To Ruby, the vast, silver pavilions of Amity's food courts and walkways were a different world from the claustrophobic tunnels snaking their way to Yang's brig. Those hallways felt like someplace no one was meant to be, plated in dull, gray steel so unlike the polished floors that rejected the dirt. As she, Weiss and Penny sat at one of countless pristine, white tables for a late breakfast, it was like nothing had happened at all. Visitors strolled by. People still talked about who they thought was going to win. Bar a few weird looks sent her way, last night was conveniently missing from memory. A pretty big difference from where her sister was locked up in some futuristic cage.

But all of that could wait for a little longer.

Weiss jumped to her feet. "You're transferring to Beacon?" she exclaimed.

Penny grinned. "That's right! All I have to do according to Mister Soleil is win the Vytal Tournament, and all of my tests will have been considered completed."

"It'll be great!" Ruby zipped over to Penny's side of the table and latched onto her. "We can show you around Vale, and you can hang out with us and Team JNPR, and—oh! There are so many games we have to show you too!"

"And since you would be staying here," Weiss added, "maybe we could get you a few more outfits."

"I would love to!" Penny pulled Ruby into a crushing hug.

And, like a brick through the window of a birthday party, the truth came crashing in for Ruby. Right. None of that would happen. Because of Weiss' evil dad ruining everything. Unfortunately, it must've shown on her face, because Penny tilted her head to one side, wide eyes full of curiosity. Curse her robo-empathy!

"Is something wrong?"

"It's, uh..." Ruby glanced at Weiss. Maybe it'd be best to tell Weiss first when they had time alone. "Just thinkin' about Yang again. It doesn't help that people keep looking at us like whatever happened's our fault."

Weiss scoffed and dropped back onto her seat. "Not to mention Adam's up and vanished as well. It's a half past noon: where is that fool? Yang deserves to know her full team has her back."

Ruby shrugged. "Beats me. All I know is that his Scroll is off."

"Typical. Even after the last time he pulled this..." Weiss trailed off and shook her head.

"Well enough of that boring stuff!" Ruby declared. "The Vytal Tournament starts again at six o'clock, so that's almost six hours to help you get to the top for sure! But first, um... could you let me go?" She wriggled in Penny's hug.

"Do I have to?"

Ruby thought it over. "Nah." The two giggled as Weiss rolled her eyes across from them.

"Get a room, you two."

Ruby was about to deliver the best comeback of her life(she swore), but her Scroll buzzing in her pocket distracted her. Still grinning because this wouldn't prevent her masterful response for long, she checked her Scroll. Her grin vanished.

"I've gotta go."

[Unknown Number: "TELL OZPIN."]


Tick Tock


It was fifteen minutes after noon, and the attack on Vytal Tower had been raging for two hours. Floor by floor, his defectors had been forced up until they could get dug in. No, 'dug in' implied a consistent line. Both sides of the battle were now grouped in uneven pockets from the fifth to the seventh floor, bogged down without Scrolls to communicate with. Unfortunately for him, that was just high enough for most of his defectors to be unable to risk the jump. As he checked Blush's ammunition in a devastated room that once resembled an employee lounge, Adam wondered if that was the point. The sound of gunfire peppering walls was just part of the background: the erratic drumbeat of war. Just beneath it, he heard the door to the room behind him being kicked open.

The trio of White Fang soldiers barreling in were likely shocked to see the last squad sent here scattered and wounded on the floor around him. That hesitation was why when Adam turned to face them, Blush added three more to those numbers. Adam stepped over their barely-conscious forms and into the chaotic halls outside. The building rumbled as another Paladin shell blasted another hole into the skyscraper, yet even that was barely audible over the clashing of weapons, report of gunfire and even the whine of Bullhead engines somewhere outside. Wind rushed through the corridors from countless broken windows, yet even the fresh air carried the stench of Dust. This was the Breach in miniature.

He made a break for one of the stairways down to the fourth floor, intent on causing enough chaos on his own to draw attention. A White Fang soldier swung around a corner, waiting for him with his blade at the ready. By the time the soldier slashed out, his blade was already cut in half. Adam sheathed Wilt as he passed, and the soldier realized that his aura was gone only as he hit the ground.

Without a thought, Adam turned and sliced a wave of aura down a hallway as he passed, knocking another soldier off of one of his own rebels. A spray of bullets passed him from the very path he came from. It'd already gotten bad enough to where he needed to watch his back, Adam thought. Great. Adam twisted around and ducked beneath another barrage before striking down another squad with a series of accurate shots. His grip on Blush grew tight enough to bite into his palm: Cinder might've had a hold on Almond, but was it really enough to have Almond wipe out his own kind like this?

His instincts told him before his ears that someone was approaching behind him. Adam sheathed Wilt and channeled his aura into his arms as he turned.

"Wait, wait!" Chiffon held her hands up. "Friendly!" Her swords clattered to the ground.

Adam sighed and pried his hand off of Wilt's hilt. "Sorry. It's a mess out here."

"Tell me about it," Chiffon grumbled. She scooped her weapons back up. "But I do have some good news. And bad news."

"Against my better judgement, I could do with some good news first." Adam nodded for her to follow, and the two began making their way through the vast building. This assault wouldn't be so stressful if it were at least consistent. Instead, spaces of relative calm broke up innumerable little bouts all throughout the vertical warzone.

"Right! Okay, so, the White Fang's trying to capture or disable us."

"I thought you said this would be good news."

"It is! Kind of! There's only a couple fatalities: they aren't actually trying to kill us."

Adam rolled his eyes and reloaded Blush. "Wonderful. What's the bad news?"

"There's about a dozen more squads on the way."

He grimaced.

"No Huntress-level soldiers, though!" Chiffon added with a hopeful lilt.

"None of this makes sense. If this isn't a fight for extermination, then there must be something they're working towards." As they reached the door to the stairwell, it was suddenly flung open by a White Fang soldier. Chiffon wasted no time in kicking them back down the stairs. Adam kept them there with a pair of shots.

"Yet there's no demands for surrender," Adam continued as he watched for anyone else coming up. "No one in their right mind would risk their soldiers' lives forcing a surrender without offering terms first. Especially with a numerical advantage."

"What is this, some kind of message? It's like they don't want the battle to end at all," Chiffon thought aloud.

Adam stopped, then cursed under his breath. "That's exactly what this is. The battle isn't meant to end: it's meant to suppress the entire organization." And knowing Cinder? "To pin me down so I can't get any information back."

To his surprise, Chiffon sighed and swiped at her forehead. "Great! That makes this easy: all we have to do is get you out."

He didn't have time to think this over. Adam's grip tightened around Wilt: he hated the thought of leaving faunus—his faunus, no less—in a situation like this, and yet...

"Can you handle this?"

"What choice do we have? If you stay, you do whatever the White Fang wants. Look, I might not know what's actually going on here, but I'm able to hazard a guess that this isn't some ordinary schism between branches of the White Fang. If something's going on, then you've gotta get out of here."

Adam grit his teeth. "Fine. That means there's only one thing to take care of: if they realize I'm gone, they may choose to escalate. That Paladin could level the entire building if they wanted, and the Breach wasn't exactly caring for the lives of the White Fang."

Chiffon scratched her head. "Uh... we'll think of something, don't worry about it."

His gaze snapped to her. He looked her over until his eyes settled on her swords and his mind on its alternate form as a Dust rifle.

"You won't need to. I have an idea." He took a few steps back into the hallway and turned to face her. "Do you have more ammunition for your swords' rifle form?"

"Enough for a couple reloads, yeah."

"Good." He clicked Wilt free from its sheath. "Shoot me."

"I beg your pardon."

"Take your swords, transform them into rifles, aim carefully where I tell you and then—"

"I know how to shoot!" Chiffon huffed. "I'm asking why."

Adam waggled his weapon, thoroughly unamused. Chiffon looked him up and down then, finally, recognition entered her eyes.

"Ooooh, I get it! Fine, under one condition: we need a name or something."

"Is this really the time?"

"Well, are we supposed to call ourselves 'the White Fang defectors' or 'the rebels' forever?" Chiffon asked with a teasing glint in her eye as she combined her swords together and took aim.

Adam shifted his jaw from side to side: it wasn't as though the issue hadn't passed through his mind. Names tossed between himself, Ruby and Blake. Something to match their role as the message that the White Fang was going too far, something fitting for faunus embracing their strength.

He drew Wilt halfway and readied himself.

"Wild Call."


Dust trickled down onto the once-polished floor of Vytal Tower's lobby as the Paladin outside blew another hole above. Their enemies had put up a harsh fight, and it left much of the first floor trashed. The ground was riddled with pockmarks, cracks and grooves dug into the tile by bladework: a Huntsman's work. The officer leading the assault sighed as he waved in another squad and looked through the receptionist's desk for any documentation they might've left behind. First working with humans, now attacking their own. He understood that these 'defectors' were traitors, but to be focusing on faunus in a time of victory? It left a bad taste in his mouth.

He risked pulling his mask off for a moment and rubbing his temples: bringing radios and blocking Scrolls was a good idea, but the constant chatter coming from his was a real headache. His wrists were adorned with silver bracelets interspersed with bright-red Dust crystals sparkling and unused. He hadn't even had a chance to break his new weapons in. They'd had this skyscraper locked down without a problem, and that didn't help his stress: something always went wrong. The last time the officer had this feeling, he had found himself at the mercy of a couple vigilantes. Personally, he would've preferred to demand surrender, but dismantling these traitors completely was the order.

A sharp bang and shriek of metal came from a nearby elevator, loud enough to be heard, but not the crash he would've expected from the entire elevator falling. The squad he'd brought in stopped. Glances were traded between the group. He nodded to one of them to follow and stepped to one side. His new partner raised his rifle. He readied his bracelets.

Half of the door launched forward and bowled over the soldier beside him. Before he could even blink, a flash of black raced past him. The officer whirled around and unleashed a barrage of fiery darts at the intruder, only to watch him leap, spin and dissipate them with a crimson blade twirling fast enough to be little more than a blurry, red disc. His foe was out of the building in the next second. The other soldiers hadn't even the time to recognize what had happened. But he did.

That was their target. Headed out of the door. Headed for their Paladin.

"Stop him!" he shouted into a radio.


The AK-290 Paladin was developed with the intention of being able to turn any soldier into a ranked Huntsman. Even average reactions could be enhanced through millions of lien's worth of computers and sensors. The moment it recognized a spike in aura ahead, its targeting systems came to life, the perfect weapon was selected, and all that was needed was for the pilot to take the shot. Sadly, the Paladin was made to fight the Grimm, plodding and slow, rarely faster than even a student.

By the time the sound of the pilot's commander reached him, every camera was awash in red. The Paladin swung its full weight around, sensors reacquiring the source of the light. Its cannon loaded a shot. The pilot pulled the trigger. Its target sheathed his blade.

The Paladin never stood a chance.


A line of crimson aura erupted across the back of the Paladin's legs. Thrown off-balance by the added problem of one of its arms having been cleaved entirely from it, the mechanical monster crashed to the ground. Its other cannon fired with a burst of noise and wind that did little more than rustle Adam's coat. He watched the shell soar into the sky, far, far off-target. There was a second of silence. White Fang soldiers watched in shock behind their makeshift barricades. The Paladins' leg motors sparked and whined in a desperate attempt to lift it.

Adam hoped that shell wouldn't land anywhere important.

One of the soldiers got the smart idea of raising his rifle, but Adam was already gone, sprinting down the street. A wave of gunfire pursued him, and already, the sounds of warfare picked up once more. The White Fang were following, but for how long, Adam didn't know. Still, a break for his new 'Wild Call' was a break. The population of the Ildaite Ward wisely chose to take shelter during the battle surrounding the district, leaving his run to be across empty sidewalks and rooftops overlooking abandoned streets.

Adam snapped out Chiffon's scroll as he approached the wall and the signs of the battle between the White Fang and both Vale police and Atlesian drones. It hadn't even finished buzzing from the first missed call before he sent a message to Ruby.


"Are you sure bringing Blake in is a good idea?" Emerald regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth. Despite them being in public, she remembered the last time she questioned Cinder about her choice of allies. She still felt a phantom burn on her cheek at times.

Yet Cinder did not respond with anger and offense. Her stride remained unbroken as they made their way to Beacon's airship docks. She only cast a look in her direction.

Hoping it was permission to continue and not a generous second chance to reconsider her words, Emerald continued: "It's not like I dislike her or anything, but she seems a little too soft to be a permanent addition to the group." The docks weren't packed, but there were still enough people around to deliberately keep things vague.

She fidgeted with her hands in the seconds of quiet that followed. Emerald looked away and was prepared to apologize, but Cinder sighed.

"I'm not sure. Once she recognizes what kind of person the headmaster is, I'm certain she would join us, but I doubt that'll happen before the end of the Festival." Which was when they needed her decision.

Emerald perked up and ignored the chill of her fear leaving her. "So, what's the plan? We can't just let her wait for the last second to choose, or it could ruin the whole group's festival plans."

Cinder crossed her arms and looked off at the coliseum hovering in the sky, dwarfing even the Atlesian airships beside it. "She's a fickle type. I'll know her choice before she makes it: all I have to do is watch her when our plans are in motion. Better yet, you can. And if she doesn't look like she's ready for the team..." She let the implication trail off into the wind.

Concern wrestled with relief in Emerald's heart. She grimaced. "I guess it makes sense that I have to do it while Mercury's down. Shame: I kinda liked her."

"She does have potential." Cinder smiled. "But unfortunately, I'll have no room for disloyal elements when we leave Vale."

They joined the crowd of people waiting at the docks and watched as the airbuses landed, one by one.

"If I may ask, ma'am, why'd you bring her in?"

This time, Cinder's cold glance was definitely warning her. Emerald lowered her head and couldn't bring herself to look back.

Yet, to her surprise, Cinder relented. "The same reason I brought you in, Emerald: you both remind me of myself when I was younger." Emerald could hear the smile in her voice. "And what kind of person would I be to not grant the same opportunity I had?"

Even over the chatter of the people around them, Emerald heard a rumble and muffled shouts in the airbus. The door lowered itself, yet before it even got halfway down, a red blur blitzed by. For the briefest moment, Ruby locked eyes with her and Cinder. Then she was gone, leaving a trail of fluttering rose petals and shouted complaints in her wake. When Emerald looked back to Cinder, she found her leader still watching the direction the girl had run off in. Her eyes were narrowed. A thoughtful frown tugged at her lips.

"I wonder what that was all about," Emerald muttered.

"Can you catch up to her?"

Surprised, Emerald looked between Cinder and where Ruby once was. "Yeah, with a bit of—"

"Go!"


Ruby was in the sights of a sniper rifle. That's what it felt like, rushing down the streets towards Beacon Tower. Like she was just a step ahead of a laser sight tracking her every move. Someone was already watching her, she knew, but she also knew that as long as she had a head start, there was no way they could catch up to her. All she had to do was stick to the main roads and keep shouting 'Sorry!' at the people she nearly bowled over on the way there. Sadly, that was easier said than done: it was only one o' clock, but crowds were coming in like the Vytal Tournament was just about to start. Worse, every time she thought about pushing through, the world slipped through her fingers: the calls of the crowd and her own hurried footsteps would fade from her hearing, faces in the crowd blurred together, even the feeling of the wind against her face vanished.

And each time, she could hear the soft scrape of metal against metal. A blade being drawn? Cinder pursuing her? All Ruby knew was that she didn't want to risk being wrong. She didn't want to risk Cinder having gotten ahead of her, waiting in the masses for her to make the mistake of blindly running through.

So she took the side roads when she could. Tried to lose the pursuers she couldn't see but could feel in winding turns. And, yet again, she tried to call Qrow, only to get his voicemail. Ruby wasn't sure if she could trust calling for Ozpin directly—if Cinder was so sure she could get to Blake before the headmaster, she must've had a way to know if they told, right?—but if she could just get to Qrow, she wouldn't have to worry about that. But no, he had to forget to charge his battery or something again! Ruby groaned as she rounded another corner and finally found a secluded spot between a couple administration buildings to catch her breath at. It was thankfully empty: classes were all but finished, the tournament was everybody's focus, and no student was going to go wandering around. She'd be able to catch anybody thinking they were sneaky here.

She was so going to talk her uncle's ear off about being so lazy with his Scroll. Qrow was lucky that she was this fast: Beacon might've been a small city unto itself, but the crowds were bound to be thinner, and she was already halfway there.

The sound of metal against metal was closer. Ruby drew Crescent Rose without hesitation and turned to look down the way she came. No one. She gritted her teeth: she hated this so much. Was this just nerves or something else? Slowly, she lowered her rifle.

"What's the rush, Ruby?"

Ruby yelped and swung Crescent Rose around, only to find Qrow with his hands up.

"Is everything alri—"

Like the sea bursting through a crumbling dam, the truth came rushing out. "Uncle Qrow, we've gotta tell Ozpin!" She couldn't stop the moment the first word left her lips. "Some villains are trying to take over all of Vale and destroy Beacon and they've been sending assassins and trying to kill us and—"

"Wait!" Qrow barked out, and the words lodged in her throat. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "We probably shouldn't be shouting this around: who knows who's listening, right?"

Ruby clutched her weapon tighter to herself. He was right: what was she thinking? She couldn't just fumble everything now of all times. Especially when she could still feel, in the back of her mind, the sights of a gun firmly lined up with her heart. Yet as she looked around, there was still nothing to see. Not even with her trained eyes.

"In here." Qrow whistled to her and pushed open the door of one of the administration buildings.

She furrowed her brow as she walked inside. The same Scroll-operated lock as they had on their dorm sat on the wall beside the door, untouched. "I've been trying to call you..."

Qrow shrugged as he walked through the cramped, empty halls. "Scroll's dead."

"What, did you pick an electronic lock?"

He stopped. Then, he looked over his shoulder with a smug grin. "Don't tell your dad I know how." He peered down the halls and into the many empty rooms before choosing a suitably large office. Qrow scoffed at the giant, gold bust of Professor Port in the corner. No points for guessing who's office this was, Ruby thought.

"Alright." He leaned against the wall, and the door shut behind them. "Tell me everything."

Ruby couldn't help but shake the feeling that had been following her since the docks, yet with Qrow there, she knew she was safe. She took a deep breath.

The next ten minutes were the shortest in her life. Yes, she was pretty sure that she jumped around events and backtracked and admitted to going off with a known terrorist to be a vigilante duo, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that finally, at last, she could tell someone. And Qrow watched, still as stone, eyes staring straight through her. Ruby wasn't even sure if he'd blinked since she started talking. She watched him, out of breath.

Qrow closed his eyes. "Are you sure?"

Ruby nodded, then straightened up and realized he couldn't see her. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Then go back to your team." He silently kicked off of the wall and turned to look at her with a gaze of sharpened steel. "I'll get this to Ozpin, but for now, I need you to keep this quiet. Play it cool: let them keep thinking they're on top of things, alright?"

Determined, Ruby nodded once more.

"Great." Qrow grinned. "Now get moving, before anybody gets suspicious."

He didn't have to tell her twice: Ruby was gone in a burst of rose petals and flung-open doors. As she rushed back into the open air, cape fluttering in the autumn breeze, Ruby could feel the pressure sliding away. The further she ran, the further away she got from the threat watching over her. Sure, Qrow said to keep this quiet, but surely he didn't mean from her team, right?


Seconds passed in silence. Almond did not look at the messenger standing in the doorway of his office, but he could feel her fear. As he looked at the banners of the White Fang hanging beside where he sat at his desk, Almond couldn't blame her. It was taking all that he had not to split his desk in two. He was thankful for his mask, at least: he imagined seeing his sharp-toothed scowl splitting his face would have that messenger running for the ward's walls.

"She sends over a hundred soldiers to attack a band of cowards and traitors when we're trying to build up, now she wants to advance the timeline by hours," he growled. "She must think we faunus can be in two places at once." It was difficult enough to get the entire White Fang ready for a national invasion tonight. Now she wanted them ready by 6PM?

"T-there's more, sir." She jumped when he turned to look at her, a pink rat tail coiling nervously. "It's good news!" she forced out and waved a simple, manila envelope. She also didn't take a single step forward.

With a great sigh, Almond rose from his seat and approached. At least she didn't try to run, he thought as he took the envelope and looked over what was within.

"Some of the engineers the woman in the red dress took said they've figured out what they're creating. She's been trying to keep them working separately to stop that, but it wasn't enough," the messenger explained.

Seconds passed in silence once more, broken up only by the increasingly quick shifting and shuffling of papers. Almond recognized this.

"What's your name, initiate?"

She gulped. "Iris, sir."

"Iris." He reached past the messenger to close the door. "Did they say anything else about what it could do?"

She shook her head. "No, sir. Only that the cyborg's working on it too, and whatever he's doing, it's not with anybody else from the White Fang." She clenched her fists and forced herself to look up at him. "Sir... what's happening? What is this?"

Almond double-checked the pages. Then triple-checked them. There wasn't anything else it could be. "It's a bomb combining Electric and Gravity Dust in high concentrations. I don't know the numbers, but I do know what this can cause when layered in the way they want."

"Electric and gravity," the messenger mumbled. "Combined, it's something that has to do with magnetism, right? An EMP?"

"No. This isn't meant to combine their effects: it's made to layer them. I've worked with Electric Dust enough to recognize a primitive time dilation system, and the Gravity Dust is set to compound it. The notes say that when it's put together, it's like a tiny, bootleg black hole."

Iris gasped, but her fearful frown turned to a wide grin. "I-it's a superweapon? That's amazing!" Her grin faded when Almond shook his head.

"No. It won't last long: hours at most." Behind his mask, Almond grimaced and looked at the results their engineers predicted. "And it'll be small. All this Dust, and they expect it to level four blocks. Maybe it'll damage twice that. A magnetic pulse with that much Dust could fry half the electronics in the city. We could fuel the ward for weeks with the Electric Dust alone. The girl is arrogant, but not this stupid." Almond walked back towards his desk, suddenly feeling every second that passed. What was she planning? What would she want to hide from the White Fang?

He stopped at his desk, and the urge to shatter it came flooding back. Almond knew.

"This would be a firecracker in Vale, but it would annihilate Beacon." Where Cinder wanted the majority of his forces. He didn't trust the girl as far as he could throw her. He expected needless sacrifice. But this? Almond's hands shook. He set the documents down before he could tear them to shreds. The splintering crash and sting across his knuckles struck Almond before he realized he'd buried his fist into his desk.

"Call Ilia immediately: she's being reassigned to follow me in the main assault and do not let her make excuses. Not a word to anyone else. Our engineers are smart enough to know that already. Move the majority of our soldiers from Beacon to Vale. Call it a clerical error." He ripped his hand free, and his aura went to work sealing the many cuts left behind on it.

"What few officers left in Beacon are to encircle but not enter the Academy. We'll take the roads. We'll take the skies." He clenched his fist. "Then we'll wait."

And he would take Cinder.


1:45 PM. It was a little over four hours to showtime, and Torchwick couldn't wait. His hands flew along his keyboard, creating and ever-revising what would be his magnum opus. It had been many a year since his exploits would come from the written word, but his voice couldn't be used: a voice message would take too much time. Words flowed freely, yet were altered or discarded just as swiftly. The window of success would be measured in milliseconds, and as such every word—every letter—would count. In fact, Torchwick thought, this was the first time he'd really been in the groove of things since Neo—

Brutish knocking at his office door sent his thoughts crashing into one another. Torchwick scowled.

"Ever since Neo's been gone, you people think you can just waltz on up without an appointment, huh?" he grumbled to himself. "What do you want!" Torchwick shouted.

"We've gotten in contact with that 'Soliel' guy you were looking for. He gave us what you need."

Now that got his mood back! With a grin wide enough to leave his teeth sparkling, Torchwick laughed. "Just for that good news, I'll forgive you interrupting. Come in: hand it over."

His suited goon stepped in, the object of his desire in his hand: a white flash drive and a signal encoder, both just small enough to connect to a Scroll. Torchwick snatched them from his hands and looked them over with a covetous gaze worthy of precious gems. To him, they were: his grand thievery depended on them. After a second, he glanced up to notice his goon was still standing there, brow furrowed in thought.

"Well?" He waved the goon off. "You can go."

"Sure. Sorry, there was just something bothering me." The man turned to leave, yet paused. He sighed. "Hey, boss. Who's 'Elphaba'?"

"Beyond your paygrade, pal, but since you were nice enough to bring this, I'll let you get away with forgetting your place." Torchwick leaned back in his chair and raised the devices to the dingy light above. "She, my loyal minion, is our ticket out of here." And his ticket to revenge, he thought.

"And more importantly," he added, "someone I better not hear a word of outside this office. Neo might not be around right now, but I can make you wish she was. Understood?"

Standing ramrod straight and pale as a sheet, his minion rushed out of the room without another word. Torchwick rolled his eyes and plugged the flash disk into his computer. Not for the first time these past couple weeks, he wished he had better help as he searched through it and brought up just what he needed. A second holographic screen lit up, showing one of the girls that'd been making his criminal life hell: Ice Queen. Of course, she weren't the important part. The camera she was talking to was.

General Compensation's little toy.