The third part of this part of the story is taking longer than expected, maybe I should've waited until I completely finished this part and released it, I'll hopefully have it out before the end of June. I just need to get through finals week.
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Kaiser looked over the menu in his hands, there were too many options to consider. In his 14 years of life, choice had become a non-factor, thus making his decision making skills the weakest part of him. He had to choose something, the pan seared steak in red wine sauce sounded divine, but so did the chicken Coq Au Vin. Why did he even place so much importance on this one meal?
Well… he needed something to eat whilst awaiting his own assassination.
It had been two days since he had been nearly killed by Martin Kane, a Scorpio assassin. Kane had not succeeded, but neither did the IPS in capturing him for information, forcing both of them into a stalemate. Then the head of the IPS, Albert Ross, had a genius idea. They could bait the Scorpio assassin into a trap, they would just need to send a contract to Scorpio through the hands of various proxies.
This also seemed to be decided without Kaiser's input.
That did not matter, Kaiser reasoned that someone with Albert Ross' intellect would only choose the most reasonable option. All of this leading up to him sitting in a restaurant, eyes straining as the young boy was overwhelmed by his options.
In the end, Kaiser told the waiter to bring him a glass of water while he spent a little more time deciding.
Finally he had decided, a roast quail was perfect for him, he probably should not operate on a full stomach. Before he could even give his order, he had caught someone out of the corner of his eye.
Right at the entrance of the restaurant, a rather tall man had been talking to the maître d'. He had blond hair, tied up in a ponytail. A rather slim figure, but from Kaiser's last encounter with the man, he gathered that the assassin was quite powerful.
Martin Kane, arguably one of the most dangerous people on Remnant, was silently approaching Kaiser's table. The young boy felt like a fly, caught in a spider's web, waiting for its eventual fate.
If this was going to happen, then there could not be any interlopers. The IPS had arranged everything, even which table Kaiser was going to sit in. The table itself had something strapped to the bottom of the table, he quickly fished it out. Kaiser stood up with the gun that Albert Ross had prepared for him, then aimed the firearm at the bar where multiple bottles of amber liquid lay. He already had a strategy prepared for Martin Kane, one that must not be burdened by the people in the restaurant.
With that, Kaiser opened fire, initiating his own assassination.
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Like many times before, Kaiser struck first, lashing out with a swift front kick. Kane, or rather the man that looked like him, jumped back in surprise.
"What the hell Kai, aren't you happy to see me?!" The blond-haired faker yelled.
"What kind of sick joke is this!" Kaiser was now fully in combat stance, his gaze completely locked onto the faker. "Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you even know who you're disguised as?" Kaiser seethed with rage at Albert Ross, sending a master of disguise in as Kaiser's dead friend.
"Shit man, there's no joke here other than that kick. Did you even try putting some thrust in there?" The faker caught a roundhouse kick with his hand, then promptly swept Kaiser's leg up in one fluid motion.
Kaiser crashed his back against the floor, a slight groan escaped him as his body was still recovering from Jasper's assault.
"Shit." The Kane lookalike moved forward and extended a hand towards Kaiser. "My bad, I didn't mean to trip you up like that." None of that mattered anymore as Kaiser kick the lookalike in his stupidly accurate face. Kane stumbled backwards, now rubbing his sore jaw. "Oh, I'm gonna make you fucking cry!"
With a kick up, Kaiser was standing and in a fighting stance within an instant. It was just as well, he had just enough time to duck under the swing of lookalikes' fists. Kaiser suddenly felt his arm seized, panicking as he now knew that the intention was never to strike him. Instead, the lookalike had clutched Kaiser's arm in order to swing him.
Kaiser's back hit one of the stone pillars in the parking structure, he'd have to use the Scorpio tactics he learned to at least stun this guy. Kaiser never got that opportunity, the cold steel of a razor sharp knife had pressed against his throat.
"Now you're going to listen to me, you don't really have much choice right now." Kane chuckled, even the lookalike's laugh sounded the same. Unexpectedly, the man removed the knife from Kaiser's throat. "I'm not some asshole in a wig and makeup, really, nobody could look this good if they tried." The lookalike had turned away for just a moment and took a couple steps as if in thought, Kaiser decided to take a step forward, he wasn't even afforded that.
The glint of steel flashed by so fast that Kaiser hadn't registered when the blade hit the wall just centimeters away from Kaiser's head.
"Don't move, I'm not gonna let you hit me again." The man had radiated a lethal danger, making Kaiser start to doubt the man being an impersonator. "I've got it!" The man excitedly unbuttoned his own suit, one of similar elegance as Kaiser's, but in a dark blue shade.
Kaiser stood in shock at what the man was showing him, under the dark blue suit was a torso littered with scars. That wasn't all that special, Kaiser as well as the majority of spies in the IPS had their fair share of faded scarring. One specific mark had stood out amongst the rest, a perfectly round indent near the lower stomach on the man's torso. Kaiser recognized it easily, he had the exact same one on his stomach as well.
The night he fought for his survival against Martin Kane, Kaiser had been outclassed and overtaken. The spy knew this was the case, so he set up a trap to incapacitate the professional assassin. A harpoon launcher coated with sedative had been placed in the restaurant hours before Kane was ambushed, unfortunately, Kaiser had been careless in his own position and had skewered himself along with his intended target.
That's when he realized…this was Martin Kane. Martin Kane was alive, and he was here!
"So it is you." The words came out more meek than anything, causing the older man to soften.
"Couldn't be anybody else." Kane smiled, until he was suddenly sucker punched, his face whipped back.
"You left me for a long time." Kaiser desperately fought the quaking in his throat, he fought desperately to keep his eyes from misting over. For once, Kaiser was having trouble schooling his emotions.
Testing the waters, Kane had approached the boy, Kaiser had seemingly shrunken in on himself. Kane pulled the almost frail looking boy into him, Kaiser's head rested on Kane's shoulder. "Ross' sent me out on deep cover, nobody could know, not even you. I'm sorry."
Almost impossibly, Kaiser managed to reign himself in before he showed any more weakness. He pulled back, Kaiser slipped back into the stone-faced spy he needed to be for this operation.
"Do you need any tissues or anything? I've got some in the car." Kane pointed towards his own eyes, gesturing to Kaiser that he check his own.
Kaiser felt around his eyes, tears were streaming down his face, he hadn't even noticed. A quick shake of the head and the spy was already wiping away the tears on his expensive suit jacket sleeve.
"You better now?" Kane held a thumb up, waiting for Kaiser to respond.
"Yeah…" Kaiser grabbed the knife embedded into the pillar once he realized it was the Gerber Mark II that was supplied to him, he didn't even question how Kane managed to get it out of his sleeve. After holstering his weapon, he turned back to the man. "I think so. I think you might have to explain how and why you're still here."
Kane only grinned. "I'll tell you after we finish this operation." A click from his pocket was heard, and Kane's car door unlocked. Graceful and measured strides carried the IPS assassin to his luxury vehicle, he carefully pulled out two sealed bags from the glove box compartment. "Did you get briefed yet?"
"No, I just got my cover and my weapons for the assignment." Kaiser tried peeking at the plastic bag Kane held. "What are those for?"
"Just a last little bit of gear for you, just couldn't give these to you without instructions." Kane brought up the first bag, two small metallic objects sitting inside. "Explosive cufflinks, they only have one detonator, so don't activate it if you only planted one." Kane handed the cufflinks to Kaiser, he began explaining the other item while the boy connected his cuffs. "This is the detonator." A rather simple looking watch, a blue dial implanted onto a metal silver strap. "You might want to take care of this one, it costs roughly 100,000 Lien. Also you turn the dial until both hands are on the 12 to detonate the explosives."
"Why is it 100,000?!" If Kaiser broke it, which was prone to happen during an operation, he'd be in debt to the IPS for life! Somehow this stressed him more than the fact that he was wearing explosives.
"You have to fit in with all the other rich kids, flaunting your wealth and thinking you're above everyone else." Kane continued in a deadpan voice. "Seriously, these are the types of people to see someone beating another person into a pulp and view it as live entertainment."
"Not much different to the people going to see the Vytal tournament." Kaiser replied, the two agents had begun a walk down the parking complex.
"Probably not, but rich kids are such little assholes about it!"
"I can't disagree." Having worked undercover in some of the parties the Atlas elite have thrown, he was inclined to agree. "So, the briefing?"
Both Kaiser and Kane patiently waited at the crosswalk, better to talk on the move rather than to remain stationary.
"Ah, yes." Kane muttered. "I won't lie to you, we're headed towards a fight. One where we might have to handle a Scorpio assassin."
Kaiser's gaze snapped towards his own assassin friend. "Are you serious? Another one?"
A humorless smile adorned Kane's face, as if regretting something. "Yeah, but it's not going to be like Tuesday."
Kaiser fixed the man with a questioning stare, he was expecting an answer.
As if by the very nature of knowing Kaiser for roughly two years, Kane gave the boy what he wanted. "I heard about the fight between you and Jasper Greene, I didn't even know that guy was still alive." The pair of agents crossed the road, bringing them ever closer to their area of operation.
"If we're going against a Scorpio assassin, then whoever ordered this op must be pretty involved in intelligence, any idea who it is?"
"Crazy you should ask that, the headmaster of Beacon requested this little mission." Kane smirked at the boy. "Try and ask him for extra credit when you get back."
At this point it didn't even surprise the young spy, other than being a proxy force for the government, the IPS served as private contractors to anyone willing to pay. Ozpin was fully in his rights to hire the IPS, but Kaiser soured at the thought of having to run another operation. One thing bothered him still…
"Why are we being sent then? Headmaster Ozpin has contacts in the huntsmen community, why not use them?" Kaiser pushed past the glass door of an ultra modern looking skyscraper, its looming presence made Kaiser feel insignificant.
A great hallway lay ahead of them, a red carpet leading all the way to a sleek silver elevator. Every few feet, podiums lined the carpet, they displayed iron statues that contrasted with the marble-white walls that decorated the interior.
"That has to do with the guy that's being protected by the Scorpio assassin." Kane pressed the button to call the elevator. "A technician from Atlas, Gideon Goldenrod. He's our target for tonight."
"This isn't wet work, is it?" Kaiser gave Kane a side-eye, fully expecting to be instrument to an assassination.
"No, nothing like that, more like an interrogation."
The normally easy smile of the assassin had disappeared, an uncertain frown took its place. "It's just that we have to get past Goldenrod's security to ask him a couple questions. Sorry, we're getting off track here, the reason your headmaster asked Ross to take care of this op is because of a little gadget Goldenrod has."
The elevator finally arrived, Kaiser got in first, leaving Kane to press the button to the seventh floor.
"See, Goldenrod has been working on a little gadget that disrupts aura." Kane shifted his gaze towards Kaiser. "I assume you know what that means for you right?"
"Yeah, I won't have access to my aura, right?" Kaiser hung his head at Kane's nod.
"Unlike most huntsmen though, you don't depend on your aura to carry you through a fight. You already know how these types of things go down for us 'underpowered' people. If any other huntsmen tried to fight a Scorpio assassin, they might die considering their enemy isn't a wild animal." Kane added, he already knew this wouldn't have scared Kaiser off, the boy was like a machine.
"But aura is used for more than just combat, it regulates temperature, expels toxins, and can even just numb pain. Are those deactivated as well?"
"Yeah, sorry to say but you're going commando on this one." The ding of the elevator had alerted the two of their arrival.
Kaiser ignored Kane's comment, partly because of his focus, partly because Kaiser still didn't understand all modern slang. "Where are we going?"
"Skyline club, it's a nightclub seven floors up on this building." Kane seemed to just remember something. "We also need these silver cards to enter, we weren't given any, so we gotta bum some off the other partygoers."
Pickpocketing, Kaiser picked up what Kane was talking about in an instant, they'd have to manage to wrangle two cards to be able to pass through security. The pair of spies managed to reach the back of the line in a dark hallway, the end of the hallway shone with strobe lights.
In front of the two agents, a line of expensively dressed teenagers and young adults waited for their chance to dance the night away.
First the school dance and now this nightclub, it seemed everywhere he went, Kaiser was required to dance.
"Make sure your card is secure, I heard from some buddies that people are going around stealing the club passes." Kane randomly threw out, well, that's how it seemed.
Almost as if they were self-conscious, some of the partygoers around the agents were discreetly patting around their pockets for their passes. This immediately gave away where each pass was, as each person now worried about their own passes.
There was one person who hid his pass in the breast pocket of his suit that probably cost twice as much as Kaiser's. Another woman had hidden hers in a clutch purse, the two easiest marks for Kane and Kaiser.
All they needed was a distraction…
Kaiser didn't even have time to think when Kane lashed out to someone's leg, quickly moving out of the way before the person he kicked turned around.
"What the hell!" An older man, probably in his early 20's looked at Kaiser.
"He's just trying to impress the girls in his group." Kaiser pointed the enraged man to an unsuspecting victim just talking to his friends.
The livid partygoer marched up to the group, offering a ground out "thanks kid" to Kaiser.
Kane watched from further back when the man, enraged, tapped a guy on the shoulder, then proceeded to pummel him in the face. Kane would've felt bad if it was unnecessary, alas, both him and Kaiser were given the exact opportunity as the rest of both parties joined in on the brawl.
Kaiser had watched as one girl was unceremoniously shoved when one of her companions was trying to join in the fight, her clutch purse had been knocked out of her grasp. The purse slid right over to Kaiser, he picked it up before she even noticed.
"You dropped this." Kaiser, or rather his cover, Obsidian, had returned the purse to the girl.
It might've been his new dazzling blue-eyes combined with his soft white hair, or it might've been the easy smile he wore. All Kaiser saw was the girl blush at him, she offered him a quick thanks. She was so enamored with the idea of this kind stranger that the girl didn't even notice that the club pass in her purse had gone missing.
As the fight raged on, Kaiser had returned to his original place in the line. Kane had turned around to face him, Kaiser wasn't even surprised at this point. Kane was a lot more experienced than Kaiser, making it hard for the boy to sense him like he did with his classmates.
"Got your pass?" Kane asked, flashing his own stolen pass.
"Of course." Kaiser pocketed his pass as the line started to move forward. "I'm not an amateur."
"Never said you were, you're just insecure." Being the taller of the two, Kane was granted the privilege of seeing ahead the line. He saw something that was worth dreading, security was scanning for weapons with a metal detector at the entrance of the club. "We gotta leave." Kane started on a brisk walk back towards the elevator, Kaiser was trailing close behind.
"Why?"
"They've got a metal detector that's why, I'm sure you could put two and two together."
"I'm harboring a Gerber Mark II and you probably have a Glock 17 tucked away." Kaiser ignored the borderline offended look that the assassin pointed his way.
"For your information it's a Ruger SR40c, I'm not a cop dude." Both assassin and spy once again stepped on the elevator, this time pressed for the first floor.
It had taken them ten minutes to regroup back to the parking complex, both agents separated to make sure they weren't being followed.
"What now?" Kane asked, it was unnerving since he was the one leading this mission.
"I don't know." Kaiser leaned against the railings of the parking garage, watching the nightclub from across the street. "We could try the air vents."
"Climbing up would be too hard, we'd have to crawl down the air vents somehow." Kane leaned back against his car. "I've seen the schematics of the building, it's all residential penthouses above the club, so we can't even enter through a higher floor without getting cops called on us."
"The elevator shaft?" Kaiser inquired, his head tilted up, watching helicopters fly by thousands of feet above the night sky.
"They've got cameras in the elevators, we'd put everybody on high alert." Kane let out a frustrated sigh, his hands running through his blond hair. "If we did break in through the elevator shaft we'd have to balance interrogations with crowd control against security and Goldenrod's hired assassin."
Balance…
"What if we tried crossing from the top of the parking garage to the top of the building." Kaiser climbed up on the ledge, he looked towards the peak of both buildings. "They're roughly the same height, I think we could do it."
"Good plan, except for the part where we have no way to get to the other side." Kane pulled out his scroll. "I should just call Ross and tell him this op was a bust."
"Hold on, I want to try something first." Kaiser pulled out his own scroll, quickly searching through the applications, until he settled on one in particular and launched it.
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Lie Ren idly sipped on a cup of punch, obviously it was spiked, hence his slow consumption of the spirit.
The dance was off to a slow start, it most likely wouldn't pick up speed until the rest of the students were sufficiently inebriated. The dance floor was packed, students were beginning to mill out into the courtyard.
Ren leant against the doorway leading to the balcony overlooking a starry night, a peculiar sight held his attention for a single moment.
Above the line of sight, a trail of smoke blasted into the sky. It was coming from the locker rooms, which could only mean that somebody had called for their rocket locker. Ren would have decided to investigate, but the alcohol had dampened his judgement, leading him to take another sip.
A flash of pink raced by, it was Nora, she was in a pastel pink strapless dress that she had saved a couple weeks worth of money for. She animatedly danced with Pyrrha before moving on to dance with members of team RWBY.
Ren smiled at this, a year ago, he and Nora wouldn't have been as welcoming to a group of friends as they were now. A year ago, he couldn't have imagined that things would turn out this good for the pair. Trekking across Anima and getting to the heart of Sanus to enroll into Beacon, Ren and Nora could only rely on each other. It was hard, being wary of everybody, knowing that placing the wrong trust could hurt them, or worse.
Which was why it put Ren at ease to know that Nora had people besides him that enjoyed her company. He was overjoyed at just how good life had become, nobody would be able to tell how happy he was.
Ren watched on as Nora hugged Yang from the back and lifted her up in a bear hug, the latter girl giggling like mad when being raised. Overall, his night was going well, little else could improve this night.
Laughter was heard nearby, other students dancing in the crowd parted. Like a flower in bloom, Jaune emerged from the students surrounding him, wearing a dress of all things. Ren observed as the elegant white dress swished in the air, it really showed off Jaune's legs, not something he would admit.
Quick words between Jaune and Pyrrha were exchanged, all Ren heard was Nora when she came to him, her arms flailing wildly.
"Ren. This… is… happening!" Those were the last words he heard before quickly being dragged off to dance with Pyrrha and Jaune.
"Yes." Ren quietly muttered to himself. "This night has improved."
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"What are we waiting for?" Kane complained, his back leaned against his car. "It's not like a miracle is gonna drop from the sky."
"No, not a miracle." Kaiser gazed at the stars, finally spotting the metal container he had summoned earlier. "Rather that."
A plume of smoke tainted the skyline, it was indicative of what he had called.
A loud clunk signified the arrival of Kaiser's locker, what he needed was just inside.
"While that thing is cool, I don't see how a flying locker helps us out." Kane shrugged, he stretched out, popping a couple bones in the process. "Also there's no wimps around here to stuff in the locker, so it's not even good enough to keep around for a laugh."
Kaiser punched in the code to his locker, the steel door creaked open. Revealing the Willow Tree variant of his coat, as well as his new blade, Plane Sight. Left at the bottom of the locker was Great Escape, its wire and hook restored to a better condition.
"No way!" Kane walked up to the locker, picking up Plain Sight. The blade shimmering more than any star in the sky, the assassin appreciated the finely crafted blade. "You made this?"
"Not exactly." Kaiser spoke, his mind flashing back to the night he had essentially stood back and watched as Ruby constructed the entire thing herself. "But it's very sensitive, so be careful."
"Come on dude! If it was so sensitive the-" The blade shot out, it's razor sharp point aimed at Kaiser's chest.
"Damn it!" Kaiser was so close to getting impaled, just a millimeter less and he'd be bleeding out. It was his reflexes that screamed at him to jump out of the way, had he not, he would have returned to Beacon in a body bag.
"My bad!" Kane quickly clutched the blade to his chest. "Shits pretty strong!"
Kaiser felt around his chest, he felt his heart pounding just below it. Fishing around, he pulled out a scrap of cloth, the blade had sliced up his tie. "Let's just get this over with." Kaiser picked up Great Escape, but he didn't secure it to his arm this time. A quick pop of the grappling hook, and the hook had embedded itself to the staircase building atop the skyscraper. "Mind if I tie this to your car?"
"Go ahead." Kane watched as Kaiser went over to the front of his car, quickly wrapping a single part of the front of the car with the wire. The beeping that followed the car's unlocking let Kane know that he didn't have his keys anymore, to which he stared at the spy that was now reversing his car. "How?"
"Payback for what you did with my knife." Kaiser put the car in park when he felt the wires snap taut. "This should be enough." The spy tossed Kane's keys back at him, then gestured to the ledge of the building. "Now we have a way to cross."
Kane only walked up to the ledge, he looked at the abyss of streetlights and concrete below. "Look, I know you're upset about how I left, but making me die for real is a step too far."
A roll of the eyes was all Kane was given, and Kaiser had stepped up to the ledge. "Just follow my example."
"You're not scared?" Kane shook his head, dissatisfied with this being their only plan.
"I don't scare easily." Kaiser had put one foot onto Great Escape's wire, it worked decently as a makeshift tightrope. He pointedly ignored Kane's protest from behind, putting more focus on keeping his center of gravity directly on top of the wire.
With most professional tightrope walkers, it was all about balance. Balancing your body while moving forward one step at a time would keep someone on the tightrope. The moment you let your center stray, the rope would begin to sway, then the walker would fall off. Most tightrope walkers used balancing poles, they stabilized the walker by absorbing shifts in balance. Even if they fell, walkers could rely on safety nets 15 feet below to catch them unharmed.
Kaiser had none of that, the spy crossed the street wide gap without a balancing pole 330 feet in the air. With all the bustling life below the spy, he unintentionally made the most crucial mistake anyone could make in his position.
Kaiser looked straight down, that had sealed his fate.
Being so high up, Kaiser could barely see the people milling about. Cars looked like twinkling lights, the ground looked like it was swaying. Kaiser's vision began to swim, as if he was drugged.
And then… he slipped.
Shit!
Kaiser felt his heart jump into his throat, his hand had managed to catch onto the wire. A seasoned tightrope walker would have been able to cross this building with minimal problem, Kaiser wasn't a seasoned tightrope walker.
A drop of liquid fell onto his face, forcing Kaiser to look up. Crimson blood ran down his palm, dripping onto his face. The force of his hand catching the wire and the sharpness of the wire had most likely sliced his palm open. It was a topical wound, aura would heal it before he either fell or was on solid ground.
"Yo! Kai!" The shout came from behind, Kane was getting his attention from the parking garage.
As hard as it was, Kaiser did manage to turn his head, every movement was causing the wire to sway. He tried keeping his sudden movements to a minimum, lest he be a stain on the pavement.
Kane was just in sight, holding a long piece of metal, he couldn't discern it from his position.
"Hold on, I'm going to throw this to you!" Kane shouted, his words carried by the wind.
Kaiser kept one hand free as he watched the assassin chuck the pole at him, the spy caught it. Upon closer inspection, the item thrown had been a shotgun. Holding it above the wire and switching his hand from holding the wire to the shotgun, the boy didn't have to cut his palm anymore. Even better, the shotgun had begun to slowly slide forward. Kaiser nudged himself forwards, inching closer to the building.
A pale hand slapped onto the brick ledge of the building where Kaiser's target was located. Pulling himself up onto the ledge was like pulling himself out of deep waters, the boy sucked in air after exhaling a deep breath. A wave of relief washed over him as he distanced himself from the 330 foot drop.
Looking back, Kane was using his suit to secure himself, the same way Kaiser had done with the shotgun. The assassin was gradually scooting along until he made it to an appropriate distance, Kaiser had gotten closer to hold out his hand.
"Thanks." Kane grunted as he was pulled up into the building. "You can set the gun down by the ledge, we'll pick it up later."
"Why do you even have one?"
"I keep a small weapons cache in my trunk, it's not as big as the ones in Ross's facilities, but it's something." Kane surveyed their current environment, it was the standard of any skyscraper. A small building leading to the staircase, a square ventilation duct opening which led to the air ventilation system all throughout the building.
"We should take the air vents, going through the stairs only leads to the apartment areas." Kaiser slipped his hands past the air vent's cover grate, one yank had popped the cover off the air duct.
"I thought I was the one running this operation." Kane half-heartedly said as he watched Kaiser slip into the air vent, then promptly drop into the ventilation shaft.
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"Have a good night!" Ruby Rose cheerfully waved goodbye to a couple of fellow students, her classmates waving back as they set off to Vale for the night.
Everything was going great! Blake had broken out of her funk, deciding to go to the dance with Sun. Weiss had gone to dance with Neptune, after a little coaxing from Jaune of course. The highlight of the night being Jaune in that dress, also there was no way that dance was not choreographed!
A couple days worth of work, and the school dance was going off without a hitch. The only problem was, Ruby herself wasn't much of a dancer. Nor was she a big fan of these clunky heels that Yang made her wear. The red dress she was wearing was pretty stuffy too, she couldn't wait to change into her pajamas.
The only person she hadn't really seen around the dance was Kaiser, nobody had. Maybe Yang had seen him, perhaps she could ask her sister to coax Kaiser into coming to the dance. If she had to attend in a stuffy dress, everyone should too, it was only fair. Regardless, Kaiser was probably doing something important.
A figure of black raced through the night, flying through the air with practiced grace.
Immediately, Ruby was suspicious, her scroll already dialing for her locker.
Now this was more her speed.
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The ferocity of Kane's sneeze reverberated all throughout the air vents, the aluminum sheeting trembled slightly.
"At this point, we'll give our position away to the entire building." Kaiser slid himself feet first through the harrowing maze of aluminum and screws.
"It's all this damn dust!" Kane retorted, he himself was crawling behind Kaiser. "Was this really the best idea? I mean, it already took us 30 minutes to drop from the top floor down to the seventh."
There probably was a better way, only that neither Kane nor Kaiser were smart enough to figure it out. It was the job of the Operation Specialist to organize every detail of the mission, both spy and assassin were nothing more than glorified labor.
"We couldn't really storm in there, it would've alarmed our target. We can't take that kind of risk when dealing with a Scorpio operative." Kaiser's foot finally met some resistance, the familiar feeling of iron grating under his shoe. He stomped once, then twice, the lid popped off.
As Kaiser helped Kane out of the vent, the spy quickly took stock of his surroundings.
White walls, most of everything here was white. Urinals lined the walls opposed to bathroom stalls, one particularly drunk man leant over the porcelain urinal. Atop the urinal was a drink filled halfway with amber liquid.
"Woah…" The man was clearly drunk, and seeing two people coming out of the ventilation certainly did not help.
"Good party?" Kaiser made a little small talk with the drunk man as Kane patted himself to get rid of the dust that desperately clung to his suit.
The drunk man only sluggishly nodded, his thoughts now occupied on finishing his business.
Kaiser himself started to shake himself to get rid of the dust, it wouldn't do to look the way he did among the high society.
The door opened, the drunk man from before had exited, two more men stepped into the restroom. They had immediately put both spy and assassin on edge.
The first thing noticed was their eagle-eyed gaze, they were cold sober, which raised the first suspicion. If they were here to enjoy themselves in a nightclub, they should've been on some level of drunk. Maybe they had just gotten here, if that was the case then they should've had a drink with them like the other guy on the urinal.
"These boys are on the job, Kai." Kane had seemingly known what Kaiser had been thinking of. "They can't be drinking if they're here to do a job."
Before anything else was said, one of the serious looking men dashed forwards. Kaiser was in a defensive stance within an instance, ready to deflect any sort of attack.
"I've got this one." Kane struck like a lunging viper, unexpected and unavoidable. The assassin managed to grit out something as he clashed with the opposition. "You get the other one!"
Kaiser himself rushed forwards towards the other man who was likely a Scorpio operative, his eyes widened as a gun was produced. Quickly jerking to the right, Kaiser just managed to avoid the first crack of the bullet. The black steel of the Gerber mark II flashed through the air, it traveled in a dangerous arc towards the chest of the Scorpio operative.
The operative jumped back, naturally avoiding the knife and actively displaying the Scorpio training that Kaiser himself knew, but kept repressed until the situation called for it.
Now that Kaiser had gauged his opponent's reactions, he launched himself toward the operative. The gun pointed at him menacingly, Kaiser kept charging. His hands pushed up against the Scorpio operative's gun causing the next bullet to crack the marble ceiling.
A sharp pain attacked Kaiser, the sides of his abdomen felt like they were on fire. As he was pushed off, he knew why.
Kaiser had been struck in the liver, a debilitating move only used by the deadliest of people.
Momentary shock, a paralysis that lasted just an instant took hold, it was enough for the Scorpio operative to raise his gun at the spy's head. The evil looking barrel, aiming between Kaiser's eyes, the way that all Scorpio operatives were instructed to do.
Kaiser knew he had succeeded when the click of the gun wasn't heard, he looked at the gun.
Clinging onto the side of the firearm, was one of the magnetic pucks supplied to him by the IPS. It's insanely strong magnetism kept the trigger from moving, Kaiser had barely managed to stick the magnet on the gun when he tried grabbing at it.
The operative's confusion allowed Kaiser his victory. Quickly disarming the operative and delivering a knockout blow with his own firearm in the same movement. He looked back at Kane, who had kicked his own opponent into the porcelain sink, the unfortunate victim cradling his bleeding head.
"You took your time." Kaiser remarked, speaking from past experience, Kane would've been able to knockout the Scorpio agent the instant the fight started.
"Nah, I just had to let this dude get his licks in." Kane raised the bleeding agent up by the hand, fearful eyes widening at the master assassin. "Gotta build up their confidence before you ground them to reality." The last word he grunted out as he dropped the agent, causing a thud on the marble floor. "Look at this shit, Kai!"
Martin Kane was holding a gun equipped with a suppressor.
"I thought they didn't allow weapons in here." Kaiser quickly patted down the mass of weight which was the operative he himself knocked out.
"They must've bribed their way in or something, Damn it! If I'd have known that, we would've saved so much time!"
Kane looked down disdainfully at the two operatives, irritation apparent in his brown eyes. "Ross said there was only one operative guarding Goldenrod. We were given bad information, stay sharp."
Kaiser silently nodded, then looked at the two groaning bodies beside each other. "What do we do with these guys?"
Kane could only shrug.
Both IPS assassin and spy exited the restroom after disposing of the two Scorpio assassins. Kaiser had gone along with Kane's idea of stuffing the knocked out operatives into the ventilation shaft from which they used to enter the club. After securing the grating lid back to shaft, the pair had felt confident enough to walk into the nightclub to scope out their target.
The violent switch between darkness and the strobe lights had nearly blinded the unprepared agents.
The Skyline club was a much more chaotic version of Junior's nightclub with an aristocratic aesthetic. The dance floor was a wide ring, adorning the middle of the floor was a pedestal. The pedestal itself was a simple iron stand, atop it was a highly detailed ice sculpture of a Nevermore. The glistening wings of the ice statue reflected the spotlights of the nightclub, the moonlight hitting the statue illuminated it in a way that made the damn thing look alive.
"Set up the cuff links in case we run into trouble."
Kane said before the pounding music drowned out the sound of anything else, the assassin left to Kaiser to his own devices.
Kaiser's immediate action was head down to the bar, the sudden pressure to perform had him thirsting for a drink. It took him a while to get past the writhing mess which was drunk dancing rich people.
"And what will you have tonight?" The bartender asked from behind the bar, above the mounting rows of alcohol were digital screens displaying different cocktails and their prices.
Kaiser cringed at the amount of money he'd shell out for some of these drinks, most of them in the three digit range. "Can I get a glass of water?"
The bartender only rolled his eyes at the spy, begrudgingly collecting a glass. He then poured ice cold water into a stainless steel shaker, covered the plain drink and shook.
The bartender was openly mocking Kaiser, worse than that, he pointed to a sign listing 20 lien for the water alone.
"Can I open a tab?" Kaiser asked, hoping to escape from this judgemental bartender.
"Sure." The bartender had turned around to get a small tray to place Kaiser's credit card in. When he turned back around, the boy had seemingly vanished. The confusion of the entire situation had distracted from the discreet looking chunk of metal left on the bar.
Kaiser had left one of the explosive cufflinks on the bar, with any luck he wouldn't need to use it.
His focus was entirely on the mission, the spy had completely missed the waitress that had bumped into him. The tray of drinks she was holding toppled, almost spilling the flutes of champagne. Honed reflexes kicked in, Kaiser had caught and steadied the tray before any of the drinks atop it could even sway.
"Forgive me, I didn't mean to knock you over like that." Kaiser helped the waitress steady herself, he softly smiled to accentuate the charm that his cover was supposed to have.
"That's alright!" The slightly flustered waitress yelped at the prospect of almost spilling drinks worth more than most cars. She spent a good two seconds looking at his face a bit closer, likely admiring his features. "Hey, this might sound weird, but I think I've seen you before."
What?
The shock of her statement had felt like a slap in the face, had Kaiser already blown his cover? His role as a spy relished in the fact that he was unknown, inconspicuous, and nondescript. For someone to recognize him out in public invalidated his efforts and put the boy at risk.
The confident smile never left Kaiser's face, "Probably on a magazine." Kaiser moved aside to let another person grab one of the tubes of bubbling champagne in the waitresses' tray.
"No. I saw you at a nightclub." The lady was older than Kaiser, which explained why she would be at nightclubs at all. A nagging feeling burrowed into Kaiser, letting him know she had seen him before.
"I frequent this place an awful lot, you sure you didn't just hand me a drink any other night?" Kaiser laced his question with smooth interest, hoping the waitress would think he was flirting, surely someone focusing on their job had no time for this. "Can I interest you in a drink?"
That's when her face lit up in recognition, much to Kaiser's disappointment.
"Wait, I think I have something you might remember." The waitress dug into her back pocket, the suddenness of the action had raised Kaiser's internal alarms.
Kaiser braced himself, almost ready to attack if she pulled a gun on him, imagine his surprise when she pulled out a single lien chip. It was held out to him, writing scrawled out on the lien.
Say yes and go
Memories of a night long ago flashed in his mind, it was the night he had drunkenly spilled his secrets to Yang. Kaiser had also recognized the note, he had promptly given it to the waitress as an out to a bad situation she found herself in. It seemed like years since that day, the day he had once again encountered Hercules out on the streets.
"Julie." It had come out as a whisper, Kaiser knew this was not her name. It was simply the name he had assigned her when he needed to improvised a way for her to excuse herself.
"Auburn, actually." A welcoming smile that had erased the false pretenses of Kaiser's suave nature. "I didn't think I'd see you again, I wanted to thank you."
"Anyone else would've done what I did." Kaiser sheepishly said, ashamed at having his cover dismantled so easily. His spycraft had seemingly declined ever since he left Albert Ross' service.
"Maybe, but you were the one that helped me get away from those creeps." Auburn had let another of the people dancing take a glass of alcohol. "What even happened after that?"
"I'm not entirely sure." Kaiser had been beaten up by three graduated huntsmen and kicked out of Junior's for participating in the fight. He didn't tell her that, no need to make her feel guilty over something that wasn't her fault. "Did you get home safe?"
"Yes I did, thanks to you." Auburn set the lien chip in Kaiser's hand, the boy clutched the chip. "I've actually been holding on to this in case I ever saw you again, I can't tell you how much you helped me out. Please, take a drink." She offered the last flute of champagne to Kaiser. "It's on the house." Auburn held it out to him with a warm smile.
Kaiser only nodded, aiming to grab the drink, but instead decided to lean into her ear first. "There's gonna be an altercation later, the moment you see trouble, start running." Leaving a civilian in the crossfire of an operation wasn't an option, especially if he had already gone through the trouble of helping her out before. Kaiser gratefully took back the lien that she had offered to return, it wasn't much, but at least he wasn't flat broke anymore.
Auburn only nodded back at him in confusion, she took the tray as she left after Kaiser grabbed the last drink. She had been too distracted by the boy's cryptic message that she hadn't noticed the small cufflink left on her tray.
Kaiser absently watched as Auburn set the tray down at the end of the bar, she picked up a new tray and began making her rounds around the nightclub. He felt a lot more at ease, he didn't particularly know why.
Kaiser polished off his drink as he caught sight of Kane, his blond ponytail apparent among the more conservative haircuts.
The gleam of a silver knife caught his attention, the person holding it, slowly stalking towards Kane.
Kaiser had immediately profiled the man approaching Kane as hostile, he began his own trek to intercept.
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Martin Kane had grabbed a drink from the bar, if only to look less conspicuous. He himself had already identified the two men in the restroom as Scorpio operatives just by their lack of drinks alone, it'd be troublesome to have the same happen to him.
A quick look to the left, then one to the right, Kane had no visual on Gideon Goldenrod. More importantly, he had no visual on Evon Argent, and that had unnerved him.
Evon Argent had been the combat instructor when Kane was training with Scorpio. Kane remembered his time in training, he remembered how Argent had savagely beaten all six cells of five man groups at once just to prove a point. Out of everybody, Kane stood the best chance of beating the instructor.
A 1% chance was still nothing compared to the lethal edge of Argent's skill.
Argent had essentially made Kane and the rest of the trainees at Scorpio efficient killers, each would-be assassin had been given extensive training in many areas ranging from range shooting to unarmed combat.
It was with Argent that Kane had not only mastered his instinctive shooting, but perfected it as well.
Kane was so trapped in his thoughts that he had bumped into an even older man, his drink getting spilled onto Kane's expensive suit.
"Sorry about that old chap!" A posh Atlesian accent cut through the pulsing music, it belonged to an older gentleman. Wire frame glasses adorned his face, the man had the face of a professor or a doctor.
"You're Gideon Goldenrod!" Kane burst out, looking eager to shake Goldenrod's hand. "I've been following you're work on the latest line of Atlesian Paladins, the new Omni-directional missile launcher is a revolutionary idea!"
"I'm glad to hear that I'm inspiring the next generation of technicians." Goldenrod boasted, he looked way too proud of himself.
"Are you here in Vale for business?" Kane made to sip the champagne, instead he just sniffed it and leveled the drink lower.
"No, no business." Goldenrod was staring off to the side, there, a group of women were enjoying themselves in the club's aesthetics. "Just enjoying the views Vale has to offer."
"This kingdom is probably one of the most scenic." Kane had patted the older man on the back. "You got the city square, the Vytal festival coming up, and you can make clandestine deals with Roman Torchwick."
The suddenness of shift in conversation had caught Goldenrod off guard, his mouth agape. "Pardon?"
The pounding of electronic music drowned their conversation to the people surrounding them, words of interrogation buried in an abyss of noise.
"A little birdy told me you've been dealing with Torchwick, and all of sudden some Atlesian Paladins go missing with little to no trace. Seems like an inside job if you ask me." Kane rested his hand on Goldenrod's shoulder, in a way, he was latching onto the technician specialist.
Now pale as a ghost, Goldenrod stared off into the distance, over Kane's own shoulder.
"You see Gideon, my great granny Kane once said 'just because something happens in the dark, doesn't mean it didn't happen at all', and I'm about to shine a light on this little side hustle of yours!" Kane had fully grabbed onto Goldenrod, intent on taking somewhere where they could discuss in private.
Goldenrod only nodded, but it was a gesture not aimed at Kane, something the assassin was keen to point out.
"I'm guessing that's you're 'kill that guy' nod, correct?" A confident smile had adorned the trained assassin. "I get those a lot, I came prepared you see."
"What do you mean?" Goldenrod looked up to face the assassin.
An older man hidden in the crowd began walking towards both Goldenrod and Kane, a stiletto knife reflecting light from the club off of it.
"What I mean is that I know that you hired those Scorpio goons, I've already got two in the restroom. I also know that you have at least one more guy, probably the toughest out of all of them." A dangerous smile was the only thing that Kane revealed. "Unfortunately for you…"
The man lunged forward, his stiletto knife poised to strike Kane from behind. A target already chosen, a swift severing of the spinal cord and Kane would be nothing.
The kill never came, the man harshly grunting as a mass of black crashed into him. Not only that, but the thing that had crashed into the final assassin had picked him up by his legs and had started tackling the seasoned assassin to the ground.
Shouts of drunk party goers cheered on the man and the boy who had crashed to the floor in the middle of a particularly rowdy crowd.
It only took an instant for Evon Argent to get back up on his feet, he swung his stiletto knife in an arc behind him. He didn't use guns, they eliminated the thrill of battle, Evon preferring to kill up close and personal.
A brief flash of movement trapped Argent's arm, and a quick jerk knocked the stiletto out of his hand. Argent hadn't even been able to turn around before being struck in the head and shoved forward. It was only after a split second recovery that he was able to size up the man who attacked him.
No it wasn't an attack, it was a pitiful excuse for an ambush. Striking while the opponent had their back turned was dishonorable in Argent's eyes, the eyes that targeted his new opponent.
The man, or rather the boy, was clad in rather expensive clothes. The first thing that was noticed was the mop of white hair that had been disheveled in the tackle. The boy had long since turned off the color contacts, no sense in a disguise if he had already been compromised.
Kaiser's crimson eyes shone in the darkness of flashing club lights.
Kane had never even taken his eyes off of Goldenrod, "…It seems I have an angel looking over my shoulder."
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The new Gray Man trailer just came out and I could not be more excited, absolutely loved the books.