Somewhere in Mistral, the Ace Ops were wandering some hours away from Argus. They had been sent to check reports of Dust trafficking that would be linked to a possible White Fang attack
The team was looking over from a cliff down at an abandoned outpost, where a White Fang convoy had stopped
"So. What can you see, Tortuga?" asked the leader of the Team, Clover Ebi
"Not much worth it. Dust crates of course but...something is wrong, they are not guarded"
"Wait. What? Why aren't they?" asked Elm
"I'm not sure. But something tells me that we are stepping into something darker that we think. Wait...I see someone"
"How do they look?" asked Harriet
"Caped. I can't see their faces"
"White Fang?" asked Clover
"No. These are different. They don't have any emblems I recognize"
"New organization?"
"I assume so. In any case, they seem to also be interested in taking that Dust. They're opening the crates"
Clover then sets up along with Vine and Harriet
"Elm, provide overwatch. Shoot on my mark, we have to secure that Dust"
"Copy"
"Tortuga. With me"
Tortuga then tags along with Harriet and the team begins to dash along the trees, to prevent anybody from seeing them
Some shots would come from the convoy, but not at them
"Elm we have shots fired here, what can you see?" said Clover through the radio
"Same caped figure but...it is engaging with White Fang. Should I pull the trigger?"
"Not until it is absolutely necessary"
Clover and the rest of the team reached some bushes. They see the caped figure, brandishing one wide tonfa blade as he approaches a White Fang conscript, who's crawling, trying to escape
The figure simply impales the conscript, killing them immediately, then turns at the Dust crates
"Targets dealt with. Securing the crystals. Meet me at Argus"
Then, he hears a branch crack
"Wait. There are remaining hostiles"
The caped figure immediately turns the Tonfa blade into an Assault Rifle and aims at the bushes
"Elm pull the trigger!"
Before Elm could pull the trigger, Clover and his team were already taking a hail of bullets. Then, Elm shot a couple rockets, blowing up the trucks and the Dust crates with them
Tortuga and Harriet take on a battle formation. The Ace ops have the caped figure surrounded
"So. The mighty Atlesian Ace Operatives have come to...stop a simple Dust smuggling convoy that got jumped on? That doesn't seem logical to me" said the cape figure, brandishing a deep male voice
"Well, something tells me you're not precisely a Dust smuggler" says Clover
"At least one of them is smart. I'm assuming you're the team leader"
"What tells you it isn't me?" says Harriet
"Well, from the looks of it, you're a bit of a short fuse, so a fire-head wouldn't cut it. Nor would a passive Aura extender or a demolitionist"
"Although maybe one of you could match up" says the caped figure, turning at Tortuga
"You, on the other hand may be slow, but surely must be more methodical"
Tortuga then pulls out some Brass Knuckles
"The proper weapon for someone like you. Let's put you to the test then"
The caped figure then proceeded to charge at Tortuga
First one to step in between them was Elm. She switched her rocket launcher into a hammer and activated her Semblance, getting apparently stuck on the ground as she charged a swing
The caped figure aimed at Elm as they ran but then switched the assault rifle back into a tonfa blade
Vine entangled the caped figure as Elm attacked, immobilizing them, but then, the impossible happened
The caped figure bent back, dodging the swing, then returned to normal just to switch their tonfa back into a rifle which they then used to shoot Vine
Vine felt the bullet hit them as it drained their aura, immediately disrupting their entanglement, freeing the hostile, which then began to face off against Elm
Elm was tough, but even there, she wasn't taking the hits from the Tonfa blade lightly. Said blade had something that made it hit harder than what Elm could resist. And then, the killer blow to the liver, making her immediately drop to the floor, her Aura completely shattered
The figure was in the midst of killing it but was interrupted by Tortuga and Harriet attacking simultaneously. While Harriet got immediately blocked off by the Tonfa blade, Tortuga managed to land some good punches on the caped assailant, making them tumble
"Well. I was right, you sure do have something. Those were very well placed hits"
Harriet jumps at the assailant, which then performs a weird dodge. They dislocated their hips, allowing for a full turn of their torso. They quickly turned and caught Harriet mid-air then returned to normal and, with the centrifugal force of the abrupt spin and Harriet's hyperspeed, slammed her on the ground, leaving her knocked out and immediately concussed
Vine stood back up and pulled Hare and Elm to safety then stepped forth to try and entangle the assailant again, but failed. The assailant shot Vine again, which yet again broke the Aura extension. But somebody else was able to catch them
Clover had entangled the assailant using Kingfisher's chord, even able to land the hook on the magazine release of the Assault rifle of the caped figure.
"Hmm. Somebody has a luck semblance. Now I see why you're the team leader"
Then, the caped figure pulls the chord, pulling Clover in, which "inadvertedly" left Tortuga an opening to attack
Tortuga immediately went for a strike against the caped figures chin, but then...
The caped figure, as their torso spun while trying to pull in Clover, kept spinning, performing a 360 degree turn.
They dropped the tonfa blade and immediately went for a butterfly knife. Clover saw what was coming.
The caped figure's arm, now revealed to be synthetic, aimed the blade right at Tortuga. He tried to pull the caped towards him, but by the time the kinetic momentum of the figures pull was countered by his, Tortuga took one lethal blow of the knife right between his eyebrows, which instantly killed them.
Harriet woke up with Elm's help, only to see as Tortuga's corpse dropped to the ground with a knife on its forehead
The caped assailant then broke Kingfisher's chord and landed one punch on Clover's nose, leaving them enough time to drop a smoke bomb. After that, there was no trace of them but Tortuga's corpse
Harriet crawled towards Tortuga as the Ace Ops heard some Mistralian ships headed towards them
All the while, the caped figure looked at them from the nearby cliff. Another figure approached them
"So. Dust destroyed?"
"Yes. And one Ace Op off the table"
"Wait. That wasn't-"
"I know. Let's just leave"
Both caped figures left in the darkness of the night, while the Ace Ops, having been on a classified assignment, had to leave Tortuga to burn with what remained of the White Fang convoy, stripped of his dog tags, his uniform and weapons in order to leave no trace