Chapter 9: Revolution Is My Name
"It's time for a change, it can't stay the same..."
Heat suffused his nostrils. Sulphur with a flash of light. Darkness swam and drowned the world.
His wolf ears strained as he raised his shield. The familiar hiss of bullets pelted his body. Some of them clanged off Vigilance. His shoes slid on the tiles, bleeding off the kinetic force. Vigilance and his aura would protect him from any lasting damage.
The gunfire stopped, mags clattering over tiles.
Nex peered over Vigilance, the dark spots starting to fade.
Masked men and women funnelled into the hallway.
Hrunting's blade shortened, extending the barrels on its guard. His finger twitched. The double-barrelled shotgun roared, spitting explosive shells into the crowd.
Smoke erupted from the hallway. The resulting bang sent their ranks scrambling for cover.
It gave him the precious seconds needed to close and lock the miraculously intact doors.
Again.
"I can't believe they have the gall to attack the school!" Weiss said. "Are you okay?"
Nex collapsed Vigilance into its more unassuming form and sheathed Hrunting. He was a bit rusty. The last time he went to do some mercenary work was two weeks ago. Then the robot dog took away most of his free time.
"I'm good at defence. So, you know who they are?" Nex said. "Should I be sorry that I kinda shot at them?"
Whoever these people were, they had either balls of steel or a death wish.
Atlas Primary was a school composed of fighters. While most of its staff were civilians, the rest of the school's population were either professional huntsmen or trainees. Besides, the school made its home in the heart of Atlas. The military should arrive in ten minutes to sort everything out.
"You really have no idea?" Weiss said. "Have you been living under a rock?"
Nex shook his head, looking for an object to barricade the door. "Nope. I don't really watch TV. Are they celebrities? Some sort of eclectic boy band?"
Weirder things happened before. It was a rule of thumb to never discount any possibility, no matter how ridiculous it may have been.
"This isn't the time for jokes!" Weiss said. "The White Fang are extrajudicial terrorists hellbent on realizing their ideas of equality. They're faunus extremists willing to do anything to achieve their goals. Anything."
Ah.
So that was the reason why the ceramic masks looked familiar.
Someone came knocking a few nights ago, offering a mask of the same design. The faunus preached about the coming revolution. Seeing as he neither wanted it nor asked for it, the man's offering found itself in the dumpster.
In hindsight, he should have sold it to a curiosity shop for some extra lien.
"I take it they only recruit faunus?" Nex said, grabbing a steel pipe from one of the desks. "That seems to be a really short-sighted way of going about it."
Who knows?
Maybe there were some humans out there who wanted to join the White Fang. Have a cheap thrill shooting up schools or something.
The books on recent history would disagree. But then again, they did not mention anything about the stupid masks.
"Yes. They accept any faunus into their ranks," Weiss said. "They didn't... try to recruit you, did they?"
There was that wide-eyed look on her face—the look of pure, unbridled fear. She stood a few feet away from the door, hands already held out. Probably to summon her glyphs. But without dust, they would be next to useless. Good for opening doors and probably not much else.
A White Fang goon typed into the electronic terminal, obviously trying to hack the doors from the outside. Must be difficult, considering that Atlas Primary boasted bleeding edge firewalls.
"Yep. But I'm too lazy for their revolution crap," Nex said, nodding to himself. "I'm definitely not keen on doing things for people I don't know."
It was true. Surviving on his own was difficult enough. Trying to take on the problems of the world would have chopped his neck off. It was either him or them. And he made that promise to his mother.
"You refused. Thank you," Weiss said, breathing a sigh. "You don't know how much that means to me."
"Yeah, sure," Nex said, turning towards the door. "Just promise you'll treat me to dinner after we get out of here alive."
Dinner being steak. All hail the steak. The rare ones in particular.
Nex placed the pipe between the door handles. "That should hold them."
Reinforced glass comprised the double doors of the lab. Left unlocked and unguarded, a strong enough person might have forced it open. But now, the White Fang's chances of breaking through were slim.
"What are you doing?" Weiss said, grabbing his arm. "We're not just going to sit here and wait."
Nex shook his head.
There were armed men taking up posts outside the lab. A goon was working on the door, and a lot more stood by the lockers. They looked like green recruits, but it would be a close fight. One goon was holding his rifle wrong and another was fidgeting with his sword. They could have broken the glass with more gunfire, but they chose to rely on their hacker instead.
He could definitely beat any one of them on his worst day. But still, a fire-fight was risky. Others believed in quality over quantity, but they never considered quantity had a quality of its own.
"Nope. That's insane, Weiss," Nex said. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but there's only two of us and more than two dozen of them."
Weiss squared her shoulders, her eyes piercing into his. "This is what we're training for, Nex. To uphold the safety and security of the Kingdom of Atlas."
And were those words not familiar?
He said those exact words to Winter. But it was for his own agenda.
Weiss probably spoke them out of duty. A desire to protect people she probably did not even know.
Something curled up inside his stomach, dying with a mewl.
Once upon a time, he would have blown her off, called her something in between spoiled and idealistic. But she was warm. And bright. And happy. Someone who staved off sleep—a spring bud of some sort. Maybe even a sunflower. The only one in the entire school.
It was foolish, selfish, and all the other things his mother would have called him for it, but he hated losing.
There was no way he was going to start now.
"Please," Weiss mumbled, her shoulders sagging. "I can't possibly do this alone."
The smart, talented woman looked like she was the loneliest girl in the entire world.
Nex took her hand, the one wrapped around his arm. And gave it a squeeze. It was strange, but he was missing the days when his biggest problems were himself. What happened to those days in the darkness of their flat?
"We're doing this then," Nex said, heaving a sigh. "But we're doing it my way."
Screw it.
It did not hurt to try, did it?
Nex pointed at a cabinet, turning away from the grin on his partner's face. "There's some dust in there. Stock up on everything, especially gravity dust. Prioritize hard light if you find any."
His partner snapped into action, her hand slipping away from his.
The warmth was... nice.
Strange, even.
Even better than one of Mekel's toasty heaters.
But there were more important things to do than whatever it was that came over him.
"I have some elementary dust," Weiss said. "But I don't think they store hard light in the lab."
Right. That type was expensive and a prime target for student theft.
No matter.
Vigilance was still full up on dust. His partner's glyphs would have been capable of blocking bullets with hard light, making their job way easier. But he could compensate for her inability to soak gunfire with his shield's gimmicks. Gimmicks he was probably using for the first time in school.
"Then there's only one way to do this," Nex said. "Get ready."
Vigilance expanded into its second form—an ordinary heater shield.
Nex tugged at his aura, channelling it into his shield. The weapon whirred to life.
Hrunting stared down the one-way glass.
His finger twitched.
The barrels roared.
Glass shattered.
A hail of shards lacerated a goon—the one by the electronic panel.
His ears rang, his brain clattering.
But he leapt.
The opportunity would not last.
Hrunting's pommel slammed into a mask, bone-white shattering under gold.
The goon screamed. His furred hands pawed at his eyes.
A fatal mistake.
Nex brandished Vigilance, the weapon crackling with streaks of yellow and black. Waltzing. Entwined with each other. Nature's wrath in harmony, guided by his semblance. His shield smashed into the man's torso, propelling the goon straight into the wall.
The bite of ozone stung his nose.
A sharp whoosh.
He twisted, his shield deflecting a sword.
Predictable.
The goon flew head-first into the ceiling. A black glyph spun under her feet.
"Open fire!" a man screamed. "Get the heiress! Open fire dammit!"
"Stay behind me!" Nex said, staring at the muzzles. One. Two. Three. And fuckity fuck. His semblance blared. A fire alarm with an epileptic seizure. "Use the dust with your glyphs."
Light exploded.
Guns rattled.
The storm fell.
Nex shoved his body into the rain of bullets, his arm shaking as constant force spilled over the barrier. His wolf ears flattened on his scalp.
Turtling here would entail a high probability of death. It was unknown how much ammo these White Fang goons had. Starting a war of attrition was a stupid idea. One that would have gotten both of them killed.
Red glyphs spouted fire.
Pale blue glyphs breathed ice.
Yellow glyphs spat lightning.
The elemental maelstrom sliced through their ranks—a thousand-degree knife shredding through butter. The end result was charred and frozen bodies collapsed on the tiles. None of them had the chance to even bleed before they blacked out. Aura was powerful, but it did not nullify everything.
Certainly not pain.
Nex disengaged Vigilance. The blue light shimmered, fading from floor to ceiling, from side to side. He would have to bargain with Roman under the table. The thief stayed in Vale, having made the kingdom his home turf, but his mute helper was only one teleport away.
"Something's wrong," Nex said, poking one of the bodies. Still breathing. Alive then. But unlikely to be a threat. If he had his way, he would have secured the hallway more permanently. "The military should be here already."
Weiss nodded, clutching her weapon and scroll. "You're right. They should be."
Should be, being the operative phrase. Maybe the school was not the only place being hit by the White Fang. Or maybe the military did not know.
Not yet.
Weiss fumbled with her scroll. "Winter? Are you—yes, yes, we're alright. I'm with Nex. What do you mean?!"
Winter said something on the end of the line.
"Yes, I promise," Weiss said, nodding. "We won't take any unnecessary risks."
She pocketed her scroll.
Nex raised an eyebrow. Not suspicious at all. "I get the feeling that by saying unnecessary, you're going to do something reckless and dangerous and justify it as completely necessary."
Weiss scowled, glaring at one of the unconscious goons. "They've occupied the school and taken everyone hostage. The military has the school surrounded, but they're not making any headway into negotiations."
Great. Negotiating with insane terrorists. What could possibly go wrong?
"Well, what are their demands?" Nex said. "I'm sure a terrorist cell needs lien to function. I say give it to them."
Money made the world go round, after all.
Weiss clipped her weapon to her belt, her lips tightening. "The White Fang's only demand is simple. They want the headmaster to give up a student."
"Who?" Nex said.
No way, right? No fucking way. Not even in his best nightmares.
"Me. They want the heiress of the SDC to turn herself in," Weiss said. "No complaints, no fanfare. Just me."
Nex blinked, resisting the urge to stab the bodies in the hallway. Just to be sure, he collapsed Vigilance and sheathed Hrunting. He wanted to ask why, but that was relatively unimportant right now.
Weiss needed to get away.
The White Fang was after her nuts.
If he had his way, he would be taking their nuts instead.
"Nope. No way. Not an option," Nex said. "I'm not handing you over to the White Fang."
Left unsaid was the fact that he would have easily done the opposite. He would have chosen the third option. The one where his partner escaped and he traded the entire school for her life.
"Of course not. It'd be a public execution," Weiss said. "The White Fang would kill me. There's no escaping the school—"
"And what they want is right here," Nex said, chuckling as his grip on Hrunting and Vigilance tightened. "These goons are crazy."
Weiss laughed. "I don't know what to do, Nex. It should be easy, right? It should be easy to turn myself in for the greater good. But—"
Nex grabbed her shoulders. "Nope. No buts. You still owe me dinner. You know where they're keeping the hostages?"
For the greater good. That phrase again. He lost one too many people to that phrase. And he hated losing. Fuck the greater good. Fat load of good it did him.
"The auditorium's the only place spacious enough," Weiss said, smiling as her eyes stared into his. "Their drones say that it's under heavy guard."
"Say..." Nex said, his brain spinning at a hundred-twenty rpm. "Your sister can have the drones drop some stuff, can't she?"
Weiss arched an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"
"Inspiration," Nex said, cracking a smirk. They would never see it coming. "These goons aren't the only ones who know how to make homemade stuff."
It was clever of them, admittedly.
A bomb that emitted heat and a flash of light could be made in the kitchen. It would have hobbled and blinded Weiss if she was the one who opened the door.
Humans relied too much on sight.
Clearly, they did not account for one of their own kind to be with her—one who had an extra pair of ears.
His partner placed another call while he piled the unconscious bodies into one corner.
It was a good thing the White Fang amateurs took out the hallway's cameras with their guns. The school's surveillance room would be already taken, giving the terrorists free use of the remaining cameras. Right now, they were effectively persona non-grata in the hallways of Atlas Primary.
Nex watched the rest of the maze, just to be safe and to make sure that it stayed that way.
"Winter's been cleared to give us what you want," Weiss said. "She sent a drone to deliver the package."
Said drone fluttered through the nearby window, carrying a basket.
If Winter received the message well, it would contain a pouch of electricity dust, a set of portable, programmable speakers, a tuning fork, a thickly padded pussycat, and a pair of earplugs. It had freshly-baked bagels and mineral water as well, which he shared with his partner before he got to work.
Got it.
Nex raised the modified speakers, dropping the tuning fork on the tiles. "This little thing outputs a frequency harmful to faunus. It induces intense nausea and vomiting, and sometimes temporary blindness. You do know what this frequency is called, right?
"The Mantle Frequency," Weiss said, frowning as she glared at the speakers. "Recently discovered after The Faunus Rights Revolution. You know that it's illegal."
Nex nodded, cracking a smirk. "Yep. But all's fair in love and war. It's certainly a shame that the White Fang only recruits faunus."
All was fair in love and war.
Especially in war.
The only thing missing was a big enough PA system. A certain room came to mind.
They needed to hurry.
His partner owed him a steak.