/-/ Liam /-/

We all kept low behind the metal railing, looking down at the docks at the several different White Fang that were moving crates, and one operating a forklift. There were about twelve or so on the docks, and who knows how many on that freighter. "What the heck is this?" Murphy whispered, "White Fang, in Vale? That's insane!"

"And what's in those crates, anyway?" Emma whispered back, "Must be something valuable to them to risk this."

"Whatever it is," I sighed, "We should turn back. There are way too many of those guys, so if we tried to stop them ourselves, we'd just end up dead." I looked back into the alleyway, thinking. "I say we sneak away and call the police."

"What?!" Arin whisper-yelled, "Are you serious? What do you think we've been training for a month for, just to sit around while the bad guys do whatever they want?"

"Arin, for just once can you not screw everything up?" Emma sneered at him, "If you want to go down there and get your head blown off that's fine by me, but we aren't going with you!"

"Quiet, both of you." I said, "We're leaving. That's it."

Murphy and Emma nodded, and the three of us stayed low as we quietly started moving back.

When I looked back to see if we were spotted, I saw Arin vaulting over the railing, jumping onto a shipping container. I moved back over to the barrier along with Murph and Emma, and we all watched as he dropped off the large box onto another, and then down to the concrete with a well-executed roll. I cursed under my breath and drew Titan's Razor, hurrying down the nearby stairs as quickly as I could. Em jumped over the railing as well, going to chase him directly, and Murphy followed me. By the time we reached the bottom of the steps, Arin was halfway across the shipyard already.

He managed to sneak past three different White Fang, moving up quietly behind the fourth one and putting his arms around his neck, pulling him back into the shadows. I'd be impressed if it weren't for the sheer audacity he had not just to go against my orders, but to put himself and the rest of us in immediate danger. Emma swung Scholar's Boon at the head of one of them, striking them across the face with the shaft and knocking them to the floor, too dazed to move.

Murphy and I moved past the other two, Emma coming up behind us as well. By then, Arin was climbing up a rope that was going down the side of the ship, the ramp leading up to the deck far too open to use. At this point, I was signing up for a suicide mission, but I'd have been damned if I was going to let Arin get kidnapped or killed under my leadership. I ran over to one of the shipping containers as the crane was picking it up, grabbing onto the side of it as it was rose up alongside the ship, and then lowered onto the deck of the freighter.

A pair of White Fang walked up to the container as it was set down, and I moved to the other side so they wouldn't spot me. They opened it up, presumably to inspect the contents or find any stowaways. Moving up slowly behind them was a big, big guy, wearing a silver mask over his mouth and nose. My heart shot into my throat when I recognized who it was.

"Is the cargo damaged at all?" Caput said in a low, commanding voice. After years of working as a mercenary with Emma, I knew that some things that got you far in the business were a harsh look, a commanding voice, and a good reputation. He certainly had all of those things in a neat package, for sure. He had a hooded white duster coat, both of his arms exposed with the White Fang insignia tattooed on his right bicep. Kind of like Murphy, he was wearing metal armor, but his looked professionally made, unlike Murphy's 'custom build.' His eyes were yellow, and he had a tattoo of an hourglass on his neck, as well as a checkerboard pattern tattooed on his left forearm.

Something like a crate being pried open, and then I heard a case opening inside, clasps unlatching were audible. "Hmm," One of them hummed, "No cracks, spillage, or short supplying. Looks like everything we need."

"Good," Caput sighed, "Yes, good to hear. Close that case back up and get back on the lookout. We can't be too sure we aren't being observed."

"Yes, sir." The Faunus saluted him, and he and the other one went away at that. Caput walked off a different way with his hands clasped behind his back.

When I was sure nobody would see, I snuck around to the front of the container, moving inside to see what was inside. Wooden crates, mostly, with one near the front that was pried open. A silver case sat on top of it, and I opened it up to see an assortment of Dust vials. Fire, Wind, Lightning, even some of that rare Gravity dust was inside.

Crystals, cartridges, and bottles were in the crate, as well as all the other boxes I would imagine, which suddenly started making me realize just how big of an operation we'd stumbled upon. If the White Fang was loading up this much Dust, especially with Caput Mortem in the picture now, they must've been planning something pretty huge. I'd wager a guess that it was going to be a big attack, possibly an all-out declaration of war. But whatever the case was, I had to get off of that freighter, and so did Arin. I pulled out my Scroll, snapping a few pictures of the crates and containers, along with the dust of course.

"Hey, stop!" Someone yelled behind me, and I turn to see a White Fang soldier aiming his pistol at me. He stepped toward me slowly as I raised my hands in surrender. "You're not allowed on here, kid." He frowned, "Now I gotta take you to the boss and -" I interrupted him once he was close up to me, bringing my hands down on his pistol and moving to the side so that the shot he fired would miss me and hit the floor. Luckily the bullet didn't ricochet into the Dust; otherwise, we'd both be dead meat. I swung for his face, striking him hard across the eye, and then again with the other hand.

He blocked my third strike, swinging right back at me. I ducked down underneath, raising my knee up into his solar plexus to knock the wind out of his lungs, after which another few solid punches took him straight to the floor. When you're a merc for hire, you tend to get a lot of guns pointed at you by some nasty people, so it's always good not to panic and to have a way of getting out of it. Emma's was usually talking her way out; mine was mopping the floor with the guy. We had a good dynamic like that.

However, that gunshot in the echoing chamber turned a few different heads my way, and it didn't help that all of those heads were holding automatic rifles in their hands and really, really hated humans. I drew Razor, ducking behind a trio of steel barrels as a hail of gunfire was sprayed in my direction. They were all naturally careful not to hit the crates, even though there were separate cases that held the various Dust items.

I'm sure they were all just as paranoid about setting off a giant explosion as I was. If one went off, it could set off a massive chain that, while stopping the White Fang operation right then and there, would also kill my team and me just as quickly. Not only that, but I had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't the only group doing something like this, so killing myself for the sake of sinking this ship would only result in the White Fang getting less Dust then they would otherwise, which I doubt would have hurt them far too much to matter.

They shot with efficient intervals; at least one of them was always firing at any given time while they all advanced on me. It was a strategy I couldn't beat, even with the possibility of my Semblance going off for once. I was considering using my underpants for a makeshift white flag when Arin jumped down behind them from his perch on a container, swinging his hook and chain around the ankle of one of the assailants and yanking hard, tripping him to fall flat on his face. The others each turned around to face him, and that's when I stood out of my cover to give Arin some supporting fire to keep their attention split between him and me, giving us a major leg up in the firefight.

/-/ Arin /-/

I dashed up right underneath the rifle barrel of one of the goons, uppercutting him square in the jaw and moving behind him quickly. I reached back while he was behind me facing away, pressing my palm into his face and levering it down harshly. I pushed my foot back behind his ankle, tripping him over it so I could shift his weight to slam him down on the floor, knocking his head against it hard.

I gripped my Gang Chainz and turned my attention to a girl that was shooting at Liam, swinging the hook over my head and wrapping the chain nicely around her gun. I yanked it straight out of the chick's hand, using a remote trigger to bring the hammer down on the pistol integrated into the hook to give it some extra kick. The rifle nearly flew out of her grasp, and I spun around to fling it right back into her head. She stumbled back when the gun that she was using not just a second ago was suddenly bashing her in the jaw, and I used this opportunity to run and jump-kick her in the center of the chest, which is a universally badass way of dropping someone.

After that got squared away, Liam was shooting up the last guy, his Aura protecting him but still probably hurting like all hell. I followed up on that with a solid kick to the face after he fell to the floor, and just like that, we were free of assholes trying to kill us.

Murphy and The Bitch ran up the ramp onto the deck, which I figured meant that they either somehow snuck past those other mooks, or they fought their way through. The look on their faces told me pretty quickly though that the latter was correct, as well as the fist that was slammed firmly into my cheek by Emma, the sucker punch enough to knock me down on my ass. It was good for me that Liam kept her pushed back away from me or things would've gotten real violent between us quickly.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" She shouted at me while I got back up on my feet, "Was that stunt worth nearly getting all of us killed?!"

"I have no idea what you're bitching about!" I shouted back, "Are you saying you'd rather let these guys get away scot-free?"

"I'd rather have let someone more qualified deal with this!"

"There is nobody more qualified for ass kicking than me!"

"Do you believe your own hype that much?" Murphy asked.

"I am the hype!"

"That's enough!" Liam raised his voice, looking at us, "All of you!" I was expecting him to chew me out like everybody else of course but found myself pleasantly surprised for once. "What Arin did was stupid, but it was more valuable than you think." He pointed over to the container he was in just a few minutes ago, "These containers are loaded with thirty-one flavors of Dust; vials, crystals, cartridges. These guys were gearing up for something serious, so it's a good thing we came when we did. They'd probably be long gone otherwise."

I would've smiled, but... "But that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in Arin for jumping into this without thinking ahead. We'll talk about this later." While the grilling was short, it was still pretty handily bringing me down from my twenty-second high of being right for a change.

A big metal door opened up on the deck, and past all the shipping containers and stuff, we saw a huge-ass dude with a silver mask over his mouth step out, shotgun in hand.

It looked like it was time for the boss.