"This is not what I expected at all if I am being completely honest," Neela said as she stood outside of a large facility that she admired for quite some time before she was joined by Eliana.
"They must have gotten this from Atlas, we used to do this kind of thing pretty frequently actually," Titus told Neela over their comms. "I'm almost in position but I'm guessing that Coco's timer isn't going to wait for me to be in place, now is it?"
"Probably not," Eliana replied staring intently with her leader. Neela always loved this side of Eliana, it made it easy to underestimate the girl if you actually knew her because in her everyday life she was carefree and easy-going, but on the battlefield, she was a force to be reckoned with and took every moment seriously. "Do you think that all four of them are inside of there, and what did Coco mean by calling in a favor?" Neela looked at Eliana hard for a moment. This was different from what they were used to, normally they didn't attack the other team with so little knowledge of what was going on. They'd been given less than ten minutes to prepare themselves, Coco told them that all they needed to know was that Team CBLT was to be treated like an actual enemy and that they'd be armed with a fake Dust bomb that they needed to apprehend before the timer on the exercise ran out.
"Alright team, your time starts now!" Coco announced. Neela grabbed Eliana, grappling them both to the roof and finding a safe spot behind a portion of the ventilation system that she could use her semblance and peek at what was going on in the building. They couldn't enter from the roof, they'd all expect as much from Neela, so she opted for reconnaissance for the time being. Bái seemed to be inside by herself and Neela assumed that it was their last line of defense, though she was slightly confused by the fact that she wasn't able to pick up on anyone else.
"We're allowed to call a teacher in to help us at some point during the fight," Neela explained to Eliana. A drone drifted past the two of them, recording them and allowing the audience back at the arena to follow along, Neela could hear cheering that was faint from off in the distance.
"Don't the cameras make you nervous?" Eliana asked as they moved for the edge of the roof.
"Nah, back during the archery tournaments when I was younger I got pretty used to them," Neela replied. As they reached the end and Neela prepared to grab Eliana and jump she caught a glare off of something and tackled Eliana, Cobalt's laser just missed them and Neela lifted her friend back up to her feet as they moved back for cover. "Cobalt's got his eyes on us. Where are the two of you at?"
"You said to try and find a vantage point," Titus reminded her. "Ilia and I are in the skyscraper across from you. He'll be blind to any movement you make as long as you stay on the west side of the building." Titus watched from the window, keeping Ilia close by as he glanced about for Lykos and Tawney.
"Why isn't Neela the one up here?" Ilia asked. "She's the most mobile out of all of us."
"We needed her to monitor what's going on in our target building, to begin with, and go from there," Titus told her. "For now we're just supposed to lay down cover fire and hold out until she gives us further instruction." Ilia chuckled.
"You're listening to instructions awfully well today, aren't you," she asked.
"Hey!" He protested. "Don't I always?" She rolled her eyes and stepped past him, opening fire at Cobalt who sprinted away around the corner into an alley, prompting them to move further into the building. "Cobalt's on the move and so are we, you have a visual on Lykos or Tawney yet?"
"Can't say that I do," Neela replied as they repelled down the west side of the building and Eliana blew the window apart with her guns. "Still trying to determine our safest route in, Cobalt's crafty so I'm worried that he might have a trap waiting for us."
"What kind of trap?" Eliana asked her.
"Knowing Cobalt it'll probably be a robot or something to that effect. Be prepared to swap to lightning Dust, it'll be our best defense against his electronics," Neela told Eliana. Neela prepared to move forward as Eliana stood at the corner of a corridor, swinging back unexpectedly and pinning Neela to the wall, covering her mouth. The doorway concealed them, Neela did her best to silence her breathing as she caught Jaune out of the corner of her eye past Eliana, her heart racing as Eliana pushed her body against Neela's. Eliana tried not to giggle, her face inches from Neela's, heart racing as he continued on and turned down the hallway.
"This is fun," Eliana whispered as she grabbed Neela and dragged her the opposite direction of the pro huntsmen, both of them coming to a stop as they reached the end of a hallway. "Now what?"
"Cobalt still out there?" Neela asked. "Wondering how much time I have to figure out the layout of the building."
"I think you've got a few minutes yet," Titus informed her. "After he lost sight of you he did some searching around, but it doesn't seem like he knows where you went."
"They're in the building," Cobalt said standing behind Titus and Ilia at the opposite end of the room. Titus watched as the clone disappeared around the corner of the facility below before he threw Ilia out of the way and crossing his blades to stop the blast from Cobalt, he slid back a few feet as Tawney ran out from behind him and launched herself out the building after Ilia who had already leapt out of the collapsed wall.
"You knew this was our plan?" Titus asked.
"No," he admitted. "But Lykos' keen eye spotted you up here I left a clone behind to make it look like I was searching for the girls." Titus rushed forward and attacked Cobalt who deflected as quickly as he could, pulling his sword out into two separate blades to give him better defense and mobility. Titus crashed his blades off of each other, a wave of lightning Dust forced Cobalt to roll out of the way to keep his equipment from suffering loss of connection and once he found his feet again he watched Titus' leap after the girls. "Why does everyone around here insist on taking the difficult way down?"
*WHILE ILLOGICAL MY SCANNERS INDICATE THAT IT IS THE FASTEST ROUTE TO THE GROUND*
Cobalt sighed and moved to the edge, taking a deep breath.
"It was a rhetorical question, computer," Cobalt groaned.
Ilia had angled her jump just so, her blades planting into the side of the facility and letting her dangle for a moment before leaping down in a backflip off the wall as Tawney crashed through the spot she'd just been.
"Isn't destroying your building generally a bad thing?" Ilia asked. Tawney stood in the newly made hole, chucking as she prepared to leap before Titus' blades struck her shirt with impossible precision, pinning her to the floor as he crashed against the roof and rolled into his landing.
"They're the villains, they don't have to worry about that kind of thing," Titus told her. He caught Cobalt's foot as he came in to land a kick, tossing him away though he twisted through the air and landed upright. "We can take care of the two out here, for now, just tell us if you need any backup."
"Lykos is converging on your position," Ilia shouted. She chased after the last member of Team CBLT before Cobalt blindsided her and she slid across the street, coming to a stop moments later. "Neela, do you copy?" Cobalt smirked, charging at Ilia who kept him at a distance with her blades before opening fire and driving him back, his sword deflected the majority of her shots. "Titus, you available for pick up?!"
"Give me a moment, would you?" Titus asked. He swung into the building to retrieve his swords, they whizzed past his head as he entered the room and he found both of Tawney's guns in his chest. He flinched in anticipation and she blasted him out of the way, launching him out and dropping him onto the road beside his blades. He raised them to block, her tonfas glancing off and she leapt up, letting him swat her legs to create momentum to use against him, blasting over him and firing into his back again, the gravity shot throwing him forward and he struggled to stay on his feet. She swung down both arms, driving him to his chest as she felt somebody grab her arm.
"You okay?" Tawney asked Titus helping him up.
"Where's Cobalt?" Titus asked processing that Ilia had taken Tawney's body.
"Behind me," Tawney shouted. Tawney hit the ground quick, allowing Titus to swing over her and successfully hit Cobalt this time with lightning Dust. His light armor seized up and his visor stopped working, distracting him long enough for Titus to line up a solid blow on Tawney, Ilia leaping over Titus attack and out of Tawney. His blades met her torso with brute force, the pressure building for a long moment before erupting in an explosion of kinetic energy that lit up her aura as she slammed through Cobalt, both of them tumbling away.
"Now what?" Ilia asked. "It seems like Cobalt somehow cut our communications to Neela."
"I got a pretty good idea," he said motioning his head to the destruction on the side of the building that Tawney had caused. Ilia nodded, leaping as Titus crossed his blades, letting her land on them and launching her as Cobalt blasted him in the back. Titus' body was forced through the wall, his aura taking a significant hit as well, toppling across the floor in pain and coming to a stop at the next wall. He dragged himself up by his kopides, Tawney placing her tonfas in his back again.
"You lose your aura, you're out," she reminded him.
"Yeah, I know," Titus told her.
"Lykos, I've got Titus trapped here, you have a visual on Neela and Eliana?" Tawney asked.
"Yeah, I'm working on that," Lykos replied as he stood staring at them from the opposite end of the hallway. "I can't actually get to them."
"Should I come help?" Bái asked.
"Stay there!" Tawney replied. "Cobalt should be able to stop her but Ilia is coming."
"Wait, why can't you get to them?" Bái inquired.
"Eliana won't let me in," he replied tearing into her forcefield with his whip.
"A rematch, huh?" Jaune noted as he stood across from Neela with his shield ready before him. Neela smirked.
"We calling in that favor?" Eliana asked. Neela held her hand back. She glanced at her arm and noted the timer. They still had time.
"Not yet," Neela replied. She turned her attention back to her teacher. "This time I'm ready for you."
"Is that a touch of overconfidence I'm picking up on?" Jaune asked as he crashed his sword against his shield.
"Is he taunting you?" Eliana asked keeping an eye on Lykos.
"You ready?" Neela asked.
"Only if you are," Eliana answered.
"Now!" Neela shouted. She fired an arrow past Jaune and charged at him, her sword crashing off of his shield and she ducked, the arrow she'd fired struck Eliana's forcefield which was now directly behind the White Knight and erupted, throwing him off balance. Eliana dragged Neela back quickly by the arm as she repelled Lykos, allowing Neela to use her grappling hook and pull Jaune onto his chest. Neela reached back, gripping tight to Eliana's arm and throwing her over Jaune as she fired an ice arrow and blocked off Lykos. "Go!"
"Are you sure? Where are Titus and Ilia, we haven't heard from them in a while!" Eliana declared.
"Cobalt's work, no doubt," Neela replied. She blocked Jaune who had already found his feet. "I can't use my semblance to see if they made it in, just head upstairs, we at least know Bái is on the third floor with the bomb." Eliana complied, taking off down the hallway. Jaune hit back hard, knocking Neela off of her feet and her body hit the floor hard, her ears ringing for a moment as she took a deep breath and remembered where she was, and how she'd gotten here. It seemed so long ago that they'd arrived at Beacon and mentioning the archery competitions reminded Neela of how she used to fight. She couldn't rely on her team now, they were all separated and had their orders, she needed to fight alone.
Yang had taught her how to do so, every day for years she went on her hunt every morning and tried to track Yang down, when her nerves weren't a problem she was in sync with herself and up to this point her skill and strength had gotten her here, but if they wanted to stay on top, she needed to go back to the beginning. She needed to embrace the parts of her that were Faunus, she needed to trust her instincts, it had been a long time since she'd let her semblance actually speak to her. She listened carefully, hearing someone else enter behind the ice barrier and as the guns cocked she knew it was Tawney. Titus and Ilia hadn't been taken down, had they? Coco would have told her, right? Or had Cobalt knocked out her communication with Coco also? Could they call in their pro if that was the case?
Neela's eyes watched Jaune's as they exchanged glancing blows, his strength would overwhelm her soon and if nothing else, Lykos and Tawney would be ready to help in moments. She prepared for the other two to enter, firing an earth arrow that would erupt the moment the wall was breached, Jaune put pressure on her again before she could flip her bow back and she only narrowly escaped. She could do this, couldn't she? Was he only trying to wear her down? Did they actually have a chance of winning? She glanced back, an old pipe above the corridor allowed her to grapple away to safety and she unleashed a barrage of arrows she swiftly nocked. The first exploded concealing Jaune in smoke as the rest activated, lighting the hallway up with lightning Dust that tore through his armor covered body, knocking him off of his feet.
Neela heard the wall crash down before Tawney shouted out a profanity as it was replaced, allowing Neela to escape into one of the rooms and use her semblance. Eliana had found the stairs, though it appeared that Cobalt was converging on her position, with Ilia nowhere in sight. Was this how it was going to end? She decided that staying in the building at the moment didn't give her any kind of advantage and she smashed out the window, leaping out and grappling to the roof. She searched quickly for Ilia and Titus.
Eliana sped up the stairs, reaching the top and throwing the door only to find Cobalt at the top with his sword extended out towards her, though he seemed even more out of breath than she was.
"I'll get past you, Cobalt," Eliana declared as she held her guns up. Cobalt deflected quickly, stumbling back as something strange seemed to be going on and he threw himself against the wall.
"Get out!" Cobalt demanded thrashing about. "Eliana, if you could step aside… What are you planning, huh? It won't work! It worked okay on Tawney, though your brain really is just a bag of cats. That was uncalled for! What is all of this garbage, it's like your brain itself is animated! That would be pretty cool. Trust me, it's not. There isn't some kind of way that you can pull me in there with you." Eliana cocked her hip and shook her head.
"Ilia, may I?"Eliana asked. She aimed her guns again as Cobalt stumbled again, fighting Ilia while trying to attack. Ilia leapt back out of his body, her feet planted in the small of Cobalt's back and launching him into Eliana, allowing her to use her electrical rods to light him up. His electronics overloaded, shutting down on him and she kept at it until he was unconscious. The two of them glanced at each other before Eliana tossed his body down the stairs and used his sword to jam the door shut. "We might just pull this off."
"Or you might not," Bái told them as they turned to face her. Ice rose from the floor, quickly swallowing Eliana whole and turning her into a solid block of frozen liquid, forming fractals that glanced off of Ilia's blades, but the overwhelming number of them proved too much to handle and damaged her aura in the process. Ilia took cover behind Eliana, removing Dust quickly from her pouch and using it before rolling away and opening fire at Bái who'd formed an ice shield and pushed forward.
"One touch and this whole thing is over!" Ilia told Bái. Bái chuckled, moving closer yet without having to fear Ilia's bullets.
"First you have to get in close," Bái informed her. Ilia smirked.
"That won't be a problem," Ilia replied. She fired at the ice encasing Eliana, the fire Dust from before erupting to free her teammate and throw Bái back. She found her feet quickly, blasting them both back and forcing them around the corner in full retreat. "You okay?"
"Can't feel my fingers, but yeah, I'm fine," Eliana told her. "I have a good idea of where the bomb is from when Neela and I were on the roof, but the problem now is that we need to be able to communicate to Neela and Titus for the backup plan to work but our comms are still being jammed."
"I already figured that out," Neela replied over the comms as she held the crushed device in her hands.
"How was he doing it?" Eliana asked.
"His clone had the device," Neela said. "We only thought that he was a decoy. Also, Titus is out, but I assume he had a good reason for it."
"So that I could get in the building," Ilia told her. "You got a way in for us?"
"Not exactly and time's running out," Neela shot back as she examined the building. "Any way that you can give me an indication of where I should have May aiming?"
"Ask and you shall receive," Eliana replied riddling the exterior wall with bullet holes. "It's a hallway, so aim carefully and she can get into position." Neela laugh.
"Aim carefully," she repeated. "Elli, please." Her arrow struck the side of the building where the bullets had torn through, exploding and creating a large hole in the wall. Down the hall a ways they could hear the stairwell door being kicked open as Team CBLT raced after them.
"I'm guessing this is the room!" Eliana said kicking the door in. "Neela they're on our asses!"
"Working on it!" Neela exclaimed. She activated her semblance and as Jaune stepped out from around the corner she fired an earth arrow that stopped his movement, striking him in the foot and sealing him to the floor with a considerable amount of rock. Another arrow found Lykos and drew the attention of Tawney, glancing off of Lykos' aura as he continued further in. "May!"
"Got her!" May exclaimed. Her specialized bullet struck Tawney in the hip as she leapt from the wall, falling on her face a few feet from Neela as she flailed her arms. "That's all I can do for you, good luck kid."
"Thanks, May," Neela replied as she repelled up the wall and was greeted immediately by Jaune.
"Is five minutes enough time for them to find it and turn it off?" Jaune asked. He swung hard and met her blade, holding her back with one hand before slamming her blade to the ground with his shield and kicking her a few feet back. "Lykos might keep them busy for a while…" That was it!
"Will he?" Neela asked. She charged Jaune, watching as he braced for the hit before leaping up and landing on his shield. He threw her back, his feet planted to charge after her and as he sprinted she used her hook to ensnare him, pulling herself back towards her attacker and sailing clean over him. She ran for the stairs and activated her semblance. "Can you two make it out?" She steadied her breath and watched as Bái nearly tripped over her feet as she moved down the steps, panting as she reached the bottom and slowly reached up to open the door. Jaune moved in slow motion as her semblance reached its peak, his shield slowly raising as he spotted Neela. "The bomb isn't up there!" Neela crashed into the stairwell as she narrowly missed Jaune, leaping the banister twice to quickly reach the first floor.
"I thought you said it was!" Eliana griped.
"I thought it was because Bái was up there, but it turns out that she has the bomb!" Neela shouted back into her comms. She spotted Bái, the girl was desperate to reach the skyscraper across the street.
"Are you sure?" Ilia asked, grunting as Lykos pulled her in with his whip. He batted two shots from her away, landing a solid blow to her jaw which placed her on the floor. Eliana leapt over her and met his blows in synchronization.
"She used the commotion in the hall to try and get away," Neela replied. "I'm almost to her." Neela flew forward as pain seared through her back, she landed on her side and rolled quickly, firing back at Cobalt who had struck her with his laser. Time was slipping away and as she was in hot pursuit of Bái, Jaune and Cobalt weren't letting up. Another lightning arrow was more than likely her best choice, but they'd be expecting it. She turned to follow Bái again, fully expecting the last-ditch effort to fail but the attack never landed and she tore off without looking back.
Titus felt Tawney's tonfa slam into the back of his head and he knew that if he was going to stay in, he'd have to push past his limit. His body coated in stone as he shook with strain, he'd never tried activating it manually before and after a childhood of trying to keep from using it, it proved difficult albeit effective as Tawney left immediately under the assumption that she'd broken his aura.
"Titus!" Neela shouted approaching him. "Does this mean you're out?" He chuckled and rotated his shoulders.
"It was close, but I'm still in," he informed her. "What's the plan?"
"If I run into any trouble, bail me out," she told him. "It's probably all you'll be able to manage before you're out." She began to leave when Titus grabbed her arm.
"Cobalt might listen over the comms if you fix them," Titus told her. "If Elli or Ilia ask, I'm out." Neela nodded before leaving. Less than a few minutes later, Titus watched from close to the building as the four trailed out after one another, charging full speed as Cobalt managed to fire a shot of his laser off. He charged it again, Titus' fist slamming full force into Jaune who turned just in time to take the blow with his shield, but it lifted him from his feet and throw him at least fifty yards away. Cobalt's attention had left Neela and he misfired as Titus reached him, headbutting Cobalt to knock him out once more and taking the rest of both their aura. "Neela, take her down."
"She's in my sights!" Neela exclaimed. Her arrow struck Bái's ankle and it sent her to the ground, Neela didn't realize her aura was that low. She walked to Bái slowly, patting her down and removing the bomb from her. She disabled and let out a breath of relief as the timer hit two remaining minutes. Neela removed the arrow from Bái carefully and helped her to her feet. "Are you okay?"
"I'm sure I'll be fine," Bái told her. "Cobalt wasn't supposed to get knocked out. We were counting on you following me and had a trap set up in here."
"He's pretty clever," Neela told Bái. Bái laughed.
"Lykos planned most of this, but don't tell them I told you," Bái whispered. Neela laughed harder.
"I'm not surprised," Neela replied. She stopped Bái for a moment before they left the building. "Are you doing better?"
"Yes," Bái replied quietly. "Thank you, Neela. If you hadn't been there…"
"Let's just be glad that I was," Neela said hugging her.
"Good work, but are you kids ready for Round 2?" Coco asked over their comms.
"Don't we get a break in between or something?" Lykos asked, out of breath as he and Eliana sat back to back next to Ilia who hadn't gotten up yet.
"What do you want?" Coco asked.
"Minimum of thirty minutes," Ilia mumbled.
"A day maybe?" Neela requested.
"Fine, you can all have an hour, happy?" Coco inquired.
"No, but we'll take it," Titus answered.
NITE takes Round One! Next Week, Chapter 94 - Against the Clock!
A big thank you to Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay classy!