Window of Opportunity
'Nicole, I thought we were supposed to be the backup!' Cody shouted over the buzzing of his tesla weapons working into overdrive to keep the attacking Grimm at bay. They were by no means lethal – and were not designed to be – to the creatures, but they worked to scorch the fur of Beowulves and sting the sensitive nerves behind the thick armour of Boarbatusks.
He's right. Nicole thought to herself. The situation down here could hardly be called "light", which didn't make sense if they were just supposed to protect their getaway airship. This was only made worse by how almost every other airship that was attempting to make an attack run on the village was being shot down somehow.
Having landed on the edge of the village, Nicole and the rest of her team had a clear view of the hundreds of Grimm that were slowly encroaching on the village, and it made her worry more than the fact that the shooting had died down. The fighting still hadn't died down, and it seemed that there were even more cultists holding their ground than before.
'Where's Kanary? That dang bird should've been back by now!' Leroy asked after having tackled a cultist through the wooden wall of a hut and was now using it as a shield against some of the cultists that were encroaching on them.
'I had a nagging feeling something was wrong.' Nicole muttered to herself as she sprang out from around one of the buildings to let loose two arrows at once. 'Alright team, this has officially turned into a rescue mission.'
'Let's not jump to conclusions.' Cody tried to reason. 'She could just be-back you beasts!' he shouted as he slammed one of the tesla guns into the face of an approaching Ursa. 'She could just be running a little late with all the cultists she's got to shake off.' He finished.
'Maybe.' Nicole breathed out as she fired an explosive arrow towards the group of gathered militia men, scattering them about the place in a shower of bodies. 'It's like they've got their own private military. For Oum sake, where do they get all these people?' Nicole asked no one in particular as she took aim at a cultist trying to get the drop on them from atop a roof.
'I knew I should have switched to something more lethal.' Leroy grumbled to himself as he fired off another couple shots from his automatic shotgun at a few small Nevermore flying overhead before transforming it into its electric baton form to smack a Beowulf to the ground in one hit.
'Seems to work fine to me.' Cody commented as his tesla guns seemed to be working together to create a chain of lightning between the smaller Grimm. 'At this rate, the skies will be too crammed with Nevermore for us to be able to take-off. We need to-' The field medic was cut off by the familiar sound of a semi-automatic rifle coming from the direction of the village.
Everyone turned their head to watch as a golden glowing figure leapt from the roof of a two-storey building and glided across the air towards them before suddenly losing its glow and dropping to the ground.
'Stockholm!' Leroy shouted as he ran to assist the girl, carrying her by one arm back to the airship.
'Kanary, are you ok?' Nicole asked in concern as blood dripped from a wound in her ankle. Turning to the one mounted gunner on the airship, she quickly barked, 'Take over!' before rushing to her friend.
The machine gun thundered out lead bullets at a rate of at least three per second as Nicole skidded to a stop to lend a shoulder for Kanary to rest on. Nodding stiffly as Leroy set her down gently, he let her lean against the hull of the airship. Cody was already tending to the mute before she could ask any more questions. Adjusting the settings on his weapons, he fired off a stream of blue energy from each gun that both hit the wound on Kanary's ankle. She hissed for a moment before seeming to relax.
'It's nothing major, but she'll have trouble walking for a while.' Cody said before suddenly breaking out into a coughing fit.
'Are you ok?' Nicole asked, the ever-worried team leader. She tried to support the boy on one shoulder and he seemed to accept the help. 'Leroy, cover us!' she shouted, realising that they were all crowding around their one injured teammate. With a nod, he got out his shotgun and kept watch for them.
'Yeah, just probably need a new pair of lungs.' He croaked out.
'Is it serious?'
'It comes and goes.'
'All clear!' he shouted before slowly holstering his weapon 'Kanary, what happened?' Leroy got down on one knee to get closer to his long-time friend. 'Did you find the other teams?'
She nodded once.
'Where are they?'
Kanary slid a finger across her neck.
A gasp of shock escaped Nicole before she crouched down to get a better angle to talk to the injured raven-haired girl. 'All of them?' Kanary's strength seemed to be returning as she shook her head. 'Team five?' she slid a finger across her throat. 'Team four?' she repeated the gesture. 'Team three?' She repeated the gesture a third time. Nicole needed a moment to stifle a whimper. 'Team one?' At the mention of their flag bearer team, Kanary just shrugged before trying to stand.
'Whoa, easy girl.' Leroy said, still supporting her.
'It's alright. The bleeding's stopped, she can walk now.' Cody explained as he shut off both of his guns to allow them to rest.
'Hey, if everyone's all patched up back there,' the man on the mounted machine gun called back over the roar of the weapon. 'How about some help over here?'
Kanary was the first to react, snatching up her rifle and firing at any of the Grimm too close to the airship. Leroy followed up with his Boomstick at the ready to scatter a few small Nevermores that were trying to tear into the Bullhead's engines.
'Keep them distracted, we're getting out of here!' Nicole ordered Cody while firing off several arrows in different directions. The arrows struck the ground and formed large walls of ice and obsidian to bottleneck the Grimm where Leroy and Kanary could easily pick them off.
'What about the mission?' Cody asked as he used his Tesla Pack to blast back an Ursa with a concentrated bolt of energy generated from both electrical prods.
'Almost all our forces have been jacked and we're surrounded by Grimm. I don't think that we'll be able to complete the mission anytime soon.' Nicole said as she climbed through the hatch of the Bullhead and made her way to the cockpit. 'Try to get a message out to any remaining Hunters and Judicators out there. We're falling back!' she yelled at the pilot.
'Not going to argue with that.' He replied before starting up the engines. While he did that, Nicole pulled out her pocket communicator and switched it to what Glynda Goodwitch had told her would be their tactical channel.
'Professor Goodwitch? Things are turning out pretty hectic here, I'm afraid we'll have to leave this job unfinished in favour of saving our skins.'
'So I've heard.' Glynda growled into her end of the communicator, rubbing her forehead in frustration, though no one could see her. 'You and the rest of the attack force have permission to retreat.'
'Alright, thanks dear~' Nicole chimed before cutting the communications link. 'Gun it!' she suddenly shouted right into the pilot's ear.
'Ow, you didn't have to yell it right in my ear.' The pilot said as he finished with the take-off procedures.
'I don't care! We're getting my team out of this, so you'd better get this wagon in the air or I'll…' she stopped herself as the glint of morning light on steel caught her eye through the glass window of the cockpit.
Using a hand to try to block the glare of the light, Nicole's eyes widened at what she saw.
Facing the village, the reflection of light was coming from a large, cone-shaped helmet that covered the whole head of the scrawny man that was wearing it. It was almost comical how disproportionate the helmet was compared to the rest of the man's bruised, bloodied twig of a body, but it only drew more attention to the huge cleaver that he was carrying.
The rusted blade of the weapon had to be dragged along the ground, but was easily as long and twice as wide as the skinny man only covered in what looked like some tattered cloths and animal skins. Having come from the direction of the village, the cone-headed man was slowly approaching the airship at a hobble.
'What is that?' Nicole muttered to herself.
'Whatever it is, it's going to be riddled with holes in a second.' The pilot said in response, activating the controls for the nose mounted machine gun. Shifting one hand to the firing control, he thumbed the fire button and the machine gun immediately roared to life, firing off a stream of bullets at the ground in front of the skinny man before the recoil caused them to fly straight into him.
However, the cone-headed man suddenly drew the giant cleaver in front of him like a shield with inhuman speed, blocking every bullet that was sent his way before suddenly leaping into the air. Both the pilot and Nicole followed the skinny man's flight path, but only the platinum-blonde ex-mercenary realised where he was headed – cleaver aimed at the ground.
Too late, she realised, when she shouted, 'Look out!' There was no time for the pilot to get out of his seat before the giant rusted blade came plunging back down and stuck straight through the window of the cockpit, impaling the pilot and stabbing the controls of the airship. All she could do was leap backwards to avoid the shower of glass that came with it.
With the controls jammed as they were, there was no way that they were going to use this Bullhead to get away. So, it was with a high pitched scream that Nicole drew her bow and fired two arrows at once at the cone-head man. One arrow stuck out of his elbow while the other bounced harmlessly off the large brass helmet, causing the man to let out a beastly howl of pain before pulling out his cleaver and letting it rest on his shoulder as he stepped into the airship.
Nicole was gripped by fear as the walking horror show slowly approached her one stride at a time, snapping off the shaft of the arrow in his arm by hitting it against his thigh. She could only do what came to mind first and fired off whatever arrow she could find in her quiver while falling back into the passenger compartment.
Each arrow was either deflected by the giant brass helmet like a shield or dodged, as narrow as the space in the passenger compartment may be. Sparks flew about the enclosed space as the giant cleaver made a horizontal arc, creating deep scratches along the walls of the airship.
With a squeak, Nicole quickly ducked under the strike as the large blade jammed itself into the hatchway. It took a moment for Nicole to regain her sense as she quickly checked that all her hair was still there before sending the edge of Moonlight into the cone-head man's chest, causing him to stagger backwards a step.
The small distance she put in between them was enough for her to regain her bearings and quickly think out a plan of at least defeating her opponent. Drawing out an explosive arrow, she quickly fired it at the floor of the airship, sent a smirk the scrawny man's way and jumped out of the open hatch, dragging the machine gunner away from the explosion with her Aura whip.
Starting at the point between the passenger compartment and the cockpit, the Bullhead exploded into two separate pieces and a shower of hot metal shards. Everyone immediately raised their Aura to defend against any stray or surprisingly sharp bits of shrapnel, before refocusing their attention on the Grimm surrounding them.
'Nicole, you alright?' Cody shouted over his shoulder while slipping in a new vial of Electric Dust into his pack.
'I'm fine.' She said, untangling her whip from the confused gunner. 'Get down!' she shouted while drawing her bowstring back. The brunette did as he was told without hesitation, allowing Nicole to place an arrow through a leaping Beowulf.
'Glynda, we've got a problem!' Nicole said into her communicator as she used the whip that was still in her hand to coil one end around the neck of a Creep. Pulling back as hard as she could, the coil around the Grimm's neck tightened like a noose and decapitated it in one clean tug.
Tossing a stray pistol to the dazed gunner, Nicole continued yelling into her communicator. 'Our airship is kinda…broken, and we have no way of getting back to Beacon!'
'Don't worry, I've been able to get into contact with Team One.' Glynda said calmly as a giant Nevermore swooped overhead. 'I'm sending them to pick you up as soon as they can. For now, hold your position.'
'Aye aye, cap-' the platinum-blonde girl was cut off when a large throwing knife suddenly knocked the communicator from her hand. Turning around with her bow ready, she came to face a familiar looking man who had two tomahawks in either hand.
'You're not getting away that easily.' He said as he flipped one of the tomahawks in his hand.
Reaching back into her quiver, Nicole's blood suddenly turned ice-cold when she couldn't find any more arrows. The man, Ripper, seemed to catch on to this and threw one of his tomahawks straight at her. Oh bugger.
Knowing there was no time for her to dodge the attack; she prepared to raise Moonlight in front of her to block it, but suddenly lost her balance when the gunner pushed her to the side, effectively taking the tomahawk straight to the chest for her.
She found her footing quickly when Ripper suddenly turned into a cloud and rematerialized right above the injured gunner, second tomahawk poised to strike. It took all of her momentum, but she was able to dive in between Ripper and the downed man and block the strike with the handle of her bow.
She then used her position to place a kick to the axe-wielder's chest and send him back a few feet. Ripper was able to break his fall by suddenly turning into fog again and rematerializing in a ready stance. Oh, now that's just cheating. She thought while sliding a hand over the handle of her bow, causing the two limbs to fold backwards at a right-angle and for two six-inch blades to spring forward from inside of them.
Taunting him with the wave of a hand, Ripper suddenly broke into a sprint where they came face to face, trading blows as Nicole used the limbs of the bow to protect her arm while Ripper easily matched it with his attack speed.
The assassin was eventually able to get the upper hand when he got below Nicole's guard and kicked her off balance, sending her to the ground.
Tomahawk poised to strike, Ripper was cut short from finishing off Nicole by a sudden war cry followed by Leroy tackling the man into a tumble. Nicole could hardly express her thanks for the crazy wildcard coming to her rescue, but she settled for letting out a breath she was holding in.
Getting back up, she quickly took a moment to assess the situation around her like Drake had taught her to. With Kanary and Leroy keeping Ripper occupied, Nicole could focus on helping the injured gunner and Cody, who was fending off the Grimm all by himself.
She just managed to drag the injured man up against one of the walls of obsidian that she had formed when the sound of metal twisting brought her attention back to the remains of the airship, where Cone-head was climbing over the burnt frame of the airship.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me! 'Cody, on your left!' she shouted at the medic, who was still barely able to hold back the growing horde of Grimm. At the sound of her voice, he reacted quickly enough to leap backwards and sprint over to Nicole's side before the large cleaver was able to bisect him down the middle.
'Oh, gosh. Is he alright?' Cody asked in concern, pointing at the injured gunman who groaned in response.
'You tell me, doc.' She replied, getting ready to fight the strangely scrawny man once again. Outnumbered and overpowered, the only advantage that they had at the moment was that the Grimm seemed to have a taste for scrawny, tattered weirdos.
Her instincts as a mercenary told Nicole to go in for a quick strike while Cone-head was distracted by a large Ursa, but her instincts as team leader told her to cover Cody as he tended to the injured gunner.
'Even if I can patch him up, I get the feeling that none of us will make it out of this one.' Cody said morbidly, giving Nicole an apologetic look.
Holding her ground, the platinum-blonde archer closed her eyes and quietly hoped for a miracle. 'Come on, Cody. We've handled worse.' She tried to convince him, though she didn't sound like she was doing a very good job with the shakiness in her tone. 'Like those Nevermores in the Emerald Forest.'
Finally managing to scare away the Grimm around him, Cone-head was able to focus his attention back onto Nicole for a second, before he was immediately sent flying through the air by a missile that detonated as it hit the ground below him.
Following the trail of smoke, Nicole traced the missile back to a sight that made her smile involuntarily. The Bullhead that was closing in was making a wide arc tracing the perimeter of the village, careful to avoid flying straight through it unless it wanted to end up like some of the other airships that were shot down rather abruptly.
Several people on either open hatch of the airship were providing cover fire and worked well to scare away the Grimm while someone else dropped a few smoke grenades to help cover their escape. About bloody time.
Waving the airship down, Nicole suddenly remembered about their two missing teammates and turned in search of them. Smoke obscuring her vision, she growled in frustration before turning to address Cody.
'Cody, get this man on the airship. I'm going to go help Kanary and Leroy.' She said while helping the injured gunner to stand. 'Got any grenades or Dust on you that I might borrow?'
It was then that Cody gave his team leader the most incredulous and disgusted look ever. 'I'm a medic; why would I have grenades on me.'
Without bothering to answer his question, Nicole walked by her team medic while taking out one of the vials of Electric Dust from his pack. 'I'm just going to borrow this, okay?' she said while waving the vial in the air for him, rushing off before Cody even had a chance to respond.
Bursting out through the smokescreen, Nicole quickly set about finding her missing teammates, still locked in battle with the assassin. With a quick whistle, she was able to catch Leroy's attention for a split second as she held the vial over her head.
Leroy seemed to understand what she was trying to say, which was as good of a response as Nicole would get. Counting down from three, she lobbed the vial towards the three combatants. Suddenly, Kanary activated her Semblance and glided across the air back to Nicole's side with a backflip.
Leroy followed after, but not before hitting the vial as it passed right in front of his face – right in between him and Ripper. The assassin had no time to react as his vision exploded into sparks and lightning, while Leroy was sent backwards with his Semblance active.
The former-Judicator was sent skidding across the ground and stopped right at their feet. Lowering his body shield with a groan, Leroy first opened one eye before asking, 'Did it work?'
Looking back to where the smoke and sparks were still clearing, Nicole's eyebrows knitted together in worry as Ripper was nowhere to be seen. 'Looks like it, come on. We need to go!' she said while offering a hand for Leroy to get up.
With help from Kanary and Nicole, all three of them were able to make it to the Bullhead in seconds, practically collapsing on before shouting to take-off.
With a shudder, the airship rose at an angle and flew towards the direction of the rising sun. Several Nevermores still on their tail, most of the Huntsmen and soldiers on board were still sticking their weapons out and taking pot shots at the encroaching Grimm.
'Can you shoot?' asked one of the older Huntsmen as Nicole propped herself with her elbows.
'Huh?' she asked, exhausted from all the fighting.
'Can you shoot?' he repeated himself.
'Y-yeah, but I'm out of arrows.' She replied with the first thing that came to mind as the airship shook suddenly again.
Instead of responding, the Huntsman took the pistol from the injured gunner that Cody was still tending to and handed the sidearm to Nicole. 'Every shot counts.' He said while helping the blonde to get to her feet. 'Now come on, we're running on one engine here and I'm sure that we've exceeded passenger capacity. The fight's not over yet.'
'Are you sure this is the right place?'
Drake let out an annoyed groan again as he turned to face Abraham again. It was about midday and they were waiting at exactly where their contact from the SDC told them to go, which just happened to be the corner of one of the more busy districts in Vale. It wasn't exactly the most discreet meeting spot, but at least they didn't stand out too much from the diverse crowd that flowed through this area from time to time. In the message, they had been told to wait at the corner of a specific hardware store and expect their envoy to arrive some time past noon – which is exactly what they were doing.
The waiting was starting to get to Abraham, and every now and then he would throw a glance towards where Beacon Academy could just barely be seen in the distance. Every moment out here is a moment that we could be recognized.
'Yes, I'm sure. It's possible our envoy is already here and is waiting to make sure that we're the people he's supposed to be picking up.' Drake said, his voice muffled by his steel and latex gas mask. 'They've never seen our faces before, remember?'
'Yeah, but…' Abraham trailed off as he quickly looked left and right once more, thinking that he recognized someone from among the crowd.
'If you're worried about getting spotted, pull your scarf up. Remember; if we get found, you're on your own.' Drake grumbled.
'Alright…' Abraham said as he pulled the scarf over the lower half of his face, trying to ignore how itchy it was. 'But you're sure this is the right place.'
Letting out another low growl, Drake was looked like he was actually about to say something else, but was cut off when a matt-black car stopped suddenly in front of them. Without warning, two men in Schnee Dust Security suits exited the car and forced both Drake and Abraham into the passenger seats with them.
Having been forcefully shoved into the passenger seat of an unmarked car, Abraham had a few choice words for the security guards facing them on the opposite seats, but he held his tongue when Drake turned towards him, the mask unable to hide the glare behind it.
Instead, the blonde followed Drake's lead by pulling down his top hat over his head tighter and staring forward at one of the security guards.
A few seconds passed in silence before one of them rapped the glass screen that separated them from the driver in the front seat. After that, the car began moving again and the tinted screens darkened to the point where neither Drake nor Abraham seemed to be able to see out of the windows.
Just as Abraham worried, it seemed like that they were being taken somewhere that the Schnees didn't want people knowing about. The concept of not knowing where he was going to end up spiked the blonde's anxiety to a point where he had to actively steady his breathing. Fortunately, he was able to convince Drake to allow for his eye-in-the-sky to tail their car.
Beak, are you there? He asked through the mental link.
Yes, Abraham. I am following behind the car closely. The raven replied while Abraham took a moment to close his eyes and focus his senses, fiddling with the hem of his coat in anxiety.
A few more seconds passed before one of the security guards pulled out a small rectangular box with a red light and a speaker. Pressing one of the buttons on the box, the red light began blinking and the speaker began producing static.
Two seconds passed before a muffled voice came out of the speaker. 'Hello, Sabre. I've heard much about you. My name is Winstrum Frost, head of the Schnee division in Vale. I am the one who enlisted your help.' There was a pause where Abraham expected Drake to say something in reply, but Winstrum continued. 'I know you've been working with a partner later, but her descriptions do not match up with the man sitting next to you now.'
'I've worked with many associates before.' Drake explained while Abraham tried to figure out how Mr. Frost was able to see them. 'This is Outlaw, he can be trusted with the job.'
'For the safety of both of you, I hope so. Now, for your assignment; recently, one of our offshore R & D facilities was taken over by an unknown entity. We have no confirmation, but we're more than certain that all the staff have been killed, so every entity present there should be considered a hostile responsible for the lab's condition.'
Abraham's mind replayed the words over a second time in his head. Wait…they said "entity", as in singular… He was close to voicing out his concerns when Drake cut him off. 'What exactly do you want us to do?'
'Clear out the facility of anything living.' He explained bluntly. 'Be warned, before the guards in the facility gave their lives trying to defend the men and women working there, they initiated the Deadsafe Lockdown, which prevents anyone inside the facility from exiting. We can let you in and monitor your progress from the outside, but you'll need to complete your mission before we can send a team in to disable the Lockdown.'
It was starting to make more and more sense to Abraham why not many people came back from assignments given by the Schnees. The details that they were being given were vague at best, but what Winstrum Frost had described to them sounded a lot like a suicide mission to Abraham.
'Understood.' Drake simply replied, followed up with, 'And the payment?'
There was a short pause where the small, black box didn't make any noise before it started emitting static once again. 'You will be paid in full once your mission is complete.'
The comment brought Abraham's mind back to the five-digit figure reward that he had seen highlighted along with the short list of terms on the contract, and he wondered if he would actually need all of the Lien he would receive when they went to Mistral.
Ozpin had often told him that he should be grateful of his life at Beacon, and how most folk in Vale and in villages across the world struggled and had to work constantly just to make enough money to get by. It was on his own accord that he eventually realised that the good professor had left out a detail from his lectures; how most folk struggled to make enough money doing honest work. The blonde understood immediately that Ozpin was only trying not to encourage taking up such a lifestyle, but now, Abraham didn't want to argue with the efficiency of it.
Suddenly, Abraham felt the black car come to a halt as the man over the intercom started speaking again. 'This is your stop, gentlemen.' With that, the men flanking them moved to open either car door and Drake stepped out as soon as the gap was wide enough. Abraham was quick to follow his lead without question, squinting in the bright sunlight after having been in the dark limousine for so long.
Doombeak, where are we? Abraham asked, quickly taking in his surroundings. He had stepped out of the car and onto a grassy field surrounded by trees, with only a few clear openings that were large enough for three trucks driving side-by-side. In the centre of the clearing was what looked like a thirty-metre long warehouse with a curved roof made of glass, surrounded by vehicles and armed men in body armour with the Schnee Dust logo.
The building had an ivory-white colour with a front door large enough for a truck to drive through. The front door, again, had the familiar snowflake logo in the middle of it, where a circular locking mechanism seemed to have clamped the doors shut. Despite not having any windows, from the angle Abraham stood at to the building, he could just faintly make out several shutter doors along the far walls of the facility, most likely meant for convoys or trucks that transported supplies to and from the facility.
Turning around, Abraham also just realised that there was a large metal fence from the way they came, as well as another similar fence on the far side of the field of grass.
We are no longer within the walls of the Kingdom. Doombeak replied, and Abraham saw what he meant as he spotted the high walls that protected Vale just on the horizon. But we are not far from it either.
Turning back to face the facility, he saw Drake already walking up to it – gesturing for Abraham to follow him.
It didn't take long for Abraham to catch up to the mercenary, and when he did, the blonde tried to lighten the mood. 'You think this is the part where they kill us?'
'No, that comes after we take care of their problem.' Drake replied, and for a long while, Abraham couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.
They walked right up to the front door of the facility, where a woman was quickly typing away at a console on the wall next to the doors.
Just as he was wondering if they would have to wait long, the console made a beeping noise and changed its colour from white to green. Shortly after that, the circular mechanism in the centre of the double doors began to rotate, causing the steel cylinders being used to bar the doors to retract.
All four cylinders slowly slid into the circular mechanism before it let out a hiss and retracted into the doors. Like a key, the circular mechanism started rotating once more until the pattern on it aligned up with the rest of the pattern of the Schnee logo, causing the doors to finally open.
As the doors slowly slid apart, Abraham suddenly found himself surrounded by Schnee security guards with their weapons drawn and aimed at the opening between the doors. Expecting a fight, Abraham's hand flew to the hilt of his axe, but nothing came through the open doors. The inside of the facility was as quiet as a grave, aside from the noise of the opening doors.
Neither Drake nor Abraham moved an inch until the doors completely opened, and all the while, Abraham wondered how the black-haired mercenary was able to stay so calm and stoic despite their current situation. Maybe he's just done this so many times he's gotten used to it…
Abraham was broken from his thoughts by a sound like two stone slabs slamming against each other. Turning back to the facility, the blonde saw that the doors had completely slid open, providing both of them with the entrance into what could be a great fortune or an unfortunate grave.
'Well, ladies first.'