V2C7: Keep Your Enemies Closer
AN: Wow. It appears you guys really didn't like the super late upload last week. Looks like I need to work on that.
Well, for those of you who are interested, I've laid out the final rough plot for the entirety of the RWKYverse. And, at risk of delving into spoiler territory… I am so sorry.
Anyways, the story continues at both Beacon and Vale as a whole, and friends aren't the only people Kassidy is interacting with. Enemies, both known and unknown, are making their moves. With her teammates starting to suspect that something is up, the White Fang continuing to ramp up their attacks, and the wannabe Fall Maiden herself getting involved in things, just how good is Kassidy at fooling everyone around her?
(Perspective: Kassidy)
The door being flung open made Kassidy pause in the middle of her workout. 6:30 on a Saturday morning? Hell, forget the time, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on campus who bothers working out the morning before a training mission. Even Pyrrha doesn't work out that much. Determining to find out which brave, determined, foolish soul decided to join her this early on a weekend morning in the gym, Kassidy racked the weights she was currently using and poked her head around the corner.
"Ah, Miss Smith, I've heard rumors that you preferred your workouts in the early morning."
There were many ways that one might imagine a general of the Atlesian army. Wandering into the nearest gym without a care in the world, in a long sleeved shirt, shorts, and sneakers was not one that Kassidy had imagined. Using a drink of water as an opportunity to catch back up to the present, she was about to speak when Ironwood beat her to it. "Though I must admit, I'm surprised to see you here on this morning. Not everyone seems to believe exercising so hard so soon to their practice mission is a good idea."
Kassidy replied, "Not everyone is as hilariously outmatched as I am." Finding a pair of dumbbells with her name on them (literally, it seemed like, for how often she used them), she stopped herself from resuming her exercise just long enough to call out, "Besides, I'm not even working that hard. I usually do an hour of cardio most mornings."
"Is that so?" James took the time to find a dumbbell of his own – and Kassidy had no small amount of disappointment in herself to find out that it was literally six times the weight of what she was using – and, curiously, began working only his left arm. A quick rest in between sets allowed him the opportunity to ask, "Is it safe to assume your teammates are still sleeping?"
"Oh dear lord, yes," Kassidy grumbled. Yang joining her in bed seemed to be a once a week deal now, and while there might be an argument for it helping her sleep, it definitely did not do Kassidy any favors in terms of getting up to get her morning workouts in. It took her nearly fifteen minutes to get out of bed without waking Yang up! Shaking her head, Kassidy changed the track her mind was going on by focusing on the curls she was doing, which were probably almost as heavy as the curls that found their way into Yang's hair… oh, hey there, hormones. Nice to see you again, now kindly get out.
"… getting along fine." Ironwood's words only made themselves known after Kassidy had snarled at herself and beaten her subconscious into submission. She racked the dumbbells, and got him to repeat the statement of, "It seems like you and Penny are getting along fine."
It was impossible to miss the slight glare being sent her way, or the edge in the military man's words. Deciding this was a place to tread lightly, she offered, "Yeah, caught her on my way to one of the training arenas yesterday. Managed to send her on her way to… Ciel, was it?"
"Yes, thank you." Letting his words trail off, James let a pregnant pause hang in the air before biting out, "I trust your computer has been interacting well with her?"
"Bob interacts as well with her as he does anyone –"
"Kassidy," James interrupted, "I know that Bob has connected to Penny's systems. I trust that you can keep your computer in check, and that you can show the utmost of discretion with this. Am I wrong?"
At this point, both of the building's occupants had forsaken their planned activities to converse with each other a safe distance apart. Despite half a room separating them, however, Kassidy couldn't help but feel cornered by the general. Figuring that appealing to Penny was the best way out of a bad situation, she tested the waters with, "I like to think that Penny and I are friends. I'm pretty sure that she and Bob are friends. She asked me not to tell anyone, so I won't. I might not be an expert on this kind of stuff, but I'm pretty sure trust is an important part of –"
"Which is why I trust that Bob will no longer be connected to Penny's systems the next time you get into contact with him," James bit off.
Kassidy could feel her teeth grind together even as her eyes widened slightly at the demand. "You think I'm going to do something to Penny?"
"Maybe you will, maybe you won't," James offered. Sighing, he threw out, "Look, Penny is an experiment –"
"Funny," Kassidy interrupted. "Last I checked, experiments don't have feelings, or souls, or sentience." She met James' glare full-on, then said, "Then again, I might be a bit biased in that regard. Penny's more of a person than Bob is, and, well… I still refer to Bob as a 'him', after all. Hell, you just referred to Bob as a 'him'."
"That doesn't change the fact that Penny is still an experiment," James insisted. "As an intelligent woman, you should know the benefit of ensuring that a scientific experiment is controlled, that you allow as few random variables as possible. Your computer is one unknown we don't need, and that we frankly don't want, either."
"So you're going to ignore the possible benefits of two different AI's comparing methods and code to better themselves, and strip Penny of what I imagine is one of the few friends that doesn't have the explicit job of being her friend."
"You seem to have a habit of twisting words to make situations appear worse than they are," James ground out. "I'm not asking you to completely cut off contact with Penny. But the direct link your computer has with her is going to go. One way… or another." He was about to drop the argument there and continue his workout when his Scroll started ringing. After a brief conversation, he sighed, racked his weights, and threw out, "Looks like duty calls. Until we meet again, Miss Smith."
"General," Kassidy said. When he left the building and earshot, she sarcastically added, "The pleasure was all mine." Still, it was pushing a quarter 'til seven at this point. Three and a half hours until they would be deployed on their training mission, and probably fifteen minutes before Yang woke up and ruined any chances of her getting a hot shower.
She was about to wrap things up for the morning when the door opened again, admitting a grey-haired individual trailing behind a woman with black hair and amber, almost smoldering eyes. Kassidy almost wrote them off as just another pair of visiting students before the grey-haired kid jogged her memory. Taking another look, she confirmed her theory and called out, "Morning, Mercury."
"Hey, Kass," the boy offered. "Thanks for the help studying for that test, you really saved my rear on that one."
"Indeed," the woman spoke. All but strutting up to meet her, the mystery woman held out her hand. "Cinder Fall, of Team Carmine. I'm Mercury and Emerald's team leader. So you're this Kassidy I keep hearing about."
Kassidy shook it while answering with a slight grin, "Only good things, I hope."
Cinder chuckled. "One could say that. It's not often that a girl without Aura makes it into one of the Huntsmen Academies, and even rarer for her to be such a dominant student in her class."
This gave Kassidy a slight laugh. "Are we talking about the same girl? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that I'm the one getting dominated all the time in Combat Training."
"Hey, don't sell yourself short, you do pretty good in there," Mercury interjected. Suddenly, he asked, "I assume you got to meet with the General before he all but stormed out of here?"
"Oh, did I," Kassidy growled. She then appended, "Sorry, but something about that guy rubs me the wrong way. Pretty sure we aren't gonna be seeing eye-to-eye on a whole bunch of things, if you catch my drift."
"Believe me, I do," Cinder explained, before taking a seat next to Kassidy. "Atlas isn't all that popular with most of us in Mistral, I'm afraid. Something to do with the fact that they seem to have the perfect combination of brute strength and staggering incompetence."
"You're telling me," Mercury inserted. "Bring a big enough army to conquer Vale, then conveniently lose a whole bunch of tech to some gang of punks. Enough to make me sick some days."
"Yeah, can't say I'm too happy about that either," Kassidy agreed. "Still, I'd be willing to put money on them getting it back sooner rather than later. They've already busted up… what, two or three White Fang deals this past week?"
"Maybe so, but I'm not so certain of their success myself," Cinder replied. Meeting Kassidy's eyes, she added, "Betting money is one thing, but this is still a de facto terrorist organization that now has access to military-grade technology. Would you be willing to bet your teammates on the general getting his toys back? Your partner, for that matter?" Kassidy's eyes broke their contact as she stared at the floor, allowing Cinder time to append, "I would certainly be doing something about it myself, if only I knew where the White Fang was planning to strike next."
How convenient I happen to know that, Kassidy mused to herself. Catching the time, she bade her farewells and stalked out of the gym herself. As the door closed behind her, however, she muttered, "No, I wouldn't bet them on that. Which is why I won't."
Four girls trudged through the dense undergrowth of the Emerald Forest, and came to their prize: the final objective of their training mission this morning.
Kassidy did the honors for this one, walking up the slight incline to grab the pole and green fabric planted into the dirt. She could hear Yang complain behind her, "Ugh. 'Get these flags,' they said. 'Kill any Grimm you come across,' they said. 'It'll be fun,' they said. Did they really have to make us cover three square miles of area? This kind of crap isn't difficult, it's tedious."
While Yang and, oddly enough, Ruby, were the ones that devolved into an argument, Kassidy smirked at the byplay long enough to carry her to the reminder that she wouldn't be there to deal with that tonight. Whatever the White Fang's up to tonight, it's going to be big. I'm gonna have to take off early afternoon if I want to have all my crap together in time.
She was so wrapped up in a quick mental once-over of her rough plans that she failed to notice the brush rustling to the side. Weiss perked up at the noise, and was about to say something before a Boarbatusk came flying out of the undergrowth towards Kassidy's exposed back. Weiss' cry was the only thing that managed to alert Kassidy that she was in trouble, and a quick roll to the side was the only thing that save her from a visit to the hospital and a mandatory opting-out of her plans to deal with the White Fang tonight. The Grimm ceased its charge long enough to uncurl from its ball form and try to turn around, but it never got to finish the action as Kassidy planted three shots into its side and killed it.
"K! Are you hurt?" Right on cue, Yang came rushing up and gave her a once-over for injuries.
"I'm fine, Yang," Kassidy insisted. "Really, it was just a Boarbatusk, those things aren't nearly as big a threat to me as they were five months ago."
"It'd be even less of a threat if you were paying attention," Weiss snapped. Stomping up in her heels, she thrust a finger at her and accused, "Are you sure you're not up to something, Smith? You've been really distracted all week. What if I hadn't shouted at you? You would've been roadkill!"
Kassidy opened her mouth to answer, but closed it as a heavy, gauntleted hand settled on her shoulder. "K," a familiar but far less kind voice said behind her, "I thought you promised me that you'd leave them alone."
"And I am!" Kassidy lied. "I'm just keeping tabs on the White Fang, making sure that whatever they're getting up to is nothing too big." Taking a few steps away and turning around, the faces that met her were almost enough to break her resolve. Still, she forced herself on, if only to personally ensure that they'd still be around to make those kinds of faces. "If the White Fang start getting out of control, I'll know about it. I promised that I wouldn't go after them alone, and as soon as things get serious you'll be the first person I'll tell about it."
"Good," Ruby piped up, and Kassidy's shoulders sagged slightly. However, they tensed up again when Ruby stomped up and shoved her own finger in Kassidy's face. "But I'm holding you to that, Kass. We're a team, and we need to be able to rely on each other. To trust each other." Letting the words sink in, Ruby suddenly skipped away and chirped, "Alright, team! Let's go finish this assignment and get some lunch! I'm starving!"
As her three teammates chattered away, Kassidy couldn't help but notice the way her gut twisted. Since when did doing the right thing feel so wrong?
Another warehouse, this one significantly larger than the last. It showed in the planned roster that the White Fang had lined up: nearly two dozen would be partaking in whatever they planned for this place. Kassidy let her goggles poke out from the makeshift cover she had assembled for herself, but was about to slink back into her cardboard box and garbage bag fort when some movement caught her eye. Looks like it's showtime. Let's make this quick, Smith, the gang's getting a bit worried.
Six bodies slinked their way through the door with the picked lock, and only when it closed did Kassidy abandon her concealment and dash across the street. A quick check of Rogue confirmed a full magazine of eight Taser rounds with another in the chamber. One, two shallow breaths, then she creaked the door open and slowly poked her head in.
Only for adrenaline to kick in just as a couple bullets whizzed right in front of her face and ricochet off the steel door mere inches away. Kassidy loosed a couple shots in the general direction of further into the warehouse as she scrambled behind a shipping container, the last few inches being helped along as a round bounced off the chestplate she had been gifted. Thank fucking god for this, sincerely doubt my 'bulletproof' vest would've held up this past week. Wow do I owe Pyrrha.
Some general panic was ensuing among the White Fang arrayed through the warehouse as several voices shouted at once and out of concert. Kassidy calmed her jitters enough to shoot the two people that had tried to creep around to find an angle around her cover, but they returned as the random shooting stopped. She was more discouraged by how quickly, how authoritatively the now confident Blake regained control of the situation.
"Get back to work, this Dust isn't going to move itself! Devil, you're with me, let's take her out quick!"
Kassidy didn't get time to ponder who this Devil character was, as the sound of boots pounding on concrete and steel prefaced Blake sailing over the container in a flying leap. The cat Faunus drew both her blades and twirled around in a move that was probably stolen from Ren at some point. Kassidy danced back from the spinning blades, but she did get a front-row seat to watching the cleaver carve clean through the sheet metal of the container and spill Dust everywhere at their feet.
A quick draw of Baton and a holstering of Rogue signaled Kassidy's readiness for the fight; at this point, firearms would be almost literal suicide. Blake dashed forward, her two blades scissoring horizontally in an attack that Kassidy got a small haircut from, but suffered no more. Still, that was but the first part of the attack, and she barely got Baton around to block Blake as she pushed off a shadow clone for a return strike. Kassidy's boots slid a few inches across the Dust-slicked concrete, and her guard only barely held from the brutality of the strike.
Still, over the four previous fights they've had, Blake had proven that she had no natural strength over Kassidy, and evidently wasn't adept at leveraging her Aura to augment that. Kassidy went on the counterattack, forcing the larger cleaver away before angling her saber back in for a stab that was leapt over. Blake's sword tried for its own stab, but Kassidy recognized the opportunity for what it was. She leaned to the side just a few inches, enough for the blade to scrape along the side of her armor without causing any damage. Kassidy's arm shot down and grabbed a firm hold on Blake's arm, and the Faunus' amber eyes widened – there wasn't a way to use her damned Semblance to worm her way out of this.
A quick flash of the eyes, a quick relaxing of the tension. Blake only gave the tiniest of tells, but that was enough to save Kassidy's life. Abandoning her next stab, Kassidy instead shoulder-tackled the Faunus. Even with the incredibly fast reaction, the top layers of the skin across the back of her neck split open as a blade nicked her before crashing into the container. After stomping her boot on Blake's knee as hard as she could – only to find the knee of a shadow clone – Kassidy twirled around, only to duck under another strike as an axe blade sailed through the space her neck had previously occupied.
Her new opponent had no face, as it was obscured by a featureless, steel-plated red mask with an inch and a half wide, black plexiglass slit for the eyes. A brown cloak was settled over a padded, doubtlessly armored long-sleeved shirt and pants, but those didn't get as much of Kassidy's interest as did the twelve-gauge shotgun with an axe blade mounted on the stock. Kassidy and this new foe stared at each other for the briefest of moments, each trying to size the other up, but a quick pump of the shotgun gave away that playing the range game with her saber would not work in Kassidy's favor. Deciding not to find out if the person was actually suicidal enough to fire a shotgun into a decently sized puddle of Dust, she closed the gap and went for a slash across his chest, forcing her foe to abandon firepower in favor of blocking her strike.
Kassidy continued to press her advantage, weaving Baton around and trying to reach around her foe's guard and forcing the person to give more and more ground. In the brief few seconds their encounter had lasted, Kassidy came to a realization: she finally found someone who sucked more at melee combat than she did! Sure, this person had obviously been given basic training, but she knew from experience that all a little training did was make sure you knew how to get yourself in trouble. She intentionally let her strike carry a little too far, and she could almost see her foe's eyes widen even behind the mask as he tried to capitalize on the 'mistake'. It was a bait though, and she effortlessly ducked under the heavy strike that left the weapon stuck in the sheet metal of the container. She slashed up, and the guy had to use the back of his forearm in a desperate gambit to ward off the blow – a gambit that saw a rather shocking amount of red Aura escape from the impact. Kassidy was about to come back down to finish off his Aura, but she forgot about her other opponent.
The pain blinded her for a moment, just a moment, before her painkillers and norepinephrine began making themselves known. It still did nothing to stop Blake from pulling her sword out of Kassidy's shoulder, just outside where the armor protected her. Kassidy tried to flip her sword to her other hand, but a sickening screech told the story of her other assailant pulling his shotgun-axe free of the container. With only one functioning arm, she had no hope of fighting a two-on-one at melee. Still, the masked adversary was the weakest link, and as said adversary swung at her again, she once again ducked under the blade and shoulder-tackled him, knocking him into the wall of the warehouse as she raced away from Blake and behind another container.
Bullets started impacting with her new cover, and Kassidy took that as the cue to begin the gunfight. Before she pulled out from behind the container, however, she took the time to swap out her Taser rounds for a magazine of regular bullets. She'd had more than enough of this fight – if lethal force was what it took to get Blake and Mystery Person to stop poking holes where she didn't want holes, then those two have had more than enough opportunities to stop things earlier.
She stuck her gun out and fired three shots in their general direction, then poked her head out to find out that they had indeed retreated behind cover. At this point, it was easy, so long as they didn't try to do the same thing she did: just wait for one of them to stick their heads out, then blow said head to pieces. Blake indeed tried to stick her head out, but a quick shot nearly blew the bow off her head and revealed the cat ears beneath the not-quite-a-fashion-accessory. A distinctly male voice muttered something, but Kassidy couldn't strain her ears enough to hear. The barest edges of the brown cloak betrayed the now revealed man sticking his head around the corner, and Kassidy took her shot the instant his faceplate showed itself. Solid steel or not, a mask that thin wasn't protecting him from the sheer force behind Rogue's bullets.
In complete defiance of every reasonable expectation of reality, however, the man actually ducked under the rounds – the same rounds that covered thirty five feet while traveling one point three times the speed of sound. His shotgun returned fire, and though Kassidy was already making her own retreat she still saw the small fireball being launched her way. The incendiary round definitely lived up to its name, and Kassidy could feel the heat as it made its impact – some bouncing off the sheet metal of the shipping container, most sailing past and impacting with the wall across from her.
"Munsell, you idiot! You trying to kill us all?! Or did you just forget that there's Dust everywhere?" Kassidy couldn't decide whether to smile at how panicked Blake sounded, or terrified at the reminder that this Munsell person had, in fact, fired an incendiary shotgun round in a warehouse filled to the brim with Dust.
"Not us, just her. And I didn't forget. By the way, we should run." A gasp and a quick glance at the area that took the brunt of the blast confirmed everyone's worst fear: a sixty-gallon drum of fire Dust had been ignited. It was anyone's guess as to when it would blow, but 'soon' was a safe bet.
When Blake absolutely screamed for everyone in the warehouse to head for the hills, Kassidy decided to follow those instructions as well. She emptied her magazine as she sprinted for the front door she first entered at, dissuading anyone from trying to stop her. Her shoulder screamed at her as she forced her injured arm to wrench the steel door open, but a quick glance out the side of her eye confirming the rapidly increasing combustion rate of the Dust gave her all the motivation she needed.
Nobody, not the White Fang, not the police, not the Atlesian forces backing up the police, and definitely not Kassidy could explain why the detonation of that one drum didn't start a chain reaction that turned this particular section of warehouses into more oceanfront property for the city of Vale, but all parties involved were damn happy that this didn't happen. As Kassidy plopped down on the last Bullhead to Beacon, however, she couldn't help but have a bitter taste about how tonight went. The White Fang had most certainly made off with plenty of Dust, she was no closer to actually stopping Blake and this Munsell person, and worst of all, there was no longer hiding her nightly escapades from her teammates. That final fact was only confirmed when a bit of turbulence made Kassidy shudder as her shoulder was jostled again.
AN 2: Well, holy crap, what's up with me and late chapters recently? I promise, I'm not doing this intentionally, guys. Let me get these Reviewer Responses done, get this chapter up, and then do my usual thing of super-fast spellchecking the instant I get it up to make sure I didn't leave any glaring mistakes.
FloriteFlower: Spoilers, dude. And yeah, I was quite pleased with how I introduced SSSN myself, though I guess time will prove whether or not everyone else does.
Firearm Legume: Heh, yeah, gunpowder indeed. Unfortunately, still no research for me, as this week was no less demanding than the last. I promise, I'm not neglecting what you have to teach, I just don't have the time for everything.
Deiundzwanzig: Can't agree more. Glad to hear that you were pleased with my response, and I have to admit that reviews are a big part of my enjoyment of writing this fic, as it lets me gauge how much you guys are enjoying things. Which, evidently, means not a whole lot of people enjoyed last chapter it seems. Guess that's what I get for posting a chapter two and a half hours later than I usually do.
serioushugsies: Well, unfortunately, good ol' General Cockblock is gonna make sure that where Bob and Penny go together is a whole lot of nowhere.
AndJrew76: Your spring break is this late? Then again, mine was the first week of March, so I guess I don't have all that much ground to stand on when it comes to accusing people of having weird spring breaks.