Hello everyone, Nightengale here. Just so there isn't confusion, I'm going to be taking a few liberties with the timeline here, since I have yet to see any actual dates shown in the show. So I'm going to have this chapter tale place about a week after the last one, because that is what my best estimation is that it would take GMBL to make sure Tukson is out of Vale and safe. Also, just so everyone knows, there is going to be descriptions of torture in this chapter, so if it bothers you, you might want to look away. Anyway, onward to the new chapter!
A week later
The roar of three military grade ATV's is heard before a wheel is seen slowly rolling to a halt. As the engines shut down, we look up to see team GMBL disembarking from three jet black, Dust powered ATVs, Grun and Macht riding individually, while Blitz and Leere share one. After collecting their weapons and supplies from the DAT-V's (Dust powered All-Terrain Vehicle) they cover all three with surrounding foliage, making sure no one can spot them easily.
"I still don't understand how no one can hear us pulling up on these monstrosities, boss", Blitz says as he places his dual Tonfa into their wrist holsters.
Grun sighs as he tightens his gauntlets, saying "How many times do we have to go over this Blitz? Macht cancels out the sound by sending out subsonic vibrations that match and nullifies the sound of the engines." Once he finishes checking his equipment, he watches his team, Leere securing her Sai in their hip holsters, while Macht attaches his Kukri Swords to magnet holsters on his back. When he gets nods from them they all start walking to their destination, Mountain Glenn.
Upon entering the city, they are met with the sight of desolation and ruin, every building, road and sidewalk utterly destroyed and left to rot. "I can see why the Fang would work all the way out here" Macht says. "No sane person would willingly spend any amount of time here."
Grun nods in agreement, "That's why we are leaving as soon as we finish the job." As he finishes speaking, he sees a lone Beowolf wander onto the street they are on. It doesn't seem to notice them, so Grun quickly signals to his team, and the four of them leap onto a nearby rooftop, out of its and any other potential Grimm's line of sight.
"Why didn't we just kill it, Boss?" Blitz asks. "Several reasons." He responds with. "One, we need every advantage we can get, and we won't be losing the element of surprise by fighting every Grimm we come across. And we would be fighting more than just the one if we started something, because there is NEVER just one Beowolf. Second, it would be a drain on our time, energy and resources that we don't need to waste."
Blitz nods in understanding, not angry with losing out on a fight, just curious as to his leaders reasoning. As the three hops from rooftop to rooftop before settling into a worn down office building, they hear the roar of a Bullhead entering the city's airspace.
Grun quickly grabs his binoculars and watches it hover at roof level, hoping it would be Fang members that can lead them to their base. Unfortunately, he sees four young girls and a tall lanky man hop out before it takes off. Upon inspecting the four colorfully dressed teenagers, he sees that they are all armed and ready for a fight. Looking at the man, he curses under his breath. "Shit, Beacon students and a teacher."
Grun hands the binoculars to Leere and talks to Blitz and Macht. "Ozpin must've sent a team up here for a training mission. And they have Oobleck with them." Grun sighs as Blitz asks him, "What's wrong with that? I always liked Oobleck."
Grun glares at him and says, "That's the problem, neither of you would know subtlety if someone smack you in the face with it. Things are fixing to get loud here and fast." Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, a loud gunshot rang out, followed by the howl several Beowolves. What followed was a quick, one sided slaughter of Grimm, the four teens making quick work of the horde. GMBL stayed back out of sight, watching to see how skilled they are.
"Fierce, but sloppy." Macht comments as he watches the blonde brawler. "She fights passionately, but she loses focus, giving in to bloodlust. She leaves herself open more than she attacks, it's a wonder she doesn't get overwhelmed."
Leere watches the small girl in red, "She's fast, almost inhumanely so. But her weapon is twice her size. She seems to be the leader, and she is good at leading, giving orders quickly and her team follows well. Extremely acrobatic, she uses the recoil of her weapon for propulsion, making her move even faster and hit harder. And her eyes..." Leere's own eyes widen in realization "They're silver. She must be that prodigy Ozpin told you about."
Blitz watches the white themed huntress. "Fencer, well taught, good reflexes. Fighting style is extremely stylized and predictable, though. She moves around the battlefield like it's a damned skating rink. Proficient use in Dust, looks almost as easy as breathing to her." Blitz stops when he sees the symbol on her back. "She's a Schnee. I thought all Schnees went to Atlas?"
Grun grunts, "I had heard the middle child, Weiss, went against Daddy's wishes and joined Beacon. After Winter, you'd think the man would treat his kids better, but…" Grun stops as his eyes fall on the last member of the team. The long black hair, the dark amber eyes, the weapon she used, it was unmistakable.
"Blake," Grun whispers. The rest of his team quickly looks to their leader, shock on their faces. "Blake?!" Leere whisper shouts. "Ghira and Kali's Daughter?! The fuck is she doing here? She's supposed to stay MILES away from anything Fang related."
Grun shakes his head, "Hold on, it might not be Fang related. Oobleck is the biggest history buff we know; maybe he's showing them Mountain Glenn to tell them about what happened. We can't make the assumption that we're here for the same reason."
Leere glares at him a moment but eventual relents, nodding. "You're right, it's probably unrelated. What do you want to do?" Grun watches Blake for a moment, seeing as she happily interacts with her team, laughing with them after the fight is over.
"We leave them be, for now. They'll never grow and learn if we try to do all their fighting for them. We won't get involved unless they get overwhelmed. We have our own mission." MBL nods in agreement before taking off running, leaping from roof to roof until they are out of sight. Grun steals one last look at Blake, watching as she openly smiles at the blonde girl's antics. He lets a small smile grace his lips before taking off after his team, looking for a place to set up camp.
Hours later
As night finally falls, team GMBL are all huddled together, having lined their coats with small fire Dust crystals, a trick Blitz came up with to have a heat source without creating a fire that could give away their position.
Grun is eating an energy bar when his wolf ears perk up, having heard something his team couldn't hear. He lets out a quick, low hiss, his teammates quieting instantly. As Grun stalks toward the nearby window, he peeks down the side of the building. He sees two Faunus walking under the window, the white and black uniforms and stark white masks marking them as White Fang. Grun motions for the team, all of them collecting weapons before quietly stalking out of the building.
The four silently follow the two Fangers, hoping they would lead them to their base. Sure enough, the two grunts suddenly duck into a random single level house, before the sound of gears turning is heard. As the four run up to the door, they see a section of wall starting to close, prompting them to all take a running leap forward, all of them making through, though the wall almost closes on Macht, being the last to pass through.
All four circle up keeping a sharp eye and ear for any movement, but they quickly see that they are alone. They quickly follow the sound of receding footsteps, walking into a large open area just as the roof starts to crumble. Hiding behind some nearby pillars, they see the little girl from earlier fall down, before quickly being apprehended by the Fangers they were following. Grun sighs as he rubs his eyes, "Great," he grumbles "Trouble follows this girl like a damn dog. Alright, keep following, see where they take her."
Shortly after the interruption, the two grunts and their hostage are standing in front of a large train car, apparently waiting for something. "Why would they have a train all the way up here? The only set of tracks here would take them straight to…" Leere stops talking as realization hits.
Grun growls out, "Vale. That's what they needed all the bomb parts for; they are going to blow a hole right into the center of Vale." Before they can continue talking, they hear a voice come from the car, "Perry, what is it, I have had a heck of a day. Is it good news or bad news?" One of the grunts look to the girl and says, "It's a little girl." A few second later, Roman Torchwick sticks his head out of the car and says, "Oh that is very good news."
Blitz glares at Roman before he says, "Boss, if Roman is here, that ice cream psycho can't be far away. What are we gonna do?" Grun thinks a moment before saying, "We need to get information, and maybe we'll be able to stop the train as well. We capture Roman, hope we can subdue his partner, and disable the train. There is a room on the other side of the train, if we can get him in there, maybe Red can contact her team to take care of the train."
But before they can move, a shout rings out, drawing their attention to the rest of Red's team approaching Roman, led by…
"Is that a Corgi?" Macht asks incredulously. Blitz nods his head, hardly phased as he says, "Ya, didn't ya'll see it hop out of Red's bag earlier?" All three shake their heads no, before seeing Roman jump onto the train as it starts to move. "Fuck!" Grun shouts, "No time now, get Roman, leave the train to Oobleck!" GMBL breaks into a dead sprint towards the train, making it to the train before Roman spotted them.
Grun leapt first, catching Roman off guard, tripping him up before throwing him towards the room. Unfortunately, Roman collected himself quickly and started to fight against Leere and Macht, after the two caught up to him. He is holding them at bay, but it is obvious he is struggling. So he shouts out, "Neo! A little help!?" The sound of glass shattering is quickly followed by Grun catching a high heeled boot in his gut, launching him over Roman, before he rights himself and lands on his feet.
When he looks up, he's greeted by the sight of an extremely short woman, whose whole appearance is reminiscent of Neapolitan ice-cream, from her clothes, to her hair. She gives Grun a cute bow, her parasol gently resting against her shoulder as she smiles at him, a look of sweet innocence completely at odds with the power he just felt from the kick.
Grun growls as he extends the claws from his gauntlets, three eighteen inch serrated blades shooting out between knuckles on each hand. "Neo," he growls. "Your boss has info I need and you won't keep me from getting it." Neo only smiles wider as she straightens up, lifting her right hand up and curling her finger towards her palm; before waving her hand up and down, she almost like a paw batting at a toy.
"I'm a wolf," Grun yells at Neo, "Not a cat you fucking midget!" Neo frowns at being called such before she teleported right in front of Grun, driving her parasol towards his head. Grun knocks it away and swings at her with his opposite hand, his claws catching her necklace as it goes by, ripping them off. Neo looks down at the metal hanging from his claws, before looking up at Grun, a look of pure hatred and rage in her rapidly color changing eyes.
Before she has a chance to retaliate though, Blitz sneaks up behind her and jabs one of his Tonfa into her back, hitting her with as much electricity as he can muster, disrupting her concentration and knocking her unconscious, resulting in them being able to restrain her without her teleporting away. As the train is pulling away, they hear someone shout, "Grun?!" Grun looks back and is staring right into the eyes of Blake Belladonna, his older leaders daughter.
"What are you doing here?" As she is about to speak again, she sees that his teammates are still fighting Roman behind him. "Hold on," She shouts. "I'm coming to help!" Grun shouts before she can move though, "NO! You and your team have to stop that train! It's headed straight to Vale! We can handle Roman." Blake looks conflicted, but she nods before running along the train, it having pulled out completely and picking up speed.
As Grun turns his attention back to his team, he sees them finally subdue Roman, Leere knocking his cane away as Macht throws an elbow against his neck, rendering him unconscious. Grun uses several zip ties to bind Neo's hands and feet, before picking her up and carrying her to the room behind Neo, Macht simply grabbing Roman's leg and dragging him into the room as well.
After spending a few moments securing both Roman and Neo to chairs in the room, using special Dust infused Handcuffs to make sure they can't break free of them, as well as injecting them with special Aura suppressing medicine, to make sure Neo can't teleport away, they wake up both Neo and Roman by dumping water over their heads. Roman comes up sputtering and cursing, but Neo doesn't make a sound.
As Roman looks around, he finally sees who caught him. "Grun Gräuel, and here I thought you were dead." Grun smiles at him and shoots back, "And I thought you were a master thief, not some dumb muscle for hire. But, enough with the pleasantries, we're pressed for time."
Grun stands up, pointedly ignoring Roman's glare directed at him. As he stands in front of Roman, be crosses his arms and says, "I have questions, you have the answers I need. Answer my questions, and I will simply take you to the VPD and let them take care of you. Refuse to answer or lie to me, and I will hurt you in ways you never even thought were possible, then I will get the info from you. And afterwards, I'll tie you to my DAT-V and DRAG your sorry ass all the way back to Vale, and then throw you into the Vale PD…through a wall, for good measure."
Roman looked at Grun, completely unimpressed by his threats before saying, "Do you really think that you are the first person to try to break me for info? I can't begin to count how many times someone tried to strong arm information out of me. And each and every time, I sent them running with their tale between their legs." Roman smiled smugly at Grun, before sneaking a glance at Neo, though it didn't go unnoticed by Grun.
"Regardless, you WILL answer my questions. Who is in charge of this operation? How did they get the White Fang to follow them? What are they planning on doing? And finally, who ordered the hit on me and my family?"
Roman looks at Grun for a moment before laughing and saying, "What makes you think that there is anyone in charge above me? I got the Fang to help me by offering something even they couldn't refuse, money, a lot of money. We are simply trying to cause as much fear and chaos as possible to hide what we are doing, and as far as I know, your own LT., Adam was the one who ordered the hit."
Grun looks Roman in his eyes a moment before sighing tiredly. "I was so hoping you would be more cooperative and I wouldn't have to resort to this." Grun walks over towards Roman, his smug smile never leaving his face, until he walks passed him and stands in front of Neo, looking down at her dispassionately. "Hey," Roman shouts, "The hell are you doing? Neo has nothing to do with this."
Grun smiles as he reaches for Neo's arm, gripping it as he says, "Oh Roman, she has everything to do with this." Grun concentrates his semblance, Gravity Wells, pumping a small amount of his aura into Neo's left arm, centering two small spots on the back of her wrist and the middle of her triceps, forcing her arm straight up as it straightened itself out, before slowly pulling back against itself.
Neo's eyes are wide and her face is straining, obviously doing everything she can to fight the gravitational pull that forcing her arm into an unnatural position, but she can't get enough strength to her arm, the suppressant keeping her from pumping Aura into her muscles to strengthen them. Grun turns back to Roman and says, "She has about fifteen seconds before her elbow shatters. I can stop this, but you must give me the information I need." Roman doesn't say anything, he rears back and spits in Grun's face before shouting, "Leave her alone you sick fuck! Your beef is with me!"
Grun calmly wipes his face off before he looks back at Neo, snapping his fingers towards her, causing the gravity to ramp up, pulling her arm back instantly, snapping her elbow and forcing her wrist backwards, where it rests against her arms. Her face is twisted into a silent scream of pain, her eyes wide and white, begging Roman to make it stop. "I am going to ask you one last time, Roman." Grun walks up to Roman and grabs his chin in his fist, forcing him to look him in his eye as he speaks. "If you refuse to answer me again, I am going to walk over there, and do the exact same thing to her other arm, both her legs, and then I am going to shatter her spine. Then I will drag her out to the forest and throw her into a Borbatusk nest, and FORCE you to watch as she is helpless to defend herself as they rip her to shreds. Then I will put you through the same treatment, before throwing you in there so you can see her torn and broken corpse as they tear you apart." Roman feels his blood run cold as he hears all this, because the look in Grun's eyes tells him he is not bluffing in the slightest.
Roman looks at the floor and feels tears well up in his eyes. "Why are you doing this to her? She did nothing to deserve this." Grun places a hand on Roman's shoulder as he responds. "I know. It gives me no joy doing this, it is a disgusting practice. But, as I said, I NEED this information, and I will go to any lengths to obtain it. I saw how you were watching her. You care about her, like you've never cared about before. And we both know that men in our profession can shrug off almost any kind of physical pain. But emotional pain? Now that is something we just aren't able to ignore. Once we care about another, there is nothing we won't give to keep them safe. And if there is one thing I've learned, it's how to use that. Really, I should thank the White Fang, because they showed me just how much pain a man can feel with the pain and loss of a loved one. And if that pain or loss is a direct result of your own action or lack of action? It is multiplied exponentially." Grun stand up and walks over to Neo, who's eyes are red from the tears pouring down her face.
"Now," Grun says as he grabs her arm. "This will be the final time I ask you, who is in charge?" Grun squeezes her arms, causing her to looking to Roman, her eyes pleading to him. "Ok! Ok I'll tell you, just please stop hurting her." Grun nods as he walks away from Neo, crouching down as he pulls out a pen and a pad of paper. "Her name?" Roman grimaces as he spits out "Cinder Fall." Grun's eyes widen as he looks to Leere, who looks surprised, but other than that, she doesn't give off any other emotions. Grun nods as he looks back to Roman.
"Alright, how did Cinder get the Fang to fall in line with her?" Roman shook his head and said, "I don't know." Grun clicks his tongue as he rose to his feet. "I really thought we were past this." Grun starts walking back to Neo, the fear returning full force to her eyes. "Wait," Roman screams, "She never told me how she did it, I swear!" Grun stops walking but doesn't face Roman.
"All I heard was that her, Emerald and Mercury went there with money to try to convince the Fang. When that didn't work, they left, then came back and wiped the floor with everyone at the camp! I swear! That's all I know about it." Grun sighs as he turns around and walks back to Roman. "I believe you. So either she was hoping she could do it easily without fighting, and only fought after they refused. Or she COULDN'T fight the first time, and suddenly became strong enough to beat them all. But still begs the question, if she is so strong that she could bring the White Fang into line, why does she need them to begin with? Alright, what are Cinders plans? What's her end game?"
Roman thinks long and hard about this before answering. "I'm not sure." Grun raises an eyebrow, "But you have enough information to make a guess?" Roman nods before saying, "She keeps her plans close to the vest, compartmenting each specific group with a specific task, so that they can't see the whole picture. But I've caught enough gossip and second hand info to piece together; she intends to cause some kind of panic at Amity Coliseum. And she's going to use the Dust to do it."
Grun finishes writing all of this down, before asking his final question. "Who ordered the hit on me and my wife?" Roman shook his head, saying, "All I've heard was that the Albion Brothers had it out for some 'Traitor' who left the Fang." Grun growls after hearing this info. "Albion, damn Faunus supremist nutjobs. Alright, that should be all the info we need. Blitz, knock Roman out, Leere, fix Neo's arm, then knock her out too." Blitz and Leere both nod.
As Blitz uses his semblance to shock Roman unconscious, Leere walks to Neo and gently cradles her arm, prying it loose of itself and pouring Aura into her, coxing the bones to reset as they were, fixing torn muscles and ligaments back to the bones. After her last bone fragment is fixed, Leere moves away for Blitz to come over, but before he can, the sound of glass shattering fills the room.
In a split second, Neo is out of her chair and across the room, reaching for Roman. Blitz flares his Aura, creating a small dome of electricity around himself and the unconscious Roman, keeping Neo from reaching them. "Shit," Grun yells, "The suppresser must've burned through her system faster. Catch her!" Before they can move, however, glass shatters once more and Neo is gone, not a trace of her having been there. Everyone stays on guard a few moments, but when she doesn't attack, everyone relaxes. "She must've ran away." Macht says. "Think she abandoned him?"
Grun shakes his head, "No. She's probably going to wait until she can come back and bust him out of jail. Come one, we got what we came for. Let's go." As all four of them leave, heading back to their DAT-V's, Grun can't help but feel there is a piece of the puzzle they are missing. He loads Roman across the back of his vehicle and the three of them start heading back to Vale.
End AN: Well, here it is, Chapter 3. So far, I feel a lot better about this story. I'm going to cut this chapter off here so that I can dedicate the next one to "The Breach." Reviews, comments and such are always welcome to me. Again, I want to thank my good friend Nickshephard for beta Reading this story for me, and for letting me have my characters play around in his universe. Until next time, everyone, this is Nightengale, signing off.