Volume CRBN!

by Dancesnapple

Four individuals. Four different people of different walks of life resulting in an adventure. Hopefully, a bond that can last. Team CRBN (carbon). Features: OC Main character, main team has two OCs alongside a lovable crime duo, and some, shall we say, family drama on all sides. Features a 'soundtrack' element for the fic. ENJOY! Actual story begins on third listed chapter.

32. 30 The Search Pt 2

Chapter Thirty: The Search Part 2

The wide eyed faunus sits in the buzzing cafe. Suburban folk cycle in and out, most leaving with frothy drinks and muffins. The booth seat, next to the windows, illuminates the table in natural light. Directly beside JD sits the condescending conman, plucking a fluffy muffin from a center plate. A steaming coffee sits by him.

Across from him, Blair has a mocha frappe, a plate of scones next to it. JD watched warily as she took a slow drink, ignoring his own chocolate muffin and drink. "If this is about leaving you with that melanoma patient on your first weekend shadow, I swear it wasn't my fault." Blair sets an eye on him, getting a gulp. "I blame the raccoon that made my bedroom his for a night."

"JD." Her voice dips threateningly, settling a cold gaze on him.

The clean face whitens as he grips the table tightly. "You wouldn't kill me in a public place, but if you would, let it be known everything in my will goes to Kris. There, I've said my peace." He sits straighter, prim and proper.

"I am not here to kill you, Doctor Daren." Her voice hollows out, getting angered more with each word.

Passively, JD feigns thinking. "Yes, well your sword said otherwise." He freezes at her narrowing gaze.

Beside him, Roman snorts. "It's like if Silver Streak grew up a civie."

Blair hums. "Frighteningly accurate, but even Carmine has a spine."

"I-I'm sorry, just... what is happening here?" JD asks of the two. "Y-you kidnap me from outta nowhere and hijack my lunch?" He ends confused. "Four years later, and you only got scarier and LESS open." She sets her amber orbs on his blue. His mouth pops closed as he mimes zipping it shut.

"The rest of our team will be here momentarily. We have questions that require answering. You will answer, and only if we are satisfied will you be returning to work and not brought with us." She states clearly. "Assuming you're not lying about not knowing what Avored Zenith of Remnant's Legacy is." She adds at a near whisper, certain his faunus hearing picks it up.

He blinks in thought, looking warily to Roman. "Sounds like a charity fund."

The conman snickers. "Oh, you couldn't be more wrong." He then blinks and looks up in thought. "Unless it's a charity fund that's honest." Looking to Blair, he cocks his head towards the doctor. "You sure he isn't lying?"

"I am fairly certain the only person with less backbone in the world is Dory. I doubt he's lying." She takes another sip of her drink. "Besides, he knows what my semblance can do." She ends, homing a long stare on the man.

As he gulps, Carmine and Neo enter the cafe. The teens perk up, sharing a glance upon seeing the doctor with the two. The two appear to gesture to one another, bickering. Roman rolls his eyes. "Oh, look. They've made up. Or just aren't thinking about their crap anymore. Teenagers." He scoffs.

Carmine moves to get in line, Neo prancing happily to the table. The girl leans over the table, pointing to JD with a raised brow. "He's going to answer our questions about the hospital staff." JD double takes at that, but she continues. "What about you? Did Carmine get anything from the police?"

The girl grins and gives a thumbs up. Roman smirks at that. "And anything to give Silver hell for?" The girl grins wider and holds the other hand to thumbs up. "Oh, peachy." He smirks.

Said little girl pops into the booth seat by Blair, soon joined by Carmine bringing two drinks. He places a strawberry smoothie in front of Neo as he suckles down on his Vanilla Bean Creme. A low satisfied hum comes out before he speaks up. "You or us first?"

Roman snickers. "Not surprised to see a spooked doctor next to us?"

Carmine sends a cheeky glare. "I've learned to not be surprised when you kidnap someone."

"He'll be involuntarily answering our questions." Roman smirks. "But he DOES have the seal of approval from Barbie over here, so go ahead with what you have." JD opens his mouth to speak, only for Roman to bring Velvet Valentine up, gently tapping the faunus' chin. "Speak only when spoken to. It'll go faster."

Before Carmine asks, Blair speaks. "Carmine, this is Dr Jacob Daren. Call him JD."

At the name, the two teens perk instantly. "Wait... You replaced Dr Maddox, didn't you?"

The adults turn full attention to the boy, JD taking an extra second to start. "...Yes, I did. Is this about what happened to her?"

Carmine sets a gaze on the man, put off by the sudden interest and concern. "Maybe... depending on what you know." Looking to the others, he continues. "We think AZRL was using the hospital and its linked medical suppliers and compounds to provide themselves with drugs."

Setting his gaze on JD, he gets the important part. "Roughly two months ago, one shipment was discovered to be sending incorrect supplies. Specifically, an aura suppressant known as Nomaura. Dr Maddox had been the one sending the shipments for years, but the records couldn't be checked to see if every shipment was like that, right?"

JD sees four questioning gazes on him, but suddenly finds himself invested. "... That's correct. The records were manipulated for as far back as it could go. Police wanted to talk with her, but she disappeared... She was dead when they found her."

"Yeah, that's AZRL." Roman concludes. He meets Neo's gaze, seeing the same gears turn between them. "Dirty trick that is." He looks to JD. "Did you all do the autopsy on this Maddox?"

Looking grim, JD nods. Blair adds. "Did she have tattoos? Specifically of numbers."

Another off brow raise answers first. "She... had her mother's birthday? Wasn't well done. Real block like writing-"

"Blue or black?" Roman rattles annoyed.

"It was... blue... why?" JD looks back and forth, slow on the uptake.

No answer comes immediately. Blair looks at Carmine. "Was there anything else?"

The boy grimaces. "Last strange case of kidnapping was three months ago." Roman and Blair share a quick, panicked glance. "Kid was never found, but randomly turned up again a few weeks ago. He's eluded any contact with police, but apparently his contacts have been strange."

Seeing a lack of bursting anger, Blair and Roman flick glances at one another. "Well... Allow us to fill the gaps there." The teens and JD all squint her way. "Roman and I made contact with... a less than upright individual. He confirmed that three months ago, he kidnapped a teen successfully... and turned the child in to a property held by a certain hospital." Her eyes glance JD's way...

His eye pupils shrink in realization. "Wait!" He waves his hands. "You mean to tell me that Hallowed Heart hid a kidnapped kid?" All four of the table occupants look unimpressed, serious. The faunus feels his body tense and chill at the same time. He shifts and looks down. "... and you're sure?"

Roman clicks his tongue. "Only things we're not 100% on are this Maddox and the medicine smuggling, but those are low hanging fruit compared to what's confirmed, I'd say." He then grins wickedly at the faunus. "So, Barbie here finds someone on staff she knows. She only has to bat her eye lashes, and we get inside information."

As JD cracks his neck giving Blair a wide eyed look, said blonde glares at Roman. "Much as I'd enjoy killing him for the phrasing..." She swallows her pride and looks to the faunus. "We would like some help."

His brow furrows before JD nods. "Okay. I'll talk to Dr Knox about properties the hospital owns in the city. Places that don't have monitoring." His belt hooked pager beeps. "How could I contact you after my shift?"

Blair unceremoniously tosses a scroll back to the man. "I already took your private number. I'll call you."

JD double takes between his pockets and the scroll. "How did you do that?" He flinches as he fumbles a throws set of keys from Roman. He barely snatches the key chain out of the air, setting a squint at Roman. "Be careful with Sasha's keys!"

He turns from the table before hearing material slide on the table top. He turns and finds... his wallet. Neo pushes it forward and smiles. Narrowing his gaze, JD takes the wallet with sass, then looks at Carmine. The boy holds his hands up in surrender. "Don't look at me. I'm the responsible one."

With that, JD leaves, exiting the cafe.

CRBN sits at the table in thought. Roman snickers. "Much as waiting sounds nice, I feel there could be something else we can do. Be productive."

Neo sends a glance to Carmine, who nods.

. . .

A school bell rings out through the air. Through the buzz and movement within the city sits a complex, colored tan with blue tinted windows. Sanctuary Secondary school. The school was for those who didn't wish to apply to Vale's Signal Academy within Sanctuary. Students can be seen through the windows marching about to different classes.

The CRBN members stop across the street from the school, Roman scoffing. "Really? First time back in this city, and I'm tracking down a brat again?"

Carmine ignores him. "Kerry is my age, so assuming he hasn't been held back, he should be here." He glances to Blair. "Think you can convince them you're a family member? Get him checked out?"

The blonde raises a brow. "My name wouldn't be on record to check him out." Carmine purses his lips, confused. "Did... did you think we could just get him out?"

The boy flushes lightly. "Don't hunters have special permission for stuff like this?"

The woman recoils lightly. "... No. Unless there is an official, licensed situation, parents must be-" She shakes her head to clear the question. "You really don't know about this?" Carmine blinks, getting redder, but honest. Blair herself lightly blushes. Right, he was home schooled at Beacon by the professors...

She turns to Roman, and she recalls as well. He'd been in AZRL as a child, and learned everything he knows with experience in Senior's mob. She then looks to Neo, who was in a rich family that secluded itself, likely taught by tutors before AZRL.

Roman cackles at Blair's expense. "Barbie, you're the only one here that's even gone to public school beyond first grade." Said blonde pinks at HER being the experienced public school student.

Carmine grins at her. "Yeah. You definitely got farther than all of us." The blonde's golden amber eyes glare at him, the unspoken acknowledgment that she didn't finish either hitting. He flinches back. "S-sorry."

Neo rocks on her feet, bored as Carmine slumps. Roman smirks. "Right! You're up, Tricolor." She blinks confused before he kneels beside her, hand on her shoulder. "They keep track of student records in the offices, so sneak on in there and find out where our target brat is."

Carmine and Blair share a glance. Unspoken concerns flash across them until Carmine groans. "It would be faster, but would she, or any of us, know what to look for?"

Roman smirks as he withdraws a wireless earpiece. He pops it over to Neo, who smirks at it. "Connect that to your scroll. You can text us with any confusion, and we can talk you through." He shrugs. "Or face cam to be quicker."

Carmine grimaces unsure. Breaking into a school? "But none of us would know about how to check their records." Warily, he glances up to Blair. "Unless you messed with school records before?"

The blonde gives a pensive stare. "... I was a 4.0 honor student with distinguished grades unrivaled." She states, her neutral voice slightly tinting with pride.

The boy looks embarrassed, but speaks back. "Right, but like, you stole people's blood for experiments." He plainly states, as if his point is obvious. "You didn't do ANYTHING to get to that point of rule breaking?"

"..."

"..."

The continued staring contest ends with the blonde looking at Neo. "You'll be looking for a secretary office. The computers will be fifteen years out of date with simple desktop passwords. Most secretaries will sign out of their emails, so we can't look at active sent attendance from today's classes unless they've already began inputting it into records."

Roman, Carmine, and Neo all blink and stare at the uptight blonde. Her teeth grind as she narrows a gaze at them. "I assisted the administration as an honors student!" A short pause goes before adding quietly. "And may have forged parental notes for classes I knew the material already in... I'm not one to waste my time!"

Roman breaks first, laughing loudly at her expense. "Lying and stealing on the rap sheet! After my own heart." He pats Neo's back before relaxing back on the bench. He glances at Carmine and adds. "She's more of a person than you."

Blair stews in irritation, arms tense and cross. Carmine flicks his gaze between the adults. "If you want to stab him, go ahead. I won't add that to your rap sheet." At using Roman's terminology, her amber glare finds him. "S-sorry!"

Earpiece in, Neo connects her scroll and begins a video call with Blair. A twinkle of excitement shows as she looks about. Through a window, she catches eye of the school uniforms. Blue, unlike the schoolgirl illusion she'd used at the police station. Image, flickering, she steps towards the school wearing the blue uniform with blonde hair and green eyes.

Carmine sighs. "Just don't do anything bad."

"We ARE stealing confidential records and breaking local law." Roman grins at the boy's tensing form.

"Don't do anything awfully bad, then?" He stews. "Stupid criminals. Stupid!"

. . .

Sweet gods above. Alone and unsupervised. The girl's grin wide grows upon entering the quadruple doors of the school building. Low grade place, given the large dirty tile plates on the floor with black mats by the doors. She enters a vestibule, an inner room between the entry doors and another set of quadruple doors into the school proper.

The soft patter of her boots sounds as she pushes through the second set of doors into a cafeteria. The hum of air conditioning and vent fans rumbles overhead, already annoying her. The cafeteria connected to various hallways on one side, presumably where classes and staircases lie, the other side having two sets of doors to a gymnasium.

But... where's the office?

Seriously, it's just a bunch of janky trophy cases with terrible looking tacky awards. One

gold medal catches her eye. Solid gold gymnastics- Job first! Along the same wall with the entrances to the gymnasium sits a glass door.

She smirks. Gotcha.

"Everything okay?" Carmine's voice sounds far off in her earpiece.

"It's fine. Give her a minute." Blair's voice sounds louder. Rolling her eyes, Neo holds her scroll up, directing the camera forward. "See? She's fine."

"Don't steal those." Carmine adds.

And Neo smirks. Well, since you said NOT to...

Already planning, she moves to the office, peeking inside through the glass first. Several women and one man mill about. One of the voices comes loudly as an elder woman exits the offices. She exits using her back to push the door out, not noticing Neo yet.

Still disguised, Neo leaps into the air, opening Hush to gently float in the air overhead. The elderly woman daintily walks away from the office as Neo gently drops down behind. Inside the room, she spots a desk in the corner, now empty, with a name plate reading 'secretary'.

As the elderly woman walks away, Neo's shatter illusion shifts. Her form completely replaces itself with the elderly lady's. Gray hair in a bun, tiny glasses, and warm clothes now adorn her.

Entering the office, the others are preoccupied with their assigned tasks. Two being the principal and vice principal retreat through further rooms for their own private offices. The only remaining one is another woman, just as ancient as the one Neo copied.

The other woman huffs a laugh. "Forget something again?"

Unable to speak, Neo instead tries to give a mild glare, holding up one finger as she moves to the empty desk. Tapping away, she finds herself at a login for the desktop. She pulls her scroll out, aiming up and and making sure her back is to the other secretary.

"Simply type administrator. Many organizations get frustrated with usernames and passwords, using the obvious." Blair states. Neo does so, and... she's in?! That easy?

"Oh come on. How is it that easy?" Carmine whines in the background.

She faintly hears Roman scoff. "Because like you, people are stupid enough to say 'it's so obvious, no one would guess'."

"Shut up!"

Neo rolls her eyes and shows the desktop icons for the camera. "That one. Student Recorder." Opening up the gray star logo, the program comes to a login screen. "Capitalize the first letter. Type in the month followed by the year. No spaces."

The types the combination on and-

Incorrect password

A slight panic sets in the illusion hidden girl as Roman's voice cuts in. "So, about being in the know..."

Carmine speaks unsure. "Isn't today the first? Maybe they haven't updated the password." That sounds pretty reasonable to Neo as she enters the previous month and-

Ah ha! Accepted. Neo smirks as she checks the records. Her currently brown eyes glance over the room, the labeled cabinets and files. While looking from the screen, Blair's voice sounds in her ear. "Now, find the date for today, and find this boy. Kerry Bifton? He'll be in the B's for attendance."

Neo hums to herself before tapping the scroll to end the call... Time for spite.

. . .

The screen cut gray with a white phone icon on a hook flashing red. Carmine peers over Blair's shoulder blinking. "What happened? Did it disconnect?" His voice raises before Roman swats his head for the volume. "Ow! Hey!"

"She hung up on me it seems." Blair puts the scroll away "It's not as if she can't escape the place even if found. She'll call back if it was a mistake."

Roman raises a brow before smirking. "Oh, I see."

"What do you 'see'?" The boy eyes him suspiciously.

"Oh nothing." Roman smirks as he looks at the school. A minute later, and out pops a blue uniformed girl, a completely new hair color violet with green eyes. Her hands were full... and Roman suppresses a chuckle. "Nothing at all."

Blair follows his gaze before frowning, unimpressed. "Oh, that's why."

"What?" The clueless boy voices before looking at the girl walking towards them. The stature and parasol- "Neo! You find what we need?"

The girl's eyes flash their mismatched pink and brown and grins. In that moment, all three of the other CRBN members feel their scrolls vibrate... Neo's number popping up with a group message. 'He's not in today.'

Carmine's jaw goes slack. "What? W-where is he?"

Neo nods her head to the scroll, and he reads a continuation two lines further down. 'Has not been to class in three days. Attends only Fridays.'

"Fffff..." Carmine slaps a facepalm and groans, enunciating the f of the growing curse word, but holds it back. He breathes in and out. "... Fine." He grinds out the appropriate F word. "He's a bum missing school. We can try his listed hangout spots and-"

His eye catches Neo's neck... A golden gymnastics medal.

Then he eyes her hands. One holds Hush, illusion making it a black parasol. The other hand holds a lunch bag and an apple... bitten into. He raises an accusing finger as his eyes narrow. "Where did you get that?" His voice dips low, a grumble rumbling.

"Ah, he finally noticed." Roman speaks up. He stands, looking to Blair as he turns on his heel. "Now, off to the next lead." Blair shakes her head, muttering Neo's name under her breath.

Leaving the kids, Neo smiles and blinks her eyes at Carmine. The boy maintains the glare as she raises the apple and takes a bite out. "You stole that woman's lunch..."

Neo makes a show of thinking before shatter letters appear on the back of her hand. 'Someone's lunch.'

He twitches at the answer. "... And how did you-" Neo's hand holding hush shifts, revealing a key ring with a dozen keys on it. She smirks as her jaw crunches the fruit. His eye twitches. "... Ffff- Fuck it. Can't deal with it right now." He turns on his heel to follow the adults.

Neo brightens and smiles, eyes closed in contentment. A high pitched hum laugh comes out. "Hmm hmm." She marches along happily, eating the stolen apple and jiggling the 'borrowed' keys to the trophy cases.

. . .

The four march along the streets, moving on into the suburbs. Each familiar street surprised, yet irked the red haired boy. He purges the feelings as they come. Even if they're good feelings, he has to focus. Trudging along behind him, Roman scoffs. "So, urban gang life, huh? Low grade street rats and such?" He muses, a hardening look in his eye. "I'll take this one when we find them. Not interested in wasting time."

Carmine's eye twitches. "Nah." He groans low under his breath. "This one will be me. I know the jerk."

The conman clicks his tongue in thought. "So, because this kid was a brat classmate, he's your responsibility? Tell me, is anyone not your responsibility, hero?"

The condescending tone irritates him, but he manages a smirk. "Maybe." He looks to Blair. "Make sure Roman or Neo don't start a gang war." Blair nods, taking the joke seriously. Behind her, Neo rolls her eyes with a smirk.

The four continue across a cracked rock, the homes deteriorating in quality and cleanliness. Not terrible, but far from the suburban dream homes the boy remembers. Some of the buildings appeared to have suffered superficial damage. Roman glances about curiously. "Now, I didn't get the best look around the first time, but definitely seems more depressed these days."

A particular set of claw marks on a building clears the picture in their minds, Blair voicing. "There was a Grimm attack. Rather recent if the damages haven't fully been seen to." Her eyes trail to the back of the boy. "The city must have benefited heavily from having a former Huntsman in their police force back then."

Carmine smirks lightly. "Yeah they did." His eyes spot the street signs, he move to the housing numbers. "This is the street. The most common hangout spot for Miguel was an abandoned shack. Apparently used to be a bar until its owners closed down. The owners for some reason don't press trespassing charges, so the gangs just set up shop."

Roman hums. "Probably family of one of said terrible downtrodden teens trying their damnedest to avoid trouble."

"So being stupid?" The teen slumps. "Criminals are stupid."

"And yet, we make a killing."

"Because there are people more stupid than criminals to abuse and exploit." Carmine grumbles out.

The statement brings a grin to Roman, who looks elated at Neo. "He's realized that all humanity is stupid. He's learning!" The girl mockingly makes a shocked face.

"Enough, children." Blair moans as the four walk up towards the gray shack, splintered wood making up the structure. Its white pain had been peeled, revealing dark brown. "We may see trouble inside, so be ready. Aura active."

Carmine nods before knocking, loudly, on the hard black wood door. Through the walls, they can hear music. It quiets, and even as the door cracks, a putrid odor of smoke hits the boy full force.

The door opens as a tall trashy man with buzzed hair and a cigarette looks out. His eyes are rimmed red, beady black staring at Carmine. His clothes were baggy, simple worn jeans and hooded jacket. "... You're trespassin'. Leave."

Innocently, Carmine mutters, just loud enough to hear. "Isn't that anyone here, including you?"

The man's eyes narrow ever so slightly. "You're done." He attempts to slam the door shut, but the boy's armored arm snaps out, catching the wood and halting the barrier from closing.

"We're here about Miguel. Not to fight." He pleads. "Give us some answers, and we'll leave."

The man recoils at that. "Not talking to any cops, bitch." The man bites back, pushing harder on the door.

Carmine pushes back to keep it open. "Since... when do police hire teenagers? What?"

"You stand like one. I see your posture. You may be young, but weirder shit's happened. Ain't falling for it!" The man struggles against the door. The rest of Team CRBN tens3s, ready for a fight as other voices shout inside.

Confused, Carmine growls out. "Not a cop! Huntsman!" At the word, the man inside chokes a gasp, leaping back from the door. Carmine's weight shoves the door inward, surprising him. He catches himself on the frame, looking to see the man backing up wary.

The inner shack was lit in low lighting over a decrepit bar, where radios and televisions sit. An old gaming monitor sits on the bar counter top, dozens of empty drinks littering the surface. The place wreaked of cigarette smoke and weed. Carmine's nose crinkles in disgust. Several more gang members, wearing dark dirty and baggy clothing, stand wary away from a surprisingly well kept pool table.

"Huntsman? No way." Looks of shock and confusion explode on their faces, all tensing and reaching for hidden parts of their person... arming themselves.

It's one thing when its a ton of masked men in visor covered helmets aiming guns at you. Seeing half a dozen faces staring back in panicked expressions? Hits a little differently. Carmine pauses a moment before continuing. "In training... But, if you don't believe me, there's her?"

Their eyes slowly trail behind him to Blair, then to Florescent finish drawn just enough for the golden shine of the blade. One in the corner mutters. "Shit, man. Bad-ass weapons and all." They even find Roman lingering behind, none of them paying Neo much mind.

They share looks before the one at the door glares down at the boy. "What gives? We don't want trouble with freakin' hunters, man."

"Like I said... I'm here about Miguel Murphy. Questions only." He tries slower. "Heard one of his contacts comes around here often."

The man backs up, Carmine slowly entering the room with Blair immediately behind. Roman's eyes catch movement among the others. He mutters under his breath. "... They're defensive. More against hunters than police it seems."

Blair shows no reaction to the information, though it blows her mind as she notices it as well. One would think they wouldn't have any reaction to a Huntress or Huntsman at all. Each of the seven men in the room have their hands just inches from their waistbands. Ready to pull guns.

If all seven pull their guns in such a small place, it'll be wild...

Best to take precaution. Maybe time to use that...

. . .

two days ago, at sea

"Hate this. Hate it every time." Carmine whines. The boy is sat in a chain within the cabin room, a tight wrap around his arm. They were somewhere within Mistral's coastal waters aboard the Trojan, a morning sun beaming through the window on half his face.

"I am more than aware." Blair states to the side. Her hands manipulating a drawing needle currently stuck in the nape of the boy's left arm. The needle connects to a tube, filling with blood. Popping the tube from the connected syringe, its cap seals tight as she proceeds to remove the needle from his arm.

She presses a cotton ball on the spot until Carmine applies the pressure himself with his right hand. "Maybe I can do it next time?"

"I thought you hated it." She fires back at him, eyeing the now red filled tube.

"I hate YOU holding the needle. Or anyone else holding the needle." The redhead pouts. "Like, if Roman had a needle, I'd run away screaming. At least I trust myself."

Off to the side, Roman snickers, looking through some notes. "Dr Torchwick does sound interesting. Wouldn't you agree?" Beside him, Neo checks a dust load for Roman's weapon and nods vigorously.

"That would be horrifying." Blair drones, connecting the tube to a drip before connecting it to the hilt of Florescent Finish. Beside her, Carmine puts on his jacket and recalls his Buster Armor onto his arm. "Going out?"

Roman speaks up. "Couple days lounging at sea won't do. I get bored cooped up. Ought to check the food." He rattles on, accepting the cane. He flicks his hand towards the blonde. "You just do your mad science and all."

Carmine ignores him, holstering his gun. "I'm coming with. Hungry as heck. You guys want anything?"

"I am quite fine." Blair answers, then looks to Neo. Said girl doesn't appear to respond to the boy's query. The blonde grimaces. "Neo and I shall get food ourselves not too long from now."

Carmine accepts that, grimacing lightly towards Neo. He then eyes the blood tube curiously. "We rarely get a stop for you to check... whatever it is you check."

"Conditional activators." She answers. "Semblances can be varied with multiple responses given different circumstance or commands. Thankfully, Neo's seems to vary only with mental commands as you cast it." She pauses, glancing over at Roman. "You're sure friction combustion is the only use your semblance has?"

The man sets his hat onto his head. "Only one I ever figured. Never favored it, myself."

"Then I'll be looking at your semblance next. We can begin drawing your blood samples in the next town we have a break within."

The conman purses his lips, tensing slightly. "Yay... prodding sounds positively lovely." He sarcastically mumbles. "Come on, Silver Streak. I get grumpy when I'm hungry."

"It's called Hangry." The boy fires back. Carmine begins to follow giving a wave to Blair, then Neo. "We'll be back."

Roman groans as he and the boy leave. The females alone, Neo watches as Blair affixes the blood tube into Florescent's hilt fully. The blade shifts red. "So, are you willing to help me?"

The girl perks lightly, eyes scanning the blade. Blair holds the blade out, standing for ten seconds. Neo cocks her head, sitting and waiting. "Catch my blade." Blair lightly tosses Florescent Finish at the girl.

The girl flinches, but catches the dangerous bladed object that had just been thrown upon her. She pouts, but contains a giggle knowing she'd do such a thing to someone.

"Activate the second trigger lock." Blair urges. "And channel a small cover of aura over the weapon."

Neo does so, holding the blade up and pulling the trigger. One click. The first to activate dust locked into the hilt. Okay. She pulls the trigger fully for the second click-

FLASH!

The sword flickers in a blue-green snap of aura, recalling itself back into Blair's hand. The blade colors back to gold before shifting back to red, connected to the tube of blood inside. Neo cocks her head. It was Carmine's recall. He could do it with his gun.

Blair scrutinizes the weapon, frowning. "That is problematic." Neo raises a brow, prompting Blair to grimace. "The recall will only work if someone else pulls the trigger. Not much use if I get disarmed and just hope my opponent is kind enough to pull the trigger. The application of the semblance is useless to me."

Neo smirks, her eyes swapping colors with a blink.

"Yes, yours is much more applicable to me." Blair stifles rolling her eyes at the girl. Her gaze falls over the blade in thought. "He and I discovered his semblance when used incorrectly results in a... fast forward... Perhaps I could manage that?"

Neo recoils lightly at the sentence... She hadn't been told that. She cocks her head, eyes squinting as she motions to continue.

Blair shakes her head. "Something that is personal to him, I'm afraid. But..." Pulling the blade back. "Perhaps-" She moves to swing the blade as she pulls the trigger, hoping for the 'fast forward'.

CLANG!

The sword was no longer in her hand... having falling by her side opposite from her swung arm. It recalled to another spot in the air... no fast forward. Blair hears a wheezing giggle, turning to give a critical gaze to Neo.

Said girl maintains a grin as Blair not so gracefully picks her weapon back up. "So, experimentation needed, but without the blood containing living aura, the blade will react with little difference to the recall method. Perhaps-"

She pauses... Neo stares on for a moment before she waves her hand at the blonde, who seemed to freeze.

Blair thinks back... the first time she had access to Carmine's blood now years ago. She'd looked at his blood cells and found what appeared to be pockets of what looked like aura...

She looks to her back in a sudden stiff motion. Quickly checking the bag, she mentally curses for a moment before elation. "Hmm." She withdraws a small microscope, a single adjustable scope with small prod like arms and a mount under the scope head. She moves to a table and sets up the small portable equipment.

Neo watches her set up before disconnecting the blood tube from Florescent Finish's inner hilt. The blonde draws a small amount of blood and drips one droplet onto the glass plate below the scope.

And she looks. Neo is curious, especially when Blair suddenly sucks in a breath. The blood still had aura in it. The power was sustaining the blood in an unnatural way. Her gaze narrows while looking in the scope. Within each cell was a tiny amorphous pocket glowing a blue-green.

It shouldn't. But it is. So... could she use the semblance without powering it with her own aura?

Pulling away, she begins to hook the tube back into the hilt, watching as the blade shifts back to red. Neo remains confused, but interested. She senses the mood change in the blonde. Blair holds the blade out and... clicks the trigger.

She waits...

"..." Neo flicks her eyes between the blonde and the blade.

"..." Blair eyes the blade. Nothing. Her posture slackens as she shuts her eyes. "Guess that was too much to hope for." She misses Neo gasp in a sharp intake. Opening her eyes, she sees just the sword there. "What is it?"

Neo points to the blade, now gold. It shouldn't do that if the blood wasn't expended. Neo gestures with her hands overlapping before moving only one. She then conjures a sign. 'DO IT AGAIN! The image thing! Move your sword when you do it.'

Confused, she readies the blade, its color going from gold to red. She clicks it and moves-

Her eyes bug out as the sword moves in two directions... Her entire arm moves in two different directions... she has two arms, both faded and see-through, same as the blade... She gasps and brings the blade up, yet, now there were three faded arms holding three faded blades up for inspection at different angles.

"W-what?"

In flash, all the images fade, and only one arm and sword fully settle in place. Not see-through.

"..." Blair and Neo both stare at her sword as it shifts from gold to red yet again. Neo holds up her sign, the message changing. 'What did you do?!'

Blair holds up a finger, alternating bringing Florescent up to look at it... from each of the three angles the faded images had done. "Each angle..." They were angles she'd choose on autopilot, simple angles for alternate sources of light. Angles she'd choose by sheer muscle memory, without thinking.

'Illusion?' Neo changes the message.

"I'm not sure." Blair mutters. She pulls the trigger again.

Left or right? Should she angle the blade to the left or right of Neo. Her eyes squint as she angles the blade... and her arm fades as two images of her arm angles two phantom blades. One to the left. One to the right.

Neo reaches out to one of the phantom blades. "AY" The mute screeches out softly as she wags her hand up and down. A cut clearly shows on her finger, healing from her aura. Blair watches as only one of the blades and arms becomes solid... the one that DIDN'T cut Neo.

Neo sucks on the finger in a confused scowl. Blair rapidly pulls the bedside night stand pullout open. Like any hotel or cruise cabin, a complementary religious text. Apologizing to whatever god it was devoted to, she opens it up and rips a page out.

With one hand holding the page up, she readies her blade, now red again. Alright... cut diagonally from the left or the right? She smirks as she pulls the trigger! Activating the power, she cuts, arm and blade splitting into two separate images. One cuts from the left. The other cuts from the right.

And she watches as both the lower right and left corners fall, separate from the page. Both cuts were real... and only one of the images becomes solid, the other disappearing in a blue-green flash.

Blair and Neo share wide eyed glances. "Not an illusion..." Suddenly, the blonde feels more energetic than in a long time. "Restaurant. Get bottles of water, Neo. Now. Dozens. Don't care how you get them. Pour them out over the boat side."

The girl vigorously nods as she bolts from the room. Slamming the door shut, Blair looks at the blood amazing. What kind of power was she dealing with-

A sudden loss of energy hits her, the woman falling to a knee and catching herself on the bed. She gasps for breath, finding herself in a cold sweat. "What?" She paws her hand about, reaching for a table as she unsteadily stands.

She finds her scroll, which beeps rapidly with an update... on her aura levels. Opening it, she finds a bar synced to her aura... in the yellow borderline red. Her amber eyes widen. "I... didn't even use my own..." What kind of power was she analyzing here?

. . .

Perhaps a test is in order. Blair reaches and stops Carmine by the shoulder. With seven gangsters look at them, Carmine doesn't look back. Behind him, Blair speaks lowly. "Allow me to deal with the threat..." She angles her sheath forward, jabbing its syringe prods into the back of the boy's calf.

Carmine twitches, grunting as Blair takes blood from the boy, infusing it with Florescent Finish within the sheath. She steps forward, setting all seven men on edge.

All of their grips are firmly on their guns. Brazen. No remorse. The man at the front scoffs. "Just. Get. Out." He then snaps his hand up, gun in grip. His finger twitches close to the trigger. "Now!"

And the other six draw their weapons, aiming up in a series of clicks ready to fire. Carmine's hand does reach Heulin Noon before the men have their weapons up, but he stops with Blair's hand pressed down on his shoulder. The woman gives an uncharacteristic smile. "You've no idea just how outmatched you are."

The door member steps closer, focus purely on the blonde. "As if, you mouthy cunt-"

Blair pulls the trigger as she draws the crimson Florescent Finish. In a flash of blue, the woman blurs. Time slowed, the woman splits apart into seven identical faded images of herself... all seven moving around Carmine passing through each other... one at each of the seven men.

In the blink of an eye, each flash image of Blair slashes with their red blade... each targeting their gang member's held gun. Each one's slash dices the target weapons in half, bisected along the barrel completely destroying the weapons. The men all flinch, dropping their broken weapons.

Carmine watches wide eyed as six of the Blair images disappear, leaving only one with her blade resting under the door man's chin. She raises a brow, not caring to hide the satisfaction. "You were saying... 'mouthy' man?" The condescending tone hits as the men's senses catch up to what happened.

Carmine's jaw drops gape, until Neo reaches around him and pushes his mouth closed. He flinches as the girl seems giddy, but not surprised. Her hand conjures a short card. 'Admire it later.'

He flinches and composes himself, not missing a slight up curve of Blair's lip. "So... about Miguel?" The words awkwardly sound out as the gang members take a cautious step back. "Seriously... just talk. Or my friend can make you more... mouthy? Really?" He seems annoyed at the word.

The man's eye flashes to Blair who ever slowly pulls Florescent Finish away and sheathes it. The man finally gulps and looks to the others. "What you got going against M? Bastard hasn't come round in weeks. We haven't seen the guy."

"Yeah, you lost the right to question me when you pulled guns." Carmine grunts out sarcastically, visibly frustrating the gang members. "And that's what we've heard. The closest contact to him is Kerry Bifton." His eyes narrow after the name. "We want what he knows."

The man grimaces and looks to a man in the back. "Get KB... Tell everyone not to do anything stupid." Eyeing Blair and Roman, he catches the conman winking at them. "Tell them Hunters are here."

As one of the seven moves to another room, they hear music in the other rooms, some yelling. The moment of tense silence lingers... until the wait begins to annoy. Carmine looks to Blair. Her composure remains, but she's breathing harder... He whispers. "Hey, you okay?"

Blair nods. "I'll be fine. Stay focused. They might still try to attack us."

Roman eyes the blonde as well. "Well, all things considered. If they try anything, we give them the belt. Bunch of useless children acting like hardened thugs." He makes sure he's loud enough for the other men in the room to hear him. They tense and glare his way before Roman just smirks. "Oh, did I say that?"

"Easy." Carmine mutters before the door to the back opens again. Another half dozen men show, varying ages. Most seem to be in their late teens. For just a split second, Carmine pictures a roughed up Roman in ratty clothing. He could probably fit in?

Well... would need a lot of changes. Even Roman isn't capable of just fitting in that ratty.

The guys part as a younger teen comes out. Short, curly dirty blonde hair. The boy's skin was tanned, but did little to cover various marks. Including a bruised cheek and mostly healed black eye. The boy's torn jeans and gray hoodie were worn and dirty. He looks at the hunters, confused.

The boy's brown eyes rung the final bell to Carmine. Yep. He's punched that face. His jaw unconsciously locks as the boy he's sure is Kerry is slowly put front and center by the nervous gang. He scowls at Blair. "The hell do you want-" His eyes find Carmine. He squints at our hero, confused... then eyes widening in recognition. "No shit?"

Carmine remains unfazed, ignoring the nagging twitch in the back of his head. "Kerry. You look... well."

Kerry scoffs, blinking as if seeing something that isn't there. He seems to finally settle on a scowl. "Now, I've seen everything. The hell are you doing back here?"

The slightest of a twitch in his eye, Carmine remains calm. "Investigating the people who kidnapped Miguel Milano Murphy. You're his main contact. Tell us how and where to find Miguel, and we're gone."

Kerry sneers as the request. "Piss off. I'm not helping him, and I'm not helping you." At the words, the other gang members have mixed reactions. Those new to the room smirk, looking tough. Those that saw Blair's stunt earlier, on the other hand...

A burly man in the corner warily chimes in. "Just tell the brat what he wants. We don't screw with Hunters, man."

"Come on." The teen boy growls back before seeing equally serious glares from the other six who Blair disarmed. The group seems to share a series of looks, sparing glances moving over Blair's weapon and Roman behind her. Kerry snarls upon looking back at Carmine.

The redhead raises a brow, ignoring the annoyance building inside. "Well?" He says after a full minute of silence. "Do you want to help or not?"

"Fine." He grinds out. "Whatever. He hangs around the factory district. Doesn't show up to his home anymore. Guy blew us off and deserted us. He ain't one of us anymore. That's all you're gonna get!"

The spat information hits as Carmine cocks his head confused. "What warehouses? What street? What's he wear?"

"Blow me." Kerry crosses his arms. "I answered enough. Now piss off unless you pay me." Carmine doesn't respond, setting a glare on the boy. The teen gives a sneered grin, looking behind him. "Like one of your neat weapons." He smirks more confidently seeing Heulin Noon. "or you too attached to daddy's gun."

Carmine finally reacts to that, gaze dropping a second to his gun. Right... His father used to constantly police Kerry's. He's seen this gun. A sense of deja vu. Kerry talking tough and trying to strong arm. "So, you haven't changed at all." He sets another glare back. "Gonna make this hard."

True to history, the bratty wannabe gangster sneers. "Aw. You still a whiny bitch sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?" He pats his temple in mock realization. "Oh, wait. You're becoming a huntsman. Why should I be surprised?" He looks behind Carmine, spotting Neo. "Heck. I'll take the cute girl and give you whatever you want."

Silence fills the air as Neo recoils up, blinking. She looks at Kerry, who winks at her, attempting to get laughs from the older guys in the room. She looks at Carmine, who ever slowly, as if his joints were popping from each inch due to tension, turns to look at her.

He can barely make eye contact over his shoulder at her, but the girl is surprised. His eyes were... darker. Hollow.

Dangerous.

Her lips curl up as she understands the message, happily prancing around Blair and Roman. She walks right on up between the two fourteen year olds. Kerry seems confused, pleasantly surprised. "Oh. Well, hi-"

Neo swiftly kicks Kerry's leg out, dropping him in a stumble. She changes up her footing and kicks her heel into the center chest, pushing the kick forward to stomp the teen boy onto his back with her foot pressing him down. He chokes out in pain, eyes wide with horror as she flutters her eyes down, swapping their colors with each blink.

Message was clear. Hurt this asshole before I do.

Judging from the complete lack of movement from Carmine, she understood correctly. The boy simply stared down at Kerry, unsympathetic. "So, care to try that again?"

The men in the room flinch, many reaching back behind themselves... Until Blair has Florescent drawn and aimed towards. They all pause at her stance. Roman snickers behind her, flippantly waving his hand. "Jeez. Gonna start a gang war over pre school drama. Really?"

Kerry looks wide eyed up at Neo, breathing heavily and wincing before looking at Carmine. "M can be found on the blocks between O'Cyrus and Feng. I don't know the specific one he hangs around." He wheezes a gasping breath. "He wears black pants, a large buttoned overcoat, and a black toboggan every time since he came back!"

Carmine raises a brow. "Anything else?"

Kerry sneers at the condescending tone, but flinches as Neo swings Hush out, blade pointing out towards the throat. "H-He was only gone for a few months, but when he came back, he was half a foot taller! Never got to ask. B-bastard hasn't gotten ten feet to us longer than a minute."

The CRBN members share a quick glance. Roman and Blair lose any attention to the other gang members. Exchanged glaces between them, Carmine nods. "Alright. Let's go then. Thank you."

Neo steps off Kerry as Blair sheathes Florescent Finish. Roman huffs a laugh, leading the two out as Carmine turns to leave.

Kerry scrambles to his feet, gritting his teeth. He mutters under his breath. "Whatever. Get out of here and die like your Huntsman dad, you adopted freak."

Carmine's foot freezes at the door. The others glance back, half expecting a burst of anger... What they get is more off putting...

A smile.

A smile not quite reaching his livid eyes.

"OH! Ring the bell." Carmine turns around, flashing teeth in his smile. "You took a while to pull that one out. But, but, wait. You wanna know something?" Animated, he flippantly gestures at Kerry a second, putting off the teen thug. Carmine leans in, voice dropping. "I'd rather be adopted than live a single day in your shoes."

Kerry flinches, face heating up as he growls. "Watch what you-"

"You're dumb." Carmine cuts him off plainly. "You're a stupid trailer trash wannabe gangster playing in a broken down crib pretending you're earning something for yourself." Carmine lectures, taking an aggressive step forward and barking a laugh. "Hell, I'll take adoptive parents that loved me over knowing what the back of my dad's hand feels like. How IS your father, by the way?" He finishes, looking plainly at the healing black eye on Kerry.

Kerry takes a step back at the statement, Carmine continuing forward. "Oh, yeah. I overhead all the times my dad got to complain about your dad play box with your mom." Suddenly, the livid boy makes a mock show of elation. "Oh! I know, you finally graduated to closed fist! How does it feel to be as appreciated as your mom?"

Kerry grits his teeth, furious. "Don't you dare mock me-!"

"Shit, I'd sympathize at least a little if you didn't spend your whole life making other people into bigger victims than you- You fucking LOSER!" Carmine drawls out the ending sentence, expression beginning to look bored.

"Shut up!" Kerry throws a punch... only for Carmine to swat the fist with his armored left arm, cracking the teen's knuckle. "AH!" Kerry screams out and drops to his knee.

Carmine leans forward, just enough to meet glares at eye level. "Oh, but by all means... say I'm adopted. Go on." He leans ever slightly forward, eyes steady and cold. "... Say it."

The dirty blonde shivers lightly, wide eyed staring back at the young Huntsman in training. Nothing comes out of him.

Carmine closes his eyes and stands tall. "Thought so." Bored, he turns on his heel. "Make yourself better, or be garbage." He walks slowly out the door to his team. Blair and Neo show a mix of shock and... giddiness? Roman looks positively elated, enjoying himself.

The gangsters remain inside, cowering in the wake of the supposed Hunter team.

Without turning, Carmine calls out. "Oh, and if I find out you skipped classes again, I'll snap your arm!" He swiftly turns his top half, glancing back as if casually curious. "You're right handed, or left?" At Kerry's slightly widening eyes, Carmine shakes his head. "Nah, it'll be a surprise. Like fathers like sons, am I right?"

He kicks the shack door shut, the four CRBN members walking together without paying the gang any more mind. Just walking in silence...

Until Roman breaks it with laughter breaking free. "He HAHAHA!" Shaking his head, he grins. "Silver Streak! You have a spine?! Here I was expecting spatting teenage throwing hands, but you actually demolished someone with words! Barbie, what am I feeling right now?"

Blair, allowing some amusement, smirks. "I dare think it's pride. Here, I expected you to leave it at allowing Neo to work him over."

"Hmm Hmm..." Neo hums a laugh to herself.

Carmine blushes lightly, scratching his head. "I... don't really know what came over me. I just... got angry." A small smile came to him as he reflects on it. "Maybe next time, he'll hesitate before bringing family into it... or friends."

Roman's amusement disappears into a slouch. "Oh, Silver, you made it disgusting."

Carmine smiles despite the jab. "It felt really good, though. Felt good. Was good." Suddenly, his eyes burst wide open. "Speaking of what's good, what the actual hell, Blair?! What was that ability back there?"

Blair perks. "Just a new discovery made from your blood the other day." At Carmine's gaze snapping to her, she lightly smirks as he twists to start walling backwards as they speak.

"You mean I can do that? That was MY semblance? But I'm... 99 percent sure I can't do that." He slowly drawls before brightening. "How? How can I do it?" He rapidly fires out, excited.

The blonde recoils lightly at the enthusiasm. "I am... still working out how you would perform the technique, but... you recall what we discussed about you... fast forwarding?"

Knowing the sensitivity related to that discussion, she saw the slight deflation coming. Wary, he squints at her. "Yeah..?"

The hesitation was expected. "As best I can figure, imagine yourself... rewinding AND fast forwarding at once." She grimaces at her own lacking in the description. Doubly so when Carmine's lips purse and eyes widen. "Think of it as when you move, you perform an action. While you do so, picture in your mind another action, and you will split, performing both the initial action as well as the second action concurrently."

"Uh... wut?" He dumbly mutters the question, warping the pronunciation confused.

"The action brings immense muscle and mental strain, as if feeling the exertion of all of the actions put together, but that isn't all there is. After some testing with Neo on the Trojan, I found my limit is 8 simultaneous movements."

Carmine scrunches his heads. "So... it's like a multiverse thing? From comics? Every action creates another time line of events, but this uses multiple timeline actions overlapped in one time... all of them being true?"

Blair's eyes widen, Roman chuckling. "Did he just explain it better than you, Doc? With comics logic of all things as his basis?"

Blair scowls his way, blushing faintly. Meanwhile, Carmine turns back forward, deep in thought. "I... can't fast forward as is..."

Throwing a bone, she holds up Florescent Finish. "Well, for now, the only method is capturing your blood and using Florescent. The only difference is to NOT cast aura into the weapon and blood." Off to the side, Roman cocks his head.

Carmine and Neo share a glance. "Wait, that's it?" He waits until Neo smiles and nods before brightening. "That's AWESOME!" Giddy, he quickens his pace. "Soon as we finish up here, I wanna test it out! Come on."

As the boy and girl begin to quicken their pace ahead, Roman and Blair are left behind. Blair sighs. "Food, weapons, and cool powers. His three vices at this point."

"Ah, be glad it isn't booze, women, and money." Roman flippantly waves off.

"Right. Then, he'd be you."

He smirks at the quip, jabbing a finger at her. "One for three, there Barbie."

She actually rolls her eyes at that. "Right. Money."

As the two walk, he speaks lowly, sure that Carmine's excitement has preoccupied his attention. "So, I don't mean to sound off as the skeptical laymen, but... using an ability like that without aura? I don't think that makes sense."

She frowns, eyeing the boy. "Well, it does use aura. It just doesn't require offering it." At his confused silence, she sighs. "I channeled no aura into the weapon, yet when all was said and done, my aura had been drained considerably. Just a few uses dramatically lowered my aura levels to a crippling degree." She pauses a moment. "Like it needs aura, but doesn't accept it offered... only takes it by force."

Roman gives a side long stink eye. "Come again?" The woman remains silent for a moment before the conman grumbles. "Come now, what's rattling in that stuff head of superior stiff knowledge?"

Grimacing, she continues. "His blood somehow maintains its own kind of.. alien aura within it." She can practically feel his confusion radiate off. "Semblances are genetic, but require aura to activate. Without aura, blood is just blood. Dying, drying, and flaking away. However, his blood retains pockets of power within them for far longer than reasonably possible."

The two walk in silence as Roman processes. Hand raising to his chin, he slowly starts. "I don't recall ole Gonzola mentioning that factoid back in the day for why he was targeted. Silver Streak was only targeted for his relation to old man superior at Beacon."

"Exactly. Which really makes me wish I could question Ozpin without getting ejected from the school property." Blair laments. "For now, I can just watch and observe what I have in front of me."

Roman snickers. "You hit the jackpot of so called friends with this prize subject." At her side glare, he chuckles picking up pace. "Just saying. You lucked out on being able to help your small heroic pal AND pursue your passions." He marches ahead of her. "Accept the luck!"

Despite her glare, she does admit... he's right. The prospect within Carmine may be the most exciting research she could do in this field... The blonde allows a smile. Fine. Accept the luck.

. . .

"... And you're sure?" Blair speaks into her scroll. The CRBN members perk up around her. The four sat in line on the benches inside a city shuttle train. Blair hums to herself, speaking with JD on the other end.

. . .

The bear faunus perks up from a scroll plugged into a wall charger. Hospital staff shift about busy before a nurse approaches him. "Dr Daren, Mr Boeber's urine results do show protein. Do I have your permission to to sign off on a prescription of Lisinopril?"

JD angles the scroll mic away. "Yes, Kate. Start him on 5 milligram dosages per day." Soon as the nurse walls away, he huddles back by the phone. He speaks to Blair over the call. "I haven't gotten to speak with Dr Knox yet. Apparently, his wife is holding the board of directors hostage in a meeting with demands, so he's talking her down. You'd love her, she's positively terrifying."

"JD." Blair's aggression sounds.

He snaps to attention. "Four warehouses throughout the district. One holds stockpiled supplies in the event of emergency epidemics on Laydley avenue. One more is on the corner of Hill and Brathom. Next, is on the same street, closer to the docks for the corner of Hill and O'Malley. The last is on the edge of an SDC factory on Ahkan Boulevard."

"You people seriously don't use ANY security cameras at any of these properties?"

JD purses his lips. "Well, we do have security measures like that, but they're all run through SDC. The foreign departments run their investigations, but we don't hear anything back really."

. . .

Blair squeezes her eyes shut. Schnee Dust Company. "Atlas... of course." Taking a moment to send a gaze to the others, she sees the 'told you so' look on Roman. "Very well. If we require more assistance, we will call you."

A grumpy huff comes from the other end. "Well, with the evening shifter calling off, turns out I'll be here all day. Hope you find what you're looking for."

The call cuts out as the train begins screeching to a halt. Blair stands with her team, putting the scroll away. The group steps off the Rata Railways elevated train, above the edge of the factory and warehouse district. The four line up and she looks to Carmine. "Well... we have four targets."

The boy nods. "Well, gang, much as I'd love to split up and search for clues at all four at once-"

"That would be asking for ambush." Roman cuts in. "Two man groups work best."

Carmine nods. He takes a second to think. "Neo and Blair will go on ahead to one of the four warehouses straight away. Roman and I will check out the blocks between O'Cyrus and Feng streets. After we've swept it, if we don't find Miguel, we'll head to another of the warehouses." Looking at Blair is adds. "You finish at the first location, then you sweep those blocks for Miguel while we search the second. Then you search the third while we sweep the area again."

"Repeat search pattern. I was going to suggest the same." Blair adds.

"Thorough enough." Roman waves him off. "Keep tabs and update after each location check?"

Neo holds up two thumbs up before flipping Hush up and open. She and Blair nod before turning to leave down one of the railway stair wells to the streets below. Carmine looks to Roman. The boy shrugs, leaving the man to roll his eyes.

"Come on, brat."

. . .

The streets were bustling. It was late afternoon, people starting to file out from their day shifts and swapping with the lesser amount of evening's workers. Rush hour is in full blast! Vehicle traffic isn't remotely close to that of Vale's glory, the boy thinks. He doesn't recall car trips within the city taking long when he was little, but he could easily have not paid attention to that. Still, far busier than most any city he'd seen in Mistral.

Positively horrid.

Carmine and Roman had already swept the four city blocks lodged between O'Cyrus street and Feng Street. The blocks filled to the brim with small service shops of various kinds. Mostly lesser value food establishments likely used for the various factory and warehouse staff lunches than used by actual tourists.

And each alley separating the complexes and plazas somehow looked MORE shadowed and spelling of consequences in brighter daylight... Yet, Roman could just waltz on through as always. God, he's insufferably cocky about it.

… It didn't help when he noticed four separate pick-pocketing attempts. Two at once. Roman merely rolled his eyes at the prospect of helping the people, but Carmine may have burned fifteen minutes total of their time helping. Roman can shove it!

Blair phoned in that she and Neo's first warehouse was used for almost exclusively paperwork. Neo had disguised herself as a worker to bypass some workers and let Blair through a back entrance. He doesn't THINK they stole anything, but... Neo...

The second warehouse was used for shipping and packaging for one of the pharmaceutical companies linked to the hospital. Workers who took shipments of large containers for medicines before parsing them into smaller containers for distribution to smaller locations. More a supplier of the over the counter variety.

… Roman took some headache medicine without asking. The redhead was still upset about that. He argued back saying 'I need it dealing with children for so long.' Whatever. It's ibuprofen. Nothing serious.

Oh gods, he's already dismissing crimes! What's Roman's influence doing to him?!

"Ugh..." The boy groans, collapsing onto a bench. "We've combed this place three times already." He looks to Roman standing at a light pole. "Blair or Neo send anything on the third warehouse?"

The conman glances up at the sky, bowler hat shielding his eyes from the sun light. "Not a peep yet..." He trails off, curiously staring in the sky. Carmine struggles to follow the gaze.

"What? See something in the clouds?" He shields his eyes with his hand to see a cloud vaguely in the shape of a sectioned cut pizza. Or does Roman see something different? He turns to ask when he finds Roman walking down the street. "Pardon- Hey!" He starts confused and soft before shouting. He bolts from the bench after the conman. "Hey, what's up?"

"Checking on something." Roman answers plainly. "Just shut up and follow me."

And he does. The boy follows after him around the street corner... along the side walk to the next cross walk. Over to the next block, then cutting through an alley. Each location they passed, Roman seemed genuinely interested in the surroundings.

What the heck is he-

Buzz...

The vibrate of his scroll tells of a new message. Carmine glances down at the device, lighting the screen. From... Roman?

'We're being followed. DON'T TURN AROUND.'

His gut sinks as he fights the urge to do exactly that. When did Roman even type the message? Was he just that good at sneaking?! No matter. The boy tenses up staring at the phone. "Was that them?" Roman asks, curiously.

However, looking into Roman's eye, he sees the hard glint. Translation: Play along. Carmine pockets the scroll. "Yeah, it's them. They're being held up by another pick pocket incident. Told you I'm not the only one who stops them!" He forces out, not sure how natural he can be.

Roman huffs, turning and walking. Carmine falls in line with him. The conman snarks back. "Yes, and how much are we betting on Tricolor taking the thief's takings for herself?" He smirks, naturally playing off the situation.

"I... don't want to take that bet." He thinks quickly about the street they're on, glancing up in thought. "Hey, lets cut through the alley. Isn't that Wok and Rice place just at the other end?" An idea forms as he mentions the alley.

Roman exasperatedly sighs. "You can't still be hungry." However, he turns into the alley anyway, prompting a smirk from the boy. The conman understood. "How are you not fat?"

Carmine makes a mocking display of thought. "I'm a growing boy?"

"Try again."

"I traded the F for a PH?" The boy slides in quickly, gesturing his hands in straight lines out, palms down in what many would say is cool... if done by anyone but the whitest of white boys.

"Oh piss off." Roman groans. The two walk slowly over knocked over piles of littered garbage through the intersection of the alleys. Their pace slow, Roman's eyes harden... Carmine purses his lips, preparing himself. "... Go."

Showtime.

Carmine's pursed lips smirk... and he recalls. His image flickers away in a blue flash! Warping back through time, the boy reappears at the entrance of the alley he and Roman entered from! His eyes snap up to find their follower. Directly in front of him, only a few feet into the alley from Carmine. "Got you!"

He draws Heulin Noon to the man, a secondary reaction hitting when he takes in the man's garb. Head covered by a hood to a dark, dirty faded overcoat, and black pants to torn up boots. Carmine's eyes widen seeing the man turn. Off tan skin... scar on the left cheek. Brown hair pokes out from under a toboggan covered by the green hood.

But... His eyes were black. Not green. And Kerry was right... he wasn't 6 foot 3 inches. He looked half way to 7 feet! Closer, maybe. A tall bastard.

Carmine starts slow. "Miguel?" He flinches when the black eyes dilate at him instantly. "Wha-... Miguel. Are you Miguel Murphy? Triple M?" He eyes the rest of the man's form, frightfully still... and his arms are JACKED. Even gloved hands, the arms themselves are nearly bursting from the overcoat material, stuffed out!

… Wasn't he supposed to only be one hundred eighty pounds? That's... impossible.

Maybe a joke. "Heh. Been hitting the weights? Juicing up, Miguel? That's no good, you know?" The man still chillingly looks at him, standing up fully to tower over him. Carmine can feel himself shrink a little. "Pardon-"

Fast!

Miguel's leg kicks up in a round house! Carmine ducks back, but the heel of the boot brushes the boy's locks as it whips by his head. Carmine stumbles back off balance! Miguel continues the spin, spin kicking a trash can as a projectile at the boy!

Carmine drops down to the ground, the trash can flying over him and striking into a driving car on the street! People scream as the now dented car screeches to a stop!

Carmine snaps his gun up, aiming from the ground, and fires a shot point blank in retaliation! Miguel raises his THICK left arm and blocks the explosive shot easily. He turns and sprints down the alley, directly towards Roman. Carmine rolls to his feet and takes off into a sprint after the tall man!

Roman readies himself for the tall towering man charging him. However, rather than meet the conman, Miguel hunkers down and jumps! JUMPS HIGH! The man leaps up two stories to catch the edge of the alley building! One handed, the man hikes himself up.

Roman scowls, turning to Carmine and palms cupped. "Boost ready!"

Carmine nods in stride, sprinting forward. "Jager!" His armor flashes to his legs. He jumps up, feet into Roman's hands as the conman throws Carmine up into the second jump. Carmine is propelled into the air before Jager's thrust fires, further forcing him up!

Carmine flips over the edge of the roof, landing to see Miguel running across the roof away. He hears Roman call out. "CALL AND DIRECT ME!"

The boy breaks into a sprint after Miguel. "Got it!" His right hand pulls his scroll out, hitting group call. He chases Miguel across the roof before the coated man leaps to the next roof top! Carmine's eyes widen before narrowing focused. "Oh, no you don't!" He leaps across as well, barely keeping pace with the runner thanks to Jager boosting his strides!

Landing, his scroll call connects, Blair's voice coming through. "Carmine? What's the is-"

Roman's voice comes in. "I saw him leap to the next building. Which way is he?!"

Carmine mentally maps out the area, having swept it earlier. "He's heading North! Blair, Neo, we found Miguel! He's heading North towards the upper warehouse district! Need you now!"

"Understood!" Blair calls out. "We're coming from the East. Try and manipulate him this way!"

"Moving West to cut him off!" Roman calls out. The conman breaks into the streets, moving easily through the startled people parting the way.

Reaching the end of the roof, a full street below, Carmine smirks. No way he can make-

Miguel, full sprint, kicks off the edge of the flat roof, leaping high into the air up and over the full street! He catches himself on the opposite roof, cracking the opposite building's roof edge.

Carmine's eyes bug out, as does Roman's on the street below. "Bullshit..." Carmine scowls. "Not gonna get away from me!" He leaps from his roof, not NEARLY as impressive... until Jager's boost keeps him aloft, smoothly gliding over the gap of the four lane street below.

He lands on the roof, glaring forward as Miguel is already sprinting away from him. Below, Roman dodges around honking cars, keeping pace and keeping to the left side of the plazas Miguel moves to.

The two continue along the roof tops until Miguel gets to a middle alley, the next roof angled at the sides. He leaps across and slides down the angled roof to drop into the alley.

Carmine leaps off his roof to the alley, still well behind Miguel. "Stop! We just want to talk, Miguel!"

As if listening, Miguel breaks to a halt, each foot step sounding with much more force than it should... Then, he turns and sprints directly at the boy, taking him by surprise!

Carmine flinches to a stop. "Eep!" No time to aim his gun. "ZERO!" His armor flashes to his chest and arm as he barely, BARELY blocks the charging punch!

Too much force. Too much force!

Carmine's arm stings in pain as he's knocked off his feet, into a dumpster and denting into it! He collapses, stung in pain. "Frick!"

Miguel stands over him ready to crush him, only for the fabric of his hood to sear and burn. Roman's semblance. The mountainous man recoils back as Roman sweeps in, having used his semblance to distract for that extra second of time.

Miguel sweeps two powerful hook punches, Roman dodging out and deflecting the other with Velvet. Miguel spins into a giant kick, but Roman strikes the man's back leg with his cane, knocking him off balance before launching him back with a palm strike to the gut.

Miguel stumbles back as Roman readies himself, feeling his hand numb a bit. "A lot tougher than you appear, aren't you?"

The lumbering man, with no hesitation, strikes a pipe running along the building, billowing out steam into the two. He turns and sprints as Roman waves the steam off. The conman pushes through, popping his magazine into Velvet for gun mode and firing a shot!

It bursts off the edge wall beside Miguel, prompting him to cut right, East, out of the alley. Roman speaks into his scroll. "He's cutting East, Barbie. Hurry up!" He looks to Carmine. "You're faster, come on!"

Carmine recalls from the ground, back to his feet with Jager armor in the middle of the alley. "Okay... Now, I'm pissed." He breaks into a run, Jager boosting his strides as he bursts from the alley, following Miguel across the road!

The road curves around the edge of a factory property as Miguel somehow gets faster! Speeding around a corner keeping pace with a car driving on the other side of the road. The people inside look startled!

Carmine picks up pace, whipping around the corner before firing the thrust of Jager and skating his strides, barely keeping up with the man!

A car beside Carmine stares at him, and the boy gestures for the window to go down. As it goes down, he wheezes out. "HI!" He sucks in a pant. "Huntsman in training!" Pant. "Criminal witness!" Pant and point at Miguel. "Little help?!"

The blank faced person looks unsure, but slowly picks up speed. Drifting ahead of Carmine, he grabs on to the vehicle's spoiler, allowing the car to pull him forward as he gains breath. He waves his hand through the back window in thanks. The distance to Miguel closes, and he leaps up. Propelled by the car's speed and Jager bolstering his jump, he flips up and over Miguel and lands in front of him.

The man's black pupils dilate as he stops. Carmine narrows his glare. "Just stop and TALK! Schneider!" His armor flashes to his arms, forming the blades. He aims the blades forward in a stance. "Now, come quietly-"

Miguel is already bringing his large arms down. Great. Gotta be difficult! Carmine crosses his arms before opening them out, using the affixed blades of Schneider to strike Miguel's arms apart and out! Growling out, Carmine right jabs at the man. Miguel ducks back, the blade cutting across his chest.

Miguel gives no hesitation, or even registers the cut, as he counters punches. Carmine parries the punch with his bladed left arm, spinning from the impact into a counter slash of his own. The criminal blocks the counter with his arm, the blade biting into the fabric of the overcoat.

Carmine is thrown back, scowling as he goes for another jab. Only this time, Miguel catches the blade with his large gloved hand. The blade slides further into the grip, slicing through the fabric, but the grip tightens. "Huh?" Carmine gets out, looking at the grip before Miguel lifts his bladed arm up, other arm cocking back to punch.

"Zero!" Carmine switches to the armored single arm, releasing himself from the grip. He cocks his fist back, meeting fist for fist with both punches colliding. The concrete around both their feet cracks, the fabric of the overcoat fraying.

For just a second, the chest of the overcoat stresses out, circular lines coiled around the chest pushing out underneath the fabric. Then, it shrinks back in. What?

Carmine allows the detail to distract him as Miguel goes for a second punch. It lands-

SHATTER!

Carmine disappears in shattered, fading glass. Suddenly, a light shines from the side. Blair dashes in, Florescent lit orange in fire dust! She spears the stabbing attack forward as Miguel ducks sideways. The burning sword scorches his dark green hood, burning it off to show his toboggan covered head.

Faster than he reasonably should, he leaps back before Blair can catch him in a slash, sword returning to golden yellow. Miguel lands a distance off before turning and sprinting between two chain link fences through the properties of two factories.

Neo and Carmine appear to the side, the boy nodding thanks as she gives a peace sign. Both snap to their feet, Roman catching up from the rear. "Come on!"

The four break into a sprint after Miguel... only to lose sight around a corner turn. They follow, finding themselves at a sub road intersection, multiple factories and warehouses in all directions. "He couldn't have gotten far!" Blair calls out.

Carmine grimaces. "Damn it! He's faster than us, so every second, he just gets further away!"

Roman finally gets to them, more calm. "We don't need to be faster. Look at the streets, Silver." At that, the group glances at the signs. "Ahkan Boulevard, and look right there." They follow his pointing to a factory labeled bright and proudly 'Schnee Dust Company.' Quickly, they find a large warehouse in the distance down one of the roads.

Carmine growls and kicks the dirt. "Oh, of course it's the last of the warehouses." He looks to Neo, who smirks back. "Yeah, yeah. Best to roll with it and not complain." The girl nods back. Looking back to Blair, he speaks up. "JD happen to mention what this one is actually for?"

She shakes her head. "He didn't say what any of them were for explicitly. He was too busy to." She glances about for any lots or cars. A parking lot closer to the factory shows densely populated with cars, but many were starting to leave. "End of the work day. The other lots have a good deal less traffic."

"So, little chance of personnel conflict." Roman mutters. "Might be a trap."

"Then we spring it." Carmine answers. "Miguel and these warehouses are our best bet right now before we check the hospital staff." He nods to the group. "Neo, find us an entrance. Roman, disable any cameras you can. Blair and I will check the perimeter."

. . .

The inner building is vast, open. Large, gigantic shelves containing crates upon crates of materials four floors high. The each other set of lights was on, the others off, leaving much of the room in low light... A window panel affixed three levels up from the ground opens silently before a tricolor head pokes in.

Neo opens up Hush, climbing in and silently drifting down to the ground. Hmm... Roman said he found the power connected to the camera system. She looks up to find a camera in the corner. A dome camera, blackened to obscure which direction it's pointed.

Would be more helpful if it was a fixed point camera, but can't do anything about it. Her image shifts to that of gray overalls with an SDC logo on the back. Her skin remained pale as her hair changed to a red ponytail. Her illusion blue eyes show as she walks comfortably through the warehouse. Many of the shelves had labels, but nothing she understood.

However, she notes that many of the shelves also held large equipment wrapped in protective wrappings. Medical beds, MRI machines, x ray machines, and more. MUCH more. Even bed pans... ew. Hopefully unused. She walks her way to the nearest entrance she'd seen from the outside, undoing the locks and opening it on up.

Roman marches right on through! He smirks, looking around. "Well, that was easy. Not a stiff in sight." He looks to Neo. "No one's here?" Neo shakes her head, gesturing to all the window panels closer to the ceiling. "Really?" He looks to the darker warehouse. "Not a soul... Any sign of our gargantuan runner?"

Another shake of the head. Neo allows her illusion to shatter. Pointless if no one would see it. Blair and Carmine walk in through the entrance as well. A bead of sweat from the blonde shows, catching Roman's eye. She DID say using that stunt at the bar shack consumed a good deal of aura, but he'd expected her to recover by now...

Carmine nods. "Alright... So, this place is a storehouse for extra equipment?"

"Like spares and out of date machinery." Blair clarifies. Taking a cursory glance, she grimaces. "That MRI machine looks twenty years out of date. This is like here purely for emergency supply purposes." Grimacing, she shares a look between them. "Or as a place to pillage without being caught."

Roman huffs, taking a look at Neo. "They have a current doctor? Atlesian guy. What was his name?"

Neo's face darkens as Blair answers. "Doctor Near." She grimaces as the group moves through one of the aisles of stocked industrial shelves. "I suspect that is a pseudonym, but given Spyyra's general willingness to introduce himself, he could be equally confident in his name."

Carmine huffs. "And yet, still nothing on General Fat, despite knowing his name." He sighs as they move on. The shelves abruptly make a wall themselves, the shelves creating a maze and contained rooms of sorts. The shelves are stocked fully of crates, and the lighting begins to become more sparse, several lights clearly dying.

The warehouse was large, but they were coming close to the end. They had to be... Moving through turn after turn, seeing makeshift rooms with certain machines set up for use. Blair grimaces. "This is the place. They definitely used this warehouse to keep Miguel hostage."

"You sure?" Carmine asks, looking at a medical bed set up next to a surgical desk of supplies. "Okay... yeah." He looks to Neo, seeing an uncharacteristic scowl come on. Her gaze bores into the imagery, her off hand rubbing her neck absentminded. "Still think this is a trap?"

Roman scoffs. "We'll know once we find our man, but my gut says..."

He trails off as the group exits the shelf maze, finding an open area. Scaffold stairs line the far wall to an elevated room in the corner, a catwalk hangs from the ceiling above creating a second floor high in the air. Able to walk directly from the catwalk directly on top of the shelves throughout the room.

The center of the dimly lit room showed a single medical bed... and a strange device with a cord out. "Yes." Roman lets out. He gazes about as he approaches the device.

"Something's wrong." Blair glances around to the shadows of the room. Nearly empty boxes and mechanical parts littered the room. "What's all these parts doing in a medical warehouse of all places?"

Carmine scowls as he and Neo nod towards the elevated room. The girl begins to walk towards the stairs, moving slowly and alert. "You're the scientist, Blair. What could they be doing?"

The blonde scowls, really annoyed at the 'smart person knows stuff' assumption. Still... some of the components do appear to be link technology, capable of connecting to nerves? Nonsense. Each piece that vaguely resembles it looks damaged and unusable.

… Unless they used all the usable parts.

Neo silently opens the door into the elevated room, finding an office and computer. A phone shows by the desktop. The girl gives a once over for the tables and drawers, but no papers at all... cleared out, save for pencils, erasers, measurement tools.

She moves the computer mouse, lighting the screen. The computer was on! On sleep mode. Expected use. She's frustratingly shown a password screen. Rats! She types out a message to Blair... missing the movement behind her in the shadows.

Carmine readies Heulin Noon, checking the corners again. Many of the lights flicker, almost like a strobe light, while only a select few remain steady. Roman holds up the cable connected to the blocky device by the bed. Carmine notices the conman scowl. "What is it?"

He drops the cable, eyeing a meter on the side with a needle two thirds up. "It's a battery... The cable would transfer power into something else." He shifts his stance, flippantly waving his hand. "Now, why would they need this next to a medical bed without any equipment?"

Carmine and Blair share a look. His gut sinks instinctively. Maybe his mind was slower than his intuition, or he just didn't want to think of it.

CRASH!

The wall of the elevated room smashes out as Neo flips out onto the catwalk. She brandishes Hush, its blade piercing out the end of the parasol. From the ripped open metal wall, Miguel surges forward. His first crashes down-

SHATTER!

His fist crashes into the catwalk floor, smashing and collapsing half the upper level of catwalks down around Team CRBN below. Roman dodge rolls back as the catwalk smashes the medical bed. Blair and Carmine form up with him, Neo appearing beside Blair.

Carmine steps forward. "Miguel!"

The large man stands at the edge of the catwalk, merely looking down on the group. His face shows freely with a light directly in front of him overhead staying on. The light behind him flickers. However, what shocks the group most is finally making out a detail.

His face. More specifically, his jaw.

Puppet like creases at his mouth and a soulless expression. His eyes dilated wide before shrinking.

"Blair." Carmine starts, voice shaking lightly. "His eyes?"

Blair looks at the old broken mechanical parts in the area before locking back on the man on the catwalk. "They're cameras... Those aren't his eyes." Slowly, her eyes close, as she feels out with her semblance. The ability to connect with another person's aura and manipulate it coming with its rarely used side ability. Detection.

Eyes closed, the room blackens to her mind, save for the lit masses. One for herself, an amber haze mixed with blackened purple. One a shimmering multicolored aura. One is a mixture of brilliant blue and sage green. And a red and light gray aura as well. However, standing at a higher level from the four collected sources is a simple dull blue... not pulsating or shifting like the others. Just steady. Static.

"I... It's him." Blair grimaces and opens her eyes. "No doubt about it. He's a living person."

As if to test that theory, Miguel's arms whip up, two large hunks firing out at the team! Blair reacts first, inserting ice dust into Florescent. The blade shifts pale blue before she slashes out the dust! An ice wall forms in front of the group as the two objects collide... Miguel's large glove covered hands.

The hands explode against the ice wall, effectively shattering it and blowing the center of the room clear! The CRBN members shield themselves and inch back, looking up to find Miguel standing without either of his hands.

Carmine's jaw drops. "Did he literally just throw hands at us?"

Roman growls out. "Don't you dare."

Blair scowls. "Prosthetic attachments." She lets out in a low scathing voice. "Machines cannot generate aura. They replaced everything in him with what they wanted!" Her grip on Florescent Finish tightens. "He's still alive, even now. He's an experiment!"

Swallowing the unsavory taste in his mouth, Carmine steps forward, his hand coming up in a placating manor. "Miguel... We're on your side... We're here to help you." The man's black eyes shrink on the boy. "We... I'm sorry." A pained look comes to the boy. "If we were only a few months faster, we could have gotten here to save you sooner, but we can help you... Just come down, and please... speak. Talk."

Miguel simply stares down for several seconds.

SSSnct! His head jerks cocked in a twitch before returning to stare. His eyes dilate wide.

His right arm jerks out, the thick form flattening and widening. With a single wave, the fabric splits down the length of the sleeve... revealing his entire right arm to be a hinged sword! A blade with a bendable hinge in the center as an elbow! His toboggan falls off, most of his hair gone and revealing screwed on plates, smooth gray, as his cranium.

The CRBN members each take an instinctual step back. Staring in awe of the... cyborg man.

The left arm shifts under the sleeve, seemingly expanding a few inches as the fabric stretches taut! Then the green smokes as the sleeve burns. Not enough for flame, but enough for the sleeve to fray apart all up the arm. In a single movement, he punches down, an electrical burst blasting the sleeve off. (A synth melody begins, ending the measure with Guitar and drums beating.)

The ripped material reveals a segmented limb with sparking coils. An large club like arm with components like a stun baton. Electrical arcs spark off lightly. The light behind Miguel continues to flicker like a strobe effect. Suddenly, the chest of his overcoat inflates out, coiled lines expanding out and showing in the fabric. (Melody repeats with guitar and drums.)

The lines continues to stretch the fabric, slowly ripping it. Miguel hunches over, tip of his left club arm and right sword arm steadying himself for balance. The fabric continues to rip, revealing shifting blades inside cutting out of the coat. (Melody repeats, building into chants-)

Carmine and Neo flinch as the lines slice free from Miguel's coat, ripping the clothing completely away. A whip like appendage spirals out around him. Hinged, metal segments with blades on both sides! It connects to the base of the man's spine, a tail... ("UNDEAD... UNDEAD!" Melody repeats.)

"What the actual hell?" Roman takes a step back, shocked himself. The whipping metal tail continues to spiral around Miguel. Miguel's chest is thin, metal at the gut with plating on the chest merging into skin. His upper chest and neck are the only organic material. ("UNDEAD... UNDEAD!" Melody repeats, bridging into chorus-)

At the end of the tail, under the flickering strobe light, another material shows. Scales... Attached and merged into the metal is a second head... A large cobra head. Its red eyes shine in the dark, mouth open and rattling the blades of the tail. One of its extended fangs is metal as it hisses with the rattle. ("UNDEAD!" "You better get up out the way! Tomorrow, we'll rise, so let's fight today-")

All four members of CRBN ready themselves. Carmine aims his gun up, Roman transforming Velvet into gun mode. Blair draws wind dust into Florescent as Neo takes a fencing stance. ("You know I don't give a fuck what you think and say! Cause we're gonna rock this whole place anyway-")

Miguel cocks his head, eyes shrinking and dilating as he focuses on a target. The one closest to the front. Neo! ("UNDEAD!" "You better get up out the way! Tomorrow, we'll rise, so let's fight today-")

Miguel's bladed tail whips up, the cobra head biting onto a bar of the ceiling. He swings from the catwalk ledge, flipping into the air before dropping himself directly down at Neo. ("You know I don't give a fuck what you think and say! Cause we're gonna rock this whole place anyway-" Chorus bridges into Wretches and Kings verse 1)

Neo ducks back as the electric club arm smashes into the floor. The blade tail whips down to coil as a shield, blocking a wind blast from Blair. The tail swings out, striking debris at Roman. ("To save face. How low can you go?")

In the swing, Miguel swipes his sword arm at Neo. The girl deflects the blade twice with Hush before Shattering. Carmine fires a double shot, which Miguel blocks with the sword. ("Talk a lot of game, but yet you don't know.")

The cobra head bites a piece of the catwalk, bringing it down from above to Carmine and Blair. Carmine ducks away as Blair cuts through it! Simultaneously, Miguel charges Roman before he can fire. ("Static on the way. Make us all say 'whoa!'")

Roman is forced to transform Velvet back to cane mode as he deflects the sword and sparking electric club. He sneaks a quick jab with the head of the cane at the leg, putting Miguel off balance. His sword arm rips in a wild swipe, slicing the ground towards Roman. ("The people up top push the people down low.")

Neo appears, opening Hush to block the sword. Closing Hush, it reveals Roman with Velvet's gun mode as he fires! ("Get down! And obey every word!")

The cyborg man is blasted back by the fire rounds, stumbling under the snake tail whips and strikes Roman and Neo both like a whip. Carmine charges. "Schneider!" ("Steady getting mine if you haven't yet heard!")

His bladed arms slash in, exchanging blows and deflecting Miguel's weapon arms. Miguel's sword arm swings down, Carmine catching both in a cross block. ("Wanna take what I got? Don't be absurd. Don't-")

Miguel's club arm sweeps low, striking Carmine's footing out from under him. Hitting the floor, Carmine rolls back to dodge the sword before the club swings again! ("-Fight the power, nobody gets hurt.")

The club strikes him, launching him into the far wall. Blair charging. Miguel leaping away to keep distance from her. He then runs low to the ground, letting the debris block more shots from Roman. ("If you haven't heard yet, then I'm letting you know. There ain't-")

Spotting Neo alone, Miguel makes a bee line for her. Carmine recalls. "Zero!" Appearing behind Miguel, he fires several shots. The whip tail slashes into the ground by the boy. ("Shit we don't run when our guns unload.")

Continuing toward Neo, Miguel strikes the ground with the electric club, a pulse of electricity channeling along the ground. Neo jolts as the shock hits her. Now at her, Miguel leaps up, sword arm raised. ("And no one make a move unless my say so. Got-")

Neo tries to move, but the shock slows the reaction, left wide eyed as the strike comes- And Blair slides in, jabbing Florescent's sheath forward! ("Everything outta control. Now everybody go-" Wretches and Kings chorus begins)

The sheath strikes into Miguel's gut, catching the large cyborg with his feet off the ground. Blair draws the sword out, leaving the sheath and cyborg in the air as she spins to a swing. ("Steel Unload! Final Blow! We the animals take control!")

Her sword charges with lightning dust, sparking. Miguel is reacting, his cobra tail whipping in and opening its mouth. Both attacks land, Blair's sword to the upper sword arm, the cobra head biting into Blair's shoulder. ("Hear us now! Clear and true! Wretches and Kings, we come for you!")

Miguel is launched back by the lightning strike, his entire sword arm shatters apart, destroyed! He slides to a stop as the cobra head pulls away. Blair cries out in pain, dropping to a knee. ("So keep pace! How slow can you go?")

"Blair!" Carmine calls in worry. The blonde huntress clutches her shoulder as her insides suddenly burn, on fire. Roman presses Miguel back with supporting fire as Blair sways. ("Talk a lot of shit, but yet you don't know.")

"Shit!" Blair grinds out, looking at the cobra head. Black liquid drips from its fangs. "Grimm venom?!" She gets out, unable to stand. ("Fire on the way. Make you all say 'whoa!'")

Miguel whips the tail around, Carmine power sliding under it and firing a double shot into the cyborg chest. Roman changes Velvet to cane form, hooking Carmine's shirt and jerking him out of the way of Miguel's counter club strike. ("The people up top push the people down low.")

Roman activates his semblance, a spark of flame spontaneously lighting just in the cyborg's eyes. In the split second, Roman sweep strike's Miguel's knee, knocking his balance out, then punches the cyborg back. ("Get down! And I'm running it like that!")

The cobra head bites another chunk of the catwalk, ripping it down toward Roman. Neo sprints in, grabbing Roman. SHATTER! Both disappear with the tricolor girl's semblance. ("The front of the attack is exactly where I'm at!")

Mid confusion, Miguel is shot in the side. Carmine charges. "Schneider!" Blades out, he spears the blades into the cyborg. ("Somewhere in-between the kick and the hi hat-")

His eyes widen as the cobra head angles around, striking down at him. "Jager!" Armor shifting, he boosts back from Miguel to dodge the strike burying into the ground. ("-The pen and the contract. The pitch and the contact.")

Blair tries to get up again, but can't. Unable to move due to the concentrated poison. She watches as Carmine dodges back from Miguel. ("So get with the combat! I'm letting you know. There ain't-")

Knowing she can't fight anymore, she forces herself to stand painfully and angles her sword. "CARMINE! LET IT HIT!" ("Shit you can say to make me back down, NO! So-")

Miguel turns at the yell, rushing towards Blair as Carmine sprints after him. And Blair spear throws Florescent Finish. By Miguel. By the tail. At Carmine. ("Push the button. Let the whole thing blow!")

And the sword stabs through Carmine, the boy's gut searing in pain as he chokes out. Yet, understanding. The blade turns red soaking in his blood's semblance. RECALL! ("Spinning everything outta control. Now everybody go-" Wretches and Kings chorus begins)

Carmine flickers just inches from the sword, chest searing in pain and color in his chest faded. However, he forces past the pain and catches the blade. Miguel halts his advance on Blair, cobra tail taking interest in the boy. ("Steel Unload! Final Blow! We the animals take control!")

Carmine stands, holding Florescent Finish still loaded with his blood. The cobra tail lunges down at the boy. Carmine recalls Blair's instruction... don't channel aura into it, concentrate on multiple actions! ("Hear us now! Clear and true! Wretches and Kings, we come for you!")

He pulls the trigger, activating the aqua pulse of his semblance. His image splits into four, each slashing the weapon from different angles at the striking bladed tail! ("Steel Unload! Fire Blow! Filthy animals! Beat them low!")

In a split second, the cobra tail is sliced apart at each cut. And the cobra head landed its strike in Carmine's side. He chokes out in pain as his alter images fade away, the cobra head falling aside. ("Skin and bone! Black and blue! No more, this sun shall beat onto you!")

Miguel's body lets out a metallic whine, having lost both a limb and the tail. Blair collapses completely, grimacing. "Carmine!" Shit, he's been hit with the venom too. (A voice speaks candidly, giving a speech. "There's a time when the operation becomes the odious")

Before the cyborg can swing its club arm on the dropped boy, Roman cracks him off the head with his cane. Neo strikes from the other side, getting him from Carmine. The boy continues to wince. ("Makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part.")

Leaving the sword on the ground, he recalls. The boy's body flickers away, reappearing a few feet back, untouched by the venom. He smirks, only for panic to show. ("You can't even passively take part.")

His vision blurs, aura bottoming out... the multi strike sapping his aura away. The boy collapses, limbs cold and numb. "GAH! W-what?" ("And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears,")

The numbness remains as he watches Roman and Neo fight Miguel. The girl shatters from a strike, disappearing, as Roman smoothly lands two strikes, knocking Miguel back. ("And upon the wheels, upon the levers.")

Miguel swipes, but Roman ducks, hooking Miguel's leg with Velvet Valentine. He shoulder checks Miguel back, landing strike after strike. ("Upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop.")

Desperate, Miguel strikes the ground, the electricity channeling around and stunning Roman in place. The man grimaces as Miguel bashes his electric club arm into Roman's gut. ("And you've got to indicate to the people who run it.")

Roman is propelled off into the debris, hard, as Miguel's form sparks from the battle damages. Neo attacks from behind, slicing the back of the cyborg's leg. ("To the people who own it, that unless you're free.")

The girl unloads strikes into the cyborg, but none of the damage lasts. Miguel's top half spins with a strike, completely in a circle to swing the club arm from the other side. ("The machine will be prevented from working at all." Speech cuts into Undead chorus return.)

Neo blocks with Hush, but the sparking hit from the electric club blasts the parasol out of her hands. The girl is left wide eyed before getting bashed away. ("UNDEAD!" "You better get up out the way! Tomorrow, we'll rise, so let's fight today-")

She slides along the ground, hitting into rubble as Miguel stumbles after her. Carmine winces, trying to stand again. "Neo!" Looking at Florescent out of his reach, he recalls Heulin Noon to himself. ("You know I don't give a fuck what you think and say! Cause we're gonna rock this whole place anyway-")

Neo staggers to her feet as Miguel raises the electric club. She looks right as Carmine empties the gun into Miguel's back, staggering him. He then snap reloads and throws the gun towards the girl. ("UNDEAD!" "You better get up out the way! Tomorrow, we'll rise, so let's fight today-")

Neo catches the gun as Miguel strikes down. SHATTER! Her form disappears in her semblance, gone. Miguel twitches, looking around himself. ("You know I don't give a fuck what you think and say! Cause we're gonna rock this whole place anyway-")

He turns his head, stopping as his camera eyes come face to face with Heulin Noon's gun barrel. Neo growls in anger as she presses the gun to Miguel's head. ("UNDEAD!" Music cuts)

BOOM!

The gunshot rings out as Neo blasts a double shot from Heulin Noon through Miguel's forehead. The broken up cyborg lurches back, stuttering its movements, jerking, twitching. The high pitch whine of the inner gears and mechanics of his body stutters before finally dying out.

The body drops to the ground on its back, a mixture of blood and oil pooling out. Neo stumbles, gasping for air with one eye clenched closed in pain. She looks over her shoulder, seeing Carmine and Roman groggily gathering themselves.

Blair, in the corner, clutches at her shoulder, wincing in harsh pain. As Neo prepares to move, a metal clack pulls her attention back to the cyborg body. Miguel's puppet like mouth pulls open, down. A last electrical thrum builds.

REEEE!

An explosion, high pitch shrill screech releases from the cyborg. The noise shatters glass of the medical equipment throughout the warehouse, shatters the windows!

Each of the Team CRBN members clutch their ears, collapsing in raw pain. Their bodies throb and rumble at the harsh vibrations of the sounds. Neo feels her body quake in the vibrato. Her insides rumbles, vision blurring as her balance goes out of whack.

… and a severe, intense pain erupts in her throat! The girl lurches forward, hacking up blood as the vibrations tear apart her inner throat. Thinking as fast as possible, she raises Hush and spears it into Miguel's mouth.

The noise blasts out before quickly dying. The metallic thrum shifts before the cyborg body bursts in an electrical repulse. The electrical currents arc out, bursting across the room and burning scorch marks across the walls. A final burst, launches Neo onto her back.

Her vision starts to black out... Her consciousness vaguely still in place, yet...

She gargles something. She can't breath! SHE CAN'T BREATH!

Her body is turned as she lurches up a burst of red from her throat. Carmine and Roman are with her, Blair stumbling to move. And she can barely hear. "...eo... hear m-... NEO!.. -uck. We gotta move NOW!"

And her vision, her consciousness, give out. All faded. All black... all quiet.

. . .

The computer screech shows black. Green lettering spells out 'Signal Lost' with a faded red circle darkened. The room was dimly lit, the light of the computer screen reflecting off a pair of glasses. The man at the computer sits, tapping his cheek with a finger of the hand he leans on. Hunched over the desk, a cigarette hangs from his mouth.

Silently, he looks out of a dark skyline of an immaculate night time city... The buildings a clean, brilliant white... Atlas. The man silently leans back, head tilting up to the ceiling in thought.

On the desk, his other hand lightly picks up a scroll to check the time. Hmm... It's time. He pushes away from the desk, his rolling chair gliding on the linoleum floor as his reflective glasses glance out over the city sky line. He hits call on the scroll...

He sets the scroll on a counter by the window, freeing his hand to scratch at the side of his head silently. The call connects, call on speaker.

"OH, inconvenient time or not, I always have time for a call from you!" The energized male voice sounds chipper. Spyyra.

"You're late on your update." The man in the dark, Doctor Near, takes a huff of his cigarette. "What news do you have from Vacuo?"

"Always so business like with you. You're no fun." Spyyra pouts, but one can practically hear the smile in his voice. "It would seem someone has gotten word of our existence to the Hunter Academies..."

"An expected result when you decided to face off with a member of Team STRQ." Near states obviously.

"Vale aside, they were never given enough to have a name to our organization. My mug is pretty, but they're fully aware of the scale our organization has. Or, at least, that's what they're gearing up for." Spyyra speaks plainly. Not in the least bothered by the previous call out.

"Really? I've yet to hear of Atlas organizing in any significant way." The scientist pauses, glancing back to the computer screen. "Mistral is still a harsh situation with the bandit clans, so our current priorities are Vacuo and Vale. Did you sort the issue in Vacuo?"

. . .

In bright daylight in a woodland area, Spyyra stands tall. His skin is marked, body looking rough. His smile widens, looking upon the several bodies on the ground before him. All of which wearing colorful armors and unique weapons sprawled about. "They actually sent out a team of hunters in training to check on us." His orange eyes glance over, gleeful. His remaining hand was gripped on the neck of a deer faunus... Dark skinned...

Blair's old teammate, Cella. Still struggling weakly against the man's grip. The man's metal dust grips her neck, leaving no jacket sleeve.

"Really, sending rookies with only one supervising Huntress? How boring." Spyyra smiles, despite his own panting for breath. "Don't worry. I'll be finished in a second."

Cella tries to speak, only for the metal dust to clench her throat as she struggles to breath.

"And what of our other meddlers? How are my girls doing?" Spyyra speaks with a wide grin.

"The trap in Sanctuary has sprung. Sooner than expected, but it seems Mary Anne was correct in how the enemy would pursue us. Someone has been tracking our cash flow." Near's voice comes out bored through the scroll.

Spyyra pouts. "Awe, man. You mean your new project already killed em? And I missed it?!" He grimaces before sighing. "I guess... it just wasn't meant to be."

"They destroyed it." Near comments again. Spyyra actually flinches wide eyed. "Mary Anne will initiate the backup of the trap now."

The man's orange eyes remain wide before he bellows out a laugh in the woods. "Wait! You mean to tell me they beat one of YOUR creations? HA! My girls!" His look turns predatory, turning to Cella. "Ah, so much better than you."

. . .

Near has yet to move an inch, still gazing over the sky line. "Previously, we were aware of who three of them were, but we have finally obtained confirmation of the fourth's identity from one of our Sanctuary Police plants." He slowly looks to the scroll, minimizing the call to show a detailed message... "Carmine Uhlric, son of the city's previous Chief Inspector and head surgical doctor."

. . .

Cella's eyes widen, recalling the name. The name of the boy Blair and Rowa helped! What the hell are they wanting with him? She struggles, but is unable to free herself.

Spyyra blinks curiously. "Really now? We'll have to look into the name." He then lights up. "Wait... wasn't that Gonzola guy the one who killed those two?"

"We will need to contact him at some point for information, as unpleasant as that will be."

"Ah, just have Mary do it. She's there, right?" Spyyra chuckles. He then notices Cella struggling harder. "Hold on a second." His semblance holds his scroll up, freeing the hand as he forms a spike rod from the flakes of his jacket. He smirks. "Let me free myself up."

Cella's eyes wide as he thrusts the spike.

. . .

"ACK! Ka! AH!" The sound of metal piercing flesh sounds sound as a female choking and moving sounds. The gut wrenching sound persists for a few seconds... before passing.

Near waits patiently before hearing another rip of metal from flesh. Spyyra's voice comes in. "Ah, there we are. I'll be back up to Atlas here soon. I'm eager for the details."

Near removes the cigarette and places the butt into an ash tray. "Be sure to clean up properly. We're dangerously close to all out war with the kingdoms these days. Is that understood?"

"Yeah, yeah! I got you, my man! Gotta make it all look like Grimm. Bye bye!" The chipper voice cuts as the call hangs up.

Leaving Near alone with his thoughts, he thinks about this team that defeated his creation... 1075, calling himself Roman Torchwick. Having escaped from from AZRL before 10 years old and joining Senior's crime empire in Vale. A moderate threat given his heritage, skills, and upbringing.

2814, calling herself Neopolitan Rhodes. Having escaped last year from Vale and trained specifically under Spyyra's watch. Dangerous, but her youth is headstrong. Headstrong enough to be a nuisance even after removing her ability to speak.

Doctor Gale, actual name now discovered as Blair Goodwitch. Former huntress in training and dropout of Beacon Academy. One of their highest rated students with a technical mind. Someone Near raises a brow in thought at.

And this boy, Carmine Uhlric... His semblance and abilities...

We will learn what is special about him.

What? Robot man- What?! WHAT?!

Jokes aside, yeah, cybernetic man test run. Fun times! Neo's throat ruptured? Bad times! Kerry grown into a druggie loser? Expected times. … Cella dead. Sad.

Also, weaponized application of Carmine's semblance. When Florescent Finish adapts his Recall, Blair's image blurs as multiple options of attack occur simultaneously. Implied something he can learn to do himself, but obviously a massive aura cost and not for a long time.

Reviews:

Touhounogensokyo (FF) – All in good time. Maybe sooner than you think.

Disposablejar (AO3) – Thanks! I had the thought whether I was being a bit too fluffy with the cops. Honestly, I'm probably long winded in a lot of spots I'm not aware of. Glad for the investment though!

References:

Song used was a mashup of Hollywood Undead's "Undead" and Linkin Park's "Wretches and Kings". The mashup can be found easily on YT. It's good.

Jacob "JD" Daren is based on John "JD" Dorian from the TV show Scrubs. Why a bear faunus? … Later.

Triple M, or Miguel Milano Murphy, is based off literally any literary character whose humanity is replaced by technological implants. Robocop (his Murphy namesake), Borg from Star Trek, etc etc. A fun excuse to have a robot man with a half mechanical bladed cobra tail, blade arm, and shock hammer arm. Complete with unlocked metal puppet jaw.

Join next time in Chapter Thirty One: Hallowed Heart.