Jaune headed with Pyrrha for the Faunus sector. The car they were in had a window between them and the driver and the light signalling the intercom was on was on red.

He thought he knew what had just happened but was trying to work out who had played who. Perhaps the mayor and dad had manipulated Pyrrha into giving the mayor an excuse to do the right thing. Perhaps Pyrrha had pushed the mayor beyond where he had expected to go.

He squeezed her hand to reassure her. She squeezed back, turned to him, and smiled. "I'm fine. It was not as hard as I feared it would be. It does not matter if the mayor blames me for forcing his hand provided the police chief and the influential citizens of Kulsa fall in line. What's the use of power if you don't use it?"

"But your sponsors and fans?"

"I don't want them if they disagree with what I did today. Besides which, all I did was express my support for the request of the local LGDF over the views of the local police chief. They are more likely to blame your parents for leading me astray and for failing to ensure that I was in the chain of command. Anyway, I do not think he will play it that way. If he did my family and I have enough money to live comfortably on for a good ten years even if all the sponsors withdrew tomorrow."

"You said that the mayor might not blame you. How else is he going to play it?"

"The point at which he changed his mind was when it became clear that Lisa Lavender was outside the police chief's practical jurisdiction. Your father and Mr. Earl rammed that down the mayor's throat. I was merely trying to hint that I had an audience outside Kulsa, they made it clear that the chief of police could not stop me reaching them."

Jaune thought about it and replied, "People in Ansel do not like washing our dirty linen in public. While they all say they do not care what people in Vale say about us, we are awfully sensitive to being seen to do the wrong thing. He could say that scenes of humans trying to attract the Grimm towards the Faunus will give the Mistral central government an extra excuse to throw Kulsa to the Branwen tribe and reduce the tax lien which are spent in the city."

Jaune realised that his grammar was all over the place. He half regarded himself as a proud citizen of Ansel and in part as someone who no longer belonged and looked at it from the outside. I am turning into Amber he mused, no wonder she is so grumpy.

Pyrrha continued, "And besides which the walls may hold if such demonstrations happen or may fall without them."

Jaune laughed and said, "They are safe now."

There was a small pause before Pyrrha said, "You're right Jaune."

Jaune froze. Pyrrha was exceptionally good at small lies but was useless at big ones. She would do her utmost to avoid hurting anyone's feelings and knew that emphasising the positive was the right thing to do in front of civilians. However, she was truthful about important matters. For her to hesitate that much suggested that she was really concerned.

He took a glance at the intercom light and saw that it was green. He sighed with relief. She had been not trying to lie to him but to their driver. He squeezed her hand again and looked at her and hoped he conveyed to her the message let's speak when we are alone.

Jaune thought about the suggestion that his mother would get the blame and what the consequences would be. He could see that some might blame her for letting Lisa Lavender fly with them to Kulsa and for assigning Pyrrha to Kulsa. He suspected that she would regard being forced out with equanimity provided the walls of Kulsa held.

Anyway, mother would probably survive if the walls held. Marian was in Kulsa and was unlikely to blame mother for her judgement calls. Reynard was a Faunus, and no way would the authorities promote him. Perhaps there was someone on the level below who could be promoted but no one obvious came to mind. An appointee from outside Ansel was always a possibility, but, unless mother had really burnt all her bridges in Ansel, he doubted that the Ansel authorities would be happy to accept an appointee from central government.

In any event, Lisa Lavender had been allowed to fly to Ansel because the central government had given her permission. His mother had not requested her presence. Similarly, when Pyrrha had turned up to support her teammates, could anyone reasonably expect her to tell Pyrrha to frack off back to Argus. He smiled to himself, perhaps his mother would not be reappointed in two years' time, but if the walls of Kulsa held she would not be sacked

Pyrrha's scroll buzzed and she checked it. She replied and then turned to him. "Jaune, could you wait with me at the first wall with the Faunus Sector please. Some old acquaintances will be meeting me there."

They pulled up next to one of the most glaring symbols in Mistral that the Faunus Wars were not forgotten. There were two solid walls separating the Faunus quarter from the rest of Kulsa. They were eleven yards apart and the gates were deliberately not aligned. They allowed both the humans and Faunus to control access between the two parts of the city.

They got out of the car. Pyrrha thanked the driver even though he had tried to listen in to a private conversation. While they waited for a few minutes, Pyrrha signed a few autographs and posed for some pictures. Jaune was embarrassed to find some people even wanted his autograph and a posed picture with him.

Just then a large orange car arrived with the car horn blazing the first few bars of Misty. Jaune instinctively cringed, he still had not forgotten the disapproval of both Blake and Weiss when he had hummed the tune in the library. Both had decided to pretend to believe Leslie's suggestion that he was humming the Tom Lemonier pastiche. Afterwards Leslie and Pyrrha had said yes, the song had a good tune, and the words were not of themselves offensive but that it was at least for the time being tarnished by being used as a code for a set of beliefs which were.

Four people emerged from the car. He was bemused by the fact that one of them came through the passenger side front window. He coloured slightly when the one female emerged wearing a pair of shorts and a tight-fitting jumper which even Yang would have rejected as being lacking in subtlety. It did not help that she had long legs and went in for exaggerated hip movements as she walked towards them. He hoped Pyrrha was not looking at him but just in case he took a half step back and carefully positioned Crocea Mors.

The driver of the car essayed an extravagant bow and said, "Well met by Sunlight, proud Pyrrha."

"Hello, Beau. Hello, Lucas. This is my team leader Jaune."

"No need to tell us his surname. We know his twin sisters and he is clearly a clone. By the way, do Jessica and Nancy still make you wear dresses?"

Pyrrha said, "Are you going to introduce me to your teammates?"

Jaune decided to go with ignoring the insult. While family honour dictated that he hit Beau (or was it Lucas) in the face, he suspected that this was not the right move.

The driver said, "My cousin Daffy and our good friend Orion. By the way, Jaune I am Beau, and this is my brother Lucas. We are known as Team Blood and by our enemies as team bloody nuisance."

"Pleased to meet you." replied Jaune. Politeness cost nothing and this was Pyrrha's meeting.

Pyrrha said, "I am calling in my marker."

Daffy said, "What marker?"

Beau said, "In her first Mistral regional I thought she had got lucky and me and Lucas challenged her to fight us in private. She said that she would fight us both at the same time and if she won she could compel us to do something embarrassing at a time of her choosing. We were stupid enough to take the bet. She whooped our asses if less than five minutes and then said that she would take a rain check on calling in our marker."

Daffy shook her head and said, "Mum always said that the brains were on our side of the family. Never took you for a hustler, Pyrrha Nikos. No offence, it increases my respect for you."

Beau said, "OK, what do you want us to do? This is not really the weather to go streaking."

Pyrrha said, "Obey your grandfather Jesse's commands, requests or suggestions for the next forty- eight hours and tell your friends to do the same."

Beau said, "Strictly that is not embarrassing. Sensible and boring maybe."

Lucas said, "I think we should take the deal, Beau. If Jaune is anything like his sisters, I would prefer that we take Pyrrha's deal rather than encourage her to look to him for other ideas."

Daffy said, "I know her other teammate Nora. She could be really inventive." She winked at Jaune and Pyrrha.

Beau walked up closer to them and said, "Fine, we were going to LGDF headquarters any way and I suppose volunteering our services is part of being a good hunter. Anyway, we can't have a team from Beacon full of Haven rejects doing all the hard work."

Lucas was looking thoughtful and said, "We will do our best with our friends and family. I should warn you that one of our classmates is also in town and will not play ball."

Daffy said, "Lost her uncle to the White Fang and is obsessive about them."

Orion cut in, "Daffy, we shouldn't snitch on her."

Beau said, "We are not barrack room lawyers. If we are going to do our duty then we should give fair warning of potential problems. Magenta Raddock has gone missing since early this morning. Her favourite uncle was one of the first killed by the White Fang and was disposed of in a particularly brutal manner."

Jaune thought oh frack, but said," Do you have a photograph of her?"

The members of Team Blood exchanged glances and then Daffy said, "You can get them from the Haven web site. There is a good one from early this year."

Orion who had been mostly silent so far said, "She is obsessed with getting revenge for her uncle. She has kept her nose clean at Haven, but in private when she thinks she is among fellow believers she makes it clear what her views are."

Beau said, "She rather latched on to us when she heard my car was called the General Lagune. I feel sorry for her but there are times when I wish I had called the car the Kali Belladonna."

Pyrrha shook hands with each of them and Jaune thought he may as well follow suit. The final handshake came from Daffy who clearly would get on well with Yang. She kissed him on the ear and whispered, "Ask Pink about her semblance."

As they drove away, he turned to Pyrrha and asked, "Do you trust them?"

"They like to play the part of old fashioned Mistralians, but they are honourable people by their own lights. What was the girl up to?"

"Partly playing with me and partly suggesting that we talk to Pink about Magenta's semblance."

They walked through the human gate and then crossed over and approached the Faunus sector. By the gate was some graffiti saying, "You can leave your hat on."

Pyrrha glanced at him and said, "Explain the joke. I doubt that it is the same as Yang's liking for the film about male strippers in Mantle"

"In Kulsa there is an unwritten law forbidding the wearing of hats outside the Faunus quarter. There was a rumour that the White Fang were wearing hats and caps to disguise animal ears. After some unfortunate incidents people generally gave up wearing hats including the humans."

As they entered the Faunus sector Ren was waiting for them, but Nora was not in sight. Jaune's instinctive sense of concern was forestalled by Ren saying, "Nora's fine. She has gone Big Grimm hunting with your sister. I got here ten minutes ago with Emerald and Mercury."

Pyrrha looked around and said, "Ren, is there somewhere we can all talk nearby?"

Ren said "I have an address which is five minutes' walk away where we can meet with Team Vibes and Professor Pink. He sent me to fetch you in. Emerald and Mercury are collecting their teammates who are walking the streets so as to be seen by the people here. I will let them know they we are on are way."

Jaune said, "I suppose the evacuation went without a hitch?"

"Yes, the few additional Grimm which appeared were easily dealt with."

Pyrrha asked, "What do you make of Team Vibes? I never fought any of them before and they are a mystery to me. I saw the footage of Sun fighting alongside Ruby and Blake, so I know he is a good close combat fighter."

Jaune said, "Emerald and Mercury were very efficient at dealing with the Grimm charging the convoy even before you arrived to join in. Come across a bit like cousins who like to pretend to despise each other but have each other's backs if push comes to shove. They fight well together. I expect to see them at the Vytal Festival."

Ren said, "From what his teammates say, Neptune would fit in at Beacon. He is a rich kid who spent six years in Vacuo and Sun is his best friend."

Pyrrha said, "I have met some of the Vassilias family. They are one of the sponsors of the Mistral regional tournament. They were pleasanter to deal with than most."

Ren took them into a definitely functional rather than beautiful building and they were shown into a conference room.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha and said, "Do you have something to say before the others get here?

She nodded and said, "While we dealt with the King Taijutu and the Alpha Ursa quickly, they should not have been that close to the city at that time. You told us last term that your mother believes in regularly culling Grimm close to major towns and on the trip here Amber mentioned that there are no forests within ten miles of Kulsa. Bluntly those two Grimm should not have been there."

Ren said, "You can never totally control these things."

Pyrrha replied "Fair enough if tension had been building gradually. Kurohari falling only happened a matter of days ago and was not generally expected. Jaune, if you tell me your family thought it was about to happen then I will be very relieved."

"No, it seemed to come out of nowhere."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, your sister seemed very angry about it."

Ren said, "When they brought us in with the last civilians she went into the cockpit to catch up on the reports. When she came out she asked Nora to join her weeding out the more threatening Grimm approaching the city. She said it would not be an easy mission and asked Nora about her semblance."

Jaune was surprised that Nora had gone on a mission without Ren and looked quizzically at him. "She accepted that my semblance would be of more use here."

Just then they were joined by team VBES and Professor Pink.

The Professor sat down, "Welcome to the Faunus Quarter. For the next few hours, our key role is likely to be morale boosting. The Grimm have stopped about a mile from the town and are waiting until nightfall before attacking. Mr Wukong and Mr Vassilias here have done an excellent job so far, but people are nervous both of the Grimm and their neighbours. The coverage of the fighting earlier today has also helped as it shows that there are competent fighters here."

He paused, "Huntress Arc has just reported to me that there are large numbers of Grimm approaching the city including Beringel, Centinels, and Goliaths. There are also reports of Lancers and even of Manticores. She, Miss Valkyrie and the hunter team led by Jules Verde are going to concentrate on the Centinels because of the threat to the walls."

Pyrrha said, "Team Blood are in town and are going to volunteer to help out at the LGDF. The mayor is going to declare a curfew and order the police to keep demonstrators away from the walls separating the Faunus Quarter from the rest of the city."

"Good, both of those will help. Unfortunately, the runway is still obstructed. It is a pity that Professor Goodwitch is not with us."

He paused, "I think that it will be a busy night and you should make sure that your auras are fully recharged by nightfall. Mr Ren, how depleted is your aura?"

"It is back up to seventy per cent."

"Good, please rest. I think you may be needed this evening. For some reason, the levels of fear around here are unexpectedly high. Odd, the areas where it is spiking keep changing."

Jaune said, "Team Blood mentioned that another student was in town. A Magenta Raddock. They said that she had gone missing."

The Professor shrugged, "Decent enough fighter. Useless semblance. Will let Mr Earl know she is around, best kept away from this part of town. She is rather bitter about her uncle."

Neptune and Sun exchanged glances and Neptune said, "Was her uncle Umber Raddock?"

"I believe that was the name. Did you know him in Vacuo?"

"My father did. Me and Sun met him a few times. He was in charge of SDC operations in Vacuo when the crap hit the fan a few years back."

Mercury volunteered a comment, "She really does not like Faunus or Atlesians. She was at the family gathering from which her uncle was kidnapped and has a conspiracy theory about the White Fang and the Atlas authorities cooperating to punish her uncle."

Jaune remembered the whispered remark and said, "Professor, you said that her semblance was useless. What is it?"

"Her semblance intensifies negative emotions. Next to useless for fighting Grimm, unless you are trying to lead them into a killing zone and have no other choice."

Pyrrha said, "Sort of the opposite of Ren's then?"

"Yes, that is fair to say."

Jaune thought to himself frackety frack. "So, we have a Faunus hating huntress in training with a semblance which attracts Grimm in a town where they can break through the walls and kill Faunus but not humans."

Pyrrha said, "You were saying that the fear levels were spiking in different parts of the Faunus Quarter? Are you certain about that?"

"Well, it is the way people were acting around me. They were visibly more nervous, sweating, and angry. I know that I was feeling a little more worried than normal when I saw how people were reacting."

Sun said, "How quickly do the fear levels go down?"

"The theory is that it is a bit like taking strenuous exercise. The heart rate is elevated for a time after you have finished exercising."

Pyrrha asked, "Do you have many surveillance cameras here?"

Jaune said, "No. Unlike Vale and Argus, the people of this part of Mistral do not trust the authorities and regard them as an invasion of privacy. That goes double for the Faunus who believe that they have good reason to be paranoid."

Professor Pink said to Team VBES, "How well do you know her?"

Mercury said, "I probably know her best. If she is up to something, I expect she would be disguised."

Sun said, "She never spoke to me and while I know that there was a Magenta in the third year, I had not heard her surname."

Mercury said, "I know her face, but never studied her closely. Third years do not mix much with first years. If the disguise is even halfway decent, I could walk past her in the street."

Emerald said, "I never spoke to her. I think that probably meeting Merc here put her off talking to the rest of us."

Professor Pink thought for a moment and said, "Mr Black, you are the best student in the year at stealth and tracking. Do you think you could recognise her gait or shape?"

Mercury shrugged, "Perhaps, However, she is likely to keep well away from any one in our team if she sees us."

Pink said, "I will go for a walk, and you will follow me. I will watch out for signs of increased negative emotions and message you when I think she may be around. We have some changes of clothes in this building and perhaps you can disguise yourself and see if you can spot her avoiding us."

"Yes Professor."

Jaune thought about what he knew about the defences of Kulsa and whether that might give them any help in protecting the city.

"Professor Pink, if I had a semblance which attracted Grimm and wanted to use it, I would concentrate on the road gates. They are the weakest link in the walls."

"Good point. Mr Ren here should be based near those gates and use his semblance to counteract hers."

Ren looked up and said, "Do you know how strong her semblance is and what its range is?"

"No. It is not one which we encouraged her to develop. Do you know the same for yours?"

"Not scientifically. I keep the range as narrow as I can to conserve aura. This morning we got all the civilians into the end bus."

"You kept that up for around ninety minutes. How much aura did you have left?"

"Fifty per cent."

"Mr Ren please take all the rest you can now. We will need you later at full fitness."

The professor turned to them, "Miss Nikos, please see Miss Lavender. She wants an interview and no doubt extra footage for the late afternoon news will be appreciated. Mr Wukong earlier gave a splendid interview but the more optimistic footage she has the better. I have told her that it is advisable for her and her crew to stay in the Faunus Quarter and the local police are happy to obey the strong suggestion from the LGDF that she be allowed to roam freely."

"Mr Arc, Mr Sustrai, if your auras are at 90% or better then I suggest you walk round the streets and be seen. Miss Nikos can join you after her interview is over.

They all got up to deal with their respective tasks or in Ren's case to rest.

/-/

Mercury wondered how enthusiastic his employers wanted him to be about being a good student. This morning had been a no brainer and had no doubt given their reputation at Haven a boost. He had however been economical with the actuality when talking to Pink.

One of the lessons his father had taught him was the importance of recognising people quickly especially when they disguised or trying to avoid attention. For an assassin, it could be fatal to fail to recognise a security guard when you were about to conduct a hit.

In their visits to Vale, he had had to improve his technique in dealing with Neo. While her illusions were good she understandably preferred to keep her own size. Therefore, to avoid being punched or kicked in the groin by an innocent looking pint-sized girl or boy while not assaulting innocent civilians had been an incentive to further develop the skill. Luckily, Neo was vain enough not to disguise her elegance and sense of balance and he had not suggested that she refine her technique.

He had kept up the technique at Haven and found that Emerald was almost as good at it as him. She had also needed to be alert for policemen or people she had previously stolen from and to closely observe where they kept their wallets or other valuables.

They had kept up a friendly (by their standards) competition in identifying tells for their fellow students and the women in question had a distinctive no-nonsense stride and a habit of putting her head on the right side of her head when concentrating.

Both he and Emerald had a good chance of spotting her and Professor Pink's suggestion that he disguise himself had been a good one. He also knew how to hide his more distinctive characteristics.

However, it was clear that the fall of Kulsa or at least the Faunus Quarter would be perceived as a good thing by Cinder and Salem. It was not part of any grand plan, but it would exacerbate human/Faunus tensions in Mistral. It would be especially advantageous if the disaster could be blamed on a rogue huntress in training. Therefore, provided that he and Emerald did not put their lives in danger, he had decided to avoid capturing the woman.

He and Professor Pink had been wandering around for an hour and a half and he thought he had spotted her briefly once in the area nearest the town gates wearing a blue shopgirl uniform. It was half an hour from sunset, and they had returned to the LGDF building.

There was a call from Jesse Earl and Nicholas Arc. The obstruction on the runway had finally been removed, but only half the Kingdom Guard which had originally been expected had landed. In addition, there were now reports of Gryphons and Manticore in the vicinity. This had resulted in all civilian aircraft being grounded. The Grimm were gathering about a mile from the city but seemed to be waiting for dark before attacking. The bullheads had taken a toll of some of the minor Grimm which were vulnerable to gun fire and apparently the attempts to target the stronger Grimm were going as well as could reasonable be hoped.

Pyrrha Nikos's scroll vibrated, and the woman checked who it was. She decided to take the call and after listening for a few seconds, put the scroll on speaker. Mercury identified the voice as being that of Daffy from Team BLOD.

"Pyrrha, Lucas is missing a large quantity of fire dust. In light of our earlier discussions, I thought that I should let you know."

Professor Pink said, "Thank you Miss Robertson."

Jaune Arc suddenly looked thunderstruck. "Professor, have they shut the city gates yet? From what I recall they keep them open for as long as possible to allow the local farmers and villagers to get behind the city gates."

Sun said, "Ten minutes ago they still had one gate open.

Professor Pink's face when very pale. "Mr Arc, Miss Nikos, Team Vibes to the gate at the double. I hope you are wrong, Mr Arc, but let's get going."

Professor Pink was on his scroll to Nicholas Arc and Jesse Earl to get them to back him up on the decision to close the gates immediately. He was having to speak a little cryptically as they were running through the streets, but it sounded like he was getting his message across. The man was clearly loyal to Haven and was simply referring to rumours of a plan to sabotage the gate.

Mercury looked across at Jaune Arc. He had initially put him down as nice but dim and mostly harmless. He was clearly more intelligent than he looked and had learnt from his parents about defending civilians from Grimm. He decided that he would be careful around him in future as the man was capable of making connections.

As they approached the gate he saw a recognisable stride walking away from the gate. If it was her, she was in a blue uniform which fitted in with the earlier possible sighting and Mercury rather suspected that there was at least one dead Faunus somewhere in the vicinity.

The woman had something in her hand and was close to the corner which meant that there were buildings in the way of her and the gate.

He took an instant decision and said, "Deploy aura." It turned out that this was the right call as just then the woman fiddled with something in her hand just as she was putting the building in the way and there was the sound of a huge explosion.

For the second time today, he had reason to be thankful that Jaune had a powerful aura and was carrying his shield as a shockwave hit them followed by debris. As the dust cleared it became clear that the gate shutting mechanism had been destroyed and the half of the gate which was nearest to the mechanism was on fire. Whatever else was happening tonight the gates could not be fully closed.

The professor ran towards the gate and the rest of them followed. There were bodies strewn around the ruined gate and Mercury could sense the anger, fear, and despair around him.

He decided that it was now time to start trying to catch the woman. He turned to the others, "Sorry, but I saw something suspicious out of the corner of my eye at the last moment."

Pink said, "Mr Black, Mr Wukong catch her if you can."

He pointed at the corner and Mercury started running. Sun Wukong was just behind him. "If you see her point her out to me."

This was sensible as Sun was certainly faster than Mercury. The false legs were good but not great for real speed.

Unfortunately, he could not see the woman. He suspected that she must be around somewhere nearby as she would surely want to amplify the negative emotions.

He called the Professor on the Scroll. "No sign of her. I suspect she must have gone to ground nearby. I would suggest than Sun speak to proprietors of the guest houses to see if there are any new guests today or any lodgers who wear a blue shopgirl uniform. It is possible that she has taken over someone else's identity. It is likely to come better from him than me."

"Agreed, Mr Black. Ask Mr Wukong to do just that. You should accompany him as she is quite capable. You are probably right that she is using her semblance although frankly it is hard to tell. Mr Ren has been asked to join us here."

As the sound of sirens sounded in the streets, Mercury thought that it was going to be a very long night.

Magenta Raddock is related to a character in Winter in Vacuo. Chapter 20 of that story deals with the incident which motivates her.