AN: So it is back! A slower chapter this time as it is just the Oc's doing things but the story goes on!
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"So it's just us? Not bringing the golden goose?" Zach asked looking for either Ruby or Jaune but not seeing them smirking as his leader sighed.
"Zach. Quiet." Merrick said smiling as he turned to Ludo. His pale skin shimming disturbingly in the anti-fire pit with the cold unnatural warmth emanating from it as he smiled.
"What's the task, sir?"
"Simple Merrick simple. You are to take several Grimm beacons and plant them near here. A place called Mount Glen. Do this and your mission is complete. Simple clean and nothing can possibly go wrong." Ludo said smiling to one of if not his best internal affair agents as Merrick nodded.
"Fear not. It will be done." Merrick said smiling as he took a spin to face his subordinates.
"Hino. Zach. Make quick with the beacons. I want to get out of here and be back before dinner. I heard that today was lobster from Atlas and well. You know how I am with good seafood right?"
"Why do we always get the crap jobs? Where the hells is Arkham when you need them? I swear they get all the easy jobs while we get stuck with the hard crap."
"I really don't care. But if you want to talk then do you want to fight? I could use a spar you know?" Hino said her mauler drills revving up as Zach sighed reaching for Slight and Hand.
"Well if you insist I do suppose I am in for a bit of a warm-up before-"
"Both of you. Stow it." Merrick said looking at his scroll as the bullhead shook in turbulence.
"Sir yes sir!" Both of them said as he rolled his eyes and began to read.
Really. Those two always at the other's throats. It would be cute if it was not so... unproductive. I wonder why they have to act like that. Does it had something to do with me as a leader? I wonder this. Merrick thought as he looked at the plan. And for once he had to agree with Zach. Not that he would ever tell him that. The ego boost alone that it would give him would be a headache and a half. This was truly an easy assignment. Go to Vale. Go to the forested area of the abandoned settlement of Mount Glen. Plant down several beacons that attract Grimm only when activated. Then leave without a trace and activate from a safe distance. Really anyone could do it.
But now that he was here and doing it he couldn't help but feel like there was something more to this. Something more to him being here and to a waste of the talents of not just him but his subordinates. Sure they did not look or act like much but Hino was a walking wrecking ball of tactical discipline and destruction.
Capable of independent thinking and deducing non-vioelnt ways to solve problems wither her pneumatic drills. And Zach despite being a thief and blowhard was an excellent stealth operative and much smarter than he ever let on.
This is truly a waste but Ludo never wastes anything. There is a secondary objective here that we are not privy to at this time. And nothing irritates me more than being out of the loop...
"Ok. You two know what to do. I have high expectations for the both of you so get it done. Get it done quickly and do the beg job you can. Good enough is not enough. Do it right. Do I make myself clear?" Merrick asked taking out his lengthened bowie knife and flicking it into one hand.
"Sir yes sir!" Zach and Hino said as the bullhead began to hover.
"This is close enough May. Thank you for such exceptional piloting."
You have nothing to thank me for sir. I was just doing my job.
"Yes, precisely and you doing your job allows us to do our job. Now let's get going! You have one hour to make it work so be quick!" Merrick said as all three of them jumped off and out of the bullhead and landed on the soft grassy hills of the Mount Glen wilderness as they began to spread out.
"Why do we always get the shit jobs? I mean we are good enough for the best assignments and yet here we are cleaning out the fucking gutters!" Zach hissed as he slashed the throat of a Beowulf that had thought to make him a meal. The monster dissipated into ash as Hino grunted. Ripping her drill from the vanishing carcass of an Ursa as she sighed.
"Well I don't like to agree with you but you are right. This is not something that we should be assigned to. I feel like we are either being punished uh!" She grunted implanting another spike into the ground. The beacons for Grimm were long shiny grey things that glistened in the sunlight. They look like miniature tripods that would prop up when you fully put them upright. She grunted as she slammed another one deep into the earth. The things were so long that they still stood up a good three feet from the ground as she sighed.
"Well, either way. We are stuck with the boring stuff. Might as well hurry it up and get it done-" There was a crack as a bolt of energy shot past her head. Zach fired killing the Griffon that had tried to swoop down as she blinked as it crashed into the ground, making a massive fissure before sliding to a stop just a few scant inches from behind her.
"Thanks."
"No problem now let's just get the hell out of here! This forest gives me the creeps. It's like all those dead people are here looking at us, watching us. The fucking heebie-jeebies it gives me if you know what I am saying."
"Never do but it doesn't stop you from talking now does it?" Hino asked as Zach sighed.
"Yeah yeah but why are we doing this in the first place? I mean it's one thing if you want to fuck someone up and you attract Grimm to their backyard but here? Even if a swarm of the fucks gathered there would be no way for them to get to Vale. They have walls for a reason you know?"
"And while I can see Ludo trying to use this as a publicity stunt you know? I don't know if it is even worth doing. We are attracting them to the middle of nowhere. And our course of action takes us outside of Vale proper. That is not what I would call useful."
"Well let's just be grateful we got the easy job. Merrick is ass deep in the forest by now."
"Yeah and he's all alone," Hino said before both of them shook their heads.
"Yeah like that'll matter. They ain't made a Grimm mean enough or smart enough to kill him yet." Zach said as Hino frowned.
"Unfortunately for us, that is." She said as the two made their way closer and closer to mount Glenn.
"Hey, you see that?" Merrick asked pointing to the sky as Hino saw it. A small dot was traveling at speed toward the city of the mountain.
"Is... is that a bullhead? Why the hell is anyone going to Mount Glen proper? Seems like a good way to end up as a Grimm snack." Hino frowned as Zach scoffed.
"Normies. You know how the regular hunters are soft as velvet, and with less backbone than a cucumber. I bet it's some kind of education bull shit about how there are things about the past worth visiting."
"That... that actually is pretty insightful coming from you," Hino asked as-
There was a snapping of twigs. Both of them saw the Ursa's come to them and shook their heads. They knew what was going to happen but it was boring, to say the least. They sighed readying their weapons at the five monsters that dared to fight back against their deaths.
"I would have let you lot live if you just kept your heads down you know? But now daddy has to work."
"I think it speaks volumes about your sex life or lack thereof that you have to call yourself daddy."
"Oh look at you miss smarty pants. When was the last time you rode a dick that didn't disappear two weeks later?"
"The difference between me and you is that every guy wants to fuck me. And no girls want to fuck you, so die mad you salty bitch." Hino sneered as-
There Grimm died. There was the flash of a shotgun. The hot blast of a very weak plasma weapon as the monsters evaporated before them.
"Hell yeah!" A happy-go-lucky voice said as a faunus with a bright golden monkey tail appeared. He and his companion a human boy with bright blue hair came in guns blazing and blasting. They opened fire on the monsters destroying them in quick order. The gunshots of shotguns and the flash of plasma filled the air as the two boys turned to face them.
"Hey there! Name's Sun Wukong!"
"And I"m Neptune Varsallis!"
"And you guys look lost," Sun said as Hino and Zach both shared a moment of panic. Just one look at them told them what they were.
"Y-you guys are from Bastion right?" Zach asked as Sun paused blinking twice then grinning.
"Hell yeah, I am brother!" He said confirming the fear, no collars on their necks meant only one thing. They were part of Internal Affairs! And Hino and Zach were screwed...
"So... what are you two doing?" Zach asked already knowing that he would not like the answer.
Really just my luck. To run into two internal affair officers here of all fucking places. I can't even try my luck with them. Where the hell is Merrick when I need him? Zach thought sighing as Sun paused cocking his head not sure what his new friend meant.
"Same as usual. The things no one else wants to do." Sun said knowing that the mission out here was not what they wanted. They wanted the detective jobs but Nora took those so now they were here. Stuck with new friends walking through the forest alone.
"Well... that's nice..." Hino said hating the way the other officer was starring at her. She knew that he was looking her up and down. Neptune's eyes might have as well been glued to her ass and hips as she grimaced.
Fuck me. That's what you want, isn't it? Well, I hate to break it to you but I am not that easy ok? I don't just spread my legs for the first guy to come to me. But if he asks fuck! He is so far above me, he outranks me and without Merrick, I don't want to have to try my luck with him. Hino thought as they walked through the forest.
"So sirs what is our mission now? Is there something you want from us?" Hino asked as Sun and Neptune shrugged. They had no idea who these people were but they were clearly hunting students judging by their weapons and attitude. They were also very respectful to them. Something that neither of them expected out of them.
"Well, nothing much! And since you want to be so formal may I have a dance later on? Over drinks maybe?" Neptune asked as Hino imagined mulching his face with her drill.
"Why I would love to sir. But I have to make sure that I am clear on my schedule." Hino said as she looked at Zach. He gave her a sympathetic look as he sighed.
"So why did you two get the shit mission?"
"Zach!"
"What? If we die we die."
"Hey you shouldn't joke about that... after the incident, those jokes might get you hurt." Sun hissed as Zach and Hino both glanced at each other. The word incident could mean literally anything with them. But it more than likely had something to do with Arkham.
"I assume you are talking about Jaune?"
"No shit," Neptune said as Sun clenched his fists together.
"It was such bullshit what happened to them! How could our country do that!? They did not deserve that! I know they are better than this!" Sun said as the last spike went down. Neptune saw the spikes and finally decided to ask.
"So I have to ask the spikes? Why are you putting them over the train routes?"
"The what?" Hino asked as Neptune fixed his goggles.
"We are also patrolling the upper side of the underground train route of the old Mount Gleen. Whatever you have been putting down are almost directly on top of it."
We are putting Grimm beacons on top of a train route. That is weird as hell. Why would we do that? Zach thought but shook his head. There was no issue with it but...
"Could the Grimm break into the train system?"
"Don't worry about it man, it's abandoned and been that way for a while. So let's talk about something nice and not what happened to Jaune and Ruby." Sun said as Hino and Zach nodded as they began to make their way back to Merrick. Not knowing just how wrong they were with the so-called officers they had met.
Merrick was not sure what to do. On one hand, he had done his job, he had killed some Grimm to get their attention then planted his own lures and drawn three impressive hordes of monsters near the vicinity of the forest. He narrowed his eyes onto his scroll as the message read to him.
Merrick. We found two other IA officers in the forest. We are walking with them back to the drop site. Mission objectives complete. We will make it back sooner than later. Zach out.
"Another member? Two at that? But why?" The young albino man knew that there was always a chance another of his rank would be in places without his knowledge but that did not mean he liked it. He wanted to make sure that he did not step on unnecessary toes while he was here but at the same time...
"Ludo shout have told me. I could have made preparations to aid them." He thought slaying a Beowulf that had risen to strike him down. He slit its throat as he sighed. He had time to ponder this later. He would make sure that it would be dealt with when he could talk to the duo that arrived.
As the monster began to vanish the second ping of wrongness worked its way down Merrick's spine.
"Wait did they say two? There are almost never two... that... that should never happen. What the hell is going on?" He asked as he looked at his scroll and began to trot back.
"So tell me do you guys know Merrick?" Zach asked as after a certain time Neptune and Sun seemed pretty cool. For Narcs that is. They were cool enough to not rat them out for doing things like having technically illegal ant aura blades and coatings on their weapons. They did not seem to be dicks either and even though it looked like one was going to grope Hino nothing had actually happened so that was good.
After all, it seemed that they were good people, something that he did not expect from a narc.
"Nope! Can't say that I do! Is that a friend of yours?" Sun asked, smiling his abs flashing as Hino frowned.
"He is... he is our leader. We wondered if you knew him since you are both in the IA that is."
"Speaking of the IA, what is that exactly? You have been saying that quite a lot." Neptune asked as Zach blinked.
"Don't you mean... wait what? You two are IA. You don't have any collars on your necks so you are not punishment like us."
"I thought you were just kinky subs. No judgment!" Sun said as for a moment Hino and Zach both paused looking at the other as they gulped. Hino coughed as she forced a smile on her face.
"Um...you two... do you know what the word Bastion means?"
"A fort?"
"A military base?"
"Fuck me twice and call me Sheila. They are just fucking Normies!"
"Thank god."
"Fuck hell Jaune would love this story-"
"Jaune? Did you say Jaune?"
"Yeah Jaune Arc. Him and Ruby Rose are our friends-"
"They are alive!? Jaune and Ruby are alive?" Neptune asked as Zach nodded.
"Yeah, why-"
"I wish that you had not confirmed that Zach," Merrick said the boy stepping out of the bushes. Smiling neutrally as he did.
"Holy shut Sun! They are alive!"
"Zach! Hino! You both have to come with us! We need to tell people about them-"
"About that! You two! Sun, Neptune was it? I don't suppose that there is any way we can make you not tell someone about Jaune and Ruby being alive?" Merrick asked as the two young men paused. Eyes blinking as Sun shook his head.
"What? Hell no! There is no way I'm wasting this! We are going to take you right to Ozpin!"
"Ah yes, I was afraid of that..." Merrick said as he frowned.
"So where there any complications on the mission?" Ludo asked as Merrick sighed.
"We ran into some locals that did not take kindly to us planting Grimm trackers in the area."
"Oh? And what else?" The enigmatic man asked as Merrick paused.
"We found some civilians that knew about Jaune and Ruby before this and found out about their survival."
"Oh? And what happened to the people that you found? How did you take it?"
"Do not worry sir. There is nothing ot fear. We took care of it..."
AN: Shorter chapter than usual! The next chapter is all Arkham doing what they do best as the final arc of the second part of the story will start!