"Seriously," Eren began complaining. "What good is it going to do us to sit in a damn van and watch them fight? We should be in there with them!" He shook his head and crossed his arms, kicking his feet up on one of the consoles and grumbling.
"Stay put," Neela told him as she double-checked the back window to make sure that no one was out there.
"You want us to give you a play by play and walk you through what we're thinking or…?" Nat asked.
"I think watching will be more than sufficient enough," Titus sighed. She laughed over the comms.
Suit yourselves, Orin replied. It was a fairly standard location that they'd been sent to under the cover of night to help Emerald to collect her intel. She was to sneak into the warehouse where they were meeting, Stardust's 'premier' members were meeting and discussing their upcoming plans, which included the location of Blood's lab if she remembered her briefing correctly. They were meeting in the foreman's office, which was putting it lightly from the pictures that Emerald had seen, it looked more like it had been renovated into a business lounge of sorts.
"You kids ready?" Emerald asked them.
"This ain't nothing," Xavier told her.
"We'll be fine," Yin insisted. "I'm assuming that you want us to wait to start the party until after you get the info." Emerald looked at him for a long moment. "Up to you?"
"Is he joking?" Emerald asked Orin.
"He does a lot of that, but he's not right now," Orin answered. "We could easily clear the warehouse and be out before you're even finished with the meeting, without a single interruption."
"Really?" Emerald inquired.
"They're easily the best third-year team we've got," Coco told Emerald over the comms. "You should get going, that meeting is starting soon." Emerald nodded and looked at Team ONYX.
"Wait for my word," Emerald instructed.
"As you wish," Orin saluted. He looked at Yin and Xavier, undoubtedly giving them telepathic directions as they nodded back at him and moved out. Nat followed, a long, barreled grenade launcher in a sling over her shoulder resting in her palm and propped against her shoulder. Orin took to the sky, circling the building to make sure there weren't any unexpected visitors. Emerald cloaked herself with an illusion, making sure that she was undetectable as she made her way through the dock door as it was opening, a small cargo truck backing up the ramp.
"Another shipment of Dust?!" One of the goons yelled as he moved to the trailer and tossed the door open. "We're already up to our elbows in this stuff, does Mercury really need more?"
"It can't hurt," another noted. "We can sell the stuff, use it, who knows what else? Not to mention, the more that we have, the less that the huntsmen have."
"Looking good boys," Orion pointed and winked as he trotted past with Astra and Asteria on each arm. "Keep doing the good work. Salem shall bless us all eventually."
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop saying that?" Sirius groaned, taking up the rear behind them.
"Seeing as how Mercury is a little pissed after that last stunt in the club with you being drunk and whatnot, I don't really need to worry about what you think I should do," Orion laughed.
"You're both working towards the same goal, must you really fight?" Jett asked standing at the top of the steps outside of the office.
"He knows I'm kidding, right Sirius?" Orion chuckled. Sirius shoved past him, nearly knocking Astra over.
"Hey!" Astra shouted.
"Sirius, what gives?" Asteria asked. "Are you alright, Astra?"
"I'm fine, Asteria," she told her sister. "Sirius has been in a bad mood since that incident at the club."
"A terrible mood," Asteria added.
"Hey," Jett stopped Sirius on his way up the steps, planting her hand on his shoulder. "Remember what we're trying to do here. You all can't be fighting with each other."
"Get out of my way," Sirius demanded as he forced his way through.
"Aurora will be joining us today," Jett announced. Sirius stopped and looked back down at Orion.
"That seems unnecessary," Orion informed Jett.
"You guys are so mean!" A voice declared. Orion turned around to see Aurora, the 'girl' bending forward at the waist, sticking her tongue out and pulling down on her eyelid. She wore a powder blue victorian style dress with a simple ribbon around the neck, a white lace choker around the girl's neck that matched the bottom of her dress that flared out impractically. She had a matching blue ribbon at the base of each of her blonde curled twin tails, her pink eyes lighting up as she looked back at Mercury. "Master asked me to keep an eye on you guys since you've been doing so poorly recently!"
"Whose sassy lost child is this?!" Orion shouted.
"I'm not a child, I'm twenty-six years old!" Aurora shouted back.
"Don't pay them any mind," Mercury said, shaking his head and taking her hand. She was barely five feet tall wearing her short heels, beaming up at him as he walked her up the stairs. "From now on, Aurora Eos will be my right hand. Anything she says is as good as my word." She looked up at him with awe.
"Really, Master?" she inquired. He nodded. "This is the best day ever!"
"That… there's no need for that!" Sirius stated as he entered the room, the rest of them joining him within seconds.
"Master says you haven't done anything useful in months," Aurora exclaimed. "I'm going to fix that!"
"I hate everything," Orion groaned as he sat.
"But she's cute," Astra stated.
"Perhaps she could give us fashion tips?" Asteria suggested.
"Yes!" Astra declared.
"Enough!" Jett yelled closing the doors. "Save the banter for later, we have things to discuss."
"I think we should wait a minute," Aurora suggested.
"We don't have time for this," Jett groaned.
"What are we waiting for?" Sirius pried.
"Nothing, she's nothing more than a child," Orion sighed.
"Continue," Mercury told Jett. Aurora folded her arms.
"I see that another shipment of Dust showed up," Jett noted.
"As discussed before, we're using that to wipe that tech show off of the map," Mercury noted. "There's going to be a lot of big names there, so it should cut back the competition and resistance to our cause quite a bit. Nothing that several tons of Dust couldn't fix."
"And the rest is being stored at Blood's mountain, right?" Aurora asked.
"Right," Jett replied. "She's twenty miles or so to the south of Vale, she knows to be on the lookout for us once the dust settles."
"Was that meant to be a pun?" Orion asked.
"Don't be an idiot," Sirius replied, shaking his head.
"Abigor wants you to bring Aurora to the next meeting," Jett said, her attention on Mercury.
"Me?" Aurora asked.
"We need help with a situation," Jett explained. "It seems an asset got away from us somehow and we need it returned one way or another."
"Sounds like fun!" She giggled. Orion shuddered. Did she have to act so unnerving?
"And the rest of us?" Orion inquired.
"Will know what you need to know when you need to know it," Jett said.
"Kind of tired of being left in the dark," Orion grunted as he stood.
"You will be rewarded for your efforts in due time," Jett informed him as she moved towards him. "Telling any one person too much is unwise."
"What if we just left," Orion questioned. Sirius chuckled.
"We're expendable, just sit down and do as you're told," Sirius demanded. Orion glanced at him before looking back at Jett who was smirking.
"Sirius knows how it is, and besides," Jett asserted. "If you're not with us, you're against us… and you wouldn't want that."
"Yeah, sure…" Orion tapered off.
"Is this it?" Mercury asked.
"We're finished," Jett replied. Mercury and Aurora stood as the twins glanced at each other before looking at Sirius.
"We couldn't have done this over a call?" Sirius asked.
"We could have, but I like checking in to make sure that everything is as it should be," Jett informed him.
"We have a situation out here!" Shouted one of the men out in the warehouse.
"Go!" Mercury yelled at them. Sirius and Orion hesitated. "Go!"
"Who is it?" Aurora asked.
"Probably those damn huntsmen from the school," Mercury noted as he stood as well, joining Jett as they made their way to the door. "Aurora, you stay here for now."
"Yes, Master," she replied as he left and closed the door. She leapt to her feet and stretched before giggling. "You can come out now, they're gone. You must be that girl that Master told me about. He said that you were really good at illusions." Emerald made herself visible, standing on the far side of the room, preparing to leave as she stared at the girl.
"Why didn't you tell them I was here?" Emerald asked.
"That would have spoiled all of our fun, wouldn't it?" Aurora questioned. Emerald tilted her head slightly before the girl cloned herself, the replica seemed to be made of strange waves of light, and the original wielded a meteor hammer, swinging it gently in front of her. "Come on then, let's have some fun!"
"Eren!" Ilia shouted as Titus caught her before she could leap out of the back of the van to stop him. No sooner had Emerald left than Eren had bolted, running right for the building and completely disregarding everything that they had been told to do. "Titus, we have to stop him!"
"And risk our grades too? Fat chance!" Titus replied. Neela pressed her earpiece against her ear.
"Coco, Eren is AWOL," Neela told her instructor. Coco sighed.
"Of course he is," Coco shouted. "I'll be there in a couple of minutes. If things get out of hand I want Team NITE to move in. Team ONYX, get in there. Minimize any damage and arousal of suspicion that Eren might cause."
"Got it!" Yin shouted.
"Now? Really?!" Xavier inquired.
You three are up! Orin instructed.
"Go time!" Nat hollered. Xavier grabbed the two of them and phased through the roof, landing on the floor below behind a few men that were keeping watch over one of the side exits. Yin activated his semblance, placing a silencing effect on the area around them as Nat blasted the two of them away quickly with her gun.
No killing, Talia, Orin reminded her.
They're not dead, she replied, what fun are Atlesian paralyzing rounds if they don't have some kick to them? Xavier motioned with his head towards another high rise of pallets, two men could be heard talking on the other side of them. Yin nodded, jogging over with him as Nat kept a lookout and made sure no one spotted them, nodding to them that the coast was still clear. Xavier did several handsprings, stopping short of the stack as he tossed Yin up and gave him the thumbs up. Yin switched his semblance back on and Xavier walked around the corner, the two men spotting him and aiming at him. He threw his hands up, speaking to them but his voice was canceled out. The two men prepared to yell at him before noting the same was happening to them. They looked back up to see he was gone before one of them was kicked in the jaw, the other looked down to shoot him but Xavier twisted his body around, kicking the gun out of his hands before Nat arrived and threw him to the ground, knocking him out with a blow to the head.
"I was just trying to ask where the bathroom is," Xavier chuckled.
Visual on Eren? Nat questioned.
I've made a couple of passes now and haven't seen him… which can't be a good sign, Orin noted.
You'll probably hear him before you see him, Titus added.
That's what we're afraid of, Orin replied. Orin landed in the middle of his teammates and flipped his staff into its rifle mode. Perhaps you should disable him with your paralysis rounds if we see him.
Keyword is if, Natalia noted. As anticipated, before ONYX could round the corner into the next segment of the warehouse, an explosion took out one of the loading dock doors and drew the attention of every member of the gang within the building.
"Tired of sitting around and not doing anything!" Eren shouted.
"I'm gonna kill him," Natalia said as she cracked her knuckles.
"Maybe wait until after we're finished so we don't have to keep track of the body," Xavier suggested.
"I guess stealth is out then," Yin groaned.
"We got this," Xavier reassured his teammates. "Need us?" Orin fired at a few of the guards that were making their way over before flipping out his staff and flying towards the action at the front of the building.
"Do what you feel is necessary, but wait for my word to regroup," Orin called back.
"Yes!" Xavier cheered. "Let's go, Yin!"
"Right behind you," Yin insisted. "Nat?" He nodded towards the two empty storage freights behind him and she smirked, tossing him up as Xavier phased through, nailing one of the men on the other side in the jaw. He threw his hands up.
"Don't shoot! Look up there!" Xavier instructed.
"Do I look like some kind of idiot to you?" The guard asked. Yin leapt down from above, clubbing him on the top of the head. He dropped hard.
"I mean… from up here, yeah," Xavier replied.
"Come on!" Yin told Xavier.
Team NITE, come in! Orin called.
"We're here… but we're not happy," Ilia replied.
"More accurately, Neela is not happy," Titus corrected.
"Can you carry him back to the van so we can lock him in somehow?" Neela grumbled.
"We have a situation out here!" Shouted one of the men out in the warehouse.
"It might be a little late for that…" Ilia noted.
"Who is in charge around here?!" Eren shouted smashing and blasting through everything in his way.
"That would be us," Mercury announced from the stairs as he made his descent with Jett behind him.
Is Jett with him? Coco asked.
"It looks like it," Neela replied.
Be careful, Coco instructed. She can steal semblances or something to that effect.
"Well then," Eren chuckled. "I gotta kick your asses to make a statement then." Sirius moved in to attack Eren as he dispersed through the building with the twins and Orion.
"No!" Mercury yelled. Sirius slid to a stop and looked back up at him. "Leave him for us."
"Eren!" Neela shouted. Orion and Sirius approached them, Orion using a blast of gravity from his shield to push them back.
"I think you kids should let them settle that, and we can have some fun ourselves," Orion stated.
"Isn't it past your bedtimes?" Sirius asked.
"Isn't it time you stopped losing to a bunch of high schoolers?" Ilia asked. Sirius pulled the bone weapon into two separate short swords.
"I'll take Neela," Sirius insisted.
"We're on a first-name basis?" Neela asked. Sirius growled.
"Enough talk!" He shouted as he charged her and put her on the defensive for the moment.
"You good?" Ilia asked dodging Orion by leaping into Titus.
"I'll be fine, one of you get to Eren! Coco said to stay clear of Jett," Neela instructed dancing back away from Sirius's attacks.
"Fight me already!" He demanded. Neela flipped out her bow, catching both blades with it, and threw herself forward with enough force to plant him onto his back. She drew an arrow, firing to his left as he rolled to the right and found his feet with an assist from his weapon which now took the form of a glaive. He swung it around over his head, clashing with Neela's sword as the two of them struggled against each other for a long moment.
"I just can't believe you guys haven't been caught yet, my sister puts up a better fight," Neela jested.
"And perhaps I don't want to be known as the man who killed a student at Beacon," Sirius suggested, catching the arrow that had dislodged itself and flown for him. "I'm not sure how you did that, but I'm impressed."
"Like you guys care if you kill us or not," Neela spat.
"Do you understand what it means to lull your enemy into a false sense of security?" He asked blocking another swing from her sword.
"You mean like the fact that you're holding the anchor arrow now?" Neela asked. An arrow struck him the back, before they'd made it out of the office she had fired an arrow into one of the building's support beams, waiting for him to align himself between the two. She shrugged, kicking him in the chest as he stumbled a few steps and reached back to remove it. It was a clean blow, taking more of his aura than it should have and he stepped back.
"I'm done playing," he insisted.
"But I'm just getting started," she said with a smirk.
Titus, Ilia. Making progress? Neela asked as she was given a moment.
"Depends on how you define progress," Titus noted. Ilia leapt out slicing at Orion who blocked one again and threw her back, leaving him open as Titus charged in. He activated the gravity in his shield, effectively stopping Titus who quickly planned his next move. "We've got to try something else!"
"I know!" Ilia shouted at him. She rushed in to attack, Orion holding up his hand and blinding her with a flash of light. She stumbled towards him, taking a heel to the chin and careening away as Titus slammed his kopides into the ground, creating a dome around Orion.
"That won't hold him for long!" Titus shouted. "I'm going to get Eren!"
"Not likely," Orion said, slamming into Titus from the side. Titus bounced once, sliding the rest of the way to Ilia before coming to a stop at her feet.
"When…?" Titus began. Ilia helped him up.
"I'm not sure," she noted. Orion chuckled.
"You think you kids are the only ones who ever pushed hard enough to get your semblances to the next level?" Orion asked. "What are they teaching you at Beacon these days?"
Neela, where's Eren? Please tell me he's not fighting Jett… Coco pled.
Then don't ask…? Neela replied.
"You think I can't take both of you?" Eren barked as Jett and Mercury reached the bottom of the steps.
"I can make quick work of him," Jett insisted.
"Let him have some fun first," Mercury laughed. "Kid, you've got a lot to learn about life if you think you're going to take us down and leave like some kind of hero."
"And here I thought you just hid all the time because you're weak," Eren noted, removing his gun from the holster. Mercury gritted his teeth.
"By all means," Jett said. "After you." He cracked his neck and hopped slightly before taking off quickly across the room towards Eren who took two steps forward and fired at Mercury. Mercury front flipped over the first shot with ease, spinning through the air at an alarming speed and taking Eren off guard as his boot met the gun. He kicked it down, landing and instantly bringing up his opposite foot to kick Eren in the temple, tearing away some of his aura.
"All brawn and no brains, huh?" Mercury gawfed. "Too bad your friends are busy…"
"I don't need their help," Eren insisted, using his semblance to blast himself back towards Mercury. Mercury attempted a leaping kick and blasted at the boy who used his semblance at the same time, leaving them both sliding backward. "You can only rely on yourself."
"So you do have street smarts," Mercury noted. He rushed in again, faking a kick to cause Eren to use his semblance before kicking him in the chest, snatching his knife away simultaneously as he tried to unsheath it. Mercury tossed it away, pushing him further back with repeated kicks. "But you're still pretty stupid."
"That so?" Eren asked. He fired his gun into the air blindly, bringing down a light fixture above them that crashed in between them. Eren broke the chain off, swinging it around and catching Mercury's leg as he channeled his semblance into the chain. It exploded, tossing Mercury back and Eren was already on him by the time he landed.
"You're quicker than I would have thought," Mercury offered.
"Are we finished here?" Jett inquired annoyed. "We have somewhere we need to be still tonight, and I'm slowly losing my patience."
"We'll get there," Mercury grunted as he blasted Eren back again. "Lighten up, would ya?"
"I'd rather leave before the Huntsmen and Huntresses show up!" Jett yelled at him.
"They're nothing to worry about," Mercury insisted. Eren came in hard, Mercury leaping over him as he did and twisting through the air, bringing a foot down into his shoulder and slamming him into the concrete floor. Eren's aura fizzled. "I'm impressed. You still have a little left in you." Mercury looked up at Jett. "Take it."
"I'll do more than that," Jett informed him. Jett gripped Eren's arm tightly, his semblance transferring to her and nullified in him for the time being. "Any last words? Perhaps in your next life, you won't take Salem's chosen so lightly."
"Neela!" Titus shouted. Neela glanced up to see what was happening.
"Skipping stones!" Neela yelled back at him as she fired her grapple.
"I hate that attack name!" He thundered as he turned to stone and gripped her claw, pulling her through the chaos and launching her at Jett. Neela screamed through the air, her bowstring catching Jett's arm and nearly breaking it as she landed and pulled the woman over her hunched body. Jett slammed against the stairs with a thud, screeching in pain as Neela turned to Mercury, flipping her bow into its sword form. Before Mercury could kick her Jett had somehow moved and blasted Neela down the steps, throwing her onto her back a few feet from Eren.
"If it isn't Neela Xiao Long…" Jett huffed in pain as she completely stood. "We heard about what you did to Athena."
"That was my grandmother," Neela groaned as she stood.
"Not in the cafeteria," Jett chuckled softly. Somehow Neela could imagine the evil grin that had spread across the masked woman's face.
"Then you should know, it'd be better for you not to fight me," Neela stated, checking on Eren. "You all right?" She extended her hand but he smacked it away.
"Leave me alone," he growled leaping up without help. He grunted, clearly in pain.
"Stubborn one isn't he?" Jett asked looking at the bruise on her arm that had formed despite her aura still being partially intact. "No, I'm going to fight you. The way I see it, I just need to touch you and it's all over, what with being able to see moves before they happen? That is how it works, right?"
"And maybe it's nothing more than quicker reflexes," Neela suggested. Guys, some help?
"Still sounds useful," Jett said walking down the steps.
Keep them busy for just a bit longer, Coco instructed. Orin, can you add Jaune to the telepathic link?
As much as I would love to, you've got me spread pretty thin as it is, Orin explained. But we can get over there to help Neela, right?
"On it!" Natalia shouted rushing past Orion who teleported in between her and her target in a flash of light. "I don't know that that's where you want to be standing."
"Try me," Orion boasted. She sighed and swung her real arm, using her semblance to give the hit an added kick and it slammed against his shield, causing them both to slide back. She smirked.
"Silly me," she chuckled, throwing her gun away as she charged in with inhuman speed, transferring her semblance to her mechanical arm at the last second and denting his shield. The gravity Dust had no way of escaping from the front and instead launched him backward into a stack of crates, spilling lien everywhere. "Yin, Xavier!"
"We got you!" Xavier shouted as they rushed past only to be met by the twins. Orin shook his head as he flew over them, but was slammed into the ground as Sirius caught him by the wings with his weapon. Orin leapt to his feet, firing at the man who was forced to move to cover. Yin crashed into Orin as Xavier phased through them. "Tougher than they look, man."
"Come on!" Natalia demanded as she dragged them both up by the arm. "This is nothing."
"I don't remember them putting up much of a fight for NITE," Orin said. "Or atleast the briefing files didn't indicate much of one."
"They seem stronger," Ilia noted as she approached them. "It's almost strange."
Everyone still okay, I lost you there for a moment, Coco inquired.
We're fine, but these guys are putting up a better fight than last time, Titus informed her.
Stick with ONYX, you all should be fine, though you have to find a way to Neela, I don't think she can handle Jett alone. Also, has anyone seen Emerald? Coco questioned.
Is Emerald in over her head? Is NITE? Next week, Chapter 14: Obsessed!
A big thank you to AG_Nonsuch, Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. The artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay classy!