Every Book Under the Sun
Pyrrah's new haircut was awful.
Blake had started by simply cutting off her ponytail, then awkwardly trimming off most of the other long sections. The end result was a mess of uneven lengths, too long on top, too short in the back and sides. Aside from shaving her head completely, Pyrrha wasn't sure she could have gotten anything that was less suited for her.
She loved it.
They'd stopped at a small boutique, turning over some of their limited lien for a dark makeup kit along with a long black ribbon. Blake had used the latter to hide her feline ears rather than relying on Pyrrha's old hat, then she'd pulled Pyrrha into an alley so that she could apply black lipstick and dark eyeliner.
With the gray bandanna now hanging around her neck, Pyrrha thought she looked rather punkish. Absolutely nothing like herself, which was absolutely grand in her opinion.
"Keep the sunglasses on." Blake advised when she finished. "They break up your features a little, and they're not as strange as covering absolutely everything."
Pyrrha nodded seriously. "And if anyone says I look like Pyrrha Nikos, laugh and tell them I get that all the time."
"Exactly. You going to be all right without your shield?"
"Yes. I train without it every other day." A hand fell to touch Milo's grip, her reliable weapon on her belt once again. "Are you going to be able to fight dressed like that?"
Blake shifted her shoulders, arms, and then kicked one leg experimentally. The slightly baggy jeans and shirt ruffled a little with the motion. "Yeah, so long as the belt holds. Let's go. It's going to be a long walk. Remember the plan?"
"Go to the store, find out what we can." Pyrrha recited at once. "We take an even longer route back to make sure we're not followed, and figure out our next step once we're safe at the hotel."
"Good. Let's go."
Happy to finally feel safe and hidden even in public, Pyrrha cheerfully fell into step beside her friend.
It was incredibly nice to be outside. It was even nicer to remember how quiet Blake could be. Even after an hour of walking she didn't think the other girl had said a single word. That left Pyrrha free to simply... relax. To actually take in the city for the first time since they'd arrived, and enjoy stretching her legs.
Sadly Vale's second impression wasn't much better than the first.
Mistral may have had its fair share of problems, but at least the city itself had character. Even Argus, the home she could barely remember, was a distinct mesh of Mistrali and Atlesian construction. In contrast Vale was... well. Kind of boring really.
Maybe we're just not in the right areas. She tried to stay optimistic. Beacon certainly had character.
The same couldn't quite be said for their destination; a little book store squeezed in between a bar and a restaurant, on a street that looked depressingly similar to every other generic one they'd walked down. Still, the proprietor at least tried. The concrete facing was covered in wooden panels, the tinted windows were pleasant, and they'd hung lovely plants from their second floor.
"Tukson's Book Trade." She read the name frosted onto the windows. "This is it?"
Blake nodded. "Yes. When we go in, stay near the front door in case we need to leave in a hurry. I'll talk to whoever is behind the counter."
"Okay!"
"I know you're not used to this, but please try to look uninterested in what's going on. Don't listen in." Blake instructed. "If my contact isn't in there, I'm going to pretend like I spoke to him by scroll about a job. See if I can't get a hold of him that way."
"And I'm just along for moral support?"
"Exactly."
Pyrrha nodded. "I can do that."
"All right. Let's do this then."
After one more nod , as if assuring herself of the plan, Blake pushed the door open. A bell rang as the two of them strode into a dim store, the air filled with the smell of paper. The space itself wasn't all that big, but the owner had done their best to pack as many shelves in as possible. It left it pretty cramped, but also... kind of cozy.
"Welcome!" A young man called from behind the counter, his freckled face split in a wide smile. "To Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. How can I help you?"
Remembering the plan, Pyrrha gave him a smile before turning to the nearest shelf. "Just browsing!"
"Take your time! We've got sales on hardcovers if you're interested. And you, miss?"
"I was hoping to speak to the owner or manager about a job." Blake strode forward without her, voice lowering as she went on, talking about how she'd spoken with him a few months ago about a part time position.
Pyrrha had no idea if that was some kind of code, or if Blake was just fishing for information like she'd said. As much as she wanted to listen in, she tried to focus on picking through the books in front of her. Just another bored young woman, coming along to support her friend while she tried to get a job.
She picked up a random paperback, the cover filled with trees and colorful birds.
"Days of Paradise." Flipping it over, she'd just started to read the back when the bell rang behind her. She was close enough to the door to nearly be struck by it, and had to take a quick hop back to avoid an impact.
"Excuse me, miss." A man said politely, stepping closer as he tried to move around her. "Pardon me."
"Oh, of course. Don't mind-"
If she hadn't already been turning to look at him, she'd have missed the gun he was drawing from beneath his red coat. Her aura flared a split second before he jammed it into her belly, yanking the trigger down.
Yelping in surprise and a bit of pain, she swept her arm up to drive the weapon away.
Apparently he'd been completely unprepared for that, because the pistol went flying from his fingers when she struck his wrist. Instead of reacting to her move and the loss of his gun, he just gaped at her in the moments he had before one of her fists slammed into his jaw.
His back slammed into the door he'd just closed, the impact bouncing him into a three-combination move that saw her strike him twice in the chest and once more in the face. Her attacker collapsed into a whimpering heap, curling in around himself despite the fact that she hadn't really hit him all that hard.
"Oh my. Are you all right?" She hadn't quite meant to be that violent, but she'd surrendered entirely to reflex. Ray would have been proud that his hostile-fan training had sunk in at least.
The man didn't reply beyond groaning a little, rolling to his hands knees, trying to crawl away from her, revealing pawed feat lacking shoes to cover them.
The sounds of more violence behind her made her sweep around in time to see Blake hauling the employee up and over the counter as the two of them fought over a dagger. From the cut on the man's cheek he didn't have aura either, which explained why the other girl was being so careful as they fought.
"Let go!" Blake snarled. "Tell me where Tukson is, now!"
"Traitor!" Came the returning shout. "Traitorous bitch!"
Ripping Milo free from her belt, she was about to move over to help when the door slammed open once again. That hurt her first opponent more than her; it clipped him across the head and sent him down hard.
Not that she had time to pay attention to him; men and women in White Fang masks began surging inside, clubs, swords, and knives all raised high as they jumped over the friend who'd they'd just knocked out.
They have numbers. Space is confined. Likely no aura. Have to pull my blows. Pyrrha deflected the club swinging at her head, her heart beginning to race. They have no stances, no coordination, no training. Ray's lesson on a gang attack will work, I think.
"Human scu-ah!" The man who'd attack her howled when her fist broke his nose, actually dropping his weapon to clutch at his face. That bought her time to dance backwards, kicking a bookshelf to distract them as well as giving her a bit more space on her right to swing her weapon.
It tipped over with a clatter as two more of the terrorists got around the first, coming in one after the other; letting her deal with them in a neat, orderly fashion.
Parry. Disarm. The knife went flying, an absentminded tug of her semblance sending it into the far corner. Disable. Hold back, don't harm them more than required to put them down.
The woman toppled when Milo's flat struck across her temple. Dodge, leg sweep.
A sword wielding man yelped as he fell, then reeled when she kicked him across the face. The fourth new arrival tried to jump over him to tackle her, and got Milo's hilt to his teeth for his trouble. More than a few of them went flying, leaving him rolling around on the ground much like his friends.
"I'm sorry!" She offered, knowing she wasn't being particularly sporting about any of this. Not that this was a tournament match, but it was the principle of the thing. "I do think you should surrender!"
"Surrender this bitch!" Another woman dropped her knife, ripping a pistol out from under her own coat. "Die-ah!"
Her head tilted back as far as possible when Milo's javelin form expanded to press against her throat. Blue eyes went very wide under the mask, her body going still.
"Please drop the weapon. I really don't like hurting people, and this has been a bit much."
The pistol clattered to the ground.
"Thank you!" Pyrrha said cheerfully. This was much better than her fight with Dusty at the gym. A neat, easy victory without her making a prideful mistake. Even better, it was against people who were unquestionably terrorists! Exactly the kind of thing a huntress would do, and exactly the kind of thing that a tournament fighter never would.
So long as Blake isn't hurt, this was actually kind of fun. And we'll be able to put... seven terrorists behind bars.
"Blake? Are you all right?"
Her friend called back at once. "Yes. Bring them back here, there's a store room we can lock them in."
"Um, shouldn't we call the authorities..." A glance over her shoulder let her see Blake finish tying the employee to a chair, the young man's nose clearly broken. She'd paused her actions to give Pyrrha a flat look that stayed in place while Pyrrha awkwardly smiled. "Oh. Right. Yes, I'm sorry."
For their part, the White Fang didn't seem to like the idea. It took a couple of nudges from her blade, and a bit of threatening gun pointing on Blake's part before they started moving. One of them tried to stumble and fall in a way that would let them grab one of the fallen pistols, only to yelp when Blake simply stepped on his hand.
Getting two of them to pick up the unconscious man was especially difficult.
Eventually they got everyone but the employee packed into a storage room, Blake both locking and barricading the door on their side.
"Will they be all right in there?"
"There's a vent, so there's airflow." Blake glanced at her. "...you all right?"
"Of course! They were... um.." She tried to find a polite way to say it, "They were ill-trained. We are going to call the authorities though, right?"
"Once I get what we need, and once we're far enough away that I'm not arrested for abducting you."
"Grand!"
Blake smiled slightly, shaking her head before walking back towards the front. She followed, the pair of them emerging into the main storefront just in time to see their prisoner tip himself over in a desperate attempt to get loose.
"Knock that off." Blake's smile morphed into a scowl as she moved to stand over him. "What were you trying to do here?"
"Eliminate a traitor to the faunus."
Her friend scoffed while she lurked awkwardly in the background. "Really? Those idiots had no aura, no training, and you thought they could take on a huntress? They couldn't have fought their way out of a bar in Kuo Kuana, much less taken on two Beacon applicants."
"You're not a real huntress." The man actually spat at her shoes. "You're Adam's little trophy wife, you've never seen combat."
Trophy wife? Isn't she a little young for that?
Every muscle in Blake's body seemed to strain for a moment before she got herself under control. "I killed Grimm on a daily basis protecting our headquarters, which anyone could have told you if you'd bothered to ask. One more question for you. Where's Tukson?"
"Dead! With every other traitor to the faunus!"
Blake glared down at him. "Liar. I've read the reports. Tukson was one of our best cell leaders, he wouldn't have been caught by an idiot like you."
"He was a useless coward! Always whining about not killing humans! He was soft, like your cowardly parents!"
Pyrrha shot forwards, grabbing her friend just before she could slam her heel down into the man's face. "Blake!"
"He... I..." The other girl was shaking so badly that Pyrrha pulled her into a tight hug. It seemed to help, or at least, it stopped Blake from beating a man already defeated. "...he's... he's not going to tell us anything. We need to go."
"Um, of course. Should we move him to where the others are?"
"No. We'll just lock the door behind us." Blake took a few deep breaths before nodding. "You can let me go now."
Their prisoner's sneer ruined the moment. "What's wrong, human lover? Don't like touching them after all?"
That time Pyrrha had to pull Blake along, pushing the door open with one hand while keeping the other around her friend. Outside a rental van was idling with no one behind the wheel, half its doors still hanging open. Blake squirmed free once they were in the sunlight, stomping back they way they'd come.
Not sure what else to do, Pyrrha hurried along beside her and hoped that she was imagining the confused looks from the few other pedestrians.
"I-" She began.
Blake cut her off. "We're not all like that. That's not what we... what they are supposed to be. I would never have agreed to letting people like him join."
"I-"
"And what kind of idiot is running the local cell?" She went on, ignoring the car that had pulled alongside them. "I mean, it's one thing to be smart enough to watch the bookstore, but sending people like that to attack us?"
She felt herself drawing Milo again, eyeing the vehicle. "Blake-"
"Dammit. We should go back, there must be something in there that will tell us where Tukson ran to. Should have at least grabbed their scrolls if they had any on we don't find anything this will have been a complete waste of time. Something must be wrong with me, I'm not thinking straight."
Pyrrha's fourth attempt to say something was cut off, but this time by the car's window rolling down. A deep male voice emerged from the darkened interior, "You going to keep ignoring me, or you going to get in?"
Blake abruptly stopped moving, whipping her head around. "Who are you?"
"Tukson." The driver leaned over enough to let them see a grizzled, middle-aged man in dire need of a shave. "Come on. They'll realize their hit failed soon, we need to be gone."
Pyrrha glanced at Blake, then at him. Memories of a supposed employee turning out to be a terrorist fresh in her mind, she asked, "Um, how do you know you're Tukson?"
"I met him once. Seen his picture." Blake shook her head. "The beard is new, but that's him."
"I won't be me for long if you keep dragging this out." He reached out, unlocking the passenger door. "We don't have time. Get in, or I'm leaving this business for good, and you'll never get your answers."
"Do we...?" She asked quietly.
Blake was already yanking the door open, "Get in back. If he tries anything, be ready with your weapon."
Oh dear. This got serious rather fast.
Not that fighting terrorists in a book store wasn't serious, it was. But they hadn't even had aura, which had... well, made it far less exciting in hindsight now that the rush had faded. She probably could have just overtly used her semblance to disarm all of them, called the police, and then called it a day.
Maybe I should stop holding back with it so much. I'm hardly fighting in an area anymore.
Either way it hadn't really been dangerous in the slightest to either of them. While she hadn't seen Blake fight, she moved with the easy grace of someone with a decent amount of training. She could have probably handled them on her own.
But now it's... oh dear. I really jumped into some kind of... conspiracy, didn't I?
Following instructions, Pyrrha silently climbed into the backseat while Blake took the front. Maybe-Tukson pulled the car back into traffic before they could get their seat belts on, but drove slowly and carefully with traffic.
"You weren't at the address you sent me." Blake accused their driver. "Why?"
Tukson grunted as if she'd poked him. "Sorry about that. Had to get my brother out of the city."
Pyrrha winced. "He was in danger?"
His eyes met hers in the rear view for a split second. "Yeah. I made a mistake, and they've been trying to flush me out ever since. Got a name back there? Don't recognize you from the old operations."
"Petra." Blake supplied before Pyrrha could. "What's happening here?"
"Everything's gone wrong is what's happened." His head shook slightly as he pulled into a turning lane. "Only reason I'm still in Vale and not on my way to Vacuo is because I was waiting for you. Authorities are all over our every move to the point where no one will risk helping us anymore, all thanks to how sloppy, violent, and sloppily violent those idiots are being."
"So I've heard, and seen." Blake replied. "Petra got accused of being White Fang and was thrown out of a gym just for wearing a bandanna."
Well, there'd been more to it than that...
"I believe it." Tukson spoke before Pyrrha could correct the story. "Combat cell's gone full faunus-supremacy. The fact that they've been driven into the sewers because they're too sloppy to keep their headquarters hidden hasn't affected their morale much. Just made them more bitter. Anyone who has doubts is being moved out of the city for intensive training, or else is being turned into martyrs for the cause."
Pyrrha felt her stomach churn. "Surely you don't mean that like it sounds."
"Our last competent leader was supposedly cut down and dumped in the river by a Human Huntsman, despite being in our headquarters with the nearest Human being half a mile away at the time." He glanced at Blake. "She a new recruit from Menagerie?"
"Yes." Pyrrha bit her lip as Blake lied once again. "She's a bit naive, but she makes up for it as a fighter."
She's hardly lying about that, at least. Oh dear. I really didn't think this through either, did I?
"At least you were smart enough to bring backup." More lip biting on Pyrrha's part, and what may have been a nervous twitch of Blake's bow just ahead of her. "I can give you the original copy of the video I sent you last month, but I don't have any other proof. Will it be enough to convince Khan?"
"She's already biased against Adam, but... I don't think many people back home would think him capable of it."
He grunted. "They clearly don't know him then. If you want more evidence I'm not going to be able to help. I'm wanted by everyone right now, and I'm sick of this life."
Blake shook her head. "I won't ask you to stay. This is dangerous enough as it is. Do you have a safehouse? I need to know exactly what happened, when it happened, and what you think they might be doing now. We can handle gathering what we need for Sienna and my parents after that."
"I've got a place. Don't know much, but I'll tell you what I can." Fingers drummed on the wheel once. "You sure you want to know? It's not a pleasant story, and huntresses or not you're both damned young for this business."
"...yes. Can you keep watch?"
She'd clearly directed the question to Pyrrha, and she nodded at once. "Yes, of course. I'd be happy to."
"...thank you. I owe you another one."
Pyrrha put on her smiling mask... and wondered just what it said about her that she'd again leaped into something without realizing just what she was doing.
Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
Thanks, Kat