a/n Sorry this chapter has taken so long, lots of irl things went on as well as writer's block hitting me hard. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Cover image by Ren Lyles
Chapter seven: The infiltration
With an angered sigh Winter Schnee leaves the tent, her emotions clear on her face. She then walks over the where I was seated, overlooking where the camp was located.
"Did you get any information out of her?" the glare sent my way and the fire in her eyes gave me all the answers I needed. Standing up I pat her on the shoulder softly then start walking to the tent. "Let me try for a bit, I know bandits better than you do Queenie."
Walking inside the constructed tent I am greeted with the sight of the woman I had kidnapped the night before. Now able to get a good look at her it was clear she was younger than I had thought at first, possibly seventeen or eighteen. From the light bruising and healing cuts on her, it was clear that Winter had used more forceful techniques to get the information she needed. The woman glares at me with spite as I sit on the tent floor in front of her.
"So a faunus is acting as a pet to a Schnee huh? You disgrace our race!" she snarls out at me, revealing sharpened teeth of some animal.
"You misunderstand me my dear faunus kin. Who's to say I am not using the Schnee to help my own needs?" it seems that my words had an effect on her for she tilts her head as if she is thinking. "If you are curious about that how about we trade information huh? Give me information on your camp down there and I can tell you how one can use a Schnee who has fallen for you"
"A-a Schnee has fallen for a faunus?! That's impossible" it seems that the girl was gullible enough to believe my lies. This was something that I could use to my advantage.
"I would give you proof, but I am sure you would not like to see that image in your head" at my soft smirk she looks even more surprised. "Now do we have a deal?"
She nods softly and looks into my eyes. "A-alright if I tell you what you want then you'll let me go and tell me how you can use a Schnee like that."
"Yes, I promise that I will do as I said." at my words she sighs softly and clears her throat.
"S-sorry boss, but this information is far too important for me to pass up...I hope you'll understand" and she proceeded to tell me everything I needed to know about how to get into the camp
"So I told you everything, now it's your turn"
"About that...I lied, sorry not sorry" before she speaks I reach out and activate my semblance, causing shadows to crash into her head knocking her out again.
"It seems you can put on a decent show for a mercenary, I'm impressed some."
Turning around I see Winter walking inside the tent, her face showing that she was impressed by the way I dealt with our faunus prisoner. She walks over to the prisoner and looks her up and down before turning back to me with her eyebrow raised.
"Why did you knock her out? We could have just left her as she was. It's not like she could have gotten out of the bindings I put her in."
With a slight shrug, I turn and start leaving the tent "it was the safest option, besides I felt sorry for her. Now lets head on out to their camp, the northern part of the camp will be our best bet." I hold my right hand out and allow my shadows to bring forth my gauntlet.
She nods and walks over to the tent flap and grabs her weapon from behind the tent flap before we start to head out towards the camp.
X.x.x.x.x.x.
"It seems her information was correct, the northern side is open. How do you think we should take this Wolf?"
"Well, you wanted me to be a distraction right?" smirking I stand up and adjust my gauntlet before holding my arms out, palms facing down. Shadows begin to fall down and form pools of shadows. From these pools, dozens of legs begin to crawl out of the pools as large cat-sized spiders form from the pools. Seeing the large shadow spiders, Winter steps back some with a look of disgust.
"And what do you plan to do with those things?" she steps back even more when one of the spiders scuttles over to her.
With a snap of my fingers, the spiders all look at me for a second before they begin to scuttle fast into the camp. After a moment screams begin to start as dozens of spiders start to attack those in the camp.
"So tell me, do you have any dust crystals on you?" Winter pulls out a red fire dust crystal from a pocket before she tosses it to me. Catching it I then let my aura flow through it to activate the crystal before crushing it. The dust particles then flow into my gauntlet through the clear dust core of the wrapping that Cindy had added. As the dust fills it the core turns red and my gauntlet starts to glow with heat on the wrapping part of it.
"Oh, so the mercenary knows how to implement dust, how amusing."
"Well you wanted a distraction, this will cause one hell of a distraction" she goes to speak but I ignore her and proceed to run into the camp. Shots start to come my way but soon stop as I direct more of the spiders to swarm in the direction the shots came from. Getting inside the camp I laugh at the sight of the bandits running around in a crazed fashion as the spiders ran amok.
"Damn bandits aren't as tough as I remembered, now time to start the distraction in full." with a snap of my fingers the spiders fade away causing the bandits to all turn to me and raise their weapons. One bandit who seemed to be the leader of the camp walks forward with a pistol raised at my head.
"And just who in the hell do you think you are? Coming into my camp and trying to kill my men. Do you have any last words?" The leader's voice was rough but it was clear from his pistol shaking that he was scared.
I raise my hands up and laugh softly "you bandits are nothing compared to the ones I know. Now, are you ready to have this camp burned down?"
The pistol shakes even more as he cocks the hammer back on it. "Are those your last words?"
"Yours. Not mine" snapping the gauntlet closed I allow my semblance to activate, shadows build up quickly from the gauntlet then shoot out in a sphere around me which catches each of the bullets fired at me. As the shooting stops, I allow my aura to flare up into the gauntlet through the core of the wrapping which adds some of the fire dust into my shadows. I then open my gauntlet causing the sphere to become coated in fire.
"I suggest you all run" at my words some of the bandits start to run. As they run I push my hand forwards which causes the sphere to shoot out and engulf some of the tents around me in flames. I then start to form a short sword in my right hand, allowing the dust to coat it in flames. Shots ring out from my left causing me to rush into a group of bandits. My sword burning their wounds closed as I slice into their legs to disable them. My ears flick softly as I hear mechanical wiring. Turning to the source of the sound I see a large tent start to get ripped as a large mechanical mech stands up, the leader inside of it.
"I will not allow one fucking Atlas hunter to ruin this and have that woman kill me for it!" the mech then starts to rush at me.
"Hey Queenie we may have a problem here, it seems they have stolen more than the cargo you knew about" I speak into the comms device that was attached to my left wrist.
"What the hell do you mean-" the rest of her words go ignored as the mech reaches me. I duck under its first swing only to be kicked by its left leg. The kick sent me flying through the camp and through what feels like a metal crate.
"That's what I mean, seems they have a Paladin style mech" I groan out some and sit up, seeing my aura crackle as this was the first hit to even register as significant enough to damage it.
"You sure caused one hell of a distraction Wolf." a voice calls from beside me as Winter holds a hand down to help me up. It seems that the crate I flew into was the one we had come to take the cargo from.
"Oh, my bad that your high and mighty Atlas security can't keep their shit from getting stolen. Now, what about what you came to get?"
With a slight sigh she shakes her head softly "we will need to destroy the Paladin first or we will never be able to get out of here safely. So let us team up to take it down" she then draws her saber and stabs it into the ground as a large glyph of sorts forms behind her.
"Oh I get to see the famous Schnee summoning first hand, and I'll get to upstage it" At her scoff, I hold my right hand out with my palm facing out. Shadows start to form in the shape of a large Ursa major, concentrating more I allow the dust in my gauntlet to fully empty into the Ursa. As the dust fills the construct it roars loudly before its claws start to glow bright red signifying the dust enhancement.
With another scoff, winter pulls her saber out of the ground as a large Beowulf alpha claw out of the glyph she had formed. We then nod at each other as we allow our summons to run at the mech.
The summons both tackle the mech to the ground each one keeping one pinned while Winter and I run up onto the mech and each attempt to pierce the glass of the cockpit.
Laughter comes from inside as the leader pushes a few buttons, causing the mech to sling both of the summons off before attempting to swipe at us. Winter uses a black glyph to push her back while I form a shadow tentacle to pull me to the ground.
"Damn this thing is strong, Queenie, any idea how to stop it?"
Winter shakes her head before pressing a button on her saber, causing a slot to open up revealing a short parrying style dagger that she then pulls out. "The P.A.L.A.D.I.N project is something only general Ironwood and his personal scientist know about. Even I barely know anything about them."
With a sigh I snap my fingers causing my summon to appear by my side, the glow from the fire dust starting to fade in it. The dying dust gives me an idea.
"Hey, Queenie do you have any more fire dust? If so give me it and then distract him until I tell you to move"
She tilts her head some then hands me two high-grade fire dust crystals before running at the mech again. Her Beowulf back on its feet starts to tackle the mech from behind. While she keeps the mech busy I put one crystal in each hand and activate my semblance, sending shadows into them.
With a warcry of a scream, winter focused her aura into each weapon and slices into one of the legs of the paladin before flipping away as it tries to grab her. Her Beowulf starts slashing wildly at the back of it to make it off balance. Seeing an opening the white-haired woman slices into the same leg again before using a glyph to enhance the gravity on the mech's opposite side resulting in it falling over.
"Oh, you white-haired bitch I'm going to make you regret this!" with a yell of anger the mech then kicks out and shatters Winters summon before attempting to get back up.
"Anytime now Wolf this is getting annoying to deal with!"
At her words I crush the now black crystals in my hand and let the dust flow into my gauntlet, causing the clear dust core of the wrapping to go dark as night while the dust fills it up with its now dangerous power.
"Just a few more seconds and when I say move, you move" her yell of anger at the mech was all the reply I got.
I hold my gauntlet out and close my eyes to concentrate then activate my semblance. Willing my Ursa summon to come closer I put my hand on its head and begin to channel dust infused shadows into it. The common feeling of coldness starts to surround me as I focus even more on manipulating the shadows to my exact design. The glow that was inside the summon fades away only to be replaced by a swirling mass of darkness that quickly filled the inside of it to the point it looked as if it was bursting out.
"Move now Queenie!" I send my summon to run at the mech as I speak, Winter summons a yellow glyph under herself before speeding to my side quicker than what seemed normal.
"I've already beaten one of these, I'll be able to take anything on-" the rest of the leaders' words are cut off as he slams both fists into the Ursa summon which then starts to crack open and leak black dust. As he does this I send a small ball of shadow into the dust then snap my fingers causing the ball to explode which ignites the black dust in a massive explosion that knocks Winter and me down. Looking back all we see are scattered bits of metal.
"Well, I have found one problem your scientist will need to fix. The mechs are susceptible to being exploded" the flat glare she gave me shows how unamused she was at my joke. "Okay no jokes got it...now shall we get what we came here for, is it still in the crate I was thrown through?"
Winter sighs and shakes her head before putting her small dagger back into her cutlass then proceeds to walk back to the crate. Once inside she goes to one side of it before motioning for me to come inside.
"What I thought it would be easy for one person to…" my words fall off as I see what winter was crouched over. At the back corner of the crate was a woman that was fully naked who was curled up into a ball. I turn my head before speaking again. "What the hell is that? Why is Atlesian cargo a naked woman?!"
Winter pulls out a scroll then proceeds to input something into it. After a few seconds of silence, I hear some near-silent mechanical whirring that causes my wolf ears to flick softly. The sound picks up before the woman starts to sit up and look at me with bright green eyes. The woman then tilts her head which causes her dull orange neck length hair color to tilt to one side.
"Master? Why have I been awoken before my scheduled date as well as why am I located in the middle of Vale?" the woman speaks to me in a robotic style tone.
"Prototype model dash zero zero one you are to disregard the imprinting subroutine effective immediately."
The woman looks to Winter then shakes her head softly "I am sorry special operative Winter Schnee but once the imprinting routine has been complete then only my creator can reset it. So for now" the woman then looks over at me for a moment as her eyes light up some. "Mercenary Shadow Wolf is my master until further notice.
"Um Schnee what is she talking about and what is she" Winter looks over at me and sighs softly before shaking her head in dismissal
"That is classified...although the imprinting is a problem...dammit we will need to go to Atlas and sort this out"
"I'll be expecting double pay then" I sigh and hold my hand out to the woman and let my shadows form some clothes onto her before attempting to help her up.
"Why thank you master, what is your designation for me?" the woman tilts her head softly before looking at me with an innocent face, not unlike a puppy.
With a sigh, I look over at the white-haired woman for help but she quickly walks out and starts to call an airship to pick us up back at the camp. I look back at the woman and look her over before shrugging. Even though her actions weirded me out I decided to play along.
"First off call me Tyler as for your 'designation' do you have a name you would like to be called?"
The woman then tilts her head back and forth a couple of times before shaking her head.
"Fine then I guess I will think of a name for you soon then... Let us go follow Schnee" she nods and starts to follow me as I make my way over to Winter who was cursing softly at her scroll, seeing us she straightens and attempts to get her normal stuck up attitude.
"Well it seems we will need to walk back to the camp then proceed back to our original point of departure on foot seeing as how no airships are available to come at this moment." she then mumbles under her breath low enough to where I could just barely hear her "no doubt it is that man's way of getting back at me for rejecting his offer to stay in his bed"
"Well then let us make our way there then Schnee and uh…" I look back at the woman who just tilts her head at me "um... how about I call you Piper for now"
The woman then nods and walks closer to me "if master wishes it then I will take that name as my own and be called Piper from henceforth"
"Call me Tyler not master please" she nods before putting her hands behind her back as if waiting on what to do next. Winter pulls me to the side and motions for Piper to stay.
"This stays between us, this prototype android is to stay secret even to Ozpin do you get that."
With a small nod, I motion for Piper to follow me as I begin to make my way back to the camp we had set up. Piper follows beside me standing as close as she can without touching me. Looking over her once more I see how short she is, almost as short as Ruby. As she looks back up to me her hair sways in the wind, as her bright green eyes look at me with some curiosity.
"Mast- oh I mean Tyler, where are we going?" her voice takes on an innocent tone that reminds me of Ruby some.
"We are going back to our camp before heading to our extraction point to head to Atlas" Piper nods and stays silent as we keep walking while Winter lags behind to have a call with someone.
ANOTHER INNOCENT ONE TO DESTROY AND CORRUPT, UNLEASH ME ONTO IT
With a sigh, I swear to myself at the voice before attempting to keep my emotions calm as the darkness attempts to rile them up due to the fight we just got out of. I feel a tap on my arms, looking down I see Piper looking up at me with concern.
"Are you okay? I feel your aura fluctuating in a dangerous way."
I pat her head softly causing her to look up at my hand in confusion. "Do not worry I am fine. Let's hurry up now."
.xx.x.x.x.
As we get closer to the camp my ears flick as I hear footsteps attempting to be silent coming from my left where the forest was thicker. With a small sigh I hold my hand up to signal the others to stop, Winter immediately pulls out her cutlass and goes into a defensive position while Piper gets closer to me.
"Where from, Wolf?" at the nod of my head she rushes off into the side of the woods I heard the footsteps from.
A few moments later Winter yells out that the person was coming my way. I push Piper back just enough for her to get her out of the way of the dagger that was thrown at us from the woods. Catching the dagger I wince softly as the dagger slices through my aura like it was butter. Aura resistant metal it seemed like, I should keep this for myself. I flip the dagger into a reverse grip before rushing forward to meet the person as they break through the woods.
As the person comes out I notice it was the faunus woman I had captured the night before, it seems she had woken up and was out for vengeance. With eyes filled with rage, she draws out an identical dagger from her wrist as she meets me. Our blades lock up and she growls loudly at me.
"How could you do something like that. You burned down our camp, our home! And you killed our boss. I am going to kill you for this you bastard!" she ducks down and goes to slice at my feet but misses as I jump over her and kick her in the back as I land.
"Well you made the mistake of being in the way of my assignment." my gauntlet begins to glow as I activate my semblance. She looks around for a way to escape before settling on Piper who begins to back up with some fear in her eyes. Seeing the fear on her face causes my anger to rise quickly.
YES LET YOUR ANGER FLOW, GIVE ME THE POWER TO CRUSH ALL WHO OPPOSE US.
With a quick burst forward using my shadows to give me extra speed, I grab the faunus woman's arm and send my shadows from the gauntlet and onto her skin which then start to dig into her skin. She falls to the ground screaming in pain she then slashes wildly in desperation before I use the shadows on her arm to pull her away from Piper.
Gathering a small number of shadows in my palm I send them out to wrap around her binding her tightly.
At this moment Winter walks out of the woods and sheaths her cutlass before walking over to us.
"We should bring her in. Although she may end up being more trouble on the trip up there so it is up to you…" her words trail off as she notices the black lines that began to appear on my neck.
"Get Piper out of here and begin your way back to our extraction point" she nods then proceeds to rush off with Piper behind her. I look at the woman and see fear starting to enter her features. This fact causes a smile to start forming on my face.
"Go ahead and kill me...you already killed the family I had, and on top of it, you've screwed yourself by stealing back that...thing"
"And how do you know I have screwed myself hmm? It is clear that right now you are the one who should be saying that due to the position you are in."
She scoffs and glares at me before smirking smugly "because that shipment we stole was set to go to Raven Branwen, ever heard of her?"
As she spoke the name of Raven I begin to laugh softly to myself, my anger slowly fading away along with the lines on my neck. The woman looks at me in confusion, no doubt hoping that by dropping the name Raven that I would back down. With a wave of my hand, the shadows fade away from her.
"Y-you're not going to kill me.."
"I will not kill you on one condition, tell Raven that a man named Tyler sends her regards." I begin to turn away and head to the extraction point.
X.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
"So did you take care of that woman?" Winter speaks to me as I catch up to them, her eyes wander onto my neck where the lines once were. At the nod of my head, she simply sighs softly before she continues walking ahead of me and Piper.
"So, mast-um I mean Tyler, why is it that I need to go to Atlas?" the soft and innocent voice of Piper was filled with curiosity as she walks beside me, her hands laced behind her.
"It seems that whatever plan they had for you went wrong and I became your 'master' instead of who it was supposed to be. So, we are heading to Atlas to get this straightened out." she opens her mouth in an oh shape before nodding softly and getting closer to me, allowing me to get a better smell of her scent which strangely smelled like oil and dust. The smell along with the almost silent mechanical sounds heard earlier connected the dots inside my head making it easy to figure out what she was.
With a smug smirk I walk closer to Winter and whisper in her ear "hey, Schnee, since when has Atlas been building little robot girls?" Winters's eyes widen in surprise before she stops and looks at me incredulously.
"H-how do you know that?! That information is classified"
With a small chuckle, I keep walking "it was classified until you just confirmed it for me Queenie"
"You insufferable bastard" she growls softly to herself before continuing to walk to our destination.
After a long walk filled with questions brought on by Piper, we arrive at the facility that we had first come to. The man from before walks out with a smug look on his face.
"Why hello, there Mrs. Schnee I am terribly sorry for the hindrance of your airship not being able to come and get you directly. It seems that due to a fire in the area, the pilots do not want to land near it." a grin forms on his face as he notices the scowl coming from Schnee.
She simply scoffs and walks past him before turning to me and Piper "do you two happen to hear a fly? A fly that may or may not regret his actions from today"
Piper tilts her head and looks up at me "but there is no fly? Only one of the scientist here at the base"
"Oh Piper you will need to learn some social skills it seems" patting her on the head we follow after Winter who was on her way to what seemed like a conference room.
"Now let us discuss the situation of what we need to do when we get to Atlas" Winter states as we enter the room, the door closing behind us with a locking sound. She then proceeds to sit down in a chair at the head of the conference table before setting her scroll in a port under the desk. After a moment an image of General Ironwood appears in the middle of the table.
"Hello, there operative Schnee, Mercenary Wolf...and prototype zero zero one" the general steeples his hands in front of his face before continuing "may I ask what you are calling me for if the mission was successful?"
"It would seem that the imprinting protocol worked properly...although, on the wrong target" at the last word she motions to me, this causes the general to raise an eyebrow as he turns to me.
"Is that so? Hm...this could be a problem then, she was meant to imprint on myself or the doctor" after a moment of thought he addresses me. "I take it that you will ask for extra payment if I request you to come to Atlas?"
"I always do" at this he chuckles softly before looking at Piper.
"What do you think of this? I know the doctor created you with the capability to have emotions, or at least the capability to have some emotions"
Piper, who was sitting beside me, looks over at me with a questioning look. At a nod from me, she looks at the general and speaks "well Mr. Ironwood sir, I would like to stay imprinted on my master here...although if it is that much of a problem for you then I will accept whatever needs to be done."
"Allow me to think about this some, I will have my decision by the time you all arrive at Atlas." the transmission ends and Winter sighs softly to herself.
"I just know that I am going to be chewed out for this…"
X.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
It took a few hours for the airship to arrive that would take us to Atlas for our meeting with the general. As the trip went by Piper would ask me all types of questions regarding the scenery below us as well as questions about myself that were not in her databanks. The ship lands just outside Atlas academy, as we walk off the airship a small group of Atlesian Knights march to us. Their robotic sounds and wirring cause my wolf ears to twitch softly. When they reach us they surround us in a protective style formation as we begin to walk into the academy with Winter in the lead.
As we walk through the halls students would look in awe at Winter who in turn would glare at them, causing them to hurry off to their classes. It did not take long to get to what seemed like a thick steel door. Winter holds her hand out and places it on a scanner beside the door, after a moment the scanner glows green and the door opens. As we walk inside the General stands up from his desk and greets us.
"Good evening operative Schnee, mercenary Wolf. I thank you both for coming here to discuss what must be done about the imprinting situation." his eyes move over to Piper who looks at him with some curiosity in her eyes. "Now the doctor and I have been discussing what to do about this situation and we have narrowed it down to two choices. The first one being the prototype stays with you for a bit as a...sort of trial run to test the limits so to speak."
The door to his office opens up and a dark-skinned rather large man walks in. He quickly nods at us before going to stand beside the General.
"Uh pardon for the lateness, something came up in the lab resulting in some unforeseen distractions. Now, where were we in the discussion?"
"Well Dr. Polendina I was about to discuss the second option for the prototype here." the general motions at Piper before waiting for the Dr to continue.
"I see...well the second option me and the General discussed is going to be difficult to accomplish. It involves having to essentially rebuild her programming from the ground up due to how complicated we made her in fear of her being hacked." his use of the word her instead of the prototype made me smile softly to myself.
"And if we did that, it would set us back by a large margin. Which is something that I and the General would rather avoid if at all possible. But seeing as how it would be you taking care of her Mr….uh Mr"
"The name I go by while working for the good General is Shadow wolf, or you can just call me Wolf for short."
The Dr. nods his head before continuing "well Mr. Wolf we decided to let you choose since you would be taking care of her. And while taking care of her we would ask you to take her with you on any of your missions so we could collect combat data and see how she will perform"
"Does she have any weapons made for her? And will I get any...extra payment for doing your lab work for you?"
The doctor goes to speak but the general cuts him off with a small wave. "We do have some weapons ready, and as for payment that will be decided if you choose to accept the first option."
Turning to Piper, I look her up and down and notice what seemed like some hope in her eyes. It was strange how they were able to have a robot have such human-like emotions. As the hope in her eyes grows with each second I sigh softly and turn to the General. Walking over to his desk I hold my hand out to him. "Alright I'll accept her as my charge"
"Great! Now follow me and I will tell you everything you will need to know about the care she will need as well as get her weapons ready for her" The doctor then proceeds to walk over to Piper and me before clasping us both on our shoulders.
Right as we go to leave Winter nods at me "as insufferable as you are, I look forward to the next assignment we may have to work together on"
"Right back at you Queenie" I wink at her as I walk out the office with Piper behind me.
a/n well this chapter is a lot shorter than I had hoped for. But writer's block is a cruel mistress. If you enjoyed this chapter let me know with a review and I will see you all in the next chapter (hopefully sooner than this one came out)
Pariah fading out