"Remind me to never pick you voluntarily as my partner for a high-speed chase ever again!" Nora shouted at Jaune as they sped down the freeway behind Paris's truck.
"Why?" Jaune asked.
"We've been tailing a truck that this car should easily go faster than for the last several miles and you keep using your turn signal! Nice of you to let him know when we're planning on cutting him off!" Nora yelled as she rolled down her window and stuck her head out, hammer gripped tightly in her hands.
"But this isn't my car, I don't want to damage it," Jaune defended.
"I'm sure they aren't worried about it, now let's move!" Nora insisted, using the bottom of her hammer's staff to move his foot out of the way and step on the gas. "You better turn if you don't want to end up rear-ending him!"
"Alright, alright," Jaune insisted as he moved over and gave it a little more.
"Now this is more like it!" Nora laughed loudly as she opened the sunroof and clambered out using his shoulder as a footing.
"Nora… I… " He looked up to scold her and saw up her skirt, averting his eyes and ignoring the situation above him. "Nevermind."
"Alright kid! You want some?" Nora asked, standing on the roof of the car now, preparing to smash the truck's hood. When they caught up with the vehicle Nora noted the window was open. "Stop or I'll break your legs!"
"I'd like to see you try!" He offered as he fired senbons out, shredding one of Jaune's tires.
"Bad!" Jaune yelled, already slamming the breaks to try and stop swerving, in addition, to avoid flipping the vehicle as Nora leapt off and landed on the truck.
"Catch up if you can!" Nora called back to him. She skipped to the front, holding her hammer high above her head before front flipping forward and smashing the hood, flipping the large vehicle end over end. She brought her hand to her forehead, squinting and watching for Paris to fall out, but he didn't appear to.
"Should I be impressed?" He asked, emerging from his pocket dimension beside her and shaking his head.
"Oh right, I forgot you could do that," she stated. She shrugged. "I guess that just means we have more time to fight!"
"Naturally," he groaned. He stepped out of the way of a vehicle that sped by, nearly crashing into the wreckage of the truck and stopping to examine it.
"Hey!" Nora shouted. She barely leapt out of the way of another car to find that Paris had disappeared for a moment and she swung her hammer around, compacting it, riding it over to the crash site. She leapt off just short of the gathering crowd. "You can't be here, this is a busy freeway!"
"Calm down, we're just calling the cops," the man told her. Nora groaned and swung around quickly as Paris had emerged again, swinging at her. His concealed fist met her weapon, which somehow seemed to negate her attack. She stared for a second before he opened a portal beneath them both, getting them out of the way of the traffic.
"I can let loose in here," she told him. He smirked.
"So can I," he chuckled. He opened the dimension, a car nearly took Nora out but she managed to backflip out of the way, landing on her feet as it left and Paris cracked her in the jaw with his fist which felt incredibly solid. She left the ground, crashing into the wall of the dimension as his senbons flew towards her. She blocked most of them with her hammer, one or two grazing her aura and she fired a barrage of rockets that forced him back from her.
"What are you all after anyway?" Nora asked him. The two of them clashed, his fist grappling her hammer and forcing it out of the way, but not fully expecting the head to be capable of swiveling. She did so, activating the rocket propulsion and catching his jaw, tossing him away from her as his aura absorbed the hit.
"How many times do we have to repeat ourselves," he groaned as he tried finding his feet. She rushed towards him to take advantage of the situation but he dropped out of the dimension again to give himself a moment.
"She's dead and no matter how much you want to deny it, the kid is dead too, so I'm not sure I actually do know what you want," Nora told him. "Did someone promise you power? Give some big speech about it coming from Salem? That's how they get you, you know. Then they toss you away when they're done with you and surprise surprise, no power."
"The Neo-Salem's are no more," he replied, his voice coming from all around her.
"Oh, so you all did come to your senses then?" Nora asked. The dimension opened beneath her, but instead of throwing her back into the real world, she was face to face with Damu. "Seriously?"
"The anointed are now known as The Children of Salem," Paris thundered. "Abigor has given us each a taste of Salem's power to use until she returns."
"Okay, I'll admit it sounds better than Neo-Salem, but rebranding doesn't make you guys any less of quacks," Nora informed him. Damu blasted her back and she tumbled through a portal, directly back out to the freeway to see that an ice-wall was now blocking off traffic. "Jaune!"
"Almost there!" He replied. "I just… uh Nora…"
"Hold on!" She exclaimed. She summoned lightning to blast Damu away from her and released another barrage of missiles that formed a hole for Jaune to make his way through. Paris rushed in and blindsided Nora, nailing her in the ribs, his fist cold to the touch and flash freezing her clothing as she bounced away. "What the hell is up with this guy?"
"Does he have some kind of prosthetic loaded with ice Dust?" Jaune asked as he rushed to her.
"I don't know," she told him. "I haven't gotten a look at it yet."
"And you won't get one," Paris informed them. "Damu, take care of them."
"I'm sensing large amounts of Dust nearby," Damu informed him.
"And as I've told you every time that you've brought it up, just ignore that for now," Paris told him annoyed. Nora smirked and glanced at Jaune.
"Thinking what I'm thinking?" Nora asked.
"I've got a decent idea," Jaune noted.
"If you obstruct our objective, I've been programmed to destroy you," Damu stated.
"Launch me," Nora told Jaune. He nodded and let her leap on his shield, using the Gravity Dust infused within to launch Nora off. She swung her hammer around in an upward attack, catching Damu in the torso and sending him flying into Paris, the two of them tumbling across the ground and Paris's aura fizzled slightly. She knew Damu was heavy, but she was really hoping that Damu would become more interested in whatever Paris had for Dust. She landed a ways away near the crashed truck, watching as Jaune rushed the men to attack. He reflected a blast from Damu back at Paris who slid away, blocking with his arm. Nora rushed in, forcing him to swing around and defend from her and she put her full force into it. Something gave, sending him tumbling away from her.
"No!" He shouted. He staggered to his feet, breathing heavily as he reached out towards the ice wall he had formed before, fractals of ice falling from his raised arm. The ice reverted to Dust, trailing through the air towards his body before Damu took to the air and began absorbing it. "Damu! Get out of the way!"
"Collecting Dust is my primary…" was all the bot managed before his torso was removed from his legs by Paris by closing his Semblance on it.
"I don't care, and I honestly don't know why they brought you on! What are you doing with all of the Dust anyway?! You've used more than you've actually stored!" Paris raged. Damu's top half clawed its way towards Paris.
"Large amounts of Dust," he repeated. "Large amounts of Dust."
"Die," Paris demanded. He tossed his senbons at the mangled cyberman, pinning it to the ground. He glared at Jaune who was still shocked. "Maybe you'll be next. Who knows what all I can do now that Salem has given us more power."
"Forget someone?" Nora whispered in his ear. Her hammer smashed into his ribs with a crack, breaking his aura and sending him right for Jaune's shield, the huntsman pinning him down beneath it. "Can't use your semblance with a broken aura, and you just couldn't be bothered with taking note of me, could you?"
"You'll pay for this," Paris informed her.
"I doubt it," Jaune told him.
"Now, let's take a look at this arm," Nora said as she grabbed his cape and she tore it away. She stared speechless for a few seconds as Jaune caught a glimpse as well.
"That's impossible," Jaune stated.
"Impossible?" He scoffed. The ice wall shattered, the Dust returning to him as he let the excess freeze both of their legs in place. "Seems unlikely that you'd feel that way all things considered."
"But we were told…" Nora argued.
"Damu!" Paris called. "Freeze them and let's get out of here!" The two pros had been rendered immobile and speechless by what they'd seen and Damu used what Ice Dust was left in his body to make sure they were frozen up to their necks, letting Paris find his feet. "Damn I hate you, but if I bring you back to Abigor and Jett like this they'll kill me. As soon as I get a bit of aura back I'll take us out of here and get your legs reattached."
"Large amounts of Dust," Damu insisted.
"Shut up," Paris demanded.
"What's your next move?" Nora asked him one final time. He sighed and shook his head.
"Bringing Salem back," Paris chuckled. "You guys really are that dense."
"No," Nora corrected. "You specifically. As an individual." Paris walked over to her.
"I'm sure Coco probably told you all what I tried during the entrance exam," Paris noted. "And I plan on finishing what I started."
"You're sick," Jaune shouted. Paris chuckled.
"Once that girl is dead I'll be able to sleep a little better at night," Paris insisted. "If anything I'll be doing you a favor. No more outbursts, or students calling her a freak."
"Well this chat has been fun and all," Nora offered. The ice around her shattered as lightning struck her and she leapt high into the air with her hammer behind her. "But I'm ready to shut you up!" As she came down they disappeared into his dimension, slipping away into the night. "Damn it!"
"It's fine, we'll get them next time," Jaune told her. "Besides, with that buff from Salem that he claims he was given, I think his aura came back quicker than he let on. These guys are getting more and more dangerous by the day."
"That's why I wanted to stop him here…" she explained dejectedly.
"I know," he replied. "You uh… you mind letting me out of this ice?" She ran to him and gave it a tap with her hammer.
"Sorry."
"Just remember," Coco reminded her. "Don't let Jett touch you."
"This isn't my first rodeo you know!" Yang called out over her Motorcycle as they began catching the truck. "I am surprised they headed out of town though."
"I'm not," Coco replied. "Thinking they didn't want us to find their hideout."
"Well, they can't run all night," Yang noted.
"They can't run any longer at all," Coco corrected as she flipped her gun out and riddled their back tires with bullets. The truck slid for a bit as it was obvious that Mercury was putting the pedal to the metal in order to avoid slowing down, but there was no point in it. Sparks shot off of the back, slowing Yang down as the truck came to a stop and they did the same. Coco shook her head, swinging her leg over the bike and winking at Yang before heading for the driver side door. "You do not want me to open that door, Merc. How's about you open it, come out without a fight, and we can talk about letting you rot in prison instead of giving you a death sentence?"
"How about you go to hell!" Mercury yelled through the door before kicking it off of the truck towards her. She battered it away with her purse with ease, staring at him like a crazed animal, shaking her head.
"And I even gave you a chance," Coco sighed. "I'm guessing Jett is hiding behind you because she ran out of shockwaves, the police called me and told me they got into the building and I have a pretty good idea of how her semblance works at this point, so you both might just want to come out. Odds are pretty good that I can fill this entire cab with bullets before either of you can get out of the vehicle." Yang moved to join her, gauntlets cocked back.
"Hey, Mercury," Yang greeted him with a nod.
"Blondie, long time no see," he chuckled. "Did you bring your kid with you too? Just thought it might be more fun if we outsmart the three of you instead of just the two of you." Mercury looked back at the passenger seat and said something.
"So here's what we can do then," Coco noted. "I'm sure you don't want to head up to Atlas with Quake, it's where we're sending the bigger catches these days since Mistral and Vale can't seem to hold you guys, so I'm willing to cut you a deal there even. You tell me exactly what the Neo-Salems are up to… hell, I'll let you just tell me where Blood is, and I'll let you stay in Vale for your sentence."
"You mistake me for someone weak like Emerald who feels remorse over their actions," Mercury scoffed.
"Nah. Never thought you did, but I guess I did make a mistake in thinking you weren't an idiot," Coco rebutted.
"And as for Blood, I thought Emerald was listening in on that conversation," Mercury grumbled.
"Yeah, but you guys are heading south now," Coco pointed out.
"You wouldn't leave town for Blood's base of operations right away, would you?" Yang pried.
"So where is she?" Coco demanded, preparing to pull the trigger. "No one will blame me for killing you, we've been after you for far too long."
"Not even the slightest bit of remorse if you go through with it, huh?" Mercury inquired. "Just like when you killed that child."
"He would have become Salem!" Yang interjected.
"You're all so sure that you had the right kid!" Mercury yelled back at them.
"Don't kill him, he's not worth the time," Yang told Coco trying to push her gun down, Coco trembling as she gripped it tightly, rage rushing through her veins.
"Nah!" Mercury called to them. "You've given us enough time!"
"Always a step behind," Jett called from behind them. They turned to face her, something was very wrong. Her eyes were glowing red through the mask and the air felt still and menacing. Her veins glowed slightly in her neck, most likely where she injected herself and her chest heaved as her body tried to compensate for the sudden terror and power boost she'd introduced. "Paired with Salem's gift we all received recently, I feel invincible."
"Dread…" Yang noted slowly.
"It makes sense," Jett mumbled to herself. "It fills the mind with a desperate fear and fight to survive. Like an animal trapped in a corner… and with Salem's power, the two thrive off of each other. You've been the biggest thorn in our side for the longest time, Coco. Let's end this."
"As if," Coco spat. "Salem is dead, and you can join her in hell." Coco could feel one of the corners of Jett's mouth turned up and she lifted her hands out towards the two women.
"After… you…" Jett spoke slowly. Both women felt their aura's break instantly as Jett's crackled and she took a step back, panting and shivering. "I've never wielded two at the same time before…"
"I thought you said she had to touch us!" Yang exclaimed.
"It must be the Dread!" Coco noted. Yang fired a barrage of timed rounds that riddled Jett, exploding after a second or so, and Jett's maniacal laughter cut through the stillness of the night, a quarter of her mask shattered apart near her mouth.
"Doesn't your semblance make you stronger when you take damage?" Jett chuckled. "And Coco…" She lifted her kukri's and activated the Gravity Dust in them, pulling Coco and Yang in with enough force to take the air out of their lungs. Jett's eyes seared into Coco's mind as she lifted a hand to block one kukri and the other sliced through her from her cheek down through her upper lip on the left side. Coco yelped, falling back before Yang cut in between the two of them, holding Jett back with her mechanical arm.
"You think I got this far because of my semblance?" Yang grunted with a smirk. She detached her arm, sidestepping which sent Jett falling forward at the sudden loss of opposite force, torquing her body around and blasting her away with her left Ember Celica. Jett crashed across the pavement, coming to a stop at Mercury's feet and leaping back up. She popped her arm back into place.
"Even without your extra power you're tough," Jett admitted. "But now that hit just became my advantage."
"Bring it!" Yang demanded.
"Yang, we need to leave!" Coco informed her. Yang looked down at her for a moment before looking at Jett who was preparing to charge in.
"The cut isn't deep," Yang told her calmly. "It'll scar, but you're fine. We've fought worse than this. You can do it."
"Can she!?" Jett snarled, her face twisted into a macabre smile and she cried from laughing. "She looks so defeated already, knowing that she might have made a wrong decision! Tonight alone she's already made more than one! Hahahahaha!" Jett rushed in, using her kukri's Dust again to practically teleport to Yang, her damage infused blow met by Yang's prosthetic which crushed slightly.
"It's okay to make a bad decision every now and then with good intentions!" Yang said, loading her rockets as she cocked back and released. The missiles pelted off of Jett who had deactivated the fire Dust inside with Coco's semblance.
"Unless those intentions leave you dead!" Jett cackled wailing on Yang again. Several blows to the ribs left Yang coughing up blood before she was thrown back towards Vale, sailing through the air for a good hundred feet or so. "She'll live through that, but I have no intention of letting you live." Jett's hands covered her mask and her body contorted in a sick, sadistic wave of ecstasy. "Intentions! Ha!"
"Coco," a voice came over her comms. "Is everything alright? They said they caught Quake and I wondered if it meant you were coming home soon. Lamar told me to tell you that he loves you."
"Yeah," Coco grunted with an out of breath laugh. "I'll be home soon. Tell him I love him too."
"Why are you laughing?" Jett asked, kicking her a few feet off of the road and towards the woods. "What's so funny?"
"To think I let one bad choice go to my head when I have to think about my family," Coco noted as she managed to find her feet. She was barely beaten. Yang was right, there was a scar on her face, but that was it thanks to Yang. It was time to return the favor. Jett came in again and tried an overpowered attack with Yang's semblance but Coco went on the defensive, blocking shot after shot with her purse, all the while moving back into the woods.
"What's the plan?" Jett questioned degradingly. "Someone else coming to help? Thinking of getting me away from Mercury will even the odds? Waiting for my semblance to wear off… or the Dread? Going to use some Dread yourself?" Jett cackled again. "There's nothing you can possibly do!"
"I live in Vale," Coco told her. "Have for quite some time now. Take my wife and kid all over the area looking for things to do and places to visit."
"What's your point?" Jett growled angrily.
"Funny thing about Dread," Coco noted. "It's weak."
"And yet I'm the one with both of your semblances!" Jett reminded her, releasing another barrage of blows that glanced off of Coco's purse.
"And here I was trying to help you win," Coco sighed.
"What do you…" Jett asked before her body completely locked up. The forest melted away around her and Jett found herself lying in the middle of a street in Mistral, bloodied.
"Have you seen anyone lose a fight more times than this girl?" A voice questioned.
"And what a stupid mask," another added.
"She's fought the Maniac four times and lost every time, you think by now she would have learned that Tawney can't be beaten," the first replied.
"I heard that she's homeless from all the lien she's lost on these fights," a third chimed in.
"She can even steal the semblances of people and she still loses," the first chipped in once more.
"Pathetic."
"Weak."
"What a loser."
"Maybe someday she'll stop wasting our time…"
"No!" She screamed. "What is this?!" Coco stepped out of the crowd of people and grabbed her by the chin.
"Dread is Grimm's Bane, but after it's refined and altered into a drug, it's so much weaker than the source it comes from," Coco explained. "This flower." She plucked one and held it to Jett's mask.
"Get away!" Jett shouted as she was thrown by someone else down a flight of stairs. "Father?!"
"Such an unruly child," he growled at her. "You're a failure to this family! Don't come back!"
"Stop! Stop this!" Jett demanded.
"But I've built up an immunity and know where most of the patches in Vale are. To make sure my kid avoids them and if he doesn't, so I can rescue him," Coco told her. Coco's transformed before Jett's eyes, her back sprouting Grimm Dragon wings and her face becoming that of a demon's. She trembled in fear. "Any last words?"
"I…" Jett attempted. She stopped and calmed herself, closing her eyes before reopening them to find herself standing in the road without anyone around. "How did I get here?"
"Someday I'll be too late and one of you is going to die," Aurora sighed as she walked past Jett. "I'll give you enough time to get out of here, but that's it."
"Then why don't we kill Coco?!" Jett screeched.
"Dreads about to wear off and we both know when that happens that your body is going to be screaming with pain," Aurora informed her. "Besides, you're still technically in the middle of all that Bane and I'm doing my best to keep three people in a pretty intensive illusion. Now, I can either drop you back into that hellscape you were just dealing with, or you can leave and we can worry about Coco later."
"I'll fight her now!" Jett demanded.
"You'll die," Aurora replied.
"I just need more Dread, right?" Jett asked. "That's all I need to keep from crashing. Bring me some."
"Mercury is my priority, not you," Aurora reminded her. "But if you'd step out of this Bane patch, I'll gladly let you go get it yourself."
"Good enough," Jett agreed. Aurora let her see enough of her surroundings to get out and like that, the girl was gone. Jett raced for the truck. "More Dread and I can end this quickly! That's all it will take!" Before she reached the road the truck erupted into a magnificent explosion with Yang slowly slumping her way towards the wreckage. Jett's mind raced as she felt herself about to crash.
"Get in!" Mercury yelled from a car with Aurora, further up the road. Jett sprinted for them and quickly entered the vehicle.
"You lied to me!" Jett shouted at Aurora who drove. The loli shook her head.
"Master says lying is bad!" Aurora giggled. "I told you I'd let you out of the Bane patch and that's all that I agreed to!"
"Also, how did you know telling them the exact location of Blood's mountain would work?" Jett asked Mercury.
"I wasn't entirely sure that it would, but I knew she'd never believe that we'd head there immediately after running," Mercury noted.
"When are we going back for them?" Aurora asked. Mercury chuckled.
"We aren't," Mercury stated. "I don't need any of them going ahead. I say we just let them sit and think about what they've done. We'll lay low until the next part of our plan needs to take place."
"The expo," Jett said.
"Exactly," Mercury replied.
"What's Blood like?" Aurora questioned.
"She won't be thrilled that we're on our way," Jett seethed through her teeth. "Hnngh…"
"You okay?" Mercury inquired looking back at her.
"The Dread is wearing off," Aurora informed him
Mercury managed to get away again. New week, Chapter 17: Debrief!
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 classy!