Menacing chapter title, spoooooky. This chapter was an interesting one to finally get to writing from the 'story idea board' that I have, but alas, here we are.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 62: In The Crocodile's Jaws

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.(Chapter Start)

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October 18th

Friday

Clear

"It's been a while since you've been here for such a reason." Summer's voice washes over his mind calmingly, her amused tone curving his lips into a smile. "Our biggest problem then was just your inability to control my semblance."

"Yeah…" Azura mentally says in response, standing in front of the door to team RWBY's dorm. "That's a crazy thought to think about."

He wasn't quite sure what made him so oddly nervous to knock on the door. Did last night's talk with her make him feel awkward to face her again?

"Won't get anywhere if you don't knock, Azura."

"Yeah, yeah…I get it." He mutters in reply, raising a hand and gently tapping his knuckles on it three times over after shifting his school uniform top around. "Weiss?"

"Mm."

The muffled words could be heard beyond the door, opening up to reveal the heiress in her own school uniform and with a hair tie in her mouth. She gave him a simple nod and gestured for him to enter, which he did, hearing the door close behind him before Weiss stepped past once again and entered their bathroom. No word was spoken between them for several moments, the only noise coming from the sounds of someone tying their hair back into a certain signature side ponytail.

"Sorry about that, I had just taken a shower." She says, exiting from the bathroom and flicking her hair back. "The other three went to watch the evening and early night fights in the tourney. Something about weapons and fight styles, I think Blake just happened to get dragged along by Yang."

Azura chuckles. "Sounds like those two sisters."

"Not that you have much room to talk. Summer or not, you might as well be a combination of the two." Weiss retorts jokingly. "You'll make my hair gray with worry, all four of you."

"You sound like Pyrrha now."

"Someone has to discourage reckless behavior."

"I'd argue you encourage it more than not."

"Azura! You take back such words."

He smiles. "Make me."

"You insufferable boy." Weiss says back, fighting a small smile on her face.

He laughs quietly, joined by her a moment later. If nothing else, Azura could break the ice.

"With that out of the way, sit down somewhere that isn't the floor. I expect my glyphs to be in some poor disrepair, so I'd get comfortable. We'll be here for a while."

Azura chose one of the beds on the ground floor to sit on, closest to the door, then tugged gently on the top side of his clothing. He paused, looking at Weiss as she stood there, watching him, then smirked with one hand ready to start taking the clothing off.

"Are you going to watch me strip down, Weiss?"

"Don't say it like that!"

Despite that, she quickly turned away. He chuckled to himself, then slid his jacket off and unbuttoned the other layers to expose all but two of the placed glyphs.

"Hey, I'm just trying to make this less awkward. It's been a while since a girl saw me shirtless, you know." He says, laughing this time. "Summer doesn't count."

"We don't talk about that side of it."

"So you try and make it embarrassing." Weiss retorts, turning on her heel to face him with a pointed finger from her outstretched arm. "You're the worst."

He shrugs. "I try my best."

Their banter slowed to a halt when Weiss approached him to inspect the glyphs, but quickly came back up when she hesitated to put her fingers directly against his skin.

"Not a word." She warns, warding off any sly comments he might make.

"Yes, ma'am."

She glared at him, then rolled her eyes and moved forward with her action.

"Definitely in better shape than expected. Roughed up from constant uptime, but you haven't used Summer's semblance very often in recent weeks, then?"

He nods, watching Luna as he speaks. "Hasn't been exactly dangerous yet."

"Hm." Weiss hums in reply, her aura shimmering slightly. "Just need to do a simple repair job, then. I get to test something new as well, if you wish to be my experiment."

"Go for it."

She raises one eyebrow, continuing on giving some of her aura to the 'battery' glyph. "You agreed to that fast."

"Just as I said last night," Azura begins, still watching Luna float right beside the window. "I trust you to not harm me."

"Your words were feeling safe around me."

"Same difference."

"Maybe to you."

"Anyways," He says, pushing the conversation along. "What's this experiment you want to do?"

"Oh, right. It's a two-fold experiment." She starts to explain, flicking her hair aside with a shake of her head as her fingers danced along the glyph. "For one, I want to see if the prolonged exposure to my aura actually did anything beyond just ebb and flow with your own aura use."

"Like how Summer's aura signature could be found on me if looked for?"

"Kind of, yes. I would be able to tag my aura signature onto yours as a sort of tracker if the experiment proves my theory correct."

"To track my movement?"

"Again, kind of. Think of it like reading your own aura. I would be able to track my aura signature by using my own aura."

"That sounds…very useful. Why hasn't this been explored further by others like you?"

"Probably because you can't exactly just leave your aura on anything. No one with it would ever get lost or go MIA otherwise." Weiss explains calmly, her aura shimmering as she repaired and charged the main glyph. "Prolonged exposure to a different aura, though…realistically, if these glyphs remained on you for a decade or more, my aura would mix into yours completely. At least, that's the idea. Not many cases like this exist and aura is such a complicated and convoluted mechanism within our very beings."

"I guess that makes sense. I find it very fascinating."

"Don't say that around me. I'd talk your ear off about aura otherwise. Left arm, please."

Her hand drops from his chest as he extends the arm out to her.

"I don't think I'd mind that, if it was you. I don't see you get excited about much. Well, outwardly so." He says. "Besides, aura is just a very interesting thing about us. Ever since Summer and I became whatever we are, it's just been on my mind often."

"You aren't the only one. You are quite the enigma, Azura Heart."

"Is that a compliment?"

"It is if you want it to be."

"Then I just got complimented by the one and only Weiss Schnee. I feel quite blessed now."

"Don't let it get to your head." Weiss replies flatly before sighing exaggeratedly. "One compliment and a dance is all it takes…"

"Yeah, yeah. It's certainly better than begrudgingly praising people, though." Azura says, smiling briefly. "Anyway, were you able to tag your aura at all? You were talking about some experiment and theory."

"Ah, right. Give me your other arm, then. If everything worked out perfectly, I should be able to trace and then triangulate my own aura signature, otherwise known as the battery glyph you have. But it's more about knowing it is there than actually finding it."

"Not to make myself sound dumb…but it sounds like you're using more complex words just to make it sound cooler."

The heiress pauses in her motions, inhaling sharply before laughing airily with a shake of her head. Azura simply watched her silently, which caused her to laugh slightly harder.

"What's so funny?"

Weiss shakes her head again, releasing her final laughs before she tries speaking. "Sorry, it's just…that is exactly what I am doing. I'm used to speaking that way, even with the simplest things." She resumes what she was doing, continuing to speak. "Plus, it does make me sound smart, right?"

"I think Yang would say it makes you sound more cute, since it's just your way of speaking more than anything."

"She would not." Weiss said back, refusing the very notion. "What would you call it, then? Hm?"

"I wouldn't call it anything, I'd be agreeing with her."

"Oh, shut up." She instantly replies back, rolling her eyes. "Except I do actually mean it as well as, I need to focus and find it now."

Azura does as he was told, catching a hint of what smelt like an aroma of flowers from Weiss' proximity to him. It reminded him of home, admittedly.

"Don't forget that you said we'd go and visit. I'll be reminding you quite frequently, you know."

"Never would have guessed." Azura quipped back mentally. "I haven't forgotten about it yet, Summer."

"Good. Let's keep it that w-"

"So it did work that way! How fascinating…"

"You found it?"

"Yes!" She answered excitedly, an emotion Azura found quite new on Weiss. "It's almost like looking into a mirror, in a way. To see your own aura…and to see it on another person, at that."

"So, the experiment was a success, then. And you also repaired the glyphs."

"There's still another thing I want to see. I did say this was a two part experiment."

Azura nods in acknowledgement. "Right, right. What's the other part, then?"

"Can you…activate glyphs?"

He blinks, having to take a moment to realize what she was asking him to try and attempt.

"You're asking me if I can use your semblance?"

"Well, the possibility surely has to be there." Weiss said with a shrug. "Give me your hand."

Azura did as he was told, giving one of his hands to Weiss and letting her take it into her own. From there, she turned it back onto him and placed it against the central battery glyph and played with his fingers to put them into specific spots on the glyph that he recalled being the way she did to adjust how tight of a hold they held over Summer's semblance speed cap.

"We'll try to have you adjust the tightness, so to say, of the glyphs on Summer. Do you feel anything yet?"

"No."

"Hm…close your eyes and focus purely on the glyph below your fingertips. It will feel like sparks connecting to you, if you can."

He did as he was told once again, closing his eyes and attempting to do anything at all to feel some sort of power to the glyphs. He gave up some moments later, keeping his eyes closed, but giving some slack to how much pressure he was placing on the glyph on his chest.

"Do you feel anything?"

"Only you."

"Which means this part of my theory was wrong." Weiss mutters, sighing and slowly lowering his hand within hers before releasing it entirely.

Azura opens his eyes, giving a small smile as he turns it into a joke. "Well, I must say, it's probably better this way. I can't even imagine attempting to control this as a semblance."

She rolls her eyes. "I think you would have done well. If nothing else, you have a knack for knowing how to use things that you would have never used before."

"It's mostly Summer, I'd say."

"I mean it, even with that. You react to new things with a very unique perspective and you are quite quick on the uptake of those new things."

"Maybe you're right." He says, scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed blush.

"Just take the compliments, you idiot."

He laughs. "Right. Thanks, Weiss."

"Mhm." She hums in response, speaking a moment later. "Your glyphs have been adjusted to let you be a little faster than before. We should only need to do this a few more times, but don't quote me on that. I have to do it in super small increments from here on out, now that you're reaching the speed Ruby does, and Summer can go even faster than her."

"Makes sense to me. So, I guess I can put my shirt back on?"

A Scroll buzzing from his pocket interrupted the moment, and Azura had a feeling who it was, since he only had his personal Scroll on him at the moment. He didn't want to open it in front of Weiss, knowing how she felt about his escapades in the city.

"Why do you look so apprehensive about a Scroll message? Aren't you going to open it?"

"Yeah…"

He took the Scroll out, then slid it open to see who the message was from and what the contents of said message was.

As expected, it was from Croc. Luckily for him, the Scroll number was still unnamed, but more unluckily, there was no hiding the message easily from someone being so close.

"We're going tonight. Meet me at home first, and go soon." Weiss read out, crossing her arms and tilting her head in question. "What's going on tonight? And who is that?"

"Nothing dangerous."

"Azura." She said, her tone suggesting no nonsense was needed. "The others might fall for a lie or just let it go because they feel empathetic, but I am neither the most trusting nor kind person."

He buttoned his inner layers up and slid the jacket back on before saying anything to her. When he made to speak, he found it hard to look her in the eye, her icy blues almost giving him frostbite.

"Someone ratted us out at an earlier…thing…and now we found them. Just have to capture them and things should be okay."

"And they need you for that?"

There was no way to answer that truthfully without causing Weiss to become very irritable and upset.

"Any ideas for answering this, Summer?"

"Test of trust, maybe? It does make sense, even if it isn't true."

Azura nods while Summer spoke, mimicking her words. "They want to test my trust. I'm still new to them, and to have a security breach so soon after does seem a little suspicious. So, get me involved in the very act of capturing the cause of the security breach."

"Hm…fine."

He finally looks at Weiss, surprised to hear such easy agreement, but found that he was face-to-face with her scrutinizing expression as she bent over to look him in the face from his seated position.

"Weiss…?" Azura whispered, unsure of what her intention was.

She comes back up, hands on her waist. "Just, be safe, okay?"

He smiles then, nodding. "Of course. I'll be back tonight, and if I'm not, then tomorrow morning."

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.(Line break)

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Azura entered the HQ and very quickly found Croc against a wall, tablet Scroll against her chest in her arms while the tip of her tail flicked in boredom. She looked up, seeing him, then pushed off to approach.

"Come with me."

"Oh, alright…"

He had expected more of a greeting, but maybe they were more pressed for time than he thought. Whatever was the case, he followed her wordlessly as she took him through the halls. The amount of secrecy wasn't foreign to him, per se, but it made the contrast to how trusting they were of him in the beginning all the more stark.

They went along the path that led to Avis' office, but Croc made no motion to enter the doors, instead moving past them and through the rest of the hall that led to another set of doors. She stopped by the one closest to the end of the hall, opening the door and stepping into the room beyond.

It was dark within the room, and warmer than the rest of the building. The sound of electronics and technology going off gave him a rough idea of who this room was for, gazing around the darkness illuminated by lights and screens.

"Close the door behind you. This'll be a private, and short, conversation."

Azura wasn't going to question it, closing the door behind him after a short look back down the hall. When he turned back, Croc was already messing with buttons and screens, booting them back up to see maps, documents, and what he thought was real-time surveillance.

"You impress me more and more every time I see you…" He muttered, shaking his head. "Is something wrong?"

"No, but I need to discuss what we're doing. We all have separate roles and we can't discuss it publicly. Avis gave me full use of everything for you, in a circumstance that we are laid into another trap, so I wanted to make sure that you agree to one thing first."

"And what's that?"

"I need you to trust each and every single word I say during this mission. And I mean it." She says, her murky yellow-green eyes looking at him intently. "We are to be entirely off comms except for me to you for the sake of your own safety."

"What?" Azura asked, shocked. "Isn't that the entire reason why things went wrong with the first mission I was a part of?"

"Yes and no. But this time is very dangerous to you." Croc explains, looking away awkwardly. "Avis wants you to be bait."

She didn't sound particularly enthused by the idea, either. Azura, however, found that he wasn't particularly upset about it.

"Hate to say it, but it makes sense." Summer mutters. "But, so much for Avis wanting your safety to come first."

"Why?"

The girl shuffled on her feet, busying herself with her technology as she answered.

"She found that it would be best to simply lay a trap out and take care of the White Fang incoming for our…target. I…know it sounds bad, and it is, but that's why it's my job to be your eyes and ears alone."

"Sounds more like I'm springing the trap than being it." He said jokingly, though he felt nervousness run through his body. "Why the secrecy and forcing no comms beyond you to me, then? Everyone involved will know that I am the one going in first."

"Only Avis and I know, outside of you. Hood and one of his own hooligans won't know, however. Not out of mistrust, but part of the surprise is in as few people knowing that there is one. We also can't be tapped that way, since they'd have to come to me specifically to tap in." She finally looks back at him, a nervous laugh escaping. "And if that happens, I'm either dead or captured."

He bites his lip at the words, his demeanor shifting. "Right."

"I'm certainly well protected here, Azura. Won't need you to save my life again." She assures. "Look, there's one more thing I want you to know and have before we start this. Let's not get all serious just yet, it's normal to consider how you might die when in the underground of society."

She moved yet again, crouching down and reaching into a leather bag to grab something, then stood back up when she found what she was looking for. Turning to him, she took the steps across the room to where he was, then held out her hand for him to take what was in it.

Looking down at it, Azura saw that she was holding a metallic ball in hand, about half the size of her hand. He went to take it from her, but was stopped by her grabbing hold of his own hand in between both of hers.

"This is a one-use multi-Dust grenade, Azura. Very volatile, very dangerous." Her eyes harden with a serious look in them. "Using this could kill someone if used carelessly. Use it only if your life is threatened, and even then, consider carefully in that moment between arming and throwing it."

"Why give this to me, then? I don't even know how to use something like this."

"It's no different than throwing a Dust crystal. Just press down on the red detonation button on it, throw it, it explodes after two or three seconds." Croc explained, her eyes softening slightly before a small smile came to her face. "And it's because I want to make sure you live. You saved my life, I save yours, we both come out on top."

"Well, I thank you for it preemptively."

"Don't thank me at all." She responds, patting his arm. "It'd mean you wouldn't have to use it in the first place. Now, stay here with me, I'll be explaining more fully how this is going to work, specifically the escape routes I can plan out with you."

Her smile turned to a more natural smirk. "Luckily, we have a few hours to kill. I'm talking your ear off."

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.(Line Break)

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"Azura, coming in." The earpiece in his ear crackled to life. "Good, connection is stable. Audio feedback shows me as clear. You're coming up on the location."

The sheer emptiness and broken down state of this part of the city was harrowing as much as it was saddening. It reminded him of Mountain Glenn as he scanned the rooftops, slowing down his pace for stealth and to survey the surroundings of the areas. He doubted he would catch any sign of Avis or Hood, so he instead tried to begin making a mental map of the area within the barely moonlit streets of the new moon.

The comms were quiet, Croc's voice clear enough that it could be mistaken for her speaking right in his ear.

"Welcome to the only abandoned part of the city. Past records say that Grimm tended to concentrate around here at night, making it particularly unsafe. Huntsmen and Police typically sweep through here each night before standing duty at the walls, but they should be absent tonight. Either way, keep an eye and ear out…anything not me, Avis, or Hood is to be trusted tonight."

He opened his mouth to respond, then closed it once more when he remembered that his voice would not be heard at all. For now, as he moved slowly along the roof he stopped on, he thought of what Croc had told him their main plan of action was. They had to slip into the location, an abandoned armory, one that Azura presumed was meant to outfit young Huntsmen with their first weapons, and then raise any alarms possible to draw attention to himself and set off the trap that will inevitably be set up to protect Shade's own back.

After that, draw him out and then push him out into the open to where Croc is going to try and push Avis towards.

"Shade is a crafty man, he knows his stuff when it comes to makeshift devices. Don't know what you're thinking, but I'd survey the land around the factory grounds itself as you go. Remember the plan, and I'll get you out of there."

He trusted Croc, but even he could see that there was a lot of 'maybe' in this plan. Having no communication at all was a lot more dangerous than he thought it would have been, having to place his hope in Avis catching on to what was happening.

"There's also bound to be fighting while this happens. Avis, Hood, and the one other are going to be getting the jump on the group of White Fang incoming. Hopefully, that group will be small, and whatever noise we make will attract them afterwards to capture this Shade." Summer's voice rang out smoothly, shifting in tone as Azura began to slowly move again. "We should get in before we make any move to sound alarms. Make sure it's near or at the main entrance."

As though she could read minds, Croc's voice entered his ear again via the earpiece.

"There should be two entrances on the outside of the building, but any disrepair of the fencing will have more ways in. The main building itself has an entrance on each side, the main one being the large double doors facing west. Keep in mind that you're looking southward."

With the new information in mind, Azura scanned the area one last time and saw what looked like a broken window that would lead him up and into the factory. It'd give him some time to see the environment inside before he'd make his location known at all, and he needed that much.

"Time to move."

He muttered the words more for himself, but he was also speaking to Luna, who aided him down to the ground. She then acted as his scout, letting him know when the coast was clear for him to continue moving, making his way down the street through the criss-crossing layout of the alleyways here.

"Remember, you'll have to be rather elusive and evasive for this to all work without turning this into a hostage situation. The White Fang are due here any minute."

Not being able to reply, Azura could do nothing but keep that information in mind while crossing the main street to the chain-link fence surrounding the factory grounds. There were several holes within the rusting metal, though only one was large enough for him to step through and towards a group of colored metal barrels that kept him covered.

"Scout ahead for a path for me to follow to avoid any detection." He said quietly, looking at Luna.

She nodded, then flew up into the air to get a good look of the immediate area. Azura, for his part, simply remained as stealthy as he could. While it was very likely that Shade was alone here, there was no way for him to know if he was the only one at all.

But then, he'd likely be gone by now.

Luna came back a few seconds later, beckoning him with a wave of her hand to follow. She weaved a path through wood pallets and abandoned machinery that was left to decay and rust, leading the long way around that pushed him away from the main entrance and then back towards it. She shifted about halfway through to move against the factory itself, which he followed through to see that Luna had the same idea about the broken window.

It was wide and had very few shards of glass ready to rip his skin or aura to shreds, with the only downside being no way to get through it immediately available.

Luckily for him, he had someone who could float.

"Luna."

WIthout any other spoken word, he let himself be lifted up by her and then stepped onto the windowsill softly with a hand propping him up. Turning around, he dropped down as quietly as he could against the concrete ground of the interior. If not for his ability to see in the dark, Azura could tell that he would be left completely in the darkness. Most of the windows that would have shined the sun or moon down into it were covered, and the first floor windows barely had any light coming in.

"Good, you're in…" Croc's voice came in quietly, as though she was actually here too. "Shade's signature work on traps was always for ambushing others, so don't look for things that will get you killed. If anything looks like it could capture it, assume that it will. I can't have a survey of the entire interior for you, but I can tell you right now that there is only the first floor, which you are likely on, and a second floor catwalk. Keep an eye on it, Shade is unpredictable as is, without knowing that there's another person in the building with him."

An unnatural, almost uncanny feeling, pause is left to build up.

"Anything on the inside is blind to me…be careful."

She sounded perplexed. It did nothing but raise his caution even further than they already were.

"Stay close." Azura whispered for Luna, turning to begin cautiously sneaking around the side of the wall between him and the outside.

It was far safer for him to keep her around, either to disable traps that captured him or if he was jumped by Shade himself.

It was quiet as he slowly moved, the only things in his ears being his heartbeat accelerating with anticipation and the quiet draws of his breath. Just as he was about to take another step forward, which would have placed him on the other side of one of the side entrances, he was stopped by Summer.

"Wait. Look closely, Azura, then slowly step back."

Following her words exactly, he saw that there was a thin tripwire tied in several directions. Taking a few seconds to follow where it went, barely visible ice Dust crystals could be seen softly glowing under a dusty tarp. He slowly stepped back then, careful to not even touch the tripwire, then began to backtrack to the other side of the boxes that covered his location on the left.

"Surveillance shows that the White Fang are coming as expected. I give you five minutes before they come, at most. Do whatever you are doing fast, lure him out for Avis, then get out."

Going around the other way of the boxes, Azura pushed ahead towards the center of the factory in search of a set of stairs. The entire ground floor of the place screamed of traps and being watched, but there was absolutely no way to tell the difference between it being paranoia and actually true.

"There, in the back right."

His eyes gazed over to where Summer called, noticing the stairs that would lead up to the catwalk on the second floor, then making note of a path that could lead him there. Providing no trap was in the way, he should be able to creep right under the office overlooking everything instead of going through and likely falling into yet another trap.

"Better to overestimate the amount of traps than to not. Make sure you watch the immediate area in front of you."

After taking a few moments to look just in front of him and seeing nothing suspicious, Azura quickly moved from the left side of the factory building to the right side, feeling the exposure of dashing across the middle openness as quietly as he could. The game of cat and mouse was not one he liked.

He froze as soon as he heard the sound of something shuffling within the building, finding it hard to gauge the distance from his position. It was also near impossible to tell if it was intentionally moved, fell over, or if it was actual movement. He started moving again once silence fell upon the building, making his way to the overhanging office room to slip underneath it.

He cursed silently once he was there, however, only to see stacks on stacks of boxes very obviously placed on purpose. Just as he turned to find another direction other than the office, the sound of something clicking and then scraping against his aura gave him pause as momentary panic washed away to calculative thinking.

"Shade, I presume."

"Croc's new lapdog, I presume."

The voice was croaky, like his voice was attempting to escape through his throat.

Without another word, Azura flared his aura and ducked down as Luna swooped in from the side and slammed into Shade, who fired the gun purely out of reaction right beside Azura's ear. The world shuddered before his eyes, an intense ringing coming from around and within him, his senses floating before slamming back in on him as he drew his weapons and whirled around to see where the combat was, recognizing that Croc had said something, but was unable to discern much of anything sound-related.

He was very quickly assaulted by a burly fist that sent him down to the ground, getting dragged backwards a moment later as his vision spun. He groaned, then began to move back up to his feet as the sound of combat took over, adrenaline starting to pump through his veins.

Luna was fighting a two versus one, both Shade and a currently unknown man garbed in some form of White Fang gear trying to take her on.

"Gun user, melee brawler." Summer's voice rang through his head like a guide of his destiny, clearing his head with the only info he needed to know in a fight. "Watch your feet."

He swirled to life, rose petals flying into the air as he slid through the legs of the bigger man, firing ice Dust into his legs before slashing at his aura with his dagger. Luna swerved to the side with a slash, then danced through the air overhead and stabbed down onto the man's head, forcing him to duck.

Just as Azura was about to attack the exposed backside, a gunshot blared out and knocked his sword clean from his hand, another shot blazing into aura as he raised his hand. Dashing forward, then feinting to the right, before then blazing into rose petals behind Shade and stabbing forward.

Blade met gun barrel as Shade spun around, the noises of the world popping back into Azura's ears as he dodged the bladed end of the large magnum, then dodged again as a scaled tail whipped out to hit his legs.

"Four shots. Two more before a reload."

Their blades met again, struggling with each other as Dust fired off into the ceiling. While in their deadlock, Azura saw Luna grab his sword and toss it into the air, going up and over Shade. He bounced back with a kick to the man's knee, grabbing it as it came back down.

"Plenty of tricks up your sleeve, kid! Knew you were bad business."

The words came in and out of focus with his hearing completely shot, a realization that Shade was not much of a fighter coming to mind.

"Gone silent, huh? Always knew she was manipulative…"

He once again dashed forward, then feinted to the left this time to return to the bigger man as Luna slashed into aura several times, keeping him preoccupied with the front as Azura flipped the dagger to a reverse grip and stabbed into the opponent's backside. Blood was drawn this time in the distraction caused by Luna, a yell of angered pain coming from him as he flailed his arms wildly and caught Azura in the chest, sending him skidding a few feet into a staggering halt.

The big man turned to Azura, who was already quickly on the move with Shade around, peppering his main target with Dust while Luna dispelled her weapon to grab hold of the man's neck between both arms.

It caused him to pause and attempt to grab on to Luna, letting Azura just keep firing as he moved closer.

The ice Dust began to slowly form around his waist, slowing his actions ever so slowly as his strength began to weaken from Luna choking him. This remained without interruption until the big man fell over several seconds later, unconscious.

"Shade's running away through the traps! He's going for the catwalk!"

"Luna!"

His call alerted her as he ran forward with Croc's grenade in hand, boosting in the air to get ahead of him and just above as he leapt towards her, feeling her hands grab his foot and throw him forward, letting the momentum of Summer's semblance push him further.

He could see Shade already up the stairs and running along the catwalk, arming the grenade with a press of a button, letting it loose with a strong toss as he flew through the air towards him. It flew true, landing just in front and to Shade's side before exploding with the cackling of several Dust types, red, blue, yellow, and purple colors flashing as the catwalk was destroyed and Shade launched back down to the first floor with a heavy thud.

Azura quickly joined him, feeling his shoulder take the brunt of the fall with a hiss of pain. The two of them began to slowly get back up, Shade's raspy and haggard breathing more than evident, while Azura's was more sporadic and uncontrolled.

"Stay…stay down." He said, mustering his strength with his weapons back in his hand.

"And now…he speaks." Shade mutters. "Looks like you've won, huh? Fighting is nearly done outside, too." He laughs manically. "Bested once again by the little crocodile."

Azura moved forward slowly, blade raised and pointed at Shade. "Don't move a muscle."

"You don't even have the authority to scare me, kid. Let me tell you something." He replied, a wild smile coming to his face. "Death isn't coming, it's already here."

The sudden rise of his gun moved Azura into action, eyes widening as Shade began to pull the trigger with the gun to his head.

"Say hello to my sist-!"

He toppled to the ground as Luna body slammed herself into him with a use of her semblance, his weapon skittering away, then quickly knocked him out as she slammed the butt of her sword into the side of Shade's head.

The sound of something slamming startled Azura, who gripped his weapons again as Luna quickly moved to his side, his heart rate spiking as the echoes of adrenaline kept going, focusing on the emergency side door that was next to them. It opened up a moment later with another thud, flying open to reveal Avis and Hood both standing there.

His grip weakened, raising a hand to his ear and finding that the earpiece was gone. He had no idea what had transpired outside of this building. The adrenaline that had kept him going was fading, the ringing in his ear coming back into reality, this time with a hefty pain in his back and chest.

"Azura."

He felt the grip of Avis' hands on his arms before he heard her say his name, where he slowly shook his head and looked up. Her face had blood on it, but it didn't seem to be her own. What had happened out there?

"I'm fine, just…dazed."

"Your hearing's shot in one ear right now." She said, her eyes scanning his face. "Croc won't be happy."

"We don't have the time to do that here." Hood's voice could be heard from the side, stern as always. "We need to leave before the police come."

"You're right." Avis replied, turning to nod her head at Hood before looking back at Azura. "Can you move?"

He nodded again.

"Good. Let's get you to safety. You did great today, Azura."

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.(Chapter End)

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And the title was referring to Croc…crocodile…who would've thought. Jokes aside, the (relatively simple and short) fight here was fun to put together.

Have a great day/evening!