The grounds of Beacon Academy were quiet with most people having turned in to have enough rest for the next day of missions. There were exceptions of course, like General Ironwood staring at the city for reasons of his own, Glynda Goodwitch walking over to talk to him, and more recently Blake Belladonna having just jolted awake.
Waking up suddenly feeling like she was being watched wasn't an unusual occurrence, though it had been quite some time since it happened last. Once she had calmed down, she became aware of how tightly someone was holding onto her. With the moonlight streaming into the dorm room she could easily see Weiss twisting a little in her arms with her face scrunched up in discomfort. Blake blinked when she realized what was happening and pulled Weiss closer to her and started rubbing her back gently to soothe her. Weiss stilled and quieted down a little until she groaned and opened her eyes.
"Bad dream?" Blake asked as Weiss blinked rapidly before shaking her head and scooting up to be face to face with Blake.
"Nothing like that. I just… got this really intense feeling of being watched," Weiss said quietly and sighed lightly. "Do you ever feel anything like that?"
"Sometimes, but it hasn't really happened lately though." Blake nearly flinched from how easy the lie came out, though she was more focused on Weiss at the moment. "Are you feeling ok now?"
"Yes, it's gone now. But… I don't know, I still have this feeling like something bad is going to happen, you know?"
"I do, and experience has taught me it's usually right when I get it." Blake shifted to pull Weiss just a bit closer. "The best we can do then is to just be ready for anything. As long as we're prepared, we'll be fine right?" Weiss nodded and gave Blake a quick kiss before pressing her forehead against hers.
"You're right. It's nice knowing that someone feels the same as me." Blake smiled and closed her eyes as Weiss ran a hand up her back and to the top of her head to gently rub her thumb against the back of one of her cat ears. The ear flicked a little at the touch and Blake let out a small sigh while Weiss giggled a little. "I told you they'd understand."
"Yes, you did. I should have known better than to think Ruby and Yang would think lesser of me." Blake gently moved to press her head against Weiss' hand, getting a quiet laugh out of the heiress, and added, "I just wish they weren't so blunt about it."
"What do you mean you already knew!?" Blake shouted while looking between Ruby and Yang. They had returned to their dorm to prepare for their mission tomorrow, and for the random invitation for a night on the town courtesy of Sun, when Blake decided to finally just rip the bandage off about her being a Faunus to her teammates. She had expected a number of reactions, but indifference was not one of them.
"Well yeah, we've known you were a Faunus since… the second day we knew you I think?" Ruby said and scratched her cheek before looking at Yang. "Is that right?"
"Yeah, just about," Yang answered as she dropped the pile of clothes onto Blake's bed before turning to Blake, "I mean, you wear that bow of yours all the time! Even when you sleep. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out."
"We knew a couple Faunus who used the same trick too."
"…My hood was supposed to help with that," Blake said lamely as she rubbed one of her arms.
"Again, not very subtle Blake," Yang said and gestured at herself, "and that's coming from me! I recognize that you're trying Blake, but you really suck when it comes to hiding things about your personal life. Isn't that right Weiss?" Yang looked at Weiss with a large smirk as the Heiress returned her own sharp glare that got a chuckle out of Yang.
"But really Blake," Ruby said as she walked up to Blake and wrapped the taller girl in a hug, "it doesn't matter to us if you're a Faunus. That doesn't change who you are."
"What sis said," Yang added as she moved to throw an arm around Blake and pulled her into a side hug, "We don't care about that kind of thing. Human, Faunus, it's all the same to us." Blake stared at Yang as she gave her a large grin until she felt Weiss hug her arm and lean her head against Blake's shoulder. Having no idea what to do in the face of such acceptance, Blake wrapped her free arm around Ruby and hugged her tightly back.
"Thank you. This really means a lot to me," Blake said and felt her teammates hug her a little tighter.
"It's no trouble, really," Ruby said and looked up at Blake with a radiant smile, "you're our friend you know." Blake returned the smile and tried her hardest not to cry as she gave Ruby a little squeeze. She didn't know how she had gotten so lucky to know as many understanding people as she does now, but she won't be ungrateful for it.
"So does this mean you'll show us your ears now? Weiss said they look really cute~!" Yang said and poked Blake's side.
"YANG!"
Blake quietly laughed at the memory, which naturally Weiss noticed and stopped rubbing the ear. "And just what's so funny?" she asked pouting at her girlfriend.
"It's nothing," Blake said while doing her best to keep her laughter down. She opened her eyes and found that to be a little harder to do at how Weiss was puffing out one of her cheeks in irritation. 'Why does she have to be so cute?' she thought as she kissed Weiss, taking small delight in the squeak of surprise that came from her before she returned it and started rubbing Blake's ear again. They enjoyed the feeling for a moment before Blake pulled away and looked into Weiss' blue eyes with her heart hammering the whole time. "I love you Weiss."
"I love you too," Weiss returned and started leaning in for another kiss.
"Hey, I'm happy you guys are happy," Yang said suddenly as her head peeked over the edge of her bed to look at the couple, her face scrunched in irritation, "but do you have to have your pillow talk now? It's two in the morning." Weiss froze and stared at Blake as she looked up at Yang and gave her an apologetic wave.
"Sorry Yang, we didn't mean to wake you up," Blake said and gave Yang a small smile.
"I don't know how you didn't think that, you're right under my bed," Yang replied and shook her head before climbing back onto her bed. "But whatever, I'm going back to sleep. If you two want to continue, just remember there's other people here too."
"I really want to glyph her right now," Weiss whispered while glaring up at the bottom of Yang's bed.
"It's not worth it," Blake said and moved a hand to gently rub the back of Weiss' neck. "We should get back to sleep too. It's a big day tomorrow for us."
"Yes, that's true." Weiss closed her eyes and snuggled closer to Blake, resting her head just under Blake's chin and smiled. "I'll be ready for tomorrow, especially after tonight. Sun's actually kind of fun." Blake rolled her eyes slightly at that and silently agreed with Weiss as she closed her eyes as well. Her ears flicked a little when Weiss breathily laughed and muttered, "Oh, she hates this." Blake cracked an eye open, but thought twice about commenting and closed it again.
At Team STRQ's camp in Mountain Glenn the fire was going at a low roar to keep the sleeping members of the team warm. Raven was mostly still and barely breathing as she held Omen tightly in her arms, Qrow was having a good dream judging by the way he was rolling around on his bed roll, and Summer was enjoying having Zwei as her personal teddy bear and they were both sleeping comfortable even if she was drooling a little on him. At least until Zwei woke up suddenly, wiggled out of Summer's arms, and accidentally woke her up by slapping her in the face with his tail.
"Gah, wha-?" Summer muttered and swiped an arm at the tail. Her hand brushed against Zwei's tail and she cracked her eyes open to watch the dog look around while turning her arm over to check the time on her watch. She barely managed to see the hour hand through her blurry vision and groaned. "Zwei you doofus, it's five in the morning. Rest your doggy brain and go back to sleep." Summer closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep as the sound of Zwei's footsteps went past her. She hoped that didn't mean what she thought it did, but…
"He just went outside," Taiyang said. Summer sighed and pushed herself up enough to look at Taiyang past her hood. "I can go after him, it's no trouble."
"No, I'm already awake. I might as well do something," Summer said waving a hand as she pushed herself onto her knees. She stretched her arms over her head, letting out a soft groan as her joints let out soft pops, and grabbed York's sheath as she stood up and fixed it to her belt. "Do you have anything caffeinated in your bag?"
"I got coffee. It's canned though."
"I don't care." After quickly digging through Taiyang's bag she found a can of Mistralian Coffee, gave it a quick shake, and pulled the tab as she walked out of the room. "I'll be back in a bit."
"Be careful, I saw Beowolves out there."
"You'll know if I find them."
"Sure Sum." Taiyang gave Summer a wave which she didn't see having been out the door by then. The walk down to the street was slow, half because of the darkness that had to be lit by her scroll's flashlight and half because she wanted to finish all of the coffee before she hit the street. Thankfully the camp had been high enough to accomplish this and to give time for the coffee to start working by the time she saw the door outside.
She put her scroll away and crushed the empty can into a flat disk to toss away, the clattering of the tin against concrete helping to wake her up a little more, and she drew Soleil and switched it to its pistol form as she looked outside for Zwei. She only had to look for a second before she saw him relieving himself next to a fire hydrant, which she had to roll her eyes at.
"Zwei, while I appreciate your politeness," Summer said and holstered Soleil as she walked over to him as he finished his business, "this is a ruined city, no one cares where you go. Hell, there was a broken toilet back in the camp you could have used!" Zwei walked up to her and barked, causing her to shake her head and pick him up. "Oh, I can't stay mad at you."
"Did you hear that?" Summer's eyes widened at the unfamiliar voice and hugged Zwei closely before she Blinked back to the building she had left. The voice came from around the corner, so Summer slowly inched her way to the corner while keeping her back to the wall and a hand around Zwei's mouth. Once she got there she peeked around the corner to see a White Fang grunt with an assault rifle looking around.
'Oh, no fucking way!' Summer thought incredulously as a second grunt joined the first.
"Hear what?" he asked.
"I thought I heard something. It sounded like a Beowolf." The second grunt's exposed ears wiggled a little before he shook his head.
"I don't hear anything. Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This fucking city gives me the creeps." The first grunt nodded and the pair started walking with their rifles held half up in case a Grimm showed up suddenly, both of them unaware of Summer watching them. She let go of Zwei's mouth and held him up in front of her.
"There is no way I just got that lucky, right?" Summer asked the dog and got only a confused head tilt in response. Summer thought for a moment before she nodded and set the dog on the ground and lifted her hood over her head. "Stealth mode, understood?" Zwei shut his mouth and lowered his stance to show he understood, which Summer nodded at before drawing Soleil and going after the grunts.
The two White Fang took their time going through the streets with Summer and Zwei following after them at a decent distance. She had to constantly push down the urge to simply Blink around in case the resulting trail gave her away, even as she started really getting tired of hiding behind buildings and the occasional rubble. Eventually after what felt like forever she peeked around a corner to see them stopped at a metal door and looking around.
She drew back, looked down at Zwei, and pointed at the corner. "Watch them. One bark when they go in," Summer whispered and watched Zwei crawl to the corner and poke his head around it. 'God he's such a good boy! You'll get all the treats when this is done!' Summer thought as she smiled down at the dog and briefly got lost in a fantasy with Zwei and a wheat field. That came to a screeching halt thanks to the echo of a door closing and Zwei letting out a small bark.
"Oh man, I can't believe it!" Summer said looking around the corner at the door, "they just walked in front of me and led me right to their base! What dumbasses!" Summer holstered her pistol and took out her scroll to call her team with a huge grin. "I tell you Zwei, this is a good sign. I think the STRQ curse is finally done for!"
This cheer lasted until she tried calling Raven and was immediately declined due to low signal. "Well so much for that. Typical," Summer muttered and put her scroll away with a sigh, "Well we might as well go get them. It's not that far of a walk after all."
Summer stretched her arms over her head as she walked, though she and Zwei only made it a few feet before there was a sudden and loud crack. She looked down to see the pavement cracking out in a spiderweb pattern around her as it dipped down a little. Summer had a moment to process what was happening and quickly picked up Zwei before the section of road caved in completely. Summer Blinked upwards, drew York, and flipped it around to stab into a slab of pavement. The impact knocked the wind out of her slightly, and she looked up to see the slab she was on was barely hanging on to the rest of the street. She got to her feet, yanked York out of the pavement, and focused on the street above her as she ran and charged up a Blink. She pushed off the slab and jumped just as it broke free and Blinked up onto the more intact street, doing a quick flip as she fell and landed in a crouch. She didn't dare move for fear of causing more of the street to cave in until the crashes were nothing more than echoes.
"Goddammit, I had to open my mouth, huh?" Summer grumbled and set Zwei down before she stood up straight and looked at the newly created hole. She started walking to the edge and shook her head angrily, "Well I was wrong, the STRQ curse is as strong as ever. What am I going to do about that?" She looked over the edge into the hole that was barely being lit by the approaching morning light, highlighting a few shapes along with a few points of light far below.
"The hell is all that? Buildings?" Summer shook her head and rested her sword on the ground to spin idly as she thought. "What am I gonna do? That was loud and no doubt they heard that. Who knows how big this operation is too. They could be packed up and gone by the time I grab the team." She tapped a finger against her sword, clicking her tongue a couple of times, and sighed as she reached what may very well be a very bad decision. She picked up her sword and held it properly before planting it into the pavement and left it standing upright.
"Oh this is such a bad idea," Summer muttered as she sat down and took out a notebook and pen, yet another one of the weird things she learned to always carry with her on missions. 'Thank you for that lesson Winter.' Summer turned to a blank page and quickly wrote out a note before tearing it out and folding it up into a small enough slip. She snapped her fingers and pointed next to her to signal Zwei, which the corgi obeyed, and tugged his collar a little to slip the paper through it and tied it in a simple but tight knot.
"Ok boy, listen carefully," Summer said turning around to face Zwei, "I'm going to go ahead to see what the bad guys are doing. You go back to camp, find the others, and lead them here. Make sure they read the note ok?"
Zwei barked in reply and took off in the direction of the camp, leaving Summer behind as she smiled at him before it dropped and she looked back at the hole. She let out a breath, stood up, and walked to the hole to look down into it. With a small sigh she took a deep breath, focused her Aura into her legs, and jumped into the hole. She felt weightless as she fell until she saw ground coming up at her and she braced herself and landed in a roll. She hissed a little as her Aura worked to assuage the pain in her legs and stood up to see where she ended up. She certainly didn't expect the answer to be on top of another high-rise building in a city.
"What the hell is this? A city underground?" Summer wondered as she walked to the edge of the roof and looked over the small city. 'No wait, I remember Oobleck talking about this once. Something about-' Her thought was interrupted by a crash behind her followed by the sound of guns powering up.
"Freeze!"
"No sudden moves!"
'Well shit,' Summer thought as she grabbed the hems of her cloak and moved it to cover her body as she turned around to the new company. The two White Fang soldiers didn't look like the ones that she had followed here, she definitely would remember someone stupid enough to put their glasses outside of their mask. And from the way they were holding their weapons they seemed pretty fresh to the whole 'combat' thing. 'I'll try the whole dumb thing again, see how that goes,' Summer thought and smiled at the soldiers.
"Whoops! Sorry, I was looking for the bathroom!" she shouted loud enough to mask the sound of her drawing Soleil and transforming it under her cloak. For every step they took toward her she took one back until she was backed up to the edge. "Since it's not here, I'll just be on my way ok?"
"Oh no you don't!" Glasses said forcefully, "You're a long way from home little girl." Summer resisted a twitch in her eye as Glasses gestured at her and looked at his partner. "Grab her, the boss will want to see her."
"Since when were you- you know what, forget it! We'll talk about this later," the partner said as he shook his head and walked up to Summer. She almost tilted her head in amazement when he put his gun away to grab her.
'Wow, talk about green,' Summer thought. She looked between the two men and weighed her options. She could easily get away, but didn't want to alarm the Fang anymore than she already had and a prolonged fight would end the same way. With her options boiling down rapidly Summer sighed internally as she braced herself for her least favorite part of the job.
The soldier reached her and grabbed her left arm and said something that Summer didn't catch. He faltered a little when Summer looked up at him with hard eyes and shot her dagger out to stab him in the throat. She hit her mark dead on without even a flash of Aura to protect him and he let out a gurgle as his throat filled with blood. His grip faltered and Summer tore the dagger out of his throat and jumped onto his shoulders as he fell to his knees to jump toward Glasses. Evidently the idea of Summer actually fighting back hadn't crossed his mind and he was backing up with his gun pointed at the ground, which gave Summer the chance to Blink over to him and land a spinning kick to his face that knocked him down.
He managed to keep his grip on his gun and rolled onto his back to aim at Summer, who Blinked next to him and grabbed his wrist. He whimpered as his arm was twisted around into an awkward angle and Summer kicked his elbow hard enough to make his arm bow the wrong way. Glasses screamed as pain shot through him and passed out a second after.
"Well, that could have gone better," Summer said looking down at the man and then at her blood stained dagger. She knelt down and used his white uniform to clean it off and put it away. She looked back at the other man, now lying face down with blood slowly pooling under his neck, and sighed. "But it could have been worse too. Well, too late now." She looked at the unconscious man and massaged her knuckles before she grabbed his legs. "I got some questions for you."
Taiyang stifled a yawn and checked his watch. "5:30? Eh, close enough. Hey Qrow, it's your turn to watch." Taiyang got off the ledge and stretched his arms over his head. He took a few steps toward the fire and dropped his arms when he saw Summer's empty bed roll. "She's still not back? It's not like Zwei to head that far out."
"What did the idiot do now?" Raven asked as she sat up and put Omen down next to her.
"Zwei ran off and Summer went after him. She should have been back by now though." No sooner had he said that than a bark echoed from the stairs and Zwei ran in the room. He ran around Taiyang's feet a couple times barking wildly and hopped onto his legs. "Hey boy, what's got you all worked up?" Taiyang asked kneeling down to pet Zwei and saw the note on his collar. "Now what's this you got?" Taiyang untied the note from Zwei's collar and unfolded it.
"What's with all the barking?" Qrow asked, rubbing his eyes, "Someone quiet that mutt."
"Holy shit, she found them!" Taiyang said suddenly and stood up.
"She what?" Raven asked.
"Listen to this: I followed a White Fang patrol to their base. I nearly fell into a cave-in that leads somewhere suspicious. I'm going to investigate." Taiyang shook his head and muttered, "Of course she is," before he continued. "I left York at the entrance I used, Zwei knows the way." Taiyang looked at the twins, who looked at each other before standing up and gathering their weapons.
"Might as well get going then," Qrow said as he stowed Harbinger on his waist.
"She's probably in trouble by now," Raven added as she put her mask on. Taiyang nodded, dropped the note, and pointed at the door.
"Let's go Zwei, take us to Summer!" Taiyang shouted and got a bark from Zwei before he ran out of the room with the three teens following. "And someone call Oobleck! He'll need to know this!"
"Already on it!" Qrow shouted having already pulled out his scroll and called Oobleck.
Percy was not having a good day. Maybe it had started alright, but when that girl knocked him out it went out the window. So when he came to with his arm hurting like hell and his arms and legs tied up he wasn't too optimistic it'd get better. He struggled against them for a second before he saw a bit of white in front of him and looked up to see Summer twirling his glasses in one hand and looking through his scroll with the other.
"You're name's Percy, huh? I gotta say it was a really dumb idea joining the White Fang without having your Aura unlocked," Summer said and threw the glasses to the side to look at Percy.
"W-what are-?" Percy started to say only to stop when Summer drew Soleil, transformed it into a gun, and aimed at him.
"Shut up. All you need to worry about is answering my questions. If you don't give me the answers I want, you're going to have a problem. Just ask your friend over here." Summer moved to Percy's side and he followed her until he saw Jack's body, his eyes vacant and dead. Then Summer walked up to him, gave him a quick 'sorry', and kicked his body over the edge of the building before looking back at Percy. "Any more questions?"
"N-no! Please don't hurt me! I-I just wanted-"
"I don't give a fuck about your reasons for joining a terrorist group," Summer interrupted and aimed at Percy again. He flinched and rolled backwards onto his broken arm, yelping a little at the pain, and looked up at Summer as she knelt next to him. "What I do care about is your boss and that you know where they are." She pressed the barrel of Soleil against Percy's head and dug it into his skin with a couple of twists while looking right in his scared eyes. "So where are they?"
"A-at the main base! It's down here, a-at the train station!"
"And where's that?"
"On the other side of town, over there!" Percy tried his best to point with his tied up hands, which Summer followed and saw a well lit area. "See that empty space between the buildings and the cave wall? We're right there. They've had us load all kinds of things onto train cars for the last few weeks, but I don't know why!"
"Really?" Summer pressed her gun against Percy for another second before pulling it away and standing up. "Well I'll be sure to ask your boss why. Thank you Percy." Summer threw Percy's scroll over the ledge of the building and started walking away.
"H-hey, wait a minute! You're not just going to leave me here, are you!?" Percy shouted and tried crawling after Summer, but stopped when she turned around and aimed Soleil at him.
"Don't push your luck! Tied up or not, you're still an enemy, and there's no mercy in a battle. Especially against people who were pointing guns at me not even a few minutes ago." Summer stared at him for a moment before lowering Soleil and shaking her head. "But I like to think I'm a nice girl, and your buddy did have a sword on him." Summer tapped said sword with her boot and picked it up. "So I'll tell you what, if you can cut your bonds before the Grimm find you, you can go. Good luck with that."
Summer turned away and started walking to the door Percy came out of while dragging the sword behind her. Once she got to the door she dropped the sword and left through the door, leaving Percy alone on the rooftop and staring sadly at the sword before he started to slowly crawl, which was made all the harder with his broken arm.
The rest of Team STRQ were running through the deserted streets after Zwei at a fairly reasonable pace, both to give Zwei time to properly lead them and for Qrow to tell Oobleck what happened. "And that's about as much as we know so far. We're heading to this hole now."
Oobleck shook his head in the video feed. "Irresponsible. She really should have come and gotten you all before investigating," he said before he shrugged, which spilled a bit of his coffee onto the desk. "Still I can't fault her for being proactive. We can only hope the results of this are positive."
Qrow rolled his eyes at that and grabbed a half fallen light pole to turn a corner that Zwei went down where they saw York sticking out of the ground a ways ahead in front of a massive hole. Raven picked up her pace and skid to a stop at the hole's edge and looked into it while Taiyang and Qrow stopped next to York.
"That's her sword alright," Taiyang said and pulled the sword out of the pavement and knelt down to pet Zwei. "That's a good boy."
"That's a deep hole," Raven commented shaking her head, "and Summer probably just jumped in without thinking."
"Let me see," Oobleck said and waited for Qrow to move to the hole and peer the camera into it. The sun was beginning to show enough that the inside was lit enough to show the buildings in more detail. "Are those…? Oh wait, of course! How could I forget! I'M SO STUPID!"
"While I won't deny that," Raven snarked and looked at Qrow's scroll to see only a spinning chair in Oobleck's video, "would you mind explaining how?"
"Mountain Glenn was a massive city! Large in scope and home to thousands of people!" Qrow opened the video into a hologram above his scroll just as Oobleck grabbed whatever camera he was using and zoomed over to a wall full of blueprints and diagrams, showing each one for a split second before moving to the next. "Working people, all in the service of Vale! To build a city of that size they needed transport routes safe from the Grimm, so they utilized the cave systems in the southeast quadrant to build a massive subway system between both cities! When Grimm attacks increased, they got desperate and utilized the same systems that brought them there in the first place!"
"So they hid in caves?" Taiyang asked.
"And built a whole second city away from the surface," Raven finished and shook her head, "that's commendable, but since it's as dead as the one up here it ended just as badly I guess."
"Unfortunately," Oobleck said and moved back to this desk and set the camera down, "one day an explosion opened a tunnel into a cavern that turned out to be a nest for subterranean Grimm. Once that happened, the Kingdom sealed off the tunnels and created the world's largest tomb."
"And now Summer's down there with our enemies," Raven said with a sigh and backed up a few steps before running and jumping into the hole. "Can't ever make this easy!"
"And we're not looking for a safe way down, of course," Taiyang said and picked up Zwei, "Oh well, let's go boy!" Zwei let out a bark as Taiyang ran and jumped into the hole after Raven.
"Well, we already made up our minds," Qrow said with a shake of his head, "We'll probably be out of contact for a while. We'll call back when we can."
"I'll inform Ozpin about this development. Good luck and stay safe." Qrow nodded and put his scroll away before following after his team. Once he was past the hole's opening he transformed to fly down to where Raven and Taiyang had landed. On his way down Qrow had a good look at the underground city of Mountain Glenn and sighed at its scale just as he landed on Taiyang's shoulder.
"This city's big," he said and fluttered his wings a little, "and Summer could be anywhere."
"You could fly and try to find her," Taiyang suggested.
"Or we could just cut to the source of the matter," Raven said and pointed at a tied up White Fang soldier who looked back at them with wide, fearful eyes and tried to desperately shuffle to a sword a few feet away. Raven walked over to him while he was whispering obscenities, grabbed his legs, and dragged him closer and turned him around to grab his shirt collar while he screamed in fear. "Did a girl in a white cloak pass through here? Give me an answer or I swear to fuck-"
"She went to the train station! It's on the other side of the city near the cave wall!" he shouted and pointed with his feet in the right direction.
"The place lit up like a holiday tree?" Taiyang asked as he set Zwei down.
"That's the place! Look, that girl broke my arm and killed one of my friends when I found her! I just want to go home ok!?"
"I fail to see how that's my problem," Raven replied and dropped him roughly before standing up straight and pointing at the boys. "Qrow, take to the skies and try to find that idiot! We'll follow on the ground!" Qrow cawed and took off while Taiyang flipped York into a reverse hold and picked up one of the fallen rifles.
"No time like the present," he said and ran to the door on the rooftop and went through it. Zwei trotted up to Raven as she started following.
"H-hey, can you cut me free?" the soldier said hopefully and smiled nervously as Raven looked at him, her white mask showing no emotion. She made no noise as she looked from him to the sword he had been crawling toward and walked to it, picked it up, and threw it off the roof.
"Eat shit," she said and ran to the door with Zwei after her, shutting it behind her once the dog was through and leaving Percy on the roof staring at the door in horror.
'That's a lot of soldiers,' Summer thought as she reached the train yard Percy talked about. Just as he had said it certainly seemed to be a staging ground for something big, judging from the many people loading crates onto several train cars, the gun ranges, and the Paladins moving some of the heavier crates. How they had gotten those there without anyone noticing was beyond Summer. She rubbed her chin in thought while she looked over the whole yard before settling on one of the bigger groups of soldiers near a tunnel opening.
"Ok, the leader of this whole thing would probably be somewhere around a lot of people, and that's as good a place as any." She looked down at Soleil and ejected the magazine to check the ammo and nodded as she put it back. "Well, good or ill, let's get to the bottom of this."
Summer dropped off the building she was on and landed as quietly as she could before darting behind some rubble. After checking to make sure she hadn't been seen, she waited for an opening while gripping Soleil tightly. Once she saw it she bolted from her cover and ran to the train, charging up and Blinking on top of the train once she got close enough. After waiting a moment to see if anyone saw her trail she ran along the top in a crouch, getting a better look at what was going on along with overhearing bits and pieces of conversation.
"Make sure those grenades are packed tight! We don't want one going off with all this Dust around!"
"Hey! Don't just drop this! You want to blow us to the Moon!?"
"Hey, what happened to that chick in the suit?"
"Dude, after she stabbed Denson, I don't care. She can do whatever she wants." Summer rolled her eyes at that and stopped at the end of the cars to look at the one being worked on in the tunnel.
'Not exactly the tightly organized group they present themselves as,' Summer thought and looked over the yard in front of her. 'Still, there should be more people given the size of that rally the other week. Is there something else going on I don't know about? What exactly am I missing?'
The answer to that general question came when she felt something press down on her shoulder. Startled, she looked over in time to see the top of a pink parasol tapping her shoulder. "Ah crap," Summer muttered and looked back to see the Ice Cream Girl smirking down at her. She shook a finger at Summer and held out a hand while pressing a switch on the parasol, which caused a blade to shoot out of the other end. Summer sighed, ejected the magazine from Soleil, and pulled back the slide to leave it completely empty before holding it up.
"Just so you know," Summer said as she put the magazine away and looked back at Neo as she took the gun, "I'm going to want that back." Neo gave a wicked grin, lifted a leg, and kicked Summer in the back and off the car to crash into a wooden crate. Some nearby soldiers jumped at the sudden noise and looked at a groaning Summer and Neo when she jumped off the top of the car with a flip and landed in front of her.
"Oh, that's where she went," one of the soldiers said, which Summer growled at and looked up at Neo. "Uh, who is that?" he asked and got a glare from Neo that made him back up with his hands up, "You know what, never mind, you can take care of it." Neo rolled her eyes and looked back at Summer, tapped her leg with her parasol, and pointed to the train cars in the tunnel.
'Convenient, since I wanted to go there anyway,' Summer thought and picked herself up before she got shoved forward by a parasol on her neck. "Ok, I get it! Stupid Ice Cream," Summer said once she found her balance after the stumble and let Neo prod her along with her parasol while making sure to keep her hands up and visible. As she was being led Summer looked around to see what else was going on other than people moving cargo, though she didn't get to see much before she reached a train car and was yanked to a stop by Neo hooking her parasol around her neck.
Summer looked back at Neo, who held a finger to her lips, and walked to the side of the car. She flipped her parasol around and banged the end of it roughly against the side three times, the echoes of the banging being drowned out by a groan of anger from inside followed by someone shouting, "I wouldn't do that Neo, it's a rough day all around!" Neo looked at Summer, who silently shrugged at her, and Neo gripped her parasol tightly and wailed on the car with it. Summer took a step away from the pint sized girl and watched her go until the now familiar voice shouted, "Ok, I'm coming! Seriously Neo, what is the big-"
The car door opened and none other than Roman Torchwick leaned outside and stared wide eyed at Summer, who gave him a small wave as he reached a hand up to hold his cigar and took a long drag before he threw away. "Well, that's bad news." Torchwick hopped out of the car with his cane spinning in his other hand and walked to Summer glaring at him. "I would like to say I'm surprised you found me again, Squirt, but that wouldn't exactly be true."
"Glad I left the impression, but I'm not exactly thrilled to run into you again," Summer said, crossing her arms, "So you're up to your old tricks again?"
"Of course! Though I'm more curious about what you are doing here." Roman looked at Neo as she tucked her parasol and Summer's gun under her arm and quickly signed out an explanation for Roman. "Sneaking around by yourself huh? And what were you planning on doing exactly?"
"Honestly I don't think I have to do anything with the help you have here," Summer said and looked behind her at a White Fang soldier carrying a case of Dust crystals. She looked over at them and tripped on the train track, though thankfully for everyone around her she got her footing back quickly. Summer looked back at Roman and smiled a little at his annoyed expression. "Case in point, though it doesn't look like you're doing much either."
"And what makes you say that?" Roman asked leaning forward on his cane.
"Women's intuition. I like your mascara by the way."
"Oh ho ho HO, we're going that route today huh?" Roman said with his eyes wide and shrunk irises. He laughed for a moment before he swung his cane and hit Summer right on the chin. As she reeled from the hit Roman readied the cane like a baseball bat and swung again and hit the side of her head, sending her spinning to the ground with her Aura flashing as it repaired the damage from the attacks. "Oh, real funny Squirt! I bet you're laughing now!"
Neo certainly was which Roman saw when he looked to see her doubled over in quiet laughter.
"Shut up Neo!"
"Yeah, I'm laughing real loud," Summer said and spat out a small bit of blood and pushed herself up to her knees and glared at Roman, "but not at my joke. Incompetent men tend to follow incompetent leaders, after all."
"Oh, now you're just trying to piss me off. And you know what, it's working!" Neo stopped laughing as Roman reared back his cane for another hit, only for Summer to raise her arm and block it with a ripple of Aura on her arm. Roman barely had time to realize what happened before Summer grabbed the cane and Blinked forward, using the cane to flip Roman onto his back before ripping the cane from his hand. He tried getting up when he heard a 'pop' and felt the business end of Melodic Cudgel press against the side of his head.
"Good, because angry people make mistakes," Summer said and pressed it harder when Neo looked ready to run at her. "Back off mutt! I can survive the blast, but I doubt he will!" Neo blinked and then looked very angry, teeth clenched and all, and started to pull the blade out of her parasol with shaking hands.
"Easy Neo!" Roman called holding a hand up to stop Neo, "I still have this under control."
"Big talk for someone stuck on his back. It'd be impressive if it weren't you." Summer looked at a squad of armed soldiers rushing over to her and twisted the cane against Roman's head. "You keep your distance too! I'm not afraid of blowing you all the fuck up for testing me!"
"Now there's no need for that!" Roman shouted and looked at the soldiers sternly, "I'm sure no one wants to die today. Not even you Squirt." The soldiers stopped but still kept their weapons leveled at Summer while Roman glared at the door of the car he had come out of. 'Why the hell isn't it coming!?'
"You're right for once," Summer said looking back down to Roman. She stomped hard on Roman's right hand to get his attention. "So why don't you keep that up and answer my questions honestly. What kind of operation are you running that needs so much Dust, and where did you get all the robots? I CAN STILL SEE YOU MOVING YOU FUCKS!"
Roman had to hold in a chuckle at the outburst while his eyes met Neo's. She relaxed a little and raised an eyebrow at him as he jerked his eyes to the door of the train car several times. Neo looked at it for a moment and then back at Roman with wide, nervous eyes. Roman blinked his eyes twice to show he was serious and Neo pursed her lips and nodded as she slowly started backing up.
"Where do you think I got them Squirt?" Roman said turning his head to look up at Summer through his hair, "I'm a thief! I stole them, it's what I do!"
"Prototype mechs from Atlas? I'd love to know how you got your hands on those."
"Oh I'm sure you do, but there's something even more important you should know about Squirt." Roman pointed up at Summer, not caring of how her finger twitched on Melodic Cudgel's trigger. "You see, you made a mistake earlier." He then lowered his hand onto his chest and smirked up at her, "This isn't my operation. I just make sure it runs smoothly."
"Sounds like you're in charge to me, but fine. If there's someone higher up the chain, I'll gladly talk to them."
"I don't think you'd want that. After all, you seemed to crap yourself the last time you saw one of them."
"…Them?" Loud banging filled the area and Summer looked at Neo bashing her parasol against the side of the train car wildly with a look of manic fear. From inside came another growl that sent a shiver down Summer's spine and she looked down at Roman and dug her foot harder into his hand. "What do you mean 'Them'!?"
"You tell me squirt, you're the one who seems to know all about them."
The growling grew louder.
"Who are you talking about!?" Summer yelled and was one twitch away from just ending the discussion and pulling the trigger when-
"SHUT UP WITH THE NOISE!" Summer flinched and so did everyone else as a woman's voice tore through the air, harsh and angry. Neo stumbled away from the car with her hands covering her ears and Summer lifted the cane a little and backed off Roman a little. "FIRST THE DOLL WON'T STOP GIVING ME A HEADACHE, THEN THE BANGING, NOW THE SHOUTING! WHY CAN'T ANYONE BE QUIET!?" A loud stomping could be heard inside going to the door and a hand wearing a black gauntlet with long red claws grasped the side of the door. "What's even going on out-" the owner of the voice stopped when she looked outside and stared at Summer, who stared back with her eyes wide with fear.
The woman's skin was bone white and, save for the horn coming out of the middle of her forehead, otherwise flawless. She wore a black combat dress that splayed out at the skirt with bits of a red underskirt showing through. Her shoulders had gray metal pauldrons with red spikes to match her gauntlets and a pair of high heeled boots that seemed to have fused with her legs. Her long white hair was held up in a high ponytail with several decorative braids running to and around its base. Lastly her face was framed by a metal jaw guard that ran along her jawline up to her eyes, which were a deep black with red sclera.
It took Summer a few seconds to take all of this in, no doubt the woman doing the same to her, and they each had one thing to say.
"Oh," was what the newly revealed General of Grimm said.
"SHIT!" was Summer's response before raising Melodic Cudgel at the General and firing it. The General's eyes narrowed just as the shot hit her and detonated, though Summer didn't get a chance to celebrate that for long. In her hyper focused state she wasn't aware that she had backed away from the General right next to Roman's legs, which he took as an opportunity to kick Summer's legs out from under her. She fell with a scream and let go of the cane, which Roman grabbed as he pushed himself up, and started to get to her feet when someone kicked her side. She fell on her back coughing and looked up to see a reptilian White Fang soldier aiming a rifle at her with his teeth clenched.
His finger moved to the trigger and time slowed to a crawl for Summer until an icicle embedded itself into his chest. He let out a surprised scream while Summer herself yelped in fear and crawled backwards away from him. The soldier dropped his gun and grabbed at the icicle when two more shot out to hit the other side of his chest and lower left abdomen and a final one lodged itself into his throat. He flew from the force of the impact and lay bleeding out and letting out gurgles while uselessly grabbing at the icicles until he stilled.
"I think we should all calm down!" Summer looked back at the train car to see the General standing unscathed as the smoke from the shot dissipated, her arm outstretched with a red glyph spinning in front of it. "That is, unless you all want to end up like him!"
'Glyphs?' Summer thought as she took in the familiar looking glyph, 'How the hell is she doing that!? Only Schnees could…' Summer thought as the General jumped out of the car and looked around the area, the glyph still pointed at the man on the ground. Summer shook her head and started taking deep breaths, 'No, that's probably just something Salem gave her. I have to calm down and… hold out for the others. Somehow.'
"Now are we all calm?" The General asked while looking around, leveling a glare at the remaining White Fang soldiers who either lowered their guns or dropped them outright before holding their hands up in the air. She then looked at Roman, who was leaning against his cane with his legs crossed a little as if nothing had happened while Neo hid behind Roman to get out of sight of the Grimm.
"Hey, I'm cool as a cucumber!" Roman said with an easygoing grin and a shrug, "But I think I'm going to have to get my coat dry cleaned again."
"I weep salty tears for your plight," The General said and clenched her hand, causing the glyph to disappear, and looked at Summer. "With that settled, let's move on to bigger matters." She advanced on Summer, who could only try and scramble away backwards from the Grimm, until she held a hand out and flicked two fingers up. Summer felt a tightness around her wrists just as they shot up and lifted her off the ground and into the air with her feet dangling just a few inches off the ground. She looked up to see her hands bound by two red glyphs that flickered and fused into a bigger one and looked at the General who had her hand clenched into a fist before she put it down and walked up to her.
"So… this is the White Cloaked Huntress my sisters have been so enthralled with lately?" she asked, her voice filled with curiosity. She crossed her arms and leaned in toward Summer, who tried her best to keep her face stoic in spite of the fear building in her. "No offense, but I fail to see how you are anything special. Unless…" The General squinted her eyes and stared into Summer's for a moment before closing them and shaking her head. Summer couldn't help but feel an odd sense of déjà vu looking at the General. "No, that's not possible. They would have…"
"What, you can't believe the same girl came to fuck your group up again?" Summer said, keeping herself from looking away from the Grimm as she opened her eyes. "Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled with having to deal with you again."
"I know. I can feel the fear coming off you," she replied and reached a hand out to drag a claw down Summer's cheek and smiled as she flinched away from it. "You know who I am, don't you? I want to hear you say it!"
"You're a General of Grimm," Summer said and jerked her head away from the claw, "and since you're not dead or look like the ones I do know about, you must be the Moon General."
"Correct, even if that's just what Ozpin calls me," Moon said pulling her hand back and up to her mouth to let out a soft giggle, "I have to say, he must be desperate if he's trusting children like you so much."
"Or maybe he just feels you're not worth the best he could send? Hierophant fell pretty easily in hindsight." Summer glanced over at Roman and Neo having their own silent conversation before looking back at the main problem.
"Is that what you think? I wouldn't discount us so easily," Moon said and crossed her arms, "Survival is what matters, even in the world of Grimm, and that's something my sisters and I excel at."
"Uh, yeah, excuse me," Roman said holding a finger up as Moon turned to look at him, "I feel like we're missing some context here. I figured the Squirt was a student or something, so wouldn't she already work for the old man?" Neo nodded behind him while Moon gave another laugh and looked at him.
"Oh Roman, of course you wouldn't know. Ozpin has far more power than he gives off, but not enough to be invincible." Moon turned back to Summer with a serious expression and started running two of her claws along her chin guard. "I know Ozpin more than you do Huntress, and I know he wouldn't think of sending out agents like this unless he was sure you'd find something. And he definitely wouldn't send you alone." A caw echoed out from above them and Moon looked up to see a crow circling above them before flying away into the city. Moon narrowed her eyes at the bird and looked back down at Summer, who was also looking up with a smile, and growled as she grabbed Summer's chin and forced her to look at her.
"He found us out! You came here knowing you'd be followed!" Moon's accusation only got her a bigger smile.
"Sort of. I didn't expect you to be here, but I knew my team would come for me," Summer said as a distant explosion echoed through the train yard and those who could looked in the direction it came from. In the distance a squad of soldiers ran out of a street, occasionally stopping to fire behind them.
"Oh come one! What are you doing!?" Roman shouted at them with his arms wide open as they started retreating from the street again, "They're just teenagers, you idiots!"
"Never underestimate an enemy Roman, especially ones who were able to beat one of my sisters," Moon said as she let go of Summer and looked at Roman, which left Summer with a chance that she took immediately by tucking her legs in and started to swing a little. "We need to stop them before they—" Moon was cut off when Summer built enough of a swing to kick her face with both of her feet and send her staggering from the unexpected hit.
With her focus broken the glyph keeping Summer's arms bound broke away and left her falling for a split second before she looked at Roman and Blinked above him. Roman barely had time to see her before she twisted her body around and landed an axe kick on the top of his head, which pushed his hat down over his eyes before sending him crashing to the ground face first. Summer landed and grabbed Roman's cane before he settled on the ground, tore it from his hand, and fired a shot at Neo. While she was able to dodge out of the way of the shot itself, it still exploded near her feet and sent her flying. More importantly to Summer, she let go of Soleil in her tumble, and she Blinked up to snatch it out of the air.
"Told you I'd get it back," Summer called out to Neo when she landed followed almost immediately by a bullet whizzing past her head. She whirled around and fired another shot at the squad blocking her way, the shot landing at their feet and sending them flying from the blast. She dropped the cane and started running past the fallen soldiers as they rolled and started to pick themselves up.
"Goddammit!" Roman shouted as he pushed himself to his knees and took his hat off his eyes. He grabbed his cane, stood up, and aimed at Summer and shouted, "Will one of you idiots kill her already!?" He, along with a few White Fang soldiers that had managed to stand up, fired at Summer as she ran. She Blinked to her right when she saw the first of Roman's shots whiz past her, spun around with her feet dragging along the ground as she pulled out a magazine and reloaded Soleil. She then Blinked to again into a side flip and fired back at them, focused on them intently as shot and bullets whizzed past her, and landed on her feet and spun around to continue running.
Most of her shots missed, but did their job of deterring the soldiers from firing or pursuing any further, though one soldier caught a bullet to the shoulder and fell with a scream. Roman felt one graze his cheek causing him to reel and hold a hand to it and growl angrily when he pulled it back to see blood on his glove.
"That fucking brat!" Roman shouted and clenched his fist as he glared at the white cloak far away. He started stomping towards her while angrily muttering "When I get my hands on her!" when a large red glyph appeared in front of him that he ran into.
"Enough!" Moon shouted and glared at Roman when he looked back at her holding his nose. She lowered her outstretched arm and shook her head lightly. "We won't be able to recapture her now that she's free and we can't guarantee that her team hasn't reported to Ozpin about us." She started walking to the train in the tunnel and added, "Secrecy is no longer an option."
"Heh, fine with me," Roman said and took a moment to bleed some stress out by bending his cane until he felt relatively calm enough to point at a nearby soldier. "Get that car attached and get everybody on board! We're leaving."
"What? But we're not done-" the soldier started to say only to be cut off by a glyph appearing around his neck and choked him as he was lifted off the ground.
"You will do this," Moon said coldly and turned her head to stare at him out of the corner of her eye, "and anyone not on board when we leave will be left behind. Understood?" The soldier did his best to nod around the glyph and gasped when he was released from it. Moon continued on her way while Roman lifted the soldier's chin up with his cane to look into his mask.
"And barring that, I'll finish you off if you don't." Roman took his cane away and waved it in the air at Neo, who was brushing off her clothes after her close call. "Come on Neo! We got bigger fish to fry!" The girl nodded and jogged over to him before disappearing in a shattering of glass while Roman followed Moon to the train.
Summer, meanwhile, was nearing the end of her mad dash and smiled when she saw a small speck of red and black come out of the side street. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a squad of soldiers run in front of her, the one in lead with a set of boar tusks shouted "Stop her!", and stopped to aim at her as another caw echoed nearby. Summer smirked and lowered her stance just as Qrow dropped from above and slammed the flat of his sword against the leader's head. He crashed to the ground and the four surrounding soldiers flinched away from Qrow who dashed to one side while Summer took the other two.
They barely had time to realize they were under attack before Qrow took down his two with a quick slash across the chest and a roundhouse kick while Summer dealt with hers via a Blink enhanced knee to one of their faces. Once she landed in a crouch she shot the other soldier in the leg, swept her legs out from under her, and knocked her out with a punch across the jaw. Once they were dealt with Summer let out a breath and turned her head to smile at Qrow as he smirked back with Harbinger slung over his shoulder. A portal opened next to him with a familiar whoosh and Taiyang and Raven jumped out, the former looking around with a rifle.
"What, no party? We just got here!" Taiyang shouted and held his arms out while Zwei hopped off his shoulders and trotted over to Summer. He shook his head at the distant figures of retreating White Fang and threw the rifle away, "Figures. All the good parties are over by the time we get there."
"Don't worry, I think this one's just getting started," Summer said as she gave Zwei a quick pet and stood up as the team gathered around her.
"Why do you always jump into trouble like this?" Raven asked while Taiyang took York out of his belt and gave it back to Summer, "That's going to get you killed one of these days."
"Not today, I knew you guys would come for me. But things are a lot worse than I thought."
"No kidding!" Qrow said, swinging Harbinger down and pointing it at the train while Summer reloaded Soleil, "I only got a glimpse from the air, but… was that what I thought it was!?"
"Yup, that's why it's worse," Summer answered grimly as she put away York and Soleil, "the Moon General is here."
"Uh oh," Taiyang said, his eyes suddenly wide.
"That's three now," Raven added, her grip on Omen tightening, "what the fuck is going on for them to hang around like this?"
"I wish I knew, but whatever it is it's big enough to attract a small army. That train is packed full of Dust, weapons, robots, and plenty of people willing to use them."
"Where are they going to go with a train, this whole city is cut off from the rest of the Kingdom!" Taiyang shouted only to be cut off by the feedback from the intercom coming on.
"Everyone get on board, we are leaving! You snooze, you lose!" Torchwick's voice echoed through the yard.
"Well they're planning to go somewhere. I don't like this, we may need backup again." Summer pulled out her scroll, Taiyang doing the same, and quickly tried to call Coco, only for 'No signal' to appear on screen. "Of course. Well, hopefully the fact I tried should tell her something."
"Yeah, we had spotty coverage up top, so of course it'd be shit down here too," Taiyang said putting his scroll away, "but it was still worth a shot."
"They're leaving," Raven said and jerked her head to the train as it started pulling away. Summer looked at her team one by one and nodded to each of them. They returned it as she started walking to the train.
"Not without us. Who wants to derail a train?" Summer asked looking back at her team.
"Sure thing, we can cross that off the bucket list early," Taiyang said and picked up Zwei, who gave an affirmative bark.
"And we can take down another General in the process," Raven said and gripped Omen just a little tighter. "I got some questions for the bitch."
"You and me both Sis," Qrow added.
