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"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

-Murphy's First Law

Chapter 24: Black Bagging

Jaune walked into the living room, yanking out his earpiece and pulling off the radio equipment attached to his belt. The usually empty wall had a whiteboard pinned upon it, and a table pressed to its side. On the whiteboard were pinned up photos of the same Faunus man, and the table dossiers with reams of paper inside, the corners that jutted out showing the barest of official looking emblems. A few of his crew sat off to the side playing a tabletop game, and Cedric himself stood next to the table, sorting through photos and flicking through his scroll.

"Hey, Cedric," Jaune passed the Intel Operator, taking a seat on a couch. "How's putting together the brief going?"

Cedric barely looked up, "It's going."

"You get the photos and report Vi and I took?"

"Yep," Cedric raised his scroll, an image of the same Faunus whose face was plastered all over the wall on it. "He went the same route, did the same things, and didn't deviate. Jay and Thistle should confirm his routine for the rest of the day, and if I can put together this target package for us, we'll strike tomorrow."

Jaune opened his mouth to respond when he heard the clinking of metal on metal, a swoosh, and then the harsh impact of metal on the side of his face.

"Ow!" his hand immediately went to his face, accidentally catching the object in the process. A set of car keys. A glance to his right, and Vi stood there, looking just a little pissed. "What was that for?"

"Backseat driving the entire time," she rolled her eyes. "Do you even have a driver's license yet?"

Rubbing the sore spot on his face, he answered, "Yes?"

Vi deadpanned, "That doesn't sound like a sure yes."

"Doesn't matter because I'm not the one driving, plus with your driving, anyone can critique it," he quipped.

"Asshole," she grumbled, but not retorting, before walking off towards the rest of his section mates gathered around a table.

"Hey, guys!" Lavender looked up from the table, a smile growing on her face. "You wanna join in on the game? Thistle and Jay left so we're down two players. We can make you guys some character sheets right now if you want."

Vi shrugged, "Sure, make some space."

"Uh," Jaune flicked his eyes over to Cedric. "Gimme a sec, I'll join you guys in a bit after I do some stuff."

Her smile dimmed for a moment, before she slowly nodded, "Alright, feel free to join anytime."

Jaune turned away, hearing giggles and the sound of Lavender protesting something in a hushed tone as he faced Cedric, "How much information do we have on this guy?"

"Iris and my own work on this, combined with your work, leaves us with a lot of operational and background information on him," Cedric pointed towards the photo of a man in a White Fang uniform, mask and all, laid on top of the rolled out map of the city. "Right now I'm just trying to find a decent location to do the snatch."

"Doesn't he vary his paths sometimes?"

"Which isn't that much of a problem in itself, but I'm looking to minimize the amount of cameras we'll have on us at a time," Cedric glanced over at him, hands planted on the table. "There's not much you can do right now to help. Go hang out with your section and play some games with them. Bonding time or something."

"I can-"

Cedric interrupted him, "I'm putting together the target package for you guys and forming a plan. Once that's done I'll show you it and we can bounce around ideas, but for now, go hang out with everyone, you've earned it."

Jaune hesitated for a moment, before starting to stand up, "I'll leave you to it then."

Cedric just nodded, shooing him away, and towards the table where everyone else sat. He noticed Iris also was there, rolling dice along with everyone else.

"Oh hey," Vi noticed him, pulling back a chair for him. "You done over there?"

He sat down, glancing down at the table full of miniatures, "I'm here, aren't I? So, what was this about a character sheet?"

Lavender began digging around by her legs, "Oh, gimme a sec. Uh.. uh… here!"

Taking one look, he recognized the game, "Oh! We're playing this?"

"Yup!"

"It's..." he scratched the back of his head. "Been a while, could you uh, remind me how this works again?"

"Oh yeah sure!" Lavender happily agreed, coming to her feet and starting to point out every single thing on the sheet, "So this is for..."

/ - /

Jaune slapped the magazine into his nondescript rifle, a modified Atlesian pattern rifle, "We're rolling light today, so keep your auras up. Your plates will take care of some stuff, but not everything."

The armoury was a small one, compared to the ones he's seen before, but no less well stocked. The crates his team had taken to as impromptu chairs held even more of the same rifles they held. The walls held vast swaths of exotic and equally dangerous weaponry. Hell, even a rack full of heavy machine guns sat in a corner. Nobody paid any attention to it, though, besides leaning over to grab a spare magazine from a nearby crate.

"C'mon Jaune," Thistle leaned over, patting his shoulder before he racked his rifle. "This ain't our first rodeo."

Jaune snorted, looking specifically at Jay, who skulked in the corner of the room, "Doesn't hurt to say it again, not even saying that Jay grabbed his personal machinegun that can be easily traced back to us."

"Hey!" shouted Jay. "Everyone makes mistakes, and I just forgot that we needed to have covert weapons!"

Lavender giggled, "Yeah, and you also got your rocket launcher. I'm sure that'll fit well in the van."

"Fuck off, Lav. At least I wasn't the one getting all pissy and shit over doing morally questionable things."

"Should I be concerned that you're totally okay with kidnapping someone off the street?" Lavender pouted, fiddling with the assault rifle in her hands, a far cry from her custom rifle.

"Maybe, but at least I'll do it, and not pussyfoot around it."

Vi slipped pistol magazines into her belt, "Lav, you're complaining about all this morally grey stuff. Do I need to remind you that we were basically petty thieves for some of our life?"

"Yeah but that's like… ugh!" Lavender rolled her eyes, standing up and sliding on her plate carrier. "Don't you see where I'm coming from here though? We're kidnapping a dude off the streets!"

"As long as I get paid it's all fine with me," Thistle drawled. "I came into this expecting this stuff, y'know? Dad warned me off pretty well. Now I'm here, and I sure as fuck can't complain."

Vi stood up, making for the door as she checked over her vest and rifle, "Yeah, but you're… you. You don't give a shit about anything."

Thistle just shrugged, continuing on with his preparations.

"It's necessary right?" Finch fiddled with his drone, folding the blades in and out. "We gotta get intelligence to find the enemy and this is how we're getting intelligence. Police arrest people all the time."

Jay grinned, ruffling Finch's head, "Exactly! We're basically just arresting a dude!"

Lavender frowned, having stopped fiddling with her rifle, "That's entirely different! We're not uniformed cops, we're mercenaries snatching people off the streets!"

Jay paused, just looking and their sharpshooter for a moment before giving a smirk, "Should've thought of that before joining Striker Group then."

"You two shut it. No more fighting or I'll recommend you both to Moss for discipline," he snapped at them, suddenly standing up and looking between the two. "Or I'll personally handle it myself. The last thing I need on an op is you two bitching and fighting about whether this is right or not. Is that clear?"

The two of them looked down at their knees, quietly muttering something to the effect of yes.

He softened his gaze at Lavender, "Hey, if it does anything to help, we've been given official—well, unofficial, but a mandate nonetheless—by a Council member to carry out this mission and find the locations of Sabyr Brigade in this city. We're also covered by the broader contracts by the Council to stop White Fang activity within the city. This is all approved from somewhere up the chain of command, Lav."

"Still doesn't make it right..."

"And-" Jay immediately shut his mouth when Jaune threw a glare his way. "I'll shut up now."

Jaune glanced around the ready room. Every member of his crew had on the same tan plate carrier, the same grey overalls, and every member the same rifle. They looked ready, but appearances could be deceiving, "We're all ready here then? No last minute complaints? Any deep, dark secrets you want to spill?"

Silence.

"Good, because I'm all for pre-mission locker room talk, maybe even locker talk on the way there," Jaune cast his eyes over everyone there. "But once we're on the X, once we're minutes from snatching that White Fang guy off the streets, I need everyone on their game. Yeah?"

His team nodded slowly.

"Good," Jaune gripped the rifle by its magwell, clipping it to his sling. "Let's get going, because that White Fang isn't going to hold off on bombing a mall just because we're too busy debating ethics."

/ - /

"Bravo, this is Alpha," Iris whispered into the air, hands clenched tightly around her steering wheel. "Target is diverting off the expected route. He's making a right onto Braun street."

Cedric's voice came back over her earpiece, "Alpha, this is Bravo, copy. That was expected. Continue to follow and call us in when he reaches a suitable area."

"Wilco," Iris twisted the key in the ignition, the engine coming to life with a purr. Quietly, she whispered without transmitting. "Why the hell am I always the one doing the follows?"

Pulling her unremarkable car out of the side of the street, she scanned around quickly, just a look around for counter-surveillance disguised as one looking for traffic. Nothing. Ugh, Cedric literally had the Semblance that made it impossible for a person to remember his face, so why the hell did she get the job?

"Fucker probably wanted to play with a gun," she grumbled to herself, making a right turn onto the street her target just went on. Casually spotting her target walking further down the street, she pulled over to the side, sliding over to just behind another car. Furrowing her brow, she glanced over the rows of houses, wondering just what a White Fang member would be doing in a residential area.

Continuing to mentally complain about Cedric putting her on tailing duty, she made sure nobody else was on the street that could compromise her, before pulling out a pair of binoculars, and pressing them to her eyes. Looking through the windows of the car in front of her wouldn't impede her ability to spot him much, but certainly his to spot her.

Through the two layers of glass, she spotted the White Fang member walking down the street, looking just like anyone else going on their morning walk around the block.

Hm, how many people were around? She laid the binoculars in her lap, examining the street in front of her. Maybe a few people here and there, but besides that, it was fairly quiet. Only a few cars passed here and there so…

"Bravo, this is Alpha, target is walking down a barren residential street. Minimal foot and vehicle traffic. Recommend going now."

There was a brief pause between the end of her transmission and his response, "Roger, we're rolling."

So now came the easy part, she thought to herself, arching her back as she stretched her body. Sitting around, waiting for the Direct Action Arm to do their thing and give her a nice show for her to watch. Maybe Cedric would fuck up finally and she'd finally get him to buy her dinner… and finally, she'd have something new to make fun of him for.

Yawning, she idly raised her binoculars up to her eyes just to give a cursory look. He'd probably still be wa- what the fuck?

She shot forward in her seat, binoculars pressed to her face. The target was no longer on the sidewalk, instead, walking up the driveway to one of the houses, eyes down at his phone.

"Bravo, this is Alpha, abort, abort, abort. Situation has changed, wait out."

Immediately, Cedric responded, "Roger, aborting. We'll standby 'til you give us the call."

She held the binoculars with both hands, watching the house's door open and the target enter. Quietly, she whispered, "The hell are you doing?"

She trained her binos on the door for a whole half minute, waiting for either the target to come out of the house, or nobody at all. If nobody did? Well, they could always try again tomorrow… then again, Finch had his drones...

Why the fuck did she have to follow the target again? Finch had a drone up, didn't he? Yeah, maybe he had to fly high to avoid detection, what about it?

The sound of a distant Bullhead reminded her of why.

Eventually, the target did exit the house, someone else in tow.

Slowly, very slowly, and very, very worried, she lowered her binoculars.

"Oh no..."

Pressing down the transmit button on the radio, she began to worriedly explain everything.

/ - /

"Say again?" Cedric pressed a finger on his ear, making sure his earpiece was really in. "The target has a kid with him now?"

"Affirmative," Jaune heard Iris in his own earpiece. "He's continuing down the street. He ain't coming back over the way he came. Foot and vehicle traffic still minimal. You could still probably do a snatch if you work around the kid."

Cedric grimaced, "Keep eyes on, wait out."

"How did he not know about this?" Jaune asked. "We followed him for a week, and you were already following him long before that!"

A moment of hesitation. Cedric glanced briefly into the back of the van where the team sat, plate carriers on, and short rifles with suppressors screwed on the ends in hand, "Last time I checked, this dude didn't have a kid according to anything official. Maybe he's babysitting for a buddy or something."

Thistle scoffed in the back, "A terrorist babysitting? That's real funny."

"Maybe he's babysitting for one of his terrorist buddies," suggested Jay, leaning forward out of his seat. "In that case, that kid will probably grow up to be a terrorist or something. Snatching up his White Fang friend might put the fear of God into his ass and think otherwise about becoming a terrorist."

"Or maybe he'll just turn to terrorism anyways," Jaune growled. He turned back to Cedric. "So are we a go or no go on this?"

Cedric remained silent, staring out the windshield.

"Cedric?"

He didn't turn to reply, "Give me time to think."

Lavender buried her head in her hands, "There's a kid in the crossfire now?"

Finch's knuckles were white, wrapped around his rifle, "Guess so."

"Fucking hell," Vi grimaced, fiddling around with her hands. "Things just got a bit more complicated."

"Overstatement of the century," Thistle snorted, kicking out his legs, taking up the entire space next to the rear doors.

Jaune leaned over to Cedric, lips pursed as he tapped the stoic man on the shoulder, "Cedric, the hell are we doing?"

Cedric just slid on a pair of headphones over his head, jamming the input cable into his radio, "This is Bravo to all stations. Continue the snatch. If the kid interferes, shove him away or knock him out if he becomes enough of a problem. Good luck everyone, the operation is a go."

"Cedric," Jaune grimaced, lowering his voice to a whisper. "We can wait a day and snatch the asshole up without the kid being involved."

His face shimmered for a moment, before Jaune realized that he'd just turned on his semblance. The car started up, Cedric pulling them into the road, "I've done ops where we've waited a day only for the conditions to get worse. I'm not chancing this."

"There's a kid th-"

"I know. Do your best to work around it."

He stared at the man, before sighing and sinking back into his cushioned seat, pulling a cigarette out of his vest, and lighting it with a flick. The window rolled down beside him, letting the acrid smoke drift outside. Casually, he slid back the bolt halfway on his rifle, making sure that it did have a round in it. "Guess we're going."

"That we are," Cedric said. In the back, his team had started their typical quiet pre-mission chatter. "You ever try dip?"

Jaune raised an eyebrow, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth, "What's that?"

"Smokeless tobacco."

"Sounds nice."

"It isn't," he replied, holding down his radio transmit button at the same time. "This is Bravo, we're rolling."

/ - /

The two Faunus, father and son, walked down the street. The father smiled wistfully down at his son, barely five years old at this point. Born out of a drunken night filled with mistakes, neither the kid's mother nor he wanted to make anything on record, especially with their situation then...

Screwing around with another member of the White Fang had its consequences, including a very, very irate commander.

So they decided she'd leave and raise the child, while he'd continue on with the cause, fully committing to make up for taking a fully capable member out of action for far longer than his commander wanted. He regretted to admit he scarcely visited then, some of that not even of his own compulsion.

"Nick, please, all this White Fang stuff- I've put behind me. Max doesn't need to have all of this stuff in his life… I just want him to live a regular life."

It hurt him, it really did. He even lashed out at the time, as much as he regretted it now.

But with five years of trying and failing, he'd finally broken through. Now he could finally visit his son without needing to hide from Max's mother. It came with conditions, of course, but to take him out on walks without needing to worry about Amelie rushing out to kill him? It was a win in his books.

Still, even with all of the things he'd put himself through, he didn't regret it one bit, especially now, holding the hand of his own kid, who gleefully skipped along on the pavement beside him.

"Dad," Max said in his tinny, childish voice. "What do you do for your job?"

He didn't panic, he didn't stutter, instead, he calmly reached over his head, ruffling his head while smiling, "I'm a manager."

"What do you do?" he asked.

"Well," a laugh. "I manage people. I do a lot of paperwork, and a lot of the time, I have to do my employee's work."

"Ooh," he drew it out, before saying, "Sounds like you need to get better employees."

Nick ruffled his head again, running his hands through the brunette hair of his mother, and the fox ears from him, "Maybe, I do, but they have their hearts in the right place."

"Mom said yo-

Nick stopped listening for a moment, his sensitive hearing honing in on something else. Approaching engines. Two engines, one sounded like it was driving straight past, and the other… sounded like it was slowing down. Nothing in itself to worry about, but he hadn't climbed the ranks of the White Fang by not being paranoid. He made a glance over his shoulder, the barest of attention devoted to his kid.

One dinky, run of the mill car, driven by a young woman from the looks of it, and a van with a ladder strapped to the top and markings about a plumber service on the side. Alright, maybe just some passing cars. He had taken every precaution to separate his life as a freedom fighter from his life as Nick. But some caution was never unwelcome-

As the van drew closer, something made him do a double-take.

Two men sat in the front. It wasn't their clothes that made him look again, those looked like gray overalls or something along those lines. No, it was the night-black balaclavas, eye obscuring sunglasses, military headsets sitting on their heads, and the just visible straps of a plate carrier on their shoulders. No license plate on the grill either.

"Max!" he immediately turned around, pushing forward his kid. "Run!"

Max stumbled back as he looked up at him, his happiness turning to confusion as his mind scrambled to figure out what was going on, "D-dad?"

Before he could yell again, the van screeched to a stop beside him, the doors already flying open.

"Two!" the man on the driver side door yelled. "Grab the kid!"

No!

His hand swept back his jacket, reaching for the handgun he always kept in his waistband.

Already, four armed and masked assailants pointed guns at him, surrounding him in a half-circle, with the rest off to the side and pointing their guns elsewhere. His hand rested on the butt of his pistol as he took in his situation. Curiously, one hadn't worn a mask, but every time he looked away… he chalked it up to a Semblance of some sort. The way they all moved and flowed together, this was probably some sort of professional military unit.

In his humble estimation, the situation was shit.

Jaune Arc yanked the screaming and kicking child towards him, holding his arm lightly around his neck, his other hand firmly gripping his rifle. Holding a child hostage? That just… wasn't right…

Cedric opened his firing hand in an open palm, still keeping it on the grip, and whispered quietly, "C'mon, don't make us do this in front of the kid. Come peacefully and this won't need to get messy."

"Dad?" tears streamed down Max's face, confusedly looking up at the armed men and single woman, "What's happening?"

Nick flicked his eyes between his opposition, slowly backing away, "Max, don't worry. Just don't do anything and stay where you are."

Cedric's face remained level, "C'mon, Nick. Don't make your kid see this."

It was just a split second, a single look at Max's terrified face and the man holding him hostage. His hand came away from his pistol, and they came above his head, palms open and empty.

Cedric nodded towards Thistle, "Bag him."

Thistle lowered his rifle, letting it fall on his sling, before pulling out a bag the same colour as their balaclavas. It came over Nick's head, rendering his world muffled sounds of Max screaming, and the dark, black view of inside the bag. He felt his pants rise and his pistol come out of his holster, then his hands being forced down behind him, and the chink of Gravity Bolas wrapping around his wrists.

As Nick was pushed into the car, Max's screams and yells grew louder and louder, calling for anyone, or anybody, to help. After the second yell, Jaune clamped his hand over his mouth, but the damage was already done. Locals were already poking their heads out to see what the commotion was, some ducking back in, no doubt to grab something to record this from a safer place.

Cedric started moving back to the driver side door, "Two, knock the kid out and let's go!"

Jaune gently unwrapped his arm from Max's neck, pushing him away. His hand was already curled into a fist, but looking down at the child

The kid was defenceless, bawling his eyes out, and not a threat.

Jaune regripped his rifle, turning around to get back into his seat and leave the child alone on the sidewalk. He hoped the kid would find his way back to wherever his parents were, or at least his other parent, judging from what he just heard.

He turned his back on the kid, and so never saw what hit him.

Max cried, sobbed, and howled. His dad—his hero and mascot—was being taken away by scary people with guns, and there wasn't a thing he could do.

It sucked.

It sucked a lot.

If only he could do something about it… become a superhero, become one of the Huntsmen who'd swoop down and save the world from the same people who kidnapped his dad…

The glow of his hands told him about it first. The strange, sudden rush of power rushed through his body.

Power.

Was this a blessing from God? Or was this… was this Aura?

He had power.

He could save his dad, he'd swoop in, and save him, while beating up all the bad people! He'd be a superhero and everyone would cheer him on!

It was almost instinct that he channelled his Aura into his fist, a sudden rush of emotion and adrenaline that propelled him forward, aiming for the back of the person who held him back from his dad. He'd beat him up first, then all the rest. He had Aura now, so he was safe, right?

But first, the man who held him back.

His fist landed straight on the vest Jaune wore. It met a hard surface of some sort, before his knuckles drove through, cracking whatever was inside with his Aura enhanced punch. The man flew into the car, yelping out in pain as he tumbled around inside, before stopping upside down in his seat, groaning loudly as he tried to get up.

Yes! He did it! Next would be-

Max turned to his left, only to see a big, hulking man, and the blur of a rifle buttstock coming right for him.

He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"C'mon, let's fuckin' move it!" Cedric growled into his headset, his pissed voice carrying on the radio. "And Two, close that fuckin' door!"

Jaune finally managed to right himself, cursing the entire time, and slammed the door shut. He patted his back, running his hand around it and checking for any damage. When it came to the ceramic plate insert, he jostled it inside, and felt each piece of the shattered ceramic plate move around inside.

In the back, Jay practically leapt in, the rear doors closed shut by Finch and Vi alike. Thistle had just finished patting down the target, and dragged off the black bag, only to hastily slide on a blindfold, shove in a gag, and slap on earmuffs that would deafen the outside world to him.

Jay called out, "All in!"

As Cedric stepped on the accelerator, he actuated his radio, "This is Bravo, operation completed. Exfil and regroup at primary Rally Point."

Cedric shook his head, yanking off his headset and replacing it with a smaller, lower profile earpiece, "Goddammit..."

/ - /

Jaune sat low in his chair, cigarette stuck in his mouth, and eyes up towards the open skies.

The balcony didn't see much use by the team or the two Intel Operators, and so clouds of dust had made it its home by the time he'd tried to find a place to have a smoke.

A sigh as he massaged his face. The kid had been basically doing nothing the entire time, and then he came out of nowhere with a punch that shattered his ballistic plate.

Was he just supposed to knock the kid out? Actually… yeah, that was probably what Cedric meant by shutting the kid up…

"This feels like last time..."

"What was last time?"

Jaune didn't have to look to know who it was. A chair scraped against the ground, and then Cedric blew out some air as he lowered himself in it.

"Last time I messed up, and it was my fault."

"You realize that. At least you're not blaming anyone else. I can see why Alabaster fast tracked you for command," Cedric motioned to the cigarette box that laid on the arm of his chair. "Mind giving me a smoke?"

He did, plucking out one of the narrow tubes and handed it to Cedric, who promptly leaned forward with it in his mouth. After lighting it, Jaune said, "It's just that… he was a kid, the hell was I supposed to do?"

Cedric shrugged, "Knock him out. Push him away and get out of dodge. Taking the kid as a bargaining chip for interrogation may have been an option, but that would be unnecessary with Iris here."

At Jaune's shock and wide eyes, he added on, "Hey, I ain't saying I would've done it. But most of the White Fang higher ups never give anything up without using special methods. We're a mercenary company, Jaune, remember that. Whatever rules of honour they taught us in Basic doesn't apply in this world. We've got the advantage of no rules, so sometimes, we play it with no rules."

Jaune sighed, a bit more deflated, "Yeah, guess you're right."

Cedric didn't respond, so Jaune continued, "The kid was defenceless. He wasn't a threat. He looked like he could've been blown over by the wind! Then suddenly," his voice grew quieter. "He was a threat, and he wasn't defenceless."

Cigarette smoke floated out of Cedric's mouth as he put it in and out again, until he finally spoke, "You ever hear of counterinsurgency, Jaune?"

"Yeah, I learnt a bit about it."

"Well," a puff of smoke. "In a COIN situation, our guys would drive around in their vehicles, waving and smiling at the locals, until one of them pulls a rocket launcher out from under their clothes."

"Not a threat until they are."

"Yep."

"So," Cedric leaned over, eyes burrowing into him. "When I tell you to do something, do it."

He took the cigarette out of his mouth, giving Cedric a look, "What, I'm supposed to punch a kid next time?"

"Exactly."

"He was a kid, Cedric."

Cedric tilted his head side to side, "Well, at least keep your eyes on potential threats until we're safe. You took your eyes off the kid, and you let him get the jump on you. You dismissed that little fucker as a threat the moment you laid eyes on him. I saw how you held him, and didn't bother to clamp his mouth 'til he got really loud."

"I was maintaining control over my weapon," he muttered.

"You turned your back on the kid, and you paid the price," Cedric leaned forward until he was inches away from his face, "What our slip up cost more than just a broken ceramic plate? What if next time a kid pulls a bomb and kills one of your team and you turned your back because you don't think he's a threat?"

Jaune didn't respond, just continuing to smoke his cigarette.

A sigh, "Hey, if there's one thing you pull away from this with, treat everything as a threat until proven otherwise, and it's solidly proven as well."

Cedric stood up, the slow, light, footfalls the only sound Jaune could hear, even with the traffic going past on the road below. A doorknob twisted, and the door creaked as Cedric opened it.

"Also, don't actually go too hard on yourself for this," Cedric said quietly. "Learn from it, but realize, it's probably better that you hesitate before punching a kid doing nothing but want his dad back."

Cedric left, closing the door behind him and leaving Jaune alone on the balcony.

/ - /

"How'd you do it?"

Jay looked up from his scroll at Jaune, "Huh? Do what?"

Both of them sat across from each other, a coffee table dividing the two of them. Jaune sunk himself further into the couch he sat on, "Punch the kid from yesterday."

"Oh, that?" Jay shrugged, looking back down at his scroll. "He was a threat. Easy as that."

"Really?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Didn't he break your backplate?"

"Yes… but what if he didn't do anything and Cedric told you to knock him out?"

"In an instant," Jay didn't look up from his scroll. "If knocking out that kid contributes to mission success, then I'll do it."

"What about shooting a kid?"

Jay finally glanced up from the scroll, brows furrowing into a V, "What, you having another morality crisis?"

"Maybe."

He set the scroll down on the coffee table, squaring up to Jaune and clasping his hands together, "Shit, if the kid is gonna kill you, or has a gun, you better expect me to squeeze off a burst at the fucker."

"Simple as that?"

"Simple as that."

"Huh," Jaune scratched his chin. "No morality debates about it after?"

Jay nearly laughed, stifling it with a hand over his mouth, "I've already killed people Jaune. Probably innocent people at that. I'm far past any complex debates about morality."

"Oh right, you were in a gang."

Maybe Jay wasn't the best to go to for questions on morality.

Footsteps at the entrance to the living room caught his attention. A quick look over his shoulder, and he saw Iris walking in, covering her mouth in a yawn, and dressed head to toe in her pyjamas, "Hiya guys!"

They both greeted her, and Jay promptly went back to his scroll. Jaune waved, and caught her attention, "Hey, Iris. Oh, by the way, what even happened to the target?"

Iris sipped at her cup of coffee, before plopping down on an armchair, "He's in the basement. Bet he's having a really good time right now."

Jaune wrinkled his face in concern, "Um, what are you doing..?"

"Stuck him in a cell blindfold, gagged, and bound, and played loud ass heavy metal on speakers, and letting him stew," she said all of this in a casual manner, and after leaning back and stretching towards the ceilling, she flashed a smile. "Probably don't need to do that to prepare him for tomorrow morning, but it usually helps my Semblance if they're sleep deprived and all that."

Jay had set down his scroll again, shooting a look at the still groggy Iris, "What the fuck?"

"Oh trust me," Iris just smirked, cheerfully explaining everything like it was her explaining gardening. "If it wasn't for my Semblance, we would've had to resort to far worse."

Jaune rubbed his forehead, already knowing his morals had been broken dozens of times over, "You mind telling us your Semblance then?"

Iris just gave a cheeky grin, "I like to keep that one close to my chest."

She rubbed at her eyes before continuing, "Anyways, Cedric told me he has some stuff lined up tomorrow for you guys to do while I pick the target's brains for intel. Something about operating in pairs and stuff. I dunno how that's going to work, but I think whatever his idea is, it'll be fine."

"You're just going to leave it at that?" Jaune asked. "Nothing else? No other teasers about our next mission?"

"Nope!" Iris stood up, making her way over to the hall. "I'm going to go check up on the prisoner. If you hear a yell, then that probably means the soundproofing is gone, and you need to call the company to come fix it. Anyways, night. Later!"

Iris was out of the room the next second.

"That was..." Jaune paused, pursing his lips. "A morbid description."

"If it works, it works."

"Really?"

Jay deadpanned. "Jaune, I told you this already. Gang stuff." he stood up, closing his scroll and also making his way over to the hallway. "I'm going to sleep now because I'm pretty sure I'm going to need it for tomorrow. Night, Jaune. Remember to get to sleep soon to, 'kay?"

"M'kay, night, Jay."

And again, Jaune was alone, left to his thoughts.

/ - /

"Standing sentry always sucks."

"Ivers, stop bitching," Verda shifted the rifle around, even though the scope was nowhere near his eye. The mask they wore would project the scope view into it. "You've done this a million times over."

"Yeah," Ivers shifted around his own spotting scope, watching the projected image on his HUD move around. "But that was when we weren't the best Hunter Killer team in the company. Shouldn't we be the ones trying to find that team of Huntresses that dropped into the city? Shit, have they even entered the city yet?"

"They have. I'm pretty sure Team Three is out there taking a shot at finding them after our glorious failure."

Ivers slowly turned his spotting scope, working the tripod to scan around the abandoned cityscape. So far, nothing but Grimm and decaying buildings, all lit by the same shattered moon that let them see the might through their white tinted night vision. The Faunus would've been a better choice for night security, but neither Arberwoord nor Roman trusted them to do so, so it was left to them, "Hey, it's a big city right? It may not be Vale, but it's fucking big."

"Twelve thousand square kilometres. Makes me wonder how long building all this took."

"Verda, you can search that up right now and know how long it took."

His partner just tilted his mask at him, "You know I barely even knew about Mountain Glenn until I deployed here with your dumbass, and the council loves suppressing information about it."

"Before you jump into conspiracy theories about how the government making the Grimm gay by poisoning the water supply, could you shut the fuck up?"

Verda just snorted, "Oh now you're the one telling me to shut up? I recall you bitching for hours straight before Chief heard you and told you to shut the fuck up."

"Fuck you."

"Then the LT got all pissy and sad and shit 'cuz he told you to execute the Huntsman. Fucking pussy," Verda played around with his cloak, moving to cover his shoulder with the high-tech fabric. "I miss when he gave no shits and was a fucking badass. You remember him fucking up that huntress bitch a while back? Shit was wild. Now he's just a mopey sonuvabitch."

"Don't let him hear you say that," Ivers scanned his scope over a nearby building. Nothing. "He'll fistfight you when you have your gun and he'll win."

"Let him try," he growled. "LT's gone softer than soft, and he's just defected."

Ivers just shook his head, "I think the one good thing to come out of all that shit was Neo stopped asking for ice cream as much."

"Oh?"

"Now she just fucking plays around with me. You saw that spar last week right?"

"The one where you get destroyed."

"Yeah, according to her that was just playing around."

"Jeez." Verda continued to shift around his rifle. "I already didn't want to get on her bad side, but now that just confi- wait shit! I got movement, three 'o clock ground level."

Ivers tensed up, maneuvering his spotting scope to where Verda just called out, "It better not be a fucking White Fang grunt taking a leak again."

"It isn't."

He finally set his scope on the target, seeing the projected image on his HUD in the same white tint as his mask. Quietly, he pressed a few buttons on his arms, expanding the image to fit his entire visor.

"You got them?"

"Yeah, got them."

He flicked through thermals, night vision, and regular vision to get a good look at his targets. A small dog, a corgi by the looks of it, prancing down the desolate streets, and a lone girl, dressed in a black dress with red fabric trim on the sleeves and skirt, and a familiar red cloak trailing behind her. Just behind her waist, poked out a large red metal contraption, seams running down the sides indicating a mechashift weapons of a sort.

Quietly, Ivers whispered under his breath, "I remember you..."

We'll be settling more into slightly shorter chapters like these for a bit. Or at least for the next few, most likely. I can't write 10k every chapter.

Also, I am great at writing and absolutely all of your perfectly valid criticism is invalid.

Standard shilling for my Discord here. Blah blah we play games alot come join in and hang in VC when there are people in, we're pretty friendly.

discord gg/8gbF2TJ (Link in profile if you want to copy paste).

Also, please don't take things on the server seriously. Everything is probably a joke, most of all the roles.

Also can I just say I updated on Tuesday and the day after the Capitol riotted?

Jeez, I knew you hated my story, but Christ, isn't that a bit much?

Also, a certain someone forgot to review last time so…

Omake: Cheems fucking kidnaps a bunny waifu and holds her hostage.

Velvet really didn't know what was going up.

One day, going along her merry day as a Beacon student, and the next, suddenly falling unconscious and… waking up bound to a chair and stuck in a plain, grey concrete room?

"Oi!" she shouted out, twisting her head around the bare wall. "Where am I?"

No response.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

No response again.

"I'll fuckin' kick your brains out if nobody fuckin' responds!" she yelled out in frustration, straining against her bonds, but to no avail.

Then out of nowhere, a… was that a dog? A dog with a tophat?

What the fuck?

"What the fuck indeed," said the tophat wearing dog. "You're probably wondering where you are, Miss Scarlatina. You're in a prison cell and you're awaiting ransom."

"W-wait what? How can you read my mind? How can you talk? Am I on drugs?" Velvet groaned, leaning back in her chair. "Oh my god, Coco probably slipped drugs in my cereal as a joke."

The dog laughed, "She did not. I uh, brought you here."

"W-why? How the fuck can you even do that?"

Somehow, the dog shrugged, "Ransom, like I told you."

"Huh?!"

The dog turned to the camera, staring straight into it with its dark, beady eyes, "You better fucking review both chapters, or she gets it."

Velvet felt her brain physically combust from the confusion, "W-when was there a camera there?"

"Oh shut up and lemme speak would you?"

Then, Velvet, despite any effort she put forth, could not open her mouth, only hum loudly in panic.

"Right, where was I..." the dog looked down at his notepad.

Write the story

Don't fail school

Commit warcrimes

Write other stories

Force discord member to write reviews by threatening their waifus

"Ah," the dog turned back to the camera, the muffled screams of Velvet in the background. "You know what to do, or I'll make her die canonically."

The dog cackled manically, and disappeared from the room, leaving a Velvet who was unable to speak, and a camera pointed towards her.

Better review, Arizona. Both chapters. Tick tock.

Until next time,

Tophat out.