Chapter seven: Mile High Barf Club
A/n- expect a faunus anatomy headcannon and a motionsick Jaune in this chapter.
I took a breath as I stepped onto the airplane. I hated flying. After we'd dropped Neo off with Nora, the three of us had drove to the airport, bought tickets to Mistral, and I'd made a brief phone call to Velvet, telling her to close up shop for a few days. Now we were about to head to Mistral. I couldn't help it as I remembered myself getting on an airplane like this one in Mistral, three years ago, leaving my home for Vale. "This time though, I'm prepared." I thought. Of course none of us could pack our weapons on our person, but in our luggage… well, a few favors Ren called in and we'd have all the weapons we'd need right at our feet… or above our heads at least. "Nervous flyer?" Blake asked, smiling over at me as we sat down. I was on the outside, Blake in the middle, and Ren at the window seat. Unlike me, he was almost as comfortable in the air as he was on the ground.
I nodded, gulping as I looked at the ground, buckling up. "You could say that." I said, looking up and around at the passengers. There was a tall man sitting in front of me, a woman with a baby to my left, a few faunus sitting together on the far side, and many, many other people. No one looked like a threat or out of the ordinary, so I didn't think much of it, just looking back down and trying to keep from spilling my guts as I felt the plane start to move forward. The second we were in the air I felt my stomach doing flips in my stomach, the urge to throw-up accompanying it. I felt a soft hand reach under my shirt, tracing light circles on my back. I looked over, half expecting to see my little sister or Velvet, but instead I saw Blake. I flashed her a small smile before I looked back in front of me, trying to forget where I was. "Thanks." I muttered. Luckily I hadn't eaten anything yet, so it would hopefully just be dry-heaving the whole way.
I heard the familiar sound of the flight attendant speaking, saying that it was safe to walk around the cabin. I ignored it as I kept looking straight ahead at my seat. It was going to be a long flight. "Are you alright sir?" I heard a voice say to my right. I looked over, about to say I was fine, when I froze. The woman standing there, that hair and those eyes, I'd know them anywhere. "Coco?" Blake asked, speaking quietly. She winked towards us, placing a finger to her lips. "Shh…" she said, walking away. The next person she stopped by was a tall man in a trenchcoat and sunglasses. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was saying. "This is a Beacon transport mission." Blake whispered, leaning close to me. I nodded, looking over at her. "I figured. Who're they transporting?" I whispered. It was better that, in case anyone was listening in, that our voices were drowned out by the plane's background noise.
Blake lightly flicked her finger up, in a manner that would be basically unnoticeable if you weren't looking for it, pointing towards the group of faunus I'd noticed. "No clue, but I know who's looking for them." she said, pointing at them. I saw it too, the indentations on their faces, the White Fang mask's outline present. Though, when I looked down, I noticed what she was actually pointing at. Beneath one of their seats was their luggage, and sticking out of one of them was the barrel of a gun, a tommy gun if I had to guess. That was one of the White Fang's favorite tools. I nodded, "White Fang, no question about it. How many agents on board?" I asked in a hurried whisper. If there was even a chance someone was listening in, I didn't want to let on how much we knew.
She shook her head slightly, leaning her head on my shoulder as she kept rubbing circles on my back. Playing the role of the comforting lover would trick anyone looking at us. "No telling, three at least. Coco and the man in the trench coat. One escort, one heavy, now where's the tourist?" she asked. I looked back at her with a questioning gaze. "Tourist?" I asked. She shook her head, lightly playing with a strand of her hair, keeping up the act. "Tourists are the transports. The escorts get the runners to the transport, the heavy guards them, and the tourist get's them to their destination. Could even be the pilot." she whispered. Then, she whispered something I wouldn't have expected, "Wrap your arm around me, keep up the act." she said. I complied, pulling Blake closer to me as I tried to keep from vomiting, but more focused on the group in front of me now.
It was ten minutes later when one of the group got up, walking towards the bathroom. Not five minutes later, another one walked up, walking right past the one coming back. Blake probably missed it, hell probably so did everyone else, but I saw. One of them was carrying something in his left hand, and when he walked past the one going to the bathroom, he suddenly didn't anymore. "They passed along something." I muttered. Blake just nodded, and caused me to blush a bit when she moved closer to me, something I wasn't sure was possible at this stage. "Did you see what?" she whispered. I shook my head, flicking my finger up to point at the one that had just come back. "No. That one had it, then he handed it off. Something's up." I whispered. Blake leaned down, moving her left hand beneath the seat, moving her carry on in front of her, ready to grab the gun at a moment's notice. "Just in case." she whispered. I nodded as she went back to hugging me, playing up the act. "Just in case." I repeated, looking down at the faunus across from us as subtly as I could.
Another five minutes later, when the second one came back, the third one walked over. The same thing repeated itself, the item they had swapped hands. Coco seemed to be catching on at this point, as she looked over at me. She reached into her shirt, flashing the grip of a pistol at me. A message from a heavy to a caretaker. I may not have been well versed in the secret language Beacon operatives seemed to use, but I knew well enough what that meant.
"Get ready for a fight."
When the third one got out of the bathroom, he walked over to the pilot's cabin. My eyes widened as I saw him pull a gun, aiming it at the pilot. "So that's what they were doing, moving the parts to make a gun between each other." I thought. The man spoke softly, and in the panicked words of some of the other passengers, I couldn't quite make it out. "He just said 'Where's Tukson?'... that must be the runner." Blake said. I nodded, thankful for her stronger hearing. Coco didn't miss a beat, pulling the gun from her shirt and aiming it at the hijacker. "Don't move, you don't die." she said, pulling on a pair of sunglasses. As I expected, the other faunus stood, pulling out the tommy gun from beneath his seat, aiming it at Coco. "Put the gun down whore." he said, his voice deep and gravelly. Coco growled back at him, but slowly held her hands up, not moving. The other turned, quickly hitting her in the head with the butt of his gun.
She crumbled to the floor, likely unconscious, as the third one stood, walking to the front and grabbing at the intercomm. "Alright human pigs! Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt! Got it!?" he asked. His voice was rough and scratchy, like sandpaper across your face. I heard a baby start crying as Ren and I both reached beneath us, grabbing out our bags. I felt my fingers brush against Crocea Mors as I waited, feeling the familiar grip settling into my hands. I looked up, Blake still playing the concerned girlfriend act, as two of them walked down the aisles, the third standing near the exit door and keeping his gun pointed at the pilot and the unconscious Coco. One of them walked towards us as I pulled Crocea Mors back, setting it in my coat as I moved both hands, holding my stomach as if I were about to Vomit… which I was anyway so, not that hard to act. "What's wrong with him?" one of them asked, quickly pulling on a White Fang mask and aiming his gun at my head.
"No! P-Please don't hurt him! He's just motion sick, t-that's all!" Blake said, her eyes betraying a false nervousness that I knew would fool the man. The faunus just lightly tapped my forehead with his gunbarrel. "Hey, look at me. Look at me!" he said. I was about to, but it seemed luck was on my side, as the second he said that I heard someone speak. "I FOUND -BANG!" the sound of a gunshot cut him off as I jumped up, wrapping an arm around the man above me as I placed my gun at his head. I looked around, seeing a large man, long, black sideburns, holding a shotgun and aiming it towards me… well, the man I held in my grip anyway. The other one, the one that seemed to be the leader, swung around, aiming his gun at us. I didn't even blink as I fired my shot.
"GAHH!" he yelled, gripping at his groan. It was the fastest way I knew to incapacitate someone. I pushed the man in front of me back, spinning my gun on my finger before slamming the barrel across his forehead, I swore I saw a few of his teeth fly towards the old woman sitting in front of me. He fell to the ground, unconscious, as I looked towards the burly man with the shotgun. "You must be the runner." I said. The man with the trenchcoat and sunglasses from before stood up, smirking towards me. "And you must be a genius." he said sarcastically. I sighed as I shook my head, I'd know that snarky voice anywhere. "Hey old man." I said, smirking slightly towards him. He sighed, "It's Bad Luck Charm, got it Jaundice?" he asked. I nodded, looking towards Coco and the man still gripping at his groin. Said man, a leopard faunus if I had to guess, just kept letting out nearly incoherent strings of swearwords and curses.
I looked behind him, feeling a bit of anger when I noticed that, at some point, he'd actually started to undress Coco, unbuttoning her shirt while she was unconscious to the point of exposing her chocolate brown bra. I turned to the man and aimed my gun at his forehead. "BASTARD! Gahh… think ya broke one of 'em! Ugh…" he said, finally able to make a coherent sentence. "Considering what you were about to do to her, I think you'd have ended up the same way." Qrow said, chuckling as he, predictably, took a swig of his flask. I leaned down, glaring into the man's eyes. "Human scum!" he said, though Ren quickly silenced him, stepping on his groan. "AHHH!" "Ren! Stop!" I said, looking towards him. He shrugged, stepping back and sitting down in a nearby empty airliner seat. I looked back to the man, "Look, my partner, he's not a nice guy. He's probably not much better than you in hindsight. But hell, he stands for justice, unlike you. Now, I want you to answer all my questions, or I'll have him go to work on you, got it?" I said, smiling slightly.
He quickly nodded, likely not wanting to feel Ren's full weight on his groin again. "Good. Who were you after?" I asked. The man gulped, "Tukson, we were ordered to kill him before he got to Mistral!" he said, panicked. I nodded, Blake walking over next to me and leaning in. "Who ordered you?" Blake asked, her eyes taking on that same interrogative quality I likely had in mine. The faunus gulped, "Adam Taurus. His orders were any traitors to be hunted down and executed." he said. I slowly nodded, storing away the information for later. "Where is he?" Blake asked. The faunus shook his head, looking away. "I don't know, I was given orders by my group leader, he didn't deal with me directly! Please! You gotta believe me! I don't know anything else!" he said, his eyes panicked, as he'd yet to put a mask on. I sighed, shaking my head, "Think we've gotten everything we can out of him." I muttered.
BANG!
"GOD!" I yelled, jumping back. I looked back as I tried to wipe away some of the blood on my trenchcoat. Granted, not much had gotten on it, but still, there were a few spots. Which made no sense since I was like, three feet away. I looked back, seeing Qrow's rifle smoking. "THE HELL WAS THAT?! HE WASN'T A THREAT!" I yelled. Qrow just shrugged, cocking back the bolt on his rifle, ejecting the spent shell. "What? You said you got everything you could out of him, no point in keeping a useless enemy alive." he said, his eyes completely dead, if a little glossed over. Then again, he had just been drinking. "He was still a person! He clearly wasn't dangerous! Why couldn't we have, I don't know, just reported them to the police? Let them deal with it!" I said. I saw a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye, so I turned, seeing Coco smirking towards me, sitting back upright and rubbing her forehead. "Damn… that hurt like a bitch…" she muttered, still smiling. I felt my face flush a bit as I gestured to her shirt. "Uh, you plan on covering up?" I asked, looking away from her.
She giggled, buttoning her shirt back up before she walked over, placing her gun back in said article of clothing. "So innocent… most people would just let me go around like that." she said, sitting down next to me, Blake on the other side. "He was a threat Jaundice. Sorry you had to see it, but this is the way it is. We want to keep up our cover? We can't let anyone know what we look like. Though," she stood, looking towards the passengers. "I think we can trust these guys to keep a secret." she quickly grabbed the man's tommy gun, aiming it at the crowd. "Right guys?" she asked, nearly growling it. "Yes!" "Yeah!" "We won't say a word!" "Please don't kill us!" I heard, everyone saying something similar. In general, they agreed. I looked up at Coco, "So… it doesn't matter if they're innocent? You just… kill them? Even if they surrender?" I asked. Coco nodded, frowning towards me as she rested the butt of the man's gun on the ground, crouching down in front of me.
"Hard times call for hard people. We can't afford to be exposed." she said, speaking a bit quieter than before. Qrow yawned, reaching into his pocket and taking out a small coin. He flipped it, opening his hand before he sighed, and for once, I could see just how… tired, he was. I looked over, and I saw that on one side of the coin, the one it had landed on, there was a picture of a skull. When he moved to put it back in his pocket, I caught a glimpse of the other side, it was a woman, a queen if the crown were anything to go by. "Deciding something?" I asked, looking up at the older heavy. He sighed, "Nah. Could flip this coin a hundred times and it would always be tails. Just an old habit…" he said, looking out the window as we kept flying. I turned to Blake, "Guess it was two heavies then, no tourists." I said, smiling slightly.
"Nah, the Tourist is the pilot." Coco said, casually jerking a thumb over her shoulder, said Pilot waving at us. "Hi! On an unrelated note, does anyone have any clean pants?" he said. I waved back, looking towards Blake, a smug smirk on her face. "You were saying, detective?" Blake asked. Coco looked at Blake, then back at me, then, she chuckled, "You know, I think that's a much better codename for you. What do you like better? Detective or Jaundice?" she asked. "Detective." I answered without even thinking. It wasn't a hard choice, I hadn't really liked the codename 'Jaundice' from the beginning. "Can I get a new codename too?" Blake asked, her eyes hopeful as I saw, just behind her bow, her ears standing up straight. Coco chuckled, shaking her head. "Nah, I think Little Kitty works juuuust fine for you." she said. I saw Blake's ears 'deflate' I guess, her frowning.
I chuckled, petting between her ears almost out of instinct. "Hey, it's not that bad of a nickname." I said, rubbing my hand between her ears. Blake just sighed, rubbing slightly into my hand. I moved my hand off her head, slightly confused, but the moment I did she glared at me, "Why'd you stop?" she asked. I didn't answer, but just continued petting her, her going so far as to rub up against me this time. I looked back, seeing Ren smiling towards me, that same smug look he had when Coco was flirting with me on his face. I glared at him as Coco spoke, drawing my eyes back to her, "Huh, haven't seen her do that since Sunny Dragon left…" she said, rubbing her chin. Qrow walked over next to her, scratching his chin in the same way, almost like he was mocking her. "Yeah… weird huh?" he said. All the while, Blake was just laying there, rubbing against my side, completely unphased by what was going on around her.
That ended whenever I felt the plan hit a particularly rough bit of turbulence, my stomach lurching as my hand flew up to my mouth. Blake leaned back, slowly rubbing circles on my lower back again. "Thanks…" I muttered from behind my hand, shutting my eyes and trying to keep from vomiting. "Here." Qrow said, tossing what looked like a brown bag towards me. I took it, quickly opening it as we hit another batch of turbulence. I threw up, thankfully it was just bile, into the bag, just before sealing it and handing it to Ren, who quickly overhanded it towards our seats. With any luck it wouldn't get all over our luggage. We just sat like this for awhile, Qrow having another barf-bag on standby as Blake just rubbed circles on my back, lightly patting my shoulder. "Thanks for this Blake." I muttered, still trying to keep my stomach acid in my stomach and not all over the floor. Blake shrugged, smiling towards me, "Just returning the favor." she said. I would've asked what she meant, but the moment we hit another spot of turbulence my hands flew up to my mouth, Qrow tossing me the bag. Only one thought repeating in my head as I threw up again.
"I. Hate. Flying."
