Chapter 17
Summer eyed the factory with an excited expression on her face, this could be it she might finally find Ruby.
After entering Mistral, Summer had shaken up some of the Mistral's underworld and called some of her old contacts eventually finding the human traffickers.
The group were hiding out in an old abandoned dust factory. Summer had slipped in easily enough, breaking in through an unguarded back door.
Summer had found the kidnapped children tied up in the middle of one of the factory's rooms. All of the kids where motionless, having been injected with a sedative to make them easier to deal with.
Summer went to free the captured children, checking their faces in hopes of finding her daughter.
The sudden sound of a rifle being loaded caught her attention. "Freeze," called a gruff man's voice, as he placed the barrel of his weapon against Summer's head.
Summer moved her head to the side, making the man miss his shot. Summer's head flew back at the man, smashing the back of her against the man's nose, breaking it in the process.
The guard fell to the ground, clutching his broken nose in pain. Looking up, Summer could see the dozens of guards, stood on the catwalks above her, all with dust rifles pointed towards her.
Somehow the human traffickers had been ready for Summer, setting a trap up for her. Putting a bit of aura into her legs, Summer was able to dash over and take cover behind an old worn-out desk. The guards proceeded to fire at Summer, all of the dust rounds turning the old desk to ruble.
Just before she was torn to shreds, Summer leaped behind another desk. Pulling out her spear, Summer transformed it into its sniper rifle mode, loading a special magazine of gravity dust, into the chamber. Summer shot at one of the catwalks the guards were shooting at her from, sending the platform flying into the floor.
Summer visibly cringed, "ouch," she mumbled, seeing the battered men, craw out from the catwalk.
With the distraction, Summer peeked her head out of cover, sending another shot of gravity dust at the second catwalk, sending it flying into the ground, like the first. In the end, the human traffickers were littered all over the ground, all of them moaning in pain.
Summer stepped out of her cover, keeping her rifle trained on the unmoving human traffickers. Once she was sure that none of the human traffickers would get up to attack her again, she made her way to the tied-up hostages.
Transforming her sniper rifle back into its spear form, one by one Summer cut off the ropes, that were holding the kids captive, and with each cut Summer's disappointment only grew.
After she had freed the last child, Summer let out a disappointed sigh. "Nothing," Summer muttered to herself sadly, looking back, Summer noticed the multiple bullet holes in her cloak.
"Great," Summer said with distaste, as she placed her damaged cloak behind her. Summer pulled out her scroll and called Haven Academy's headmaster, Leonardo Lionheart.
"Hello?" greeted Mistral's headmaster.
"185747 Bengiesa street," was all Summer said before she ended the scroll call. Summer gave the drugged kids one more glance before she exited the factory, confident that Leo would send someone to check on her call.
As Summer exited the building, she noticed the dozens of armed men closing in on her from the rooftops.
"Hey, Yang," greeted Ruby as Yang entered the dorm room, "Hey Rubes, where's the food?" asked Yang, becoming hungry after Qrow's talk.
"Over there," Ruby pointed over to Yang's desk, where her meal sat. Yang walked over to the desk, sitting down Yang started chowing down on her food.
"Thanks, Rubes!" cheered Yang with food still in her mouth. Earning a disgusted look from Weiss
"Close your mouth while you eat you brute," chastised Weiss, as she finished her salad. In response, Yang stuck her tongue out at Weiss.
"Hey guys, there's a new Spruce Willis movie out, wanna go?" Yang asked, excited to spend some time with her team.
"I guess," Blake answered.
"I don't know...I suppose it would be an enjoyable activity," Weiss commented.
"I-I can't," Ruby muttered, breaking Yang's heart in the process. "Why? I thought you were done ditching us," Yang said
"I am!" Ruby said quickly, "It's just...I have plans with some friends," Ruby muttered the last part quietly but loud enough for Yang to hear.
"Friends, who?" Yang asked defensively, "Just another team I met, we're gonna hang out," Ruby squeaked. Yang looked disappointed. "have fun," was all the blonde muttered.
An awkward silence fellow upon the room, all of the girls not knowing what to say.
"Thanks for lunch, Ruby," thanked Blake, breaking the awkward silence.
"Thank you, Ruby," thanked Weiss
"Yeah, thanks Rubes," thanked Yang, flashing Ruby a smile. Ruby gave her teammates a confused stare, "Why are you guys thanking me? Thank Weiss," Ruby replied, as she pointed her head towards Weiss.
"Me?" asked Weiss, as she pointed to herself, earring an affirmative nod from Ruby. "Why would they thank me?" Weiss asked, "Didn't You buy everyone food and bring it to us?"
"I didn't buy lunch, Weiss did," Ruby replied "Which reminds me," said Ruby, as she rummaged through her girl pockets."Stupid girl pockets….ahh here it is," mumbled Ruby, as she pulled Weiss's credit card out of her pocket.
"Why do you have my credit card?" Weiss snapped with a hint of anger, as she snatched her credit card out of Ruby's hands.
"To pay for lunch," Ruby said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You didn't even ask!" yelled Weiss, as she gave Ruby an icy blue stare. "I'm sorry Weiss it's just, I heard you were rich and I just thought…"
"Ruby," Weiss interrupted, "I don't mind paying for lunch but you have to ask me first," demanded Weiss. Ruby honestly didn't see what she did wrong until she realized that her team were still under the illusion that huntsmen and huntresses where the good guys.
"I'm sorry Weiss," Ruby apologized sadly, as she got up to leave the room.
"Wait. Ruby where are you going?" asked Yang "You don't have to leave."
"I'm not mad at you Ruby," said Weiss but Ruby didn't respond, she knew she was in the right, why should she have to pay for everyone's meal, when Weiss had all of that lien? Without another word, Ruby exited the dorm room.
Once Ruby left the room, gold, blue, and lilac eyes all met, "What was that about?" asked Blake, as she looked at Yang specifically.
"I don't know, she's never done anything like this," Yang defended.
"When I asked her why she did it, she said something about me being rich," Weiss said. "So she stole from you and bought our lunch because you're rich?" Blake asked
"Like Robin Hood?" Yang asked, imaging her sister with a bow and arrow, stealing from snooty rich people, kinda like Weiss's family. "I guess so, it's weird that she would do that though," commented Weiss.
"Yeah, we'll have to ask her about it, when she comes back," Yang replied as she continued to dig into her lunch.
After a few hours of casing the CCT, Emerald felt she had a good enough idea of the layout and went back to her dorm room, upon entering the room she found Mercury fast asleep.
Picking up a teen magazine from her desk, Emerald threw it across the room, hitting Mercury smack in the face, Emerald's red eyes met Mercury's dull grey ones.
"Hahaha, you're funny" Mercury spat in annoyance, glaring daggers at Emerald, who gave him a smirk in response.
"That's what happens when you sit on your lazy butt all-day," commented Emerald, flashing a grin of superiority. "I hate you," Mercury mumbled, closing his eyes in an attempt to ignore Emerald.
Emerald was content to let him, pulling out another magazine. Emerald hopped onto her bed and quietly read her magazine.
A short while later Cinder entered the dorm room, with a tired look in her face. Cinder sat down on her bed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
"How'd it go ma'am?" Asked Emerald, who's gaze had drifted from her pitiful excuse of a teammate to her mentor.
"Terrible," Cinder answered.
"What did she say to do, to the silver-eyed brat?" Mercury asked. Cinder wanted to slap the smug grin off of Mercury's face, but she had to keep her composure.
So instead Cinder simply answered, "we will continue as planned, when the time comes I'll deal with Ruby. "You two are to say nothing about Ruby's eyes, to anyone. Understood?" Cinder asked
"Of course, Cinder," answered a relieved Emerald. Cinder waited a moment before she got tired of Mercury not answering, "Mercury? Do you understand?" Cinder asked.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it Cinder," chastised Mercury. Suddenly the air around the corner of the room started to crack like glass until the small figure of Neo stepped through.
"Hey Neo, you find anything?" Cinder asked, revving an affirmative nod from Neo.
"What is it?" Asked Cinder, as she watched Neo pull out her scroll and start typing on it.
"There's a generator connected to the headmaster's office, if we destroy it we'll cut the power to his office for a few moments," typed Neo, as she let Cinder read her message.
"Giving us enough time to sneak into the CCT and implement Watt's virus," Cinder rationalized.
"Sounds like a plan, when do we start?" Emerald asked.
"Soon, maybe during the school's dance," suggested Cinder. "For now just lay low, play the part of innocent school kids".
The streets of Mistral seemed to empty themselves, only a few stragglers remained as Summer made her way down the sidewalk.
She felt like she was being watched, casting her silver eyes upwards, Summer caught a glimpse of a white uniform but played it off acting as though if, she hadn't the faintest clue that she was being followed.
Summer readjusted her hood, pulling it further to cover her face. Summer purposefully turned down an alleyway, attempting to bait her stalkers, into revealing themselves.
"Well, well, well what do we have here?" Asked a thick athlestian accent. Summer thought that intro was incredibly cliche, but said nothing, as a buff soldier looking man stepped out of the shadows.
"The infamous, Summer Rose, it's so nice to finally meet you," the man continued.
"And you are?" Asked Summer, as she took in the man's appearance. His face was long and pale with a faint scar over his mouth. His eyes were a dark blue, and his hair a dark brown. He wore a plain white tactical vest, with a black turtleneck underneath adorned with the SDC logo. A long pair of white pants with black stripes, adorned his legs, alongside a pair of white combat boots.
"Oh! Where are my manners? Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lieutenant Zachary, it's a pleasure to meet you," the commander introduced himself.
"How can I help you?" Summer asked as she subtlety prepared her spear.
"Well, since you're being so nice, you can come with us," Zachery laughed.
"And if I say no?" Summer asked, earning an overconfident smirk from the man. "Then we'll take you," answered commander Zachery, as he pulled out his pistol
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Summer started as she whipped out her spear, slicing the man's hand off and kicking him in the chest.
"GET HER," the man screamed, holding his wrist in pain.
Suddenly dozens of similarly dressed men appeared on the rooftops, all aiming dust rifles at her. All Summer could hear was the sound off of bullets hitting her spear as she twirled it, in an attempt to block all of the shots.
Summer slowly backed out off the alleyway, blocking and dodging shots as she went. "Cut off her escape," ordered commander, Zachery. Two men moved around to flank Summer, both receiving a smack to the face from Summer's spear. Summer had to be very careful, her aura was already low, from dealing with the human traffickers.
With another twirl, a round of lighting dust was deflected back at one of her attackers, the man was electrocuted. "Stun rounds?" Summer thought to herself, she assumed they were attempting to kill her but if they were using stun rounds, they must want her alive.
A few of the guards jumped off of the one-story building, landing on the ground with a soft thud. The men proceeded to rush Summer, all wielding electrified batons, Summer dodged a swing from one of the men, sidestepping just before the baton made contact with her.
Summer smacked the man with the dull end of her spear, sending him stumbling into his comrades. Jumping up Summer transformed her spear into its rifle mode, firing a concussive shot at the jumble of guards.
With all of the guard's concussed, Summer went to work, transforming her weapon back into its spear mode, Summer continued her assault, with a slide Summer knocked one of the men to the ground, knocking him out with a hit from the blunt end of her spear.
The rest of the men, on the roof, continued to fire at her, a couple of lucky shots bouncing against her aura, she was growing tired, her movements had started to grow slow and sluggish.
She had to get out of there, they just kept coming and eventually, she would run out of aura. Pulling out a cartridge of ice dust, Summer shot at the ground, creating a large wall of ice.
Using her newfound cover Summer quickly inserted a cartridge of fire dust and shot at the wall of ice, creating a puff of steam, that she would use to cover her escape.
Calling on what little aura she had left she activated her semblance. Summer's semblance was not dissimilar to Raven's, that of being able to teleport but with a few key differences.
Firstly, Summer could teleport anywhere she wanted, only needing to have been to where she is teleporting beforehand. Secondly, using her semblance took a lot out of Summer, longer distances used up more of her aura.
A cloud of white rose petals swirled around Summer, continuing to grow in intensity until she vanished, leaving behind a small pile of rose petals.
Once the steam had cleared commander Zachery's strike closed in. "Anyone have eyes on the target?" commander Zachery asked.
"Negative, target escaped sir" all of the men responded.
"Arrgggh, search the city, find her," Zachery commanded, immediately his men went to work, forming hunting parties to find the injured woman.
Commander Zachary held his mangled arm in pain, oh he would make Summer Rose pay.
"152, 153, 154, 155," Raven counted aloud, as she continued doing push ups. Working out was a way for Raven to release stress.
After visiting Taiyang, Raven had returned to her camp, entering her tent without talking to anyone.
"156, 157, 158, 159, 160," Raven continued, as her speed increased, things just kept getting worse. "How did Cinder find out about Ruby's silver eyes?"
Raven couldn't fathom an answer, Ruby was at Beacon, far from Cinder's view, but she still had found out.
This was becoming way too risky, with Cinder finding out about Ruby's eyes, her daughter was in even greater danger now. Raven didn't know what to do, what could she do? She was helpless, all she could do was wait and pray that everything would be ok.
"Pray," Raven scoffed, unlike her brother, Raven was not a woman of faith, she had abandoned that along with her family long ago, but if praying to either of the brothers saved Ruby and herself, she would happily reaffirm her faith.
With a sigh, Raven got up off of the floor, finished with push ups, for now, she went to the entrance of her tent, tying the end off, so that she would not be disturbed. Raven hadn't slept in a few days and was content to let herself have a couple of hours to rest.
That was until Vernal barged into her tent. "The tent was tied off, get out," Raven demanded, much to her annoyance Vernal didn't leave. Opening her eyes, Raven observed her right hand, gasping for breath.
"Ra-Ra-Raven we go-got a p-problem!"
End of Chapter 17
Hope you enjoyed, please let me know what you think and any questions you may have.
Thank you for reading (=