The sickening crunch of flesh on Aura reverberated through the warehouse and a figure tied to a chair blindfolded crashed to the floor.
"Put the chair back up." Locus ordered his men in his usual dispassionate voice. Grabbing a wet rag he whipped his victim's blood off his knuckles and utility watch. "We can do this all day. You keep the dumb act up and I'm just gonna keep beating you into a pulp." The blood washed from his hands he turned to face his blonde victim. "Take the hood off" He ordered.
The bloody sack came off to reveal the bloody and swollen face of Jaune Arc. From his one eye not swollen shut he spied Yang tied and gagged to another chair but thankfully it didn't look like she had been roughed up like him. He did note her bindings were studier than his and a dopey look graced her face.
"Who would have thought that the Knight had a semblance powered by rage," Locus commented, noticing Juane's observation. "Thankfully Junior's files warned us about it. Nothing a little shot of medicine couldn't handle though." Pulling up a chair Locus pulled out a cigarette. "A pretty useful semblance." He pulled out a lighter and lit himself up. "But a girl that lights on fire and rips steel like tissue paper with her bare hands might be hard to miss." He stopped talking to take a long drag of his cigarette before exhaling. "Now maybe it's an ace in the hole for her and she's just that damn good a keeping hidden," He stood back up to tower over the sitting Jaune, "though I find it pretty unusual that some random guy on a date killed my partner: Beacon snot or otherwise." He cracked his knuckles menacingly "So before I go back to beating your face in, who are you?"
"I'm the super awesome hero of Beacon. I have a tragic backstory to match equally super overpowered abilities only on par with my thirst for justice." Jaune replied with as much bravo as he could muster through lips almost swollen shut and bleeding. "Cower before me, evildoer for I am THE SHROUD."
"Yeah, he's gonna kick your asssssssss." Yang cheered in her drug-addled state. "Jaune's a superhero." Her headed loled and her eyes lost focus for a second before she focused back on the situation. "Good for you Jaune, I knew being an anti-social weirdo was just an act."
"Thanks, Yang" He knew that they were only alive because this guy wanted to make sure he killed the right person, and acting like a delusional vigilantly might buy him a few more seconds of life. Besides if he survived this he couldn't have Yang know his identity, especially considering that Roman wanted him to stay in Beacon for Gods knew how long.
Locus rolled his eyes "I'd be a little more intimidated if you didn't fall through the skylight and manage to knock yourself out."
Jaune winced at his unfortunate entrance. How was I supposed to know the skylight wasn't up to code. It's not my fault that safety isn't a concern in some villain's lairs. A fist smashed into his face again snapping him from his thoughts on his humiliating entrance.
"Juaaaane, you're supposed to kick his ass" Yang wined in annoyance.
"Don't worry I'm wearing him down." I'm gonna fuckin die like an idiot.
"Cool, wake me when you win." Yang said nonchalantly as if this was all a normal situation. "I'm sleepy." With that, her head loled over her shoulder and an ungodly loud snore began to emanate from her.
Really helping here, Yang. He thought through his newest beating.
Locus beat on the blonde a bit more before giving it up and taking a different approach. "Maybe you aren't Knight. A man who decided to enter with a face plant doesn't strike me as a Remnant class assassin." He pulled out a handgun and put it to Yang's forehead. "Maybe I'll just shoot you both to be safe."
A bead of sweat fell down Jaune's forehead to land on an open wound. He couldn't do anything in his power to keep the trigger from being pulled, his body was beaten, and Roman, his only ally, was no help now. He needed to change tactics to buy more precious seconds. "You're not gonna shoot her."
A mild look of confusion fell upon Locus's face but it didn't stop him from deliberately placing his finger on the trigger. "You're bluff isn't going work. I'm gonna shoot her, then you to make sure I got the real Knight, or he or she reveals themselves and I don't kill the Knight's lovely date."
He sat up and straightened "Let me be clear I don't care about the pair of tits you're about to shoot and the only one guaranteed to walk out of here is me."
The handgun shifted its target. "Delusional bravado will do nothing for you." Locus spoke, finally content that the boy with the cold eyes and measured voice was the professional killer.
A cold homerless laugh rang through the warehouse. "The delusion is that you think that you're not fucked. When you killed Junior only one file was missing, her's. You couldn't move on her in Beacon, so you'd just keep hitting Roman till he sent me after you. Now I'm a bit too damn busy to deal with that, so I just brought her out for some bait. You morons couldn't resits, a secluded restaurant, no witnesses inside, and Roman far away to help."
"Good try, but you tied to a chair about to die complements of Charon Industries"
"And that's why I'm here tied to a chair. Had to make sure you'd have lived long to tell me your boss." Jaune's face twisted into a smug smile. It quickly disappeared as Locus struck him with the but of his pistol.
"Shut up" Locus snarled. It wasn't a mistake to tell the name of his employers to a deadman he told himself. In fact, the next step was to publicly take credit for the killings to get the other criminal elements in the city in line. "You've got nothing. No one in this entire city cares enough to stop me from killing you."
Jaune's grin reappeared. "Enough people hate me though."
Bloodshot up from Juane's head and his limp body lurched to fall at Yang's feet.
Locus holstered his smoking pistol. While Felix may have monologued and argued all night he didn't have time for such trifles. "Get the hacksaw and get the head sent back to the- ." Before any of the many goons in the warehouse could move a wall on the far side of the warehouse exploded.
"WHERE IS HE." Coco Adel screamed; minigun raised and spinning.
An hour ago Coco was in a heated argument with her team.
"What do you mean we should let it go?"
Velvet sighed at her team leader's angry response to her suggestion. "No one wants to ketch him more than me, but it's been weeks and we haven't heard anything." She gestured to her partner's wall; grainy pictures and newspaper clipping crisscrossed over a map of Vale.
"And you have a hate shrine."
"It's not a hate shrine, it's a way to arrange our information."Coco shook her head, she wasn't crazy she just couldn't let a danger like that walk the streets.
Velvet wasn't buying it. "So this news story on how to skin someone alive is really helping you." She deadpanned as she took a web article off of Coco's wall of hate.
"Velvet, this guy hurt all of you and I couldn't do a thing. I messed up; I should have been there. I've got to bring him to justice and make that right." Coco knew the whole thing was a bit unhealthy and she'd lost a few nights over the whole thing but she needed to right her wrongs.
"Oh Coco," Velvet cooed as she brought her teammate into a hug. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"You keep me alive and got that villain to retreat from me and Fox while we were unconscious," Yatsuhashi added while entering the hug.
Fox completed the team hug with his own words of comfort. "We all came out alive and well."
"Awwww Guys, you're lucky I'm such a softy." She said returning the hug. They were right of course, she was mature enough to realize that she was letting anger control her a bit too much." Fine, I'll chill out." she adopted a more serious attitude "I'm really sorry guys." She shrugged "It's not like we'll realistically hear from him again anyways."
BZZZZ BZZZZZ BZZZZZ
The whole team looked at Coco's scroll, an unknown number displayed.
"That's definitely not…." Fox trailed off.
"Definitely a telemarketer" Yatsuhashi added.
"You don't need to pick up." Velvet said fearing the worst, even if it was so unlikely.
Coco didn't hear any of them as she picked up the scroll. "Hello?" she asked; strange feelings of anticipation entering her consciousness.
"Is this the place to place an order?' An extremely stoned male voice asked.
All the tension left the room. Really, what had she been expecting? The adrenaline crashing down Coco took a strangely sorrowful sigh before answering "No this is Beacon, and no we don't do orders."
Just before she hit the button to hang up the voiced changed in tone. "Oh, I think you'll take this order cutie."
The hair on Coco's neck stood on end. This was fucking it, she'd been thrown to every extreme in the last few moments and she had had it. "You." she hissed with rage dripping from every syllable.
"Oh, you remembered me. How sweet."
"Why are you calling?"
"Well Miss armed, dangerous, and sexy, I've been thinking a lot about you. Your team was so fun to beat down and you gotta be tired running around my dreams so why don't you come over for that drink." On the other end of the line, Jaune could practically hear the woman on the other end grinding her teeth.
"Why the hell would I do that?" Coco asked a cold fury burning through her.
"Because I got something you care about." suddenly a new more nasally voice was on the line.
"Coco he's got me. Don't come it's a trap."
"Jaune!" Coco screamed. How had he got him? How did he even know about him?
The deeper voice of Coco's enemy returned to the line. "So should I uncork the scotch for us?" it asked playfully.
"You bastard."
"I'll send you the address."
Coco wanted to shout. She wanted to scream at him until his ears ruptured. She was gonna go down and beat that sicko maniac into a bloody pulp. Just she was about to let loose and ready herself to go down and kick his ass, trap or not, Velvet's hand rested on her shoulder.
"We're with you." She whispered.
With those words, Coco felt some calm enter her. She had to think, she couldn't just put her team in danger again. The last time they had the element of surprise, and they were lucky to survive. Walking into a trap would just get her team and Jaune killed. She couldn't do that to her team
"So should be expecting your lovely face tonight?" the voice mocked
Her scroll pinged notifying her that an address had been sent to her, coldly she looked at it.
Swallowing her pride she made her choice. "No." she found her voice oddly quieter than she intended but she found resolve in her next words. "I'm calling the police." In all honesty, they would be better, they were closer being in the city and better equipped to handle a hostage situation.
Instead of some type of disappointing response, only a light chuckle was heard. "No, you're not. The police might be able to get me and save your friend. They do have a lot of funny units for this sort of thing. The problem is though after this call you'll never hear from me again and that's the real leverage I have. Whatever my fate you'll never be able to beat me. And that terrifies you." the line was silent as no response came forward, so he continued. "You're the best huntresses in Beacon and you couldn't match up with me. It's the reason you have that hate shrine, the reason you can't take your mind off me, the reason that you sounded like a schoolgirl disappointed that her boyfriend didn't call when you thought I was a wrong number. You know if you can't prove that you can take a monster like me then what good are you as a huntress."
Coco's mind was spiraling at all the information he knew about but the implications of his claim sent her reeling at its accuracy. Her breathing was heavy as personal convictions, team responsibility, and the traits that propelled her to be the best Huntress in Beacon all crashed into her.
"I know I'll see you soon." the voice finished. The line went dead, the bastard so confident he felt like he didn't need her confirmation.
Coco looked to her team. "So, what are we doing?" Velvet asked, speaking for her supportive team. Her family.
A second of hesitation entered Coco before she stiffened to her usual confident posture "We're calling the police." everyone let out a sigh of relief. Their team leader issued orders. "I'll send you the address, call the police and explain the situation. I'm going to Jaune's team to see what they know about his kidnapping." With that, she quickly went out of the room on her mission.
"That could've been bad," Fox remarked as his scroll pinged with an address.
"I know, I thought she'd actually go for it." Velvet replied; happy that her team leader wasn't rushing into danger.
Around the hall, Coco allowed a moment of regret as she sent the wrong address to Fox as she made a beeline for the Bullheads. That damn man was right she couldn't stand as a huntress if she couldn't face down monsters. She couldn't live with the guilt of getting her team hurt, she already had the scars on her conscious from their last encounter. Resolutely she stepped aboard a Bullhead. She would go it alone then, no vendetta would cost her her team. Hands grasping her weapon tightly she let a vicious smile form; this monster was hers to slay.
Eyes slowly opening Jaune felt a massive headache where Locuses round had found it's mark. Thanking all above that his ploy had worked. He'd let his Aura be suppressed as he had been tortured, hiding a slim reserve for the final shot. The blood from his wounds great enough that it looked as if he'd been shot at a glance. Rolling over he saw Yang untouched and asleep still. Locus and his men couldn't be seen but the tell-tale sound of gunfire on the other side of the building revealed their position.
As he was unsupervised he freed himself from his bonds. As he did he heard the sound of a minigun being fired and the angry screams of a certain female frienemy occasionally peeked through the noise. Moving over to free Yang Jaune allowed himself a chuckle."And people say I don't know how to talk to women."