the bigger threat. He didn't care if Mercury blamed him for pushing her out of the way. The man would have to be happy with punching a hole through his abdomen instead.
Pain rushed through every cell in his body, but it was a strange kind of pain, so potent and all consuming that it became abstract, as if he were merely an observer rather than the recipient. Time around him seemed to crawl to a stop. For what seemed like an eternity he stared into Yang's eyes, pretty face marred by a look of shock and horror. 'Not the worst view if you've got to die' he thought dully, before his body spun around from the impact to face the decidedly less pleasant visage of his would be killer.
Mercury's leg was still extended, traces of wind emanating from what must have been a hell of a round house kick, and a very satisfied smirk coloring his face as he basked in his victory, and invulnerability. Jaune felt the heavy weight of Crocea Mors at his hip, and the pistol in his palm. Normally he couldn't hit anything with a gun, but at point blank range, and when he had so much time to line up the shot...
He didn't hear the round so much as see it. He saw the nearly imperceptible widening of Mercury's eyes before the shot slammed right between them, taking the assassin down to the floor with the final blow. He hit the ground first, of course, and could only stare at the ceiling, but he could rest easy. It was done.
'The sky is a lovely shade of blue today' he thought dimly, the previous clarity fading out. '...Lilac, with a golden sun.' His dull eyes met two lilac orbs, and it started to rain. 'Funny' he tried to make sense of the growing blur in front of him, ' I've never seen her cry before.' He felt hands, one warm and one cool, clutching his stomach, trying to stop the bleeding, probably.
'It's almost dusk', he thought, the sky contorting with pink lips desperately mouthing his name. From the corner of his eye he saw a rush of cloudy white as the red cloak of evening crept towards him, and the crack of thunder that sounded eerily like them calling out to him. Then everything changed. He wasn't team leader of JWRY, behind enemy lines. He was lying in a sleeping bag in the forests of Anima, co-leader of team RNJR, with Ren holding a solemn vigil. Nora, lazy as a sloth, curled up next to an exhausted an even more innocent Ruby Rose.
Then he was back at Beacon, with the clock by his bed reading well past midnight as he lay there, body aching from a grueling day of training. His only consolation was a beaming green gaze that met his own. 'You've done well Jaune' she said, emerald pools brimming with pride. 'Now get some well earned rest. We've got a busy day tomorrow.' Rest, that sounded nice. A chance to catch his breath before dealing with the coming pains of tomorrow. 'Goodnight Pyrrha', he thought, as for the second time that day, everything faded to black.