Crimson approached the loading bay of the RedOwl building, having changed outfits and zipped up his jacket, both to protect from the cold, and to be less recognizable. He had a communicator in his ear, as did the rest of the team, so they could all stay in touch. Melanie followed behind him, dressed in a trench coat and fedora.

"You know...my mom had an outfit like that." He commented. "It was red, but...well, it still looks like her."

Melanie paused. "I...didn't know."

"It...looks nice on you." He said.

He looked over to the loading bay, doing a quick scan with his visor. Several guards were highlighted in red.

Satisfied, Crimson reached for his earpiece. "Melanie and I are in position. I count ten guards patrolling the outside."

Meanwhile, Kane and Nina were on the roof of an adjacent building. Both were dressed like contract mechanics, wearing padded clothes, goggles, and vests.

"Can you get us across?" Kane asked.

Nina nodded. "Just stick close. If we want the ice to disappear in time, I can't make it too strong."

Kane reached for his own earpiece. "Nina and I are ready."

Inside the building, Reed and Lizzie sat in a waiting room, both dressed very formally, as if there for a business meeting. Reed checked the time on his scroll, and right when the minute turned, he stood and reached for his earpiece.

"Cameras are on loop. Let's get moving." He stated.

Lizzie teleported them into the hall, and they made their way to the loading bay. Back on the roof, Nina made an ice slide for her and Kane to reach the RedOwl building, rushing over to the cargo lift. Crimson and Melanie rushed the guards at the loading bay, springing into action with coordinated attacks to swiftly take them down in a matter of seconds. Reed and Lizzie arrived just in time to stop any alarms from being triggered, as Nina and Kane arrived on the cargo lift.

"We start at the bottom." Kane said. "Look for any captives they might have, get them out. We can continue on from there."

The others all nodded, going to the cargo lift. As it descended, they checked their weapons, preparing for a surprise encounter.

"Alright, remember, the whole point of this is being covert." Crimson stated. "Alabaster is our biggest threat. If we see him, we clear out."

Everyone seemed to agree, staying wary of what was to come. When the elevator came to a stop, they filed out, checking the halls for coming patrols. Seeing none, they began to check the cells. The first few were empty...then the next few...the entire first hall, in fact...

"This isn't right." Lizzie said. "Nobody's here."

Nina frowned. "He always had...others. I could hear them scream, I know there were more."

Melanie paused. "Listen...no footsteps, there are no guards on this floor."

"Check the next floor." Crimson said. "Lizzie, keep going up until you find a floor with someone on it."

She disappeared without a word, while the others made their way back to the elevator. One they were all ready, Lizzie reappeared.

"There's a lab ten floors up." Lizzie stated. "Everything below that is empty holding cells."

"That can't be right." Kane muttered. "My intel was solid."

"We go to the lab." Crimson said. "Someone there might know something."

As the lift climbed, Kane began pacing. "I know my sources, they wouldn't botch this...whatever happened had to have been recent."

Lizzie sighed. "Kane...we have to consider that he disposed of them."

"Disposed..." Nina's eyes widened.

"Don't sugarcoat it." Melanie stated. "He had them killed to cover his tracks. It's a lot easier to make someone disappear if they're already dead."

Crimson shook his head. "We don't know that for certain. Let's not jump to any conclusions yet."

"We still have to account for everything." Reed said. "We should take the moment to prepare ourselves for the possibility."

The group went silent, taking it in. When the lift reached its stop, they were ready. The six of them swept out, taking the guards down in a matter of seconds. The teams of engineers watched with bewilderment as security was overwhelmed by the sudden attack.

"Are those...Huntsmen?" One asked.

"We're saved!" Another shouted.

Crimson looked around at the groups. The engineers looked tired and overworked. Their clothes and hair were disheveled, and their work stations were disorganized.

"You were all working here against your will." Crimson observed. "The Faunus weren't the only prisoners here."

The engineer shook his head. "He used them as test subjects for the designs we made...we never saw the results, but...we always received detailed reports on what was wrong."

"What happened to them?" Kane asked. "Why are they all gone?"

Another engineer stepped forward. "We were getting ready to move...they didn't tell us where, but they've been transferring us to another site gradually."

Melanie frowned. "There were trucks leaving as we arrived."

"We have to catch them." Crimson stated. "Kane, Lizzie, get these engineers out of here. We'll track down those trucks."

"No way." Lizzie protested. "I can make it there faster than any of you."

"You can't shadow travel mid-air." Kane pointed out. "Your semblance is better suited to getting these people out of here."

"Fine." She conceded. "You four better not botch this."

"We won't." Reed assured.

CRMN headed back to the lift, riding it up to the loading bay. As they did, Reed pulled his scroll out, attempting to access RedOwl's shipping manifests.

"Says a truck was loaded with spare parts, it's en route to Atlas apparently." He observed.

Crimson pressed a command on his scroll to summon his bike. "Mel, you ride with me. Reed, go high along the route until you find it. Nina, try and stay low, keep off the streets." Reed flew off and Nina skated away, as the bike slid to a stop in front of Crimson. "Mel, you know how to drive?" He tossed her the keys.

"What?! Crimson, I live on the streets, I've never even ridden a bicycle!" She protested.

"Keep your feet on the braces, tilt the handles to throttle, pull the grip to brake, and lean to turn." He said. "You'll get the hang of it." She sat uncertainly on the bike, and Crimson took a seat behind her. "The GPS tracks all our scrolls, so try to follow Reed."

"Right." She said. "Feet on the braces, tilt the handles to throttle."

She pulled on the handle, and screamed as the bike shot forward. Meanwhile, Reed flew over the roads, looking for the right truck. He spotted one with the RedOwl logo, and began flying closer to it.

"I see it." He spoke into his earpiece. "What do I do?"

"Force it off-road." Crimson ordered. "Somewhere with less people around, we want to minimize collateral damage."

"I can keep it from crashing into anything." Nina said.

"Good, we're almost there." Crimson informed.

The red motorcycle zoomed down the road, gaining on the truck. Melanie managed to swerve through traffic, catching up to it rather quickly. Once they were close enough, Crimson leaped off the motorcycle onto the roof of the truck.

"Reed, do it now!" He ordered.

A bullet hit the front passenger side tire, popping it and causing the truck to swerve. Melanie extended a water whip from Violet Cross, tethering to the back of the truck so as not to lose it. When the truck hit the side of the road, it bounced up, crashing through the barrier before plummeting to the ground below. However, Nina slid by, forming a track of ice to lead the truck into a safe landing, and bringing it to a stop. As soon as it did, Crimson opened the passenger side door, and swung through, kicking the driver out of the vehicle. A moment later, the back of the truck began opening up. The four rushed over to look inside. As light came into the truck, they saw the unmistakable figures of Faunus, beaten and shackled, crammed inside the truck in uncomfortable numbers.

"Come on, let's get them out of there." Crimson said.

A chuckle came from behind them. "Yeah, that's not happening. But I'm glad you four showed up."

They turned to see Zachariah Alabaster staring them down. He grinned, drawing his gun and aiming it straight at Crimson. Before he had a chance to fire, Nina rushed in, slamming into him and forming claws of ice around her fingers, using them to slash away at him wildly.

"You poisoned me!" She shouted.

His aura blocked the hits, and he knocked her away with a pistol whip. "This time, I'm gonna do worse."

He fired a shot, but Melanie deflected it with Violet Cross. "I'm not letting you. Not this time."

Reed came in from behind Alabaster with a slash that flared his aura and knocked him forward. Alabaster went with the moment to turn and fire at Reed, who dodged the shots easily.

"Your cheap tricks may have been enough to take us individually, but you're out of your element now." Reed stated.

Crimson extended Fyrebeat's blades and stood by his teammates. "Face it Alabaster, even with your Semblance, you can't take the four of us together."

"I've got no reason to hold back this time...and every reason to go for the kill." He flicked his wrist, and the pistol folded out into a long dagger.

Alabaster dashed forward, slashing straight at Crimson. Crossing his blades to block the attack, he leveraged his legs and pushed forward to throw Alabaster off-balance. Seeing this, Reed came in for a slash at his feet. Instead, Alabaster backflipped, switching back to his gun and firing at the now prone Reed, but Nina stepped in the way with a shield of ice, before spinning and hurling the shield at Zachariah. He landed and slashed through it with his dagger, but a stream of flame was already headed his way. As he rolled to the side, Melanie came in to hit him while he was down. Energy dust lit up his blade as he blocked Violet cross, but Melanie just twisted the blade to the side and caught Alabaster with a kick to the ribs. He crashed into the ground with a grunt, his aura flaring up again, before he rolled up and began firing at Nina, who dodged the shots with a limbo slide and sprang up to kick Alabaster in the jaw. Seeing he was being surrounded, he growled...until he spotted the truck. With a laugh, he fired right into the fuel line.

"No!" Nina shouted.

The fireball burst out of the tank, but...stopped there. Crimson had his hand outstretched, aura glowing in rhythm with the flames, and clearly straining.

"Hurry! I can't hold it for long!" Crimson shouted.

Reed and Melanie immediately rushed into the truck, freeing the Faunus and telling them to run. Nina slid over and began freezing the pulsing ball of flame Crimson had contained.

"Everyone's out!" Reed stated.

"Get back!" Crimson ordered. "Nina, I need you to put as much cold into it as you can!"

His hand was already starting to shake, aura flickering. Reed flew to a safe distance, and Melanie ran over to Crimson.

"I didn't know you could stop an explosion." She said.

Crimson grimaced. "Neither did I."

His aura dropped, and the explosion was released, smashing the casing of ice apart, but it seemed to be much smaller than what it otherwise would have been. Crimson collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. Then, he started laughing. Melanie grinned and helped him up, reaching to her earpiece.

"Kane, we did it." She informed. "No casualties."

"How many did you rescue?" He asked.

Reed stepped over, reaching for his own earpiece. "I counted twenty."

Kane was silent for a moment. "There were twenty cells per floor...we don't know how many were filled, but..."

"They'd already been moved out." Nina cut in. "We saved who we could...and when Carl is convicted, maybe the others can be saved too."

"All the engineers are out." Lizzie stated. "I think it's safe to call this mission a success."

"Hey, you four should get back to Beacon." Kane said. "You did good, all of you."

"Thanks." Crimson replied. "Take care, man."