Author Notes: I'm getting really bad at posting these things in a reasonable time, sorry about that. Anyways here's chapter 4! Hope you enjoy!
What It Takes
Chapter 4: Sparks
A man was walking down the streets of Vale around 8 pm. The night breeze brushed against his black suit and tie as he walked. Black shoes crunched against the pavement and his black pant legs brushed against each other as he approached his destination. He had on a bowler hat that covered his close cropped black hair. His tall muscular build was intimidating to most people while his white skin shined in the moon light. As he walked down the street, he looked around with his cold gray eyes at the buildings surrounding him. Eventually he spotted the one he was looking for, the police station, and approached it.
He walked in and saw three police guards. Two were sitting at their desks, typing in entries for criminals they had recently apprehended. The third was at a reception desk and was in the middle of a call with his boss. The man with the bowler hat approached the guard at the reception desk, the man held up a finger signaling him to hold on. He hung up when he was done with his call and turned toward the man in the bowler hat.
"May I help you?" he asked pleasantly.
"Yes," the man in the suit said gruffly, "I have an appointment with Sapphire Vex."
"You're name?"
"Topaz Vex," the cold eyed man replied.
The receptionist smiled, "Oh you must be her uncle. She mentioned you would be coming by."
He turned toward one of the other guards, "Hey Moss, show this man to the detective office."
The man named Moss nodded, and led Topaz to a door behind the reception desk. They walked down a hallway with doors and to the elevator at the end. Moss pushed the up button on the elevator.
"You wanted the detective's office on the second floor right?" he asked.
"No," Topaz grunted, "I wanted to go the cells on B2."
Moss was confused now, "But I heard you tell Dusty that you wanted the detective's office."
Topaz smiled menacingly at the police guard, which made Moss very uncomfortable.
"Oh right," the gray eyed man realized, "I forgot."
Moss never saw the punch coming until it had already hit him straight in the face. He fell to the ground, knocked out cold.
"I lied," spoke Topaz quietly and entered the elevator that had just arrived. He hit the button marked B2 and the doors closed quickly.
Standing in the elevator, the suited man watched as the numbers on the elevator changed from 1 to B1. However, between B1 and B2 the elevator stopped before reaching its destination. A voice on the intercom spoke out to the entire building.
"Attention, a man in a suit and bowler hat has infiltrated the building and is heading to the prison cells; stop him, use force if necessary."
Topaz sighed, of course someone saw me, he thought, oh well it doesn't matter; they can take all the time they want preparing for the elevator to come.
He reached into the pocket on the inside of his jacket and pulled out his black brass knuckles. He put them on his hands and switched them into their compact pistol form. Arms at his side, the elevator started again, descending down to B2 and the cells. Slowing his breathing down, the man prepared for the elevator door to open.
Ding!
His face snapped up, the doors opened and Topaz lifted his guns, shooting at every single guard in the lobby area of the floor. Several shots connected with each target, whether it was their leg, head or chest. Within minutes of entering the floor, every guard in the room was either dead or incapacitated. The man emptied his guns of the empty cartridges and reloaded new ones. After he had finished reloading, he felt a pistol placed against the back of his head.
"Hello, 'Topaz'," the woman spoke quietly and calmly.
The man smiled, "It's been a while 'Sapphire'," he replied.
He turned around to face her. She had her red hair tied up in a ponytail and wore a blue fedora on her head. She had thin, black rimmed glasses, fair skin and blue eyes. She wore a white shirt and red tie with a black jacket, pants and shoes. She held her pistol right at the man's eye height.
"The place secure?" asked 'Topaz', as if engaging in simple conversation.
The woman lowered her weapon, "Yes, if by secure you mean everyone is dead."
The man shrugged, "Oh well, they had it coming."
The woman shook her head, "Guards will be here any minute now."
"Well then, give me the card key to the solitary confinement," replied 'Topaz', "also do you know where the weapon is?"
'Sapphire' threw a card key at him, "Here," she said, "the weapon is in the room right before it."
"Convenient," remarked the man.
"Just finish quickly so we can get out of this dump," replied the woman, "I can only give you so much time."
"Got it," he replied, and opened the door to the weapons chamber. He looked around and found what he was looking for. A steel gray sledgehammer was leaning against the wall in the corner. The man walked over to grab it before he was stopped.
"Freeze!" yelled the guard.
The man turned around to face one guard in a nice blue uniform. He must have been new to the force and was eager to be the one to capture the intruder. It would probably lead to a big promotion.
Unfortunately, thought the suited man, today is not his day.
He raised his gun quickly and fired. The bullet hit the officer right between the eyes, killing him instantly.
"Too bad," commented the man, grabbing the sledgehammer as he spoke, "a few more years and you would have been able to block that with your aura."
Putting his pistols away into their knuckle form, he slung the hammer over his shoulder and walked toward the door that led to solitary confinement.
"Even still, their aura training is not extensive enough to stop me."
He slid the card key into the slot on the side of the door. He heard a click and opened the door.
Inside, the room was nearly pitch black except for one light bulb in the middle of the room, lighting up a huge figure sitting against the wall.
"What do you want now?" the figure spoke in a deep growling voice.
The man in the bowler hat smiled, "I'm here to make use of someone who is just rotting away in here."
The figure stood up and stomped over towards the man in the suit. When he came into the light, his features became more noticeable. He was a giant of a man, with a muscular physique that seemed to be popping out of the orange jumpsuit he was wearing. His face was heavily scarred, with brown skin, eyes and hair. On his head were the ears of a grizzly bear, showing his Faunus heritage.
"Who are you?" the Faunus asked, his voice rumbling like an earthquake; if the man in the suit was not on the Faunus' side, he may have been a bit intimidated.
"I am Cole Axenus," the man in the suit answered, "I suppose you are Roano?"
The hulk of a man nodded as his eyes boring into Cole's.
"Well I have a proposition for you," continued Cole, "I am planning on making the world a more equal and fair place for everybody, including the Faunus."
That got Roano's attention as his ears perked up so as to listen to what Cole had to say.
"The thing is, I need you to help me to do it," finished Cole.
Roano stood quietly, mulling over his options.
Finally, he nodded and asked in a deep voice, "What do you want me to do?"
Cole smiled an evil smile. He grabbed the hammer slung over his shoulder, "First, take this and help us get out of this place."
A glint of hunger caught in the Faunus' eyes, as he stared at his old weapon. With one hand he grabbed it and slung it over his shoulder like it was a toy.
"Well let's get started," he said with a murderous grin.
The woman was pinned down behind a desk as she fired at the guards trying to get in. She had already removed her fake glasses and hat, and undone her ponytail, letting her long hair flow down. Her outfit was in tatters as she fought off the guards here.
This is getting really old, thought the woman as she shot down two more officers, where is Cole?
She fired again at the guards, until she realized the pistol was out of bullets. She tossed it aside and reached inside her coat to pull out two steel fans. Coming out of cover, she threw her fan at one of the guards, hitting him back against the wall. The fan came back to her, and she closed it up. Charging up the dust canister inside the fan, she opened it up partially, and fired a blast of fire at the guards in cover.
Suddenly, Cole and Roano appeared from the other room. Cole moved quickly and shot at a couple more guards, before taking cover behind a pillar.
"Coralia!" Cole shouted over the gunfire, "Is Olivia here with the ship yet?"
"She is waiting for our signal," Coralia answered.
"Okay Roano," Cole commanded, "let 'em have it."
Roano took his hammer in one hand, and with the other popped up two handles from the hilt of the hammer. The weapon then began to transform until it resembled the form of a mini gun. Turning the gun toward the guards, he opened fire.
The gun whirred and let loose a stream of bullets into the area where the guards were, shattering all forms of cover and putting bullet holes in the wall behind them. When he had finished, nothing was left but broken pieces of desks and bodies on the ground. Coming out from behind cover, Cole and Coralia surveyed the damage.
"Certainly not a stealth mission," commented Coralia.
"We disguised you to learn more about the place," stated Cole, "other than that we did what we needed to do.
"Let's just get out of here," replied Coralia.
They got in the elevator and reached the first floor. When they exited the elevator, they noticed that there was no one there.
"They must have evacuated," observed Roano
"Oh, he speaks and kills," mocked Coralia
To this, Roano glared at her and growled.
"Yikes," uttered Coralia, unimpressed, "new member's got teeth."
"Argue later," intervened Cole, "let's get out of here first."
They opened the front doors and saw a massive amount of police forces. Officers, cars, trucks and helicopters, all pointed directly at the three of them.
"Attention Topaz, you are completely surrounded; give up now or we will shoot."
Roano growled menacingly, but Cole held him back, he nodded to Coralia, who pressed a button on her belt.
Cole motioned to Roano to lower his weapon as he himself put his away in his inner jacket pocket. Roano lowered his hammer and Coralia put away her fans at her belt. They all held up their hands to the sky, as the police slowly approached them.
As if on cue, an airship flew in from over the police building. However, this airship was not there to transport the criminals. It opened fire on the entire police force, blowing up copters and cars alike. All of the officers took cover to get out of the way of the airships bullets. The doors to the airship opened as it continued to fire at the police.
Cole quickly grabbed Coralia's and Roano's arms, "Time to go," he said. And with that, smoke appeared around them as he teleported them straight into the airship.
"Go!" shouted Cole, and the airship took off into the air.
"You know," Coralia commented as she caught her breath, "I will never get used to that teleportation thing you do."
"Sorry for the discomfort," replied Cole sarcastically.
"Hello there!"
Everyone turned to see a girl with olive skin, short brown hair, and hazel eyes. She had small green hoop earrings and wore pink lip gloss. She was of average height for a woman and wore a camo green tank top with black shorts and an ammo belt that she wore diagonally across her waist. She also wore black and green running shoes.
"Roano this is Olivia Lockewood," Cole said formally, "Olivia this is Roano Brooten our new member."
Olivia looked at the huge man before her, "Welcome! We are going to accomplish so much with you on board."
Roano looked at her curiously, "Shouldn't you be piloting the ship?"
Olivia laughed, "Naw, it's on autopilot. No hassle that way."
Olivia walked over to Coralia and started asking her about how the prison break went.
"So what next?" inquired Roano to Cole.
Cole turned to Roano, "Next we head to the Vale branch of the Schnee dust company," he replied, "they have a certain project that I am interested in."
Roano frowned, "Sounds like a normal infiltration mission, what you need me for?"
"People have tried to infiltrate the company before," Cole continued, "however, there are several huntsmen who work for the company, making it very difficult."
"You want me to take care of them," stated Roano.
Cole smiled, "You are quick," he remarked, "I want you to take care of a specific individual named Rigel. I will give you an address once we are prepared to launch an assault."
Cole walked over to a map of Vale that highlighted what they needed, "Soon, the world will fear the name: Team Charcoal."