The Second Step: Chapter 10
Serpent's Nest
A/N: Here it is. The big one. DeLarge. Alex DeLarge, to be precise. This chapter may very well surpass ten thousand words. I'll clear fifty thousand words with this chapter. I hope you'll all grateful.
I am enjoying the story though. It's a fun project. I have three more full length stories planned, and a dozen more one-shots. They're be published eventually.
But hey, on to the story.
(Thursday)
"Pyrrha?"
"What Jaune?"
Jaune looked over his shoulder, still running. "Why are we running from the Mob?"
"I don't know?"
"Okay."
An empty room.
That's all that remained of team JNPR. The room had been emptied of every weapon available, along with a change of clothes, and whatever money the four could scrape together. Examining the room would only reveal these facts, and if an observer should take note of the beds, they would see the slight deflections and unkempt markers of a long night and hearty sleep following it, ending with a morning where the residents vacated early.
And if one took a moment to check the papers scattered within the waste bin however, the only reaction that could suffice would be...
...pure shock.
"Ren! I'm bored! Are we there yet?
Jaune and Pyrrha glanced at each other. While Nora happened to be their fried and one of the more interesting people they'd met in a long time, she also had a penchant to be oddly reflective of their own internal thoughts.
That or just annoying, but then, Nora was a little loopy.
Ren pointed at an enormous monorail station suspended over the road at the end of the street. "Almost there Nora. Just wait."
"Yay!" Nora did a little hopscotch dance in glee. Jaune, however, saw the station and only reacted with pure dread.
"Oh no. No. No no no. NO. I refu- No. I'm not riding that thing."
Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow. "Jaune, it's just city transportation. I know it's bad in Mistral, but wouldn't Vale be doing better?"
"It's not that, Pyrrha. The Vale suspension railway hangs from the track and swings." Jaune's face was beginning to turn green in anticipation for the nausea inducing ride. Pyrrha rolled her eyes.
"Jaune, it's only a train. Surely you can handle that?"
Jaune shook his head as the team passed into the shade of the suspended station. "I've ridden this thing three times in my life, and each one was the worst ride I'd ever had."
"Three different rides are each the worst. Wow Jaune." Pyrrha smiled lightly. "Don't worry. I'll be there with you. And you can always activate your Aura."
Jaune stopped at the stairs, seeing how they went up and up and up. "You can tell that to my stomach."
"Climbing the stairs, going to extort mafia-."
"Nora." Ren silenced his singing teammate, leading both Jaune and Pyrrha to stifle a laugh. Okay, sometimes Nora was too random, but other times she could be very on the mark for comfort.
The quartet ascended the stairs and were soon climbing into the hanging railway.
Why did Vale have a suspension monorail, where the cars dangled over empty air from a single rail and swayed on the corners? Why, because it's fricken awesome! Shame on you for imagining otherwise.
Of course, Jaune soon began to turn green and his breathing became deeper and more erratic. Pyrrha put one hand in his own and snapped her other in front of his face.
"Uh, Pyrrha? What was that for?" Jaune asked.
"People used to think snapping your fingers dispelled static electricity. It doesn't, but it does activate the Aura of someone who has their own, but can't activate it." Pyrrha squeezed Jaune hand as white light flow imperceptibly across his body. "You should feel better." Pyrrha huffed.
Pyrrha started to turn a little green.
Jaune took a couple deep breaths himself and looked a little better. "Thanks Pyrrha. Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha smiled weakly. "I'm sorry. Just a little...sick. Didn't know motion sickness was contagious."
"It isn't." Jaune watched on, looking concerned as Pyrrha activated her own Aura. He'd always found it so strange how Aura seemed to trick the senses. It was like seeing something you just knew was deeper and more complex, but so unnatural that your body could only throw up the comparison of weak white light. It was almost like Aura was...alien to the senses.
Ren checked the pair, seeing the odd interaction between them. It always caught him as strange that Jaune, being the type to hit on whatever moved and was vaguely female shaped, never flirted with Pyrrha or noticed her obvious affection for him.
Maybe he was just the kind of guy to go for the impossible-to-win girl. Or maybe he was trying to get Pyrrha jealous. It escaped Ren, how the people native to Vale could be so weirdly engaged in their love lives. In Atlas, all you did was get paired off with someone by the government, and that was that.
Ren's mind suddenly threw up the example of his parents, who immigrated from Atlas to Vale so they could marry, but he squashed down the fact. His parents didn't count.
"Hey Ren?"
Ren turned to look at Nora, and for a moment caught a look of fear upon her features, before it was buried deep beneath a self-confident smirk and a haughty cock of a hip. "Think we'll pull it off?"
Ren thought about it. They were invading a mob stronghold with a half-formed plan, no knowledge of the layout, no back up, no plan B, and four seventeen-year-olds.
"It can't be worse then a Deathstalker," Was all he said.
The ride to the slums was uneventful. Jaune and Pyrrha grew progressively sicker, but stepping off of the hanging monorail was enough to breathe some life back into them. "That was (gasp) the worst idea (gasp) ever, (gasp) of all time."
"I'm sorry Jaune (gasp) but it was fast (gasp)." Pyrrha took another deep breath. "You feeling better?"
"No. (gasp)" Jaune bolted to the edge of the platform, gasping in the cold morning air. Pyrrha joined him a moment later, unaware that her complexion improving now that she was out of contact with Jaune.
Nora grimaced at Jaune's sickness, but still admired the view of the slums. The tall buildings and narrow roads, the rising steam and bustle of humanity, men and women and children shouting to get their wares or their bodies sold was intoxicating. Nora climbed up onto the railing, looming over the awakening world. It made her think for a moment what her family did. Drug runners and chemists, her mother and father acted as the sole provider of high quality methamphetamine and weaponized Dust for the Cassern crime family. When they weren't experimenting with more pure materials or creating mad combinations of Dust that when burned created flaming tornados, Adin and Freya Valkyrie were texting their daughter or playing chess or planning spa trips with Nora, essentially doing what normal parents do.
Ren leaned against the rail himself, staring out over his home suburb. The twisted streets and closed canopies invoked both nostalgia and more than a touch of guilt. When he had gone to his teacher, the only thing he had wanted was a way to kill the mob that had extorted his family. But when he had met Nora, and had gotten to know her, really gotten to know her, he had slowly realized that what he was doing was going to help a lot of people, but also hurt many more. The mob may have been the second largest extortion racket in the entire city, but they did, somewhat, protect people. They squashed gangs that tried to take more than their share. They were the only reason that Roman Torchwick was still only a gangster, and not infinitely more damaging.
Jaune finally got back off the railing, thankful that his hasty breakfast hadn't spilled out. "Okay. (gasp) We're here." Jaune gestured out at the slums. "What's here again?"
Nora smiled nostalgically. "Home."
Ren cocked an eyebrow at Nora. "No, my home. Your family's out in the suburbs."
Nora smiled at the three teammates. "So?"
Can't argue with that.
Pyrrha sidestepped a merchant's spread of wares. "This is your home?"
"More or less." Ren admitted. The sun was already climbing out of the mountains beyond Vale and illuminated the city streets with a black-orange contrast. "You get used to it."
Pyrrha took a long sniff of the steam from a laundry that wafted through the group. "I doubt it."
Nora was happily trying to buy something from the many, many merchants that dotted the road, though each time Jaune dragged her away. His justification for this was that Nora was being ludicrously overcharged. Nora replied with the statement of how it was part of the mystique of the market place, and when his constant prevention got to be too much for her, she replied with Magnhild.
Suffice to say, the many swindlers decided to avoid overcharging the hammer girl.
Thus, Jaune was literally snapped back to consciousness, and Team JNPR was soon standing at a small apartment, nestled between an open air clothing shop and a small warehouse. As Ren explained, this was his house. As Jaune replied: "nice house."
'Knock knock knock.'
"I'm coming, be patient." The door opened up to show the glaring visage of a man. Taller than Jaune by a head, with a long frame that on another would have been a statement of stateliness, to his undernourished body was merely reedy.
"Ah, my dearest son. Are these your friends?" The man bowed to Ren and stared long at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Teammates from Beacon, I presume. The infamous Jaune and Pyrrha?"
"Yes, though I wouldn't call us infamous." Pyrrha shot a glance at Ren, though Ren merely smiled and stepped inside.
Nora bounced up and hugged Ren's father. "Hi mister Lie! How are you doing?"
"I'm fine." Ren's father pushed Nora off of himself. Ren visibly restrained himself for some reason.
Jaune stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you Mr. Lie."
Ren father nodded slightly. "The pleasure is mine, Mr. Arc, Miss Nikos. Ren didn't say we'd be expecting guests. In fact, he didn't mention he'd be coming home at all."
Ren set his pack on the stairs and motioned for his team to follow him to the second floor. Out of sight of Ren's father, Nora rubbed the back of her head self-consciously. "Sorry about that. Ren's dad can be a little mean to the people Ren brings home. Thinks they're all mob."
Pyrrha looked over her shoulder at the stairwell, and back at Nora. "He seemed alright. Didn't insult us or refuse us."
Nora held up a hand. "He didn't say use an honorific or equivalent-" a finger went up, "- didn't bow to you-" another finger, "-and let Ren show us up here. These are basic courtesy in Atlas."
Jaune looked at Ren. "You're from Atlas?"
"Why, yes. Didn't the name, features, hair braid, and fighting style tip you off?"
"Nope," Jaune said as Pyrrha face-palmed. "I never noticed. And you don't do...any of the stuff that Nora says you should."
Nora and Ren shrugged together. "When in Rome."
Of course, no one wondered what a Rome was when they said such a phrase, but it was strange.
Ren opened a door on his left, then reached up and pulled down a ladder to an attic. "Pyrrha and Nora can take my room. Jaune, you and me will be up in the loft."
"Okay. Sorry you can't sleep in your own bed."
"Sounds good."
"Yay! Slumber party!"
"Please keep it down Nora."
Unpacking went smoothly enough, and soon the team was clustered around in Ren's bedroom, looking over the map Ren and Nora had cobbled together from memory. And Jaune and Pyrrha were watching them argue over it.
"Nora, the kitchen is here."
"No Ren. The kitchen goes here because it's connected to the furnace room. You need the heat for the water."
"That doesn't change the fact that it goes here."
Jaune sent a look at Pyrrha and scratched at the back of his head. Seen from the wrong context, you could argue that Ren and Nora were arguing over the layout of their future house.
"Well, if the kitchen isn't there, what goes here?"
"That the tertiary armory Ren. Everyone knows that."
Or a very big fortress. Either way, if Ren's father was listening in, he wouldn't get it.
Jaune checked his Scroll. Between sneaking aboard Beacon's weekly supply ship bound for Vale, riding the suspension, getting to Ren's house and unpacking and now arguing over the plan, the four had eaten up six whole hours. It was halfway to noon. "I'm going to get lunch you guys, okay?"
"No, this is a third floor window, not a second floor."
"And I'm telling you Ren, its second floor."
"I'll be right back." Jaune stepped out and down the hallway, more than a little happy to finally have a moment to himself.
His team was going to drive him crazy. His teammate was a child soldier, and now Ren and Nora were mobsters. What was next, an invasion from the moon!?
The kitchen was, on Jaune's first assessment, inviting, if minimalist. A stove, small fridge, and a few pantries. Nothing more than was needed to cook and eat. Ren's father was nonchalantly reading a book at the table with one hand, the other acting as a head rest.
"Hey." Jaune decided that simple greetings would be a good start.
"Hello." Mister Lie didn't look up from his book. Jaune tried to read the title of the book, but the writing was too small to make out.
Jaune fished for a conversation. "So how long has Ren been...mobbed up?"
Ren's father flicked to the next page, a maneuver that was only noteworthy because he did it with the one hand that was also holding the book. "This Sunday will be...four years, five months."
"Really?" Jaune swelled on that incredible coincidence for a moment, before returning to the subject. "Did you train him to fight in that time?"
"Naturally. It would be remiss of me to not prepare my son."
"Well, I have the firsthand experience to say that you did a great job." Jaune stuck out a fist for a congratulatory bump.
Ren's father eyed the closed fist and went back to reading. Jaune retracted the fist. "Whatever you saw my do, I didn't teach him to do it. All I taught Ren was Tai-chi. The rest comes from his oh-so-great teacher."
"He is a great teacher, isn't he?"
Jaune nearly jumped a foot in the air when Nora spoke up. Nora may have had a knack for appearing and disappearing whenever she wanted, but being in the receiving end was annoyingly shocking.
"Hey, Makoto just got home Hua."
"Thank you Nora." Ren's father said. He returned to his book.
Nora more or less dragged Jaune back up the stairs amidst his protests, before setting him down in Ren's bedroom. "Nora, why did you do that?"
Ren answered from the bed. "My mother doesn't like seeing people in the house. It's best we stay out of the way."
Jaune shot a glance at Pyrrha, who had taken Nora's place on the bed. Pyrrha just shrugged. "I can't tell you why, ask them." Jaune looked at Ren and Nora.
Finally, Nora just huffed and gestured at Ren. "He faked his way into Beacon and she's an Argonaut. Might as well tell them Ren."
Ren clasped his hands under his chin, and when he spoke, his tone was strategically deadpan. "The mob extorted my family for years. When I was thirteen, they decided my family needed to pay them more money. When we couldn't pay, they got angry."
Jaune recalled the lack of hand gestures from Ren's father. "They cut off your dad's hand."
Ren nodded, the sides of his mouth tightening. "And scarred my mother. That day, I decided I'd never let them hurt my family ever again. I got a teacher, met Nora, and now we're ready to hit them back."
Jaune gulped and steeled his resolve. "Okay then. When do we do this?"
"As soon as-."
"Never," Pyrrha interrupted Ren. She pointed at the map. "We can't fight with a map like this. We have no current information, nor do we have the actual tools to do this. We'll need at least a plasma cutter, a hook and line, a camera line break, chloroform, and several high-grade, non-Dust explosives. Granted, I can produce the latter, but that will take time, which we may not have." Pyrrha summed up the situation elegantly.
The rest of Team JNPR gaped at her. Ren recovered first and coughed into his hand. "Well, that's certainly a comprehensive list Pyrrha, but would we really need all of that?"
"That and more Ren. Especially the explosives. They'll be the only way you can make a real impact on the mob." Pyrrha nodded to herself, and then groaned. "But the problem is, other than the explosives, we'll never be able to get our hands on any if this."
Nora smiled and raised her hand like they were back in class. "I can get you the chloroform and the raw materials for the explosives."
Pyrrha did a double take. "You can?"
Ren shrugged. "Nora's parents are chemists. She can get whatever you need."
Pyrrha's expression dropped into a deadpan. "Your parents cook meth don't they?"
"Meth, crack, and they produce all weapon's grade Dust for the Casserns." Nora filled in happily. "They run most of the chemical underground in Vale, not countering bootleggers or moonshiners. They're also how I got...this!" Nora reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial of white powder.
"What is...hey wait, that's that powder you dosed me and Ren with on Tuesday!" Jaune eyes the vial. "What is it?"
"My father's special Exvnir-type pheromone powder. A special blend of aromatics and proteins, designed to attract any straight woman within line of sight." Nora waved the sealed vial around, though Jaune could still make out the warning label beneath it: use in exceptional conservation.
Pyrrha, Ren and Jaune all stared at Nora and her vial of pheromone dust. Finally, Pyrrha recovered her senses enough to ask Nora; "You used a chemical enhancer on Jaune and Ren to make them irresistible?"
"Yep."
"Even to me?"
"Um, yeah Pyrrha. They'd seem pretty attractive to you, and me, and everyone. Is that a problem?"
The penny dropped for Ren and Jaune. Pyrrha was understandably unhappy, but she didn't flip out too badly. She just grabbed Nora by the shoulders and slammed her into the wall.
"Nora, I nearly raped Jaune, and you're telling me that I almost did it because of a chemical?" Pyrrha looked like she was on fire, her Aura flaring up. Nora started sweating.
"Well, I didn't mean for that to happen. I put the powder on in front of everyone. I thought you knew what I was doing."
Pyrrha reigned in her Aura and lowered Nora. Her temper returned to normal a moment later, and she blushed. "I'm sorry Nora. It's just, well…"
"She almost raped me," Jaune pitched in. "Why did you think that we'd know what you were doing?"
"Well we were dressing you guys up. I figured it was obvious I was giving you guys an advantage."
Ren and Jaune face-palmed, as Pyrrha's blush deepened as she remembered grabbing Jaune. She hadn't wanted to hurt him, but he seemed so good looking… Pyrrha unfolded her arms. "Nora-."
Nora smiled slightly. "Pyrrha, it's my fault Jaune was irresistible. Pheromone dust is going to be the only way he ever scores with a girl."
And that one is addressed to you. Yes you, reader!
Jaune eyed the vial of white powder. "So, me and Ren aren't ever going to need to worry about a powder that'll turn you into the most irresistible girl on campus, right?"
Nora shrugged. "You might. My mom made a female version for vengeance."
Those around the room nodded sagely, and with a touch of fear. Nora, goddess of good looks. Not something they wanted to see. Ever.
Ren asked, "So we can rely on you to get the raw materials we need Nora?"
"Ab-so-lutely!"
Of course, no one present believed her. Nora was many things: ballet dancer, hammer-wielding brawler, Dust mixer, amateur chemist and all around crazy awesome girl, but not the sort of person who would bypass the chance to prank people. Pyrrha looked particularly annoyed as Nora began speaking. Sure she hid it well, and maybe he didn't even know it, but a few hours away from Nora wouldn't hurt.
Ren checked the crude map he had. "So then we'll need intel. Pyrrha, I think it's time we take a walk. I know just who to ask for information."
Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow. "And who would that be?"
Ren's face was lightly twisted into a smile. "My teacher."
Out on the street again.
It wasn't that being outside aggravated Pyrrha. She enjoyed the fresh air and wide open space of the wilderness, and the towering spires of brick and mortar that appeared in the four cities. Walking amongst people or animals didn't faze her.
It was really the smell and the homeless beggars that annoyed her.
Ren walked with deliberation though, so Pyrrha ignored the unpleasant scents and sights and kept up. Ren himself seemed at home in the slums of Vale, not surprising since it actually was his home, but small motions he went through, almost thoughtlessly, were telling.
Ren side-stepped running boys, who missed their chance to pick his pocket (Pyrrha got by on the brandishing of Milō and glares alone), but casually dropped three lien to buy an orange that he tossed to a beggar child. He waved nonchalantly to men and women, some of whom returned the friendly gesture. A small gang of men, all black trench-coats and low hats, eyed the duo until Ren raised his left hand and made a strange gesture; palm and fingers straightened, with a little twist to either side. He dropped back to Pyrrha's side. The gang promptly and collectively did an about-face.
"Enjoying the slums Pyrrha?" Ren asked sarcastically.
"I've dealt with worse," Pyrrha admitted. "But isn't it a little too crowded down here?"
"Afraid of a fight?"
"I'd rather be able to breathe clean air."
Ren shrugged. "We should stay low. You don't have the experience."
"I can travel by rooftop Ren. I learned to do it a while ago," Pyrrha pointed out. Ren actually raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" And without further ado, Ren leapt up and grabbed an awning. Swinging his legs under and over himself, Ren brought himself onto the awning fully, and jumped to a window sill. His legs working beneath him, Ren ran up the wall, using momentum for balance and the sills for stepping stones. He topped the building in twenty seconds flat.
"Still think this is a good idea?" Ren asked laconically.
Pyrrha (though Ren couldn't see it) smirked on the ground. She sheathed Milō and stepped onto a manhole cover and magnetically launched herself up into the air. A single flip was all she needed to stand even with Ren.
"Still think you can keep up?"
Ren almost smiled. 'She is going down.' He pointed at a distant gap in the buildings. "That's a river. We need to be on the opposite bank. Go!"
Ren shot forward like a man fired from a gun. Pyrrha was on his tail instantly, pacing herself. She thought Ren was going all out, and kept herself steady for when he tired. 'She's never met an Atlan,' Ren thought.
The roof ended with adorable swiftness, with Ren and Pyrrha jumping to clear the gap. Ren made the jump in one go. Pyrrha hurled Akoùo at the ground, easily missing the bystanders, and used her Polarity to boost her across the gap. She remagnetized Akoùo and barreled after Ren.
The next gap was long, but not too long for Ren to jump. Unfortunately, the building across was too tall for him to clear the lip of the roof easily. If Ren jumped, he'd either pull a tendon and Pyrrha would pass him while he was healing the muscle and leave him a gap he couldn't close, or hit the building's side and lose precious time scrabbling up it.
So Ren took what his teacher called the Lamp-Superhighway. He lunged to the left and hit the nearest lamppost. He then made another big leap and landed on the one across the street. There you go, gap surpassed.
Pyrrha used the same magnetic stepping stone strategy she had before. The roof was clear of any ventilation or greenhouses, though that left it in the minority. Pyrrha didn't stop to admire the roofs, but she could see that many had small greenhouses, or residential additions to supplement the local lack of food. It was a reminder of the poverty that surrounded her, but strangely, the red bricked buildings and narrow streets were beautiful from her vantage point.
They just didn't smell good.
Pyrrha cleared the gap between buildings again, Ren a quarter of a building ahead, leaping from lamp to lamp. Pyrrha sped up and closed the distance. "Better give up Ren! I was built for this." Pyrrha made the jump to the next rooftop in one bound.
Ren smirked in the wind, and angled below the next lamppost. Hooking his Stormflower's blades to the horizontal curve of the light, Ren swung his legs out under himself and landed on the next post.
Only a few more buildings stood between the pair and the river. A bridge was a little to the south, but Pyrrha had no intention of taking it.
Another jump landed her on the next roof. Parallel, Ren was leaping and flipping across the lights of the city. Pyrrha braced herself and leaped up to the next, higher building. This one was the tallest building before the river, so it would have to do.
"Byyyyeeee Ren!" Pyrrha sang. With a surge of Aura, Pyrrha leapt with force enough to tear the tendons in her legs. The earth vanished beneath her, and she was flying across the river.
Ren's eyes widened, before his instincts kicked in. With one last leap, he hooked under a lamppost and flipped up to put himself on the horizontal. "You might have been built for this Pyrrha-."
Ren unhooked his guns and pressed down with his legs, Aura flooding them. The lamppost bent under the sudden force.
"-but I was born for this."
Ren leapt, and the lamppost bent back like it had been hit by a bus.
The air rushed over their faces as the two hurtled over the river. Pyrrha spotted Ren coming up on her six fast and flipped over, magnetizing his weapons. With a jolt, the two were launched off course. Pyrrha landed on him and with a push, turned Ren into a springboard.
"Tata!"
Ren reacted, grabbing Pyrrha's leg as she kicked off, entangling the two and messing up their flight patterns even more. Pyrrha had been aiming for the opposite shore. Ren had been going for the roof of a building.
Instead, the pair missed both and crashed through an alley. Now, crashing into an allay isn't the safest of landing strategies, and honestly, if Pyrrha and Ren hadn't had Aura, they'd probably wouldn't have survived, but they emerged from the wreckage dazed.
Of course, when the two did get back on their feet, Pyrrha had this to say:
"Let's do that on the way back."
Ren's only reply was to smile ruefully and nod.
"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest," Nora sang as she mixed petroleum jelly with select chemicals. "White is cold-."
"Nora, can you please focus on the task at hand?" Jaune asked. Being focused when making C4 in your best friends / boyfriend's room was probably a good policy. Nora actually looked surprised.
"You know, I'm pretty sure no one ever said that to me. Please focus on the task at hand. Wow. That's really novel, thank you Jaune." Nora mashed the C4 mix a little more. "You ever just, have one of those days. Where everything's going crazy and the smallest things are so nice."
Jaune handed her the next ingredient for the mixture. "Nora, I'm having a week of that. I'd be happy if the only thing that happened on Friday was for...I don't know, Yang to punch me in the balls." Jaune froze in his act of handing Nora more petroleum jelly. "Did I really just say that?"
"Yup." Nora kneaded the mash of C4 a little more.
"I'm doomed, aren't I?"
"Yup."
"...This is what I get for tempting fate..." Jaune murmured. Nora chuckled, bringing out a question from Jaune.
"Nora, why are we mixing C4?"
"Well Jaune, we're mixing C4 because Ren and Pyrrha aren't here to do it for us."
"But that's not-."
"And we're mixing it because it needs lots of stirring."
"But Nora-."
"And because C4 is a very useful explosive that's easy to make without too many illegal ingredients."
"Why not use Dust?" Jaune finally got out.
Nora stopped stirring for once and cocked an eye at Jaune. "Because Jaune, we can't use Dust in explosives. Dust needs to be surrounded with Aura, and the only way to do that would be to hold the explosive device to give it the Aura."
"But what about your grenades. They're loaded with Dust and they still go off."
"Aura lingers for a while, but it has a very rapid half-life. Once launched, my grenades only have seven seconds until they become duds. After that, the Aura content is too low to ignite the Dust."
"But Pyrrha said that Aura remains longer than that. My sword should still have my great-great-grandfather's Aura in it."
Nora shrugged, actually looking quite composed and thoughtful for once. "Your sword should have some of your ancestor's Aura still, but that would only occur after multiple uses. Aura can be layered on, and even last for years or centuries if the user becomes well versed in Aura and uses the weapon extensively. It doesn't even have to be a weapon. It could be a tool or some piece of clothing or a piece of metal or even a car or plane."
"But, but, couldn't you just do that with your bombs?"
Nora nodded, but raised a clarifying finger. "I could, but Aura layering would take up more time and energy then it would be worth. And speaking of Aura layering, how are you able to use that sword?"
Jaune blinked. "Huh?"
Nora made grabby motions at Crocea Mors. When Jaune handed her his sword, Nora activated her Aura and tried to force it into the cold steel. Predictably, there was a resistance in there, minimal, but harder than titanium. This sword had without a doubt bonded to a soldier over the course of a lifetime. Nora smiled, but her grin was graced with melancholy.
Jaune would wield it, but never be able to use Crocea Mors to its fullest potential. Its soul came from another.
"Can I have my sword back Nora?" Jaune stuck out his hand. Nora returned the blade to its wielder. Jaune spun the blade in his hands like a baton, passing it from one to the other. "It's really my soul in here. Wow. I can't believe it." Jaune then tossed Crocea Mors in the air
"Jaune NO!"
Crocea Mors flowed through the air of the room, flipping over and over as it arced up and the down. The blade turned over, passed inches from Jaune's head, and finally clattered to the ground. Nora and Jaune stared at the sword, before the boy picked it up. "Cool."
'It's...bonded to him.' Nora didn't bother keeping the shock from her face. 'I've...I've heard of weapons being passed down familiar lines, but a five generation gap can't be possible.' Nora gulped and smiled at Jaune, who didn't notice the twitching of her muscles or surprised look on her face. "That's cool Jaune."
A pounding of noise came up from the hallway, and Ren's father burst in the room. He took one look from the unsheathed sword and mix of explosives, and growled; "What are you doing in here?"
Nora gave him a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of her head. "Nothing Mister Lie. Nothing at all."
Jaune picked up his sword. "Just messing around, you know what teenagers do."
"Well I know what you people do, always thinking you can step all over us because we can't defend ourselves." Mister Lie shook his arm at the two, the sleeve slipping down. "I know what you plan to do to my son, and if he has one hair on his head hurt, I will go to the police, DAMN the consequences."
The students flinched, Jaune's Aura activating instinctively. Nora stepped forward.
"Mister Lie, you've known me for three years now. I know Ren's your son, but he's also my friend. I would never hurt him."
Ren's father gripped at his arm. "Your friends seem to enjoy tormenting my family."
"But Mister Lie-."
"Nora, stop."
Ren's father and Nora stopped talking, there attention shifting to their blond audience. The blond stepped forward and rested a hand on Mister Lie's shoulder. "Mister Lie," the Blond began, "Hua, may I call you Hua? Ren is my best friend. He has fought beside me countless times. I would, under no circumstances, allow him to come to harm unduly. And he would do the same for us. I'm not asking you to like us, or even trust us. I'm asking that you trust your son, for his sake."
The blond removed his hand from Hua Lie's shoulder, and as Nora noticed, his hand from his sword. Hua Lie gulped, and then, with shocking conviction; "I trust my son. Do as you wish."
The blond nodded one last time. "Thank you." Finally, he placed a closed fist to his chest, and then wrapped it with the opposite hand, and bowed. Hua bowed back, and left the room.
Nora stared at Jaune for a good minute before she spoke. "I didn't know you studied traditional Atlan culture. That's a very gracious bow."
Jaune stared at her. "Nora?"
"Yes Jaune?"
"How the heck did I do that?"
"Umm, the...power of leadership?" Nora chuckled against her will. "That was great Jaune. Good job."
"Thanks, I guess." Jaune was blushing a little.
Nora giggled. 'He's so cute! I can see why Pyrrha has a crush on him.'
Nora and Jaune turned back to the mixture that was becoming C4 when Nora thought of something. Jaune's little speech had been cool and all, and his sword was strange, but something wasn't clicking between them. Jaune had all of the instincts, the heritage, and probably the money to be an incredibly successful huntsman. So why...
"Jaune, why'd you fake your way into Beacon?"
"Bwuh!?" Jaune actually staggered in place at the question, surprised by its immediacy. "Um, what do you mean Nora? I just didn't attend a school before this, right?"
"Yeah, you didn't." Nora's gaze shifted away from Jaune. "...And it shows."
Jaune sweat-dropped.
"But you have all the potential in the world to be a great Huntsman Jaune. Your great-great-grandfather fought in the civil war. Surely your parents would have wanted you to carry on some sort of legacy."
Jaune was looking everywhere but Nora, and in particular eyeing the door. "They just want me to be safe, eh?"
Nora raised an accusing finger. "If your parents wanted you to be safe, why didn't they look for you?"
Now she had Jaune's attention. "What!?"
"Jaune, you're at the most prestigious Hunter academy in Remnant. If your parents were making a concerted effort to find their son, they'd have told the police. And from there, it's not likely that the teachers wouldn't have cross-referenced a missing person with the student body. If your parents wanted you found, you would have been kicked out months ago."
"So here is what I think: either your parents know where you are and sent you here, unprepared, under-equipped, without your Aura and a sword you couldn't use, or they just. Don't. Care you're missing."
Jaune stared at his teammate, and finally sagged and looked away. "Please Nora. You can't tell anyone. This has to remain between just us. Please Nora."
Nora put a hand on his shoulder. "I won't tell a soul Jaune. Your secret is safe with me." Nora moved her hand from his shoulder to his face, and cupped his chin, turning his face to hers. "You wanted Ren's dad to trust him, and I want you to trust me."
Jaune gulped, and nodded. "Nora, the reason my parents didn't send me to Beacon, or care that I'm gone, is because I'm bisexual."
Nora blinked, and then, slowly, a smile graced her visage. "Jaune."
"Yeah?"
Nora slapped her friend across the face. Playfully, of course. "I. Do. Not. Care. At all. You could be gay, Trans, or just not care, and I would still treat you the same."
Jaune stiffened slightly under her gaze. But something flickered in his eyes. "You don't care."
Nora patted Jaune on the shoulder. "I'd never judge you Jaune. Now your rotten parents on the other hand..." Now Nora's tone turned sour.
Jaune's own face darkened. "Nora-."
"I could understand if you don't want to talk about them Jaune." Nora put her hands in her hips.
Jaune shook his hand at her. "No Nora. You're wrong about my parents. They had a very good reason to hate me."
Nora cocked an eyebrow. "Really now? Let me guess; it's an affront to the state?"
Now Jaune cocked an eyebrow. "No, it's about tradition. What makes you think the law has anything to do with it?"
Nora pointed at a small Taijitu on Ren's desk. "Atlas has this policy of Eugenics, controlled breeding. It's pretty effective for creating stronger soldiers, but it also created this hatred for any relationship that couldn't produce strong children. Homosexuals and bisexuals were just one of several groups that were discriminated against. In fact, Ren's parents couldn't get married because their kids wouldn't be strong enough. So they left and immigrated here to marry."
Jaune rubbed his chin. "Huh. In Vacuo, our justification was tradition. The only sort of acceptable relationship was between a man and a woman. It's a practice that dates back to before the founding of the city. We may have lived in Vale, but my parents stayed true to their roots. When my mom and dad found out that I was bi, they flipped out."
Nora grimaced to herself. "And when you asked for an education as a huntsman, they refused."
Jaune huffed slightly. "They told me that they couldn't pay for it, and it wasn't worth the effort. Actually, my mom wanted me to follow in her foot steps and become an environmental development consultant."
"..."
"It's a real job!" Jaune defended.
Nora sighed, but against it all, against everything that was happening, everything she knew and was learning, or maybe because of it all, she smiled. "Jaune, you're our leader and our friend. We'd never judge you for who you're into, not even Ren." Nora's smile strained ever so slightly. 'Well, maybe Pyrrha...'
Jaune took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled. "Thank you Nora. I guess that's a real load off my chest."
Nora chuckled. "Well, if your bi, maybe you can join me and Ren in bed once in a while."
"Bwuh!?"
Nora laughed.
The club didn't look like much. A few men staring sleazily at barely dressed women, who gyrated without any real passion or initiative. It looked like it was just ready to go bankrupt. Which in retrospective was why it made such a great cover. Ren handed the bouncer a small token, a coin with a stylized pumpkin on it, and requested a "private session with Theodora".
Pyrrha, naturally, saw straight through the facade of the low quality club and told Ren she'd wait for him to finish speaking with his teacher in the front room. Ren was somewhat thankful for this. It let him keep the anonymity of his teacher, and gave him a perfect place to put his ace in the hole should she be needed.
The facade of girls and perverts fell away as Ren stepped through the back of the building and down a set of stairs into the basement. A lever pulled by a second, more discreet bouncer opened a false wall and allowed Ren access to a well-lit and carpeted passageway. A short walk later, Ren was standing before a door with three men guarding it. But this secret little piece of Vale had a single constructor, and quite fortunately, Ren had his token. He was admitted without any fuss.
Ren's teacher was sparring in a large, harshly lit room. All four walls and the floor and ceiling were brickwork, with the faint smell of water and mildew and several sealed drains and pipes scattered about that would allow even the blind to deduce the original purpose of the room.
In the center of the room, Ren's teacher was engaged in a two on one spar, against one man wielding Nunchuks and another with two swords. He was barely holding his own, but all things considered, he still hadn't used his main weapons, his shanguo swords. Ren took off his coat and tossed it on the bench. "Sifu!"
The three way fight quit at that, as Ren's teacher turned and glared at his student. "Ren, how many times have I told you not to say that? And you!" he said, pointed at the guard that had walked in with Ren. "Why didn't you stop him?"
"Well, well, well, sir, he has your coin," the guard stammered out. Ren's teacher rolled his eyes.
"I'm working out here Ren. Can this wait?" Ren's teacher turned back to the fight.
Ren stepped onto the mat and grabbed his teacher's shoulder. Had he been anyone else, Ren would have probably lost that hand. "Sifu, I need information on the Cassern family compound. It's urgent."
Ren's teacher lowered his arms and waved off his sparring partners. "Let me guess; Nora got taken there and the Cassern's are trying to extort you."
Ren winched slightly at the deduction. It wasn't true, but it irked that this was the scenario that his teacher assumed he would need help. "No teacher. The Cassern's are retracting Nora from Beacon, and I'm trying to keep her there so she can get her inheritance."
Ren's teacher was surprised. "Why Ren, I would have never pegged you for the kind of man who would have extorted another simply for money. Shame on you."
Ren rolled his eyes. His teacher acted refined in public, but alone was an almost agonizingly sarcastic man. "You know this isn't about the money."
His teacher nodded. "Revenge is something few fully understand. Why kill a man when you can destroy everything he lives for? So much better." Ren's teacher stopped and eyed his disciple. "You think you can do this?"
Ren straightened fully, his eyes ablaze with strength and passion. "Sifu, I know so."
Ren's teacher looked over his student, from his posture to his gaze, and finally nodded to himself. "One: stop calling me Sifu. It's not my name, and I hate your weird Atlas names and words. And Two:..."
A silence settled, and began to stretch. Finally, Ren cracked. "Yes?"
His teacher grinned devilishly. "Fight me."
Ren gulped. "Yes teacher."
The two were quickly relieved of their coats by a guard, Ren enjoying a moment to breathe the cold, slightly putrid air of the former sewer. His teacher cocked an eyebrow on the opposite side. "You know Ren, I can never figure out why you wear that wrap under your coat."
Ren settled into a simple stance. "It's a sarashi, teacher. It's traditional."
His teacher shrugged. "Whatever you say Ren."
A guard approached Ren's teacher with his cane. His teacher waved off the weapon. "Let's see a fight without any weapons, right Ren?"
Ren unhooked the launch mechanisms for his Stormflower guns from his forearms. "Of course teacher."
Ren's teacher assumed his own stance, arms apart and bent, with his arms up and together, boxer style. "So, our usual wager?"
"You seem to be making rather light of this Teacher. Is there something you're not telling me?"
His teacher chuckled. "Just going to have something off my chest later this week Ren. Just going to have something off my chest."
A guard stepped forward and pointed at Ren. "Ready, mister Lie?"
"Yes."
Now he pointed to his boss. "Ready, mister Torchwick?"
Roman Torchwick smirked behind his raised fists. "Yes."
The guard raised an arm, "Ready. BEGIN!" and jumped clear.
Ren's Aura activated, the field baring down on the brick and mortar. Opposite him, Roman did the same, his superior quantity cracking the bricks and shattering their bonds. Between the men, their Aura's clashed and pushed back, one forceful and unstoppable, the other resolute and immovable.
Between Ren and Roman, the ground shattered.
Roman shot into motion, clearing the gap between himself and his protégé. Ren stepped back into a deflection stance, and with a motion that caught the lightning quick gangster behind the back, sent him sprawling.
Roman rolled into the blow and swung at Ren. His arm wasn't remotely close enough to hit the Atlan, but his Aura erupted into the air, slamming into Ren's own. Ren's Aura kicked in, diminishing and weakening the blow to almost a tenth it's strength, but Ren, taken off guard by this new form of attack was thrown from his feet, unharmed but unsettled.
Roman capitalized on this, closing the new gap. Ren raised an arm and brushed Roman's right haymaker to the side with his forearm.
Roman retaliated with another haymaker from his left arm, this time aiming for Ren's liver. Ren redirected the attack again, this time with his right arm. The other arm crossed and grabbed the aborted strike.
With a twist on his heels, Ren crouched to dodge Roman's retaliatory straight shot to the jaw and doubled his grip on Roman's arm. Rising from the crouch, Ren levered his right shoulder to Roman's center of mass and, with an Aura infused heave, executed a perfect Judo throw, sending Roman across the room.
Roman hit the ground and unceremoniously rolled to a halt. Ren leapt into action again, this time on the offensive. He delivered a meteor kick from above, dropping the blow on his teacher. Roman stood up regardless.
Now it was his turn to dodge. Ren directed a left-handed flat-palmed strike to Roman's torso. Roman spun right.
Ren countered with the second blow in his series, a right-handed slash with stiffened fingers to the ribs. Roman spun left.
Now Ren hand him. A second left-handed attack sent Roman spinning straight into a leg sweep that put him on the floor. Roman did the only thing he could and delivered a second air punch.
Ren took the punch directly to the jaw. Even with his expert control of his Aura, Ren saw stars and went flying.
Roman staggered to his feet, checking his Aura in the short lull. He was down to half his allotted Aura, while Ren still had 66% of his. Time to end this.
Ren also got to his feet, feeling his Aura heal the cracked jaw bone. His teacher may have a few tricks up his sleeve, but he didn't have generations of careful Atlan breeding behind him. Ren may have had comically low Aura, but his control was unparalleled.
His teacher hadn't just taught him to use Aura, he'd taught him to master it.
Roman resumed his boxing stance. If Ren wanted an attack, he'd have to give it, not take it.
Ren obliged his teacher with a slow walk forward. His Aura fizzling and seen just beyond the sight of mortal men, it clashed with Roman's more massive reserves. The ground between them cracked and, almost without warning, exploded from the sheer pressure of their dueling souls.
The fight ended in a single blow.
Ren raised his arm to deflect his teacher's strike, but was unprepared when Roman directed the sheer force of his Air Strike move through his own forearm. Ren's Aura bent, broke, and vanished from his arm as Roman's Air Strike broke his bones.
Ren's Aura hovered above the red. Roman's though dropped too far from the sheer strength of the blow. A whistle went off in the background, and the student and teacher separated.
"Mister Torchwick's Aura reserves have dropped below seventy percent. Mister Lie's Aura remains above twenty percent. From the format of this match, Mister Lie has won."
Roman and Ren recovered from the exhaustion, and the student got a pat on the back. "Good job out there Ren. Not many people can take me on like that." A darker look crossed Roman's face. "I've taught you well Ren. Dick!"
"Yes sir!" said the guard named Dick.
"Fetch us some tea and coffee. It's time me and my student have a chat." Roman invited Ren into the workout bench for the small meal.
"How's business? The Candle Clinics taking hold?" Ren asked, referring to a minor medical fraud/extortion project his teacher was working on.
"No, not yet."
A silence developed between them, broken by Roman.
"So, the Casserns?"
"Yes. They decided to withdraw Nora when she didn't perform well on a test. She won't have her inheritance, and her family will lose their influence with Alvin." Ren grimaced as he recalled the test itself. Nora hadn't done terribly. She still made it to the center of the maze intact and whole.
"And you'll lose the freedom and power that you're connection to them because they're out and you're in. I take it you passed the test." Roman eyed his student with something not unlike concern.
The sort of concern one had for a particularly useful weapon, or tool, that is.
The guard returned with the tea and coffee. The student and teacher indulged themselves for a moment. "This, Ren, is a benefit of ignoring the rules that other people set for you. Ignoring every test and never letting anyone make decisions for you or anyone you protect. Are you sure that you don't want to work with me?"
Ren sipped his coffee. "And what then? Let you tell me what to do? What about when I don't want to do it?"
Roman sipped his tea, a blend of Vacuo and Mistral. "You could say I only have your best interests at heart Ren. We certainly wouldn't want you getting hurt outside this line of work."
Ren made no comment.
Roman switched subjects. "What is it you need? Weapons? Dirt? Intel?"
"The Cassern Villa floor schematics," Ren answered. "We're breaking in, and showing Alvin why trying to interfere with our lives is a bad idea."
Roman sipped his tea quizzically. "Isn't his family the reason you're at Beacon?"
Ren suppressed a rueful chuckle. "What of it?"
Roman shrugged. "It's just that it doesn't seem like you should be doing this. What makes you so sure that you can make this work anyway?"
Ren smirked inwardly. "We have an ace in the hole, and a tactician, and a trained soldier, all wrapped up into one. We have an Argonaut."
Roman actually spluttered into his tea. Ren honestly wished for a moment that he had a camera. This was truly rare. "An Argonaut! You...you have..."
Ren nodded, relishing the shock his teacher was displaying. "We need those plans Sifu. As soon as possible."
Roman gulped and sipped his tea, spilling the remains from his shaking hand. "You...best be out...Ren. We'll get those plans...just don't die!" He ended the conversation there, tossing his cup of tea away and overriding the fear with anger. "You two! Get back here!" He pointed at his former sparring partners and back at the Mat. "Mat, NOW!"
Ren released his concealed smirk, glad for once for managing to unsettle his teacher. He may have met him by being thrown out of a bar when searching for another teacher (his original plan had been Junior Xiong) but Roman Torchwick had a certain charisma that somewhat compensated for his sociopathic nature.
Of course, if you knew Roman long enough, you also began spotting small little quirks. Every week he wrote love letters to a girl in Mistral, even though she had been dead for four and a half years. He gave his student the two weapons that his own sister had used. And he still kept a picture of his childhood sweetheart: a small blonde with what seemed to be a riding crop.
Knowing Roman, you'd never assume he was into submission.
Roman slammed the sword wielder into the mat and sent the nunchuk guard sprawling with a kick to the abs.
"And Ren!"
Ren turned one last time to his teacher.
"If you're planning to go, do it tonight. Alvin will be leaving for a safe house on Friday. And tonight, you do not want to be at Beacon."
Ren nodded. "Goodbye Sifu."
"Goodbye Ren."
The sun was beginning to set when Ren and Pyrrha returned to his house. Both were touting maps and other schematics from the private collection of Ren's teacher.
If the boy had any issues with not telling Pyrrha or his team about his teacher, he ignored them.
Nora greeted him in a slightly subdued manner. No fanfare or jumping or acting as though her legs were replaced by springs, but she did hug him. Jaune greeted Pyrrha happily, and perhaps a little more subdued then necessary or expected.
Quietly, Team JNPR retired to Ren's room. The planning was to begin.
Pyrrha took and spread out the map of the Cassern crime family compound. "The Cassern's rely upon rotating guard patrols. Our plan has to distract them, without alerting them. We need to pull a double con: have them know that they're being distracted and corralled to a single place, but have them not realize the real reason. We need to..."
'The things I do for my team.'
Outside the Villa, Pyrrha adjusted the orange inspection costume. On the surface, it looked like a civil worker's uniform, except that the front zipper was too far down to comply with any sort of dress code. Nothing Pyrrha wasn't used too, but using it would be a...new experience.
She walked up to the gate and hit the ringer. A guard stepped out from behind the wall and looked through the iron bars. "What are you doing here?"
Pyrrha put on a big smile. "I'm here to address your plumbing problems. I was called for by a mister..." Pyrrha glanced at her clipboard prop. "Tucker."
The guard looked at her. "We don't have any plumbing problems."
Pyrrha switched to sexy-mode, cocking her hip to the side and half-closing her eyes. "I was called because Mister Tucker was having problems with his...pipes."
The penny dropped. The guard pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Hey, Simmons. You might want to get here. And bring the guys, you have to see this."
Ren checked the map. "That's the perfect distraction. Too over the top for it to be anything but a joke, while it's really a cover. Good thinking Pyrrha."
Pyrrha beamed.
"Okay, me and Nora will break in..."
Nora loaded the hook into Magnhild and launched it over wall. She and Ren scrambled over it and bolted across the courtyard. The guards were slowly leaving their posts, moving to the front gate where Pyrrha was subtly leading the show of how she had been called there.
The devious duo got to the side of the Villa's main house, an alabaster white wall. Now it was Ren's turn to get them in. Embedding Stormflower into the wall, Ren scaled the wall and reached the third story window sill.
The sill was unlocked, but a magnetic trigger was hidden in the frame. Ren slipped a razor blade into the gap and worked the window up. The hall was empty, and once inside, it was only a matter of sending back down the rope for Nora to scale it.
Jaune nodded. "You have your distraction, but what about actually getting to Alvin Cassern? If he is a mob boss, then he's going to have a guard."
Nora winked. "He does have guards. Just not in...
Ren and Nora slipped into a supply closet. The closet wasn't much, but according to the building schematics, the back wall was hollow and just wide enough to accommodate a person. Using his knives again, Ren carved open the plaster-board and slipped inside, Nora on his tail.
The walk was short, but decisive. The two emerged into another supply closet, and after listening to the hall through the door, they stepped out.
The hall was empty, but around the bend was Alvin Cassern's private study.
Of course, said study was protected by two female guards.
Jaune and Pyrrha looked from the map up at the two in the room that had experience with the Cassern patriarch. Nora shrugged happily. "He likes his girls."
Ren donned a hat and sunglasses and rounded the corner. "Ladies! Lay-dees. Lay, to the D. What's happening here gurls?"
It's amazing how easy it is to write someone as drunk.
The woman pulled out their guns, but twin pops sent them to lala-land. Nora lowered the slightly smoking grenade launcher. "Told you rubber bullets were a good investment."
Ren nodded once, removed the glasses and hat, and threw open the doors to Alvin Cassern's private study.
Pyrrha tapped the room. "We need something that'll hold him there. Some sort of catch all. Is there anything he fears?"
Ren frowned. "I don't know."
Nora started bouncing up and down in place. "Ooh, oh, I know! Uncle Alvin is afraid of..."
Alvin Cassern glanced up from his paper work to tell at whoever interrupt him, when he saw his favorite goddaughter and her boyfriend. "Nora? What are you doing here?"
Nora chuckled awkwardly. "Well Uncle Alvin..."
Ren stepped up to the man that ran the biggest organized crime racket in Vale (after the candle clinics, of course) and looked at him with hatred. "Alvin, you are going to return Nora to your will."
Cassern raised an eyebrow. "Now Mister Lie, I doubt you are in any position to be making demands. I have to have a very strong line of succession, and if Nora can't do well, then she'll need to go. It pains me to do so, but it must be done."
"Uncle Alvin, that's bull. And we know that too," Nora interjected.
Ren pounded the table. "Cassern, you will return Nora to your will, no half measures here. And you will also continue providing her tuition."
Cassern's expression darkened. "You feel as if you can threaten me. I'll show you what happens when you try to invade my home and manipulate me. Guards!"
Nothing happened.
"Well, well, well, it seems that you're alone here, Mister Cassern." Ren's and Nora's expressions grew positively evil. "Guess we'll just have to do this the hard way."
"Wait, wait." Jaune raised a hand. "I get that the front guards will be distracted, but what about the camera guys? Are they distracted as well?"
Pyrrha shook her head. "That's where you come in Jaune. We need you..."
Jaune hopped the wall easily. With no guards out prowling thanks to Pyrrha's distraction, Jaune reached a fuse box easily. Now, according to Ren and the schematics, the house was wired tighter then the coiled muscles of a Beowulf ready to pounce.
He slipped the wires out of their places, shorting out the lights and cameras.
Above him, shocked shouts could be heard faintly. "Well, that's half my job done. And now for my other half."
Jaune nodded in satisfaction at that answer, though he wondered what his other job would be.
Ren reached behind his back and pulled a long, covered needle. Cassern noticeably stilled at the sight.
Ren waved the needle. "Well Al, I guess the tables have turned. Now it's my turn to extort you." Ren grabbed Cassern's arm and brought the needle of clear yellow fluid directly above it. "You have one chance Alvin, or I'll show you a fate worse the death."
Nora explained the needle to Cassern. "This needle contains dimythlyene-trimetramene, a neurotoxin that will paralyze you. It also contains methyl-hexafluoride, an inflammatory, with some methamphetamines to accelerate the issue. You will wake up, fall to sleep and die in sheer agony, and you won't be able to scream."
"Wait wait wait...What?" Jaune brought up this particular point in confusion. "I'm not the chemist, Nora is, but um, isn't that a little...extreme?"
Pyrrha, Ren and Nora all looked up from the map. "No. Jaune, do you really think we'll inject him with something like that?" Ren asked.
"You just said you would."
Pyrrha patted Jaune on the shoulder. "Jaune, it's a bluff. Cassern's afraid of needles, and we're exploiting that."
Jaune winced. "Okay, then what are we threatening him with?"
Nora started waving her hand. "Oh, how about fifty milliliters of piss?"
Ren smirked. "That's why your here Nora, to come up with crazy ideas. Now where were we?"
Cassern's eye flickered from the needle to Ren and Nora. "You wouldn't."
Nora smiled. "Sorry Uncle Alvin. But me and Ren really want my inheritance back."
Alvin's eyes narrowed. "What is this? You rampage through my house, kill my guards and break into my private office, all to try and extort me? What game are you playing?"
Ren finally smiled. "A few reasons Cassern. But the operative one is this: because we can. We need you to know that one way or the other, you can hurt us, but we can kill you." And with that, Ren stabbed the needle into Cassern's hand and injected him with its contents. Turning and leaving, Ren added as an afterthought: "I expect that when we meet again, you'll have Nora back on your will, our tuitions secured, and our families safe. Otherwise... we will find you."
Nora pulled out a stick of C4 and wired it to the door. "Bye Uncle Alvin. See you at the Vytal festival."
The group nodded. "Okay, two final questions." Jaune began. "One: what's the rest of the C4 for?"
Nora smiled.
Out in the car pool, Ren and Nora barreled between cars. You did NOT let anyone you extort get after you, especially if they're a mob boss. As such, they stuck the remainder of their C4 to the gas tanks of the many cars currently parked there, along with remote detonators.
One car though was spared. A top of the line McLaren P1, it was the pride and joy of the Cassern fleet. And Nora and Ren were stealing it and using it as their getaway car.
Jaune nodded. "And two: what if the guards decide that Pyrrha isn't interesting? What then?"
Nora's smile grew to frightening proportions.
'The things I do for my team.'
Jaune walked up to the gathering of guards around Pyrrha. A few had been looking out into the grounds, meaning it was time to add to the distraction. "Excuse me."
A guard looked at him. "What?"
Jaune flipped the papers on his clipboard over. "I was called by a Mister Tucker. Apparently," and here Jaune gave the smoothest, sexiest grin he could, "he's having some trouble with his pipes"
The collection of guards froze up. Then in the back, one shouted, "Well well well Tucker. You gonna let this here plumber clean your pipes, or are ya gonna stiff him!?" The crowd burst into laughter.
So did Team JNPR. Jaune was not happy.
Pyrrha smiled empathetically at Jaune and slipped a flash bang out of her pocket. "Excuse me, but I need you boys to sign this." The guards all looked at her as she pulled the pin on the grenade.
Jaune and Pyrrha closed their eyes and reinforced them with Aura just as the blast went off. Without a moment to lose, they turned and bolted, leaving the shouting and disoriented guards in the dark.
Jaune looked at the map. Nora looked at the map. Pyrrha looked at the map. Ren looked at the map.
"You know, for a couple of seventeen-year-olds, that plan looks like it'll go down to perfectly. Let's go for it," Jaune said.
"Pyrrha?"
"What Jaune?"
Jaune looked over his shoulder, still running. "Why are we running from the Mob?"
"I still don't know."
"Okay."
Ah flashback humor.
"But that's not what I mean. Where's our getaway car? Shouldn't Ren and Nora have this crazy awesome sports hybrid thing or-."
Said sports hybrid thing burst out into the road from the side and nearly ran down the fleeing duo. Nora and Ren got out.
Jaune threw his arms up. "Where were you five minute ago?"
Nora laughed. "Sorry Jaune. We kinda...can't drive."
"You can hotwire a car," Pyrrha pointed out.
"Still can't drive," Ren countered.
Jaune and Pyrrha got in, Jaune in front. Now, he could drive. After putting the car in first gear, something he noticed Nora hadn't done, he took off.
Ren and Nora scampered into the back, Ren pulling out a trigger. "Bye bye mob."
He pressed the trigger...
...nothing happened.
"Batteries. Great." Ren pulled of the cover, removed the dead batteries, and slotted in new ones. "Let's see if these work." And he pressed the button again.
Now the cars went up like fireworks.
Jaune glanced in the rear view mirror. "You know, that was pretty good. Let's never do that again."
Assent was heard all around the car.
The drive back to Beacon was uneventful. Driving usually wasn't as fast as taking the airships, but then again, most cars weren't McLaren P1's. Jaune tore up the road in that car, and before long Team JNPR was back at Beacon.
"You know," Jaune said as they walked through the halls of Beacon. "I could get used to that car. Nice choice you guys."
"Thank you."
"Floop floop." Nora just loved that line.
Pyrrha smiled. The first big combat...anything the team had been through since that Emerald forest, and they had succeeded with flying colors. They really were ready for the Vytal festival.
The conversation was interrupted when the headmaster rounded the corner. The team froze.
"Uh, professor Ozpin. There's a really good explanation for why we're all out here, um... Professor?" Jaune asked
Ozpin staggered and slumped past the team, whiter the paper and sweating profusely. "Professor?" Jaune asked again. Nora reached out and touched him.
Two things happened in quick succession. Nora shrieked and snapped her hand back to her in pain, and Ozpin turned around.
Ren grabbed Nora. "Professor, what did you do?"
Ozpin weakly gestured for the group to leave.
"Professor, why is going on here?" Pyrrha asked.
Ozpin gestured again.
"Professor, what's-."
The walls bent inward from Ozpin's Aura. Gale winds tore through the hall. "GET OUT!" Ozpin roared.
Team JNPR didn't need to be told twice. They ran. And they didn't stop running until they had reached the safety of their room and locked the door.
And when everyone had stopped and caught their breaths, it was Nora who voiced their thoughts.
"What, (huff) the Shade, (huff) was that?"
A/N: It's done! Hooray! Writing was exhausting, and half the time I had no idea if I would finish it on time, but here it is! I would like to thank my Editors Ttran2323, Enderkiller77, H'te Rarpee, and Chas1881 for their impeccable work as usual.
Oh wait, shouldn't there be a Post-Credits scene? Well, here it is:
Roman listened to the radio as he was informed of the events playing outside of the tilt-jet. He finally set the radio down and looked out into the on setting morning. "Well Red, I do hope you enjoy living, because you'll have a lot of living to do before Sunday."
This he said to no one, but Ruby Rose shivered in her sleep all the same.