Happy Friday everyone! This chapter is starring good plans, deeply questionable plans, and Mercury happening to someone who deserves it.

60. Evasive Maneuvers

Frost crept across the back of Weiss' hand. She winced, moving it away from Specter's scales and onto the saddle. His whole body radiated cold, and the wind whipping past them certainly didn't help... but it was definitely worth the discomfort.

A jet of fire blasted towards them. Specter dodged it, barely. The blast came so close that even through her dragon's powers, she felt a wash of blistering heat across her back. Her sleeve caught fire.

Weiss slapped at it, cursing furiously. Took a deep breath. This was not the time to panic. Besides, there had been no damage done to her, even if her jacket was now thoroughly ruined. When she glanced behind her, Crucible was closer than he'd been before. Worse, his aim was improving.

"Specter!"

He blew out a glittering cloud. Weiss hunched over his back so that she was protected from the worst of it. Crucible rolled sideways to avoid it, and dropped a few feet further behind.

Pit and Specter worked together to harry and slow the oncoming swarm of pit dragons. Weiss had tried to communicate with Blake and plan a coordinated attack, but it was just about impossible to talk to one another over the howling wind. Their dragons seemed to have things well in hand, though.

Specter produced another cloud of mist. This one missed Crucible entirely, he didn't even have to swerve, but it forced the earth dragon Tar to bank sharply to one side. Even then, she didn't quite avoid it, and white frost spread over the last few feet of her tail. She had already been falling behind. This proved to be the last straw, and she vanished from sight.

Soon after, Pit used his powers to push Tallow into Paprika's path. She bowled him over. Both started to fall. Paprika recovered above the treeline and continued to follow them. Tallow broke through the tops of the trees and got stuck. Weiss didn't see him free himself—he, too, disappeared into the distance.

Fang and Huo had their own roles to play. Whenever one of the pit dragons managed to get close enough to attack, the two of them would shoot fire and dive at them with their claws. Riptide was the latest pursuer to get past both mist and gravity attacks. She tried to latch onto Huo, but Fang flicked his tail across her face to force her to abandon the effort. Then Huo aimed a blast of fire at her. She flared her wings to avoid it, and dropped to the middle of the pack.

They might have been able to do more if they had more dragons—but everyone else had vanished during the chase. Weiss tried not to think too hard about that, because now was not the time to panic. Besides, their dragons obviously had something to do with it, considering how Specter had helped hide Storm.

Weiss rubbed at the back of her hand, thinking frantically. They were in a holding pattern of sorts, but not one that would last long. Huo and Fang couldn't deal with Crucible if he caught up to them—they could breathe fire on him all day, and he wouldn't care. She wasn't even sure they'd be able to handle the other veteran fighters, like Granite or Diver.

The stalemate wasn't in their favor, either. Pit was bound to start wearing down soon. Specter might not be far behind—he'd only recently learned to create mist like this, and she wasn't sure how long he could keep it up. They had to do something. If they could get Pit and Blake hidden...

But that strategy could only work for so long. If they were going to keep leading the pit dragons on a chase like this, there would always have to be at least one pair being chased. So far they'd been able to get free by causing distractions, but that meant they needed someone to do the distracting. Without Pit, they wouldn't have to worry about his powers running out, but they would have to worry about Crucible catching up with them.

No. They needed to chip away at the pit dragon's numbers, not their own. Weiss didn't like the idea of hurting them if she could help it, though, which made her reluctant to ask Specter to try hitting them with the mist. Dragons were more resilient than humans, but...

Weiss snarled in frustration. There were too many questions without answers, here. She didn't know how long Specter could keep making mist, she didn't know how harmful it would be for other dragons, she didn't know anything about these repugnant devices—the three extra years of education she would have had once she'd graduated were making their absence felt.

She kept clinging to the saddle, her neck cramping from looking over her shoulder, shouting instructions to Specter when she spotted an opportunity. And, as she groped for a plan and came up with nothing that wouldn't involve putting one of her friends in an unacceptable amount of danger, she kept reminding herself—now was not the time to panic.

"There's more to the plan, right?" Specter said, ducking past another fireball. "Right? Pit?"

"I'm working on it!" He stopped holding himself up long enough to shove Granite towards the ground. She fought him, and just managed to stay above the treetops. His wing muscles started to tremble, and he returned his powers to himself.

"Could we go into the woods again?" Fang suggested. "That... sort of worked."

Huo snorted. "Only because we got lucky."

"Well we have to do something!" Specter rolled in midair. Out of the corner of his eye, Pit saw Weiss' sleeve briefly catch fire until she slapped it out. "This hurts, you know."

Pit really wished they would stop talking. He was out of breath, but he said, "If we go in the woods, we'll get surrounded."

They flew on. A few dragons got too close, and Pit and Specter did their best to slow them with their powers without hurting them. Sometimes, when that didn't work, Huo and Fang would push them away—fire was good at driving most of them back, but it was a lot harder to use without causing any serious injuries. Some of them were fast, and kept catching up with them over and over. Crucible wasn't, not really—he closed the distance slowly, but it was almost impossible to stall him. Once he got within biting distance...

He remembered Pepper falling.

"What if we split up?" asked Huo. "Like we've been doing. They'd have to do the same thing to get all of us."

"Crucible will chase someone," Pit said. "It's impossible to get around him when he spits fire so far."

"So somebody needs to deal with him."

"What do you mean, deal with him?"

Fang's flight pattern stuttered briefly. "Well," he said nervously. "I might have an idea."

He explained. Pit and Specter balked.

"Fang, no."

"Do you have a better idea?" Huo demanded. "'Cause two-on-one odds sound a lot better than anything else we've come up with."

"You're not going to fight him, are you?" Specter's voice turned unusually shrill.

"No! What am I, crazy? We'll run away." Fang flicked his tail. "It'll, uh... it'll be hard for him to see once we start."

"But your riders—"

Huo tossed his head indignantly. "We're not dumb. It's not like flying until we drop is less dangerous."

Pit hesitated. He knew who Huo meant by we—he'd be the one who exhausted himself first. He owed it to his friends to at least try to get them out of danger before that happened.

...Though he wasn't sure this counted as being out of danger.

"Be careful!" he shouted, fixing Fang with an evil stare. "Because if you don't I'll—"

"Yeah, yeah." Fang dipped a wing to sidle closer to Huo. "Ready?"

"After you, sunshine!"

Together, they dove. Pit craned his neck to look. Crucible kept his crimson eyes fixed on Specter's tail. Paprika, Granite, Brick, and Riptide all peeled away from the chase to follow the two fire dragons.

They crashed through the treetops. Paprika led the pit dragons in a V formation, her wings spread wide. Before any of them could get close, fire bloomed. Most of the dragons following veered away, returning to following Pit and Specter.

Paprika didn't. Pit stalled in midair, his heart dropping into his stomach. They don't know—!

She dipped under the trees. Seconds later, there was an ear-piercing screech as she erupted back into the sky. She thrashed in midair, roaring, smoke billowing around her, until her tail was extinguished. Then she went silent. Corrected her course. Flew on, silently, as if nothing had happened.

Crucible wheeled around. The fire was already spreading, the air a haze of smoke. He dropped into the heart of the inferno and vanished.

Pit noticed for the first time that Blake was gripping the reins like her life depended on it. He rumbled deep in his chest to try and soothe her. She patted his shoulder in thanks.

He tried his best to put Fang and Huo out of his mind, for now. They would get away, and then meet up with everyone later while Crucible stayed lost in the woods, hopefully until they could get rid of the mind control devices. For now, he had to worry about Blake, Weiss, and Specter.

His wing muscles ached.

"This is a plan, right?" Blake called out. Pit flicked his ear. "One flick for yes, two for no." One flick.

A plan that involved Yang and Sun diving into a flaming forest with Crucible. Great. Blake took a deep, steadying breath. She had to trust that they knew what they were doing. Especially since there were still six pit dragons following them.

"Okay. What's next?"

Pit turned his head just enough for her to see one wide yellow eye, and gave her a sheepish look.

"This is as far as you got?"

One flick.

Blake chewed her lip. A glance over her shoulder showed her that Diver was getting dangerously close. The pit dragons had fanned out, and Inkwell was almost level with them, though she was flying almost a hundred yards to their left.

They're trying to surround us.

She grinned. They hadn't been able to do anything about that with Crucible blasting anything that got too close to him... but he wasn't here anymore.

"One-eighty degree flip," she shouted, as quietly as she could while still conveying the message to Pit. "Think you can pull it off?"

His freckles, which had been glowing continuously for a while now, brightened. Blake had enough warning to grab the saddle and hold on tight while the world spun sickeningly over her head. Weiss did not—she let out a yelp that carried clearly in the sudden absence of roaring wind. Startled pit dragons whipped past them on either side as Pit and Specter flapped frantically to build up speed.

By the time their pursuers had turned themselves around, they were already dwindling into specks—but they weren't about to get any further behind. Not without Pit in range to mess with them. Weiss apparently had the same thought. She waved with one hand and jabbed a finger at the trees below.

They dove. Blake held a hand over her face as branches whipped past her. Pit hit the ground in a dead sprint, breathing hard. "We need to hide somewhere," Blake called out.

"What about there?" Weiss gestured towards a section of thick undergrowth. Blake glanced up at the hole the dragons had torn in the canopy and shook her head.

"No, they'll be able to find where we came down and sniff us out that way. We need some water, like a stream or—"

Specter picked his head up and sniffed. He whistled and turned sharply to his left, with Pit following. Seconds later, Blake smelled what he had. She really, really shouldn't complain...

"Ugh." Weiss put a hand over her face. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss Raven's camp."

It wasn't a stream. More of a valley between two large hills, one that dipped well below sea level. Shallow, filthy water covered the ground—which meant thick mud, swarming insects, and the kind of smell that thoroughly masked their own.

They picked their way farther in, where trees grew thickly from the water and they wouldn't be immediately visible from the edge. Pit and Specter were careful to step in deep enough water that they wouldn't leave obvious footprints, though Specter fretted at the muck that soon caked his legs.

The swampy area opened up once they passed between the mountains. They went left, circled around a low ridge, and finally passed onto slightly drier ground. Pit sagged in relief, and almost fell onto his belly. "Just a little longer," Blake promised. "Then you can rest."

"Mmm-kay..."

"WHAT?!"

Hands slammed down on the desk in front of the computer terminal, rattling a coffee mug and a package of clean syringes. Watts stared at the screen in disbelief. He clicked from monitor to monitor, revealing nothing but empty forest.

The last two dragons had vanished. And they were only the latest in a series of improbable escapes, where the pack of a dozen had somehow whittled down to nothing.

He pulled up the blueprint for his devices. The programming was, despite his best efforts, still something of a sprawling mess... but he easily found the sections that enabled semi-autonomous combat. This part of the design was noticeably neater than other pieces of code—mostly because Watts had built it up nearly from scratch.

It was, in his esteemed opinion, ingenious. There had been code in the original device intended to provide suggestions and allow for the use of more advanced combat techniques. From those simple stepping stones he had created code that let his devices use a dragon's instincts and muscle memory, and incorporated a simple AI for tactics and basic strategy. Without it, one person couldn't hope to control so many of the creatures at once—and all their fighting experience in the pits would have been wasted.

So how the hell had a dozen dragons disappeared from right under his nose? Was there some kind of bug in the system?

He rewatched the video. They'd been talking to one another. Somehow, without any sort of radios or other technology, they'd managed to execute dozens of improvised plans while midflight. It wasn't possible—humans couldn't converse like that in midair! They'd be lucky if they could scream a few words at one another, let alone this.

"Yo."

He froze, his shoulders rigid. Slowly, he turned his head. Mercury stood in the doorway of his lab. A twitch started in his left eye.

"You okay there, buddy?" The young man smirked.

Watts let out a wordless snarl and hurled his mug, still half-full, at Mercury's head. He ducked, laughing as it shattered against the wall.

"She's gonna skin you alive."

The boy flipped him off and slipped out of the doorway.

Watts glared at his monitor. If it had come to a fight... but it hadn't.

He grimaced. Things weren't entirely unsalvageable. There were a few dragons he hadn't lost track of, with whom it would be more a matter of forcing them out of their hiding places than anything else. While those inconveniences were dealt with, he could start combing the woods.

But as irritating as he was... Mercury wasn't wrong. Cinder already hated him. She'd take this as a failure even if he did manage to hunt them all down. And if just one of the students escaped, she was finished.

It was time to enact his backup plan.

The streets of Vacuo teemed with life, even late at night—particularly those neighborhoods that had once been home to fighting pits. Now the pits were long gone, most of them burnt-out or smashed to rubble, but the areas around them were still the place to go if you didn't want anyone to pay too much attention to you.

A small figure pulled a beanie further down over her face, her shoulders hunched nervously, carrying a bag of groceries over one shoulder. She turned just as a man in a purple suit passed by her. At the sight of him she jumped and cringed back into an alley, only relaxing when he kept walking without so much as a second glance.

But of course May was jumpy—she hadn't been sleeping much, lately.

Her teammates were gone. Nolan was in Vale, after agreeing to answer a few questions from the Council and transfer to the new and 'improved' Beacon. Brawnz could be anywhere for all she knew, but he'd joined the rogues. Cinder.

It wasn't like she was surprised. Maybe, if things were different, she and Roy would have gone with Brawnz. Maybe... But she'd shot Ozpin, and the man in the violet cloak had tried to kill her, and the Council had killed Roy.

She adjusted her beanie again, a nervous habit she'd picked up while in hiding. There wasn't technically a warrant out for her address... but she knew they were looking for her. A student of Shade that disappeared after the attack? She wasn't one of the rogues, but she was definitely a rogue. If the wrong camera picked up her face...

Stop it. May turned a corner and relaxed slightly. She was home, or as close as she got these days. A small, condemned factory. Abandoned, not-quite-waterproof... but empty, and with a back room big enough to hide Flurry. She circled around to the back entrance, easing it open so that the rusted hinges didn't squeal too loudly.

It was silent inside.

"Flurry?"

May frowned. She'd scolded him the other day for barking when she got in—but she hadn't meant for him to think he couldn't do it at all. Just... not so loud.

She took another few steps inside the door, tossed the bag of food onto the floor—and searing light filled the room. May cried out and dove for her rifle. Her fingers scrabbled at the metal bars she'd hidden it under. Then several pairs of arms grabbed her and hauled her away. She hung from their grip, trembling, as one of the intruders stepped forward.

Black armor. Opaque visor. And Vacuo's crest painted over the chest. Soldiers.

"Flurry!"

Not a sound from the other room. May's struggling redoubled, and she kicked one of the soldiers holding her in the shin. The one who stood in front of her held up his hands.

"Your dragon is perfectly fine, May Zedong. We've simply sedated him to avoid an... incident."

"I didn't—"

"I'm sure you also wish to avoid an incident."

May stiffened, her eyes flicking to the long rifle slung over his back.

"Your hands, please." He drew a pair of plastic cuffs from his belt.

She swallowed and offered her wrists.

It was all very efficient. Flurry was loaded onto an airship, while May sat in the cabin between two of the soldiers. Panic overwhelmed everything, jumbling her thoughts as she wondered what would happen to her partner. Scenarios rushed past her mind's eye, each worse than the last—he was alone in a dark room, wondering where she was. They'd seen his wings and sent him to the fighting pits. They'd culled him for being the dragon of a rogue, he was gone and she had no one—

But when they led her to her cell, there he was. Curled up in the back with one wing over his face. Snoring softly. May curled up next to him until they came for her.

Next was a small room that looked more like an office than an interrogation room. The woman behind the desk was obviously one of the council's. She watched May impassively for several horribly long moments. Then, still expressionless, she retrieved a small plastic bag from behind her desk and placed it in front of her. Inside was a single spent casing.

"This is from your rifle," the woman said. "It was found just outside Beacon's campus. You were absent from Shade at the time of the attack on Beacon. Care to explain?"

May opened her mouth, but all that came out was a croak. She swallowed, dropping her gaze down to the backs of her hands. "No," she mumbled. "It was me."

"That's a good start." A flick of the woman's hand started a recorder. "Please. Continue."