An: sorry for the late upload, I got really sick in the middle of the month for no apparent reason.
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The bar on Lorenzo, 3:00 am.
Kaiser sipped on a glass of ice tea disguised as whiskey. As much as the spy would like to be the least bit inebriated right now, he needed to keep all his skills sharp. It's now been a week since Mr. Ross sent the document and his orders.
According to Morris' hospital file, the man lived somewhere in the northern coast of Vale. It was a middle class area abundant with dive bars, pretty average for a city full of drinkers. Kaiser had caught through word of mouth that somebody had bought a shipment of something at the docks. The spy was ready to bet money that the shipment was a large amount of the Hercules serum.
The hospital file also mentioned dilated pupils, but not due to the Hercules. The man had been drinking copious amounts of alcohol at the time of injecting himself with Hercules. For the past week, Kaiser had been staking out at different bars at varying times. Once he picked up that Lorenzo's was his usual hangout, the spy started exclusively spending all his time at the bar. From 8:00 pm to 6:00 am, Kaiser sat in a booth with a whiskey glass and a jug of ice tea tucked under the table.
Kaiser caught a glimpse of shadow walking behind the bar's frosted windows, the boy quickly filled his whiskey glass with ice tea again before hiding the jug under the table.
The sudden swing of the bar door alerted all the patrons of the new arrival, or rather arrivals. At the front of five other people stood a man with a thinning brown hairline, the man had a squared face and crooked eyebrows. He walked up to the bartender, the bartender was making gestures at the man before he could order. The bartender pointed towards Kaiser and spoke quietly to the group's leader. Nothing of note about the leader except for the fact that he was wearing a sleeveless undershirt to proudly showing off fading tattoos.
The group's chatter went quiet as their leader stepped towards Kaiser's booth, it didn't go unnoticed that he was heavily limping towards the boy
"Barkeep over there tells me you want to talk." The limping man had sat down across Kaiser.
"Yes, indeed Mr. Morris. You're a pretty hard man to find." Kaiser tapped his finger on the table, nothing more than a way to keep his hand busy.
"Well, I'm not too keen on getting random visits. So, why'd you want to visit me in this dingy old place?" Morris spotted some of his group playing pool in the back of the bar.
"Well for starters, I am an intern at the hospital you were admitted to and I was looking over your files…" Kaiser proceeded to pull out some laminated sheets he had set down beside him.
"...I took some of the toxicology reports from our labs, and it says here you were under the influence at the time of admission."
During the time that Kaiser was at Beacon, he had gone and printed out some of Mr. Morris' hospital papers. The spy had a convincing lie to tell, hopefully the threat of mortality would do the trick.
"You see, along with a lot of alcohol, you seem to have tested positive for injecting a steroid. Now, this normally wouldn't be too much of a problem, but the chemicals in this specific compound are doing much more than just giving you that extra boost. Unfortunately, we could be looking at damaged organs and maybe even cardiomegaly at an accelerated rate."
"And what difference does it make that I take this supplement over others?"
"Well sir, the compound could currently be deteriorating your organs as we speak and you could drop dead at any moment, the fact that this compound is new and untested could speed up the process tenfold!"
"Aw that's bullshit!" Mr. Morris yelled, he made to stand up. "You phony doctors are just trying to get me to come back so you can drain my wallet!"
"Sir, all I ask is where you got the compound so I may retrieve a sample for further analysis." Kaiser stacked the laminate papers together, Mr. Morris just brushed him off.
"I'm not going to stand here and listen to your bullshit anymore."
Playing doctor wasn't getting him anywhere, perhaps try a different approach.
"Perhaps I should just break your leg again and force you to tell me." Kaiser said in a low voice.
"What?"
"You heard me, I was the one that broke your leg the night you went to the hospital. Now tell me where you got the compound or I might have to break more than just a leg."
A tense few seconds passed, neither Morrison nor Kaiser made a move. The moment came crashing down just like a pool cue came down on Kaiser. The wooden stick splintered into pieces as Morris took his chance to escape the bar, the boy stumbled and turned around to see the five people Morris came in with. They all varied in ages and appearance, but they all had the common factor of wanting to take Kaiser down.
"Get him!"
One of the older men reared back his fist, only to have Kaiser punch him in the head.
Two other men charged at the boy, one was knocked backed after receiving a brutal aura-filled punch to the temple. Kaiser kept the other man away by front-kicking him in the stomach, he made sure to keep the younger men of the group from getting back up.
Kaiser automatically blocked a punch with his left arm, then countered with a swift gut punch and a strike to someone else's jaw. The spy spun himself immediately after to deliver a spinning hook kick to a bulkier man trying to approach from behind.
The barkeeper watched on as he poured himself some scotch and grumbled to himself. "Fucken Mondays."
One of the group with a stocky build tackled Kaiser, he retaliated by bringing his elbow down twice and kneeing the man in the face. After which, he delivered a swift haymaker to the man's head and kicked him in the stomach.
Kaiser's head whipped one way as he stumbled backwards after getting hit with a haymaker. The older man who struck him advanced forward to press onwards, he attempted another haymaker to the boy's head. Kaiser recovered just in time to deploy a knife hand block, delivering three swift punches to the man who had dared to fight him.
"You're worthless!" Kaiser yelled as he side kicked another man charging at him.
More unconscious bodies started piling up around the bar, and the number kept growing throughout the fight. Kaiser used a bit of aura to make each strike hard to come back from, it was a bit much considering none of these people had advanced training. Soon enough it all came down to one last person in Morris' ragtag group.
Kaiser smashed a bottle of wine over that last man's head.
The boy breathed easier now that nobody dared to get up. Kaiser gave a thumbs up to the barkeeper, the old barkeep only glared at the tired boy. "Put that on my tab."
It couldn't have been more than two minutes Kaiser wasted on those in the bar, the boy ran out of the establishment and spotted a white armored transit tactical van. The van was quickly approaching the first intersection, but Kaiser wasn't going to let a week of sleepless nights go to waste.
Kaiser rushed at the van as fast as he could, it took a sharp corner with the boy not too far off. As fast as Kaiser was, the van was slowly gaining distance. There was no way the spy could keep chasing the armored vehicle, good thing he didn't have to.
The spy aimed Great Escape at the van's rear door, he was zipping towards it at blinding speed. The door swung open at the very last moment, Kaiser smashed into the steel door. The immense shock disoriented the boy momentarily, he ended up falling to the street. Kaiser was forcefully dragged by the speeding van since Great Escape was still attached to it. Kaiser felt himself scraping against the coarse asphalt before snapping out of his stupor.
Pressing on the button under his wrist, Kaiser was once again zipping towards the van's rear. The boy clambered onto the van's rear step, he kept his balance by grabbing the rear ladder installed on the door. The van made another sudden turn, Kaiser tore Great Escape's hook out of the door.
The van violently cut through the streets of Vale, the city lights blurred past the vehicle. Kaiser grabbed the handle of the van and tried jerking it open, no luck it seemed.
The sound of tires squealing caught Kaiser's attention, another armored van turned the corner and accelerated towards Kaiser at a rapid pace. He could see that the face of the driver matched one of the people from the bar. The van accelerated further with intent to ram into Kaiser, the boy himself was still hanging onto the rear ladder of Morris' van.
Kaiser raised his legs right before the van crashed into Morris' vehicle, the spy narrowly avoided having his legs permanently crushed. Kaiser lowered his legs on the hood of the van that hit Morris'.
A hand popped out of the driver's window, it was holding something that was quite unclear in the murky darkness of the night. Kaiser got the wind knocked out of him when two bullets slammed into his chest, the projectiles themselves were embedded really deep into Kaiser's coat.
It could be assumed that he had been shot with a gun.
Kaiser caught another bullet in the shoulder, he let out a shocked yelp. The spy activated his mask and set it to thermal vision, there were two people in the van. Kaiser held on to the ladder and faced the driver who shot him, he quickly raised and brought down his leg in an axe kick. The windshield slightly cracked under the kick, so Kaiser did it again.
The spy received one more shot from the passenger seat of the van, both of which got him in the ribs. The pain almost caused the boy to black out, he was effectively sandwiched between two vans speeding through Vale.
Kaiser would have to get rid of the driver on his tail, then he could go after Morris. Kaiser pulled up his hood to protect his head from whatever was going to come next. He used the rear ladder to go up a few steps to gain height, the boy then threw himself from Morris' van to the other.
Kaiser's back collided with the windshield, it had shattered under the pressure and rained down on the driver. The spy now lay on the hood of the van whilst it lost control. Kaiser jumped off the van before it crashed into a nearby plaza entrance.
Tearing through the air, Kaiser once again aimed Great Escape at Morris' van. Kaiser could see through his mask's thermal vision that there was one person guarding the van's rear door and another driving it. The spy landed on the van's rear step and banged his fist on the rear door.
The man watching over the rear door carefully pushed it open, only to receive a fist to the face that was too fast to see. With that out of the way, Kaiser entered the rear of the van. It was empty save for the man that Kaiser knocked out and Morris who was desperately shouting into a scroll.
"Jasper I'm almost there! The guys onto me!"
Kaiser swayed to the side as Morris made another sharp turn, he quickly stalked towards the front seat. The spy reached his arms past the seat and around Morris' neck, Kaiser intended on choking him out.
"Your fun is over Morris."
Morris gasped and struggled, he would soon black out from lack of oxygen. In a last ditch effort to avoid that, Morris jerked the wheel to the side causing the van to swerve into a wall. The impact of his head hitting the dashboard knocked Morris out, Kaiser crashed into the van's interior walls.
Smoke was coming from under the hood of the crashed van, the police could get here any second. Kaiser exited the van's rear and made his way to the drivers side, he tore the door open to find Morris unconscious and with a trickle of blood going down his head.
With Morris slumped over and unmoving, Kaiser could make out some tattoos on the man's. The one most prominent being one of a muzzle, it confused Kaiser greatly. He took a picture of it with his scroll for later examination
Kaiser backstepped as soon as he felt something was off, the drivers seat door slammed shut when he backed away.
"I don't appreciate you treating my client this way, boy!" Right outside an alleyway stood a man with a southern accent, he had short brown hair in a buzz cut. A scroll hung limply in the man's hand.
Covering his right arm was a metal contraption that ended at his shoulder, there was a thin line that ran along the thin metal sleeve.
The man was dressed in full black special ops uniform, his arm had a Velcro patch with gleaming silver threads sewn into it. The insignia on the patch looked like a lowercase m with an arrow pointing right, it was the astrological sign for Scorpio.
Kaiser was staring down a Scorpio assassin.
"Guess I can assume that you're Jasper?" Kaiser stuffed his hands in his pockets, he'd taken some damage between the scrap at the bar and car chase. His aura had already healed a good majority of the serious injuries. "You're the one distributing product in Vale?"
"That tells me that I can assume you're the one throwing a bitch-fit over my business!"
"When your business involves casual destruction and murder, I tend to get involved." Kaiser pulled off his hood and settled into an offensive fighting stance. "This ends tonight!"
Jasper kept his hands low prepared to parry any strikes the boy might come at him with.
Kaiser closed in on the assassin knowing that Jasper was armed to the teeth.
Jasper pulled out a knife at the last moment and thrust into the boy's abdomen, Kaiser caught Jasper's arm before contact was made.
The two struggled before the boy hit Jasper with a front kick, effectively separating them.
Jasper charged at the boy with his knife in his right hand, Kaiser kicked the weapon out of Jasper's hand. The blade skittered into the empty street. Jasper charged at the boy regardless and tried to catch him in a clinch. Kaiser stepped out of range and aimed a roundhouse kick at Jasper's stomach.
Jasper crashed against the van's wrecked side, he noticed the little hook embedded into the van next to him.
Kaiser used Great Escape to launch himself at Jasper, the boy slammed into the assassin feet-first. The jagged edges of the crashed van dug into Jasper's back, it pained him despite wearing combat armor.
"That was pretty disappointing, I expected more fight out of someone like you." Kaiser gloated, it really didn't take much. The boy hadn't even used his aura against the assassin.
"I'm just out of practice, boy." Jasper wheezed, the assassin propped himself up and coughed. "That's why I have a little something for a bit of a boost." The assassin clicked a small switch on his arm, then a neon orange fluid started running through the metal contraption. "They say that you shouldn't use your own product, but I think this is an exception." The assassin's muscles began to pump up and grow, both combatants heard grotesque muscle tearing as Jasper let out a guttural howl.
"No!" Kaiser charged at Jasper before the Hercules had completely taken over.
"Too slow, partner!" The assassin drew a gun out of his holster and fired at Kaiser, the boy activated his aura the moment the bullet made contact. The bullet blew up on impact and sent the spy flying.
Kaiser collided with a nearby lamp post, he looked up to see something he wasn't expecting.
Rather than bulk up into a muscled beast, Jasper only had his body parts improved slightly.
"Impressive right?" Jasper grabbed the van's door, he tore it away from the vehicle. "Had this version of the product made especially for me."
Jasper spun around before throwing the steel door at Kaiser. The boy narrowly avoided being crushed by ducking, he looked back to see the damage.
The top part of the lamppost was taken clean off along with the van door.
"I don't lose myself like all the other users!" Jasper crossed the distance between them and planted a meaty fist on Kaiser's stomach. The sheer force of the blow made the boy double over, spit flew onto the sidewalk as he was roughly grabbed by the leg.
Kaiser was swung like a ragdoll into a brick wall, Jasper let go and allowed the boy to fall to the sidewalk. A couple bricks from the broken wall fell on the downed boy. "Ow…", Kaiser weakly protested.
There was no way around it, Kaiser wouldn't be able to beat Jasper with brute strength or skill alone. The boy shakily got up ready to face the Scorpio assassin, he rolled under a brutal swing of a fist. He fired Great Escape at the wall in front of Jasper, the boy quickly circled himself around the juiced up assassin while avoiding any strikes sent his way.
Kaiser managed to get all the way around with his hook still embedded in the wall, the boy activated the retracting function on his hook.
The wire from Great Escape sprung up and tightened around Jasper's neck, the thin steel wiring restricted the assassin.
"As I said!" Kaiser yanked his arm back, blood seeped out of the neck under his wire, decapitation was imminent. "This is over!"
"Not as over as you'd like, son." Jasper calmly added. The assassin grasped at the wire leading to the hook, Jasper yanked it out of the wall before more damage could've been done. The hook unraveled from Jasper's neck, but he grabbed it before yanking it towards himself.
Kaiser, unwillingly, went flying towards Jasper before he received a fist to the face, it made a freight train feel like a gust of air in comparison. The spy immediately crumpled to the floor as Jasper stood over him.
"You're a resourceful one I'll give ya that, but not very bright." Jasper grabbed Kaiser by his hood, throwing the spy into a nearby storefront.
Windows shattered as Kaiser crashed through glass panes, he lay above a bed of broken glass. The best he could do was play dead until he could get the drop on Jasper, he just needed to know the moment the assassin stepped in the building.
Kaiser heard a crunch of glass under someone's boot.
Gripping some broken glass, Kaiser chucked it at his target's face. He must've accomplished something because Jasper panicked and clawed at his face to take out any potential glass in his eyes. Kaiser had hopped up and ran behind the cashier desk of what he assumed was a casual restaurant, the boy hastily entered the kitchen before Jasper recovered.
Inside the kitchen area were stoves, ovens, and other necessities for a successful restaurant. A plan formed in the young spy's mind. Kaiser hastily switched all the stoves on to leak carbon monoxide all over the kitchen, all it would take was one spark of fire.
Jasper entered the kitchen just in time to see Kaiser poke his head in from the back door.
"Come and get me, cowboy reject!"
Jasper's hand immediately went to his gun, he stopped when he caught a whiff of a weird odor.
"Gas." Jasper smugly walked through the kitchen, he turned off each stove as he walked past them. The assassin crossed the back door to be met with a dark alleyway, hardly anything was visible.
Kaiser used his semblance to cloak himself in the shadows, he slowed his breathing to prevent alerting Jasper to his current position. He perched himself on top of a dumpster, ready to strike once Jasper got close enough. Kaiser leapt from his vantage point to choke the assassin out, that went as well as could have been expected.
Jasper backed up as soon as he felt an arm close around his neck, he heard a pained groan as he smashed his back against the brick wall of the alleyway. The arm around his neck relented quite quickly after that, he turned around just to see the boy rolling out the way. Jasper noted that the shadows dissipated the moment he detached the spy from his back.
Kaiser stood back up and raised his arms in fighting position, he parried an incoming strike to the stomach but got punched in face afterwards.
A large cut above his eyebrow seeped blood onto the spy's mask, it got too disruptive that Kaiser had to swipe the mask away. The mask landed near the dumpster with a clank.
Kaiser delivered a swift rising knee to the assassin, but held no impact. The boy dodged another strike aimed for his neck, but was frozen the moment he was hit in the ribs.
That half-second Kaiser froze, Jasper latched his hand over Kaiser's neck. The assassin lifted the boy by his neck, he received only a pained gasp in response.
Kaiser's intake of air was diminishing, not a good thing to happen in a fight, the boy struggled and kicked at the assassin's chest in protest.
"Get your licks in, boy. You sure won't get another chance like this." Jasper shrugged off each and every kick that was dealt to him.
Kaiser found himself turned around and slammed against one of the brick walls, he was sure something broke. Something akin to a cannonball crashing against back, he barely had time to register that it was a full force strike from someone on this new mix of Hercules.
The quiet serenity of Vale was interrupted by the pained yells of a boy doing someone else's dirty work.
A stream of blood ran down Kaiser's forehead that was cut during the onslaught of blows. He was finally let down, he took sweet relief in the few seconds he was allowed to rest. Cracking his eyes open he watched Jasper stand over him with a menacing glare, the chill of death was in the air.
"I don't want to drag this more than I need to, boy." Jasper stomped on Kaiser's ribs, the little aura he had left was doing the most it could considering the circumstances. The assassin crouched down and put two fingers on Kaiser's face. "Nose…" Jasper moved his fingers to Kaiser's throat. "Neck…" then those same fingers move down to the boy's chest. "Heart. I reckon that if I hit one of those three hard enough, you'll be seeing the gods within minutes."
Jasper let go of the beaten spy, Kaiser coughed up some blood as soon as his head settled on the ground.
"Next time you interfere with my business, I'll put a bullet between your eyes." Jasper slowly walked off leaving a dazed Kaiser behind.
The amount of people who had turned their backs on Kaiser was staggering, truly, the biggest contribution to a majority of the spy's victories.
Kaiser tiredly got up, and hit a sloppy roundhouse kick at Jasper's head. It was hard enough to hurt, but weak enough to have no lasting effects.
"You're about as sharp as a balloon, ain'tcha?" Jasper roughly shoved the boy against a wall. "Say goodnight."
Kaiser only saw stars as that last punch hit him in the ribcage. It would only take half an hour until the boy would wake up in the dumpster only to realize everything down to the vans he'd crashed had been gone and taken care of.
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Kaiser returned to Beacon with a battered body and an even more broken pride. The boy was fuming in front of his bathroom mirror, he stared back at the reflection of someone he didn't recognize anymore. He stared into the face of a boy that had posed as so many others just to go through immense labors and pain. The mirror showed the haggard boy who's life was forcefully sacrificed to keep Remnant safe from the shadows. Most of all, Kaiser could only see Mr. Ross' most prized asset.
Mr. Ross' asset...
Kaiser struck the mirror before he could comprehend what he was doing, the glass was shattered instantly. Shards fell to the linoleum floor of the bathroom, some of the shards dug deep into Kaiser's knuckles. The boy grit his teeth in pain as he pulled his fist back and lowered himself to a sitting position on the floor.
Gods this was only the beginning wasn't it? Even if Kaiser managed to stop the Hercules circulation, what was stopping Mr. Ross from threatening him again?! It'd never end! Not unless Kaiser was dead! He couldn't go to Ozpin or anyone for that matter, not without Ross leaking his information to any and all organizations the boy had crossed!
Kaiser's hands trembled and his stomach felt like it was in knots, every breath he took made the boy want to scream.
The boy knew that even with these afflictions, he'd still have to get ready for the day. He tried to get his erratic breathing under control before going up to the sink and plucking shards of glass out of his knuckles. Blood and hydrogen peroxide were quickly dribbling into the sink, Kaiser wrapped up his bloody knuckles with a bandage, the white cotton was already bleeding through before Kaiser got out of his dorm.
Kaiser's scroll indicated it was 8:00 in the morning, a little early for breakfast but it was okay as the line would be nonexistent. The boy stopped at a water fountain on his way towards the cafeteria, he felt like complete trash but at the very least he should be hydrated.
In between glorious gulps of cold water, Kaiser caught sight of somebody waiting behind him. Really he only saw the signature red plaid skirt and black stockings which were the signature style of the Beacon uniform.
"...hi."
Kaiser finished his drink of water before getting up, he was faced with another student. She had sky-blue hair and golden eyes, her hair reached all the way to her knees.
"Hello? Do I know you?" Kaiser narrowed his eyes as he tried to recall if he knew her from somewhere.
"Not… not exactly. I sit behind you in Oobleck's class. My name is Azure." She put her hand out to shake Kaiser's
Kaiser gave a small noise as acknowledgement, he was ready to resume his walk to breakfast. The boy heard a soft gasp from Azure, she was staring straight at his black eye
"What happened to you? Are you alright?" Azure frantically asked.
"Just had a rough night, rather not talk about it." Kaiser continued walking towards before he remembered that Azure was talking to him for some reason. "I'm sorry, did you need anything?"
Azure seemed hesitant for a moment, she gathered up confidence before starting. "You see… I know the Beacon dance isn't until next month… but I was wondering maybe if you wanted to go with me?"
You don't even know me.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think I'll be going to the dance." Kaiser stuffed his hands into the uniforms pockets. "I'm not very comfortable in large crowds."
"Oh… I see." Azure bowed toward him slightly. "Sorry for bothering you." She scuttled away awkwardly soon after.
"No, yeah. I'm sorry too."
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"So then, the harpoon skewered the both of us." Kaiser let out a groggy yawn as he shoveled more cereal into his mouth. "It stabbed right through my stomach and came out through my back." The boy spoke in hushed and tired tones, he was having a weirdly one-sided conversation with Pyrrha.
"Kaiser?" The ever calming voice of Ren asked
"The last time I ever go to Vacuo if I have anything to say about it."
"Kaiser?"
"What's worse is that I dipped the entire harpoon with a strong sedative beforehand so we both knocked out real quick." Kaiser munched on another spoonful of the worst cereal he's ever had, then again it was his first bowl of cereal ever. "Not my greatest moment on an operation that's for sure."
"Kaiser?" Ren suddenly put his hand on Kaiser's shoulder, the spy practically jumped out of his skin.
"Gods, Ren! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
Ren stood there impassively. "My apologies."
"Did you need something?"
Ren glanced past Kaiser, eyes narrowing on an item on the table. "Who were you talking to?"
"What are you talking about? I'm having a pleasant conversation with Pyrrha." Kaiser pointed out.
"You might want to take a closer look." Something akin to barely amused was now present in Ren's voice.
Kaiser tried focusing on the blur in front of him, it was a mop of red hair and piercing green eyes. The spy moved closer only to realize he'd been talking to a box of Pumpkins Pete's cereal which also had a picture of Pyrrha next to the mascot. The cartoon bunny stared at the spy with beady eyes, Kaiser felt like it was mocking him. Kaiser was glad that he had incinerated the original Pumpkin Pete's costume from the commercials.
No, he wasn't going to elaborate on that...
"Explains why it feels like I've been chewing on glass." Kaiser put down the spoon, his head felt heavy and he wanted to lie down.
Kaiser's last week of winter break was just him waiting in bars and absolutely destroying his sleep schedule. He didn't even succeed in finding the stash of Hercules, at least now he knew who was supplying Vale's criminal underworld with their hearty dose of super steroids. It also didn't help that there was a Scorpio assassin with a modified version of Hercules running loose in Vale right now.
Ren placed a calming hand onto the boy's shoulder. "You look tired."
"What gave it away?!" Kaiser snarked.
Ren tensed for a moment, it didn't go unnoticed by the spy.
"Sorry, Ren. I just haven't been able to sleep lately." Kaiser lowered his voice to a soft mutter. "It wasn't my intention to shame you."
"It's alright, why don't you take a nap and I'll wake you up before we go."
Kaiser yawned, "Sounds good… thanks Ren." The spy put his head down and shut his eyes momentarily.
The sudden slam of something on a table provided a rude awakening that Kaiser wasn't prepared for. His heartbeat skyrocketed as tired eyes quickly scanned the cafeteria for the source of noise and an exit point.
Ruby Rose slammed a binder onto a table her team sat at, a table where team RWBY sat separately from team JNPR.
Kaiser slammed his fist on the table in frustration and stormed off. All of the effort he put into keeping everybody at the same table wasted. He'd gone and went to get his secret blown, and he was dragged back into the world of espionage as a product of trying to keep the table together. Only for both teams to sit on different tables anyways! Gods his life was falling apart and classes hadn't even started yet!
"Lost?"
Too focused on his thoughts, Kaiser bumped into somebody just outside of the mess hall. The person he bumped into had a different uniform than the students of Beacon, likely a transfer student. Kaiser raised his sight to the other boy's face, he was sporting grey hair and a pale face. Something about him unnerved Kaiser.
"Just haven't gotten enough sleep, I need to splash my face." Kaiser made to walk towards the public restrooms, he was cut off by the other boy.
"See, I don't have many friends here and I was wondering if you'd help me out on my first day." The gray-haired boy gracefully moved in front of Kaiser, effectively blocking the spy's path.
"I guess." Kaiser replied as the other boy casually looked at his surroundings. The spy offered his hand in greeting. "My name is Kaiser." The spy managed to yawn out, he waited for the other boy's response.
"Mercury." The other boy slapped Kaiser's open hand, Mercury clamped a hand over Kaiser's shoulder. "I think we'll get along nicely."
Kaiser was completely unnerved by Mercury and his forwardness. The gray haired boy held himself with a confidence that Kaiser had seen many times before, but he was too tired to figure out where.
"I heard that there was an exhibition going down later, mind telling me what that's about?" Mercury slightly squeezed Kaiser's shoulder as they walked
"The fourth years told us about a demonstration for Goodwitch's class, apparently she does one before the semester starts to show the transfers just how her class operates." Kaiser winced slightly. "Sorry, but can you let go of my shoulder? It's really sore right now."
"My bad." Mercury removed his hand from the spy's shoulder. "So, what can you tell me about the people here?"
"There's not much to tell, well, that's only if you're asking me. I don't really reach out much to my fellow peers save for a few." Kaiser rubbed a bleary eye.
"Anything special about them?"
"They're really caring, we all just help each other out."
"They got any cool semblances?" Mercury subtly glanced to both sides to check their surroundings.
"Not really sure, haven't had much time to see them in action. You?"
"Nah, I'm kind of a late bloomer, if you catch my drift."
"I see…" While studying up on the aura textbooks, Kaiser had come to find that not all semblance awakenings were the same. Most had their awakening at teenage years or younger. It was uncommon, but not unheard of to not awaken your semblance at certain older ages, so it must be the same case with Mercury.
"Well, friend, I have to go back to my team. Catch you later." Mercury nonchalantly waved before leaving Kaiser at the entrance to the restrooms.
"Later." Kaiser entered the restroom to go splash his face with water.
Kaiser immediately made a beeline for the sink, ice cold water splashed against his once-again battered face.
At least it stopped swelling...
Droplets of water clung to his ivory hair as the water matted hair against his forehead, the boy slapped his hands against his face to wake himself up. He caught a glimpse of someone in the mirror, Kaiser almost gave himself whiplash trying to turn around.
Standing behind Kaiser by a couple of feet, Cardin was intently staring at the already beaten boy.
"You go-" Cardin started before being cut off by Kaiser.
"Save it! I've had one shitty night and it's not even over yet!" Through his deprived haze, Kaiser neglected to notice the larger boy taking deep breaths while trying to count backwards. The spy knew it might've been unfair taking his anger out on the spoiled rich kid, but he didn't care because he needed a scapegoat. "I'm done with this." Kaiser tiredly said before leaving the restroom and leaving a sulking Cardin.
/-/
"It is with pride that I welcome you all to Beacon academy. Now as you know, many students transferred into our esteemed academy for the biennial Vytal festival." Professor Goodwitch announced to the packed arena where the student body and the transfers mingled. "You'll be attending classes here at Beacon until the time of the festival. I would like for a smooth transition to acclimate our guest to my class. So for today we will have a combat demonstration as an introduction for our transfers."
It was 2:00 pm, this now marked Kaiser's 20th hour of consciousness. The spy desperately fought off fatigue in his seat, some of the surrounding students were giving him weird looks. The bruising was still prevalent on his face, but at least the bleeding was under the skin unlike the cuts from the mirror. His aura was slowly recovering, but for some reason it hadn't healed the deep cuts from punching the mirror.
"I'd like for both Pyrrha Nikos and Kaiser to come down to the arena for me."
While Pyrrha dutifully stood up and left to change into combat gear, Kaiser simply sat in his chair and stared straight ahead. Somebody behind him roughly hit Kaiser in the back, the spy was met with a look of annoyance from another student when he turned around to find the culprit.
"They just called you to fight!" Another boy added.
Kaiser softly muttered an apology before making his way into the locker rooms.
Kaiser punched in the numbers on his locker to get it open, the contents inside vastly different than what they were last semester. His old coat was now replaced with the Willow Tree variant, and the weapons he picked up before initiation were switched out in favor of Great Escape.
Once equipped with his coat and Great Escape, Kaiser walked towards the arena. The spy had to pause in his stride as he got lightheaded, then, it was off to battle.
There was a heavy silence hanging over the students seated as they watched the boy walk up the steps to the arena.
"Will you be alright to continue the demonstration?" Goodwitch's question barely reached Kaiser's ears, he was more concerned at the looks he was receiving from the crowd.
Above the stage, above the two combatants, was the screen displaying aura levels. Pyrrha's was at a perfect 100%, while Kaiser's was barely sitting at 23%.
Kaiser wasn't expecting much, but was nevertheless disappointed.
"I'll be fine, go ahead and start the match." This might've been the only chance Kaiser had to fight Pyrrha since he was barred from the Vytal festival. Gods, why couldn't this happen on any other day?
"You may begin." Goodwitch announced.
Pyrrha shifted Miló into its xiphos form just as Kaiser charged at her. She thrust her xiphos once he was in striking range, he barely managed to dodge it.
Kaiser was busy fighting off two major opponents, Pyrrha and sleep. He'd done this before, especially when fighting for his life against many different opponents wanting the boy dead. He'd quickly have to sober up to keep up with Pyrrha.
Miló made close contact with Kaiser's cheek, blood dripped from Pyrrha's blade. Kaiser leapt backwards to make distance, his aura hadn't healed the cut he received yet.
Pyrrha rushed at him with a stab of her shortsword, Kaiser stopped it by striking her arm. Momentary shock allowed for Kaiser to push her away.
Pyrrha closed the distance with a hop to hit him with a roundhouse kick.
Kaiser slid out of the way and responded with a roundhouse of his own, it found its mark quite easily which unsettled the boy. The spy back stepped away pretty quickly after that, he was banking on Pyrrha using her semblance.
Kaiser had been suspicious that Pyrrha had a telekinetic semblance for weeks now, she could've easily redirected that kick. So why didn't she? Maybe he could coax her into using her semblance? Shock and surprise was always good to force others to resort to their base instinct.
The arena was already dimly lit, Kaiser could use that to his advantage. The boy backed himself towards one of the edges of the stage, his shadows quickly hid him from Pyrrha and the rest of the crowd.
Pyrrha's eyes quickly narrowed, she wasn't sure what was happening. Kaiser wasn't very open about his semblance for her to know, Kaiser wasn't really open about anything. She needed to know where her opponent was if she was going to hit him.
Kaiser moved around gracefully through the shadows, he adjusted his position to where Pyrrha would least expect.
Kaiser's focus immediately went to his arm as he felt a light buzzing, the hook around his arm was vibrating. Kaiser was forced to dodge Miló, he was shocked as to how Pyrrha even knew he was there! Kaiser shot Great Escape at Pyrrha, it never hit its target and instead hit the wall behind her. Kaiser zipped towards her at blinding speed and reared his injured fist back for a punch.
He was less than a foot away from her when unleashed his devastating strike, there was no way she could dodge.
Pyrrha didn't need to dodge, she expertly held up her shield to his fist.
A pained cry left Kaiser as the boy crumpled to the floor, the force of the strike tore open the cuts on his knuckles that were yet to heal.
Kaiser clutched his hand close to his chest as he lay on the floor, blood was seeping past the bandages and dripping onto the stage.
"Kaiser's aura fell below 15%, making Pyrrha Nikos the winner." Goodwitch said.
"Let me help you up." Pyrrha stretched out her hand for the boy to take, her shield was covered in some blood where he struck it.
Kaiser didn't see the kind-hearted spartan that he had come to know and love, he felt like he was back in the alleyway. Vivid hallucinations of Jasper standing over the boy with a devious smile, intending to make the boy suffer in agony.
Kaiser's breathing started to skyrocket, he calmed himself down by shutting his eyes. He gratefully accepted the hand, the spy tucked his injured arm further into his coat.
"If you're not feeling well, you can go ahead and leave early. Thank you both for your time." Goodwitch said.
Kaiser silently nodded and left the arena altogether.
Kaiser defeatedly walked back into his dorm, he needed to redress his wounds. The spy walked into the bathroom where shards of broken glass lay, he quickly swept it up with a broom he kept in the corner. The glass was swept into a dustpan for later.
The water in the sink was quickly dyed red as it mixed with the cuts on his knuckles. Kaiser hissed as soon as the peroxide made contact with his wounds, he just as quickly put another bandage over his hand.
Kaiser grabbed the dustpan on his way out and dumped the contents into a wastebasket next to his dresser. A black box on his dressers drew his attention, it had a glass top to proudly display whatever it held. In this case it was the KA-BAR 5011 fighting knife gifted to him by Kane a long time ago.
Kaiser just opened his scroll and looked up disturbances in Vale that might lead to Jasper and his supply of Hercules.
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"You're telling me you haven't done this before?" Kane said as he tried to start a fire, the assassin looked over at the boy trying to make sense of the instructions given to him.
"The manual is weird, I'm missing a piece and it won't even tell me which!" Kaiser threw the manual in frustration, setting up a tent was harder than he thought.
"Alright, how bout we switch jobs? You seem a lot better at starting fires." Kane threw in the sarcastic remark knowing Kaiser's tendency.
"Why'd you even request this anyway? There's these little creatures everywhere and I hate them."
"Because we both need downtime. Especially after that fiasco down in Atlas." It took Kane a minute to process Kaiser's opinion on "little creatures". "They're called insects. Geez, do you get out much?"
"Not that I recall…" Kaiser was now gathering sticks and wood to feed the fire.
"Downtime?" Kane asked as he expertly Inserted the tent's frame between the cloth covers.
"All I do is go on operations, recuperate, and train." Kaiser watched as sparks started spreading around the dry wood. "I won't be able to perform at optimal capacity for Mr. Ross if I take a rest period."
"Trust me kid, you're gonna want a rest period." Kane strode over to Kaiser who managed to start the fire. The assassin unstrapped a knife from his leg and dropped the weapon next to the boy.
"What's this?"
"It's you. Now shut up and smash a rock against it." Kane kicked a heavy rock to roll in Kaiser's direction.
"I don't see what this has to do with anything."
"Just do it Kaiser." Kane went back to setting up the tent as he heard the clank of metal against rock.
An hour passed by when Kane was handed back a mangled chunk of metal. What was once a perfectly fine KA-BAR was now something meant for the scrap heap.
"Why is it like this?"
"Because I kept hitting it."
"Exactly, now what would happen if I tried to stab you?"
"It wouldn't pierce because it's been dulled and overworked."
"Works the same with people, you wouldn't be as good as you are if you didn't take a rest every once in a while." Kane waved the boy off as he tried to give the knife back. "You keep it. Restore it and keep it as a reminder that you're gonna need to rest every now and then." The assassin procured a pack of playing cards. "Come, I'll teach you to cheat at poker."
"It's fine, I already know how." Kaiser followed the ex-Zodiac assassin to cheat him out of some money.
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The door softly clicked shut, Mercury scanned the room for any potential hazards.
"How did the preliminary trials go, Mercury?"
Cinder did not bother looking back at him as she brushed her hair.
"Don't know, couldn't get much about that Ruby girl you were telling me about." Mercury nonchalantly crossed his arms. "I might be able to squeeze a good amount of info out of that dude Kaiser. Couldn't get much now since he could barely walk. I'll try to work that angle when he's capable of answering my questions with a clear answer. Seems kinda like a loner most of the time, it'll be easier if I can corner him." Mercury plopped down onto his bed and cracked open a comic book.
"Good. See if you can also find any clues as to why his Beacon transcript is empty." Cinder moved on to doing her eyebrows.
"You're the boss." Mercury sarcastically said.
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An: reviews are welcome.