A/N: Merry Christmas everybody, hope you are having a good time with… well doesn't matter, whoever is special to you, always wanted to deliver a Christmas chapter… it's not really of the festive snowing kind but… is the thought that counts right?
Anyway, I'm happy people enjoyed the last chapter and I hope I can deliver with this one as well.
Beta: Genatools
Chapter 13: Viper's Nest.
"So this is Kuchinashi eh? You know as… kinda small as it might be, this is still far bigger than anywhere else we have been to." Cole said as he gestured to the city around them.
"Nothing has come close to a big city from Earth eh?" Aiden asked.
"Well, to be fair it's just mainly in the skyscraper department."
"You know, I've been getting used to it. Shorter but some nicer looking buildings here and there… but yeah this is more of a city. Small but still a city, I can smell the trash from here." Jack said as they passed by an alleyway. The trash, the rusted metal, and the smell of rain giving some of them an almost nostalgic feeling.
"As far as trash goes I've smelled worse in Wolfpine," Morgan commented.
"Well, true… but still this place is bigger than other towns," Jack mentioned again. The trip to Kuchinashi was uneventful, except for a Beowolf attack and then hitching a ride to the settlement. Then through the rope bridges to the mountain, the city resided, going past the gates, going up the cave, and making their way to The Central Strip. They managed to reach the town at 4 PM, yet the ambiance remained somewhat dark. Thanks to the ever-present light fog and the mountains next to the city partially blocking the sun... At least it wasn't raining.
Passing through the Central Strip the group passed by the marketplace and made their way through town in a seemingly random direction. They didn't bother to window shop at the stalls or the stores with neon signs, not on this occasion, most people also seemed worried more about their own business and searching for specific items... or people.
"Kinda crowded, almost forgot what it felt like," Aiden mentioned as he lightly pushed a bystander out of the way, pretty much what everyone was doing to try and shuffle through the crowd.
"Yeah… so should we try and get directions here or…?" Jack asked.
"Horrible idea," Morgan said.
"Hey, it's not like he must be the only one that asks "Where's this guy." Or something like that." Jack said.
"We should get out of this crowd first, then maybe get an idea of where to go," Morgan responded.
"Shouldn't have gone through the market then." Cole quipped.
"It's right in the middle of the street, and it goes on for a bit," Morgan said as they passed a stand of dust.
"Let's find the first street that goes to the side and then find an alley. There we can come up with something." Aiden said.
"Well it's not gonna be much trouble, not sure who built this town but they sure made buildings stick together. Gotta be a wonder for free runners." Cole noticed.
"Yeah, there's an alley over there, then another one there, and if you look closely you can see most of them connect to each other." Jack pointed out.
"This place is a maze, you could get lost here and possibly shanked." Morgan looked at The Hedges, the seemingly endless connection of alleyways the city had.
"At least if you don't know where you are going," Aiden added.
"Do we know where we are going?" Morgan asked.
"Well, logic says that as long as you don't go deep into the alleyways and into the shady spots you should be at very least safer. We'll just pick the entrance of an alley and stay close to the main streets." Aiden responded.
"Should be safer… mmm." Morgan hummed.
"I mean they can still try to pickpocket us or just try to snatch something and run away." Jack mentioned.
"Thanks for reminding me, now I gotta hold this thing closer to me." Morgan held her bag closer to herself, and so did everyone else with their respective luggage and travel bags, Aiden had a duffle bag that he kept now under his armpit, Jack was the same only he kept it around his shoulder, Morgan had a small backpack Cole adjusted his own sling bag so it was a bit more secure.
"We should be fine, it's not like we are blind," Cole said.
"Famous last words," Jack said.
"Well nobody here hasn't been somewhere like this, we know the rules," Cole said back.
"Okay, remember you said that when they rob you blind," Jack said with a smirk.
"Ass."
"Let's get out of this crowd before saying anything else, don't wanna give anyone ideas," Aiden said as he hastened his step through the market and turned right on the first cross-section they found. They passed by multiple people selling different kinds of dust, a couple of beggars, and even some individuals asking for services of Huntsmen or Huntresses in the middle of the street, they seemed to be in demand. Whether they would accept someone without a license was another matter, but it wasn't why they were there anyway. They made it past the public hospital and then turned right through another street, effectively getting out of The Central Strip and away from the crowds. They picked the third alley they could find, seemed deserted enough.
"This should do," Cole said as he leaned against the wall.
"Right so, we are looking for what's his name. Zerasmus… Wormtongue sai-" Jack began.
"Hey, are you the guys with the meds? You don't look like Black Sheep." A man came out of the alleyway and interrupted them.
"What the-" Aiden was surprised for a second, they didn't even see him appear, he immediately checked around to see if there was anyone else nearby besides them, didn't seem to be the case, however.
"Meds? Who are you? What are you doing here?" Morgan asked quickly.
"I was supposed to get some meds here, we agreed in this place! You don't get the meds from the hospital?" The man asked.
"No, why would we?" Jack asked.
"... Oh shit you aren't them… well duh, you don't look or sound like the guys I asked to do this, uh… well then, what are you doing here? This is my alley!?" The man said.
"Your alley? Really?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, like I said I am waiting for people here."
"Yeah, for someone to steal pills from the hospital and then what? Resell them? Or just told them to get the hard stuff to light up the party? Really think stealing directly from the hospital will do the trick?" Aiden asked.
"Hey, hey what is to you, I could-"
"Do what?" Morgan asked as she stepped closer to the man. The rest of the group did the same.
"Uh… I could uh, uh…"
"How about you piss off and get lost," Cole said to him.
"Uh, but hey, I was supposed to meet in an alley with… with…"
"Yeah? Big deal, go find them in another alley, like one of the other thousand." Jack lightly pushed the man back.
"Bu- but…"
"Didn't you hear? Get. Lost." Aiden threatened slowly.
"Ah, fuck uh...right yeah uh…" The man didn't even answer as he backpedaled and then turned tail-walking quickly and almost breaking into a run until he got back into the alley, made a turn, and then disappeared.
"Dumbass." Morgan cursed under her breath.
"Well, whatever… where were we?" Cole asked.
"Wormtongue, what we asked him besides well… Zerasmus being in this town," Aiden said. They had indeed asked a couple more questions before they parted ways with the White Fang. Among them what Zerasmus did, wherein the city he was located, and what to expect. As far as answers went… Zerasmus seemed to be a facilitator or a fixer. Instead of being simply a fence, he was the kind that was able to set up agreements, jobs, and payouts between anyone willing to do those arrangements. Meant that he had a lot of contacts as well.
"Said he has a place between The Lower Valley and The Upper Cliffs since he's a middle person might as well be between the homes of the crime families and the place of the actual operations," Morgan said.
"And the dear leader of the Golden Blades is with him. Think he's gotten him to do any job? Think he brought some of his gang with him?" Cole asked.
"I mean why else would he come to him. And it's possible… but even if he did then they shouldn't be that many. Think he knows we cleared Fairwind out?" Morgan asked back.
"We've been quick at traveling, but word can get around quickly, and we did put on a show," Aiden answered.
"Which is more reason why we should find them quick, time's a-wasting and we may lose the drop on them," Jack added.
"Funny of you to say that." Cole chuckled.
"Oh har har."
"Still we are gonna need to find where Zerasmus is, I doubt he stays home in a shop for everyone to visit," Aiden said.
"Hey, you never know. And his home is still probably the best bet to find him… or to at least know where he might be. Unless you want to ask around." Jack said.
"Yes, asking for a middle man with probably many partners and shady characters in this town… I know probably more than one does it, but as you said, time's a-wasting, and asking questions may bring some attention we don't want if we want to get the drop on Zerasmus, and the Golden Blade leader." Aiden pointed out.
"Hey, how else are we supposed to find the guy? Search door by door and stalk during the night to try and find someone that fits the description, there are probably hundreds of brokers or fixers for jobs in this town. Hell, you saw normal people asking for interested Huntsmen and Huntresses services and I doubt all of them are that deep on the crime business." Cole guessed.
"Aiden is right however, we start asking, people will notice," Morgan said.
"Yeah, but he's right as well, we can't wait that long… otherwise he might be gone before we know it. And yeah, most likely we'll have to ask someone." Aiden thought of their chances.
"Then we should find the right person to ask." Cole declared.
"Well, Wormtongue did say we could ask at the Skillful, that tavern where all the major decisions take place." Jack proposed. "You guys saw it right?"
"Yeah, that quaint shack located on a middle spot on the Central Strip." Morgan nodded. "Multiple people going in and out."
"If it is where most major decisions of the town take place, then someone would know where some of the middlemen are, fuck, for all we know he may spend more time there than his home." Aiden sighed.
"The only problem is trying to find him among other people, and if that brings attention to us right?" Cole guessed.
"Yep."
"It's still more or less the more direct way to try and find him, they might point us with no issue, if he truly is a middle man then he must be known and asked for right?" Jack asked.
"Maybe. Still wonder what we could run into…" Morgan crossed her arms and remained silent for a second.
"I mean we could always find him right away, and with him the leader of the Golden Blades," Cole stated.
"How much you think people would care for his bounty on us?" Aiden asked.
"Not sure… maybe about the same everywhere else? Meaning that maybe he would have to shout out he's giving millions or something." Cole guessed.
"Hey, he might have run out of money to pay, after the assassins, and how shit was at Fairwind… then again maybe he's turning to that deal with Taupes… think they are here?" Jack asked.
"Kuchinashi, according to Wormtongue is more territory of The Black Sheep, The Hana Guild, and The Wave. Besides people have come here, more to the north to avoid the war between the families." Morgan explained.
"Hmm… still, if Zerasmus is a proper middleman, he might be able to have contacts, he might be the one the leader uses to get in contact with the Taupes, and the city is big enough that I doubt anyone would catch a couple of Taupes here and there… depends on how much the gangs care for the presence of each other," Aiden said.
"Still, we are gonna have to find him, and the Skillful seems like the most direct option right now eh?" Cole asked them.
"Mmm, more or less yeah, might be the most efficient," Morgan said.
"Hmm, guess we better get going then." Jack readjusted his bag and led the way back to the Skillful, his friends following close by. They went back the way they came and quickly made it past the crowds and also of the stray dogs sniffing anyone that passed by, and then reached the entrance of The Skillful. There they admired the mummified Boarbatusk head at the top of the doorway.
"Huh." Aiden mussed.
"I guess they don't always disappear… or vanish?" Jack guessed.
"Well… it kinda looks like… like it's staring at us." Morgan spotted the hollows eyes of the head subtly shifting towards them.
"I mean they don't care that much if they lose limbs, and if it is supposed to be a trophy, then yeah… I think it might be still alive." Cole looked directly at the head.
"How do you cut ahead and make sure it remains alive? Even if it is a Grimm?" Aiden asked out loud.
"Slowly probably…" Morgan took a gander.
"Well, at least it doesn't seem to growl at anyone… though yeah, seems like it's not like really there, it's like a zombie, or a mummy," Jack said.
"Hmm… Well anyways, we came for other stuff." Cole said as he approached the door. They already spotted the giant buck faunus woman reading a book on a stool by the door, who seemed to be the doorwoman. "You uh, the person that gives us the go-ahead."
"Well, that depends…" She said as she closed her book and looked directly at them. "Huh, outsiders, and definitely ones that don't belong."
"Really? Why?"
"Your faces, your clothes, your skin, the way you walk, you are not from around here or even from this continent." She while eyeing them up and down.
"Oh, that. That's nothing new." Cole crossed his arms.
"Well, no matter, ready for a riddle?" She asked.
"Riddle?"
"Yes, now, 'I have no life, but I cannot die, what am I?'... Are you gonna give an answer?"
"Is this about the Grimm head on the door?" Jack asked soon after.
"Now that would be an obvious guess, but not a bad one. But no… but I suppose you are outsiders, it's kinda simple but if you don't get it then I suppose it would seem weird." The woman said.
"Then you care to give us a clue?" Cole asked her.
"Depends, have the four of you done any Huntsman work?" She asked back.
"Maybe you could say so," Cole responded.
"Can you prove it?" She asked as another person walked the steps to The Skillful, there the person got in line, however, the buck faunus nodded to him and waved at him to cut line, Cole also stepped out of the way, she was going to show the answer. "I have no life, but I cannot die, what am I?" She asked him.
In return this person showed her a scroll, and there it showed a Huntsman license, she then nodded at him to go in and the man went ahead and entered while Cole and the rest stared for a second and then looked back at the faunus woman.
"So wait that's it? What's the riddle for then?" Cole asked, with a bit of indignation.
"It's actually part of it, it might seem strange but it's mostly a cover." The faunus said.
"Then why are you telling us?"
"Because now I know none of you have a license." She said while staring at each and everyone one of them. "Only those with Huntsman licenses can enter." She said as she opened her book again and continued reading.
"Hey, I could say that we are as good as any Huntsman," Cole said to her.
"And yet, you can't get a license of your own." She said not even looking at Cole's direction, he was about ready to protest, yet realized that there was no use in it, she didn't look like the kind that would budge, and as much as it had worked before… it was not good to start trouble, and Kuchinashi didn't seem to be a good place to start any, especially not in a tavern for Huntsmen and Huntresses.
"Hey, maybe we should go." Morgan tapped his shoulder, agreed and the four of them stepped away from The Skilful and then turned away and kept walking down the street.
"So, a Huntsman license… where would we even get one?" Jack asked.
"Doesn't make sense, why a riddle of life and death?" Cole thought absentmindedly.
"Reputation," Aiden answered.
"What?"
"Reputation doesn't die, not easily. It's about base requirements, they use that place to make deals and missions, and therefore they want no one that can't cut it. The license is the best way to check it." Aiden explained.
"How?"
"Did you notice the license wasn't his?"
"Wait… really?" Cole asked and Aiden nodded.
"It appears it doesn't matter how you get it, the important thing is that you have, probably if you stole it means you had the balls to steal one from a huntsman, or you were resourceful enough to get one, or you were good enough to pass the exam, or we're good enough to kill whoever owned it," Aiden said.
"Huh, that does shorten the list of the people that can enter, I can see that. Like a key, with the face of someone else… No life, yet can't die, huh." Cole mussed.
"So it's more of a fancy way to refer to the key." Jack summarized
"And a key that does give you a lot of freedom to go around the world, and maybe access to certain stuff, certainly useful." Aiden nodded.
"And we don't have them, of course, which means plan A is out of the window." Morgan sighed.
"Did we have plan B?" Jack asked her.
"It was to ask around, depends now where we should ask if we can't do it here," Morgan said.
"Well if Zerasmus lives between The Upper Cliffs and The Lower Valley… then we should find a spot more or less there to ask around. They might know him or have heard of him, like try and see if we find the grocery store where he buys his morning cereal, someone there might know him."
"And maybe on the way, we can find a motel where we can stay the night. I do have a feeling it is going to rain." Morgan said as they continued walking towards the line that divided The Lower Valley and The Upper Cliffs.
"Sounds like a good plan…" Jack said, just as his stomach grumbled. "Oh, guess that's another thing to take care of."
The group managed to find a motel that had enough room for the four of them in one room, left their bags under lock, and then went to find a place to eat. That place to eat turned out to be a sushi parlor. They had enough Lien to buy something for everyone, which meant like eight rolls each, whatever the case they were satisfied for now and could get to the more pressing business.
"Man, the Mistralean soy sauce-" Jack began.
"Nantan sauce?" Aiden interrupted.
"Can't call it that. It's basically soy sauce only it has a different name, and at that, it's definitely different because it has that weird sweet to spicy afterburn, not like normal soy sauce which is salty but more of a… weird heat up if that's the word." Jack continued.
"I don't think it is," Cole said.
"Then what would you call it?" Jack asked.
"It's more like beer, only with no alcohol and in sauce form."
"That's… well not wrong but still I wouldn't call it that." Jack shrugged.
"Alright, enough, we have to search now for a good informant," Aiden said.
"Right, you said maybe someone from the grocery store would do?" Morgan asked Cole.
"Eh… that was more of an example… maybe a bad one. An old lady at the grocery store doesn't need to speak to everyone, and we don't know if Zerasmus is the chatty kind. No, we are gonna need to guess, hopefully, so we can get this in one go and not alert anyone." Cole said.
"So a more personal guy, what? A stylish?" Jack asked.
"It's fifty-fifty if they are the gossiping kind and even then Zerasmus doesn't need to respond," Aiden said.
"Okay yeah, hmm we need a personal thing but that he needs to go to… what would a middleman use? We lost the meeting points with The Skillful, what else do they use? Storage?" Jack asked again.
"That would be in The Lower Valley-" Cole started.
"And those are basically the warehouses, the strongholds if Wormtongue is to be believed." Aiden finished.
"He was scared and threatened Wormtongue so more than likely… how about, postal office?" Morgan suggested.
"It's a bit too… connected, official, but no it's not bad." Cole said.
"Connected? Oh, you mean… like the guards, most likely someone would tell on us." Morgan realized.
"Maybe…" Cole affirmed.
"I mean I get the postal guys since they deliver for about everyone, but the guards, even if they are not paid to really uphold the law and be more ust keep the Grimm away, not all of them must like… be in direct line with the underworld. Like what are the chances that if we get the direction from a guard Zerasmus in less than an hour we act quick after all." Jack pointed out.
"I mean… you want to risk the odds?" Aiden asked.
"Think we are overthinking?" Morgan asked him.
"Hmm, maybe. But either way what you said was right, we need someone that knows their addresses…" Aiden thought for a second with his hand on his chin. "How about a repairman?" he asked and the rest gave him 'not so sure' looks. "Yeah… could have thought of something better."
"If we go back to the idea of delivery then we should maybe then go back to the sushi place." Cole said.
"Ah, well, not sure, we've already been there… and it doesn't seem like the place that delivers everywhere. How about a sandwich place, everyone at least orders from those, or a place that has chicken or pizza." Jack offered.
"We would need to find a couple… and it's more or less also a fifty-fifty. Okay we obviously are gonna have to ask at more than one place at this point." Aiden said.
"So should we split and do this quickly?" Cole asked him.
"Yeah, sounds about right… maybe we should meet here after we search, that way we have a point of reference." Aiden said.
"And we go along the line of Upper Cliffs and Lower Valley… How big is that line?" Jack asked as the four of them continued walking through the streets, well three of them, Morgan had stayed behind once she spotted something.
"Hey guys, how about this?" Morgan asked as she stated directly at the neon sign of a store, it spelled out 'Dianzi's Tech'.
"A hardware store…'for sale and repair services, extra fee for a home visit.' Huh." Aiden pondered.
"So this is a place where they sell scrolls." Jack guessed.
"Scrolls and terminals." Morgan pointed at the terminal on display on the window, and then at others inside the store.
"He seems well off, wonder how he hasn't gotten robbed yet." Cole thought for a second.
"That's the thing, in The Central Strip there were a couple of stores that sold scrolls and other stuff that used hard light. But this is the first to be a big shop, and also a place that gives repairs and even offers to fix equipment wherever it is." Morgan said.
"Now Kuchinashi, the city must have engineers or something for the power, the dust, and for the weather system. Those guys must be like, well paid by the ones that own the city or maybe the ones that do…" Jack said out loud.
"Might be a reasonable chip in between the big criminals of this town, you invest in common services and well, you get to keep control of the town, keep it in order and alive for you to do business." Aiden guessed.
"Yeah, that… but this guy, he might as well be also a common service, but more of a… special guy. Some of his stuff looks expensive." Jack pointed out.
"Which means he gets it from someone, and since he hasn't been robbed of it… he must have some protection. He does look like the person you go for a more personal or customized scroll, or well… computers." Morgan said.
"He might have installed a couple of special stuff, as long as he does that he keeps the business and makes a living. Yeah, I get the feeling this is the best we'll get." Cole crossed his arms.
"Good eye," Aiden said.
"Thanks," Morgan responded.
"Well since you found it, feel like talking to him? Or whoever is behind the counter?" Jack asked Morgan, she thought for a second and decided she might as well try.
"Hmm, okay." She said and walked in first, Aiden followed soon after, actually taking the chance to window shop and eye the scrolls, the little cameras, the headphones, and other sound systems, after not using his engineering abilities for a bit he considered whether or not he should actually buy something. Jack followed after and did pretty much the same, only without wandering how to disassemble what was on the shelf, and Cole… well.
"Mmm…" Cole stared at a terminal that was on display next to the door, the shopkeeper wasn't really looking specifically at him and so he tried to see if he could touch hard-light tech without issue, the moment his hand began to touch the hard-light screen he noticed a tiny spark come from his hand and it made a small burn on the device that powered the terminal. He immediately pulled his hand away. "Well same as usual."
"Maybe you shouldn't touch anything," Aiden said to him.
"Don't worry I can just look, it's not like I can't stand near them, just not touch them."
"Uh-huh."
"Excuse me, are you the owner?" Morgan asked the man behind the counter.
"Do you see anyone else working here?" He retorted.
"There can always be someone in the back," Morgan argued.
"... Fair enough, but Nah, you are speaking to the owner and only employee! What can I do for you? What do you need me for?"
"Hmmm, how about maybe look at four simple scrolls, basic but resistant, something that won't break." Morgan decided to disguise the conversation with a pseudo buy.
"You could always find some in The Central Strip, but you decided to come here?" The man asked, curious.
"This place seems to have more quality… or at least something more durable."
"Huh, well… you wouldn't be wrong." The man said as he went to look at his stock. "Do you four need something with what? Aura readers? Three ZHs or perhaps even five ZHs? You want a reader and uploader as well?"
"... Aura readers, three ZHs is fine and… we don't need the reader and uploader." Morgan played along.
"Oookay, bare minimum, but is not something I haven't been asked before." The man said as he looked for a box with a specific label. Meanwhile, Morgan looked at the other things on the shelves, among them terminals, screens, and also multiple kinds of interactive things, there were a couple of smart attachments for washing machines, smart living room accessories, and also electronic locks.
"Do you install many lock keypads around?" Morgan asked.
"When people ask me to and pay me accordingly… " The man said as he found the box he was looking for.
"So anyone that needs something special, you know them then?" Morgan asked, at which the man visibly sighed.
"... You are not here for the scrolls are you?"
"If it helps, we are not here for anything more than a conversation and some directions," Morgan added.
"If you are looking for those, then why didn't you go for The Skillful? Or any other tavern for that matter?" He asked, keeping an eye on all four of them now.
"If you have to ask, we could use some scrolls someday." Jack mentioned.
"Oh, you don't have licenses." The owner gathered.
"That and we actually need information on some people of note." Aiden added.
"And you believe I'm the right person?"
"You haven't been robbed, your store doesn't look like a place that has been robbed before, unless you clean really well. And you are the only store that seems to sell good quality scrolls, electronics, and locks." Cole told him.
"Alright, but that doesn't mean I can tell you something important, or that will be useful." The man argued.
"We are only looking for one person, and if we are right, you might have sold him something or installed something in his home." Aiden said.
"I don't seek to make enemies here, it took me really long to make sure I'm stable… I can't give someone away to you if that could put a target on me, I won't do that and don't even think of trying anything, I have patrons, powerful patrons." The man said pointing at them.
"We are not looking to end this person, we just want him to direct us to someone else, we are after a middle man that's here. We are gonna need info from him, and that's all, no family or crime group involved." Morgan said to him.
"... Ugh, okay… you just need to find one specific middleman, and you do not plan to do anything that would anger anyone else."
"No one native from Kuchinashi, no. We just want to talk to them and get some more directions." Morgan said. It was a lie, but only about a third of it, the rest was omitted or not really false. They weren't really after Zerasmus or anyone in Kuchinashi, they just wanted the leader of the Golden Blades. If Zerasmus would be an obstacle for them was another issue entirely.
"Okay… just, tell me their name, if it is a middleman maybe I can believe it." The man said, he seemed hoping it wasn't anyone that protected him.
"We are looking for Zerasmus."
"Ah, now I get it, he's the one that gets the people that are from outside, well one of them at least." The owner was visibly relaxed. "Sorry, I… I- I was expecting the day someone would ask me to give details about... another person."
"That day isn't today," Aiden, said to him.
"Yeah, well… sorry overthinking…" The man rambled.
"If you are overthinking it, then maybe you should be more careful how much you put yourself in line with your patrons." Cole said to him.
"Eh, they are reasonable… but they have enemies and you four don't look far off from someone that could want something with them. But so far you also don't seem to be lying."
"How do you know?" Jack asked him, they were slightly lying after all.
"Because you are looking for Zerasmus, believe it or not, it has happened before, and that's because the guy is either found at The Skillful, or usually doing business in another private place in the city, its hard to keep track of him, and many of his associates ask around where he can be. Point is, it makes sense." The man explained.
"And if that's the case, then you'll just tell us where he is?" Morgan asked, a bit curious as to why he was so careful of not giving a patron away but had no problem with Zerasmus.
"The fact that it involves Zerasmus means it doesn't involve me at all, all… 'job givers', contact people and the 'middlemen' of Kuchinashi know that they are partially on their own, and Zerasmus is one of the ones with more… long-distance relationships. Chances are he'll notice if you are a danger to him if he even glances at you, so… he has taken care of himself, and if you know he's here, then he might be expecting you." the man said, there was a sudden silence in the shop. "However since you can't enter The Skillful, you'll have to try and get lucky at his home and wait for him to come back."
"He's not there often?" Aiden asked.
"No, some people had to wait for hours or even a couple of days. The place has the number 463, it's a house with a blue roof like six squares away from here." The man said as he pointed towards his left, in the direction of Zerasmus' house. "You might have to get lucky."
"Okay, thanks uh… I assume Dianzi?" Jack asked.
"The very same." He said with a hint of pride. "So, were you actually in desperate need of those scrolls?"
"Hmm, not today but who knows, we might come back later." Morgan said as she stepped away from the counter.
"Then I wish you luck." Dianzi said as the group exited the store, once outside they set their sights on the direction Dianzi pointed at.
"So, think he really knows we are here?" Jack asked.
"We just arrived a few hours ago…" Morgan thought.
"Maybe that's enough, but it doesn't matter, if he's not home, then that's good, means we can possibly find him, get to him and then get Mr. Golden Blade himself." Aiden said.
"So… tonight." Cole asked.
"If we do it tonight, wel, we definitely won't sleep… but we also might end things before they notice anything." Morgan guessed.
"So get to his house, from there we find him and then… we try to finish this bastard? Okay. Maybe we should hurry up then." Jack said, everyone else nodded and they began to run to the house of Zerasmus, they soon found the building Dianzi spoke about and scouted it very quickly. The house had the benefit of some small walls with electric fences, a couple of cameras on the corners of the building, and also some locks on the doors, nothing too fancy but they noticed they would need more than a key to get in, a password for example.
The building, even with all the extra security, managed to blend in a stick close in design to nearby buildings in aesthetics, but also in distance. That was the weakness they exploited to get in. They climbed the closest building and aligned themselves up with a blind spot on the cameras, the electric fence was in their way still, covering the wall and a side wall, however, it was no issue for Cole. He jumped first to the wall and absorbed the power on the fence, the others quickly jumped next to him and now they were all on the wall. They continued and jumped to an unprotected window, it was a bathroom window on the second floor. Aiden went first and cat-hung from the window, then Morgan transformed into a small object, was flung to Aiden's hand by Jack, and with the help of Aiden she squeezed through a portion of the window, once inside she opened it and let the other three inside, Aiden climbing in through first and then Jack and Cole jumping in afterwards.
Once inside Cole and Jack used their Radar Pulse and Time Vision respectively to check if there was anyone inside the house or any other security system. It seemed that they were in luck because there seemed to be none. All together they walked out of the bathroom to a neatly decorated hallway that led to a bedroom on one side, an office on the other, and also had a lounge room right in front of them.
"He seems to be living well." Morgan commented.
"Yeah, not bad for a place not in the upper sectors." Cole agreed.
"So, now we need to find where he is, or at the very least where Golden Blade is." Aiden said as he eyed the office.
"Think we'll find clues perfectly laid out for us?" Jack asked him.
"Everyone leaves traces behind, and besides, we are special, you have the ability to look at the past… you can certainly find something." Aiden patted Jack's back.
"That could work…" Jack admitted.
"So the rest of us, look for something?" Cole asked.
"Anything that can tell us where he is." Morgan said, being the first one to walk downstairs.
"I'll go with her, maybe he has a basement or some hidden storage." Cole said.
"I'll take the office." Aiden made his way to it.
"I'll stick with you, he probably made a call here somewhere." Jack followed.
Downstairs Morgan searched the living room, the kitchen, and the entrance for anything unusual, there was nothing out of the ordinary or something that gave an idea where Zerasmus could have gone however, just furniture and some closets and wardrobes. Morgan for herself found a workshop in one room, on it there were some cases with refined dust and a sort of printer with another terminal next to it. Didn't seem like Zerasmus was the kind to dedicate themselves to forgery. But it seemed he put effort into having some documents, passports, and special cards of his own and also to check dust purity.
"Anything useful on your end?" Cole came into the room to ask her.
"Unless we want passports, not really, this is for him just basic needs," Morgan said as she looked over some of the documents.
"Think we can find which of them was the last he used?" Cole asked her.
"You have a way of doing that?" Morgan asked in return.
"Well, I needed to find a dead person to do it, or traces of them… haven't been able to do it for a while so, eh. I was more wondering if you had anything." He wondered.
"Not really… though you did say you needed someone dead to look at their synapses right?"
"Yeah… point being?"
"I'm trying to think, give me a second to try something…" Morgan said as she concentrated, it was time for her to test some of her psychic abilities, she closed her eyes and from her hand came… a piece of Typhoon matter, small, it was similar to the illusion or after image created from her Phantom Shift, the piece of matter moved around the workshop on her command.
"What is that?" Cole asked.
"I truly don't know, I've never done this before, but if you need to know it's kind of an anchor… I'm trying to feel the objects around to get a sense of any interaction… but it's difficult, with the anchor I'm barely able to feel something but I certainly can't get… traces. How about you help me?" She pleaded.
"Okay… what do I do?"
"You said what you did was looking at dead synapses, I have now a small connection to the area around."
"Wait, are you saying that that piece of goo is… not really dead or alive?"
"No. It's a construct, but it's part of me, but it can sense energies left behind… albeit I seem to be doing a pretty bad job at it so I need your help. A couple sparks from you, and maybe we can look together." Morgan explained.
"Okay… so at the thing?"
"Yes, and do it gently, just like when you found the synapses, I am connected to it after all."
"Ok… ok." Cole took a deep breath as he concentrated and made sure to be careful, once he started to look for the synapse on the anchor… well it went better than expected as they both started seeing images of Zerasmus using the workshop, it was scattered however, nothing good enough to hear a conversation. But they were able to spot something, there was a drawer that his image kept going to, no matter how fast or scattered it looked it always went to the same drawer and then under the table of the workshop.
"You see that?" Morgan ased, a bit surprised that whatever they were doing was working.
"Yeah… want to check it out?" Cole asked, Morgan nodded and then severed the connection, Morgan retrieved the anchor and as it went back to herself Cole forced the drawer open and there they found a stack of dust vials and a couple of cards… club cards, three vip passes specifically.
"Think we'll find him in one of these?" Morgan asked.
"Maybe, maybe not, but it could be useful if we need to follow him around. What you think is under the table?"
"If I had to guess I would say a stash," Morgan said as she checked, there was indeed a locked safe, she searched back on the drawer and did find the key for it, then opened it and sure enough it looked to be a stack of goods. "Well would you look at that, a gun, stacks of Lien, more dust, and what's this…" Morgan brought out of the safe a necklace, a strange one with the symbol of Taijitu's head.
"Seems like a special necklace, I mean like some sort of charm." Cole guessed.
"Looks like it has something inside… or more that it can do something, look at the eyes."
"Yeah, those do something, maybe like a key."
"Hmm, let's take what we found here and bring it to them." Morgan took the necklace and the dust.
"Oh, we are taking everything?"
"The important is the cards, maybe a passport if you want and the necklace, but the Lien and dust… Well, we need it." Morgan said to him.
"Hey, I wasn't complaining," Cole said as he put the stacks of Lien on his bag, some of the dust, and the vip cards. Back on the second floor was looking around the office for something while Jack focused his powers and saw images of Zerasmus in different places.
"No, I can't be asked to be there, I have to meet three others today alone… okay yeah… sigh, look if you really need me find me outside of Tanis' shop." He saw Zerasmus talking through his scroll, and then the same in a chair.
"Mmhm… yeah, okay, yes pleasure doing business with you." The image of Zerasmus said as it ended the call, from there Jack looked around some more to find any other past iteration of Zerasmus, he found one talking in a more hurried tone in the middle of the hallway and going inside and out of the office.
"No, no, no! You can't do that to me, it wasn't my fault!... Okay meet me at the warehouse and we can sort this over, I have ways of compensating you, I swear… Don't worry about the Black Sheep, they care more about keeping their status than making moves on independent operations..., Not my fault, you hired them, not me."
"Have you found anything?" Aiden asked Jack.
"Barely, the most interesting thing I found was about his meeting with someone at a warehouse. The rest he's mostly talking about sealing a deal or just discussion details, there was one where it seems someone asked him if he knew somebody that could move dust past the border to Vale."
"And none of that can tell us where he is now?"
"I was getting to that, little problem is that I can look to the past… but is not precise, like I don't know how far some things are unless I have a good idea that it happened recently, like if he was talking about I don't know 'The guys at Wolfpine or Fairwind'. Then I could say something, but nothing so far… not a trace that gives much of a clue."
"How far back can you look?"
"Depends… without time collapsing… depends on the image or the trace, but never past a week. Maybe the warehouse is a good bet." Jack wondered.
"The families' war is making people anxious to move, dust all the way to Vale means an entire operation, someone must be looking for discreet muscle or transporters and must be asking people like Zerasmus for them. Maybe he also has a warehouse where he stores things for others…"
"Are you sure of that?"
"No, just making educated guesses."
"Uh huh, well how about you… you got into the terminal?"
"No."
"Really? Thought you were a hacker." Jack raised an eyebrow.
"I am, for CTOS. I can more or less guess or piece together how Remnant's operating systems work but I don't have in reality an idea of how different they are, managed to boot the terminal in a debug mode but even I'll admit, I don't know the specifics, the language is… somewhat different, and even then I would probably still need a password cracker. The best I can do now is try to find the password around here." Aiden said as he looked at notes, little sticky notes, and inside drawers.
"Okay… did you find the password?"
"Nope." Aiden said, closing another drawer and then beginning to look at the shelves.
"Huh, maybe I can try, see him do it." Jack said as he went to the terminal.
"Oh, yeah that would do." Aiden said as he looked and found something behind a small sofa. Jack focused and witnessed as Zerasmus tapped his password, he followed the movements of the shattered time image… luckily with something like this he didn't have to worry about when in the past the image was, he just needed to follow it, after a double check to see if he had done right he tried to put the password, and it worked.
"I am in, you can call me a master hacker whenever you want." Jack said, placing his hand behind his head.
"Now check for mails or messages of any kind." Aiden said.
"Right." Jack did so, opening a mail app, a sort of messaging app, and also some sort of order app, it seemed to be a dust exchange app. He checked each and every one of them to see if there was a clue of what Zerasmus was doing today. He searched through mails, spam just to be safe… however the best indication was in the messaging app. There were messages with multiple people, during this day too… So now he had to search most of them, some of them were finishing business with a quick thanks, others were planning business weeks ahead… however he was able to narrow it down to two messages.
"Okay I might have something," Jack said.
"Really?" Morgan asked as she and Cole walked into the office.
"Yep, we either have somewhere in Upper Cliffs, someone asking if they can meet, and also another person asking to check Zerasmus' storage… where that is well… I don't know messages and mails don't say anything else." Jack showed them.
"It's the warehouse you mentioned earlier, it's in The Lower Valley, street is called Donzoko and the number of the building is 079." Aiden said.
"Wait, hold on how do you know that?" Jack asked, and he and also Morgan and Cole turned to Aiden who had a document in his hand. Turned out that behind the sofa there was a safe that Aiden had cracked open.
"Found the deed for the place, among other things," Aiden said.
"What did you find?" Cole asked.
"Dirt on a lot of people, files on them, his account book with names on them… the deed, and funny thing, the warehouse, it's a co-ownership. With no other than our dear friend." Aiden said.
"The leader?" Morgan asked.
"Okro Santes, born in the wilds, raised in an orphanage in Mistral, plenty of petty crimes, escaped prison through unknown means, formed a bandit mercenary gang. Suspected of ties with the Taupes family among other criminal guilds." Aiden read and showed them the file on Okro.
"Huh, well would you look at that… any dirt on him?" Jack asked.
"Not really other than the file, seems like he keeps it as some sort of profile on him," Aiden said.
"To either show… or to toss him to authorities?" Morgan asked.
"Maybe, Okro seems the more ambitious and violent type, so maybe having a way to put his name on a bounty mission would be a legal way to get rid of him if he becomes a problem."
"And yet they own a warehouse together… so they must be some kind of friends." Cole hummed.
"Keep your friends close and enemies closer." Morgan quoted.
"Hmm...then we are going to The Lower Valley then?" Cole asked.
"Sounds like it… it's already getting late, maybe we should move quickly." Jack said while looking outside the window. "Huh looks like it's raining…" Jack noticed, then after that everyone looked at Cole.
"Okay, how much is it, light or heavy rain?" Cole asked.
"Eh, light rain," Morgan said.
"Okay… I can survive this, just don't stick close to me." Cole warned them.
"Okay, how away are we talking about here, a long stick?" Aiden asked.
"Just stay away a couple of meters okay!" Cole pressed as they made their way to The Lower Valley.
The group reached Zerasmus' warehouse around 8 PM and scouted the area, they did so the way they usually did when scouting something when it was dark. On top of the building. They had climbed up another warehouse, sneaking by the guards of said place, there weren't that many guards, even so, they could tell inside there were a couple of people inside, criminals guarding whatever they had stored in there, and the same applied to some of the other warehouses they had seen when traversing the district. All of them were built and served as strongholds for the different players of the underworld, some seemed like temporal storage, others as full-on bases of operation. Which was why they were so worried about Zerasmus' warehouse… it looked completely deserted.
"He is one middleman, and he co-own the place with a bandit that has lost his entire gang… he could be understaffed." Morgan pointed out.
"Maybe, maybe not," Aiden said.
"Well there's the front door, a skylight… maybe some side doors, plenty of places to choose," Jack said.
"Yeah…" Cole grumbled, the other three looked at him, he was three meters away, raindrops falling on him and evaporating and causing continuous sparks of lightning around him, it was conducting wherever he was standing as well and had one of the sourest looks he had in a while.
"Uh, you okay man?" Jack asked him.
"It feels like when slightly hot water falls on you… but it's rain so it's just tickling and hitting, like something poking at you constantly with tiny sticks. No, I'm not okay, so I would like it if we could do this quick!" Cole grumbled.
"Okay, I guess we will. Plan?" Morgan asked.
"Let's avoid the main door and enter through the skylight, we'll see if anyone is waiting inside," Aiden said.
"And if we find Okro? Assuming he's spending the night here." Jack inquired.
"We should find the chance to jump him then, and get rid of him finally," Morgan said.
"Sounds good, I like it. Ready?" Cole asked them and the three of them nodded, they jumped from the building into the complex of Zerasmu's warehouse. They jumped directly into the wall and then dropped down to ground level, once they approached they noticed some cameras guarding the corners of the building. Cole decided to use precision bolts to overload them and make them short circuit, the flash of lightning was quick and almost silent, and it seemed to do the job. Then they approached and used their respective skills to reach the ceiling, Aiden and Cole using aura and conduit genes to jump far up and climb to the roof, Jack with his Time Dodge jumps, and Morgan with her Lift Field.
Once on the top they looked inside the warehouse to see if there was anyone inside. Inside it was dark, no lights, no people, only crates and storage containers. There was no human or faunus activity inside.
"This is off, we could be walking into a trap," Morgan said.
"As long as we spring it carefully we should be fine." Aiden responded.
"I guess… we'll be on our guard then." Jack guessed.
"Yeah… let's get in quick." Cole said as he opened the skylight and jumped down to the warehouse, he landed silently and soon the rest of the group followed. "Hoo, feels nice not being peppered anymore." Cole whispered.
"Okay… is there an office here?" Aiden asked.
"Don't see any." Jack looked around.
"There's none, just crates and containers," Morgan added.
"Then let's search those, there must be a safehouse hidden in one if that's the case." Aiden guessed.
"Are you sure?" Cole asked.
"Even if the place has things here, it's weirdly empty… that stack of containers in the middle, the door is different." Aiden pointed at a red container door.
"Yeah, think some of the cards we have would work on it?" Cole asked Morgan.
"Doesn't seem like any door with a card reader… seems more like those things thatch the serial codes at the supermarket," Jack said as they approached the container.
"Yeah…" Morgan thought for a second, she pulled out the Taijitu necklace from her pocket and looked at it again, it had a couple of symbols on the front of it.
"Hmm… imprinted key. Might be it." Aiden said.
"Let's try then." Morgan said as she began to approach the container, however, they didn't get much farther, the moment they began to approach the container they heard the crates and some containers open violently, before even seeing anything all of them jumped back as four Sabyr Grimm pounced at them.
"What the fuck?!" Jack cursed as he got out of the way of the cat Grimm and then used the D12 to blast it's head before kicking with a Time Dodge enhanced kick. Aiden shot at the one that pounced at him directly on both eyes and then grabbed it in mid-air and slammed it to the ground, breaking its neck. Morgan knocked the two others away with a panicked Kinetic Blast and then used her Supertermal to finish one of them, the other dodged out of the way, but Cole intercepted with two lightning bolts and then rushed it and behead it with a gigawatt blade.
"Where did they come from?" Morgan asked.
"The containers," Cole said.
"That must be it, what else is here, there mus-" Aiden stopped talking as he noticed a figure on the rafters, aiming a grenade launcher at them. "Shit!" He cursed as he shot at the figure, the figure decided to fire at that moment and the four of them were forced to back up and roll away as the grenade hit the spot where they had been. The figure was shot by Aiden in the Shoulder and then destroyed by Jack with a Tome Blast, sending distorted screams across the warehouse.
"There's more!" Cole shouted as two more figures appeared from the rafters and more people began to appear from the containers, it had indeed been a trap, but far bigger than they expected. Thugs began to fire at them from all directions as the group avoided the grenades being launched by the people on the rafters, each on their own way. Aiden jumped to the top of a container and dashed to avoid bullets, Cole rolled out of the way and fired a lightning rocket at one of the figures, and then at then several rockets at the group of thugs firing at them.
Morgan used her Psychoshock and her Electrostatic Burst to immobilize the other figure with the grenade launcher and the Phantom Shifted to a safe location, placing her Backlash shield on herself, Jack for his part Time Rushed forward and punched and beat down four thugs in a row before shooting the D12 twice and then dodging away to avoid fire. Aiden flanked the thugs quickly and fired at them from behind, using a dust firebomb to take care of three of them before shooting other six with his dual handguns, after killing three of them he rushed the closest one he saw. He joined Cole in the middle of the fray as Cole himself shot Magnum bolts to two separate people before throwing a lightning grenade at a group, and then tackling the closest three people in hand to hand. Punching, kicking and knocking them down and proceeded to drive a lightning palm through the floor to make an explosion that sent them flying away.
Aiden covered his back by shooting two people on the back of the head, then used his baton to block the arm of another thug that tried to turn around to shoot him and struck him with his baton three times across the head before kneeing him the back and the doing a roundhouse kick to his head. After knocking him down he rushed another three thugs, entering with a flying kick, shooting one in the leg, alternating punches, kicks and strikes of his baton between them and taking them out, Together with Cole they took care of the last chick that was in melee range, Aiden struck her on the stomach, Cole kicked her on the head, Aiden did a spinning hook kick and Cole finished her off with point-blank Magnum bolt.
With them out of the way the focused back on the flanks, where Jack had been covering by placing people in Time Stops, Aiden and Cole fired their respective shots and grenades towards the Time Stops while Jack Time Rushed and Time Dodged at the same moment to knee a thug with aura in the jaw and then used momentum to dropkick him into one of the containers, toppling it. He continued his assault by shooting several thugs with time enhanced reloads, and then dodging in out to take them out two by two. He used again his Time Blast to take another group of thugs in the rafters and then used a spinning heel kick to knock down a guy that tried to rush him, he executed him with a single shotgun blast to the head. He then continued rushing in and out, punching people and shooting them.
Morgan for her part controlled the people at the rafters, more of them appeared to try and attack them from all angles. However, she laid Superthermal traps and knocked them out of them with Kinetic Blasts and Electrostatic Bursts. Effectively making the rafters a place of fire blasts and explosions, many people falling off them while screaming at, well… being set aflame. Once the rafter looked clear for the moment she focused back on the ground and on helping her friends, she Psychoshocked three people in one go and made them grasp their heads while screaming in pain. She then analyzed the situation, and decided to become more aggressive, she Phantom Shifted towards the enemy and blasted them with her shotgun, then surprised them with Lift Fields, Superthermal fiery blasts and Electrostatic Bursts, disarraying them and then getting close and finishing them with buckshot.
They seemed to have taken control of the situation but, ust as they felt that someone else dropped from the roof and landed close to them, it was man that had intended to impale Jack with a giant glaive, but Jack Time Dodged out of the way, but before anyone could counter the man send out a wave of wind that pushed them backwards towards the main gate of the warehouse, he kept pushing them back with wind and pinning them while more people fired at them with grenade launchers. Aiden shot two grenades out of the air, Jac stopped the rest with Time Stop bubbles, Morgan and Cole shot at them with their abilities and to end Cole shocked the man with a wind semblance right in the head with a barrage of lightning bolts.
However as they finally stopped being pinned to the gate of the warehouse, a crossbow bolt landed next to them and planted itself on the floor, it then exploded and sent them barreling through the gate, past it and rolling into the pavement outside.
"Son of a bitch!... ow." Jack tried to get up, but had a little trouble, still feeling the effects of the explosion. Cole was much the same way and also was roughed up a little, with some bruises and cuts. Morgan had lost all the charges from her Backlash and Aiden's aura was flickering.
"We need to get up and get to cover before they do that again," Aiden said as he pushed past the pain and shakily got up, the group did the same as him, expecting something to come out of the warehouse.
"Do what again?" A woman's voice came from the right, atop a container they noticed a young woman with a musket with a bayonet, calmly staring at them and even looking bored out of her mind. Next to her, there was another person, a man with a long coat and a hood with a rifle, they looked around them and they noticed that on their right there were another two people, two women, one with a handgun and a knife out and the other with a greatsword. They stared back at the entrance of the warehouse and saw the man with the wind semblance and another with a crossbow come out of the flames.
"Seems you four have overstepped." One of them said.
"Really? Seems we are just getting started!" Cole said as he made electricity run around his arms.
"Are you?" They heard a booming voice coming from the warehouse, then they saw it, a golden sword and a golden shield, and the same face they saw on the file on Okro. It was him, the leader of the Golden Blades. "You thought I wouldn't be ready, I've heard what happened at Fairwind, you four killed all of my people!"
"Not all of them…" Jack said, and stopped talking once the people around them aimed their guns at them.
"Shut up." The man with the rifle said.
"You see, you four too us by surprise." They heard a voice come through a speaker. "We heard what had happened in Fairwind and me and my friend were getting ready to get some people to hunt you down, but instead, you found your way to us rather quickly. Had to change the plan on the fly to lay an ambush on you, barely got a hint you were in town an hour ago. Still seems to have worked out. Didn't even have to pay for transport."
"That's Zerasmus isn't it?" Aiden asked, he got no response but he guessed he was right.
"Out there only the strong survive, if a couple of fools want to travel and be exposed to bandits that's their risk and their loss, but you four just had to intervene, fucked everything up when I almost had everything set to make my own town. And now you are here, at our mercy… I expected more." Okro said to them.
"Says the guy that has to hire multiple assassins, thugs and more just to try and kill us, and hey, we aren't done yet." Morgan said to him as the four of them got back on their feet.
"Hmmph, well it's over, whether you accept or not, kill them!" he said and the assassins opened fire. However before they could connect, Jack made a Time Shield around them and Cole used all his strength to summon a lightning storm, it went straight for Orko, who dodged out of the way barely enough to no be hit and take the blast with his shield, the man with the crossbow dodged as well… the man with the wind semblance however… he got hit and completely burnt by the lightning strikes that came from the sky. If he wasn't dead, he was clearly out of commission.
"I think you underestimate us!" Cole shouted as he, Aiden, Jack, and Morgan threw everything they had around them, grenades, fire, lightning, and Chronon particles flew out of the shield and all the assassin took cover, Jack was the first to strike, rushing the man with the crossbow and punching four times and then kicked him on the face hard enough to make him fly away.
He went away in a Time Dodge and placed one of the assassins in a Time Stop. At that Aiden charged the woman with the gun and knife and battled with her in an exchange of gunshots, and melee, tactical baton against knife. They seemed to be fairly equal, but Aiden managed to surprise the woman by being relentless and getting the chance to push her back with a concussion grenade.
Morgan focused onOkro and used a Psychoshock to affect his mind, he endured the mental attack and tried to rush Morgan, however, Cole got in his way. Intercepting him and throwing him to the ground with a sudden Judo throw, Cole got the chance to blast Okro with point-blank lightning but was immediately rushed and tackled by the woman with the greatsword.
"Cole!" Morgan shouted, but immediately had to take cover from the assassin with the rifle, she rolled out of the way of several shots and Phantom shifted behind a container to break line of sight, the assassin followed her, however, he had lost her, the moment he looked for her a Lift Field activated below him, sending him to the air. Right then a box threw itself at him and hit him in the head, then that box transformed into Morgan, who shot at him mid-air with her shotgun and sent him flying across the loading bay of the warehouse.
Jack for his part took on the man with crossbow one on one, he seemed to have a semblance focused around making his bolts turn while in mid-air, it didn't do much against someone that could shift through time and stop them in mid-air. Jack stopped the projectiles and then sent another Time Stop towards the man, the man dodged out of the way of the Time Stop and shot again, however, he could shoot fast enough to stop Jack from getting close and shooting him at close range with his shotgun, he shot twice and then did a flying punch to the side of his temple.
The man decided to shoot the ground with an explosive bolt to try and get rid of Jack, and it worked, as it hit both of them, however, it did knock him right into a crate, he landed hard enough to shatter it and reveal the contents, and it was a lot of dust. He noticed Jack looking at the dust and then at him.
"Wait!" The man shouted as he tried to get up, but Jack pushed past his injuries first, Time Dodged out of the way of a desperate crossbow bolt and then used a Time Blast to explode the assassin and the dust to another kingdom. After the explosion ac saw only chunks of the assassin left… sadly he was too distracted when Okro rushed him, blindsiding him and barely blocking the sword with his forearms.
"Fuck!" Jack cursed as he backed away and dodge out of the way of Okro's attacks, he shot at him and Okro defended himself with his shield, he rushed in from the side and managed to get a couple of good hits. However Okro was better than he gave him credit for, after having the back of his knee stomped and being shot point-blank in the back he got a hold of Jack's pattern and in a swift motion predicted his movement, and blindsided him with his shield and then swept his leg with a strike of his sword. Jack rolled on the ground to get away from Okro, Okro for his part zeroed in on Jack, but as he tried to chase him Jack pushed him back with a Time Blast.
Jack was ready to keep slugging it out, however, that became less of an option as he was shot from the side and he felt bullets collide on his side, his powers protected him, but only so much.
"Shit, shit." Jack rushed to cover, more thugs and criminals were coming to help, that was bad, really bad, they were already hurt and even he had limits on how much he could fire his abilities in a short amount of time. He was forced to dodge and rush away as Okro tried to kill him with a lunge.
On the other side, Cole took on the woman with the greatsword, parrying her sword with his gigawatt blades in quick strikes, one after the other with neither of them slowing down. Cole eventually overpowered her and used a point-blank lightning grenade to knock her off balance and go in with a strike across her face, it did some damage but that was when she revealed her semblance.
"Rhaag!" She yelled and out of her came an explosion of fire, then from her hand came shards of ice.
"Fire and ice, of course," Cole said as he shot forward rockets of lightning to try and get her, she blocked them with a shield of ice however, that was when he used his cluster grenades and pincer bolts to shoot them into the air and guide them back at her. She got hit by a couple of the first ones but then dissipated some with a fiery explosion and knocked away the rest with a fire wave. Cole felt like he was fighting a conduit again, so that's what he did, he circled around her avoiding the shard of ice, met her head to he in melee, and then broke off to pummel her with his powers, Shockwaves, missiles, grenades, he used everything as she seemed to catch on quickly and adapt to them. In the end he dashed by her a couple times with his gigawatt blades, hitting her at an exposed place that she wasn't able to cover, then planted a sticky grenade on her back to fling her into the air, hit her with the sticky rocket, the one that split into three to strike at multiple angles, then jumped up with Detonation Blast to propel himself upwards, strike at the woman with punches and with his gigawatt blades, then sent her down with a lightning strike and landed on her with a thundering drop.
Even after all the punishment she and her aura being shattered she used whatever energy she left to push Cole off her with another fiery explosion, one that sent Cole away into a container, during this he shot lightning at her, it knocked her right into a crate of dust and made it explode, killing her. With that done Cole took a breather, but it wasn't long one, because soon he noticed the reinforcements coming, especially when they threw grenades at him, he barely avoided a grenade and rolled with the shockwave and shrapnel.
Morgan fought with the man with the rifle and did very well, every time he thought he found her she broke line of sight and blindsided him from the side. Either with one of her powers or with a shotgun shot. She eventually cornered him with Phantom Shift, she was about to shoot him on the head, but the assassin was able to knock the shotgun out of the way, she did however answer with a kick to the goring, a headbutt, and then bashing him with the stock of her shotgun. Even then he managed to keep the line of fire of the shotgun away from him, he hit her back with his own headbutt and that was when Morgan decided to push him back with Kinetic Blast and then with Superthermal explosion.
She managed to push him and make his body bounce on a container. She didn't have time to see if she had finished him as other things and grunts began to fire at her, she took cover and used her powers to set them on fire, shock them and also stun them with her Psyhcoshock. However she then was shot from the side by the same assassin she had been fighting, she was shot once and it was repelled by her Backlash, and then she yelped and cursed in pain as the second bullet went into her shoulder. The assassin was barely able to move, with his aura sending sparks all around him and barely able to be sustained. She couldn't fight so many angles at once, so she retreated.
Aiden managed to fend off the woman with gun and knife quite well, even when she used her semblance and shot out a ray of purple energy, but it became far more difficult when the girl with the musket intervened.
"You don't touch her!" She shouted at him as she shot him from atop a container, he had been forced to dart in and out of combat and also to blind firing to avoid the gunfire, in Aiden's mind the fight was taking too long, so he decided to speed things up. He threw both a steam and an ice dust bomb to the sky and shot at them to make them explode next to the two women. Blinding them and pelting them with ice fragments. The musket girl took aim as her vision cleared, but she didn't spot Aiden where he had taken cover, instead she heard him, running at her atop the container, she was unable to stop him from shooting at her aura, and then hitting her with a flying roundhouse kick that sent her straight into the other assassin.
They quickly got up and tried to aim back at Aiden, however, he was much quicker. He jumped down and fired them while in the air, weakening their auras and then rushing them with shots from his handguns and strikes of his baton. He was able to hold his own against both of them at the same time, through the close-range shots and the kicks, but in order to beat them, he had to get creative.
He threw a grenade at one to knock her away and then focused on the other, beating her down with kicks and hits with his baton to her legs and sides. She tried to fight back but Aiden managed to disarm the woman of both her gun and knife, she tried to use her semblance… but Aiden kneed her on the head and then did a spinning back kick to push her flat against a container. From there she was stunned, but much to his surprise he actually didn't have to finish her off. Instead, he dodged the last second when he sensed something behind him, narrowly avoiding a bullet going at the back of his head. She stepped out of the way, the bullet hit the assassin instead, killing her with a clean shot to the forehead.
"No!... No, no-no-no." The assassin with the musket seemed frozen that she had killed her own friend. "Nila no!" Tears began to pour out of her eyes, her eyes became furious as she tried to aim for Aiden, he got ahead and shot her first, hitting her aura and forcing her roll and backflip out of the way. Aiden was ready to keep the pressure but was forced away by another grenade from a grenade launcher. It hit right next to him and knocked him right back to the middle of the warehouse's loading bay in a ball of fire.
"Fuck me," Jack said as he avoided another strike from Okro, as he backed up he noticed his friends came back… injured just the same as him if not worse, Aiden's aura seemed almost broken, Cole had bruises from explosions all over him, and Morgan seemed to have been shot in the shoulder. The entire place was ablaze, and they could already hear an emergency siren nearby… the guards would appear soon to try and put order to the situation.
"You four should just die already!" Orko shouted at them as the two remaining assassins surrounded them and so did the thugs that came as reinforcements.
"Plans?" Jack asked, Aiden was barely there, still recovering from the explosion that almost shattered his aura while Cole and Morgan were looking at options.
"Do we have dust? I think I burned too much juice too quick." Cole said.
"Dust?" Morgan thought for a second.
"Kill them now and then let's get out of here!" Okro ordered.
"Dust… maybe." Morgan focused and her friends noticed as she began to use the dust she had… all of it.
"Morgan… Morgan, wait!" Cole tried to warn her but Morgan seemed determined to channel all of the dust, with it she began created a massive Kinetic Blast of multiple colors and elements, she channeled all of it until she had a sizable ball of energy.
"Hyaa!" And then in one motion, in one scream she let it all go, the explosion surrounded them and tore the entire area next to the warehouse, knocking everyone away and only keeping them safe. The explosion sent all elements like fire, rock, ice, and wind outwards while it sent gravity energy into the ground. Splitting the ground in cracks of purple energy. Morgan knew that using that much dust could be destructive, dangerous, and maybe even excruciating, she didn't expect it to be so much that she would bleed from her nose and then pass out.
"Shit!" Jack yelled as Morgan dropped to the ground.
"What now?!" Cole asked.
"We need to get out of here, she was right though, throw everything!" Aiden said as he threw all the grenades he had in all directions. Cole began to fire all that he had in all directions, Jack did the same, not bothering to see if they would hit something, but mostly to buy some time.
"Where do we go?" Jack asked.
"Anywhere… Cole! We need darkness, suck the light out of the lampposts!" Aiden told him as he picked up Morgan.
"Right." Cole agreed as he grabbed a nearby lamppost, he focused and absorbed power from i and from the network of power it was on, he really wasn't capable of absorbing an entire network, not if he wasn't at the main source, yet he managed to create a small blackout in the area that lasted all but twenty seconds. It was enough for them to disappear. As the lights turned back on, Okro realized that the four people chasing him had escaped.
"Those sons of bitches… if all of you had been able to strike at the same time, if the rest of you had arrived sooner… Fuck!" Okro balled his fists.
"Strike at the same time? We did!" the man with the rifle said. "We came because you wanted us to kill some dangerous people, then they came for you, and guess what even with all of us working to kill them they still almost killed all of us and you! They ran… but you are not paying us enough for this shit!" The man yelled at Okro, the death stare that the girl with the musket was giving him seemed to say she agreed.
"Damn it all." Okro cursed to himself. He then turned as he heard someone running behind him, he raised his sword at the person, then realized it was Zerasmus.
"Hey, hey. Listen we pushed them back, we have time now."
"Pushed them back?! The only reason both of you are alive is that you told us that it would be a simple job, was that easy?!" The girl with the musket yelled.
"And for that you'll be paid extra, not even triple, quadruple, as now there are far fewer people to claim the payment," Zerasmus said.
"Fuck you!" She shouted at him.
"They are still out there!" Okro lowered his sword.
"I know friend, but we have time now, time to get out of here… because I do believe it's time you go back to the Taupes if you want us to get out of this." Zerasmus told him.
"Fucking shit! We are back in the same situation, waiting in an abandoned room like rats." Jack complained. They made their escape through a manhole and were now hiding away in no other place than the sewers. They had found a storage room and kicked the door open.
"That's your concern?" Cole asked him.
"I'm just saying, I know the fact that we almost got ourselves killed is more important, oh and yeah he also now knows we are here, and maybe he'll run away too! Oh and what's that, he might not have his gang of bandits anymore but he has a friend that can hire assassins and thugs for him!" Jack numbered all the issues.
"Yeah, exactly, we walked into a trap! All of us!" Cole said as he punched a nearby wall and made a crack on it.
"We all thought we could handle it, we managed to get out alive I suppose." Aiden shouted back.
"Yeah no thanks to any plan, Morgan did all by herself and was knocked out cold because of it!" Cole pressed.
"We thought we could handle it, we thought wrong, deal with it. But luckily all of us are alive and well! Let's focus on how to get back at them and to not ever be taken by surprise like that again." Aiden said, emphasizing each word by poking Cole's chest.
"Never again? Dude let's be real, all of us, we had it, there were simply too many of them, fuck all we are gonna be able to plan everything. Not when they pack so much heat." Jack said.
"Like that ever stopped us before," Aiden said.
"I know, we just fucked up, badly… we got surrounded. Shit." Jack sat down and placed a hand on his.
"And now we are supposed to not fuck up the next time," Coel said.
"Yeah." Aiden sighed as he and Cole also sat down. All of them were beat for the day.
"Is she okay?" Cole asked.
"I took out the bullet, and you healed her with your powers. She should be fine." Aiden said.
"Think she'll be as mad as us about all of this?" Jack asked.
"Heh, maybe… more than likely. We are waiting until she wakes up to plan something?" Cole asked.
"We do have to go back to the motel and get our stuff, best we can do is wait until morning," Aiden said, they all turned to Morgan, she was breathing and moving and seemed to be relatively asleep instead of completely knocked out or in a coma. "I think she'll be okay, doubt this will stop her."
"Yeah, think this happened because we moved too quickly?" Cole asked.
"At least we took many of them out this way… but at this point I guess, we have no option, we are gonna have to chase them down. If we ever want to finish this." Jack answered.
"Maybe we should plan a bit more next time, and maybe have more tools." Aiden responded.
"Yeah, I agree with that." Jack said.
A/N: You didn't think they wouldn't lose some fights did you? So yeah, that happened, I think this is the point where I could say challenges increase? Well, to be fair they are always increasing but let's just say they'll be more forced now to… step up their game.
Hope you liked it, and see you all in the next chapter.