"So… this place is where we're cooking?"
"Yup. She fits the requirements we need, minus the equipment of course."
Walter and Jaune were standing in front of the building that Walter stayed in when he first arrived in Remnant. No one seemed to be around, which was strange. But neither of them were complaining. They entered the building and Walter set the box down.
"Ok, first order of business. Power. We need it to heat up the materials to cook. Normally, I would suggest a dust generator, but that is expensive to keep and maintain. So instead, we will be making a natural gas generator. It is cheap, easy to maintain and make, and best of all, the fuel source is found with one of the components needed for making our product."
"Ok… What's it found in?"
"Fertilizer. Or antifreeze."
"So… do we just buy it."
"No. I don't have enough cash on me to get enough fuel to last us, meaning I would have to buy it on credit or debit, both of which are watched by the school. If I buy it, I need a reason to be buying it, like gardening. But I'm not good at that. So… the only choice is to steal it from a warehouse where no one would notice."
"You can't be serious. How bad of a liar are you."
"A terrible liar. The first time I attempted to cook meth and had to lie to get out, they knew immediately that something was going on."
"Dang. Yeah, I guess that is fair."
"Anyways, moving on. Last week, I visited the 3 Bears Club. Junior told me that a shipment would be coming in 7 days from now. Until then, we have to build the generator and collect the necessary components for our product."
Jaune was stunned. He had a basic layout of a plan to do this. Mr. White was a meth cooker and was very intelligent, he should have expected this much.
"Well then! Let's get to building."
Jaune froze. He didn't know how to build it, or even heard of it before Mr. White told him about it.
"Uhh... Mr White?"
"Yes?"
"I've never heard of this 'natural gas' thing. What is it?"
"Right. They haven't discovered alternative fuel sources." Walter thought to himself. "I guess I should explain it to him."
"Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is created when organic materials decompose in an environment where there is little to no oxygen, such as under the ground. For this reason, it is mostly found underground. It is extremely flammable, provides energy, and, since it is really not being used, is in major abundance. The natural gas we are after is methane. It is found in fertilizers, landfills, antifreeze for vehicles, etc."
"Ah, I see." Jaune said. "Also, I don't know how to build a generator."
"Well then, I'll teach you." and so, the 2 began working on the generator, a process that would take the better part of their week.
7 days have passed, It's almost sundown. Walter rented out an SUV to load the fertilizer onto. They had been sitting near the docks for about an hour now, waiting for the workers to head home. 3 hours later, no one is there.
"Ok," Walter says "Let's go over the plan one last time. We go in, break the lock, grab 5 large bags of fertilizer, and leave. Understood?" Jaune nods his head. "Ok then, let's do this." Walter and Jaune exit the car.
"Put this on!" Whispers Walter as he hands him a ski mask.
"Ok." Jaune grabs the ski mask and puts it on.
Jaune and Walter get low and sneak to the warehouses at the dock. Walter, using aura enhanced strength, breaks the lock and they enter. In this warehouse, there are crates of dust everywhere. But after a bit of searching, they find the fertilizer. Jaune and Walter each grab a bag, bringing it to the SUV. When they returned to the warehouse, they heard the whirring of a bullhead. They quickly move off to the side and peek through the door. They see White Fang members entering and stealing dust crates.
"Damn. This changes things. Ok, there are 2 guys in there right now, I go for the left guy, you go for the right guy. Got it?"
"O-Ok" Said Jaune.
"Ready. Go." The 2 then make their way into the building, sneaking behind their respective target, knocking them out. Then they grab 2 more bags of fertilizer and bring it to the car. As they enter the building for the last time, they hear from the outside a conversation that seemed to be going on.
"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" Roman was not in a good mood. He was hoping that this job would go smoothly. But no, one of the damn animals had to get distracted and is now being held at knifepoint. "What the- Oh, for f-"
"Nobody move!" Said the cat girl
The White Fang soldiers ready their guns and equip their swords in response.
"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." Said Roman, trying to salvage what little stealth there was.
As the White Fang closes in on her, the girl uses her free hand to go for her bow and remove it, causing the ribbon to fall, revealing that she had cat ears.
"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?"
The White Fang members lower their weapons a little at this development, unsure of what to do, when Roman laughs.
"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The White Fang and I are going on a joint business venture together!" He said with a grin on his face.
"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation."
Suddenly, the air is filled with more turbines blowing the wind wildly around the holdup.
Roman looks up "Oh, I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation…"
Two more Bullheads are hovering above the heist, and as the kitty watches in horror, Roman smiles "Now's my chance!" and points his cane at the girl. But before he could get a shot off, the warehouse explodes in a blazing inferno, sending everyone to the ground.
"Holy Shit!" said Roman. "What did those animals do?!"
Flashback
"C'mon. Help me grab the last bag and get out of here." Said Walter, as he puts his hand on a bag of fertilizer and starts dragging it.
"Wait, we gotta do something." Jaune said.
Walter stops and looks at Jaune. "If we try to help, we risk being found out."
"Well, surely we can distract them at least. She's your student." Jaune looks back making sure that no one was entering the building. "You said that you were intelligent. Surely there is a way where we can stop the White Fang and escape without being caught."
Walter thought. He knew that if he stayed any longer, they could get caught. But he was right, he couldn't leave the kid high and dry. She could be captured by the white fang as a hostage. Or worse, killed. Walter looked around the warehouse for anything that could cause a distraction. "Damn, there is only dust and fertilizer. Wait a minute." Walter remembered why they were getting fertilizer. It was because Fertilizer has methane in it. And methane is flammable. In fact, some people used fertilizer to make bombs because the contents were highly volatile.
"Jaune, grab the last bag of fertilizer."
"What?! But-,"
"JUST DO IT!"
"Ok." Jaune grabs the last bag of fertilizer as Walter busts open a crate containing fire dust in both powdered and crystal form. Walter then throws the contents onto the floor, grabs a vial of fire dust powder, and pours it in a trail towards the fertilizer. Walter also grabs 4 fire crystals and 2 vials of fire dust. He throws the fire crystals at the base of the fertilizer stack. As he leaves, he makes a trail using the last 2 vials. He then gets in the car and starts it. Before he takes off however, he shoots the trail with his own fire dust bullet. Then, he takes off. In the distance, he hears a resounding boom, signaling that the plan worked.
End of Flashback
Blake was in shock. The building exploded and she was on the ground. Her vision was blurry and her ears were ringing. She heard muffled voices in the background.
"GET BACK TO THE BULLHEAD!" a man, presumably Roman, screamed, trying to rally everyone back.
"What about the rest of the dust?" A White Fang member responded.
"WHO THE FUCK CARES? IF WE GET CAUGHT, WE WILL HAVE NO DUST." Said Roman. She heard the running and shuffling of feet passing her, then the whirring of bullhead turbines, and then silence. She got up, dusted herself off, and looked around. The warehouse was destroyed, it was a smoking inferno, anyone in it or too close would be much less fortunate than her. Then she realized: Where is Sun?
"Sun!?" She shouted "Sun, where are you?"
"Ugggghh." A groan was heard under the rubble. She looked over to where she heard the groan. Digging through the debris, she found Sun, impaled in the stomach with a rebar. A faint aura glow is surrounding the area where he is impaled.
"Hey… What happened?"
"The warehouse exploded, Torchwick got away."
"Oh… Ok." Sun said. In the distance, Blake heard sirens. The police were coming, most likely with a fire department and ambulance. She sat down on a piece of debris and waited, knowing that it could be more harmful to remove the rebar from Sun.
Hours passed by in an instant. The authorities came and her team found her. Blake explained the situation to the team and tried to explain things to Weiss. They made up, and moved past that. Sun was admitted to a hospital for removal of the rebar debris. Eventually, they went back to the dorm and went to bed. As Blake was laying in her bed, she was trying to figure out how the warehouse blew up and who did it.
"It's clear that part of the cause was the dust. It could have been dropped, but those White Fang members didn't seem like they had butter fingers." She thought "Roman was there to steal the dust, so he would have no reason to blow up the warehouse. So there has to be a third party that neither of us know about." This was bad. If there was a third party, and they didn't want the dust, then either they knew about Roman's plans and decided to stop him in one of the most destructive ways possible, or they were there for something else and they needed a distraction to escape. Eventually, she turned in for the night, setting these thoughts aside for the morning.
Walter woke up the next morning. Last night was a success. He got the items he needed to make the fuel for the generator. He got up, got ready and set out to where Jaune was staked out. When he got there, he saw Jaune sleeping by what appeared to be a finished generator. "Huh. Smart kid." Walter said quietly. "Time to wake up Jaune, we got work to do."
Jaune groaned. "Do I have to?"
"Yes," Said Walter. Jaune got up and brushed himself off. "So, What are we doing now?"
"Well, now it's time to turn the fertilizer into fuel."
"How?" Jaune asked. Walter smiled. "Through my semblance."
"What?"
"Over the course of the school year, I had been attempting to unlock my semblance. But I was having no luck. Then, one day, I accidentally spilled muriatic acid, as it was about to get on me, I activated my aura and something strange happened. The acid had turned into gas. At first I thought I was seeing things. But when I looked closer at the air around me, I saw that it had a greenish-yellow hue, which is the color of chlorine gas. So, I decided to do a test. I grabbed 5 packets of salt from the cafeteria and touched it. When I did, the salt turned to calcium and chlorine gas."
"So… you're telling me that your semblance turns items into their base elements?"
"As far as I know, yes. Though, I haven't tested it too much, so there could be some limits I don't know yet."
Walter walked over to the box of parts and grabbed a jar. Then he put the jar next to the fertilizer.
"Like if I can separate only part of an object and have it appear in a different area." Walter then activated his aura. He concentrated on the chemical compound that he needed. Picturing it in the jar. After a few seconds, the methane was found inside the jar, and the remaining ammonium phosphate was left in the bag.
Walter smiled. Their plan was slowly coming together. But he knew that they weren't done yet, they still had to turn the methane into fuel and put it in the generator. So they got to work, separating the methane from the fertilizer and putting the rest off to the side. Then for the rest of the day, they turned all of the methane into fuel. They put some of the fuel into the generator and turned it on. The generator sputtered, trying to turn on. Then, all of a sudden, the generator gave a quiet whirr and the light on it turned on, signifying that it was operational.
Jaune looked on in awe. They had successfully made a source of power that didn't rely on dust. Jaune started laughing. Then Walter started laughing. For a good 5 minutes they were overjoyed that it worked. That their 'kitchen' now had functioning power.
But they knew that this was just the beginning of their plans. Only the first step in a very long procedure.
Ozpin was under stress. On top of his mission to stop Salem, running the school, and keeping the truth under wraps, he now had to find a replacement for Jaune. Sure he had made Pyrrha leader, but a team with only 3 people were at a disadvantage. He started looking at the people who didn't make the cut, whether it be because they didn't get a piece or a partner.
Most of them were average, but he needed someone who was experienced, above average. After 8 hours of sifting through the files, he had reached the last one. He hoped that he would find something. When he started to read over the files, he saw something that he had never expected. This person had no aura.
He had no way to properly heal himself throughout that initiation, and he made it to the end without it. He looked through the security system in the forest back when initiation was going on, looking for the kid. When he found him, he was carrying nothing but a pistol and a knife, but he was taking Grimm down as if it was nothing. His methods were clean and efficient. It was as if he was a hunter, searching for its next target. Eventually, he came across the corpse of one of the testers. He had a sniper rifle on him. SO he took it, and kept walking. Eventually, the test ended. He seemed slightly unhappy, most likely because he knew that there was no chance of him getting in. He had no partner, and no relic.
Ozpin checked if he was going to school anywhere. Turns out, the kid was training to become a police man. A suitable alternative to being a huntsman. He decided to give him a call.
"Hello?"
"Good evening. This is professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. I believe that you had participated in the initiation."
"I did. Although, I wasn't accepted into your academy."
"Yes. I'm sorry that you weren't. It was unfortunate that that happened."
"Are you calling to rub it in my face, or is there something you wanted to talk about?"
Ozpin Laughs. "Straight to the point then. One of our students is no longer a part of the academy. We were wondering if you are still open to becoming a huntsman."
There was silence for a few seconds. Then he spoke. "Perhaps. When do I have to show up?"
"Let's see… the last day of the first quarter is next week, then they go on a break for 1 week. So in 2 weeks, just before the second quarter starts."
"I assume I must have an aura to be a part of your academy?"
"It's not required, but it is highly recommended. If you need it to be unlocked we can unlock it as soon as you get here."
"Alright, I'll see you in 2 weeks."
"See you i-" the call ends. "He must have hung up." Ozpin thought. The elevator opens, revealing Glynda. "Ah Glynda, how is the paperwork going?"
"It's going well." Said Glynda "Have you found a replacement member for JNPR."
"Yes." he handed the file to Glynda. She opened it.
"Michael Azul. 17 year old from mistral. Parents died when he was young… No aura? Are you sure that's correct?"
"I am certain. And despite that, he managed to out live several unfortunate candidates and kill grimm."
"Hmmph. When is he arriving?"
"In about 2 weeks. When the second quarter starts."
"Understood, headmaster." Glynda said. Then she turns around and heads back to the elevator.
"Good night Glynda." Ozpin says as she enters the elevator.
"Good night, headmaster." She says as the elevator closes.
Ozpin looks at the file and sighs. "Well, I suppose I should start putting you into the system." He says
Ozpin then begins filling out the paperwork for his new student. He sighs, knowing he will be up for a while.
AN
I meant to post this chapter a few days ago, but didn't have the time to revise it. Sorry for the delay. Next chapter should be coming out in at least 10 days.