Been a long time since I've ever played Mortal Kombat. As in, I haven't played it since around the time of Deception or Shaolin Monks, kind of long time. I guess at some point I simply lost interest in the series though MKX did grab my attention for a while if only due to the fatalities and X-rays.
But now? After everything I've seen and heard of MK11, I'm considering playing MK again, ha ha. But of course, if I ever do go through with this, it won't be until after I tire of DMC5… and that's a long ways away, heh!
Speaking of which, managed to beat DMD mode, if only due to sheer perseverance and a boatload of Golden Orbs I've had in stock rather than pure skill during the last five to six missions, then blasted through Heaven or Hell mode in a single sitting. Have yet to play Hell and Hell and honestly I'm almost scared to given how much Son of Sparda and DMD mode kicked my ass, so once I get the trophy for beating Human mode (which I held off doing until now) and obtain all the upgrades for the characters, I'll consider giving it a try.
Will probably abuse the super costumes though when that happens, ha ha, especially for V since keeping him from becoming completely defenseless during that mode will be a true nightmare.
Whelp, my little spiel aside, not much else going on just yet though I am, of course, continuing my job hunt. Here's to hoping one day soon it will end!
Now onto the chapter!
P.S. SaucyHandles, yeah sorry about that. Mixing the tenses is a weird quirk of mine that I'm trying to be rid of, though it's hard to even be consciously aware of it. Hope you can bear with me as I work on that.
Chapter 11
"Umm, you know you guys don't have to come with-,"
"Jaune. We're coming. That's final."
"…Alright then…"
This was the super brief argument Pyrrha shared with her partner/leader/maybe something more(?) as they made their way off the bullhead as they were cleared for exiting it. Seeing the blond teen looking so subdued was honestly enough to make her smile a little, if only in hesitant victory.
After she, Nora and Ren had heard of what happened at the docks and saw the state he'd been in afterwards, she could admit that she, well, freaked out over things. It'd taken more than a little willpower to keep herself from nearly confining him to his bed for the rest of the week, but it'd been a hard struggle.
And just when she and the others had hoped Jaune would take it easy and rest up, the three of them had returned to their dorm at the same time Jaune had done so… which, of course, had meant he'd gone out of the dorm.
Having then interrogated him, she and the N and R of JNPR had found out Jaune had gone off into Vale to conduct his own little investigation, something that had left her with some rather mixed feelings.
On one hand, Jaune's tenacity in pursuing Roman Torchwick and the White Fang even after what had happened at the docks once again left her in shock and even a bit of awe. Rare were those who could dedicate themselves so wholly to any one thing.
But on the other hand, he'd done so with the knowledge he could very well run into trouble yet again and when he wasn't even fully healed yet. To say that had been reckless would be an understatement in her opinion.
Not only that, well… not that she could bring herself to voice it anytime soon, but something about how adamant her leader was in pursuing this line of action was honestly a bit… no, it was really quite unnerving.
Again, rare were those who could commit themselves so completely to any one thing. That her partner and friend could do so with such ease yet with such single-minded intensity was abnormal. Pyrrha could admit to being an idealistic person, but even then she was well aware that not everyone had such pure and selfless intentions.
There was always a reason for everything someone did and it wasn't always good in nature. Not that she was accusing Jaune of ever having anything even remotely sinister in nature for a reason, but there was clearly something more than mere idealism driving him in his actions.
This was something she's been aware of since day one, really, but the more time that passed and the more she observed her partner's actions and words, the more she came to realize that Jaune's mental state was truly different from that of pretty much everyone else she's ever met.
It just wasn't until he'd tried to make an instant beeline from their final class back to their dorm and then to the bullheads' dock to continue to his search from yesterday that she really became consciously aware of this fact.
And thus, she and the others had insisted on coming along, hence their current situation.
Speaking of which…
"Yeah, Pyrrha's right, fearless leader!" Nora exclaimed from beside her. The auburn-haired girl was pouting. "There's no way you're gonna go looking for terrorists without bringing me along for the fun!"
Jaune smiled a little awkwardly. "I see… Ren? Your thoughts?"
"Pyrrha's said just about all that needed to be said," the R of JNPR responded immediately. "Though we've confidence in your strength, there's only so much one person can do alone. This is especially true when you're still injured."
"Well, you do have a point there," Jaune conceded, looking sheepish. But then his expression defaulted to one quite serious and stoic – his neutral expression, Pyrrha has come to learn. "But I'm already doing much better already. Look – see?"
He lifted his shirt up a fair bit by its side, exposing a solid portion of his torso for all around him to see.
Before, which is to say right after the dock incident, he'd been covered in numerous burns and bullet wounds that were so large anyone else would be dead. Even with bandages and treatment and aura, healing from them would not only take a long time but could very well leave scars.
This should have been the case.
Instead, what Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and other passing people now saw was light colored skin, almost completely unblemished now save for faint burn marks and scars that even now seemed to slowly fade before their very eyes.
It was enough to make the redhead gape.
How was that possible? Aura was capable of a fair few things, from strength enhancement to the barriers that guard their bodies to powering their semblances. This also included healing. But as good as aura is, it didn't trump proper medical treatment unless someone had a semblance specifically geared towards healing.
Yet here Jaune was, his injuries now so minor that whatever justification she and the others had before fell completely apart.
It was as if he'd undergone entire months' worth of healing in the span of just a few days at best!
"T-That's…" she mumbled as she reached a hand out to feel for herself the wounds, some part of her mind convinced it was a trick of some kind.
But as she touched his skin, startlingly smooth and soft – also a result of aura? – she felt for herself that his wounds would likely be completely gone by tomorrow or so.
"W-Wow…" she then mumbled.
Her shock at his rapidly disappearing injuries now gave to a different kind of 'shock' as her hand slowly roamed over his obliques and his abs somewhat.
His skin may be surprisingly smooth and soft, but one could be easily fooled by how defined his muscles were under it…
Oh dear, was it even possible for one's muscles to be this solid?
"Pyrrha," Ren suddenly called out. "You okay there?"
"H-Huh, what?! O-Oh…" She snapped out of her reverie and quickly withdrew her hand. "S-Sorry…"
"It's fine," Jaune replied as he pulled his shirt back down, utterly oblivious to her state just now as well as to the ogling eyes of the numerous women and relatively few men that had stopped and stared. "It is a bit out of the norm to heal that fast… but at least now you know that it wasn't as if I was being too reckless yesterday."
"A-Ah, y-yes, I suppose so," Pyrrha stuttered out as she tried to will her deepening blush away. "Even so, we're still not letting you do this alone anymore, Jaune. We're a team, after all."
The blond blinked once, then twice. "I… yes, you're right. Sorry."
"Well, as long as you understan-!"
"Hey there, stud~" a woman suddenly called out from the crowd. "Saw you showing some of the stuff just now~. Mind if I get another look later o-?"
"Okay, time to go!" Pyrrha suddenly cut the woman off, a big and fake smile of enthusiasm plastered on her face. "Haste makes waste, after all!"
She grabbed her partner suddenly by the hand and proceeded to drag him off deeper into Vale, now more than eager to help him search.
Her misgivings about all this aside, she wasn't about ready to just let some random women potentially come onto her partner.
Even if he did have some fantastic musc-.
N-No, don't think of it!
"Oho, already staking your claim, I see! I'm so proud of you, Pyrrha!" Nora commented – loudly, of course – as she followed after them.
And much like how she was dragging Jaune, Nora dragged a bemused Ren behind her. "Nora, leave her be. I'm certain her own thoughts don't need your encouragement."
Ah, and leave it to him to make a quiet yet spot-on observation.
Her blush returned and deepened.
And all the while… Jaune remained oblivious to this. And his comment couldn't have made this fact anymore clear.
"Uhm, we're going the wrong way…"
Mercury Black was by no means a nice person. He was an assassin, after all and one doesn't get to make a living out of this by being nice, at least not in any real sense of that stupid word.
He also wasn't the most cultured person around either, he'll admit, but that said, even one such as him could somewhat admire the sights around him for what they were.
He may not exactly be fond of any of the four kingdoms, but he was liking Vale's aesthetic so far. It sure beat Atlas' perpetual winter and Vacuo's equally perpetual summer desert. Mistral wasn't all bad, though all the wanna-be thugs and bandits and other criminals running around kinda makes it hard to enjoy the scenery.
Yep, Vale in comparison was pretty damn nice. It almost made him feel bad knowing that in due time it was gonna be leveled to the ground by the Grimm.
But he stresses the word 'almost' quite strongly.
Of course, this meant he was just going to have to try and enjoy himself as much as possible before then.
A damn shame his partner didn't feel the same.
"Ugh! Could this place be any more pretentious?" Emerald commented as she looked over a snazzy looking cafe. Looked like it was advertising itself as being high-class, or at least giving the illusion of being high-class.
And Emerald would know all about illusions, he supposed.
"You think every place here is pretentious," he drawled with a roll of the eyes.
"And you think every place is meant to entertain you," she shot back dryly. "Seriously, I swear you're like an overgrown kid."
"I prefer to think of myself as being able to enjoy the finer things in life," he replied with a fake air of sophistication. "Unlike you who only seems to enjoy kissing Cinder's ass."
Emerald went red in the face, but whether it was simply from indignation or something more, he could only guess. "H-hey!"
"Not like I'm blaming you or anything – she does have a nice ass," Mercury continued, enjoying how he was messing with her. "Still, you have to learn to broaden your horizons."
"That so? Maybe I'll expand my repertoire of ass-kicking moves then… by practicing on you one day soon," Emerald said quietly though certainly quite intensely. Seeing as they were out and about in Vale, they couldn't go talking about killing so openly, not even in jest.
"Ooh, I knew you loved me."
"Keep dreaming, Merc, keep dreaming." She then paused, looking a bit calmer now. "On second thought, stop dreaming, especially about me or Cinder – knowing you, it's all nothing but sick things."
"Pfft, now you're the one dreaming," Mercury remarked.
And on and on this went. Yeah, this about summed up the entirety of their relationship, if it can even be called that.
One would think that after so much time being spent (reluctantly) together, they'd get used to each other's quirks and other shit, but nope, they still irritated each other as much as they did when they first met.
In Mercury's humble opinion, however, he was way better at dishing out the snark. But then, he was nowhere near as uptight as Emerald here or some of the other people he's met via Cinder.
Anyways, it's been about a whole day since arriving here in this part of the kingdom of Vale and while he still had plenty of walking and window-shopping to do, he was already getting a bit bored.
Truly, the price of being a top tier assassin like him, he pondered – so good was he that unless he wasn't fighting or killing regularly, he'd get bored regardless of what new things he found to do.
Or so he liked to tell himself anyways.
In any case, like he'd told Cinder, he and Emerald would get around to killing that Tukson guy by today.
And that was exactly where the two of them were going to do right now.
He'd already looked over the info they had on the guy, from his appearance and list of crimes committed back when he'd still been part of the White Fang along with, of course, his new address as he went about trying to live a civilian life.
A bookstore, eh? Mercury was never one for much reading, at least not for entertainment purposes, but hey, maybe once him and his oh so lovely partner here put the guy under, they could find some comics or something.
Not like he'd have to worry about paying for them afterwards, after all.
Blake walked around Vale with a certain sense of caution around her. Once again, she'd gone without covering her cat ears and having now had time to acclimate to how things really appeared to be in Beacon, she dared to risk walking around downtown Vale.
Well, not like she had much choice really – as she'd decided just yesterday, she was intending to visit Tukson today, see how he was doing and what, if anything, he knew about the White Fang's current operations in Vale.
So, obviously, she was going to have to walk through Vale to reach that bookstore he now owns, though if she'd been anywhere near as secretive and paranoid as she used to be just weeks ago, she'd have taken to dashing across the rooftops to avoid having her Faunus traits seen.
Which once again went to show her how much it felt as if she's changed over the course of the past few weeks and especially the past few days.
Having been trained in stealth and espionage and the like, it was easy to take stock of other people's reactions as she passed them by and vice versa.
Some looked her way with varying levels of disgust, marking them as Faunus haters, racists. Others did glance her way but more out of interest than anything else. These people would've likely flirted with her had she given them a chance. Naturally, she didn't.
But the majority of people simply left her be, more content to go about their business than anything else.
This pleased her, but also somewhat concerned her.
It was nice to know that she'd been rather wrong about the level of racism present in Vale, but just because that seemed to be the case didn't necessarily mean it was a great thing now that she thought of it.
Racism may have eventually forced the White Fang to more drastic measures, hence their current status, but it was also the indifference of society at large that allowed the racists to prosper and subsequently pushed the White Fang to a breaking point.
"No, I shouldn't think that way," she mumbled to herself.
Just as she's made choices, so have the White Fang. Yes, in hindsight again, things may have grown bleak for them, but when push came to shove and they radicalized, not many members were all that opposed to using violence to get what they thought they wanted.
She should know because she'd once believed violence to have been necessary too… until the list of crimes committed started to grow too large and the body count too high over time, at which point she'd finally started to doubt just how effective the White Fang's new methods really were in obtaining their goal.
Not only that, but over time, when some members have also had enough and left the organization, it hadn't always been in the form of friendly departing. She's seen couples and families split up and friendships ended over their differing opinions on the White Fangs' future. More than a few fights had actually broken out between now former comrades.
The more she continued to think on this, the more she came to realize just how naïve she still really was and how arrogant she'd once been back then, when she'd thought the only harm done was human-on-Faunus or vice versa.
Only now did she seem to feel keenly aware that everyone, human and Faunus alike, were capable of hurting those just like them.
Humans against humans.
Faunus against Faunus.
And all over what ultimately amounts to what they believed, be it some grand purpose or something small.
…
…Ah, now she was just getting too philosophical here, it seemed like. Even for a book nut like her, this wasn't quite how she'd thought she'd ever end up.
It was enough to make her laugh quietly at herself.
But in all seriousness, she now knew this to be the truth. After all, had she and Sun not fought against their fellow Faunus back at the docks this past weekend? Regardless of the circumstances, she'd raised her hands and weapons against fellow Faunus, which only further exemplified the points she'd just been dwelling on.
Well, it was about time to correct it, she resolved.
And so, with surprisingly perfect timing, she arrived at her destination:
Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun.
Catchphrase causing her to smile a bit in mirth, Blake entered the bookstore.
And as soon as she did so, the store's seemingly sole cashier was none other than the owner and man himself.
"Welc-!" the man had been about to say, only to stop abruptly upon seeing her. His eyes went wide, something that normally didn't happen; Tukson had always been a rather professional man, rarely phased so much, so it was a telling sign of just how shocking her sudden appearance was.
Blake smiled a little awkwardly. "Tukson. It's been a while."
"Blake?" The man, Tukson, was in complete disbelief. For a solid second too, it looked like he just froze up. But then right afterwards, his eyes seemed to light up, clearly having an insight. "Did you… did you really leave the White Fang?"
Blake nodded. "I did, yes. And, well, things happened afterwards and now I'm attending Beacon."
"…Heh, I see." Tukson now seemed to relax. "I've never pegged you as being too wrapped up in Sienna's nonsense. I'm glad to see you're doing well. Not to mention…" He motioned to her uncovered ears.
She nodded. "A lot has happened since I've left the group. But as much as I'd like to catch up with you, I'm afraid this isn't much a social call," she explained with sorrow.
Indeed. As nice as it would be to just catch up with an old friend, the sooner she could get some hopefully good info about the White Fang's activities, then maybe the sooner they could be stopped before they get used by that scum Torchwick any longer.
Tukson nodded quite seriously. "Right, I kind of figured. This is about that ridiculous smut series, right? You've always pestered me for getting the new books for you as soon as possible back then…"
"N-No, it's not about that this time!"
Tukson had the audacity to look surprised. But then he grew serious. "Ah, the White Fang then. Right."
Controlling, or rather attempting to control, the blush on her face, she nodded. "Even back then, you've always gone out of your way to keep track of the other cells' movements and plans. Do you still do so?"
"Yes. I have to. I'm still a wanted man by them, so it's practically necessary in case I ever need to close up shop and disappear." He then just stared at her, trying to ascertain what exactly she wanted to know. But before actually asking, he motioned to the door. "Flip the sign for me, would you?"
Blake flipped the open sign around so that it now read as closed to the street outside and looked around just in case any passing people got suddenly suspicious about the store closing.
Confirming the coast was cleared, she followed Tukson as he left the store counter and gestured for her to follow him through the door leading to the stock room for his store. No doubt, this was for additional privacy.
After doing so, Tukson folded his arms over his chest and looked to her. "Let me guess. You want to know what they're up to here in Vale, right?"
Blake nodded. "I'm not sure how much you've been keeping up with their activity in this kingdom let alone how you're doing so… but now more than ever, I need to know what they're doing. They've been hitting Dust shops recently… and alongside Roman Torchwick at that too!"
That got the man to quirk an eyebrow. "Huh, that's actually new to me."
When he said that, Blake inwardly despaired. Had she been too hopeful here?
"Does that mean you don't-?"
"I still have an idea of what's going on," Tukson quickly explained. "It's just that since going AWOL, I can't exactly be contacting my informants as often or as long as I used to. Same thing goes for the radio frequencies that I monitor."
Blake let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "So what do you know about their recent movements?" she asked in a neutral tone. Though Tukson was a good friend, it wouldn't do to look or sound too desperate, though this was more for the sake of personal pride than anything else.
"Not too much," Tukson started, looking a bit concerned. "They've been sending in a lot of men and firepower, that much I am aware of in addition to the Dust thefts for the most part, but once they arrive here, it's as if they suddenly go dark. Whoever's in charge of them all right now, they don't use the same radio frequencies I or my informants monitor nor do they seem to be making any official records."
Despite what some might think, just because it was a terrorist group didn't make the White Fang any less of an organization. And just like any other organization of considerable size, keeping track of everything through memory and oral communication alone was impossible. Therefore, documentation was needed to help keep track of things, just as they needed to also deliver written reports and turn in formal forms to requisition more supplies.
Yes, that's right, the White Fang was just as much of a victim or bureaucracy as any other organization out there. Just about the only real difference was the contents of some of the paperwork.
This was yet another thing Blake definitely didn't miss about the White Fang.
"If it's all off the books, then it'd normally be considered a covert op… but with all the manpower and weaponry I saw at the docks, it can't even be called that," she murmured.
Tukson blinked. "The docks… you were there?"
Now Blake was the one blinking, having not realized she let that slip. "Yes, I was," she quickly answered. Seeing Tukson's questioning stare, she launched into a brief explanation of what happened at the docks, though making sure to leave out the circumstances about her and her team that had led her to that point.
The puma Faunus' expression grew grim as she talked. By the end of it, he was positively worried, or at least looked as worried as she's ever seen him.
"Torchwick, huh? This really is a lot worse than I feared," he said. He stayed quiet for a minute, thinking hard. "I'm sorry to say again that I don't really have anything new to say about this… but if you'll give me about a week or two to dig into this, I can find something out."
Blake smiled softly. She hadn't even asked him directly to do any research, yet here he was, saying he'd do just that.
"Thanks… and sorry for dropping this on you."
He waved off her apology. "Though I may be making an honest living as a bookstore owner now, that doesn't mean I've just been twiddling my thumbs when it came to the White Fang. Now, I at least have a much more personal investment in figuring out what they're up to. If they've been snagging that much Dust for themselves, then it clearly can't mean anything good for Vale."
"Right." Blake narrowed her eyes as she agreed with him. Though the White Fang gathering so much Dust obviously wasn't a good thing, it was nice to know that someone else thought along the same exact lines as her.
And while she may not have exactly gotten any new info like she'd hoped, she now had a source of reliable info here.
"Ha, I remember how much trouble you used to cause me and the others back then," Tukson said with a bit of a smile now, switching tracks. "Figures that now really wouldn't be any different."
Blake returned the smile with one of her own. "You know you missed me," she retorted calmly, uncharacteristically talkative and relaxed.
Tukson snorted. "Not that mu-."
The sound of an opening door cut him off. Rather, the sound of an opening door made him freeze.
Blake too had ceased to move even an inch for a split second.
That had been the store's sole entrance.
Tukson narrowed his eyes, his muscles tensing. "…You called someone to meet you here?" he asked Blake.
Blake shook her head.
"Yeah, I thought as much. Stay here for a second," Tukson said as he headed for the door, only to pause for a moment and grab a nearby box. He must be intending to act as if he'd merely been sorting through new stock.
Blake made sure to hang further back in the storage room. And unlike last time, where she'd had to call her locker to deliver Gambol Shroud, this time she'd came armed to start with. She reached a hand for one of her blades as Tukson exited the storage room with box in hand.
As he did so, she had an idea. From what little she could hear with her ears, there seemed to only be two people out there. Not exactly the most intimidating number out there, but just in case…
She ought to call Jaune. Following the dock incident, they'd exchanged contact info and she knew he'd be going into town today for some reason along with his team.
As tempted as she was to call her own team – indeed, this was her very first instinct now – they were back at Beacon getting a head-start on their homework. They'd only let her take off alone because they wanted to show her they trusted her to not run off again. And now that trust was ironically working against her. By the time they get here, who knows what could happen.
No, Jaune and his team would be able to get here much quicker if things went bad.
She pulled out her scroll and began to silently dial the blond teen.
As she did so, she saw Tukson finally exit the storage room and speak to the two now in the store.
"Something I can help you two with?"
"Something I can help you two with?"
Those were the first words out of their target's mouth as he exited the other room.
Emerald, acting as casually as could be, took note of the Faunus' physique and posture. Though he'd left that stupid White Fang group, he still evidently kept himself in decent shape. That said, he didn't look like he was expecting to be engaging in a brawl.
Yes, other than looking a little suspicious of hers and Mercury's sudden entrance, he didn't seem like he was going to give them any trouble.
Yet, that is.
"Oh no, not really," Emerald then said smoothly while pretending to look around the store. As she did this, Mercury, childish punk that he is, strolled down the nearest aisle towards the comics section. "Just wanted to see if you had a certain book or two in stock."
The target, Tukson, quirked an eyebrow as he made his way towards the counter, placing the box he held in his hands on it. "Badly enough to ignore the 'closed' sign on the door? Must be quite the book."
Emerald smirked a little, bemused. No way this guy didn't know something was up by now, assuming he'd even been fooled at all to start with. Still, she had to hand it to him for being so calm.
"Oh, not really. I say want, but more like need – a text book for a class of mine."
"I see. Well, miss, I'm afraid I don't carry too many textbooks in stock – this store is more about books with stories, not purely informational."
"Yeah? Then what's up with the store slogan?" Mercury chipped in now, smirking as well as he looked up from some comic that he'd grabbed.
"It's good for publicity." Tukson shrugged as he leaned forward and placed both hands on the counter. "Sorry for that, miss. Is there anything else I can help with?"
Emerald approached the counter a bit more, tensing up inwardly for what was to come next. She did so quite boldly, however, for she had nothing to really fear here; she and Mercury were more than skilled enough to handle one former flunky, not to mention she had her semblance too.
Speaking of which, she'd been using her semblance on the man as soon as she'd laid eyes on him. How else would her weapons, now held openly in her hands, have gone unnoticed for this long?
"As a matter of fact," she began. "You can help – you can help by dying quickly."
Then, while the man was under her semblance's influence, she unsheathed her weapon in its sickle form and swung-.
But instead of slicing the man's neck and being done with this, her blow was suddenly deflected and deflected hard.
She turned to the left in surprise to see a black-haired girl wielding a sword, which had been used to swat her attack aside.
The girl glared at her fiercely and proceeded to lash out with another sword she wielded.
But as shocked as Emerald was, she still managed to respond in the form of unsheathing her other weapon and swinging it at the girl.
It cut right through the girl's form like a knife through butter. No, more like cutting through air. Sure enough, the girl's form had faded and the real one was already attacking again.
"Tukson!" the girl cried out as she swung her sheathed blade at Emerald.
The blades themselves were clearly quite thin, but the sheathe was large and heavy and it showed through in the blow having much more weight behind it; when Emerald deflected it, she was forced back despite having braced for it.
And just as she was forced back, their target made his own move. Picking up the box he'd initially been carrying, he threw it at Mercury and tried making a run for it.
Mercury, who'd taken to this sudden change of circumstances with mild amusement, simply kicked the box aside hard enough to split it open and send the books inside flying everywhere. Then on just one foot, he pounced towards their target.
The black-haired girl proved to have quite a soft heart going on, because rather than press the attack against her, she instead whirled around and tried to go for Mercury instead.
Not if she was going to help it though.
With just a bit of focus, she cast her semblance upon the girl and made her think she was striking her stupid partner when instead, she ended up slashing through a nearby book rack.
This gave Mercury all the time he needed to land a hit on Tukson, shooting him at the exact same time the blow landed.
Except, instead of killing Tukson, the blow only sent him flying with a cry.
Figures that even a former White Fang grunt would have his aura unlocked. And now that the surprise had been ruined, he's had time to get the shield up.
Still, he looked hurt now as he went crashing against the wall and Emerald had no choice but to break the illusion she'd cast on the unknown teen to look outside and ensure the people passing by outside were convinced nothing out of the ordinary was taking place.
Using her semblance on more than one person was always rough going, especially for long periods of time, but she lucked out – not many people traversed this street during this time of day nor did they linger for more than just a few seconds, so making them not hear or see anything amiss inside here was pretty easy.
Unfortunately, this focus meant the girl was now bearing witness to what just happened.
Without much of a word, she threw herself at Mercury successfully this time, making what looked like a clone to take the hit Mercury launched her way when he saw her coming. She then slashed at the grey-haired teen but when Mercury expertly twisted out of the way, she rolled with the momentum of her failed attack to get in between him and their target.
Emerald sighed, annoyed more than worried. While this was all less than expected, her time working with Cinder has taught her to deal with changes in the situations she finds herself in.
And while this could go wrong still, she and Mercury still had a chance to salvage this before things got way worse.
"Think you can get out of the way, kitty?" Mercury spoke up jokingly, poking at the top of his own head, mimicking where the girl had cat ears atop hers. "I promise that if you do, we won't have to cover up your death too."
The girl glared at him and shifted into a more defensive stance. All the while, Tukson got back on his feet, growling as he did so.
"Who the hell sent you two?" the man asked as he moved beside the unknown girl.
"That's not for you to find out," Emerald stated before Mercury could open his big mouth and say something stupid or incriminating.
She then switched her left weapon into its kusarigama form and swung it at Tukson whilst simultaneously using her semblance on both of them to make it look as if she and Mercury have yet to move.
She successfully wrapped her weapon around the target's neck and tugged tightly, immediately eliciting a gasp from the man as she dragged him forward.
She did this with enough force that if not for aura, the man's neck would've been instantly broken, but even if that had been enough to kill the guy, she still would've followed up with another attack to be sure.
Which is what she did now.
However, the man's loud gasp had alerted the unknown Faunus girl to something being up and she responded by suddenly switching the blade in her right hand into its gun form and started shooting wildly at Mercury who'd just started to approach her.
Her partner casually dodged the gunfire, even deflected some bullets by moving those stupid prosthetic legs of his into place, but since Emerald hadn't accounted for the girl getting that reckless, she was unable to use her semblance in time to disguise the gunfire's noise from the people outside.
Sure enough, people gasped and screamed outside the store as the book racks got shot up and some of the glass windows got shot out too.
While that happened, Tukson struggled fiercely to break free from her chain's grasp. And while she had the advantage of leverage and all that, Tukson was still undeniably a big man and noticeably stronger than her. Though he couldn't brute force his way out of her weapon's grasp that easily, he in turn wasn't making it easy for her to reel him in close.
She had to settle instead for approaching him quickly and kicking at the side of his head while he was distracted by her semblance.
Her blow drew some blood as the tips of her shoe struck the side of Tukson's temple, but during that brief second of pure pain, the man was able to flail around and grab her by the ankle and tugged on her just hard enough to nearly bring her down.
She shook him loose after regaining her footing and slashed at his flailing arms with her other weapon. Thanks to his aura, he remained relatively undamaged, but however long he's been out of the White Fang had dulled his skills despite his obvious attempts to stay active and she could just feel that he was just a few more good hits away from his aura being fully broken.
But the unknown girl wasn't going to just sit idly by and let her do just that. Using what was clearly her semblance to make several clones in rapid succession, she was able to break through the sudden barrage of kicks that Mercury had launched her way in the interim and when she neared Emerald, she swung down at her weapon's chain with one sword while the other blade went flying towards her throat.
Though aura could prevent fatal blows like that, strikes to such vital areas drained more aura than when being struck in the side of the arm or leg since aura users would naturally prioritize the protection of their vital spots more than any other parts of the body. As such, Emerald didn't exactly favor losing a solid chunk of her aura and so she had to outright dodge lest she be hit.
However, in order to accomplish this, she had to let go of her weapon that had Tukson bound since holding onto it would've prevented her from dodging the entirety of the incoming blade's length.
And the girl didn't stop there, swinging several more times viciously with such speed that now Emerald found herself a bit hard-pressed to dodge them all, especially with all the shot-up books and glass shards now littering the side of the store she was on. She couldn't even focus long enough to activate her semblance.
Now fully annoyed, Emerald used the one weapon she still had to swat aside the girl's weapon just as she was about to bring it up in its gun form to fire at point-blank range and then kicked her hard in the chest, this time without a dumb clone to take the hit for the girl.
But the Faunus girl threw herself back just as she was struck and managed to make a cat-like recovery just as Tukson freed himself from the chain.
Mercury, now looking a bit put off by how tiresome this was getting too, decided to stop playing around as much and opened fire with the gun component of his right prosthetic, shooting several spiraling rounds that both Tukson and the girl just barely managed to dodge.
The girl returned fire in mid-dodge, however, and made a mad dash for the only other door around, with Tukson right behind her, slamming the door shut in the process.
"Well," Emerald began, now well and truly upset, both at the two targets who'd had the audacity to fight back so hard and at herself for having played around so much. "This is grinding my nerves."
"For once, Em," Mercury spoke. "I'm with you on that."
Mercury blasted the door to pieces, no longer caring for subtlety. That had gone down the drain when that girl had started shooting.
Both of them let out a 'tsk' upon just barely seeing their target and the unknown girl scrambling through another door that was somewhat visible at the very back of the stockroom. And just before going out of sight, the girl paused just long enough to fire several times, which had prompted them to move out of the way.
"Most likely in a back alley," Mercury murmured, now a bit serious. "Think we should give chase?"
Emerald bit her lip as she thought. On the one hand, failing Cinder wasn't exactly a good thing to do, but on the other hand, they'd already messed around enough and the current situation clearly reflected their mistakes up until now, what with all the chaos going on outside.
"No, we need to pull back," Emerald said a second later, trying not to sound as if speaking these words didn't physically hurt. "The cops are likely on their way right now and while we can take them, we can't be seen anymore than we have been already."
Mercury grunted. "Yeah, thought as much too. Come on."
He went for the front door without much care – pretty much everyone outside had already made a run for it, so they weren't in any real danger of being seen. Nonetheless, he moved quickly and Emerald followed right after him.
As she did so, she turned and glared angrily at the store. Or rather, in the general direction that unknown girl had taken their target in.
She'll admit that she and Mercury hadn't taken things too seriously. But if not for that damned girl, then things wouldn't have gotten to this point in the first place.
Now the teal-haired girl was just itching for a little payback.
And with any luck, she'll get a chance at that in the near future. If not by her own two hands, then definitely when Cinder's plan finally brings this shitty kingdom down.
Overall, a fairly minor chapter, just meant to introduce Tukson officially into the story as well as further diverging from canon – in more ways than you may realize right now. In all honesty, Tukson was yet another one of those characters that I felt was criminally underused and I aim to try and correct that in a way that will make sense in the coming chapters.
Now, don't worry – I'm aware that it looks like the antagonists are really getting creamed right off the bat here, but do keep in mind that this is due more to simply underestimating the changes Jaune and subsequently his friends are causing compared to canon. Consider the docks incident as well as this attempted murder to be their collective wake-up call; from here on out, Cinder and her subordinates will be taking things much more seriously and adapt as needed.
Also, Blake and Jaune had really been the focus of the past few chapters. In the latter's case, this is obviously justified since he is the MC of the fic, but now the others will steadily get their chance to shine in various ways from here on out, just had to set some things up first is all.
Hope you guys understand.
Until next time, everyone. Take care!