Stretching away into the foreboding darkness, the empty street felt uninhabited for a long time now. Not one pedestrian or vehicle blemished the empty roadway, nothing that could break the firm grip night held over the area. The sole force to challenge the night were several streetlights, spaced periodically to show an outline of the street. But none were bright enough to banish the looming shadows lurking in every nook and cranny, each capable of hiding a dangerous threat.
Looking down the uninviting street with his hands on his hips, O'Neill took a breath. "Looks like the place."
"Indeed." Teal'c murmured, Qrow sighing in agreement.
After sparing a questioning look behind him, the Colonel walked off in a turgid pace, his intent obvious. Teal'c inhaled before trotting after him with the staff carried at his side, while Eliane walked after the men, bow in hand as she roamed her eyes over the area. With another sigh Qrow strode after them, idly reaching up to yank the weapon from his back.
P90 in his grip, O'Neill crept along the side of the buildings, continually checking behind him for the others. Listening intently for any sign of danger, he didn't let the uneasy silence of the area get to him, no matter what tiny noises reached his ears. What stopped him however was hearing the multiple sets of footsteps being cut off, making him slowly turn around with both hands on his weapon.
While Qrow and Teal'c briefly checked their surroundings, Eliane had her knees bent in a crouch, one gloved hand daubing at a blackish discoloration on the sidewalk. Bringing up the hand, she gave the offered fingers a whiff. Heedless of the men staring, she rose to her feet to stare at the pavement, her softly glowing eyes trailing off towards the closest warehouse.
"Well?" O'Neill softly asked; his voice was quiet, but the sound echoed without anything to drown it out.
Eliane focused her gaze on a side entrance, the plain metal door only visible due to a small light above it. "The blood is still fresh. He's close."
Qrow switched between the door and her, jabbing a finger at it when he stopped at her. She nodded once. When he twirled a single finger in a circle, she frowned and repeated the expression.
O'Neill trudged towards the indicated spot, pausing before it to glance over his ad hoc party. "Guys ready?"
Teal'c took a spot facing the door, raising the staff to point at the center. Qrow rolled his head over his shoulders, letting his own weapon hang a few centimeters from the pavement. Eliane jerked her hand to turn her bow into a sword, holding to the side as she stared at the entrance.
"Sure about this Jack?" the huntsman asked softly.
"More or less yeah. If this isn't it, we'll just check the next one." O'Neill replied in the same way, testing the handle before moving right in front of the door. Briefly inhaling, he brought up a leg to kick the door, a resounding crash booming out when it gave in.
Flicking on the inbuilt flashlight, O'Neill carefully entered the all encompassing darkness, sweeping the tiny cone of light from side to side. Every step he took was slow and measured, his boots softly tapping on the concrete inside. The utter lack of input riled his instincts, setting off a number of his internal alarms. He felt his heart thudding in his chest, a constant beat which seemed to underscore the danger he found himself in.
He only went as far as a meter, unwilling to leave the faint but definitely present light coming from the lone entranceway. Nor was he inclined to leave the view of his companions, who were his only hope if something went wrong. Breathing deeply, he risked glancing over his shoulder to make doubly sure they were still at the door. Doing so let him catch a glint of a reflection right beside the entrance, giving him the perfect reason to back out of the smothering darkness.
"What do you got?" Qrow whispered, staying outside.
O'Neill didn't reply right away; he reached out to feel the thing he spotted, his fingers ghosting over the surface to confirm what it was. Once his suspicions were confirmed, he glanced out and grinned.
"Light switch." he answered, bringing the gun wielding arm to wave them away first. Taking a breath, he covered his eyes and hit the tiny switch.
The periphery of his vision stung for a moment, even as he heard the others cautiously filing inside. Now covered, O'Neill slowly withdrew his arm, letting his eyes adjust as fast as they could. It only took a few seconds for him to return to normal, allowing him drop the arm to turn around, although he had to blink away a couple spots in his eyes.
Mentally asking who puts a master switch by the side exit, O'Neill peered over the sizable yet largely empty warehouse. There were a few large crates placed in the corner as well as a handful of man sized crates scattered about, but it was strangely empty for a building of this size. The hairs on his neck bristled when he realized there was nothing to give them cover.
"It appears abandoned." Teal'c observed, a few meters away with the staff aimed where he was looking. Eliane held her sword in a two handed grip as she swept around, her face a hard mask.
In a sharp contrast, Qrow idly twirled his own sword around, pacing between the two. "Something's not right."
"Yeah, who leaves a warehouse this big empty? You can fit a couple eff-sixteens and crews in here with room to spare." O'Neill agreed, clicking the P90's light off as he too cautiously trotted further inside.
"A what? Never mind, is anyone else getting a bad feeling?" he asked instead, pausing when the blonde crouched down again, one hand outstretched to circle a tiny set of splotches on the floor.
When she rose to her feet, the woman slowly scanned her surroundings. "He knows we're here."
"Got it in one, huh. I figured we'd need to go through two or three buildings before we found the freak. Lucky us." O'Neill commented, catching Qrow in the middle of a wince.
Teal'c swept the staff from side to side, alert for any hint of danger. His expression was a hard mask, the Jaffa letting his decades of combat experience take over for the time being. Right now they were telling him the same thing as the others; the four were not alone in this building. The only question was the location of their target. And as far as he could tell, the only way to find out was by searching this place top to bottom, risking an ambush or the quarry escaping.
He suddenly paused. Teal'c ceased his searching, ceased everything but breathing and blinking. His eyes flicked to the head of the staff, hanging completely still.
A thin line of red fluid was slowly running down the shell, not unlike a raindrop. He stared at the blood for a moment, his patience rewarded by a second drop a few centimeters from the first. Inhaling deeply, the Jaffa took a hand off the staff to reach inside his jacket, withdrawing the Zat.
Armed with a new weapon, he spoke once. "Above."
Whipping the staff up, Teal'c fired off a bolt of plasma at the falling target, narrowly missing the descending attacker. He tried jerking around to aim the Zat, but he misjudged the falling man's plan; a pair of feet landed on his shoulders hard enough to stagger him, one of his blades swiping down to slice the alien sidearm in half in a spark of electricity. A heartbeat later the attacker violently kicked off him in a lunge towards the others, sending him tumbling backwards. The staff left his frantically grasping hands, falling out of his reach.
Qrow met his strike in a wide slash, a clatter of protesting metal announcing his success. The knife wielding attacker cared not, and simply jumped at him again. The Huntsman beheld the snarling man's face, busy swiping the twin knives at him as fast as he could move. Qrow had to cede ground under the assault, for the moment doing little besides parrying the slashes.
Leaping out of the way, he nimbly dodged the swift jab Eliane attempted, rolling to his feet to bare his teeth. Crouching down to glare, he breathed deeply while he held the blades at his sides.
"You found me." Tyrian heaved, showing no hint of amusement.
Between the two swordsman O'Neill carefully stepped into view to train the P90 on him. "Hey you, feel like giving up yet?"
He narrowed his eyes. "I think not."
Charging forward with the blades up, he was clearly targeting the Colonel first. O'Neill didn't hesitate, he squeezed the trigger to let loose a torrent of gunfire at the crazed bandit. In response Tyrian swerved to the side to disrupt his aim, chunks of concrete puffing up from every missed shot. But few were so easily dodged; flashes sparkled over his body, and with it came a couple distinct whistles of ricocheting bullets.
At the last second Tyrian stumbled, a fresh gout of blood spraying from his leg interrupting a lunge. A tiny circle of Aura circled the wound to close it up, but the damage was done.
Both Eliane and Qrow took the opportunity to stab at his jerking form, both swords coming uncomfortably close to nicking his skin. The blonde moved to the side for a forward thrust, allowing the dark haired man free rein to keep slashing at the target. His Aura was barely able to stop the hits that landed, and every strike weakened it further.
Without warning he ducked, avoiding a stab to drive up and tackle Qrow to the floor. Although both men were furiously wrestling, Tyrian managed to deliver a full forced punch at his opponents face, making him yelp. Using the chance, Tyrian brought up his knives to stab into his shoulders, the blades slowly sinking past the Aura and deep into the huntsman's flesh. Qrow gritted his teeth, barely able to stop himself from screaming. He could do nothing to stop the attacker from punching him out cold.
Springing from him to parry a wide slash from Eliane, Tyrian took off in a dead sprint, an all too brief stream of gunfire unable to stop him from reaching towards O'Neill, in spite of a fresh wound tearing into his arm. Eyes wide, the Colonel ducked too slow to prevent the hands from grabbing his head, forcing him down to the ground with a snarl. A snatching grip landed on the weapon, tearing it from the sling to be tossed away. Pinning him via his weight, Tyrian had zero obstacles in his way.
Faster than either man could react, a strong hand wrapped around the attacker's ponytail, rudely yanking him away from his victim. Gashing his teeth, Tyrian shot his hands to the grip on his hair, his snarling expression catching sight of Teal'c grimacing. He had time enough to blink, just before the Jaffa drove a fist into his forehead with a loud meaty smack. For a second the man had a dazed look to him, like he was unaware of what happened.
Drawing his fist back, Teal'c was ready to repeat the act as many times as necessary. But before he could continue, he suddenly grunted in unexpected pain, muscles freezing up at the worst time.
A hiss of breath escaped him as he looked to his torso, a single brow raised at the sight of a bulbous object ending in a sharp point sticking out of him. It tool several seconds to verify the chitinous limb wasn't extending from the ether, it was part of a segmented black tail leading to the back of the faunus. Without meaning to, he relaxed his now shaky grip.
Tyrian flopped his head to the side and licked his lips, yanking the scorpion tail out of the Jaffa. Freed from his target, he then swept it around to smack against his chest, the gasping man unable to stop himself from collapsing.
"Did you think I'd go down that easily?" he quipped offhandedly, eyes swiveling back to his groaning victim.
"That's just cheap." O'Neill muttered ruefully. The next second the faunus slammed a fist on the torso beneath him, driving the air from the Colonel's lungs in one wheezing gasp.
But before he could finish the human off, Tyrian ducked his head down, the sword catching only a couple strands of loose hair. Bolting into the air, he flipped around with a formerly concealed pair of knives in hand, meeting the fresh slash with ease.
Eliane didn't let up, twirling her weapon around as she pushed ahead. He met the blow with a grunt, drowned out by the clash of steel landing against steel in a clattering spark. While she seemed to be aggressively striking at random, her irises were glowing the entire time, her features wrinkled from strain only. Catching the sword to force it down, Tyrian tried jerking his tail up to stab the woman.
At the last second her head moved to the side, the stinger all but ghosting over her skin. With the limb still driving forward, she quickly took a hand off the grip to go to her belt, snatching one of the items she kept there. Just as he yanked it back, she drove the small tool knife into the tail, puncturing the thin exoskeleton with a sharp crack.
He threw his head back to scream, loud enough to vibrate the air. Next Eliane threw her clenched fist at him, catching him in the throat to stagger him further. Gurgling as he staggered, she whipped the sword up to swing his arms up, both knives sent flying away. Her expression a hard grimace, she brought the sword back to her shoulder. She flung ahead with all the force she could muster, stabbing the sharp end at his lower torso, where she knew would disable him. His Aura was close to gone, so he had no more defense to halt the strike.
The point broke his skin, but just as it contacted he twisted his body to the side; instead of piercing deep, he let the sharp edge slide along as a drawn out slash instead. Sucking in a breath, she flicked her eyes to his face. His pained cry was quickly morphing into a demented grin. Idly aware of further movement, Eliane caught his arm being curled back, his fist wrapped around a small blood stained object. Her knife.
Eliane ducked to avoid the slash, leaving her open to a wound up punch. Though her Aura absorbed the damage easily, the power behind the strike forced her on the back foot, her sword narrowly clanking against the stolen knife's next stab. Tyrian kept up the pressure, darting from side to side as a whirlwind of lighting fast attacks, despite her best efforts to parry.
When Tyrian managed to direct the weapon to his legs, he launched the tail at her again, this time aiming at her center of mass. Throwing her weight back, Eliane barely succeeded in missing the blood splattered stinger, the bulb brushing over her shirt. The brief glimpse at his face made her involuntarily shiver. Righting herself, Eliane tried kicking herself away in order to put a distance between them. Most of her boot landed on the concrete, but the toes landed on something else entirely.
Something which slid out from under the woman, taking her foot with it.
Eyes growing wide, Eliane threw her arms out to rebalance herself, making a sharp gasp. She was unable to stop Tyrian from lunging at her, his grinning face pressing far too close to hers as he reached out to her. But the very same obstacle that made her slip up caught on his feet, ending his smile as he too tripped and fell with his target. She just realized it was the staff Teal'c wielded, inadvertently saving her life even as it ground across the floor.
Whatever joy she felt at the accident ended when Tyrian landed, impacting on her legs with a loud "Omph!" Realizing this, she launched a kick to dislodge him, which he caught in a struggling grip. She thrashed with all of her might, unable to make the giggling attacker let go.
In one second flat, he brought the stolen knife around to plunge into her inner thigh.
Eliane gasped, her stern countenance shattered when the pain registered. He dug the blade further in, forced past her Aura and into her flesh. Blood spouted from the injury in a small geyser, more draining out by the second. All of the woman's strength seemed to leach away, an ice cold feeling settling over her body. Her entire body recoiled when he yanked the knife out, lifeblood flowing out of her an an accelerated rate.
Tyrian glanced up from his handiwork to smirk at her, the gleam in his eyes shifting while he licked his lips. She tried to swing her sword at him, but the weakened blow did nothing but uselessly plop against his shoulder. He snatched the limb before it fell, tossing the weapon away as he pinned the arm to the ground. While she struggled for breath his grin increased, roaming his eyes over her body.
"Ellie!"
Whipping his head around, Tyrian's brief glare was quickly overtaken by a toothy grin. Rising from the struggling woman, he bared his teeth at the young man in the doorway, who stood frozen in shock. An unsettling laugh escaped him when launched towards the arrival.
On his end the young man charged in, drawing a sword from his belt to unfold a silver and black shield, raising both as he bellowed. A couple meters away Tyrian leaped to deliver a flying kick, but to his surprise the blow didn't send him flying; the young man's shoes squealed while he skidded across the concrete, but remarkably he stayed upright. He even had enough strength to force the shield out, unbalancing the faunus when he bounced off. Landing on his feet, Tyrian quickly charged again, easily veering out of the way to avoid the wide followup slash.
Once he was within arms reach, the boy was done; when he brought the shield up once more, Tyrian swung his tail around towards the exposed legs, hitting hard enough to sweep them out from under him. The young man's snarl was abruptly cut off, a squeak leaving his mouth before he hit the floor. In a blur the faunus caught his knives under the shield's edge, contemptuously throwing it aside. Finishing by stomping on his vulnerable limb, Tyrian idly swatted the sword out of his hand when he tried to retaliate.
Grinning at his snarling expression, the attacker let go of a single knife, freeing his hand to wrap around the young man's throat. Even as the blade clattered against the floor, Tyrian lowered himself to a squat, the tail reaching around to slither against the struggling boy's torso. His thrashing did nothing but make his assailant grin.
"You..." Jaune tried to taunt, gurgling when the grip on his throat tightened. He tried punching the arm clutching him for all he was worth, but to no avail.
"I've been looking for you little sheep. Your guardians are defeated, now we have all the time in the world to..." Tyrian used his free arm to cover his mouth, his barely restrained giggle sending a chill down Jaune's spine. "Talk. We are going to have so much fun-"
Fwip-wash.
Tyrian staggered, his grin shattered when a small cloud of smoke puffed from his back. The man's quivering fingers let the remaining knife slip away, his jaw shakily dropping on its own. A shiver roiled over his body as he creaked his head to the side, appearing to have great difficulty in accomplishing something so trivial. Just as the acrid stench of burning meat reached Jaune's nose, Tyrian fell to the side, letting go of him when he collapsed.
A few meters away Teal'c heaved for breath, dropping the staff as he rolled to support himself. The Jaffa groaned loudly when he tried standing up, moving carefully to keep from falling. Hearing Jaune scramble to his feet, he glanced up to see him bolting over the short distance to the fallen woman. He staggered to his feet just as the blond fell to his knees, grabbing the woman's shaking arms.
"Ellie? Ellie!?" he babbled, jerking her body. His wide eyes were an exact match for hers, the blonde sputtering for breath.
"Jaune." Eliane croaked, raggedly coughing while she feebly squirmed.
"I'm here, I'm here, just hang on." Jaune pleaded, clutching her arms to keep her still. Unnoticed by either sibling, blood was creeping out from her in an ever growing puddle.
Groaning, O'Neill flopped up to peer at the fallen attacker. He sighed dejectedly, a heartbeat before his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
"Ah crap." he muttered, bolting to his feet with a groan. Wincing the entire time, he staggered to Tyrian's fallen form.
Qrow sat up too, gingerly touching the knives in his shoulders before wrapping a hand around the first. Taking a deep breath, he yanked the blade out as fast as possible, slapping his mouth to prevent a scream. Breathing deeply, he then noticed the Colonel darting to the attacker. He gave the remaining knife a look and sighed, standing up to jog over as well.
Dropping to his knees, O'Neill grabbed a fistful of Tyrian's jacket to jerk him up. "Don't die on me yet you son of a bitch!"
"Ah, ha..." the bandit opened his eyes, and found the strength to grin. "You..."
"Who are you working for! Tell me their names!" O'Neill barked, shaking his limp body. He ignored Qrow lowering to a crouch beside him, focusing everything on the man. The smell of burning meat was permeating the air, coming from his charred back.
Tyrian let out a gurgling chuckle. One of his arms rose, shaking as it curled around the back of the Colonel's neck. O'Neill resisted for a second, but he realized the man's quivering grip was resting on him, no more. Groaning unhappily, he let Tyrian drag his head down to his level. Gasping weakly, he lifted his head from the floor to put his mouth near the human's ear. Foul breath hit O'Neill, but he didn't pull away. Right by his ear, Tyrian exhaled a single word.
"Salem."
The grip loosened, falling away to drop to the ground. O'Neill stayed where he was for a moment, his expression hardening while he watched Tyrian go entirely limp, a smile on his face. Sighing lowly, he reached up to place two fingers on his eyelids, pulling them closed.
"What'd he say?" Qrow asked quietly, staring at him.
O'Neil huffed, pushing to his feet. "Couldn't tell."
Teal'c carefully lowered himself to a crouch, helpless to act. He watched Jaune paw at Eliane, begging her to stay awake, to hang on until help arrived, voice growing ever more shrill. One glance told him the wound was fatal.
Humans called it the femoral artery, the pathway to which blood flowed from the torso to the legs. Bray'tac taught him the weak point long ago, of how easy it was to make a man bleed out from a single deep cut on the inner thigh. His master cautioned him of its danger, emphasizing the dishonorableness of causing a painfully slow end like this. What little regret Teal'c felt for shooting Tyrian in the back evaporated; any foe who gleefully used such a method didn't deserve to die like a man.
"Ellie, Ellie." Jaune pleaded, clutching her hand in his own. He was almost hyperventilating, watching the woman's movements slow.
Eliane tried to lift her free hand, but she could barely move. Seeing this, Jaune snatched up the arm to hold against his chest, tears freely spilling.
"No, no." he murmured, gulping down a lump as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Please, don't."
Teal'c let out a breath. But when he blinked, the solemn look he sported fell away.
Unless the poison was affecting his vision, he was sure there was a faint glow around the young man's head. Before his eyes the hazy light spread out, swiftly enveloping the young man's body. For a moment his form was haloed by the strange glow, growing brighter by the second. Raising a brow, Teal'c observed the light spread from his hand to the woman, steadily oozing away to coat every centimeter of her body. Her stilling form seemed to absorb the light, though it did nothing to diminish the otherworldly glow covering the both of them.
Eliane gasped, jerking her body up to suck in breath. She panted, squirming like she was in great pain. At the same time, redness filled in her pale cheeks, new strength flowing into her body. While she thrashed Jaune was frozen like a statue, taking in one deep breath after another. Although the sight in front of him was incredible, Teal'c had to check on her wound. His suspicions were confirmed: the rent in her flesh was shrinking, sealing itself shut like a kara-kesh.
Dipping his brow, he chanced reaching out towards the glow himself. The light washed against his skin, hesitating before it too swam over the Jaffa. While it was definitely weaker than what the woman was receiving, the effects were more than enough. After a minute he felt along his side, discovering the stinger wound was gone. The lightheadedness from the poison disappeared with the injury.
Finally the glow receded from the trio, retracting in on the young man until he slumped. Blearily opening her eyes, Eliane blinked to focus on the face in front of her.
"Jaune?" she asked, voice weak.
Peering at her, an enormous smile came over the younger Arc when he quickly hugged the woman, squeezing for all he was worth. Pressing in on her neck, his breath came out in uneven rasps, tears spilled freely from his eyes. "Thank god you're okay."
Inhaling deeply, Eliane suddenly turned to him with a frown. "Which god?"
Jaune stiffened, his happiness vanishing in an instant. But before Eliane could follow up on the question, she spied the two men turning from the fallen bandit to approach the gathering
A tap on his shoulder made the blond look too, the blood draining from his features. Wincing when he stood up, Jaune gulped as he stood up straight to face the Colonel. Unnoticed by him Teal'c rose as well, holding out a hand to drag Eliane to her feet too. She reflexively winced, massaging the knitted flesh at the tear in her pants.
O'Neill stopped a meter away with Qrow beside him, doing nothing to disguise his glare. "Arc, what is the definition of insubordination?"
Shaking in place, he swallowed a lump. "Sir-"
"I don't want to hear any excuses." O'Neill interrupted, swiping a hand to make Jaune flinch. "Our target is dead. The entire point of this hike is on the floor over there, which was not the plan. Now, I ordered you to stay in that room, twice. Twice I spelled out why you weren't coming with us. What part of that was unclear?"
Jaune's eyes were wide, the young man rooted in place. "Sir, I-"
"He saved my life."
O'Neill leaned to the side, narrowing his gaze. "Care to elaborate?"
"Tyrian stabbed me in the leg, I was bleeding out. Jaune distracted him so he didn't finish me, and his semblance healed my wounds." Eliane explained flatly, staring defiantly at him.
"Really." O'Neill replied dryly.
Qrow hesitated, but he forced himself to look at the ripped patch on her leg. "Yeah, that's a nasty cut right there. And he fixed that? How?"
"Some type of healing field he projected." Teal'c spoke up, twisting to show the tear in his own shirt. "It affected me as well. My injuries are gone."
Qrow rubbed his stubbled chin. "Hey, think you can do it again?"
Jaune gulped again, but he nodded. Taking a deep breath, Qrow reached to the remaining knife in his shoulder, squeezing his mouth shut. Grabbing ahold of the handle, he yanked the blade out with a wet rip, immediately clutching the leaking wound. Sucking in a breath, he shakily waved him on.
Closing his eyes to concentrate, Jaune placed a hand on Qrow's shoulder. For a moment nothing happened; O'Neill was about to call it off, but stopped himself when he spotted a faint glow coursing down the young man's arm. Silently watching the display, he saw the glow stream from one man to the other, trickling over Qrow's form until it reached the twin injuries. The huntsman winced, nearly tearing away from the hold. By force of will he stayed put, grimacing as the wound closed up.
When Jaune let go he stumbled, Eliane swiftly catching him before he fell. Meanwhile Qrow gingerly felt the injuries, dabbing at the smooth flesh for a second before grunting.
"Woah. This isn't just healing, its Aura transfer. I've heard about this kind of ability, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. One impressive semblance." he idly explained, flexing to test his status. "Hey Jack, you try."
Flopping his head over to affix a dry stare, O'Neill shrugged listlessly. Jaune left his sister's grip to approach him, softly panting when he reached out. The glow came faster this time, although the vibrancy was vastly weaker now. The Colonel kept his eyes shut until he was finished, doing nothing to help the young man from staggering backwards, short of breath and wore out.
Blinking, O'Neill lifted a leg to flex in the air. "T, you remember me saying my knee was acting up, even after I got surgery done?"
"Indeed." Teal'c rumbled, showing reserved interest.
"Well now my knee feels fine. Actually, I don't recall it feeling this well for a while now." he commented, resting his weight on the limb. "Say..."
"Don't think it'll work. Once you're dead, there's no Aura to refill." Qrow interrupted, eliciting a groan.
Huffing, O'Neill stabbed a single finger at Jaune. "Arc, I really wanna punch you in the face right now. You listening to me?" he checked, receiving a weak nod. "Good, because this is it. This is the one and only time I'm gonna ignore insubordination from you. Do it again and you'll need a sarcophagus to walk again, clear?"
"Yes sir." Jaune replied weakly, chest heaving from strain. Eliane was giving him a strange look, which he could only shake his head at.
"Good, now let's get out of here. You said there's a bounty on this guy?" O'Neill jabbed a thumb towards the dead man. "You two can split the reward between yourselves, but I want a souvenir. Teal'c, want one too?"
00000
...
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In room twenty eight of the main dorm, the four students residing here were at rest.
Sitting on the bed was a teen named Oscar; stripped of his breastplate, he was burdened instead by a steel sword in his lap. He was busy running an oil coated rag down the length of the blade, meticulously removing every blemish it accrued over the day. Although the teen was plainly tired, he diligently kept at his task. Doing this helped him ignore the goings on of his teammates.
While one was busy watching a movie on a small television, the two others were sitting cross legged on opposite sides of a small table, a checkerboard between them.
The tall one of the pair, wearing black up to his neck, moved one piece to take another off the board. "Well?"
"Phase six is a rousing success." replied his opponent, a short girl with green hair and a pair of ribbed horns, smiling to herself. "All three primary objectives are fulfilled, and five of the seven secondary conditions have been met. This is as close to perfection as we can get at this level."
Looking up from the board, Ron held a lone hand in the air. "So its true? Queen is in the city?"
"Arrived less than twenty minutes ago, she'll link up with the pawns shortly. More importantly, Knight is removed from the board." Bael leaned back, eyes unfocused. "Bishop and Rook are still on their way to Haven, but their ETA is several days away yet."
"Should I deal with them?" Ron asked, moving a checker.
Bael shook her head. "No. King suspects our hand, but I don't want to tip her off just yet. We'll file that under loose ends."
"Understood. Speaking of, what about Taurus? He's moved up his plan's timeline by several months." Ron spoke, pondering which piece to move next.
"How much?" Bael asked, taking a checker.
"At least six months." he replied, pausing when she gave him a raised brow. "The salvage operation was a lot more fruitful than we anticipated. The White Fang have a rather impressive stockpile of Atlesian small arms hidden away, but they've also got their hands on a quantity of explosives, Dust, and Paladins. They even managed to salvage one of the ships laser cannons. I'm not sure if it'll work or not, but they feel confident that it will."
She whistled. "Resourceful bunch."
"Unfortunately, this means Taurus is moving up his schedule. The White Fang have upwards of two hundred trained fighters hiding out in Mountain Glenn, and they're busy recruiting more. By my estimates, they'll have over two thousand green yet trained fighters within two months, and enough weapons to arm them all. Discounting an unknown but not negligible numbers of civilians who want in." he explained grimly, finishing by moving another checker.
"Which means they can take Vale if they strike fast enough." she concluded, frowning. "Not good. I'll assume you delayed them?"
Ron nodded. "Tipped off the nearest Atlas patrol to his headquarters. Taurus will be forced to either fight or flee, both outcomes will leave him out of our hair for now."
"Adams becoming more trouble than what he's worth. And he won't end his oh so wonderful working relationship with Queen, so we can't play divide and conquer." Bael sighed. "There goes my happy mood on that front. What of our subjects?"
"Noon is stable, Dawn and Dusk are uncertain but functional. Midnight is the best off right now, which I can't get over." he shook his head. "West however is showing some troubling behavioral cues. He defied El-two's command to go after Knight. No serious injuries." he hurriedly corrected with a wave.
"Hm, that's weird. Scholar and Exile I expected to break his orders, maybe Master. Think he'll fix his attitude?" Bael asked, briefly hovering over one piece before choosing another.
"Possible but unlikely. I'm mostly sure if we lose West, we can kiss South, North, and East goodbye." Ron told her, taking the piece she just moved.
Bael huffed. "We'll give it a bit more time, though we'll set up damage control measures. I'd rather not, but it looks we'll have to crack open the Tomb then."
His head shot up. "I thought you said we should leave that alone."
"We need to keep the Tau'ri here for a few more days, and this will insure that. I know how many problems that'll raise, but it needs to happen sooner or later." she said with an air of cynicism, slumping back to frown at her options.
"Could always use Plan Theta." went the remaining girl, flopping her horned head from her program.
Bael let out a breath, sullenly glancing over. "We've been over this already. Seeding Earth with the Grimm doesn't help out goals in any way, shape, or form. Remnant doesn't have the institutionalized knowledge or the infrastructure to take their place, not in the timeframe we're operating under."
"Remnant is more advanced." Ron pointed out, removing yet another piece.
"Superficially. But in the categories we require, they're sorely lacking. Without uplifting this world, we'd be trading a near perfect specimen for a vastly weaker one. For the last time, no." she declared, jabbing a finger at the slumping girl.
"Party pooper." she muttered unhappily.
Oscar set his sword aside, standing up to cough into a fist. Three pairs of eyes swiveled to him, making the boy shrink back nervously.
"I'm, um, heading out for a bit. Do any of you want anything while I'm gone?" he asked carefully, scratching his shoulder.
"We're good. Call me if you need anything, okay?" Bael checked, ignoring her teammate sniggering at her movie.
When she turned back to the board, Ron leaned back to gesture. "I win. How is it you're amazing at chess, but you suck at checkers?"
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A/N: There we go, part two.
There are several parts of this chapter that are liable to make somebody reading this angry, but I'll go over the two I'm most worried about. Both concern Aura.
First, energy weapons beating Aura. Yes that's how it is in this story, yes I know its a load of bull. But if I went and killed off SG-1, would you guys be happy? Because I'd have to do that if I played favorites to RWBY.
The second, and far more complicated, is the P90's performance here. Now I know a few are you are going to gripe at me for this, but the truth is its one of the best options to use against Auras. Quoth wikipedia (for starters): "In testing in 1999 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the SS190 fired from the P90 at a distance of 25 m (27 yd) exhibited an average penetration depth of 25 cm (9.85 in) in ballistic gelatin after passing through a Level II Kevlar vest."
From The Shooters Club blog on the 5.7mm round: "Most bullets, including 5.7mm ammunition available to the public, have a lead core. Lead deforms significantly when it impacts a ballistic vest, spreading out the force of the impact and preventing the bullet from penetrating the multiple layers of fabric. SS190 ammunition, only available to police and military, has a steel penetrator that, when fired at the high velocity of the 5.7×28 cartridge, is capable of cutting through kevlar vests because it does not deform as lead does."
And so on. When fired from a P90, the 5.7 round can defeat up to level III kevlar vests, and will beat level II relatively easily (provided both are within 50 meters).
I encourage you to go do a little bit of research yourself, before jumping down my throat by shouting "AURAS IGNORE BULLETS YA HEATHENWAFFLE!"
If you don't care at all, then disregard the above, and thank you for reading.