Chapter 21

"Authorization: C-3564-0155-84. Perimeter F-04: clear." A White Fang guard said through his headset.

"Confirmed, station F-04. Next scheduled call-in will be at 0200 hours." Another voice rang over the headset.

"Understood." The guard said again. Before he could even look the other direction, a hand was covering his mouth as a terrible pain reverberated through his body. He tried to remove the hand from his mouth with his right arm as a hot liquid substance covered his left. After just a few seconds, all movement ceased as he fell to the ground.

"I've got two hours to do this, huh?" Lionel said as he removed his blade from the soldiers back. "I'd better get to work." He finished as he took the soldiers headset, plugged his scroll into the USB port, and began transferring any data he could find as well as tapping into their communication network.

"That should be good for now." Lionel said as he looked at the swampy forest through his left monocle-like targeting apparatus. The roof of the forest was vast, almost completely eradicating any presence of sunlight on the forest floor. This allowed for some of the deadliest animals and Grimm alike to scour the forest untamed. So deadly, in fact, that the different surveillance stations used by the White Fang didn't even allow their members to go to the forest floor, but instead used a serious of bridges immediately under the treetops creating an almost treehouse-like base.

There were only two things keeping this outpost from looking like a tribal group's home. The first being the very center of the outpost, housing one of the White Fang's major Vale operation centers, and the second being the main surveillance towers themselves. With the exception of these two, the entire outpost looked like a forest with very little happenings…or assumed very little happenings since it is too dangerous for anyone to venture out. The area was located on an island east of Vale, remaining on the same continent, and is dangerously close to one of the most important trade routes between both Atlas and Mistral. If they chose to begin a civil war within Vale, taking control of the so-called 'Triangle Trade' due to the direction of the trade routes themselves, would deal a major blow. This route is the source of over a third of Mistral's food source and losing it could mean Kingdom-wide rationing and government investments in farming which would cut other important budgets for things like healthcare, education, and the military. It's the main cargo route for over half of Vale's dust and nearly a quarter of Mistral's dust, so their respective militaries and police would be crippled, making it easier for the White Fang. And it is owned by the Schnee Dust Company generating almost forty percent of their revenue. Since Atlas relies heavily on the SDC's economic monopoly, they would take a massive hit as well and would be forced to consolidate resources. "Needless to say, if I can get an accurate reading on their coordinates, we're going to bomb the hell out of them." Lionel thought as he picked up the body of the guard he just eliminated.

The center of operations was built around the trees on the forest floors, using the natural foliage as camouflage. Much more isn't known about the operations center due to such a lack of scouting in this region. "Guess I'll be finding out more soon." Lionel thought as he began to lower himself from one of the towers after placing the guard's corpse in a chair that was still open to see. "No one should notice since it's night. It won't matter after two o'clock, but at least I shouldn't be ratted out before then." He thought calmly as he began to scan the three possible bridges to take.

The Main surveillance towers, however, were very well disguised. Any animal, Grimm, or lay-person would simply mistake them for trees or a cellular-scroll-tower, at best. There were many surveillance towers scattered around in different positions. Sectors A through J with six perimeters for each Sector. "That's a total of sixty towers…I'll try to stay on the DL. Maybe I'll only attack forty-four more towers." Lionel joked as he chose his path through the forest bridges.

As he made his way across the bridges, he began to find many piles of animals and Grimm in some areas. One tower even had a room below the bridges designed to throwing out anything dead. "That's probably from their command center. It makes a lot of noise and light, which attracts a lot of predators, who need to be killed. This must be one of the places where they dispose of them." Lionel said as he continued across the bridge. The piles of animal and Grimm corpses did attract a lot more animals and Grimm as well. "That might be the plan. Attract them here, so there will be less at the command center. If I can find more piles, I can potentially triangulate the position of the main base." Lionel thought as he made it to the next tower. He looked inside to see the guard completely asleep. "You see? That's why your friend in the other tower got killed." Lionel mockingly whispered as he passed the sleeping guard, not wanting to waste any time unnecessarily.

He heard a thud come from the forest floor behind him and, as he inspected, noticed that there was a garage door-like opening coming from a room below the bridges. He sighed at the thought of the White Fang who had the unfortunate job of throwing alligators and beowolfs out. He ignored it and continued to the next tower, hoping to see a trend of animal and Grimm graveyards. "Yang is a great fighter…but do I dare hold out hope that she is capable of making it to the command center unnoticed?" Lionel wondered.

A faint muffling could be heard from where the animal and Grimm disposal site was. He turned back around expecting to see one of the beasts still clinging for dear life. Instead, he was greeted with the site of one of the White Fang struggling to stand up from the forest floor. Upon closer inspection, one could see that his hands were tied behind his back with chains and his mouth was gagged. When he finally stood, no less than four alligators began slowly making their way out of the swamp and coming toward him. He was terrified as he looked back up to where he had fallen with fear in his eyes before finally turning to run.

Lionel glanced at the area where he had fallen from, also, and saw another White Fang standing with his back facing the open forest floor. His hands were tied, but he was frantically speaking to someone in the room with him, though the roof was covering the second person. They kicked him closer to the edge and one could see that he was trying his hardest to help that person with what they wanted, but it wasn't enough. A bag was placed on his head, tied tightly around his neck, and he was punched in the stomach before being kicked out to the forest floor. "Poor bastards." Lionel thought as he stood and began running in random directions. The Knight-General looked back at the opening expecting to see Yang but was surprised that the figure he saw had short black hair.

"I know that she is here, but now I've got another variable to work with." Lionel whispered to himself as the door to the disposal room closed.

As Lionel made his way through the forest, he did, in fact, begin noticing a trend of the piles of corpses leading away from a single location. He deduced that the command center was slightly North and mostly East of his current location. "For the life of me, I think these bridges just go in a big circle around the central base. Looks like I have to go down through one of the towers to find a safe path toward the base. Makes sense, though…A hallway is much easier to guard that a rickety wooden bridge." Lionel thought as he began getting closer to the next tower.

He glanced inside the top room and was relieved to see that he was facing the back of one of the White Fang. Lionel slowly stepped inside of the canopy of the surveillance nest and snuck up behind the guard. Just like with the first guard, he struggled for a few seconds as the warm liquid rushed out but soon gave up. He propped the body up against the wall and found a hatch on the floor which opened to a staircase leading down.

The tower, seemingly, had no hallway but was just a series of rooms stacked on top of one another with a single spiral staircase climbing vertically up the tower. "Talk about maximizing every square inch." Lionel thought as he made his way down, looking for any indication of a hidden hallway or path through the forest floor that the White Fang might use to get to their command base and back.

"Even if I have to use a food supply line to get there, that would be fine. They can't just throw them in these towers without food and equipment…there has to be some path they use." Lionel pondered as he snuck down the staircase. There was a total of six floors; the top was the surveillance nest, the second from the top was the armory…or a mini version of it, the third and fourth down were dorms, the fifth was the mess hall, and the sixth were the bathrooms, showers, and lockers. "I only ever saw simple first aid kits in each of the rooms, I bet there are a few medics…but they must be pretty damn sure they're not going to get attacked if their only surgery and intensive care units are in the command center. Bold." Lionel thought in an almost admiring attitude.

As Lionel reached the bathrooms, he saw that the staircase continued going down. "Are they not even going to try and hide it?" he wondered. He continued down the staircase that opened up to a small room with one notable detail. This room, barely six-by-six feet, had one of its walls replaced by the must heavy-duty, industrial door Lionel had ever seen. The leaders of the world's security bunkers, which Lionel had a hand in building, had nothing compared to this. He was at least twenty feet underground from how far down the staircase went. One side of the wall was littered with pipes running up and down the wall. Obviously, that was for the plumbing and fresh water for the tower above him, but what caught his eye was the massive valves connected to each of the pipes. They were about a foot thick and, if activated, would cut off water and fresh air to the tower.

The ceiling above him was around four feet of pure cement, from what he remembered while going down the staircase, and since the pipes led below him, he assumed there were water purifiers and air recirculation units below this almost impenetrable room. Lionel pulled out his scroll and began to search through his contacts until he found the private chat he was in with the leaders of the four Academies with a few select others. "I don't think they have a central command center on the surface like we originally thought…I think this entire base is underground and so well fortified that it could withstand a nuclear explosion." Lionel said to himself as he typed the same words on his scroll. He proceeded to take a picture of the door and send it as well.

"So I guess bombing is out of the question…" Lionel said. He pressed the button on his gloves until he heard the familiar hissing that he had become so accustomed to over the years. He stretched his back and arms, readying himself to activate his semblance to a much greater extent than he had in years. When the hissing completed, his pupils dilated and his body's vascularity increased ten-fold. In under a second, he completely vanished.

He moved with a purpose. With every slash of his blade and every twist of his body, he earned another successful blow on his enemy. Each slash disarmed them, injured them, or killed them. It was five-on-one…well, now three-on-one, and one of the few remaining had just his leg sliced clean off. Unlike a certain Knight-General, this man loved conflict and was fully confident in his skill to eliminate the enemy without alerting the rest if the base.

"You crazy fucking monster!" The now monopedal White Fang screamed.

"So you guys don't like it when you get called names, but you'll do it to us? That's called hypocrisy, my friend." The swordsman said.

"Fuck you!" The White Fang yelled as he pulled a small revolver from his jacket and fired at the swordsman.

The bullet simply bounced off his aura. "Sorry, pal…you're gonna need that piece of equipment over there if you wanna get through my aura." The swordsman said as he pointed to the standard issue anti-matter accelerated energy rifle the White Fang 'confiscated' from military outposts. "Oh, wait…you were holding that when I disarmed you…right? Whoops." The swordsman said mockingly.

The swordsman ducked by crouching causing one of the other White Fang to miss him with their sword and go tumbling in front of him. Before he could gather his bearings, the swordsman was right next to him and knocked the blade out of his hands. He then turned his own blade to have the flat surface of the blade facing the White Fang before hitting him in the side of the head with it, knocking him out immediately.

He turned around to the last White Fang soldier who had already dropped his weapon and was on his knees holding his necklace of a religious idol while praying. He began to walk toward the praying soldier but stopped as he neared the one-legged White Fang, who was considerably quieter due to all of his blood loss. The swordsman placed the tip of his blade right over his chest and swiftly sent the blade into his body, killing his instantly.

"Hey, you!" The swordsman called out to the praying White Fang which caused him to flinch. The White Fang stood and looked at him. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Fredric." The White Fang soldier said.

"What's a guy like you doing working for terrorists?" The swordsman asked.

"We're not terrorists…we are fighting for our basic rights." Fredric said.

"…by terrorizing people?" The swordsman asked.

Fredric was clearly very afraid, "We don't terrorize people, we–"

"Kill civilians. Steal from hard-working people. Attack three high schools who are training kids fight to Grimm. Sounds like terror to me." The swordsman said.

"They aren't civilians, they perpetuate racism. Those we steal from aren't hard-working, they exploit faunus labor. And those hunting schools don't give faunus the same rights as the humans that apply there." Fredric stated.

The swordsman pulled out his scroll and pulled up a picture of the wreckage from when General Ironwood's ship crashed into the ground during the White Fang attacks. "You guys mostly steal from the Schnee Dust Company, who do exploit Faunus labor…so I'll give you that. But…what does that say?" he asked as he pointed to a sign in the rubble.

"Lazarus Universitat. Men chen and Faunus baun in besser Zukenft Zusmen?" Fredric said as best he could.

"Lazarus Universität. Menschen und Faunus bauen eine bessere Zukunft. Zusammen." The swordsman corrected. "That is…was…a university in Atlas that was destroyed in the explosion." He said.

Fredric was confused, to say the least. "Like I said, Humans can't –"

"That is Atlesian for 'Lazarus University. Humans and Faunus building a better tomorrow. Together'. It was a university funded by the old White Fang that had a student population of over seventy percent faunus. And most of them are dead thanks to the White Fang's terrorism." The swordsman informed.

"Adam would have told us if there were faunus in the line of fire." Fredric said.

The swordsman pulled up the news coverage of the rescue efforts for the students. "I see mostly faunus getting pulled out of the rubble. Human and faunus civilians getting saved by human and faunus firefighters, policemen, and doctors. Not to mention that the stuff you said about humans and faunus not getting the same placement in schools is garbage. Faunus who sympathize with the White Fang doesn't get accepted because they don't want shitheads at the schools. Just like how Human supremacist sympathizers don't get accepted for the same reason. They're trying to build a better, more unified community while you fools try and tear it all down with lies." The swordsman said calmly.

"No. Adam has always been right. He said that you would try to trick us and tell us that we're murders and thieves…but I won't listen. The White Fang is the only option." Fredric said.

"Oh well, I tried…" The swordsman said as he used his sword to push the dead White Fang off toward the large door. "To be honest, I was never really the best at being the superhero…but, I don't want to say I'm the antihero, either. I'm basically the friend that will push you in the pool to teach you how to swim, but I would stand by to make sure you don't drown…yeah, that's a pretty good description." The swordsman stated as he began walking back to the White Fang he knocked out earlier. "I also firmly believe everyone must live with the consequences of their actions." He finished as he pulled a chain from a shelf on the wall.

He grabbed the arms of the unconscious White Fang soldier and made quick work of tying his hands behind his back. "What are you going to do?" Fredric asked as he watched the swordsman slapped the White Fang soldier until he woke up.

"I'm looking for someone. Well, two people actually, but I'm only worried about one. She has long, blonde hair, wears mostly revealing clothes, uses very colorful language, and is more-than-likely covered in a lot of White Fang blood. Seen or heard anything?" The swordsman asked as he stood up and walked back to the last White Fang.

"No. It's been a quiet night. Nothing particularly strange has happened before this." Fredric said when the recently awoken White Fang said nothing. Again, the swordsman picked up a chain and tied the last White Fang's arms behind his back and walked him over to the door.

"Oh, those are the night's you have to be most vigilant." The swordsman said. "Nothing else to say?" he asked as he pressed a button on the wall causing the door to open like a garage door.

"Wait…wait, wait, wait! What are you…" Fredric asked before his mouth was stuffed with cloth and duct tape was wrapped around his mouth and head four times. The swordsman kicked the three dead bodies out of the room first, watching them land on a pile of Grimm and animal corpses.

"Goodbye, Fredric." The swordsman said as he pushed the White Fang out the door and watched him fall to the pile and roll to the ground. he walked back inside and grabbed the last White Fang who had finally come to reality.

"No! Stop…just shoot me, don't throw me out there." The White Fang pleaded as he was pushed close to the edge of the opening.

"I'm looking for someone. She has long, blonde hair, revealing clothes, uses gauntlets as a weapon…any of that ringing a bell?" the swordsman asked.

"No. But, please, I'll give you whatever you need. I can show you where the armory is. Or the dorms…please don't throw me out there." The White Fang begged.

"What about the Knight-General. Heard anything new about him lately?" The swordsman asked.

"He went on a secret mission recently." The White Fang stated.

"I know that…he's here. I just need to know where." The swordsman said as he kicked the soldier in the stomach, sending him back a few steps.

"I…I…please…I can help some other way…please…" the White Fang cried.

"Hmmm. Nope." The swordsman said as pulled a sack from off the ground and placed it over the White Fang soldiers head. The soldier tried to say something else, but the swordsman began pulling the strings of the sack to tight around his neck, that the soldier couldn't get a single work out. The swordsman finished by tying the sack around his neck just as tight and in the most meticulous knots possible before punching him in the stomach and kicking him off the edge.

The swordsman looked out to see the first White Fang nowhere in sight, but a path that a few animals took through the forest meaning that he was running for dear life. The second made his way up to his feet before picking a direction and running for his life as well. The swordsman walked back over to the wall and pressed the button to close the gate again. "Alright, I have to get to their base, somehow." He said to himself as he began walking back to the staircase.

Upon descending the staircase fully, he noticed that a massive door was blocking his path. "So…it's a bomb-shelter-base. Interesting." The swordsman thought. He punched the door in an annoyed way, not putting any strength in it but was surprised to hear a voice call out after a few seconds.

"What?" A groggy voice called out.

The swordsman thought quick. "Fredric fell out into the forest." He said.

"Are you serious?" the voice asked.

"No. I always make jokes about my friends dying." The swordsman said sarcastically but also in an extremely annoyed manner.

"Alright, smartass." The voice said before the door began to open from the ceiling first. The moment the White Fang on the other side of the door's face was revealed, it has a blade half way through his head.

"Who're you callin' a smartass, dumbass?" The swordsman said as he pulled his blade out and began walking down the hallway. It was empty as far as the eye could see, but he noted that the solid cement ceiling had two tiles on it, side-by-side, every fifteen feet. "Turrets…definitely turrets. And since this hallway is empty, there would be no cover. If I assume that they're anti-matter turrets, I probably wouldn't even risk it." He thought as he made his way down the hall, hoping that they wouldn't activate.

"Bombs probably won't work…if these are the only ways in, invasion probably won't work…how the hell will we take over this place?" he thought as he quickly made his way down the hall.