Finally published my second novel, everyone!
Well, not completely – the site I use to publish sends it out to a variety of other sites for it to be published there and as of now, there's still a few sites left for my novel to be published on.
But! That's not the point. The point is, it's finally up and available to read! It's called Infinite Genesis Book 1: Beginnings! You can currently find it on sites such as Kobo, Scribd, Playster, Baker & Taylor, Apple and Barnes and Noble! And hopefully soon, it'll be available for purchase on Amazon, Overdrive and even other sites like Bibliotheca, Tolino, and Overdrive! Only $0.99 too on all sites!
Forgive my shameless self-advertisement here, but it's just so damn great to finally have it done, you know? Ha ha. That said, I will also be posting a universal link to it on my profile page too, around the time this chapter is up or some time before even that.
Heh, but my enthusiasm for my novel aside now, about this fic – I will be holding off on beginning the next part of the Infinite Genesis series for about a month or two in order to plan out as much of the plot as is possible. Already had some stuff in in mind ever since I even first started the first book, but it'll now be time for me to flesh that stuff out before committing to it.
In the meantime, that means I'll be focusing on writing for this fic which in turn also means chapters may be a bit more plentiful. Or at least that is the general plan, but alas the next month or two for me will also be a busy one in general – a lot of personal obligations and stuff – so how many chapters I will be able to get out by then, I can't quite say just yet.
But hopefully by the time of the next chapter for this fic, I'll have a better idea of how my writing plans will turn out.
Just thought I should let you guys know!
Now onto the chapter!
P.S. Also saw Godzilla recently and all I have to say is that it's literally every Godzilla fans' dreams come true!
Chapter 14
The weekend rolls around in what felt like the blink of an eye. It was almost enough to make Jaune himself shake his head in disbelief.
Alas, he avoided pondering about the subjective flow of time and all – he had much more important matters to attend to.
Such as now, for example.
"All ready?" he asked his team.
Just as they'd discussed several days ago, his team along with RWBY were to head out into Vale and try locating the White Fang's base. To this end, they'd all gotten up a little earlier than they normally did on the weekends and it was just barely nine in the morning by the time they'd all had gotten dressed.
Jaune, ever the eager one, had been the first to prepare, thanks in part to not needing to ever do much to change and whatnot. His friends took longer due to their longer hair and somewhat more intricate clothes, not that he'd ever say that to them. Pyrrha in particular took the longest due to the length of her hair and the various parts of her usual outfit needing to be put on piece by piece.
Thankfully, they were all ready in time and his friends silently nodded in response to his question.
Smiling ever so lightly, he led them out of their dorm and locked up, doing so just in the nick of time for team RWBY just exited their dorm too.
"Nice timing, eh?" Ruby remarked as she smiled up at him.
His smile grew just a bit. "Yeah."
They exchanged some simple morning greetings immediately thereafter and quickly got organized – a hallway wasn't exactly a spot meant for eight people to gather together in, after all.
So, with little chatter being made, they all headed first to have a quick breakfast at the cafeteria before then going on to gather their weapons just in case.
Well, his team and the others did – Jaune always had his two swords handy. He went ahead towards the bullhead docks and waited patiently for the others to get their weapons, something that they did quickly.
The eight of them then boarded the bullhead and made their way into Vale, little chatter being made between them, much to Jaune's surprise. They were all normally so very talkative, but he supposed after waiting this long to finally do something about the White Fang and Roman Torchwick that they were feeling a bit too tense to act like they normally did. In which case, their relative silence was understandable.
Still, there was a part of him that found the quiet atmosphere between them all rather sad.
Not long afterwards, the bullhead arrived and they disembarked.
Almost immediately, Jaune took note of other people's stares. When it came to himself, he wasn't so keen on noticing most people's eyes on him, but when those eyes were gazing at his friends, he was naturally quite fast to notice this.
He pondered silently if it was because of them all obviously being armed, but then reconsidered – with the exception of himself, Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake, the others' weapons could be put in a more compact form that could then be hidden somewhat, such as Ruby's scythe in its current form hidden by her cloak. He then supposed it was because of how serious they all must look to the relatively few people milling about this early morning.
No matter, they obviously didn't mean the civilians any harm so there shouldn't be any issues.
Moreover, he was letting himself get a bit too distracted here. That wouldn't do. Ever since that brief chat with the others about the dance a few days ago, his thoughts have been wandering more and more. Thankfully, not enough to impact his performance in combat, but when it came to day-to-day life, he would belatedly realize how absentminded he was being.
That he'd been dazing off like this was worrying, but Jaune wasn't really sure on what to do.
Until such a time he figures out what to do, all he can do is what he's always done up until now – press on.
"Alrighty, let's see," Ruby eventually said as they kept walking, passing by shops that were just barely opening now. She pulled out her scroll and fiddled with it a bit before pulling up a map of Vale. Her teammates all glanced at it as they kept on walking. "So, in the end, we can probably ignore the buildings on the outermost parts of this search area, right?"
Over the past few days, they all had continued to discuss how to go about the search despite their attempts not to do so and they'd come up with more theories and speculation on how to do so.
Together, they'd been able to rule out certain spots by virtue of logic, such as some buildings being far too small for any crew of people to make a proper base out of or being too rundown to even consider being made into a home away from home.
This helped narrow the search area a bit, but also resulted in what could be considered 'splotches' in what had otherwise previously been a perfect circle.
To this end, they further had to do some digging into the past of Vale and find older maps. Weiss, ever the studious one, had been most helpful with this task and she found lists of businesses that had once thrived in Vale's older sections before closing down, taking note of those that had occupied the larger structures while the now closed businesses that had once been run in the much smaller buildings were crossed off the list she'd made.
Combined with his own knowledge of the general area and the fact people like Isaac and the others there had had no trouble telling him all about the older districts of Vale during his stay at their motel, there hadn't been any sounds that could be mistaken for construction, so that also ruled out the possibility that the White Fang had added onto the buildings there for their own use.
Plus, Blake had told them in no uncertain terms that the White Fang didn't do construction of any kind unless it was absolutely, 100% necessary and even then it was really only in the cases of accommodating the much more important members of the organization, not some grunts…. Her words, not his.
To make a long story short, they'd trimmed the search area down a fair bit more than they'd expected, but there was still more to be done.
"That's right," Jaune said in response to Ruby's question as he and his team also gathered around. "Most of those buildings look large on the outside, but inside is remarkably cramped due to bad floor planning. Whatever operation Roman and the White Fang are running has too many people involved to set up whatever equipment they have in there, to say nothing of housing for both them and basic necessities."
"But couldn't they be spread out throughout the area?" Pyrrha suddenly brought up. "Perhaps they know occupying larger buildings may possibly be too obvious a thing, so they decided to occupy a number of the smaller buildings instead?"
It was Weiss who answered that question, once again demonstrating her newfound expertise in the matter of Vale's abandoned districts. "It's possible, but extremely unlikely; many of the buildings were made far too close for another, to say nothing of how many small side streets and dead ends there are. If they ever got raided and had to pack up what they could to attempt escaping, it would be impossible to move quickly so only a handful of people could even squeeze into those alleyways at any one time. The only way they'd be able to clear out a large enough path for all of them to escape would be if they were willing to outright level entire buildings and city blocks to do so, but of course that would run the risk of catching themselves in the blasts too."
Pyrrha nodded in acceptance and took a step back.
"I guess we'll just have to search all of the really big buildings then… but damn, that's still a lot…" Yang mumbled.
"It's all we can do for now unless Tukson conveniently finds something out for us," Blake replied. "But we'll be at this for today and tomorrow anyways so we should find something if we try hard enough."
"Aw, I hope we find them soon though," Nora said with a slight whine to her voice. "I gotta get me some action!"
"Slow and steady wins the race, Nora," Ren drawled out.
Jaune ignored everyone's little quips as he continued to eyeball the map and then nodded to himself. "Then in that case, let's divide the entire search area into two sections – we'll handle the west and southern portions of it while you can have the east and the north."
Of the two teams, team RWBY was the more mobile one – both Ruby and Weiss have their semblances, Blake was plenty fast on her feet herself and could use her ribbons to swing from building top to building top and Yang has demonstrated an impressive proficiency with blasting herself through the air a fair distance with Ember Celica.
They in comparison weren't quite so equipped to cover ground so quickly. He and Nora in particular were the main heavy hitters of JNPR and the problem with that is that their attacks could run the all too real risk of collapsing the buildings on themselves and the others, so heading into the more crowded areas would be a poor idea.
Granted, Jaune could cover ground more than quickly enough himself, but unless he was willing to charge directly through every building in the way, it was a no-go. Plus, that would only alert their enemies to their presence.
This was something that Ruby understood as well, the first part that is, and she nodded. "Sounds good! now let's go! We're burning dayli-!"
She tried to take the lead, but Weiss grabbed her hood before she could fully take off, nearly causing her to simultaneously tear the hood and choke. "Wait a moment, you dolt," she said dryly. "Jaune has been there before, so he should be the one to show us the way there. Presumably, he'd have already found out firsthand any shortcuts." She looked to him as she said that.
He nodded. "I have."
"Then lead us there."
He nodded again and began to do just that, everyone following in silence – save for Ruby, who whined adorably over Weiss stealing her thunder before it even got going.
Such a sight brought him just a slight bit of amusement. Sadly, it didn't last long – his thoughts were still a little frayed and now that he was trying to focus on their current goal, whatever unneeded emotions he was having now began to slip away.
It was time to get down to business, something his happiness was not needed for.
Pyrrha was one of two people that was following her partner/leader the closest. The other was Ruby, who was trying to do her part in leading them all to where they had to go despite Weiss' earlier words.
The redhead had to admire the younger girl's spunk, but only marginally.
For she was once again all too focused on her team leader.
The past few days, he's been looking noticeably perturbed by something, but he hasn't bothered opening up to anyone about it and despite having wanted to ask him herself, she's found herself unable to muster the courage.
She couldn't help but berate herself. How could she have no problem taking on anyone in a fight but then struggle to even ask one of her few friends about how he's doing?
Some treacherous part of her whispered that it was because of how she began to view Jaune as being more and more unusual by the day, but she did her best to try and ignore this part of her mind. This part of her was essentially implying that because Jaune was increasingly different from most people that she was hesitant to interact with him and that was a horrible thing to ever think.
After all, was it not because of the Great War that diversity became something to celebrate and enjoy? How could she practically spit on the efforts of the people who fought for such an ideal back then if she couldn't practice what was preached?
Ah, but then, this really was nothing more than an excuse, really. When it really came down to it, Jaune's mentality of others before himself was simply too extreme a thing for her and likely most others to bear. Don't get her wrong, it was admirable but only to an extent. At some point, one must learn how to enjoy themselves, something Jaune didn't seem to have an easy time doing.
It was because of this mentality that when they all had spoken briefly of the dance that he seemed all too willing to just shove aside whatever chances of joy he could've had at such an event to just help set the dance up and patrol.
What had rubbed her so wrong about that time, however, was that although he'd certainly been quick to explain to them all what he'd intended to do that night of the dance, he hadn't looked too happy. Yet even with his clear unhappiness, his responses had been practically automatic.
It had been as if something had been literally forcing him to say otherwise.
"Ah, Jaune!"
A voice suddenly calling out to her partner snapped Pyrrha out of her thoughts.
It would seem that in the time she'd spent following Jaune alongside the others that they've covered a considerable distance – no longer were they in the nicer parts of Vale, but rather they were now entering the older and more rundowns areas of it.
Pyrrha was considered a nice and tolerant girl by many and at the risk of sounding arrogant or too self-assured, she believed this to be true about herself. But even then, seeing how old and even decrepit some of the surrounding buildings looked were enough to make her almost visibly wince.
It just hurt to look at, really.
She didn't seem to be the only one holding back a wince either – just about everyone else looked surprised and a little horrified almost by how quickly Vale shifted from colorful and prosperous to dull and rundown.
The only exception was Jaune himself, of course.
Instead, he merely turned in the direction of the voice and smiled softly. Pyrrha and the others followed his gaze in time to see an older looking woman, a little on the thin side and rather pale too, beaming at her blond friend.
"Patrice," Jaune spoke. "How have you been?"
The older woman's smile seemed to grow even more somehow as she fixed her shoulder length- dark blue hair. "I've been well enough. But you can imagine how it is – at my age, even working a flower shop can be physically demanding."
Jaune nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I've met my share of people who have such troubles. But other than that, how are things? Any more trouble from those gangs?"
She shook her head. "No no, not at all. I'm sure that young Corrin already told you about all that."
Corrin? Pyrrha mouthed the name silently to the others, who could only discreetly shake their heads, not recognizing the name either.
"Ah, I see he's spread word about my last visit… sorry I couldn't visit you or anyone else at the time." Jaune sounded genuinely apologetic.
But the woman, Patrice, waved him off. "Now now, no need to apologize! We all know firsthand how you're like." She laughed a bit. She then looked to the rest of them. "Ah… out with your friends? That's good. Gods knows that you definitely need to loosen up a bit."
"Ah, actually we were on our way to do something rather important…" Jaune began.
"Oh? Heh, I see. Somehow, I shouldn't be surprised," Patrice replied, her smile growing small now. "You're always working hard, eh? That's nice and all, but you really do need to learn how to relax."
"I've… I've been trying…"
"Hmm, well maybe paying a visit to Isaac will help with that." Patrice sounded rather playful now. "I'm sure his daughter still misses you, you know."
"Ah…" …Was Jaune actually looking embarrassed? "Perhaps another time."
Patrice laughed at his bashfulness. "Ah, for how decisive you are with everything else, girls still leave you stumped, huh? With all those pretty girls around you right now, I'd thought otherwise." She laughed again before opening the door nearby, which turned out to be the front to the flower shop she'd just mentioned, Pyrrha mentally noted. "Well, whatever you're up to now, I wish you the best. Just be safe, okay? We'd all be sad if something happened to you."
Jaune now nodded firmly. "I will."
Waving goodbye to him and to them, Patrice went inside, presumably to prepare for opening the shop up for today.
They all stared silently at Jaune who in turn silently stared at the front of the shop for a moment before he began to walk again.
"So, she seemed friendly… even if she didn't actually talk to us… or vice versa," Ruby commented a moment later.
"That she did," Weiss acknowledged. She then grimaced. "Even so, she seemed…" She trailed off.
But they all knew what the heiress had been about to say.
The older woman just now hadn't exactly looked all too well, with shabby clothes and a physique so slim that it couldn't be too healthy.
And Jaune seemed to pick up on what they were all thinking. "Patrice… she suffered from severe illness years ago," he began. "It wasn't until recently that she's gotten better and able to run her flower shop by herself."
"Recently?" Pyrrha discovered herself asking.
Jaune replied slowly. "…As you can all tell, this area isn't in the best of shapes. The economy included. Just about everyone here is near or at the poverty line, so affording good medical care isn't exactly within their means. It didn't help either that gangs and other criminal elements liked to make their home here to cause chaos."
"And you know her and all this… how?" Blake asked him, the Faunus teen looking particularly stricken by what had just happened.
"In the days leading up to Beacon's semester, I stayed at a hotel in this area – owned by Isaac, whom she mentioned," he answered. "During my time here, I did my best to help out. I kicked out the gangs and helped fix up the motel and other shops here. Patrice in particular had needed help since she was actually weaker then than she is now."
"Wait, what?!" Yang exclaimed. "You're telling me today was one of her better days or something?!"
Jaune nodded solemnly. "She may no longer be ill, but she still has times of considerable weakness. Before I came along, a lot of the other shop owners here had to help her out lest she collapse."
And judging by his expression, Pyrrha could tell Jaune wanted to head right back and aid her before she ran the risk of collapsing right now. He looked truly pained to not be doing so.
"If she's in such a state, why continue to push herself like this?" Ren now questioned.
"That shop is actually her husband's… but he passed away a long time ago, not long before she fell ill. And their home above the flower shop was vandalized too, with most of their possessions taken or ruined. The shop is really the only thing she has left to remember him by," Jaune explained solemnly.
That shut them all up for a long minute or two.
It was enough to make Pyrrha's heart constrict. If this kind of thing was something Jaune was used to, then it was now no wonder why he may be the way he is – hearing all this was enough to make the redhead feel so bad about all her personal woes.
"Does… does everyone else live like this here?" Amazingly, it was Nora who was asking this, the girl nowhere near as bombastic as she normally is.
"…More or less, yeah," Jaune said with a sigh. "But don't pity them – despite how it all seems, they're much stronger than you could ever give them credit for. Perhaps not in body, but definitely in spirit. No matter how bad the circumstances are, they have each others' backs and can always find joy and fun in day-to-day things."
He was now smiling a little, recalling things that Pyrrha could only guess at.
"But to think…" Weiss began. "That Torchwick and the White Fang would choose to hide out somewhere even remotely close to this area…"
And just like that, whatever good mood Jaune's words had been building up suddenly vanished. In fact, Pyrrha was now feeling extremely worried.
If they were able to find these criminals and if things did come to a fight here of all places…
She shivered alongside Ruby and a few of the others.
The livelihood of people such as Patrice was at stake here.
It was one thing to know on a purely intellectual level the sort of threat Roman Torchwick and the White Fang posed to the populace, but to now see for herself, if only for a moment, how some people live and how much they've lost and what more they could lose, this all became that much more serious.
"That's why we're doing this," Jaune said, his voice like steel now. "So that Patrice and everyone else could sleep just a bit easier from now on."
They all stood a little straighter at those words, their expressions shifting to ones of pure determination.
He was right. As of now, they could very well be the only ones standing between the people living here and scum like Torchwick.
Pyrrha's hands clenched into tight fists.
Somehow, she'd just gained a bit more insight into how Jaune ended up the way he is, or so she now thought.
And now that she's had a glimpse at what he must have dealt with, she made a silent vow to do the same.
A huntress in training she may be, but she wouldn't stand by if others were at risk.
With her resolve now strengthened, she marched with greater vigor than ever before as Jaune led them all to where they had to go.
"Shit…" someone mumbled.
"Yeah," came the simple reply.
The two mumbling to themselves were members of the White Fang, currently disguised as bums in order to blend in better with the environment, said environment being the rundown area that their current targets were traversing.
Just a day or two ago, that Torchwick bastard had rounded the two of them up along with a few others and told them to head out into the field and monitor some students from Beacon, two in particular – a blond boy named Jaune and one of their own, a cat Faunus with black hair and yellow eyes.
They didn't have much to go on other than that and when they'd pointed out as much, Torchwick had told them to stop their bitching and just go out there and keep an eye out in case the teens in question headed out into Vale.
They'd been sent out really damn early this morning, with these two in particular being told to hang back and 'act like the bums you are' (to quote that bowl hat wearing shitbag) while the rest of them headed out into Vale and pretend to be early morning shoppers on the main streets.
Having been provided rough sketches of their targets, they were to wait out in their positions for a solid several hours if need be, something they'd all whined about only for their cries of despair to go ignored.
But much to their surprise, their targets along with their friends had been spotted very early on by a few of their allies, who'd then gone on to discreetly follow them for a bit before breaking away, texting them the direction the targets were last seen walking in.
Having been bumming around elsewhere initially, these two White Fang members, dubbed simply the Ragged Tagged Duo (RTD), had to rush several blocks over to get to where their targets were supposedly at.
And the two of them had managed to get settled in just in the nick of time to see the blond named Jaune and the other girl, the cat Faunus, along with their friends rounding the corner.
"I can't believe we actually spotted them," commented RTD #1. "Why the hell would they be out in Vale this damn early?"
RTD #2 shrugged. "To look for where Torchwick is at or something? Given what we've heard happened at the docks and the recent failure of those two humans, seems like there might be a trend going on now."
"Well, yeah, that makes sense, but just how often have you heard or seen teens going around hunting for criminals?"
"This is the first time, man. But I guess there's a first time for everything?"
"Ain't exactly a good thing, though… so, just what the hell do we do now?"
"Dunno. As far as I can recall, we're just supposed to keep an eye on them, see where they go."
"Okay, sounds simple enough… but are we supposed to take them out if they get too close to our base?"
"Eh, I kinda doubt that – them finding our base, that is. I mean, there's a lot of places for them to look if that's their game plan. Plus, even if they do find it, they'll be so outnumbered, it's not even funny."
"But didn't that blond human totally ruin the docks operation by himself?"
"Not by himself, nah – that race traitor along with, like, two others were there too."
"But I mean, didn't the blond human do the most harm to the operation? Shit, just look at Torchwick. As much as that guy had it coming, he looked like hell afterwards."
RTD #2 remained silent for a few seconds. RTD #1 had a point there.
Their quiet yet rapid-fire conversation ceased for a while as they watched their targets walk down the streets, heading further into the shithole known as Vale's abandoned districts.
RTD #2 finally spoke. "Well damn, looks like we do have to follow them now."
"Eh, I expected shit like this to happen – we always get the short straw anyways," remarked RTD #1. "But do you think we'll be able to follow them without being spotted?"
"We should be fine. Worst comes to worst, we just play it off as us being homeless Faunus. Your scales are dull and messed up enough to pull off the hobo look and my horns have seen better days anyways." RTD #2 said this with clenched teeth, not exactly liking to put himself and his buddy down, especially when his goat horns were looking short and cracked while his comrade's snake scale were all but literally peeling off after many years of abuse and fighting.
Speaking of RTD #1, he took the words with only a sigh of mild bemusement. "Guess that's true. Let's go, I guess…. Wait, which team should we be following? Looks like our targets are on different teams or something?"
Before RTD #2 could respond, he suddenly stopped and shivered, a chill running down his spine.
On instinct, he then spun around, feeling very much alert – only to see nothing there.
"What's up?" his buddy asked, worried and tensed.
"…Just felt like someone was suddenly behind me," RTD #2 responded before letting out a long sigh. "Ah, to hell with it. We'll follow the race traitor and her group – they'd probably be more likely to cause trouble anyways somehow. Let's just radio the others to try and catch up with the blond human and his team later."
"Alright, sounds good."
As the Ragged Tagged Duo gathered up their (fake) hobo stuff and prepared to follow after intended observation targets, they remained oblivious to the truth of the matter-.
-Someone truly had been behind RTD #2, having been following the teens from afar as well, in addition to listening in on the mooks' conversation.
And so, through some liberal usage of her semblance and her own natural speed, a smirking Neo proceeded to head after team JNPR as they broke away from team RWBY.
As Cinder sat down, she tried to relax, tried to clear her mind of any unwanted thoughts. Alas, she found herself unable to.
Though she'd made sure to hint otherwise to the likes of Roman and the White Fang grunts working for them, she truly was at a bit of a loss of what to do.
Despite having made it clear to Roman to make up for all the Dust lost at the docks by going back to raiding Dust shops, she knew all too well that such a thing would only do so much. Dust shops only carried so much Dust when compared to the literal ship full that had been at the docks.
Still, Roman would do his best – his very life depended on it, after all. But even then, it still wouldn't quite be enough and she and Roman both knew that.
That said, they should already have enough Dust to carry out the next stage of the plan anyways, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Given just how thick the ground could be, the train she was intending to crash into Vale via Mount Glenn's underground settlement may not currently be equipped with enough Dust to blow open wide holes in the ground above.
As for the other part of her plan, the more she thought on how to carry on with it, the more unsure she now felt about it.
The initial idea had been to infiltrate Beacon itself as students alongside Emerald and Mercury. But thanks to their screw-up, that may no longer be possible and she highly doubted there was anyone else capable enough to replace them for such roles on short notice. She did consider perhaps making use of that Neo woman, have her use her semblance to disguise her two subordinates, but then dismissed this idea – it was too impractical; if the physical illusions in this scenario were touched just a bit too forcefully even by accident, they'd shatter like glass and expose Emerald's and Mercury's true appearances. And given that this Blake girl had no doubt told the headmaster about the failed assassination, that would only result in them being trapped in such a scenario too.
Cinder then tried thinking of another way to infiltrate Beacon, both so that she could deliver the virus that infuriating Watts had concocted for her and so that she could locate Amber and obtain the other half of the Fall Maiden power.
Unfortunately, nothing concrete was coming to mind. Certainly, she could attempt to sneak her way onto Beacon during that stupid dance of theirs and into the CCT tower there, but that would require her to make her way there by foot or some other method since any and all bullheads and smaller ships would be spotted miles away by Beacon's staff. That would mean having to likely fight her way through the forests surrounding Beacon and while no Grimm could ever pose a challenge to her, the noise would only risk discovery. And she didn't dare consider contacting her master to see if she could just have the Grimm ignore her during that time – even for one such as Salem, controlling the Grimm wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do, especially not from so far away.
Despite her usual composure, Cinder sighed as she ran a hand through her hair before turning to glare at both of her subordinates who were sitting down not too far away from her. Both of them flinched at her gaze, her eyes glowing with power, but made no comment. They knew better than to talk.
But as soon as they flinched, Cinder sighed again and looked away. Annoying as this all was, it wouldn't do to put them so on edge. There was a time and place for intimidation. To indulge in this too much would be to risk them possibly turning against her. That may not seem likely given Emerald's affection for her and Mercury's pragmatism, but it was best to not risk it.
In any case, no practical solutions were presenting themselves to her regarding her current predicament… all except for one.
The thought was enough to nearly make her grit her teeth, but she managed to keep from doing so.
"Leave me be for a few minutes," she ordered.
Emerald and Mercury nodded and took their leave from the room as quickly as was possible.
As soon as she confirmed she could no longer hear their footsteps, she pulled out her scroll and made a call.
It rang for a solid minute, something that she knew was on purpose. The person she was calling liked to do petty things like that to her.
But she endured the humiliation and sure enough, the man finally answered.
"Ah, Cinder," Arthur Watts spoke with that same mocking and self-important tone of his as always. "I must say, I never expected you to call me of all people. Dare I assume your opinion of me has improved?"
Cinder had to fight hard not to rise to the bait. For as long as she's known him, Arthur Watts, fellow member of Salem's inner circle, had never liked her and vice versa. Alas, he was much better at riling her up than she was at doing the same to him.
"Something has come up," she began.
"Oh? Has your oh so brilliant plan hit a stone wall? Consider me surprised."
"Of a sort," Cinder admitted most reluctantly, now reconsidering if this was even worth the trouble anymore. "Circumstances have changed, something that I'm sure not even you could've accounted for. It's only natural that I in turn modify my plans to adapt for said change."
"A wise decision coming from you," Watts drawled. "And I suppose this change in circumstance is something you require my assistance for?"
"Your virus… implementing it may not be so easy to do anymore."
"Not so easy… Cinder, are you perhaps suggesting that my pathetic former comrades have somehow improved their systems enough to ward off a virus of my design?" Watts sounded almost offended.
Cinder would never dare claim to even remotely know every single detail about her 'comrades,' but it was well-known to her that Arthur Watts had been a native to the kingdom of Atlas, having once been a scientist working within the military's intelligence and communications division.
He's never had a high opinion of the Atlas military even back then, but ever since he's joined Salem, his attitude towards his former home had worsened even more. As far as he was concerned, the Atlas military had never once been worthy of his genius, or so Cinder could deduce from her interactions, however forced, with him.
It was with this in mind that she now almost found it in her to smirk a bit. Even the slightest implications that Atlas somehow had one-upped him was something that could get him to help her without having much demanded of her in return.
Watts may be a cold-hearted, cruel and vindictive man, but he was also quite arrogant and didn't take slights to his pride, real or not, particularly well. In this one respect, he was controllable, albeit only very marginally.
"Thanks to certain things I'm not quite able to discuss openly just yet," Cinder began. "It would seem that now uploading the virus directly may no longer be possible. So, I was now wondering if it would be possible to try and do so from afar, lest the Atlas military catch me in the act and isolate your work."
Ordinarily, infecting specific parts of the CCT would only be possible by uploading a virus directly to the appropriate terminal. And infecting intranets like what the Atlas military uses would be impossible from an outside source.
However, while she was loathe to admit it, Watts really was a brilliant man. She's seen him work and has witnessed him pulling off things that any computer-savy person would say – correctly at that too – are impossible.
She knew not how he was capable of such things, but he was. And it was this ability of his that she now had a use for.
Alas…
"…Hmph. No, Atlas technology is still well behind what I alone am capable of," he spoke, clearly talking to himself. "You just can't bring yourself to actually infiltrate the CCT tower at Beacon, can't you?"
"You are not… entirely wrong," Cinder admitted. She'd been tempted to remain silent, but that'd be just as much of an admission of truth too. "It's not that I don't want to, however. I did not lie when I said there's been a change in circumstances. "
Watts let out an aggravated sigh before responding. "…Is the Atlas military still on its way?" he asked.
"Yes," Cinder replied.
Due in part to the Vytal Festival coming up soon and also in part to other machinations that Ozpin and his own inner circle have been trying to keep up with, general James Ironwood would be on his way to Beacon in due time, no doubt some time just before that dance of theirs. And being such a paranoid man – albeit rightfully so – he'll be bringing quite the fleet with him along with that robot army of his, which was another essential part of her plan.
Thanks to her own connections, she was well aware of the general's eventual arrival and she relayed this information to Watts.
After listening to this in silence, Watts sighed again. "…Very well, I shall aid you in this endeavor of yours, if only out of respect for this… change in circumstances. But do not think I will let this go without a price, Cinder. I intend to collect a 'fee' at some point down the line and you shall do your best to pay it."
"Deliver on your end first and I will do just that," she replied.
"So be it. I will contact you once I have finished my newest invention then," Watts said and promptly hung up.
Cinder tucked away her scroll immediately thereafter, feeling simultaneously better and worse than before.
On the one hand, she should now be able to still infect the CCT and eventually Ironwood's army as planned. On the other hand, whatever price Watts would demand she pay would no doubt be quite a difficult one. Oh, it wouldn't be some financial thing, no, Watts couldn't care less for lien no matter how great the sum. But rather, it would be something else, no doubt difficult to obtain and he'd expect her to deliver. Even worse, Salem would also expect her to repay this debt as well. The woman was not exactly tolerant of dissension among her ranks, after all, no matter what form it took.
But for the sake of her own goals, it will be done.
And perhaps one day, she finally gained the power she rightfully earned, she'll be able to do away with Watts, if only for a little fun.
…Yeah, now that she thought of it, that would be quite a stress-reliever indeed.
Neo tapped up a quick text to Roman, letting him know what was currently going on.
Namely, that she was following her intended target as planned. The blond teen in question, the one named Jaune, had gone one way with three others – presumably his teammates – while the four other girls had gone another way.
For a brief second, she'd worried the other four girls would be heading straight for their base, but she'd let out a silent sigh when she saw the girls were heading in a slightly different direction.
Sheesh, but talk about a hassle. To think there was a chance, however slight, of their new base being found by some teens… times were changing, it seemed. She wasn't exactly a fan of such change, not unless she and Roman were the ones causing it.
But anyways, she was getting a bit distracted.
For the past several minutes now, she's been following her target from a fair distance, using her semblance of physical illusions to blend into the background as needed.
Though her longtime friend had tasked her with trying to lead the blond and his friends well away from their base and hopefully to that Cinder bitch, this was a task she's yet to start with. Partially because she first wanted to get a feel for how alert the teens were and how they generally acted, but also partially because, well, she didn't exactly have a location for their 'boss.'
Just as they didn't trust Cinder one bit to not try killing them if or when they ceased being useful, the woman clearly didn't trust them to know where she could be cooped up at right now. For all Neo knew, Cinder could either be staying in a sty of a place like she, Roman and the White Fang were doing right now or the fire-user could be cozying it up in a nice luxury suite somewhere in Vale.
So, yeah, despite Roman's hopes, Neo wasn't going to bank on just leading her target on a chase and get lucky with leading him to Cinder.
But just because getting them to possibly off each other was a no-go didn't mean she still couldn't fulfill her task. She had, after all, been told to essentially distract them.
That could be done easily enough.
Picking up her pace, Neo began to swiftly close the distance between her and the team of four. Before, she'd been hanging back at least a solid ten meters, but now that distance was shortened to several meters, then several yards.
Despite her increased pace, she was practically tip-toeing on her diminutive feet just on the off chance the teens were just that alert for any and all threats. Not that she was too worried, though remembering the state her good friend had been in kept her from acting as haughty as she knows she normally is. When it came to combat, Roman was definitely not on her level but he was no slouch either, especially since he tended to fight a lot dirtier than she did to make up for the difference in fighting ability. So if this blond teen really did do all that damage all by himself then he must be a cut or two above the usual people she's gone up against.
Certainly, that required a fair level of caution even from her… but it also made her all the more interested in seeing for herself what he can do.
But first things first.
With this area being a usual hotbed for criminal activity or serving as a temporary home for the homeless and downtrodden, there were plenty of things just lying about, ranging from simple litter to more… unsanitary things, things she would normally not even deign to think of since it was just that disgusting.
This meant she wasn't lacking in items to be picked up and used however she pleased. To demonstrate this, she deftly picked up a crushed beer can and then with an unnecessary flourish, chucked it far, the can clanking against the side of a building.
Thanks to how eerily silent the abandoned area currently was, the sudden noise definitely got the teens' attention, for they all stopped walking and tensed up. They didn't quite draw their weapons, but their hands were certainly reaching for them.
"Jaune," spoke the redhead of the group. "Tell me – do you think that might be nothing?"
"…No. It could be something," the blond teen said in an all too intense voice. Neo almost got shivers just from listening. "There are 'seasons' where this area has plenty of gangs and homeless rolling through for one reason or another. This isn't one of those times."
Her target then took the initiative, walking towards the can with a hand on one of his swords. By this point in time, Neo had already gone ahead, slinking down an alleyway that she'd thrown the can near. As she rounded the corner, she intentionally kicked at the ground a little, making sure to scuff her heels against the gravel (though not too hard – these heels are pricey!).
As expected, that got her target's attention even more, enough to make him put on a rather surprising burst of speed as he charged down the corner.
But of course, since she'd had the head-start and still was using her semblance, she'd been able to hide inside of the nearest building. She'd made sure to use her semblance to make it seem as if there was only a wall where the busted door she'd gone through was.
She heard the teen's friends call out to him, but he didn't reply. Instead, a few seconds later, she heard very faint sounds of the others moving but not in this direction. He must have signaled them to spread out or something. A smart move, but a pity that his teammates weren't quite so skilled at keeping completely silent.
Neo remained still, almost casually so as the blond teen, Jaune, then approached the spot where the door was. She all but staring directly at him now from just a few feet away.
He pulled out his scroll and hit speed dial on it.
"Ruby? My team and I might have something here. We're going to investigate it," he said and then remained silent as the person he called, no doubt one of those other girls that had gone off the other way, responded. After a few seconds, Jaune responded. "No, it's fine. If something really does happen, we'll call you at the very first chance we get. Just wanted to keep you apprised of the situation is all…. yeah, just stick to your part of the search area. Be careful too – we're definitely not alone."
Neo frowned. Perhaps doing things this way had been a slight mistake… but then, when was the last time anyone she's ever dealt with had made an even halfway decent decision? The number of people who've ever done the smart, pragmatic thing could probably counted on both of her hands with fingers to spare.
With the call ended, the blond, who'd been looking straight ahead, suddenly turned to his right – looking directly at her.
As his gaze fell upon her, Neo actually froze. She's thought as much earlier, but the way he focused on things truly was intense. It was one thing to simply observe from a slight distance and a different angle, but to be on the receiving end of his gaze was different matter entirely.
She froze for only a second, however, and she immediately prepared to move – only to pause when nothing happened.
For a second, she'd been marginally worried he'd somehow seen through her illusion, but as a few more seconds dragged on, she realized that perhaps that wasn't the case.
He then reached out with his right hand… and ended up placing it on the side of the building, just inches away from where the door's busted frame began. If he so much as shifted his hand even a little to his left, his fingers will be gripping the rooting wood that made up the door frame.
"…"
He made a sound that Neo couldn't identify; it was just too low in pitch. But it was enough to make her worry a bit until her blond target finally removed his hand and moved on, his boots crunching at the gravel underfoot.
She waited half a minute before popping her head out, watching as he exited the alleyway and met up with his teammates, now talking quickly and quietly amongst themselves.
Whatever they were talking about, they now all withdrew their weapons and spread out once more – it seemed that they were now intent on searching this entire area.
The mute woman now let out a silent huff.
…But seriously, that had been oddly nerve-wracking. Fear wasn't exactly something she felt often, much less to the point of freezing up like some average civilian. But something about the sheer intensity of that guy's gaze and the emotions she could practically feel behind those blue eyes of his… it'd been enough to unconsciously put her in a more combative mindset, yet a mindset with the first and foremost objective being to fight long enough to flee safely.
And that was especially not something she felt often. The last time she ever felt that way was when Cinder had strolled into her and Roman's lives and had threatened them with those flames of hers, flames that definitely didn't feel like it could be the work of some semblance or Dust.
The only difference is, though, is that the feeling had been much more intense just now with her target than it had been when she'd first met Cinder.
…
Making sure the teens weren't circling back around, Neo dropped the illusion as she turned around and headed deeper inside the building, intending to go up to the building's second floors and finding a good spot to watch the teens from, if possible.
As she did so, she pulled out her scroll and sent Roman another quick message.
What she said in the message wasn't something that would make her longtime partner all that happy, but it just might have to be done.
It was now a matter of seeing whether or not it would actually be necessary.
Roman let out a quiet grunt as he got Neo's message.
Not too long ago, he'd gotten the first message from her saying she was just about to begin her task for real now, which had filled him with something akin to hope…
…Only for this second message to crush it.
Oh well, it's not like he'd actually been expecting much really.
Keep that stupid paladin ready.
That had been what the message was. Combined with what Neo had said in the first one, it was easy to figure out that there was a chance – not a big chance, but definitely not impossible chance – that kittycat and her stupid friends, which included little red among them no doubt, may come across their base here. And combined with how inept his current subordinates are, he could now foresee yet another disaster coming up soon.
Thankfully, the paladin they'd managed to take from Atlas had finally been brought here, ready to be transported whenever they finally set up and held that stupid rally for the White Fang. Except now, it looks like they were going to have to show off their new toy a bit sooner than expected.
"Hey, Perry," Roman called out, speaking to one of the very few White Fang grunts that was worth a damn. "Go get that paladin fired up."
The Faunus stopped what he was doing to look at him. "Uh, you sure?" he asked in disbelief.
"Not really, no," Roman said before sighing. "But we might have some guests tonight, know what I mean?"
The Faunus could only slowly nod before then taking off to do as told. Really now, Perry truly was the only diamond in the rough around here. Pity he was dumb animal, but Roman will take what he can get.
Worst comes to worst though… hmm, depending on the paladin's firing range, maybe he could aim for that one district not too far from here…
After all, those huntsman and huntress types are always just dying to protect civilians. Might as well see if that same ridiculous and pathetic hero complex is a shared trait amongst these damned kids.
Yet another set-up chapter here and for that I apologize. But as I may have said – can't remember honestly, ha ha – this fic is something of a slow-burner before it really gets the action going.
That said, the set-up here is quite important. As you all just read, Watts will now be playing a role here, albeit a fairly minor one for the time being. But his role will also be one expanded upon in due time. In fact, him, Tyrian and Hazel will be getting some significant screen-time and a bit more, but not until things really pick up. I do hope you will look forward to that.
Until next time, everyone. Take care!