Book 1, Chapter 10

Whitley Time

It was rather obnoxious, he thought, that the Grimm should make their nests so deep underground where there was no quicker way down than by foot. Nevertheless, the flash training he'd received from Nagisa made him feel prepared, made him feel confident in his ability to kill the beasts. Though, it didn't hurt that Ruby was there with him, on his first real mission.

Her presence comforted him for two reasons, first being that she'd done this song and dance a good handful of times now, and second being his infatuation with her. To his knowledge, though, she was only aware of the first reason as of yet, and he planned to keep it that way for awhile... at least until he himself was strong enough for her.

"That won't be any time soon, though." Whitley thought with a muted grumble, hopping down a few boulders before landing in shallow water that went up to his ankles. He thanked the quality of his gear as it was all waterproof at its tier, much the same as Ruby's. He wasn't nearly as heavily armed as Ruby was... though he noted that he could at least tank a hell of a lot more damage.

Looking through the gloom, his visor automatically compensated, lighting up the world for him once more and revealing the wide, open chamber in which they stood, though aside from a small handful of Creeps, there was nothing save for the opening ahead of them that led further into the cave they'd already been trekking down for about half an hour...

"Creeps. Want me to deal with them?" Ruby inquired though simply got the raise of a hand from Whitley, signaling for her to halt. Allowing his suit's computers to paint a target on all the Creeps, he activated his micro missile racks. Immediately, seven tiny rockets shot out from his body, emitting a high pitched, almost whistle-like hiss as they soared through the air, guiding themselves towards their targets and impacting into each's soft spot, exploding and killing all seven Creeps in a heartbeat.

"What Creeps?" He joked, stepping out of the puddle alongside the redhead. "All I see here is another tunnel."

"Oh har har." Ruby drawled with a slight chuckle, before dropping her rangefinder down and scanning the way ahead. "Nothing back there, at least that isn't obstructed."

"Probably another hole somewhere, though. The report mentioned two or three Grimm Alphas, and we haven't bumped into them yet." He mused, continuing his stride down the tunnel. "They may be waiting at the very end of the tunnel. I wouldn't be surprised if that is indeed the case."

Sure enough, there was indeed another hole. There was also a lot of Grimm down the hole, that looked like they were just waiting for some idiot to jump down to fight em all. Unfortunately for them, Whitley was planning on doing just that.

Hopping down, Whitley spin as he descended upon the Grimm, holding his right arm out and spraying all around him with cryogenic fluid and freezing them on the spot. Hardly half a second later, his missiles raced out from his shoulders, shattering all of the weak Grimm around him and sending frozen chunks flying everywhere. Ruby hopped down just a moment later, scanning the room herself with her pistols drawn before easing up as all contacts had been neutralized.

"Ice, huh? Don't you already got something like that for your semblance?" She inquired, receiving a small shrug from the boy.

"It may be hereditary, but that doesn't mean I have any semblance of control over it. I'll need much more practice before I'm at any point where I could be considered competent with it." Whitley reminded her in a flat tone, before looking down the cave and seeing about thirty three Grimm standing there, trying to sneak up on them through the gloom. It was clear they were unaware of their ability to see them, so they were taking it slow rather than charging. Before them, there was a mixture of various types of Grimm, though most notably were the three Alpha Beowulves lingering in the back.

"Yo Tech. You got this?" She asked, setting a hand on his shoulder. Whitley merely suppressed a laugh, priming his missiles once again and firing away. He made a small tsk sound as he did not have enough rockets to hit all of them, remembering that the little racks would need to be reloaded. Still, he killed about twenty of them, leaving just thirteen left. Touching his data pad, he activated his stun drones, sending them forward and halting two of the three alphas before they could move. As they did this, he also brought out one of his power augment drones and used it on his own blaster as he drew it from its holster and began firing on the one that was not stunned.

He was glad Ruby was there, as not a moment later, a large stream of fire bellowed forth, incinerating the lesser Grimm in an instant before they could close the distance. Striding forward at a steady pace, Whitley put bolt after bolt into the Beowulf, each amplified shot making it recoil back with a pained yip. Passing by the closest stunned one, he turned his blaster on it, poking the barrel in its mouth at an angle and firing up, killing it in an instant as it's brain melted from the plasma bolt, before walking past the next stunned one, priming a Thermal Detonator and casually dropping it in its mouth before passing it. The detonator exploded, sending meaty Grimm chunks splattering everywhere. Finally, he got to the last one.

Ducking under a desperate swing for his head, he slipped behind the Beowulf and shot it in the back of the knee, bringing it down, before shooting it in the back of the head, slaying the last Alpha with ease. Just in time, as the augmented effect on his blaster ended just a second later, and the three drones returned to recharge.

"How pathetic. To think these weaklings give the worlds 'greatest warriors' so much trouble." He mused, receiving a heavy pat on the pauldron from his partner.

"Most hunters foolishly restrict themselves to a single weapon. Personally? I say why settle with one weapon, when you could carry an Arsenal?" Ruby raised the rhetorical question, brandishing her blasters to emphasize her point.

"The thought from what I've gathered is that by completely mastering a single weapon, they can excel in its intended purpose, and be good enough to be competent when put in a situation where it's normally a disadvantage. From there, I suppose they work in teams to cover for each others' weaknesses... or something along that line." Whitley theorized, shrugging and shaking his head in disagreement with their philosophy.

"Bah. Just means they're too reliant on everyone else." Ruby sneered, taking her helmet off and stowing it under her arm while turning on a small lantern. It wasn't a particularly special things, just being a lantern and a lantern alone, but it did have a very high quality light that wasn't straining on the eyes yet still plenty bright. She set it down on the stone floor and sat down with it, crossing her legs and checking her scroll.

"Got the time?"

"Yeah, time for lunch. What did you bring?" She asked, with Whitley just pulling an MRE out and setting it down for her to read. "Beef Goulash, eh? I got Meatball Marinara." She chuckled while setting her own out.

"Seriously, you managed to pick that one out of the box? Damn, you're lucky..." Whitley muttered bitterly, before sighing and pulling his own open. "Oh well, they're all pretty good, with the exception of the vegetarian and vegan ones."

"Yeah... hey, want some?" Ruby asked as he took his own helmet off and set it down. Looking back up at her, he saw she was holding out her flask to him, which he rejected in as polite a way as possible.

"Oh, I appreciate the offer but I have to turn it down. I'm really not used to Whiskey yet and I've only really sipped on fine wines thus far." He declined, with Ruby simply shrugging and taking a swig for herself.

"Ah well, suit yourself then." He continued to steal glances at her while the two ate, taking in every little detail. It was done in such a way that he at least hoped Ruby wouldn't notice, but he could never be too sure, and if she did notice, she either didn't care or hid her reaction very well.

He silently gave a prayer that if she did noice and was just hiding it, she didn't think he was just trying to observe weaknesses. From the little bits she'd let out thus far, he'd say she's had enough of that from those around her for two lifetimes.

"So..." Ruby began, lounging back and kicking her feet back and forth in an almost childlike fashion. "We're a week through classes and stuff, made it to the first weekend. Been pretty hectic, huh?"

"You could certainly say that." He agreed, taking a sip of water from his canteen.

"Spotted any cute girls? Any crushes?" She said with a sly grin, making Whitley almost lose composure and spit out his water.

"My, I didn't expect this sort of a topic to be risen by you, Ruby."

"Eh. Kay and the rest of the team have been rubbing off on me, I guess." She shrugged, before refocusing in him. "C'mon, tell me! I wanna know!"

"It's... complicated." He eventually gave in after half a minute of silence. "She's incredible... graceful, yet the only thing really feminine about her is her body, face, hair and voice."

"Well, lady-like grace ain't the only kind. Tell me more, would ya? I'd imagine you could easily get the attention of any girl you might want." She commented, relaxing her legs completely.

"Well... from what I've gathered about her, she really just... doesn't get the traditional way of things for courtship." He informed, just narrowly dancing around the fact that she was in fact the one he had his eyes on. "Matter of fact, she's the whole reason I've joined the Guild."

"Really? That's some pretty hardcore dedication. I respect that." She closed her eyes and nodded a few times, giving Whitley a chance to think a way to turn the conversation around.

"Well... what about you, then? Are there any guys you're trying to get the attention of?" Whitley turned the question on her, noting with some intrigue that her face reddened quite a bit at the sudden turn.

"O-oh, well, uh... y-yeah, I guess there's... probably o-one or two guys around that I-I might think I like..." she held a somewhat scrambled and embarrassed look on her face for a moment, before shaking her head back and forth violently and noticeably forcing a cool look, though quickly falling flat. "Ah, nobody you'd recognize though, really, it's uh... pfft, names are so... uh... yeah, y'know?"

"C'mon, Ruby, words exist for a reason you know." He picked at her lightly. "I consider you the closest friend I've made at Saunders, so come on, throw me a bone here."

"W-well... he's..." she sighed, quickly capitulating. "He's not like me. He's way smarter than I am, more... sophisticated, too. I just feel like when I compare myself to what he's like, he'd see my butch, unrefined nature and wouldn't even give me a chance, at least in the way I wish he would. It's probably just a pipe dream, anyways, so I try not to think about it too much."

"Hah... guess we're two sides of the same coin then, huh?" He suggested, receiving an intrigued looking out of the girl. "I'm trying to get my Lady's attention by becoming more hardcore with the Guild... and you want to get your man's attention, but don't feel you're refined enough."

"Guess you're not wrong about that..." Ruby mused, looking up towards the ceiling.

"Never thought Ruby would actually take an interest in someone. Lucky guy, whoever he is... but whoever they are, I'm not gonna lose to them." He thought to himself, unknowingly mirroring her actions in unwinding for their rest period.

After a few minutes of just quietly eating, the two packed up, snapped their helmets back on and made their way up the cave. They figured they spent long enough sitting around in the dark, now they just needed to report to the town to report the kill, and hail for transport home...

"Mercenaries, truly, you have our deepest gratitude." The leader of the small town thanked them, though his and the townsfolk's thanks fell on deaf ears, as they didn't particularly care for it unlike hunters did.

"Spare us the thanks, we're more interested in the money." Whitley returned, resting a hand on his hip nonchalantly. "4,250 lien. Time to pay up, innit?"

"Well... about that..." the man said with a slight grin just barely hidden by his hood. "We're not a particularly rich town, and paying out would ruin us. While you were away, we discussed it, and plans have changed."

True enough, many of the townsfolk pulled out weapons of their own, leveling them on the two Mercenaries. Whitley counted maybe sixty guns among the crowd of what looked like a hundred people, and even an armored truck with a machine gun mounted on it.

"You don't wanna do this, pal." Ruby spoke up, drawing both blasters. "Trust me, you really don't wanna do this."

"There's two of you and sixty of us. We have you outnumbered thirty to one. Even for Mercenaries, you really think you can take us all?"

"I think I like those odds." Whitley retorted, having had the sense to reload on the way back. The click of his rockets locking into place resounded through the air, while he himself drew his blaster from his holster as he stood back-to-back with Ruby.

Without any more warning needed, he fired off the entirety of his payload, all 48 whistling missiles zipping through the air and blowing the heads of many to smithereens, blasting open throats and chests of the others and sealing doom for all struck in a blink. Not missing a beat, Ruby fired off her own missile from her Jetpack. It sailed true, striking the truck and consuming it and the five gunmen around it in a damning ball of fire.

Throwing himself behind a crate, he narrowly avoided return fire from the last seven shooters. Looking right, he saw Ruby had taken to cover as well, just in time as another thirteen shooters arrived and began firing.

"Devil! How do you usually deal with situations like this?" He yelled over, getting a shrug out of the girl.

"Kill em all, that's my advice!" She roared back, rolling out from cover and strafing across the street towards him, firing away with her blasters and allowing her armor to weather any hits for her. Knowing that she was right about fighting it out being the best option, he sent a drone towards Ruby, snapping it on the small of her back and allowing it to generate its energy shield over her.

Ruby looked surprised as the blue energy field enveloped her body, before snapping her attention back to the fight, firing away while marching forward. Foe after foe fell before precision blaster bolts as she wade through a hail of gunfire, the common, underpowered weapons able to do scarcely a thing before the powerful shield giving her the appearance of an invincible juggernaut marching through the fire.

Finally, after a few seconds, the whole town was silent, leaving the two mercenaries alone in the center. Those townsfolk exited their houses cautiously, shaking like leaves in the wind as the two mercenaries' gaze fell over them.

"So..." Whitley began, bolstering his blaster pistol and stepping over a body. "This was an... undesirable outcome. Did any of you know of this?"

"N-no, sir Mercenary..." a young woman informed, stepping out from behind a barrel on the porch of a shop. "T-the Mayor, he called the town guard to the church, talked to them in private... we thought we were just going to pay you all and leave it at that..."

"And now your only defense against Grimm and Bandits is gone, and it's their own fault." Ruby sneered, shaking her head in disapproval. "Whatever. Not my problem." She said, walking away with a careless shrug.

"W-wait! Please, don't go! We'll die for sure without protection!" She pleaded, tears brimming in her eyes as she fell to her knees.

"Miss, we aren't guardians. Unless you have money, we aren't helping." Whitley informed, getting a somber nod from the girl.

"We... we c-can scrap together your original p-p-paycheck! W-we just need protection while we travel to the next nearest town!" She begged, making Whitley look back to Ruby.

"It's your call, Whitley. I'm just here to back you up, remember?" He sighed at her response, before turning to the girl once again.

"5,000. Take it or leave it."

"A-ah, right! Y-you have a deal!" The girl hastily agreed, running back inside to, what he assumed, pack her things.

"The rest of you idiots should follow suit. Get to packing, retards!" Ruby yelled to the rest of the townsfolk, kicking them all into gear...

"Thank you so much, Mercenaries... truly, we cannot thank you enough." The lady had said after handing them their due. The walk to the next closest town had taken roughly half the day, leaving it at nightfall by the time they'd all arrived safely.

During the journey, there was about a dozen small Grimm attacks, none of which claimed a life thanks to the stalwart defense the Mercenaries provided. The payoff wasn't particularly notable, but it would at least cover the costs of the mission, and they were at least paid this time.

"Next time keep a closer eye on your leadership. If Tech wasn't in such a good mood, that might've proved a fatal mistake for all of you." Ruby chastised, making the woman shrink under the harsh scrutiny.

"Devil, I think the events of the day have been lesson enough for them." He stopped Ruby before she could make the towns people feel any worse than they probably already did. She just shrugged, crossing her arms and lounging against a light pole. "Come on. We've been paid, so let's call it in..."

"Alright then. You satisfied with the results?" She asked, Whitley only looking off towards the designated landing zone in response...

"Not bad for your first op, kid. Looks like my intuition to send Rose with ya was well-placed, huh?" Captain Shiota mused, lounging back on the couch while cleaning blood off his chain blade.

"Yes, I'm not sure I'd have done nearly so well without her help. Taking out the first forty eight wasn't difficult, but taking out the rest would've definitely proven... challenging, as that was the last of my-"

"I get the idea, kid. I'll put it in for you to be bumped up a grade." He informed casually, setting his blade down and moving to cleaning his shotgun. "Now go get some rest, kid. Still got classes tomorrow that you can't shirk."

With that, Whitley gave a small salute, and began making his way back towards his dorm. Ruby was already there, since as it wasn't her mission, she didn't have to report. Most of his munitions were there as well, so he could easily rearm then...

"Hey, Ruby..." he started, taking a seat in the kitchenette beside Ruby. He'd been feeling a little conflicted ever since they'd gotten back, not that he'd shown it in front of the Captain. Killing so many, just ending their lives like the snapping of fingers, it just felt... wrong.

"Something wrong, Whit?" She asked with a sincere smile, easing him slightly as he ran a hand through his hair in a stressed manner.

"I'll just cut to the chase... how do you deal with killing people so easily? You've now racked up a serious body count and it's like it hasn't weighed on your conscious at all." His question caught her off guard, making her slightly adjust her seating with a slightly uncomfortable expression on her face.

"Well... I'm really not sure. It's not like I turn off my conscious or anything... maybe my past on the streets has hardened me? I really don't know." She answered, taking a sip of whiskey from her flask. "Maybe my drinking is just a coping mechanism and I don't realize it? I think of it as just a nice little vice, but I guess it could be more?"

"Well, chemically speaking, it is a solution."

"Eh, I dunno. I hold a lot of contempt for people in general. My whole life, the very people I've been killing this last month have been the same that have treated me as less than trash my whole life, so I guess to me it could be an odd sense of justice. Getting even, so to speak."

"Well... I suppose that'd work for you." He muttered, lounging back a little bit. "Never thought I'd feel bad for trampling over someone else, I've done it countless times... but why do the lives I took today weigh so heavily on me?"

"Nagisa would probably be a better person to talk to than I would, Whitley." Ruby stated factually. "If it wasn't obvious, I'm not exactly the most mentally sound person here. Nagisa though at least seems like he's got all his screws in tight up there."

"I suppose you're not wrong about that..." He weighed his options, retreating back to his room and getting his kit off before kicking back in his bed. He could just ignore it and deal with the possibly massive consequences for his mental health later, live in the now and focus on his end-goal. It wouldn't be difficult, at least immediately... but it also ran the risk of driving her away later on. The second option was to talk with someone about it, get it out there and find a healthy way to cope. It'd be a headache in the short-term, but he'd remain sound of mind going forward.

It wasn't a difficult decision, and he made a mental reminder to talk with Nagisa or another of the more sane Lone Wolves later. For now, though, he had his marching orders from the Captain to get some rest, so he was gonna do just that, and pass out with a haste...