I know, I know, I'm Late.

Payday 2 is a hell of a drug.

Anyway, who wants some plot baby?

Oh, so now they take off the rocket pods. Couldn't have done that before the civi's saw it. Fucking brain surgeons.

Rexus sat on the most uncomfortable bench ever, ate the driest sandwich ever, and insulted the intelligence of the dumbest Atlesian air crew ever. Why they decided to not remove rockets hooked onto the wings of an aircraft entering a very unhostile zone was a strange action. Stranger still that they left them on until one of the student hunters complained.

On an unrelated note, Pyrrha's a fucking pussy.

Today was Friday, and it had been a week since last Frida…

What? Two Fridays are separated by a whole week? Fucking dumbass.

Rexus was having a hard time thinking right now. Ever since he was informed by Ozpin that Luka now knows who Joey is, which was Rexus' fault by the way, his brain moved like a stallion over a great and flat plain. It never stopped, never rested, never even took a breath. It just wouldn't stop. Please stop.

To say Rexus was distressed would be a very large understatement.

He had attempted to avoid Luka like the plague. Every time he saw her he looked away. When they had the same lunch he'd disappear to out here. And for sleeping in the same dorm, well that was Luka's problem. She slept somewhere else. That was damn fine by him.

And for her part, Luka didn't seem too keen on talking to Rexus. Where they'd fight before, they completely avoided each other now. Once again, Rexus was A OK with that.

He'd even gone to Ozpin for guidance. All he was told was to "Be nice, and it'll all be fine." After chucking aside that decidedly useless piece of info, Rexus figured that not thinking about it would be the only thing he could do. Maybe he'd forget about all this and go back to normal.

So for now, he ate his dry sandwich in silence.

He wished he had water.

A sound like little feet came from his left. A crow landed on the bench beside him.

Well, it looked like a crow, but you could tell it was something different. A bit bigger and meaner. That and the fact that it held a rather large folder in its beak.

The eyes of the animal bored into Rexus' soul. "Uhhh, whatcha got there…buddy?" Rexus attempted to snatch the folder, only for the bird to move and give him a painful papercut. "Ow, little bastard." He tried again, only now trying to catch the bird. Again he failed and gained more pain.

Probably tired of trying to get people to figure out what it wanted, the crow dropped the files from its beak and cawed at the half eaten sandwich. "Oh, you want this?" Rexus put two and two together. It nodded and jumped onto the folder. "Sure, have some." He shrugged and tore a bit from the sandwich. Trying to get the bird off the folder, Rexus tossed the food on to the dirt a few feet away. It worked, and Rexus watched as the funny little thing scampered off towards the stale bread and soggy lunchmeat.

"Now, what's this?" Rexus picked up the folder and began to open it. He stopped for a moment. "These aren't naked pictures of Ms. Rajis, are they?" He asked with a heavy shudder at the thought of all those wrinkles. The crow seemed to shudder just as violently as he did. "Good, good." He opened it with little fear that anything in there could be worse than what he had just thought about.

Inside was a picture and a piece of paper chalked full of words. Sadly, none of the words were in Atlesian, or Vlain for that matter. He did see a bit of Menagin, but most looked almost like something a bored toddler would doodle. And at the very end, just like a letter, was the name of the party that so graciously compiled this info for Rexus. "From…Death? The Grim Reaper himself is helping me?" He added that last bit sarcastically. Maybe he should tell Luka about this mysterious letter, she'd find it funny.

Aside from the incomprehensible gibberish on the page and the very edgy ending, the picture was more helpful. An armored car, the kind banks use, was the main attraction. That and several crates off to the left of the vehicle.

Now that wouldn't really be interesting on it's own. Afterall, Rexus was a gangster, and they weren't exactly unfamiliar with armored car jobs. Most of the time whatever was in it wasn't worth the danger and profile that smashing them brought. But this one was different. And it wasn't just because a bird delivered it to him in a folder along with gibberish runes.

On a man, or rather Faunus next to the car was a very familiar design. A red animal skull with teeth, on a three scratch background. "White Fang?" Now this, this was interesting. The White Fang usually blew up and stole from cars. But in this picture, it looked like a dozen men were loading and crewing it.

And on the picture itself was another, paperclipped to it. A box, bearing the design of a key. A box that looked fairly important. And when things looked important, they usually went for a tidy sum.

Or could function as a very nice gift to give to someone who was currently banning you from setting foot off the campus.

Rexus plucked the small picture from its retaining paperclip and flipped it over. Intrigue immediately flooded his mind as he noticed the obsessive amount of keys. Drawn keys of all sizes and make completely covered the back of the post-it note sized picture. It was so full that the white paper was fully blackened by lead.

He laughed and dismissed it as mad scribbles of an extremist terrorist. The photo dropped from his hand as he turned over the bigger one. On this was actual language. A small, labeled, roadmap. "Looks like someone fucked up." Rexus smiled widely. He could use a distraction from his own mind. What better way than to disrupt the White Fang, and get something that was probably good and expensive.

And he was a hunter-in-training. Why not flex what he learned at Beacon by thwarting evil?

The bird cawed again, having finished the first dose of sandwich. "Here, buddy. Take the rest." Rexus threw the last half of his sandwich to the bird. He swore that the animal curved its beak into a smile.

But just as he was about to embark on his day trip, he stopped. That small picture, the one that he let fall out of his hand. It laid on the ground.

He felt a strong urge to pick it back up. A strong urge. So he let the urge become action and plucked the photo from the stone, taking a long and hard look at the strange keys before shoving it into his vest with the rest of the package.

A picture of what he was looking for would probably be helpful.

Luka sighed.

It was sunny, blue sky, a slight cool breeze, and smelt like freshly cut grass outside.

Yet she still felt horrible.

And it wasn't because she lacked sleep. Velvet and her team had let Luka hot bunk with them. And it wasn't because everyone looked at her like she was a pitiable child since she couldn't command her own team. She'd gotten enough of that in Menagerie to be used to it by now. And it probably wasn't because her grades had taken a turn for the worse. That was really a symptom.

Rexus and the White Fang were the root cause of her upset stomach. And it made it even worse that she was almost over it up until Ozpin had informed her of the situation.

Rexus was an Atlesian, the White Fang would always be his enemy. There was precious little she could do to prevent anything he could do aside from the obvious violent option.

And even that choice came with a heavy risk. As she and Blake knew, when Rexus got stuck into a fight, only he walked away. So, devoid of any direction and scared to take physical action against her teammate, Luka sought out the Headmaster. All he told her was, "Be nice, and it'll all be fine." That info only seemed to depress her further. So she decided to just take it as it came.

That's a fancy way of saying she was trying to ignore everything.

And for the most part, it worked. Rexus and Luka barely even saw each other anymore. When they met, they avoided the gaze and evacuated the area as quickly as possible. When they couldn't just leave each other, they pretended like the other wasn't there. And when they were talking to friends, say Luka to Blake and Rexus to Weiss, they refused to acknowledge each other. Even when directly questioned about the teammate. Really, this was the best equilibrium they could have for this circumstance. And with the rest of the team still refusing to really speak with anyone, silence reigned in LYAR.

So now she just sat on a bench in the sun. Alone.

At least it was warm.

A soft coo echoed from her right. A dove had landed next to her.

Upon a closer look, it wasn't a dove. It was bigger and almost calming to look at. It's feathers were also far brighter a white than normal. And it carried a folder almost the size of it in its beak.

"Hello?" Luka was, understandably, confused at her new bird whispering abilities.

The bird cooed again in response.

"Is that…for me?" Luka pointed towards the folder, and then to herself.

The Dove, apparently a bird brained genius, nodded.

"Oh, thanks." Luka put out her hand for the bird to give the folder over. It instead nuzzled against her hand. "Oh, uh…" She was unsure if it was safe to touch doves. Bird disease wasn't a subject she was familiar with. Luka now took on a more aggressive tactic of grabbing the folder. In turn, the bird jumped back and glared at her. "Sorry!" Her hands shot straight up into the air.

After what could almost be classified as a sigh emitted from the bird, it waddled closer and motioned for Luka to continue petting it. Not seeing any other choice, she obliged.

It was comforting to pet this animal. Like a warm bed, or a soft blanket. It was almost strangely comfortable. But seeing as she'd spent a week with no feeling other than abject torment, Luka was completely fine with this.

Eventually, the folder dropped from the Dove's beak. It had apparently gotten such pleasure from the scratching that it relaxed. Luka almost didn't notice.

Almost.

She reached out and quickly grabbed the paper before the dove could notice. What followed was a caw and the bird equivalent of a pout. Luka hadn't even realized doves could caw, much less pout. "I'll read this, and then give you more pets. Sound good?" The dove quickly nodded. "Smart little guy."

Without thinking of any possible ramifications, she opened the folder. She was almost immediately floored by a wall of text. But not in Menagin, or Vlain for that matter. Though she did notice some small bits of Atlesian. Immediately her mind jumped to Rexus, but the dove hopping onto her shoulder put her back on track for some reason. No, most of the text was, not text. It looked like aimless scribbles given the slightest bit of form. Were these… Runes? And at the end, it was revealed that this was all written by someone named… Summer. "Who names someone Summer?" Immediately she remembered that that was Ruby's dead mom's name. Embarrassed, she looked around to see if the red girl was around. She wasn't.

Regardless of who had written the strange characters, and what the characters really were, this wasn't much help. But the pictures that came attached were. Two photos taken from a hidden angle, the big one of an armored car, and the small one of a box.

Starting with the car. From the picture, taken at an angle so obscured that the photographer seemed to be hiding in a box, she gathered very general info. It looked like your average armored car that banks use, but with a very Faunus twist; it was surrounded by White Fang. Even Luka, regardless of how much she looked up to the freedom fighters, knew that the White Fang weren't known for doing much with armored cars other than…redistributing their contained wealth. But from what Luka could see, this car belonged to them.

Moving onto the tiny photo, it was a picture of what Luka assumed the car to be carrying. A single black box with a key engraved onto it. She could tell there were more boxes scattered around, but she could not tell what was in those.

Turning the photo over, Luka was once again floored. A key, or rather keys, were drawn on the back. Repeating designs flowed into new ones and back into old ones so many times that every drawing overlapped. Yet she could make out each one individually. An inkling of intrigue shot through her body, but quickly faded into nothing but amusement. Summer apparently liked keys.

She dropped the photo and turned over the bigger one. These were actual words. A hand drawn map of sorts complete with road names and a time. All centered around a major freeway in Vale.

Having a clear schedule and piqued interest. Luka decided she'd go find out what this mysterious folder was telling her. Though she hated thinking about it this way, this would be a great chance to let off some steam. Of course, she meant driving down the road at high speeds.

And considering her lack of use for their hard fought prize, Luka figured she'd show them that she was still in charge. She clutched the folder and set off to go find CRDL. They probably had a car.

The dove left her shoulder as Luka began to walk, only to return a second later with something in its mouth. The tiny photo she dropped. "Oh," She didn't really need, or want, to take that photo, "Thanks, I guess." The dove cooed. Luka sighed, guess it wouldn't hurt to have.

Anna was cold. But it wasn't because she was sitting next to an open window.

Well, it was probably because of that, but it felt as if the cold radiated from her very core. It was when she felt something strange like this that she liked to move to the local CCT complex in order to talk to her father. But since it had grown so quiet in the dorm, she had decided to do it here.

Yeah, quiet.

When Anna had met Rexus, and then the rest of the team, she had expected near ear shattering noise to rule this room. She expected Rexus and Yossif to act as boys do and never shut up. She also expected to find solace in Luka also suffering with her, but as soon as she noticed Luka's less refined feminine side as compared to herself, she knew she'd suffer through in isolation.

But in a wild course of events, she found that Luka and Rexus were the needlessly loud ones, whereas Yossif was quieter. Though the loudness was not caused by friendly conversation, rather brash anger that neared physical violence. And she could take no solace in Yossif, as they only lightly tolerated each other's presence.

Anna supposed that it had gotten better as of late. Rexus and Luka now only avoided each other where in the past they'd brawl. Quite charming.

Team LYAR was thoroughly fractured. Everyone knew it. Yet the four could do nothing.

She could do nothing.

This lack of team cohesion seemed only to weigh on her. Mercifully, she was not to blame. Horribly, that wouldn't matter. For her family to find out that her team was a literal disaster would almost certainly earn punishment. Afterall, for the rich all that mattered was reputation.

For the rich. Disgust rose into her mind at that. The very reason she came to Beacon was to avoid the rich that had plagued her life since its inception. But in a time of crisis it just circles back around to them. She was sick of it. Sick of the reputation, and the MTC, and the damn pressure.

She was tired of sacrificing her own life for her damn family. Tired of not saying what she wanted. Tired of not doing what she wanted.

Anna looked back at Yossif, who was looking at his scroll. "Yossif."

"Hm." An apathetic response echoed through the room.

"You're coming with me. We're going to find our team." She resolutely stated.

"Nah." He tried to answer before being dragged from his bed and out the door with colorful complaints by a small girl that was a lot stronger than she looked.

Speeding down the freeway far above the speed limit on the back of a motorcycle at night taught Blake one thing, dogs have the right idea about sticking their head out of car windows. But that had little to do with what Yang and her were doing at the moment.

Ever since the…incident at the docks, Blake had placed much more effort into unraveling the mystery of the White Fang and their chronic dust addiction. Of course, anyone with any sense at all would realize that dust can be used in both weapons and as a currency. But the amount the White Fang sought seemed far more than what they needed to fund operations. By her own calculations, the White Fang had far too few members to effectively use all this Dust. Unless it was all meant to just sit in a store room somewhere. Blake admitted that just taking Dust in order to deny it to others was something that was most definitely in the White Fang's MO

But for them to take that much and still operate relatively small numbers was strange.

Her working theory about all this theft was simple, either Adam finally went mad and decided to profit off of all the destruction, or the White Fang had another regime change. Whatever the reason, she'd get to the bottom of it. And the driver of that armored car was apparently who she needed to talk to.

"Hey Blake!" Yang screamed over the roar of the wind. "Here comes the trucks!" And almost as if on cue, around the next bend was the convoy of semi trucks. Of course she now only realized exactly how grand the convoy really was. An innumerable number of trucks and trailing cars clogged the freeway. Some hauled dust, some men, and more probably had nothing and were just diversions if something went wrong.

It also occurred to Blake that she was going to jump on and ride these things. "I know it's probably a little late, but don't spend any of your nine lives on this!" Yang pulled up along one of the trailers and waited for Blake to go. With the agile ability that only a cat Faunus could pull off, she easily scaled the side of a speeding piece of wet metal. The fire started almost immediately upon reaching the top— one of the trailing cars had seen the pair. It couldn't hit Blake from where it was, but it had a bead on her partner.

Blake watched Yang grit her teeth and duck as she started weaving between semis and cars to avoid the hail of gunfire.. "There goes my escape plan," Blake mumbled. Mist from the damp metal kicked up constantly to pelt her face and drench her clothes as wind whipped around all of her body, causing everything to be slightly more laborious than normal. Then, just when things couldn't get any worse, black smoke kicked out from the semi's exhaust and made the air smell sulfurous and sour. "And any semblance of comfort."

She ran forward against the wind, dodging a considerable amount of fire from the pursuit cars and enjoying Yang's show of agile driving. She had to admit that she'd never seen anyone handle a bike quite like that. She almost wished she'd stop— the semis were bucking back and forth in a vain attempt at hitting her, making running across their tops even more difficult than it already was.

She jumped to the next trailer and stopped when she discovered a top hatch and two sliding side doors. Blake wondered what they were for. To answer her question, all three were thrown open and White Fang fighters crawled from the openings. Of course.

One pointed a machete at Blake. "It's Adam's girl!"

Another smiled widely. "You know what happens when we get her?"

"Whatever we want!" Another roared in glee.

"Get her!" the biggest one screamed.

In the few seconds that it took the four to charge her, Blake noticed a few things. For one, these guys looked tougher than your average White Fang grunt. Secondly, they looked meaner. And thirdly, her original theory about the dust just sitting unused somewhere was definitely wrong. These guys were kitted out. They had armor and weapons far better than usual. Bear in mind that means old Atlesian armor and weapons, but it was a step up from no armor and terrible old rifles.

But Blake was far better than this group, no matter if they actually had equipment. A dodge of a sword, a kick to disarm, a smack to force back. That favored tactic of hers would work. To start, she narrowly avoided a sword swing by backing up. A failed attempt at landing a kick forced her back yet farther. And she couldn't even attempt to smack lest she be struck and lose her hand.

Blake had been backed up to the point that she was nearly falling off, and this was not made better by the slippery metal. Thankfully, these guys meant to capture her. They stopped pushing her back and started screaming for her to give up. "OK," She screamed while she made up a plan, "I give up!"

They all shared a cruel smile. Blake put her hands up, making sure to draw attention away from the weapon still in her right with an exaggerated and pleading expression.

The biggest one stepped forward and licked his lips. Fighting off the immediate urge to back away from this creep, she waited for him to get closer. "See, that wasn't so hard." The cruel smile came back onto his face with a slow and drawn out movement of his lips. Come on, get closer. They stood face to face now, mere inches of air separating them. He was enjoying this. "They call me Lynx. Be sure to put in a good word with Adam for me." He reached up and grabbed her wrists.

Seeing as he was completely focused on his triumph, she made her move. Blake's knee shot up like an uppercut from hell, dead center between his legs.

In a split second, his pupils turned to pinpricks as his jaw fell open. He tried to stumble back, but his disoriented state made him slow. Blake grabbed his own wrists and pulled him down to his knees. Now using him as a rest for her pistol and a shield, Blake aimed precision shots into the thickest pieces of armor on these four. The small caliber of her weapon meant that it wouldn't get close to penetration, but it would hurt.

Blake pushed her advantage, dropping the newly made eunuch as she marched forward, keeping up the lead pressure. Each bullet struck where it hurt the most. Each emptied mag forced the remaining three back just that little bit. Every step put them where she wanted. And when they were right where they needed to be, Blake let up.

She thundered forward against the wind and into the exhausted three. And then a kick, a punch, a cut, another kick. Blake repeated the pattern and battered each and everyone one of them into submission before roughly shoving them back down the whole they climbed out of. Four down, and a lot to go.

A roar louder than the din of the wind took her attention. Off of an overpass ramped a motorcycle. On it was a man whose face was obscured by a helmet, but whose attire was easily recognisable. "Rexus?" Blake asked aloud as he roughly hit the freeway and sped towards the convoy.

Another sound, like a supercharged engine, echoed through the air. There was a black muscle car in the distance. And as it came closer the sound of loud music could barely be heard. As well as a familiar voice. "Cardin?" She yelled with loud surprise The entirety of CRDL seemed to be packed into that vehicle. And there was a plus one on it's roof to boot. A girl with a sword and shield. "Luka?" She screamed with complete and utter confusion at the strange gathering of people.

Great, now they just needed the rest of her and Luka's team and it'd be a party. At least Blake knew that Ruby and Weiss wouldn't be showing up.

From seeing Rexus ramp over them and soar through the night sky onto a freeway, to seeing Luka ride atop Cardin's car, to seeing Blake and Yang attacking a convoy of something, all Anna and Yossif could do was stare. "Did I just…?" Yossif asked.

"Yes." Anna continued to stare widely at the rag tag assault group as they retreated into the distance.

"Are you sure, because I'm pretty sur-."

Anna tore her eyes away from the scene and focused hard on Yossif. "We need a car." She then took off to start prowling without waiting for him.

"Fucking alright." He replied and turned back to the scene. From being dragged from his bed earlier, to being dragged around Vale in a wild goose chase, Yossif had pretty much disconnected from what was happening around him. This crazy chase that unfolded in front of him before retreating into the distance was something he wasn't even sure was happening. Wouldn't be surprising to him if this was all some fever dream.

Tires screeched from behind. Yossif turned to see a two seater sports car with Anna at the wheel. "In, in!" She frantically motioned to him. He stared blankly. She stared back with determination.

"Fucking alright." He jumped onto and over the hood before entering on the other side of the stolen car. "I hope you can drive!" Then Anna slammed the gas and took them off towards the scene.

Rexus ducked and dodged around the seemingly hundreds of White Fang trucks. This was a strange reunion. Blake running atop the semi's, Yang trying to keep herself from being flattened as she avoided the White Fang cars, And Luka atop Cardin's little dick machine.

He had no idea what everyone else was here for, but he was going to get to that armored car's treasure.

Luka reveled in the rushing wind. She basked in the moonlight. She felt the weight of her shield on her back, the texture of the sword grip on her hand.

But, most importantly, she was angry they weren't going faster. A foot stomped down on the roof of the car. "You better get us there quicker or I'll total this hunk of junk!" She screamed down at Cardin.

He popped his head out of the window. "I'm trying!"

"Try harder!" She yelled back. "I want right up beside that line of trucks!" She'd jump onto the semi trucks and go over the top. It'd be faster than riding on this piece of garbage.

And she'd be the first to get to the front.

Blake watched as the two parties closed in, and realized they were heading for the front. She also realized she should probably get there before them.

Rexus would most likely do something not good to the driver, and Luka would…Something. Regardless, Blake should be the first one to get there. She took off towards the front in an effort to beat them, fighting more grunts all along the way.

Anna was ducking the vehicle back and forth between cars with barely enough space between to walk through. Yossif was sitting in the passenger seat and holding on for dear life. "Cool it down!" He begged.

"They're not getting away!" She screamed back.

"That won't matter if we don't get there!" She did not listen to him. Yossif underwent a rapid conversion in that seat to any god, God, or gods that would listen to his franantic prayers. But the new convert received no heavenly intervention and was forced to endure the high speed deathtrap. Everything outside blended together in a blur as Anna hit a speed far too high. By Yossif's own estimation, they'd go back in time if they went any faster.

"There they are!" Anna gleefully cheered.

"They've been there for the last two minutes!" Yossif cried as his driver shot past more cars. After a second more of tightly closed eyes and fear, Anna and Yossif had a clear shot towards the convoy.

A car with some belligerents inside slammed into Yossifs door and attempted to ram them off the road. "Gah!" He shielded his face from a shower of glass. "Anna! We have company!"

"I know!" She sharply twisted the wheel and shoved the offending truck back. "Can you handle it?"

He turned to his teammate with a gobsmacked expression. "What?"

"You have your weapon! Take care of it!"

You know, he didn't think of that.

With great care and finesse, he maneuvered Baneshot out from behind him and out the window. He took aim at the driver, and…

Anna stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. "Don't kill them!" She shouted over the wind's din.

"How am I supposed to do this withou-?" He turned around to get a look at her, only to be greeted by hard and determined eyes. More determined than she's been ever since the Cardin thing weeks ago. They pleaded in a way, but he could tell there was no compromise. It was her way or the highway.

At the speed they were going, he would prefer it if he stayed in the car.

Yossif turned back to the enemy and wondered what he could do. They answered for him by once again slamming into the car. Unluckily for them, Yossif's halberd was still positioned out the window. With the force of two speeding metal machines Baneshot slammed through their reinforced window and crunched through the steering wheel, cutting the drivers hands just a bit. The White Fang rapidly lost control of the situation and careened off into one of the guard rails.

"Oh, that worked." Surprised suffused his voice. A quick look in the rear-view mirror allowed him to watch the passengers and driver stumble out of the totaled vehicle. "That worked really well."

A quick look at his driver earned Yossif a thumbs up. "Good, now help Blake, Luka, and Rexus get on those trucks!"

"Gotcha!" He gave her a thumbs up and aimed his rifle, set on providing fire.

To their front was an empty space, a space that was quickly filled by a man on a motorcycle. And then a woman on her own motorcycle. Even with the helmets, Yossif could tell that Yang and Rexus had appeared. They had a fist bump, shared a few hand signals, and turned to look at Anna and Yossif. Both waved and threw out a devil horn sign. Anna and Yossif made some friendly signals back.

With their attention focused on a still turned around Rexus, no one realized that Yang had quickly veered to the left.

A truck in front of Rexus slammed it's brakes. All at once it hit and threw Rexus over his handlebars and into its bed. "Rexus!" Anna yelled and twisted hard on the wheel, only barely avoiding the trashed bike.

"Bastards!" Yossif peeked out the window and let loose wild shots into the vehicle. Yang even joined in and rode up to the side of the truck in order to start punching it's structure. Her weapons discharged with each strike and left a scorched dent. Yossif's weapon rang out in fiery claps of high caliber rounds, severing hydraulic fluid lines and shearing the metal chassis alike.

But a hand from the back of the bed shot up, silencing the hail of fire from Yossif. Rexus was up, noticeably lacking a helmet. That little mystery of where it went was solved when he brought said helmet into sight. It had a few obvious bullet holes. Understandably, he flipped Yossif off and threw the helmet at his car. Anna didn't feel like swerving.

Now with an extra dent in the hood of her "liberated" vehicle, Anna made a sign at Rexus that could be somehow construed as orders. He nodded and bent into a readied position. Anna sped up. Sadly, the well thought out plan between Anna and Rexus was never meant to account for Yang. The fiery teen decided to smash the car to pieces. And she'd start with the wheels.

The vehicle bucked around under her attack and caused Rexus to tumble back into the bed with a comical flail of his hands. And then he was thrown back to his feet in much the same comedical way as an entire back tire came off.

Anna finally reached her destination, directly to the right of the truck, and left of the convoy. "Rexus!" She screamed over the noise of scrapping metal and engines. His face changed from a confused stupor to a bright smile. He gave a thumbs up and jumped.

Time slowed as the truck lost yet another tire and entered into a spin. Rexus soared above the sparks and smoke for what seemed like forever before hitting the roof of the sports car and bounding up once again. Yossif fully understood what was happening.

With the top point of Baneshot, Yossif punctured the side of the trailer and waited. As the weight of his friend came down on the shaft of the weapon, he pulled it up and gave Rexus an improvised spring board. With little effort, he landed on the convoy. Right next to Blake. Not really caring to watch their little conversation, Anna drove forward hard and fast in order to aid the next bunch of boarders

From the top of her black chariot driven by the team's slaves stood Luka. Well, crouched Luka. Her and her crew were embroiled in a firefight with a few other cars. Pulling up to their back right, Anna let her sniper get to work. The sound of Baneshot's angry report let all know that Yossif was very happy to comply. The enemy vehicles had learnt from the crashes of their compatriots to not drive in a straight line. It was a bit harder to hit them now.

Unluckily for them, his semblance made it quite easy to hit everything. His eyes acted as scopes, his arms as stabilizers, and his brain a gyro. Big targets like cars were childs play.

But men jumping through the air with spun up chainswords? They were a bit harder. And that's not even taking into account the fact that he couldn't outright kill them.

One of these fine psychopathic fellows did just that, the chainsword he carried poised and ready to cut Luka up. He landed on CRDL's car and immediately set to work on cutting her shield in half. Course, chain on metal isn't the most effective tactic, all he could really do was aggressively push her and kick up sparks. But on the small car roof being able to push was all he needed. Luka was losing ground.

"Help her, Yossif!" Anna called.

"You try to shoot accurately while going down the highway at a trillion miles per hour! This is harder than it looks!" Yossif had an excellent shot on Luka's backside, but no dice on the sword wielding man. "To the right! To the right!" He screamed at his driver. She moved closer to the semi's. "Come on…" Yossif aimed in. The angle was almost right. The sparks were just thin enough to see through. The stars aligned.

The ear shattering honk of the trailer truck horn alerted him of his mistake. The tons of metal lurched left in an attempt to crush him. Anna's quick intervention prevented that. "Oi, steady the damn wheel!" Yossif cursed at his teammate in an attempt to downplay his own error.

"Oh, sorry. Next time I'll just let you get pancaked!" She screamed back.

"Good!" Yossif again aimed at Luka's backside and waited. She'd have to give him an opening because, contrary to what he just told his partner, he didn't want to be made into poster board. "Get her attention!" Through the vision slit of Luka's shield, Yossif could see the cruel smile on the terrorist.

"How? You have the gun!" Anna angrily barked.

"Use your brights!"

The gears in her head cranked to life, and set her hands into motion. A series of flicks activated and deactivated the bright lights so fast that it became a strobe. It was so effective at being blindingly bright that Cardin would need a pair of sunglasses to keep seeing. He didn't have any.

The muscle car drifted off center slightly. As soon as Cardin had blinked the spots from his vision, he began aggressive course correction. The two fighters on top struggled to stay aboard. So much so that Luka nearly fell off the back, and the chainsword wielding Faunus was thrown onto the hood. He angrily began attacking the glass and engine compartment of the car to the utter dismay of the driver and owner.

Luka angrily turned back to probably enact the same type of vengeance as Rexus had, but this time with a firearm. She stopped her rash plans when she noticed Anna pointing towards an aimed in Yossif. Instantly understanding the score, she nodded.

She went aggressive.

She readied her shield and regained her queenship at the top of the car. A single holler from her mouth dared the chainsword armed attacker to come take her place as undisputed king of the hill away from her. He stopped attacking the CRDL-Mobile and answered her challenge with a rev of his weapon.

From the low ground he got in the first attack. Using the windshield as a step, he attacked her and shattered the glass. But the shield part of Hero nullified his action.

The next action went to Luka with a large downward swing. She moved back and readied for more exchanges.

Now on even ground, the man got even more aggressive. He hacked and slashed at her readied defense with wide attacks. It wasn't very effective.

Using his wild strategy against him, Luka perfectly placed a shield bash into his chest and a sword slash into his hand. He stumbled back.

Anger was evident on the man's face as he came to a stop. With a baleful roar he charged forward with chainsword raised over his head.

Luka stepped aside. That's it. It was really quite the simple move.

Yossif finally got his opening and fired. The air thrummed as the bullet exited the barrel in a spout of fire and gas. And as the heavy kinetic Dust round collided with the structure of the sword, gears and metal were torn into tiny little pieces. The cutting chain came loose from the guide bar and kicked back into the man's face. If not for his mask, he'd have died right there and then.

But his luck wasn't quite complete. With the cramped conditions of car top fighting, he'd have no space to slow down after a missed charge. And as was stated earlier, he missed pretty badly. The disarmed grunt flew over the edge with a yelp and straight into Anna and Yossif's windshield with a considerable amount of force. But the glass held just a bit, only having been turned into ninety percent glass dust and actual glass.

Apparently harboring a bit of repressed anger, Luka punched out the remaining glass in front of her and delivered a massive elbow to his face. He wouldn't be getting up for a while. "That was excessive!" Yossif now had to scream over the wind inside of the car, using the body of the grunt as a break against the torrent of invisible air.

"I know!" She turned to him. "Keep helping our team!" And without one word more, she grabbed a pair of goggles off the man's back and went on driving. Yossif shrugged and reloaded. He could do that well enough without her direct orders.

Cardin drove closer to the convoy and unloaded his plus one before lurching back to the left in order to avoid a burst of fire from another car.

Yossif guessed he had to help them too.

Blake had been terrified that Rexus would perpetuate another slaughter on top of this train of trailers. She was instead pleasantly surprised to see him take a non-lethal stand. Just like she did, he struggled to counter these more experienced fighters at first, but he quickly adjusted. The only notable difference between their styles of fighting was the fact that she tried to incapacitate the White Fang with as little pain as possible, emphasis on tried, whereas he tried to do it with seemingly as much pain as possible. With his single knife, Butcher Pete was what she believed he called it, he cut unimportant parts of their bodies and made small thrusts until they stopped getting back up. That or he'd just let her deal with them.

Don't misunderstand, this alliance was purely of necessity. She really didn't feel like fighting with him side by side.

And it seemed he didn't quite fancy the whole situation himself. "Come on terrorist! Don't tell me you're getting cold feet here!" He screamed back to Blake while tossing an unfortunate grunt into her.

She narrowly sidestepped the man and gave him a stomach shot as he flew by. "I'm not a terrorist!"

"We'll see." Rexus seemed to growl as he turned back around. If not for her faunus attributes, she'd have missed that. She didn't have to use said features to pick up the new round of white fang screaming in pain as he rushed forward.

Considering Luka was on far worse terms with Rexus than she was, she could only imagine what Luka was going to feel.

"What are you doing here, Rexus?" Luka asked, not in anger but in cautious curiosity as she stepped onto the trailer.

"Doing community service by cleaning up the highway. It's a good thing you're here, two terrorists working to give back to the comunity they so desperately want gone is always a good thing," He leaned in, "Be careful, though. This isn't the most safe of business. I'd hate to see you fall."

"We're not terrorists." Luka growled, already slowly reaching for her weapon.

"Funny, that's what that one said. And we already know she's one." Rexus copied Luka and also began reaching for his weapons. Both scowled.

Time for Blake to take the lead. "Alright, I assume we're all here for that car." She got between the two very angry idiots and pointed forward. "I want the driver, you guys probably also want the driver, right?" Both stepped back, Rexus not wanting to tell Blake about the box, and Luka not knowing if she should tell Blake about the box.

"Yeah, the driver. I heard he killed a few of my guys." Rexus quickly made up a lie. The quick thought that it may not actually have been a lie and that the recent mob casualties may have been related to said driver produced the anger to make his statement believable.

"Yeah, I met him in Menagerie when I was little." The unsure nature of her statement meshed well with the fact that calling up a memory from that long ago would leave things fuzzy.

Blake didn't seem quite convinced that their stories were one hundred percent factual, but she wanted to avoid a useless conflict. "Whatever we're all here for, specifically, won't matter unless we reach the front. For that…" She pulled the two together with a somewhat rough yank of their collars. "We need to work together." The two teammates looked at each other with a skeptical gaze. "Look, I don't care what happened between you two. And once this is over you can go straight back to hating each other for all I care." She pulled them all into a tight huddle. "But just get along for a few minutes."

Rexus roughly tore Blake away with a look that said 'If you put that hand on me again you'll lose it.'

Luka backed away with a look that said 'Don't ever make me stand next to him again.'

But both saw the wisdom in her words. Luka's semblance began to activate and inform her decisions. Division now would mean easy pickings for the White Fang. And they probably wouldn't take prisoners, regardless of species. Rexus was special forces, trained in team tactics. He knew that three individuals would always fail to destroy three Ulfhednar. The same probably went for three uncooperative hunters against an army of mangy terrorists. The two locked eyes and weighed the choice put before them. Whatever this dispute was, Blake had to almost marvel at how deep it went. To drive apart a team of hunters was a hard thing to do.

Both looked conflicted, neither put out their hands. Blake began to worry that she'd have to fight through all this by herself. But then Luka quietly put her hand out, the conflicted look never once departing from her face.

Rexus nodded, equally conflicted, and placed his hand in her open one. They gripped lightly and shook. The team was somewhat back together.

And just in time as it seemed. Another group of armored up White Fang sauntered towards them, coming from some more troop transports farther ahead. These guys looked tougher than what they faced before. More armor, newer weapons, more discipline in their advance.

Luka quickly moved forward and stopped at the edge of the truck trailer they were on. Immediately behind her, Rexus hunkered behind her shield as they discussed tactics. "Hey cat!" Rexus called.

"Yeah?" She walked forward, astonished at how quickly they regained all the cohesion they lost over the weeks-long fight.

Luka turned around, her eyes bright blue. "Let the Wolf and Dog handle this" She yelled with triumphant determination. "Steel and fire!" She called. Rexus almost immediately vaulted over her shield and rushed the poor melee focused grunts. In a quick set of moves, he brought Butcher Pete to bear, let loose a spout of flame from it's tip, and dove to the ground.

Caught unaware by the sudden aggressive move, and now preoccupied with extinguishing their clothing, the group of six men were completely unprepared for the controlled bursts of machine gun fire that Luka sent into their chests, throwing them onto their backs. .

And in a final hammer stroke action, Rexus reloaded his weapon with a blue vial, and unleashed a frozen wind on prone fighters. Now extinguished of both the fire raging on their bodies and the raging will to fight, the men did not raise another hand to fight. Rexus turned around and raised his blade towards the shattered moon. "Yeah!" He yelled with triumph.

Luka removed Hero from its slot in her shield and allowed herself a moment of satisfaction. "You guys… Have a team move?" Blake asked incredulously.

Luka stood up straight with a certain pride now residing in her chest. "We do now." And she sprinted to meet up with her teammate.

Blake joined in on the running, and soon all three were rushing over the shaking and swaying trailers in an effort to reach the front. They fought against the wind, the movement, the slippery wet metal, and the White Fang.

Up here, in the windy and frozen air, fighting was a brutal affair. The White Fang tried either to push the three off of the trucks, or outright kill them. The three wanted to avoid killing at all costs, but had to match the ferocity of the mainline White Fang.

That was the word she was searching for. Where the White Fang the three had encountered previously at the docks were nothing more than new hires and weekend warriors, these Faunus were full on soldiers of the White Fang. They had a bit more experience under their belts,

This usually wouldn't be enough to match the three, but the cramped conditions they had to fight in evened the playing field just a bit.

Blake was a bit wary of Rexus suddenly launching into a violent and homicidal episode, but that didn't change the fact that he was handling himself very well. And Luka was never at risk of killing anyone purposefully. Blake did wish that she'd stop slamming the flat of her blade into the backs of people's heads, but she couldn't exactly pull her aside at the moment. She could only hope that whoever she hit had a hard head.

"You guys having fun?" Rexus shouted right before he was smacked by a sledge hammer looking weapon. He struck back without so much as a second in-between.

"How long is this Convoy?" Luka shouted above the sound of grinding metal coming off of the chainsword attacking her shield. A quick kick and smack sent the man over the trailer and onto the roof of a nearby car.

"We're almost there!" Blake wasn't exactly sure about that, but she couldn't be that far off. They've been running for a while. A honk of a horn to her left caught her attention. Anna and Yossif were still following, as well as CRDL and Yang. Aforementioned parties all held up varying hand signals that put the number of remaining trucks at somewhere between 20,000 and five. Great.

"Head's up! Three big, mean, and ugly pieces of meat coming up!" Rexus exclaimed as a wider smile than what had previously been on his face formed. Blake turned away from the road and to her allies.

From behind Luka's shield, both Luka and Rexus stared ahead at the threat. A few cars ahead the convoy had lost its cohesion. Semi trucks and pursuit vehicles intermingled and formed chasms and breaks in the straight run. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the three big guys walking towards them. Split into three different trailers in order to effectively block the way, these fighters looked like trouble. She counted a pike, a flail, and a sickle.

"Looks like they brought out the super secret fuck you plan, eh?" Rexus joked loudly.

"Less talking!" Luka yelled back. "Blake, come here." She did so. "What's the plan?"

Rexus smiled widely. "Easy! Let's fuck 'em up!"

Luka was less amused. "That's what they want us to do, idiot." She turned to her fellow Faunus as the Atlesian loudly defended his idea. "What do you think?"

Blake looked ahead at the three. They had stopped in the middle of their respective trailers and waited for their move. These guys had the sense to not blindly charge the rag-tag group of heroes. That meant they had at least a little more brain than what they've been fighting up until now.

That and the fact that all their equipment looked self acquired made Blake think twice about fighting them. The pike wielding one almost looked like a heavily decked out Atlas combat bot. Heavy ballistic armor covered everything in thick protection, even up to looking downright unmaneuverable in the joints. And on top of all that, he wore a heavy metal helmet with a crudely drawn skull on it. He was so completely covered in armor that she wouldn't have even known it was a man. His constant screaming for them to stop stalling left no question about his gender.

And his weapon was completely bland. There were a few studs near the front and leather wrapping around the bottom, but it was like he just affixed a pike head to a pole he bought at the hardware store.

The guy to the right of the spearman, meaning the very center trailer, carried the flail. A flail and a dagger now that she looked closer. Both lacking any type of noticeable firing mechanism. But the flail looked real mean in order to compensate. And that dagger glowed bright silver like it had just been polished.

His armor was lighter than the spearman. Well, when compared to the spearman he wore pretty much no protection. He had some gloves, a somewhat big vest on his front, knee protectors, and shinguards. No helmet, no arm protection of any kind, and no real side protection. Well, those last two comments weren't exactly the most true. It was true that he had no side and arm armor tacked on, but his shoulderguards more than took care of that. Massive Lamellar pieces covered his arms down to the elbow, and a little bit past.

He once again had a mask with a skull drawn on it, though it was a bit more artistic than the spearman and less armored. And this was definitely a man. He didn't yell like the other, but his build and stance checked out.

And then there was the man with a sickle. He stood on the most right trailer from Blake and made no movement. There was no stance, screaming, or anything. He was like a statue. And his sickle seemed to match that. It was just a bland looking piece of curved metal. There might've been some type of fancy trick in it, but nothing that she could see.

And his armor was nothing but a vest. A light vest at that. He did wear somewhat protective clothing, but Blake didn't count that anymore than you would a tee-shirt. His mask, the same type as the flail wielding man, had a very ornate skull drawn on it. It must've taken a long time.

From this brief look, Blake could confirm that this wasn't your average White Fang. These were professionals. "I don't like it, but Rexus is right. Trying anything other than splitting up and going for it would put us at a disadvantage." As if to highlight that fact, the trailers all ran over a bump and rattled. Everyone had to focus in order to hold on as they bumped into each other, even the three ahead had to put on some significant focus. Grouping up would not be the move here.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Luka stated.

"I would say that we shouldn't listen to the terrorist, but considering it was originally my idea…" Rexus declared.

"Quiet!" She turned back to Blake. "Who do you want?"

Blake looked at the three. She wouldn't have the range to deal with the spearman. And his armor would nullify and advantage her bullets had. The flail man also outranged her, and even if she closed in he could use his dagger. The only person she felt comfortable fighting was the man with the sickle. "The guy on the right!" She shouted over the wind and strode off to her duel.

"Pussy!" Rexus called after her. She was unsure if that was a poke at her heritage or an insult.

"Oh, and who are you going for?" Luka angrily asked.

"Guess!" He stood up and jumped onto the same trailer as Spearguy.

"Of course." Luka shook her head and walked forward, taking up the last spot in front of the flail user.

To her left, Rexus and the spearguy threw insults of increasing severity at each other. To her right, the sickle user was having a very cordial one way conversation with Blake. The latter of which seemed very cautious. And to her front, the flail user stood in a defensive and cautious stance. Luka mirrored him.

A missed shot from Yossif plinked off of a trailer. The six took that as the starting bell.

Yossif had tried to aid Rexus with the big guy, but an avoidant move from Anna threw off his shot and made it harmlessly hit a metal trailer. Now they were all embroiled in a melee.

Damn, this was getting intense. "Yossif, get ready to help them!" Anna yelled over wind flooding into the car through the shattered windshield.

"I've been ready!" He began aiming in on the heavy spearman. It was made harder by the constant shake of the car. "Come on, stop moving."

Anna made that mistake of not looking at the road for the second time. "Come on, Yossi-." She glanced forward and immediately swerved away from a brake checking truck.

Yossif's shot was thrown off once again.

On a better note, he dinked a road sign hard enough to spin it in a full circle. Cool.

"You missed!" Anna exclaimed.

"I know!" Yossif exclaimed back. He began aiming again.

But the heat from the White Fang wouldn't let up. Multiple cars slammed their brakes and or accelerated in an attempt to hit the pair. Anna's car was small and nimble enough to avoid most with only a slight fender scratch, but there was no way Yossif could get off any type of accurate shot in these conditions. And that went nearly double for Yang and CRDL. Though that didn't stop any from trying.

So it turned out that Pikeguy's pike wasn't that bland. It could extend and shrink on a button press. Sure, that wasn't much flavor, but it was enough to make things difficult.

That and the rounds coming from his "allies" made this fight a lot harder than it needed to be for Rexus.

Another bullet struck the trailer and kicked up a wall of sparks that blinded Rexus. This was immediately followed by Pikeguy smashing the side of his pole into Rexus. That laid him out pretty quickly. Only a wild kick saved Rexus from being skewered, but did nothing to alleviate his blindness.

He stood with great difficulty, trying to wipe the spots from his eyes. He was instead rewarded with a sharp pain to his side. A sharp and cutting pain to his side.

The spots finally subsided and allowed him to see his situation. A very thin blade, we're talking rapier thinness, was now lodged in Rexus' side. Tracing the profile of the blade, Rexus realized that it was the Pikeguy's blade. How, you ask? His hand was still holding the hilt.

From what the one percent of his brain that was still calm could gather, it had come from a little open slot in the pike pole. The other ninety-nine percent was preoccupied with watching blood trickle down the long piece of metal and obscure it's silver sparkle. Coincidentally, that shade of red was the exact same shade that now colored his vision.

Rexus howled with hate at the attacker. With furious abandon, he pulled his right hand back and used Butcher Pete's back end like a bludgeon. Rexus repeatedly slammed his weapon into the man's face plate and forced him back. But before he was totally pushed back, he ripped the blade from Rexus' side.

"I'm gonna beat the Cellulite out of you!" Growled a pissed off Rexus.

Blake dodged yet another off course shot from Yang. And then she dodged another fire filled shot from Sickleguy.

It turned out that he did indeed have a ranged attack on that blade. Well, flamethrower ranged. With each slash at her a cloud of flame erupted from the flat of the blade and singed anything that got close. The fire was so hot that it even began to melt the metal trailer beneath them.

That being how it was, Blake kept as much distance between them as she could and attempted to match his ranged attacks with ranged attacks of her own. But for the first time ever, the fact that her enemy wore basically no armor worked against her. Her bullets were low caliber, but not low enough to not puncture skin. She'd have to use her blade.

Did she already mention how that was a problem?

Yang shot again. The heat from her weapon was almost enough to sear her eyebrows as it flew past her head. "Hey!" Blake screamed down at her motorcycle riding partner. "Watch it!" Yang gave a thumbs up. Of course she couldn't hear her.

"You know," Sickle guy let loose another torrent of fire at Blake that she only narrowly dodged, "Perhaps you and your friend would be better coordinated if you invested in radios?" He suggested in an elegant voice. She looked at him with an unhappy gaze. "Look." He pointed down at the radio on his chest and began to speak into it with a gentle voice. "How are my brothers doing?"

"Go fuck yourself!"

"Raaagh!"

Pikeguy was the one who screamed, so it was safe to assume the first voice was the flail wielder. Blake continued to look at him with a frown. "Well, I didn't say it was a very civilized way of communication. En garde." Sickleguy rapidly closed the distance between the two and sliced through the air with his fiery weapon of choice. Blake put up Gambol shroud in an effort to block.

The fire didn't seem quite as hot as before. That and the block was rather easy, too easy. Sickleguy wasn't losing his touch during this attack. It seemed like this was his plan. A quick move of the man's wrist snaked the blade around hers and ripped it from her hand with ease. As it clattered off the trailer, he got hits in. Hot pain erupted from around her chest as the tip of the blade scraped across her skin. This wasn't the nicest feeling.

But the ribbon connecting her wrist to her weapon tightened. She brought the blade sailing back though the air with a tug and waited for it to impact the man's temple.

He moved his sickle and easily caught Gambol shroud by the ribbon. "Ah ah ah, that was quite underhanded of you."

More bullets rattled off Luka's shield.

Not from flailguy, but from team CRDL. "You guys do that again and I'll turn you inside out!" She made crude gestures at the car.

They made several confused gestures back, but she paid them no mind. She was too preoccupied with dealing with the flail wielding fighter. He was good. So good, in fact, that she was having significant trouble dealing with him. It was like he was perfectly suited to defeat shields.

She thrusted forward with Hero, using her shield as defense against anything he could throw back.

Instead of going how she imagined, i.e him taking the hit and being forced back, her strike was diverted by his parrying dagger. And then he hooked his flail onto her shield and pulled. Off balance and staggering forward, all that he had to do in order to lay her out was put up his knee. She ran stomach first into it and rolled.

And on the ground she had little protection from his quick dagger stabs. Luka was only saved from the flail strike that acred down towards her head through the timely intervention of CRDL's stray shots. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, however. One bullet hit her.

Between Rexus' many new stab wounds gifted to him by Pikeguy, to Blake's new burn wounds gifted from both Yang and Sickleguy, to Luka's new laceration and bullet wound given by CRDL and Flailguy, they were losing the fight against the White Fang. The only person who seemed to be doing any real damage to their adversary was Rexus. But considering Pikeguy's heavy armor, and Rexus complete disregard for personal safety, he'd die long before Pikeguy got a bruise.

This was looking decidedly bad.

"Yossif, do your job and help!" Anna cried.

"No! I nearly shot Rexus last time!" Yossif had re-focused his attention on thinning out the amount of extra White Fang vehicles instead of providing support. Anna understood why. Being lower than the trailers, Yossif already had a terrible angle. When you added Anna constantly bucking the car back and forth in order to avoid attacks from other cars, you got a truly terrible rest for sniping.

"Uhhh, uhhh…uhhhh. What do we do?" She craned her neck in order to see the fight atop the trailers. Though she could only see Rexus from where they were, he wasn't looking so hot. Odds were, no one else would be looking better.

"We're in a car that weighs significantly less than those semi's. What can we do?" Yossif shouted back.

What to do, what to do. They couldn't ram the semi's. But they didn't have the mass, just like Yossif said. They couldn't shoot at the White Fang fighting on the top. They had no angle. She looked around for a clue. Anything that she could do to help. Anna looked to the back of the trucks, to the middle, to the front.

To the cabin…to the mirror. To the driver inside.

Eureka.

She hammered the gas and flew forward, dancing between the cars. The acceleration was so sudden that Yossif nearly tumbled from his seat on the window. "Hey, warn me!"

"Get a bead on the drivers!" Anna ordered.

"I-...Ok." He shifted his seat and readied his weapon.

She snaked her way between one semi to the front and the three her teammates were fighting on. "Can you shoot into the drivers cabins?" Anna yelled.

Yossif gave her a thumbs up.

"Good! Get them to come together!" Between the three semi's there was a foot or so of empty space. Natural dividers for the three duels. Forcing them together should help to make the three work together.

Yossif shot past the head of each of the wing drivers. Glass shattered, mirrors were sucked into the howling night, the drivers ducked, and wheels were ripped to the side. The vehicles slammed together with heavy force. The middle trailer bent.

Luka, Blake, and Rexus were thrown together like ragdolls. Rexus ricocheted off Luka's shield and straight into Flailguy. They both tumbled to the ground in a violent struggle. Blake was tossed into Pikeguy with a resounding crash and the sound of a snapping pole. And Luka was forced into Sickleguy with enough force to give him a mighty shield bash.

The tables turned rather quickly from there.

Pikeguy's pike head had indeed snapped off. Leaving him with only the long and thin blade. Blake undoubtedly had more experience with said type of weapon and put him on the defensive. Of course, he still used the pole as a stave, but no metal poker on the end meant less danger for the black cat. If only she could get rid of his armor.

Rexus, now in the middle, sat on Flailguy and proceeded to beat the everloving shit out of him. And being pinned to the ground with no wiggle room, his Flail ceased to be a problem. Sure, his dagger was still sharp. But Rexus had abandoned his own safety in favor of doing the most damage possible to the man. That and his own vest somewhat dampened the problem it created. This bloody stalemate covered the already red trailer with more crimson paint that was strictly necessary.

And Luka, she seemed to have the easiest time. This was mainly because Sickleguy's main form of damage dealing, a flamethrower, was somewhat nullified by a shield. Sure, Luka got hot with only metal to protect her from a spout of flames, but the howling wind was a damn good cooling mechanism. Sickleguy was far from outclassed, however. Just like his allies, he could get a good hit in every once in a while. His sickle was supremely suited for pulling on Luka's shield. He could even get around it when Luka got tired.

But no matter what the White Fang tried, the balance of power had shifted. They were pushed back. Pikeguy by Blake producing afterimages with her semblance in order to distract him from her real strikes. Flailguy by Rexus, getting tired of either beating on him or getting stabbed, threw him away by his collar. And Sickleguy by Luka just walking forward with her shield proudly presented against all attacks.

They were winning quite handily now.

The three elites were pushed back to the ends of the three trailers. Now they just needed to be pushed back farther. Luka began.

She struck out at Sickleguy with Hero just as he was readying another flamethrower attack. This attack caught him off guard and nearly tore the sickle from his hand. Sadly, he retained control over his weapon and jumped back to the trailer behind them.

Next was Rexus. "Get bent! Get bent! Get bent!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he smashed his fists into Flailguy's every limb. He'd put away Butcher Pete during the initial grapple and now just relied on his own knuckles to do the damage. Having no other way to end the attacks, Flailguy jumped back as well. He looked very worse for wear.

Rexus and Luka didn't quite catch what Blake did to force her opponent back. It was probably something to do with her semblance. Why did they not catch this, you ask?

CRDL decided to keep trying to provide overwatch for the three. Unfortunately, they sucked at aiming almost as much as they sucked at being students, or human beings for that matter. "Dammit!" Both Rexus and Luka took shelter behind her shield.

"Who's our damn enemy?" Rexus shouted in displeasure.

"Anyone who thinks they can help, apparently!" Luka yelled with annoyance.

"No shit?" Rexus laughed a small bit as another volley rattled off the shield and flew past them.

"Hold on!" Luka slotted Hero into its shield and loaded it, then blasted out a fiery volley that shredded Cardin's engine. The boy was understandably displeased as his car began to rapidly slow and spit smoke. "I told you I'd do it!" Luka screamed at the team.

Rexus patted her shoulder and laughed loudly. "Damn sister, you fucked up his car. Nice!"

While Luka and Rexus were dealing with a bit of a dispute between their allies, Blake had pushed the advantage. With the three elites routing, she rushed forward to harry them.

Sadly, this wasn't a rout.

It was a regroup.

They fell back until there was just a single car between them and the armored target. She stayed hot on their heels, slashing and ordering their immediate surrender. And when they turned finally around, she thought they would. But they didn't. Like a wave of violence they crashed into her and forced her to give ground. With Rexus and Luka still tied up with CRDL, Blake was left high and dry. She'd have to retreat. But to show her back in this situation was suicide. A single knock from that pole, or stab from that dagger, and she'd be a red stain on the freeway. She'd have to back up.

On a wet trailer, over a freeway, going far above the regular speed limit of 60, while being assaulted.

A single, sarcastic world echoed through her head. Childsplay.

She tried her best to move rapidly. But backing up on a rocking trailer with both the wind and men shoving you around was not simple. The only saving grace was that the cramped trailertop prevented all three from attacking at once. She blocked one strike after another, the three alternating patterns in order to catch her off guard. But she was keeping them at bay for now.

In the dark of the night somewhere, illuminated by the soft glow of the city, the truck driver of this particular rig got an idea. In order to get people off your vehicle you just need to move the wheel a bit. The trailer lurched right and left just as Blake reached its end. The slick wet metal mixed with the sudden movement made her foot slip back. She began to fall.

Ironically, her savior was Pikeguy. He smashed his pole into her side with as much force as he could muster. The attack knocked her away from a very messy death and into an unstoppable tumble right over the edge of the trailer. She hung on by only a hand. Savior might've been too strong a word. He now raised the big stick above his head.

The wind ripped at her hair, at her clothes, at her everything. Her faunus ears had been deafend ever since she'd gotten on the back of Yang's motorcycle, but in this torrent even her more human qualities began to lose clarity. But it wasn't enough to obscure the following conversation. "Come now, Axel! We mustn't be barbaric! Leave her and let us defend the car!"

Pikeguy turned his head around in order to glance at Sickleguy. "Shut your face you prim and proper prick! Not the road, or you, or anyone can stop me from turning this cat into my finest kill! And after this, Adam will have a hard time keeping the Fang out of my control!"

Flailguy, who had been completely silent up until this point, spoke in a very slow and exacerbated manner. "This again? I hope there's more steps to that plan other than kill traitor, something, something, profit?" Blake couldn't help herself from hoping that he did indeed have more steps to his plan. Dying because some guy wanted power only for that guy to be an idiot and achieve nothing was a depressing thought.

She should probably focus on not dying at all right now. Pikeguy's eyes hungered for blood. What was left of his weapon raised high above his head in order to smack her down into a messy death. She'd have to fight back with all she could.

Gambol Shroud's ribbon was still firmly attached to her wrist. The rest of the weapon skittered along the road behind her, occasionally kicking up into the air when it hit a rougher patch. It was just a bit of momentum like this that she needed. She only had to wait.

The Pike pole was finally raised all the way above Pikeguys head. He let it hover for a moment, taking in Blake's feigned terror, before swinging down with all force possible.

The road kicked at her weapon, sending it high into the air. Blake used the momentum to pull and twisted it at her attacker. It whistled through the air and straight towards his pole.

The black metal collided with the birch colored pole and knocked it off course.

But, of course, one of his friends had to step in and stop the attack before it did damage. Sickleguy caught and wrapped the ribbon around his own weapon, grabbing Gambol's grip. He gave a dismissive shake of his head. "Please hurry and finish up, Axel. We still need to see to the rest." Sickleguy stomped one of Blake's hands. She yelped and pulled away, bringing down her ability to handle the situation by half.

"I had it under control." Said Pikeguy. He pulled his weapon back up and brought it down again.

But this time it was one of Blake's allies that stepped in. And by step, she meant a massive shield bash that caught the three White Fang on their back feet. Luka used all the strength and weight her small frame could muster to push them back across to the next trailer. The only noise she made was a loud roar that announced her obstinate refusal to let them cross back over.

But that show of force wouldn't matter much. Blake was slipping. She could feel the cold metal stretch out the skin on her hands. The wind continued to tear at her. The slick and damp surface she gripped shook violently. She was slipping. Blake was slipping. She could really use a hand. Anyone?

Blake's fingers, finally done with the abuse, gradually let go.

She fell.

The icy blast greeted her with cold indifference. Gambol shroud fell too, uselessly wrapping around her wrist even as she tried to use it to stop her descent. The weapon seemed to turn against its wielder just as the rest of the world did.

But that all came to a halt with one quick, and very painful, movement. Her fall stopped with the resounding sound of a joint pulling out of socket. Blake yelped. "Come on terrorist!" Blake weakly looked away from the road and up towards who caught her. "Or has the cat ran out of lives?" His voice was laden with annoyance. His mouth was curled into a frown. His eyes a strange mix of resentment and irritation. A strong yank up onto the trailer flared up the pain again, not to mention pulling the joint even farther out of place. Pain sprung from her shoulder and traveled all the way around her body until she even felt it in her teeth.

She screamed out, then groaned, and yelped, all while struggling against the Atlesian.

Rexus immediately got on top of her and set about feeling Blake all over for any other wounds that he'd have to fix. Finding none, he set about fixing what he caused himself. "Guess what, Blake!" The cat groaned and tried to free herself from his grip. "You'll never guess I went to medical school!" He forced the arm back into place with a loud pop. Blake immediately recoiled before quickly going limp. "Cause I didn't!" He scooted back and admired his work just a bit.

That and seeing a member of the White Fang squirm, ex or not, was always an entertaining thing.

The world spun around Blake, her arm felt like it was on fire, and she felt like she needed to puke. At least she wasn't dead. "You went from a black cat to a white one, you got so pale." He searched her again before finishing by rotating her head back and forth. "You're good." She received a pat on the shoulder as she laid there.

Her bad one. "Ahh! Stop, stop stop!" She grabbed at herself and turned away from Rexus. Her eyes began to sting.

In response to this, Rexus put on a black look and placed Gambol Shroud on her. "Cry about it later you pansy. Back in the damn fight!" With that, he stood and walked over her.

Luka didn't want to shoot at these guys. Readying Hero's bunker mode, her own nickname for the action of slotting the weapon into the shield for firing, would put her at a massive disadvantage. They were too close. So now she just defended the gap between two trailers and occasionally swing at them.

Whatever Blake and Rexus were taking so long on, Luka hoped it was worth it.

As soon as that thought entered her brain, Luka experienced a sudden and massive increase to her shields weight. A massive concerted effort was needed in order to hold onto it. But the weight went just as quickly as Luka felt it. For a moment, she thought it was an attack by one of White Fang.

"Come on!" Rexus screamed from infront of her.

Oh, it wasn't the White Fang. Rexus had vaulted over her shield and used it as a boost for his own flurry of attacks. A flurry that did not include his weapons. He punched, kicked, smacked, and every other move you could make while unarmed. He had even caught Flailguy in a violent grapple and was now relentlessly headbutting the poor man with vindictive rage.

What was he so wound up about?

With pressure now taken off of her, Luka turned around in order to get a good look at the still writhing Blake.

There was nothing Rexus despised quite as much as weakness. This was a natural consequence of what he'd experienced in his life. From growing up fast enough to take care of himself at seven or so, to taking up work as a mob enforcer, Rexus was never allotted a cushy life filled with joy.

He was made to suffer and cry by himself. That life breeds a certain kind of anger and toughness.

So when someone like Blake, who should have at least had a life somewhat comparable to his in terms of shittiness, shows weakness? Rexus can't help but get pissed at her on her own behalf.

And when pissed, there's only one recourse. Violence. "You fucks must be cats! You sure are pussies!" He delivered a backhand smack to sickleguy and watched as he stumbled back. Back so far, in fact, that he slipped from the trailer and crashed onto one of the pursuit vehicles.

One down, two to go.

Flailguy came at Rexus from the side and swung. Rexus didn't even move to defend as the ball of spiked metal crashed into him. Unluckily for the attacker, Pikeguy hand failed to destroy all of Rexus' armor, especially his side armor. The flail got stuck in the vest. "You fucked up now, prick."

He grabbed the chain to make sure he wouldn't escape with his weapon and began slamming his fist into the mask over and over. The sound of a nose breaking echoed out on the first punch, and a wet sound followed each successive smash. And after a baker's dozen punches, the mask's straps failed and came loose. But there was no way to identify the bloody face of the stumbling flailguy. And Rexus had bigger fish to fry.

He released the flail and walked towards pikeguy, the sound of a car roof caving in was all that Rexus needed to hear in order to count.

Two for three.

"Come on!" Pikeguy threw away his weapons and challenged Rexus. A dumb idea.

Would've been dumb if Rexus wasn't spooling for a fist fight.

"Oh, lets go!" Rexus yelled and rushed. Pikeguy was unable to halt the bull charge and was instead picked up by the waist and thrown ever closer to the armored car.

What ensued was a bloody fist fight. Rexus tore both the mask and a good amount of armor from Pikeguy, while Pikeguy used his fists as hammers and tried to crack Rexus' head open. He could only get at his shoulders, they were so close together.

Once the mask was torn from his face, Pikeguy finally forced Rexus back. His face, like flailguy's, was completely covered in blood. Rexus was able to make out some short brown hair, but that was it. "My damn visor!" Pikeguy shouted.

Rexus thought about what he should do for a moment. This guy didn't seem ready to quit, so maybe he should take his weapons out. On the other hand, he had some significant holes in his protection now. Fists would be very viable. "You are one ugly shit, you know that?"

He growled, "I'll fuck you up, visor or no visor!" And charged.

The two were once again locked in a brawl. This time it was far more evenly matched.

"Show me what you got!" Beckoned Pikeguy

"I'mma turn you inside out!" Screamed Rexus.

Both parties had long abandoned any form of tactics and intelligent fighting for a senseless game of 'Who can take the most punches before their body experiences total organ failure,' and it seemed all players were varsity.

To Pikeguy, each smash into his chest got harder than the one before. Each slam to his temple further obscured his vision. Each knuckle further changed his skin tone from white to red. And each bruise converted the last sane vestiges of his mind fully to mindless rage. And so he punched back with ever renewed vigor. He wasn't worried about losing the fight, or really anything. The only thing that his conscience requested was more blood. Preferably this pricks blood.

To Rexus, his nose was now definitely broken. A punch snaked it's way past his defense and into his gut, coloring skin purple. His left eye was half shut, his right pinky finger was bent in a not so fun way, his toes had been stepped on so much that he couldn't feel them, and the whipping wind made him so cold that each strike he received seemed to burn. Short of it, he felt like he was back in boot camp.

Minus one thing, his semblance.

Right now, he was madder than a wet Blake. A feeling that he was intimately familiar with. From his first fist fight, to his most recent firefight, Rexus had always had a problem with the whole "level headed under pressure" thing. That isn't to say that he couldn't handle himself. The fact that he was standing toe to toe with a guy that was bigger in both width and height than him was more than enough proof of that. But you shouldn't expect him to be thinking two steps ahead of what was in front of him.

For a long time, doctors and such just assumed that he was "Unstable." But General Ironwood knew different.

It was his semblance.

A hereditary semblance passed down by his dear old departed mother. He had the blood of ancient berserkers running through him. It was why he was given Second Lieutenant in the Ulfhednar.

So the doctors were one hundred percent correct in their assumptions.

But his semblance made it real easy to fight through pain. Nothing really bothered him. And as a sort of incentive to not give up, landing a punch earned him a massive shot of dopamine. And the more damage he inflicted, the more funny pheromones his brain rewarded him with. Of course, Ulf boot camp had immediately instructed them to not attack things willy-nilly. The semblance was not unlike a drug. Constant usage would dull the effects to a point of almost nothing. Many a Ulf had lost their minds in an attempt to experience another high like the first fight. Many a Ulf had to be put down to avoid terrible consequences.

But temperance wasn't really the name of the game here.

Rexus was forced back again, falling to his back and rolling. Pikeguy did not push the advantage, and instead took a breather. Red globs and a tooth or two fell from his mouth.

Rexus finally came to a halt and laid on his back, refilling his lungs. He let the cold wind flow over him and pinpointed the places where his skin was broken by how painful the blowing air was. That and he reset his bloodied pinky finger, so slick with blood that he slipped a few times.

Again he stood, finishing work on putting his nose back into place and growling with bestial rage.

Pikeguy readied himself again.

Fully giving way to his semblance, Rexus let out an ear-splitting howl and rushed forward more than just reckless abandon. No amount of preparation would've allowed Pikeguy to stand against Rexus, and he was helpless to prevent Rexus from lifting him up and throwing him back down. He was even more unable to prevent the subsequent mounting and beating.

Rexus sat on the man's chest and let loose with all strength available to air was filled with the sound of cracks and the squelch of blood.

Pikeguy tried unsuccessfully to free himself a few times before pushing Rexus away. Sadly for him, Rexus wasn't tired.

As Pikeguy turned and attempted to stand, he showed his back. Rexus immediately took this opportunity to wrap him in a crushing embrace and throw him back to the ground.

The sound of a revving chainsaw immediately preceded extreme pain to his left shoulder. With enough sense to avoid that, Rexus ripped himself away and held himself on all fours, taking in the rapid change in tide with feral intelligence.

Pikeguy was saved from another violent beating by the timely intervention of the crew of the armored car. Now one trailer away, some disembarked and rushed to aid with chainswords in hand. The lead one had sliced Rexus' left shoulder. He was only saved from becoming an amputee by the vest he wore, which was now little more than threads.

The pain and blood finally caused Rexus to lose it all. He lost sense of who he was, where he was, what could kill him, and his weapons on his hip. To him, all that he had were claws and teeth. In Ulfhednar lingo, he had bitten the shield.

To the doctors he had spent time with when he was younger, he was now completely unstable

In layman's terms, he'd gone completely fucking insane.

He once again rushed, unable to temper any of his emotions. Predictably, the first of the two new fighters ran his chainsword straight into Rexus' side. The teeth cut and tore at him, dousing the trailer in a new shade of red.

But the world was on Rexus' side. His vest's frayed and wild fibers got into the weapon and gunked up the mechanism. The Weapon stopped cutting. And Rexus was just beginning.

His hands curled into a claw as he repeatedly slashed the man's face. The absolute force that Rexus unleashed actually broke skin and shed blood. Unable to avoid the attacks, and not willing to put up a hand to wipe away the blinding ichor, the terrorist stepped back.

Right off and onto a car.

The second man took too long to attack and was instead attacked. Rexus kicked his knee, inverting it and leaving the man to puke and pass out from pain.

Pikeguy had cut and ran at this point. He rode off into the distance on the back of a pickup tuck, leaving a straight shot to the car.

Too straight a shot.

A man poked out of the top hatch of the armored car, aiming a rifle right at Rexus' chest.

His armored plates having long been atomized, Rexus watched as the bullet soared through his side. He was knocked to the ground. Not wanting him to get back up, the shooter decided to make Rexus a casualty of a multi-car pile up.

The driver of Rexus' semi learned exactly what friendly fire felt like as a magazine's worth of ammo shattered his windshield. His broken form tugged the wheel to the side.

Time ground to a halt as the semi lurched far too fast to keep traction. The trailer bucked up, the cabin turned left and over, and the very end shot into the air. Rexus found himself as the ammunition of a very big catapult. Unluckily for the shooter, it was aimed at him.

After getting back to her feet with the help of Luka, Blake was amazed at how far Rexus had gotten. And worried over how angry he was.

But as the entire semi-trailer took flight in front of them, she rapidly switched her attention.

"Oh Gods!" The pair screamed in unison. With nowhere else to go, Blake pulled them both over the left.

In an event she would later deny as being unplanned, they landed on a familiar car. Anna's and Yossif's.

The sound of air rapidly evacuating out of the way of a few tons of falling metal was heard from before them. The sound of an engine ramping up came from below them.

In a turn of the neck quick enough to get whiplash, both Luka and Blake turned to see what was happening. In the air flew a sideways truck trailer. It was followed closely by a flying black semi-truck.

Anna sped up, going under the disaster.

From their spots on the roof of the small car, Blake and Luka got intimately familiar with the flying tons of metal. They could see the scratches and dirt on the trailer. They saw the scratched and dented body of the truck. They saw asphalt kicked and scrapped up by the vehicle fly through the air in small chunks. And the glass from broken windshields and windows danced through the same air. It was all illuminated by the harsh orange light of light poles. It all smelt of oil and gas, sounded like a war, looked like an explosion, felt sickening, and tasted metallic.

But they passed under it handily and watched it all come crashing down behind them. A multi car pile up the like of which had never been seen. The crash was so violent, in fact, that the pair believed that they could hear the freeway crack and buckle in a few places. Being that the entire construction was suspended above a housing area, this was worrying.

After finishing their viewing of the carpocalypse, as well as releasing the death grip they had on each other, Blake and Luka turned back to the object of their infrastructure replacement.

The armored car ahead of them bucked back and forth, occasionally flashing orange from within accompanied by the faint sound of gunfire. Whatever Rexus was doing in there, it certainly wasn't diplomatic.

And as if to hound home this fact, it veered violently to the left. There was no time to even breathe as it slammed through the concrete safety wall and off into the dark depth of the night. This was followed by the sound of metal crashing into brick. Blake and Luka shared an uneasy look.

Yossif could see the smoke from the wreck long before it came into sight.

Taking a hard right off of the freeway, Anna led them down a winding path of sidestreets. The sidewalks were lined with curious and shocked onlookers all the way through. A residential slum was essentially their whereabouts. Run down houses surrounded them all, and equally dilapidated people streamed out. "Gods, we're on this side of the tracks now." Anna breathed lowly.

There was an immediate sense of indignation that welled up within Yossif at her comment. "What, not good enough for you?" She looked at him cautiously. It was a look that he really asked for. Yossif knew that she came from a more affluent part of the world. That she was far more… blessed than others. It was for that reason that he should've expected such an unfavorable response to come from her. The reason he should've been more composed in his speech.

But it was hard too when she insulted people he identified with.

Not this neighborhood specifically, but the poor in general. Vagabond dune living with Harenae, his adoptive father, in Vacuo had taught him that. Eating all your meals around a communal fire, from a communal pot, before sleeping in a run down communal shack to end off the day taught him that. Cherishing each individual round up to the point of inscribing artwork onto them as a hunter… Taught him that.

It wasn't an association he made purposefully, but as long as he wasn't rich he'd continue to hold it.

That and some of these poor people were damn smart. I.E. Yours truly.

"There it is!" Yelled Luka.

In the back lot of a completely moldy and run down liquor store, the black plum raised high into the night sky. "A booze shop." Anna's shoulders dropped in expectant disappointment.

"Yeah, booze keeps us poor people content with our lot. You have a lot to thank it for." That unusually bitey response left Yossif's mouth as the vehicle came to a stop. A quick hop and jump set him on the way to investigate.

"Sure." Anna wasn't really prepared for the whole class clash and just decided to focus on something else. The burning wreck provided a great distraction.

Blake hopped down next two the Mistral born and set off towards the black smoke in silence, very eager to snuff the fires. Faunus traits like improved smell sometimes came off as downright disadvantageous. Especially when all she could think about was getting away from the smell of burning rubber.

Being the most weighed down by her shield, Luka was the last to move for the site. But that doesn't mean she was any less enthusiastic. Her semblance, still kicked on, was telling her that she was responsible for any type of damage her teammate caused. And any that befell him.

The state of the lot was probably not very good to begin with considering the front of the establishment. And it certainly didn't improve with the addition of an overturned armored car as art nouveau.

The heavy metal chassis had slashed a large skidmark into the asphalt, a few feet deep in places. Pieces of the freeway guardrail littered the lot, with a large chink of mangled metal fused to the front pushbar. Stone from a low wall unlucky enough to have been built in the splash zone was littered all around, a heavy particle dust still settling from the decades old concrete and cinder blocks being forcibly turned into a gas. And as a sort of coup de grâce, the entire back wall of the liquor store had been bashed out by the flying vehicle. Total destruction.

As the rest of the group slowly showed up, no doubt beat after undertaking the twenty feet or so journey from the car, Yossif began looking at the situation with a more critical eye. All this carnage was entertaining to take in, sure, but it was no more than window dressing. All he looked for was signs of the crazy Atlesian.

He noted things as he went. The back of the armored car was busted outwards. Rexus had gotten in, and had enough strength to get out of a heavily armored strong car using brute force. He was still alive. Whether he survived until the rescue got here might be a different story.

On a piece of ground that wasn't quite as shredded, lay what Yossif presumed to be the driver. He was horribly banged up, bleeding from every visible orifice, with the ones not visible probably bleeding worse. But he had been dragged out of the car, as evidenced by the long stain of blood. And he had been given limited first aid, as evidenced by the bloody and hastily applied strips of cloth. Thanks to that, he was still alive. But his situation was much the same as Rexus'. No one could be sure of how much longer he'd stay that way.

"Rexus!" Luka was the first to locate the human hurricane, sitting up against the side of the totaled armored car. Well, more like a human victim of a hurricane at this point. He seemed to glow a sweet crimson color. Blood covered everything, and continued to leak from him at alarming rates. And to spruce up his color palette just a bit more, mud, dirt, white stone dust, and honest to god's dust coated him. True to the White Fang's motivations as of late, the car had been carrying some expensive and stolen cargo. "Holy shit stop!" Yossif held his friends at bay and pointed to the many bundles and vials of dust that they had all seemingly missed until now. Kinetic, ice, energy, hardlight, gravity, wind, fire, and even rarer kinds like poison and gas all littered the ground and formed a very volatile minefield.

A new sense of caution being bestowed to all, the group inched closer to a rapidly paling Rexus.

Yossif, being absolutely better than everyone else, reached him first. To his surprise, and the eventual surprise of everyone else, some of the dust that was coating Rexus was placed there intentionally. Fire dust had been buried in the wounds he could reach, and ice dust around his black eye and nose. The job was incomplete, but impressive for a dying man.

Still dying, though.

"Hey, Rexus." Yossif kneeled at his side and collected more fire dust off the ground.

He weakly turned his head to look at Yossif. "Bout time. I was worried I'd go before telling you to fuck your-." Before he could finish his thought, a powerful cough racked his body. A powerful and bloody cough at that.

"Coughing up blood is really bad, right?" Anna asked in a worried tone as she kneeled down next to them.

"I'm not coughing up blood, you fuckin-." Another cough, followed by a bit less blood than last time. Yossif played the role of a mother and wiped the excess from his mouth. Then continued playing surgeon by sticking a clump of fire dust directly into a wound. It produced a hissing sound and a smell not unlike pork. "I'm coughing out blood. My mouth's a bit fucked." He smiled with as much strength as he could muster, showing red coated teeth and cut gums.

It was now Luka's turn to inquire. "What about the cough?"

Rexus was either too tired to get more angry than he already was, or maybe it was just the massive blood loss, but he just looked at her with a tired expression. "Car crash."

"Now what would your dad say if heard about this?" Yossif marveled at how absolutely rent his armored vest was. Its kevlar had been reduced to long and spindly threads. The plates of high quality solid reactive dust it once housed were reduced to actual fine dust particles that flowed out of holes like an honest-to-gods liquid would. And the vest itself was in such a state of disrepair that in an attempt to move it to the side, Yossif accidentally pulled some of the front off, leaving only a few chunks that held on by a literal thread.

"Call me a pussy for not being drunk while doing it." He was too tired for venomous tones, but Yossif had a feeling that that sentence was meant to have one. They'd have to unpack those emotions at a later date.

Lacking more dust in his immediate area for repairs, Yossif turned around to search. Blake was naturally looking after the driver instead of helping Rexus. It was fine that she did, considering Anna, Luka, and himself were tending to him, but it still felt like a bit of an insult to see her worry about a terrorist before Rexus. "Is he alive?" Yossif shouted over.

"Barely!" She yelled back as she leaned over the man. "But he's stable as he is!" She was also applying fire dust to the places that Rexus had missed with his bandaging.

"Great! You got any dust to spare?" Yossif inquired, trying to apply pressure to as many wounds as possible with only two hands.

"No, most of what is over here is ice!" She yelled.

Amazing.

"Yossif, I'll get more dust." Luka said as her eyes began to lose their bright blue shade.

He thought for a moment as she got up before grabbing her wrist. "No. Anna, check inside that car for anything. Luka, apply pressure here. I'll go get more dust." He dragged her back down to the ground and placed her hands on the most significant exit. She immediately looked displeased as a red shine overtook her hand. "Blake, call 112!"

"Already did!" She applied yet more dust.

That sense of lightheadedness was really getting on Rexus' nerves.

Course, his brain wasn't functioning at high enough level anymore to translate that anger into anything but tiredness and or giddyiness.

They say that laughter is the best medicine, and that was something Rexus could attest to. Nothing hurt.

And he hoped that the porkchop Yossif was cooking below him wouldn't burn while he was away for groceries. It smelt like it was about to. "Rexus? Rexus you still with us?" Luka waved her hand in front of his face.

He slowly refocused on her, squinting as hard as he could until her face clicked in his memory. "Hah, Luka! Why are you touching me?" Rexus was generally confused about the sudden contact. They hadn't been close for a while.

"You're…Uh…Bleeding." She said, the blue tint in her eyes retreating.

He gasped loudly and slowly. "From where? Why are your eyes glowing?"

She looked around in a confused way. Maybe she was also worried about Yossif's porkchop. "Uh…From a hole in your side? And that's my semblance?" She didn't seem to be entirely convinced of her answers. The blue tint fell even farther away.

"Really?" Rexus looked down and around for said hole, finding many that Luka couldn't quite cover up. "Woah, I look like a bird house!" He excitedly exclaimed while lightly touching at it.

"No no no!" She swatted his hand away. "Don't do that."

"But whyyyyyy nooooot?" He asked like a child who'd just been told off.

"Because you'll hurt yourself." She pointed a finger into his face.

A horrible mistake for her balance.

Luka was fairly certain that every Faunus had, at atleast one point in their life, envisioned themselves covered Atlesian blood. As a sort of repayment for the centuries of mistreatment and slavery. It was a fun daydream. To be a good guy delivering righteous punishment onto those who had wronged them. Some probably didn't envision the scene quite as grimly as Luka had in her darkest times, but she also probably wasn't the most psychopathic in this dream either. She was a moderate, you could say.

But this dream was never really meant to come to any sort of fruition. Never had she ever wished nor conceived of any possible situation in which this would. Not even when thinking about joining the White Fang did she consider this. So sitting here, hands colored with a sickly sweet shade of cherry, caused just a small bit of anguish. Just a tiny bit. Real small. "Oh my Gods!" Luka quickly scooted back in a panic. She shook her hands violently in an attempt to purge the color from them. Sickness welled up inside of her chest. Her eyes reverted to their regular color.

"Oh cool! I didn't know you were a chameleon!" Rexus smiled and pointed. "Look guys, Luka's changing colors!"

"Dammit Luka, keep your hands on that wound!" Yossif called out from around the car.

"But-." Luka tried to verbally separate herself from the conversation.

"But nothing! He'll bleed out if you don't!"

Luka looked at Rexus. He looked around and tried to touch things she couldn't see.

She was sure he would survive without her.

He grabbed at the air, a confused expression coming over him.

He'd be fine.

He slowly relaxed, going limp.

He'd be fin-. "Oh by the Gods!" Luka moved forward and replaced her hands on two open wounds, nearly losing her dinner when it went 'squelch'.

She continuously moved her hands, constantly flinching at the renewed spurts of warm ruby liquid. His entire front was now drenched. Her arms shared much the same fate. "Luka?" Rexus asked.

"Y-yeah!" She was pulled away from her own lamentations on how fast blood dried and to Rexus. The look on his face was a quiet and contemplative one. If he was still loopy, he wasn't showing it.

"Are we friends?" He asked. He looked off balance even while sitting still.

"What?" She asked before once again dealing with a spurt of vermillion.

"Friends? Are we?" He asked while his head slowly wobbled from side to side.

Great, now he was talking like a little green man from space. That probably wasn't very good. "Yeah, yeah we're friends." She spoke as low and clearly as she could.

"Really? Cause I don't think we are anymore." His tone was completely loopy and out of it, but his words couldn't help but resonate with her.

"What do you mean? We're totally friends." She took her hand from one of Rexus' wounds and placed it on his shoulder.

Rexus broke out his stupor for a moment and held her gaze. He was right. Over the week since the docks incident they had grown apart at the best of times, and become downright adversaries at the worst. She wanted to say something in order to reassure him. The last thing he needed right now was a higher blood pressure. But when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a small and half cut-off squeak. "I'm sorry." He placed a bloodied hand on her wrist.

"For what?" She quickly answered.

"I don't know. I guess I haven't been the best teammate to you." He let go and threw his shoulders around with a shrug. "But you don't make it any easier for me."

Luka knew she probably shouldn't contest him right now, but her mind got the better of her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Come onnn." He smiled as well as he could with a bloodied mouth. "Everyone and their mothers know what you think about the boys in white." Luka looked at him with a small bit of contention. She hadn't made an effort to hide her feelings, but being confronted about them was still a bit off putting. Especially given the fact that it was Rexus that was doing the confronting. "You gotta understand that, being an Atlesian, that shit worries me." And in such a lackadaisical way, too.

"Well, what about me? I'm a faunus, and you're a crazy Atlesian. How do I know you won't cut my head off in my sleep?" She asked with the smallest of laughs.

He laughed too and laid his hands limp at his sides. "You don't, and I don't either." He roughly and quickly grabbed her arm again , wincing at the pain in his chest. "I also told you about Joey, and I don't know if you'll keep that to yourself. You promise me that you will, and you'll keep that head where it is."

Emboldened somewhat by the escalating dying man, Luka also grabbed him. "And I want you to promise me this. The White Fang aren't just targets. They're living, breathing, Faunus, and you'll treat them like so." She let go, as did he.

Yossif showed up after a scavenger hunt. "Luka! What did I tell you about covering those wounds?" He yelled and pushed her aside. "You still with me you big fuck?"

Rexus stared at Luka for a moment longer before nodding in her direction and looking back to the sniper. "Sure, and so is that porkchop you were cooking. I can smell it."

Yossif laughed. "Not porkchop you moron."

Sizz

Rexus looked down at Yossif's hands, pushing fire dust into his wounds. The gears shook off rust and slowly turned until…"Wait a minute, I'm the porkchop!"

While she was clearing the way, Anna had decided to dive into the remains of the armored car for anything that was interesting. Anything that Rexus, Luka, and Blake would have come here to risk life and limb for.

What she found was very interesting indeed.

First and most self explanatory was the copious amounts of SDC dust. The Schnees were moving a lot of capital. The White Fang wanted to take full advantage of that. Piles and broken vials of dust coated and covered everything. Parts of the car were frozen to the touch; others nearly burned.

This was to be expected.

What was weird was how much was here.

The amount of dust this thing was transporting was insane. If she was a less scrupulous woman, she'd be set for life. It was a fortune.

Another strange thing was the arcane-y looking mold in the shape of a key. Said mold was ornately designed, with red light shining through the cracks. Highly unusual behavior.

In an effort to get to the bottom of this mystery, she picked it up.

After unlatching in a few places, the mold smoothly came apart to reveal a key.

A key made of dust!

"What the…?" Her confusion was approaching Herculean levels. Dust, excluding hardlight variants, has never been known to be an extraordinarily resilient substance. To make a key out of it seemed a very idiotic idea. Plus, to even approach any hardness when using dust it needed to be packed extremely densely. This little key project was probably equal to the entire annual income of a small business. All in a handheld package.

It was quite hard to not stick it into her pocket and "forget" about it.

But her own greed was transformed into more intrigue. To the side of the car, buried under dust and assorted equipment, was a small square shape. She walked over and began to carefully dig through the Dust that had spilled from its containers to form a conglomeration of multicolored, highly volatile particles.

After a bit of moving, brushing, and jostling, she freed the shape. It was a small square indeed. A small box no taller than a water bottle and a bit wider than a thick textbook. It was kinda like a small treasure chest. It was even weathered like an old ancient treasure. So she tried to open it like one. She failed.

There was a key slot.

She had a key.

"No way will this work. It'll definitely break." She said, slowly guiding the solid dust into the mechanism. It sat smoothly. "Ok…So far so good." As she turned it, she expected it to shear off. To break in a comical fashion and foul up the lock. Instead, click, it popped open a bit. "No way." The box's hinges creaked as she opened it. She had to put the slightest bit of extra effort into forcing the decaying chest open. What was inside? Riches, gold, silver, lien, a new type of dust never before seen?

A book. A small, runic covered, black faced, no title, fancy book! But a book.

There was a certain taste in Anna's mouth. A taste that had been cultivated over the many years of living within the Castellen family.

Absolute disappointment. Anna boredly flipped open the book to the front page.

Keys. Rows upon rows of keys drawn in every different style under the sun. And not just in rows, but overlapping and overlaying each other. And the color was off, too. The drawings were in black on a…black page. But she could make out the foreground from the background with no trouble. Weirded out, Anna flipped to a random page near the middle of the book. She was confronted with but more art. No, runes. Still black on black, still completely readable, but complete gibberish.

She couldn't read this. This was no language that she could make out. The only thing it was close to was the scribbles on a kindergartener's homework.

She felt she should keep this for later, maybe someone would be able to make it out.

She felt like she should give it to Rexus, this was probably what he was here for.

But considering his current state, she should probably hold onto it for him. Red liquids and old books didn't mesh well.

She really felt like the right thing to do was to give it to Rexus.

But he was currently getting tended to outside. He wouldn't want to read right now.

She felt a very noticeable need to give it to Rexus.

Emergency lights and sirens could be seen and heard in the difference. So Anna decided to get out of the car before doing anything else. She placed the book in her waistband and covered it up with her shirt. As soon as the last of her fingers left it, the want to hand the book over to Rexus slowly dissipated.

And so the sands of time close in around my longest story yet. Nearly 20,000 words here.

Still only takes like 7 minutes to read.

But I hope you all liked it. I know you've probably read this on every story you've ever looked at, but I'm deeply appreciative for your continued interest in my little hobby.

Big thanks to my Beta SwagMagusSupreme for continuing to help with ideas and corrections. Cool guy, that one.

Next time, things get religious.

As always, have a good day!

Don't die!

Peace!