"So… Do we just knock on the doorbell?"
-Jaune Arc, as written by me.(chapter 15)
I need to stop writing and editing these chapters at 3am
It's been around four months and I haven't posted shit, I'm sorry for that. Just starting school after half a year of working is jarring as hell, add to that a personal loss I suffered a couple weeks ago and I couldn't bring myself to write much.
I decided that maybe I should release this chapter and the next chapter close to each other so nobody would have to wait months on end between chapters. I also think that I might release chapters in pairs because it would just make sense in the context of the paired chapters.
[edit: as of February 28, 2022, I have still not completed chapter 17, so I've decided to upload this one early so it feels like I've accomplished something this month. Chapter 17 should be ready by mid-March and Is aiming to be probably my largest chapter yet.]
Anyways I hope I'm doing better with this fic because rereading the first few chapters makes me feel like there was no real goal.
TL;DR: This fic isn't dead, This is just my first time writing anything bigger than a 500 word essay.
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Sharp footsteps rang out on the concrete floor, the clack of dress shoes almost overtook the sounds of gunshots in the air.
The room was grey from the cement, gates lined up in rows to create aisles where paper sheets hung at the end.
Richard Stone was busying himself in the shooting range by emptying a clip into a paper target. Every shot taken, was another life snuffed out, in the field anyway. For now, he was practicing his near perfect shooting.
Ready, aim, fire.
The target itself was riddled with bullet holes, the bullets slammed into the wall behind the bullets. Once sufficiently ruined, the automated target provider hand pulled a fresh sheet of paper with a human target printed on its length and replaced it with the one riddled with bullet holes.
Stone had finished unloading another clip into the target when the clacking stopped.
"Nice shooting." A man with a blond ponytail interrupted.
If this was any other person, Stone would've told them to fuck off. This wasn't just anyone though, this was Martin Kane who had approached him.
Martin Kane was a living legend among those in the IPS, he had a 100% success rate in all of his missions. Once Scorpio's top assassin and at one point the most wanted man on Remnant was now a part of the IPS. So far he had worked with them for two years, and in those two years he had taken down some of the worst people in the world. The whispers of his escapades were much more believable than the lies told about some kid who was doing operations for Albert Ross.
It pissed him off greatly that one of the heads of the IPS would insult the soldiers and spies that trained to be a part of it by lording the achievements of a child over them.
Still… that bit of frustration was overshadowed when being approached by arguably one of the most dangerous assassins on Remnant.
"Mr. Kane!" Stone immediately stuck out his hand to shake the blond assassin's. "It is an honor to meet you."
Kane only shook the man's hand out of politeness. "I've heard a lot about you, people say you're good with a gun."
"Any kind." Stone reloaded his pistol, he started aiming at the paper targets a second later. "Handguns, snipers, assault rifles. I've tried my hand at all of them, and each one I've mastered."
"Neat shit." Kane held a cream colored folder in his arms, it had taken the forefront of his mind. "I'm assembling a task force, so to speak."
Stone lit up at this, he'd been waiting his entire career for something like this. Ever since he'd been picked up by the IPS after his discharge from Vacuo's military, Stone had followed all of his superior's orders. That had caught the eye of Albert Ross, clearly his hard work was paying off.
"I would be honored." Stone answered, he hadn't even waited for Kane to make an offer.
"That quick, huh!?" Kane flipped through the folder he had brought with him. "Didn't even let me offer you your position."
"I put trust in my superior that anything he does is for my benefit." Stone rambled out, a slight gleam in his eyes. He had to run his hand through his dark blue hair that was set in a short fringe cut.
"We'll then consider yourself part of the Phantom unit." A short pause occurred, as if it was the first time that Kane had heard his own words. "That's what I'm calling this little ragtag group of ours."
For the first time, Stone noticed the cream colored folder in Kane's hands. "Is that a mission briefing?"
"Not exactly." Kane ruffled the papers between his fingers, he was liable to get a papercut. "See I was just given an assignment from Ross, and I was looking for a partner on the assignment."
This was his moment, he'd get to prove himself to quite possibly the greatest assassin of this generation. Stone accepted the folder, immediately he flipped through the pages to browse mission details. He found none, instead there was only schematics of a large multi-complex building.
It looked to be a dormitory of some sort.
A couple more flips of the pages showed another agent, it didn't take long before Stone's excitement morphed into shocked anger.
"What the hell is this?" Stone barked, uncaring whether or not he had disrespected his superior.
"Yeah… see, I need you to scope out this area for me." Kane pointed to a particular picture in the file, this only served to make Stone more annoyed. "I need you to find this person and get his attention, I'll give you a briefcase to give to him."
"Why would you need someone like him? I'd be a much better candidate to help with your mission!" Stone furiously pushed back the file folder. "There's nothing special about this guy."
Kane only fixed the man with a glare, as if he was personally offended by the remarks made by Stone. "I'm relying on this guy because I put trust in his abilities to handle a specific situation." Kane normally took this clarifying tone when he had to explain to his younger brother why he couldn't hang out more often in the past. "As Ross put trust in me to lead this team, I will put my trust in you to be my secondary marksman."
Kane then proceeded to take Stone's pistol, he'd have to humble the IPS soldier for his point to get through. "Clearly if the guy you say isn't special, it just means you're even less than that." Kane raised the gun to the target, though unlike Stone, Kane didn't bother looking at the targets.
Stone counted out the steps that Kane took for his shooting technique.
Fire.
Shock overtook the marksman, Kane managed to hit the targets perfectly despite skipping two steps all the while maintaining direct eye contact. This must've been the notoriously difficult point shooting technique that the ex-Scorpio assassin was rumored to have mastered.
The gap in skill was apparent, Stone was nothing compared to the assassin.
"We all have something to offer." Kane finished, the pistol was left on the table in front of Stone. "But not all skills work for all problems. I need a specific skill set to help me with mine, and I want you to find the guy in this file to help me." Kane slid the folder towards Stone, uncaring of the soldier's glare. "I need this done next Saturday."
Stone stewed in his own anger as the assassin left the shooting range.
/-/
Kaiser stepped forward, the speed of his punch sliced the air around his fist. Even having Great Escape strapped to his arm and his slightly heavy long coat didn't hinder the speed of his movement.
Turning back around, Kaiser deployed a low block.
Stepping forward once again, Kaiser threw another punch without breaking his ready stance.
To the outside world, Kaiser looked like an interpretive dancer moving any way that came to mind. His movements were practiced and precise, each step executed flawlessly. Even the directions in which he moved had a pattern, walking in a straight line with another line running in the middle.
Kaiser was practicing his kata, the foundation of his fighting style. The already memorized movements allowed Kaiser to clear his mind while he went through another set of kicks and strikes. Kaiser needed to be at his best by the time his meeting with Jasper would take place, consequently, his life as a student had begun to suffer.
Kaiser moved his left arm down while simultaneously raising his right arm in a knife hand block.
His search for information had occupied all of his time outside of classes, thus causing his grades to slip. Stacks of homework papers sat upon his desk in his dorm, it'd take a week with no breaks to finish all those and turn them in. Sometimes he felt the glare of other hard working students, they silently judged him for not even attempting to prove his place in Beacon. Kaiser idly wondered if his peers would give him some leniency if he told them about the dangerous assassin peddling super steroids to any group who was willing to buy.
As if they'd take it as anything other than Kaiser looking for attention.
Besides, Kaiser could not involve anybody else with Jasper. This was a job that had to be done cleanly and silently, students learning to kill wild grimm were not as equipped to deal with a highly trained contract killer.
Despite Kaiser having to admit to himself that this half baked operation had been a mess from the start, he'd deal with it himself without putting anyone in the crosshairs. This was his fight, not theirs.
Kaiser turned to the right, he brought his right hand into a knife hand block.
The spy idly wondered how this could've gone differently, he hated that he knew that the best way this could've gone down was if he was still completely in service of Albert Ross. Working without the full resources that IPS offered was a change that Kaiser had not fully recovered from, the best he had was a contact to apprehend figures in the Hercules operation and a contact in the technical department. Most of everything that had happened with finding Jasper was one long physical confrontation, with good reason though.
The corporate workers of the IPS were the minds behind every operation, and agents such as Kaiser were mostly glorified grunt workers.
That wasn't to say Kaiser followed absolutely every order given, oftentimes in the field he'd have to trust his own judgment. But a lifetime serving under mission organizers had warped his perception of choice and planning, something that would be a terrible quality for a leader of a team. On that note, it might've been a mercy for Kaiser to not be on a team here at Beacon. He probably would have struggled to organize a team if he were made leader.
Kaiser had finally settled back into his ready stance, finishing his kata, a deep breath was let out. He was relaxed, yet alert, sensing his surroundings despite keeping his eyes closed. Every sense had to be honed to its limit so he'd never be caught off guard, or else he could be killed at any moment.
Even in the deafening silence of the empty auditorium, Kaiser knew somebody was watching him.
The footsteps around the amphitheater were measured, soft, and barely able to be detected. Kaiser could hear the steps clearly, because normally the floor was occupied by Goodwitch's combat class. Instead, it was only one person, who was well versed in sneaking around.
The only obvious candidate Kaiser could think of: was himself.
Kaiser ruled out basically everyone else he was close with, they were much too loud in both demeanor and sound.
Every member of team RWBY.
Every member of team JNPR.
Martin Kane? No, Kane was dead, there was no no way it could've been him.
Really it should've been obvious, it was someone who had intentionally snuck up on Kaiser without him even being able to sense it.
"Mercury." Kaiser's statement sounded more like a drill sergeant's roll call.
"And a good morning to you too!" Mercury called out, it sounded as if he was happy to see Kaiser.
More like he was happy to finally get his part of the job over with, all he needed to do was get a confirmation and maybe a bit more information. After that he could assess if Kaiser was a threat to Cinder's plan, then they'd decide what to do from there depending on the circumstances.
"Didn't think people came here early in the morning." Mercury got onto the dueling stage, approaching Kaiser with silent footsteps. "So what are you doing here?"
Mercury's gait screamed an overconfident danger that Kaiser had encountered before, but could not place exactly where.
"Just here to clear my mind." Kaiser replied, he stretched his arms outwards to shake out the morning drowsiness. "You don't seem like someone who's stressed enough to be here."
Mercury let out a deep laugh, his smile was genuine. "You'd think that, but try dorming with two chicks who aren't into you!"
"I see." Kaiser really didn't see, he was still living in an empty dorm. "What brings you here though?"
"I was going to kill time at the library, but I saw you dancing as I was passing by." Mercury spotted Kaiser's duffle bag, he tossed a towel resting atop it to the spy.
"It's not dancing, it's Kata." Kaiser wiped his face with the towel, he spotted a confused looking Mercury out of the corner of his eye. "It's to help me memorize my movements."
"Still looks a little like dancing to me, I don't think you can prove me wrong." Mercury was purposely goading Kaiser into a fight, he hoped if he was tired out, the spy would be more vulnerable to questioning.
"You may believe what you think." Kaiser rubbed the back of his neck, considering his next action. "But you shouldn't doubt it's effectiveness, would you like to see it for yourself?"
Things couldn't have gone better for Mercury, this would also allow him to experience Kaiser's fighting prowess firsthand. "Sure, I'm always up for an early morning spar, just hope you can keep up."
Mercury put his hands up in a defensive stance, he was ready to block or parry any incoming attack.
Kaiser put his own fist up in an offensive stance, his left arm ready to deploy Great Escape.
The two trained fighters circled each other like sharks in the water, any sudden movement would force the other to respond.
Kaiser damned all consequences and stepped in for an attack, only for a flash of movement to strike Kaiser with the speed of a bullet train. He jumped back a short distance, his piercing red eyes sizing up Mercury.
Mercury, on the other hand, had been focused on the way Kaiser held himself. His posture suggested that he was highly trained, that much was obvious. More interestingly, Mercury noticed the deep analytical gaze that was locked onto him.
Kaiser's eyes seemed as if they were empty, as if the boy himself was on autopilot.
Mercury's eye twitched at that, a vision of his father flashed in front of him. The look in Kaiser's eyes was the same one as Marcus Black's after getting home from a job. It was a haunted look that always resided in him even when he slept half drunk on the couch.
There weren't many things that could put Mercury on edge, but he felt compelled to attack Kaiser for reminding him of his father.
Mercury dashed forwards, but he stepped back quickly to avoid a crescent kick from Kaiser. He ducked to avoid Kaiser's fist swing at him in rapid succession, Mercury took advantage of Kaiser's opening to hit him with a reverse roundhouse kick. The last thing he expected was for Kaiser to catch his leg.
Kaiser drove his elbow down on the knee in an instant, then struck Mercury in the face the same way.
Mercury stumbled back but recovered by flipping through the air, Kaiser never saw this coming.
The spy was hit in the shoulder with a precise axe kick, his face crumpled into one of exertion.
After making some distance between them, Mercury quickly assessed that Kaiser was purposely taking hits to gauge the other boy. If Kaiser wanted to test his strength, he wouldn't go easy on the supposed spy.
Kaiser had also noticed something crucial in the exchange, the only hit that affected Mercury was the elbow strike to the face. The hit to the leg hardly if at all made Mercury flinch, the ache in Kaiser's elbow led him to believe that Mercury had thin armor under his clothes.
The lack of a slight limp on Mercury's leg only punctuated Kaiser's suspicion.
Before any other thought was had, Mercury shot forward after a sharp bang from his boots. His weapon was Talaria, a shotgun device built straight into his boots.
Kaiser forced himself into a blocking stance, the moment Mercury collided with him, he'd counter and knock him out.
Mercury knew that Kaiser would try to counter, so he did what he wouldn't expect.
Mercury's boots skidded to a halt just a foot away from Kaiser, his leg snapped out in a roundhouse kick. Catching Kaiser by surprise and cracking against his head, the first of many kicks that Mercury chained against Kaiser.
A reverse roundhouse kick to the arm.
A front kick to the shoulder.
An ankle kick to limit Kaiser's mobility.
Kaiser did manage to block the last kick, he sidestepped a fist that would have crashed against his throat. If the strike actually landed, he would have no doubt spent the rest of the fight choking, Kaiser tried to keep his cool despite the lethal attack. Kaiser was just about to close in to get Mercury in the face, but paused when Mercury stepped to the side.
It was a telegraphed move that told Kaiser that he was in imminent danger, Mercury tried to knee Kaiser in the liver after getting him in a clinch. Alarms went off in Kaiser's head as he knew that a liver shot could momentarily shut down his nervous system, his eyes widened in shock as he shoved Mercury backwards to create space.
It only occurred to Kaiser at that moment that Mercury Black fought like a trained killer.
Past fights with Scorpio assassins flashed in Kaiser's mind, leaving the boy with uneven breath.
Kaiser sprinted forward towards the Mercury, the gray-haired boy was squatting on one leg, hurrying to get up.
Or so he made it seem…
Once Kaiser was in range, Mercury had swept his left leg out. All of his weight rested on his shoulder as he had his arm supporting himself from behind, then he brought himself up by swinging his leg into an arc. Simultaneously bringing Mercury up into a standing position, and delivering a brutal kick that sent Kaiser spiraling to the side.
The Martelo no Chão, or the Hammer from the ground.
Kaiser was on the floor contemplating what had happened, he quickly got off the floor and assessed Mercury. The fluid dance-like maneuver he pulled showed that Mercury had trained in Capoeira, mainly pairing that with the lightning quick kicks of Tae Kwon Do. That and the fact that Mercury's weapons were built into his boots, had given Kaiser the knowledge that Mercury's weakness would be his own legs.
A dark thought had sparked in the young spy's mind, what if he aimed for Mercury's knee to break the leg? No, that was rationalization of his mind trained in assassination tactics, he couldn't allow himself to cripple a fellow student. Anyways, there was little possibility of that happening since Mercury had already proven to have some sort of armor to protect his leg.
Kaiser rushed at Mercury, he hadn't even made it half the distance when Mercury feigned a front kick. The spy just barely managed to dodge a shotgun blast from Talaria, he should have increased the distance between them to be able to avoid the projectiles.
Mercury shot off a couple more projectiles in Kaiser's direction, each one followed by two more.
Kaiser fluidly sidestepped and weaved around each shot, he began a mad dash towards Mercury.
When suddenly, the spy felt a sharp jolt of pain in his side, he was propelled forward by an explosion. One look back had told him everything he needed to know, the projectiles that Mercury shot had curved back and were gunning for Kaiser.
Homing missiles?
Kaiser hopped up and avoided the first volley of shots, his back hit the wooden wall of the auditorium stage. Leaving the spy nowhere to go while Mercury's projectiles tracked their target.
Nowhere to go… except up.
Kaiser aimed Great Escape towards the amphitheater ceiling, hauling himself upwards while the projectiles crashed into the wall.
The dust had settled, both Mercury and Kaiser had paused for reprieve in battle. Mercury arrogantly stared up at Kaiser, who was firmly planting his feet on the ceiling as he held on by his grappling hook.
"Having fun up there?" Mercury smirked at him, almost daring him to come back down, but doing so would make Kaiser much more easily targeted by Mercury's projectiles.
Kaiser didn't rise to the Mercury's wind-up, instead he'd offered one of his own. "You're a bit too boring for me to have any." In truth, Kaiser had already worked up a sweat earlier and was now pushing himself through this fight. He cringed at the moment he had been hit with Mercury's surprise kick, he had been exploited after blinding himself with weakness. That wouldn't work again though, his head was clearer now. Kaiser's nerves steeled themselves, he'd be ready for Mercury if he blasted himself towards the spy.
As expected, Mercury shot off eight consecutive shots from his boots. The high-impact dust rounds curved upwards as they sped towards the boy hanging upside-down from the ceiling. The compact missiles were a mere split-second away from hitting Kaiser, but he had an out to that.
Yanking Great Escape's hook from the ceiling, Kaiser started his fall from a 50 foot drop.
The first three shots raced past Kaiser with just a twist of his hips, the next two weaved around his legs as he adjusted their positions.
The last three were-
Shit!
Mercury had used his boots to blast himself up towards the ceiling, he was speeding towards Kaiser even faster than his dust rounds did.
Mercury cocked his leg back in preparation for a debilitating kick, he knew that Kaiser couldn't freely move mid-air. He released the kick, getting the spy in the neck. Mercury was surprised that Kaiser managed to grab onto his shirt to pull him towards the rapidly approaching stage floor.
Both boys crashed to the floor, with the final three dust rounds making their final descent.
Mercury had gotten up first and jumped back to avoid one of his projectiles, small debris from the stage went flying from the impact.
Kaiser rolled out of the way of the second dust round, his back to the manageable explosion. He made one last wild dash towards Mercury, he could finish this in an instant!
Kaiser almost always dealt in absolutes, which lent to the disparity of having to use a move which dealt him the highest risk possible in a fight. Mercury had matched his skill in combat, and in some respects, even surpassed the spy. Even now when Mercury charged at Kaiser in retaliation, the spy did not back down.
Once in range, Kaiser threw his arm out in a descending curve. Kaiser pushed off with his front leg, then followed his arm's momentum to do a side flip. His back leg kicked out, intending to hit Mercury with Kaiser's most effective technique.
Do Mawashi Kaiten Geri, or as his old combat instructors referred to it: The Rolling Thunder Kick.
This was a technique meant to surprise the opponent, having them on the ground before they even knew what hit them. Even if Kaiser's heel only managed to graze Mercury in the face, he'd be knocked unconscious rather easily. The downside to this move was the fact that missing the target would cause the user to fall to the floor, giving ample opportunity for the target to make the final move while the user was on the ground.
Kaiser had almost hit Mercury in the face with pinpoint accuracy, though he failed to account for one thing.
That final damnable dust round.
A large blast had thrown both boys on either side of the arena before they even made contact, a chorus of groans erupted as fragments of the broken stage went flying. A single thought came to both students, but neither was willing to admit it to the other.
Damn, this was just supposed to be training.
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Kaiser forked a chunk of perfectly cooked salmon into his mouth, students passed by the outdoor table area where Kaiser enjoyed his lunch. The day had gone as normal as any other day could have been, well, as normal a day here at Beacon could be.
Port had brought in a live alpha Beowolf into class after all.
Regardless, Kaiser tried to enjoy his day in relative silence, he needed as much time to think about the coming days as possible. Not only did he need to physically prepare for the battle that lay ahead, he needed to psychologically prepare himself as well.
Why? Well, one had to be ready to kill.
Kaiser had already broken through the barrier before, he understood that lives had to be taken for more to be saved. But he didn't think he could do so as easily as before, for one, things had changed. He had been trying(perhaps unsuccessfully) to settle into a normal life, but normality could almost never be achieved when it came to Kaiser.
Now here he was, doing more dirty work for the man he'd thought he'd never deal with again.
The difference between then and now were the people. Back then, he was an emotionless spy surrounded by unsympathetic spies, commanded by cold superiors, all run by the most frigid man on Remnant. Something had to be said about the fact that the most caring person Kaiser had known at that point was a cold-blooded assassin.
Now, he was just a student trying to spend time with the most welcoming group of people he had ever met.
Kaiser couldn't bear the thought of looking his classmates in the eye after he would murder Jasper Greene.
Everybody in school knew he was a spy, now he was a terrible one for having that fact exposed. But none of the details had ever been disclosed to anyone, anyone other than Yang that is.
Yang knew that Kaiser had killed people before, but she had told him it wasn't his fault and that he was just following orders.
Should he choose to kill someone now, it would undo the process that he painstakingly tried to start in coming to Beacon.
If he chose to spare Jasper, he'd no doubt escape using his contacts in Zodiac. Once out, he'd wreak more havoc without even being there, the Hercules drug could not be allowed to continue selling here in Vale. So the steroid-using assassin had to be put down… permanently.
After that, no matter how hard it would be, he'd try to regain the little bit of normality that he had here at Beacon.
Kaiser would sacrifice his incredibly shoddily made principles just to maintain this peaceful part of his life.
Kaiser absentmindedly chewed on some rice plated next to his salmon, he idly wondered what the other students milling around did during the day. It was quite interesting to see people as more than targets, they all had complex lives that only they could lead. Everybody here made choices completely of their own volition, Kaiser hoped that he would soon have the same options to do so.
"The food isn't good enough to justify the line I had to wait in." Mercury set his own tray down, a steak dinner.
Mercury was also one such person with the freedom to choose, even something as minuscule as a seat to sit in. He could've sat with his team, or even with team RWBY, as many were inclined to do now that the school dance was drawing near.
Kaiser appreciated the fact that Mercury kept him company when many others would have gone with their friends.
Still… he couldn't shake off the feeling he was being observed.
"This is a boarding school with a government level of funding, I don't think anybody could've expected much when it came to the food here." At that precise moment, Kaiser shoveled some rice into his mouth, a couple grains turned out to be undercooked.
"Might as well give the school my savings if it means my steak gets less chewy." Mercury cut up a piece of said steak, his eyes discreetly scanning for eavesdroppers.
"They'll likely spend the money on more dust since Vale's on the shortage." Kaiser finished up his meal, but he remained at the round table to keep Mercury company, He kept himself busy by watching his surroundings.
Mercury looked across at his companion, the more he found out about Kaiser, the more things made sense. He'd thought that Kaiser was an unreasonably paranoid kid before learning that he was a spy, but he knew that espionage required a more than necessary amount of caution. Many things that Kaiser did were also routine practices that Marcus Black had drilled into his son.
Mercury had to hide the fact that he was grinding his own teeth, his fist covering the front of his face.
Therein lay the problem, Kaiser was too much like Marcus Black. Mercury couldn't unsee it now, it should have been more obvious! Still, he needed to gather a bit more information. "I'm still sore from this morning, you almost had me beat."
"Almost, that dust round was the deciding factor between the both of us." Kaiser tilted his head a little, then winced when it ached heavily. "God, my neck is still stiff, who taught you to fight like that?"
"Oh, uhh, my dad taught me. Used to take me out back and we'd practice until sunset." Mercury fed the half-truth to Kaiser, it could be believed just as long as there was a bit of truth. "But that last kick though, must've been all that spy training huh."
Kaiser's gaze snapped to Mercury, his breath quickened. He didn't think the news would travel as far as the transfers, he thought the controversy of his espionage career would've at least been a secret kept by Beacon students.
Mercury noticed the way Kaiser looked at him, it was as if he left the boy in a spotlight. "Easy there, I just overheard some other students talking a couple days ago."
"What exactly did you hear?" Kaiser's nerves were on edge, where exactly was Mercury taking this?
"Nothing much, just that you completely wiped out a team because the leader called you out." Mercury gave a shrug, his eyes feigning disinterest. "Just wanted to check out and see if it was true."
Kaiser wasn't comfortable with this, should he deny the fact? That would be lying to his friend, were they even friends? They'd only known each other for a little over a month, and everybody else already knew. "Why are you asking me this?"
Maybe Mercury was nervous, or maybe he needed to signify that there was no real tension behind his question. Either way, Mercury reached his hand back and started scratching the back of his own neck. "Well, I guess I just don't want to be the only one here with a secret."
Kaiser flinched, he didn't exactly know why.
"You see", Mercury's voice went down to a hushed tone. "My dad was an assassin."
Everything suddenly slowed to a halt, it was as if the world had stopped turning. Had Kaiser heard right? There wasn't any way that was true! But… it would make more sense that way. Only Scorpio assassins and fellow spies had been able to put Kaiser on edge the way Mercury did.
"He wasn't the best dad." Mercury stretched out a little in his seat. "I know most dads like to show their kids their work, but teaching me how to kill a man at age 12 is a bit much."
"Does that mean that you're…" Kaiser didn't want to assume, even if Mercury was hinting towards the obvious.
"An assassin?" Mercury talked openly to show he was nonchalant, but quiet enough to not alert those around him. "Not exactly, I haven't really gone into the family business. But my dad beat into me what it meant to be a killer." Mercury's voice dripped with venom, he was letting his emotions leak into his work. "I hated it. I ran away and joined Haven." Mercury conveniently left out that he had killed Marcus before doing so, among other specifics.
"I'm very sorry." What else could Kaiser say?
"It's alright, I guess." Mercury managed to calm himself down, his knife sliced the steak that was up until now giving him trouble. "When I heard the rumors about you, I just thought I wasn't alone."
Something had been caught in Kaiser's throat, as if it were tightening to a painful degree. "You're not as alone as you think, it's true. The IPS used me as their spy up until I left, I came here for a new start. I hope that one day I can become more than what I was trained for, or at the very least, just get away from everything and live a normal life."
Mercury slowly nodded as he continued his meal, both boys stayed silent at the table. One had gathered the confirmation he had been dreaming of, the other oblivious to the first one's plan.
It wasn't until a little while later that Kaiser realized he had let slip a little more than he intended, months outside of the IPS had left him making small mistakes. He didn't worry much about what he said, Mercury was his friend, he could be trusted.
/-/
"Howdy there fellas!" Jasper Greene strode into the auto garage without much sound, his voice carried a fake benevolence. Ever since he'd gotten a call from Clyde, a little voice in his head had told him to visit the auto garage. "Hell of a place you got here."
The garage was a wreck, papers had been strewn about and tools clattered about. Two men worked on an old piece of junk that barely resembled a car, their arms slick with motor oil.
"Any chance your boss is in?" Jasper stepped aside to not dirty some of the papers on the floor. One of the workers, a large man with a bandana, stood upright to call someone.
Ten seconds passed when out walked the owner of the auto garage, Clyde. "You're not with the police are you?"
Jasper gestured to his combat uniform, no obvious badge or indicator of law enforcement was visible. "I should hope not, because I'm about as reputable as your lot." Jasper's warm southern drawl filled the room, the assassin flicked his finger at his cowboy hat that he chose to wear on this particularly sunny day.
"Who are you?" Clyde asked, he felt a lot more paranoid ever since those two boys from before had come by. "Why are you here?"
"I believe we spoke on the scroll a couple weeks ago." Jasper carefully scanned the room, upon close inspection, all three occupants of the garage had ugly purple bruises. They had all been in a fight recently, that much Jasper could tell.
"I'm not falling for that shit again, last time I talked to someone on the scroll, they trashed my place! Tiny! Twig! Get the bats and show him how we welcome people in Vale!" Both mechanics charged at Jasper on the orders of their boss.
"Saturn, engage!" Jasper barked out.
The garage exploded into a storm of bullets, everything in the room had been ripped to shreds. Everything that is… except for the four people in the room. The color had drained from the garage workers, a smirk adorned the assassin as he commanded the five man unit.
The Saturn unit.
The Saturn unit were Capricorn soldiers that were left to Jasper by Hank Hammers long ago. Their purpose was to help Jasper eliminate the boy who had stumbled upon the Hercules stash a couple months ago, it had seemed random before, but now Jasper knew that the boy was a trained spy armed with Scorpio's assassination tactics. Whether or not that the boy could take the Capricorn soldiers was yet unknown, but Jasper's own experience dictated that it was the most likely outcome.
The Capricorn soldiers wore very much the same combat uniform as Jasper, the only difference being the silver Velcro patch of the tenth astrological sign on their arm.
Five soldiers marched in after the hail of bullets, each one built for armed combat. All five Capricorn soldiers had M4 Carbines pointed at the trio of garage workers, their standard issue Sig Sauer M17 resting in their leg holsters.
"As I was just about to tell you before getting rudely interrupted, I was the one you spoke with on the scroll, you wanted a shipment of our merchandise." Jasper went on, he tipped his cowboy hat a little bit higher. "I received a call very recently from the same scroll, except you weren't the one answering. Which leads me to believe that you've been burned."
Thoughts rushed to Clyde's head as he faced the assassin, having done all the business on call, he had never seen the intimidating form of the Scorpio assassin. Whispers had been shared of what Zodiac did to those who threatened to expose them, either intentionally or unintentionally. It made Clyde hesitate telling Jasper that he had failed in keeping Zodiac a secret to those who wished to oppose it.
"I didn't let you get burned, that was my son talking to you, I was too busy with my clients to call you!" Clyde hammered out his lie as quickly as possible.
Nervousness was a significant tell that one was lying, and Jasper grasped onto that as he slowly approached a trembling Clyde. "Now why do I get the feeling you are not being honest with me?" His patronizing tone would have been so infuriating if the assassin had not been so terrifying.
Clyde now shook like a leaf under the sadistic gaze of Jasper Greene, he was powerless to stop the assassin grabbing him by his sides.
"Saturn 4, attach that hook to the car!" Jasper yelled out, his hand gestured towards a hook on a pulley system meant to haul cars up for body work. "Saturn 2, get in the driver's seat!" Jasper pointed towards the car that Tiny and Twig had been working on, a Capricorn soldier stepped inside the decade-old car.
Slowly, the end of the car had been hauled up with the soldier inside. The creaking of the rusted chain and back fender had stopped when the pulley halted its function.
Jasper shoved Clyde to the floor, the garage owner's clothes now stained with oil along with fear. Jasper's combat boot pressed down on a trembling Clyde's chest, pinning Clyde down.
"Now you're gonna tell me what that call was about or I'll let my friend here give you a bad case of road rash."
As if to punctuate his statement, the rear tires of the car had begun spinning.
"I know that this particular beauty can go 0 to 80 miles in just about five seconds." Jasper grasped for the chain on the pulley system, he gave it a couple tugs to test the waters. Immediately the car creaked and swayed just above Clyde's head, every motion rocked the squealing tires closer to Clyde's head.
"I swear to you that nobody came, my son was the one who called you, nobody else!" Clyde desperately clung onto his story, praying to every god imaginable that Jasper listened. The wheel could grate the skin off Clyde's face if it ever came in contact, if not, the whole car would just pop his head off like a grape.
"I reckon we take a bit of skin off to show that we're not joking, what do you say boys?" After multiple nods, Jasper let the wheel lower itself.
A blood-curdling scream was heard all throughout, a streak of blood sprayed in the direction opposite of the wheel accelerating to 80 miles. A tire track on Clyde's face left a pulpy mess, his employees looked away in horror.
"I don't necessarily need you, your cohorts here must've been here when I got called. I could just ask one of them…"
Clyde, afraid for his life, shook his head at a supersonic speed. His fear kept him from making any sort of noise, his loss for words may have been his loss of life.
"Can't even speak, guess I went too far with this one." Jasper used the pulley system to raise the car, he caught the spark of terror in Clyde's eyes. "Nice knowin ya." The car plummeted, the force of 4000 pounds would grind Clyde's head into nothing more than a thick paste on the concrete floor.
"OK!"
A tense silence filled the room, save for the creaking of the car, and the grunts of an assassin on Hercules.
Jasper had injected himself with Hercules before he had even entered the garage, he came in hoping to put the fear of god into someone. His personal variation of Hercules didn't expand the muscle too large like other mixes, instead increasing his size to a reasonable proportion. Those who didn't know Jasper wouldn't be able to tell that he had taken the steroid, which was the case with Clyde.
With one arm pulling up the underside of the car, Jasper fixed a steely-eyed gaze at Clyde. "Talk before my arm gets sore."
"Ok! Ok! So a couple days ago two kids just barged in asking about ya!" Clyde scrambled from under Jasper, the assassin suddenly more terrifying than the prospect of being crushed. "One of them had hair like a Schnee!"
"White hair?" Jasper questioned the blood-stained man.
"Uhh… yeah."
"Well that figures." Jasper had a sneaking suspicion that the Beacon student was behind this little attempt at uncovering Gemini. He promised himself that he'd snuff out the life of that boy the next time they met, except he couldn't quite do that right now.
As much as he'd like to go down to Beacon and tear out the teen's throat, there'd be nothing protecting Jasper from retaliation against other students or even the huntsmen there. Beacon was a no operating zone for Jasper, that meant that Jasper had to lure Kaiser into his own territory.
It was likely that Jasper had already given off his location when he was on the scroll, so all that was left was to goad the spy into a trap.
"Saturn 4!" Jasper barked.
"Yes sir!" Saturn 4, a soldier wearing a helmet to conceal and protect his face, stood at attention.
"I have a job for you." Jasper had since let go of the car and let it fall to the ground, Clyde seemingly forgotten. "I need you to get into Beacon academy and find him." Jasper presented a photo of Kaiser from his scroll, the photo being from the documents that had been sent over by Hank Hammers. "Lethal action is authorized, understood?"
"Understood, sir!" The man called Saturn 4 marched out of the room, but he heard one last thing from Jasper.
"Make sure to change into your civvies before you get there, this has to be covert."
"Yes sir!" Saturn 4 muttered mostly to himself.
/-/
"So you're going to want the slide-back mechanism to pull on the spring so when you trigger it, the blade shoots out!" Ruby continued tinkering with some parts for a weapon, a slight grin covered her face as she said so.
There was one thing that Kaiser learned when he asked Ruby Rose for help with his weapon: it was just how little he actually knew about weapon's engineering.
Earlier that day Kaiser had shown up at team RWBY's dorm with his journal and a packet of cookies from one of the student stores on campus. He had needed help in creating his weapon, and there was only one person in mind to do this task. Kaiser had offered her the cookies in exchange for her advice, she gladly agreed and took one look at Kaiser's sketches.
Ruby had immediately laughed in his face, not in a malicious way, but it still hurt.
Ruby then helpfully picked apart everything that Kaiser had done wrong in his blueprints, she jotted down a couple notes next to some of the errors. Turns out all huntsmen in training learned weapon's design at an age where Kaiser was learning foreign languages, so he forgave himself for his lack of knowledge.
Kaiser was busy using a tiny circular buzz-saw to cut the blade he had forged at the handle. Once it was severed, he'd have to use a filing tool to smooth out the rough edges of where he cut the blade.
"Make sure to cut on the marks I drew inside the flat of the blade." Ruby finished up making a hollow frame where a tiny peg was sat at the very front, this would be used to hang the spring to be able to pull it back.
Kaiser dutifully used the tiny buzz saw to cut along the edges that Ruby drew, all his attention focused on not ruining the 12 inch blade.
"And pass me the cookies while you're at it, yeah?" Ruby's sudden question had caused Kaiser to internally jump, making the line he was cutting a little jagged.
Ruby sure was bossy when she was the one in complete control, Kaiser let it slide since he was benefiting from her experience. With a quick nod he silently passed over the packet of cookies, Kaiser's eyes never leaving his blade.
The end of the blade where the hilt would've been was now smoothed out, Kaiser set to work sharpening the blade.
Looking over to Ruby, he noticed her focused gaze on her work, testing out what worked and what didn't. That childlike wonder she showed, not yet tainted by the horrors of desperate battle. Kaiser hoped that would stay with her, even in her darkest moments.
A single tap on the table, Kaiser looked to his classmate, Ruby tapped her finger to signify that she wanted the blade, it was handed to her without a single thought.
Ruby had forged a sheet of metal to align the blade with the frame to complete the contraption. To bind the pieces together, Ruby had used an epoxy resin to glue the three pieces together. While Kaiser carefully held the contraption together, Ruby had set up a vice to keep it in place to let the glue set.
It took an hour for Ruby to do what Kaiser would have probably spent a week on, but it was finally done! Now that he saved himself countless hours, he could go ahead and sleep early.
Tomorrow was the big night that Kaiser would end up facing Jasper, the five days he was afforded was used to train and strategize. Unfortunately, not many kinks in Jasper's armor showed, so Kaiser might have to improvise.
"I'll just go now if you don't need me anymore, just let that sit for 10 minutes before trying it out." Ruby pointed towards the weapon, the vice could've crushed the thing in its grasp. "Just attach the straps and pull the string to pull the blade back."
Kaiser returned her instructions with a genuine smile. "Thanks Ruby, have a goodnight!"
"Later." Ruby left the forge with a wave of her hand.
Kaiser waited for the 10 minutes that Ruby had Instructed, as far as he knew, those were orders…
… and what was he without orders?
After attaching the final necessary components, Kaiser dug in his pocket for one more surprise.
A single vial containing a crystal of Hardlight dust.
The spy proceeded to prick his finger with the point of the blade, blood streamed down the painful cut as it sealed itself. Kaiser didn't mind the cut much, pain was the most basic expectation in his life. The vial of dust clicked into a cartridge space inside the frame, connecting it into the blade.
The difference was apparent as his silver blade was covered with a slight, ethereal glow. Once again pricking his finger, Kaiser noticed that the blade cut easier than before, and even burned his cut. He knew for a fact that he could not lose with this ace up his sleeve, quite literally in fact.
Kaiser stood admiring the piece of complex machinery that Ruby had crafted for him, with his help of course. It was a marvelous stealth based weapon, able to surprise any opponent in the heat of battle. This would surely ensure his victory against Jas-
Someone walked into the forge, Kaiser's nerves were screaming at him to look at the intruder.
It was just a janitor, he was pushing a cleaning supply cart around. He walked, or rather he awkwardly marched towards one of the work stations for the students. The janitor had a bulky stature to him, just a head taller than Kaiser. He had a purple hair color to him, it was trimmed into a buzz cut. Quite an odd hair style for a janitor, but Kaiser wouldn't judge, his own hair was beginning to grow out.
"Do you need me to clear out?" Kaiser grabbed his things and started placing his stuff in his bag. "I just about finished here so you can start cleaning."
The janitor only waved back at him, he started off by wiping down the first table which was a couple tables away. "No, no, you're fine. " The janitor glanced at the bag Kaiser had next to him, his interest piqued. "What do you have there?"
"Oh! It's just my weapon for school." Kaiser beamed, proud of the fact that he now had a proper one. Something felt off though, he couldn't tell what. A sixth sense for danger soon took hold and he was openly staring at the janitor, a history of close calls had taught him to trust his paranoia. "I don't think I've seen you around here, are you a new hire?"
"Ah yeah, totally. Just started today. I like it so far." The janitor said, he wiped down another table, his sleeves rustling quite loudly.
"I thought Beacon academy had the staff uniforms tailor-made, yours seem to be a little too big for you." Kaiser curiously pointed out, as he received a uniform when he used to do a work-study program for Ozpin.
"I'm just a temporary worker." There was tension in the air as the janitor said this, he walked over to the next table with his cleaning cart. This is where the janitor had slipped up, and Kaiser caught this immediately.
Stiff posture, measured steps, digging in his heels.
"You walk too much like a soldier." Kaiser's words came out as barely more than a whisper, but they held more weight than the world.
A flash of movement where the janitor reached for his cart, and Kaiser kicked at the nearest table. The spy had dove for cover behind the stainless steel table just as bullets from a SIG Sauer M17 pistol slammed into the table surface.
What the hell?!
Kaiser didn't have his coat with him, and aura could only do so much against bullets at point-blank range. He could go for his weapon, but that was too out of reach, he'd get shot just after leaving the cover of the table!
One of the bullets from the M17 had pierced the table and went right through it, it had grazed Kaiser's cheek as it hit the wall facing away from him. The spy was left with no time to think, he had to act fast.
A click reverberated throughout the room, signifying Kaiser's opening. The spy quickly lifted the table by its legs and started charging at the janitor before he could reload or switch to a possible sidearm.
Kaiser crashed the table against the janitor, causing the M17 to clatter to the floor. He felt secure enough to drop the table now, and so he did.
Only to be faced with the man pointing at him with a SIG Sauer P320.
Sidearm!
Kaiser narrowly avoided getting blasted by hot lead, one centimeter closer and he would've had a busted shoulder. The spy grasped for the janitor's wrist with one hand, controlling where the gun pointed toward. His heart rate spiked every time the janitor shot off a round in an attempt to shock Kaiser into letting go of his arm.
Kaiser had hastily retaliated with a headbutt, taking the Janitors focus off the gun in his hand. Kaiser's face whipped to one side as the janitor had struck him in the side of the head.
Kaiser's instincts urged him to hit the Janitor, unfortunately he was blocked and countered.
Tables clattered as Kaiser crashed to the ground, his eyes looked up in dread as the Janitor leveled his P320 to Kaiser's eyes.
"Sorry kid, I got orders." The janitor faced Kaiser with a hard-eyes glare.
The gun clicked… nothing else happened.
A mirthful chuckle escaped Kaiser as he held a small rectangular box in front of him, the magazine from the janitor's gun.
"And I seem to have your bullets."
One more trick up Kaiser's sleeves, and that in it of itself was part of the trick. His talent with misdirection was something that was taught to him before he was considered ready for his combat training. Misdirection paired well with sleight of hand, and it had yet to fail him. It was incredibly versatile in many situations, from hiding a flash drive in his sleeves to drawing a knife from there for self-defense.
"When did you get that?!" The janitor roared, he approached to kick Kaiser in the face.
Kaiser's own leg lashed out, causing the janitor to fall down on top of the boy. Kaiser's arm shot out for a single clean strike, knocking the janitor out.
A deep sigh, followed by a grunt of Kaiser pushing the janitor off of him. The spy used the table's edge to pull himself up, and the janitor rolled off completely. Kaiser looked down at the unconscious body, and the furnaces where he had first forged his blade. The connection quickly snapped together to give Kaiser the key to the answers he now so desperately wanted, all that was left was to move the body.
By the time the janitor had woken up, he was struggling to get himself free when he felt the heat of the furnace licking at his head. Kaiser had ended up pinning the janitor in front of the blazing fire, his arms locked behind his back.
"We'll start with who sent you."
"Go die in a ditch!" The janitor screeched as he jerked himself two ways to free himself.
Another tired sigh escaped Kaiser, he needed to build the pressure. Ignoring the janitor, Kaiser grabbed the nearby magazine of bullets he had gotten from the janitor's M17. Kaiser gently emptied out the magazine into his palm while using his knee to keep the janitor pinned down, after that, he tossed the bullets inside the fire.
Kaiser may not have much experience in engineering, but nobody could ever doubt his mind when it came to science. A lifetime of improvised tactics had accustomed the young spy to certain chemical reactions, and one of those reactions was going to get him what he wanted.
"The volatile gunpowder in those bullets is going to ignite and explode, there isn't any trajectory for it to go through." Kaiser stopped using his knee and instead went back to pinning the janitor with his hands, his head lowered to the man's ear. "The explosion will send shrapnel in all directions."
"You're bluffing!"
"Am I?" Kaiser sounded like he was calm, most importantly, in control. The first pop of a bullet rang, along with a bit of shrapnel hurtling past the two in front of the inferno. "It's only a matter of time before one clocks you in the forehead."
"It was Jasper alright!" It seemed that the chain of command was weak seeing at how easily the confession came.
Everything had clicked for Kaiser at that moment.
This attack wasn't meant to kill him, hell, it wasn't even meant to hurt him. Jasper knew what Kaiser was capable of, so sending a Capricorn soldier was a moot point.
This was a message, informing Kaiser that his location was known. Jasper could easily send a whole squadron, or even come himself, but the real point was all a condescending provocation.
'What are you going to do about it?' That was the message that the Scorpio assassin was telling the young spy.
Kaiser pulled the Capricorn soldier out of the trajectory of the furnace just as the white-hot bullet shells exploded outwards of the immense heat.
Both bodies tumbled down to the side, no sooner than he had gotten up, Kaiser had gotten on top of the janitor and held him by his collar. "You were expected to die, did you know that?" Kaiser looked down on the man drenched in sweat from close proximity to the furnace.
"I'm fine with dying, as long as I take you with me!" The Capricorn soldier pathetically attempted to claw at the spy who held him down.
"Better people have tried." Kaiser pulled the soldier up after rising up himself, his M17 forgotten, and likely to be turned into scrap metal later. "Is there something I can call you?"
"You don't need to know that!" The soldier gritted out as he thrashed around against Kaiser's hold.
Kaiser's jaw clenched in frustration, his annoyance apparent. "On the contrary, sir." The spy struck his fist against the struggling man. "I'm going to need a name that I can put on your headstone."
The janitor knew he was outmatched, with a quick gulp, he revealed what Kaiser quickly guessed was his call sign. "Saturn-4."
Using a call sign meant that Saturn must've been the name of his unit, and there were at least three other people in that unit. Now there was the issue of what the unit was composed of, this could give Kaiser a rough idea of what he could be going up against. Kaiser had already surmised that Saturn-4 was a soldier solely by the way he walked, and knowing his association with Jasper revealed exactly who Saturn worked for.
Capricorn, or Zodiac's branch of private soldiers. There wasn't much on file about Capricorn, other than that Zodiac used them as fodder. Most of these people were picked up in quite the same process as how the IPS recruited its spies and soldiers. There wasn't much difference between Zodiac and the IPS other than their services, that being which Zodiac was a mercenary force while the IPS was a proxy for the kingdom's government.
"Now here's what's going to happen Saturn, I'm going to walk you out of here and turn you in with some friends- some associates of mine." Kaiser had clenched his fist against Saturn's collar, he roughly shoved the man forward. "From there you can decide how things go, you can cooperate and tell my associates what you know, or you can refuse and end up in the middle of the Atlesian tundra with nothing to keep you warm."
"I'll take you out before y-" Saturn's voice quivered as he felt a sharp point graze his back, a tiny point which spoke volumes of the deadly weapon that was touching him.
Kaiser merely touched his blade to Saturn's back.
"You'll have to smile whenever we pass by someone, you don't want to alert anybody to anything suspicious, do you?" Ultimately, all the cards were in Kaiser's favor, a game rigged to his liking. If someone did suspect something, he could tell the truth that he had been attacked, Kaiser just wanted to avoid the hassle of any curiosities.
It had been a good few minutes of relative silence by the time both the Capricorn soldier and the IPS spy passed by Beacon's fountain. In the blink of an eye, Kaiser's contact lenses had shifted into it's mask form, the boy was already connecting a call to a certain office in downtown Vale.
"Canvas." The gravelly voice of one of the senior heads of the IPS asked. "How are you doing this evening?"
Kaiser ignored the mention of his alias, instead getting right to business. "Ross, I have a Capricorn soldier here in my grasp, ready a couple agents for pickup at the bullhead station to Beacon academy."
The condescending laugh could almost be felt through the earpiece built into the mask, Ross knew he had power over Kaiser.
"You sure do work quickly, are you sure being a spy isn't in the cards for you?" Ross asked.
"Just ready your agents!" Kaiser quickly hung up, leaving a cackling soldier in front of him.
"You may have me at your mercy but you're just a lap dog on someone's leash!" Saturn-4 kept laughing.
Kaiser only scowled, he took solace in the fact that he'd never have to see this asshole again. The most pressing matter was Kaiser's location being known to Jasper, that bit was more terrifying than the fact that he had actually sent someone to attack Kaiser.
There was no other way to see it, but Kaiser was burned. It was only a matter of time before Jasper revealed his whereabouts to the rest of Zodiac, putting the students here in danger if assassins started raiding Beacon in order to get one boy. With no way around it, Kaiser had to silence Jasper for good! By the next day he would be confronting his past once again, and perhaps even pressing a blade through it.
As Kaiser stepped on the bullhead with Saturn onboard, he made a silent resolution with himself.
No matter what happened, this nightmare would end soon.
/-/
I will release the next chapter in a week or two so that anyone that follows this story doesn't accidentally skip a chapter and miss some information. After that I get to work on the next two chapters to release together.
I'm holding the next chapter hostage until I deem it worthy to be posted.