Nice, managed to get this out in three months. I think I got at least three more chapters in this part of the story. Hopefully I don't mess up in any literary way that really ruins this.
/-/
"That'll be 57.34." The cheery cashier rang up the plethora of items, her jovial demeanor fell slightly as she watched the wrecked looking teenager as he fished his pockets for the lien.
Kaiser had camped outside of the nearest shopping center, going in as soon as it had opened at 8:00 in the morning. There were multiple hardware tools on the conveyor belt, each one seeming to be just some tools for some fixing around the house.
"Are you doing some home improvement?" The cashier displayed a dazzling smile, it faltered against the dour mood of the boy.
"Yeah, I'm fixing up a shelf." Kaiser faked a look of embarrassment, he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. "I accidentally knocked it over." Kaiser neglected to tell the cashier that the shelf had been connected to a wall which housed a dive bar as well as fight club, as well as the fact that he had "knocked over" those parts as well.
"Oh well, you're going to need some screws or nails to piece back together, no?" She gestured over to packs of assorted nails behind her. "We're having a two for one special this week if you're interested."
"Yeah, that'd be great." Kaiser decided it would be much easier to agree, the less time he spent here the less time the cashier would have to remember him. He grabbed a bag and swiped his items into the bag, his hand holding out the lien that Qrow had given him. He waved at the cashier just before he had left the store. "Thank you."
Walking out, Kaiser saw an explosion of color and movement. Just outside the store had been a full block of market stalls manned by street vendors, each one vying for the attention for anyone who was out. Unfortunately this meant multiple people were shouting for Kaiser's attention, there was one particular stand he did stop at.
A big block of lamb was spinning on spit, fire slowly roasting the meat. An energetic man shouted at him, though it wasn't in a negative manner.
"What do you want, friend!" The man was busy chopping some of the meat off the skewer, the delectable morsel falling enticingly onto the cutting board.
Kaiser held up his index and middle finger, the noise of the market stalls drowned out his voice.
"Two?" The man gave a thumbs up as Kaiser nodded, immediately setting to work on the food. A piece of flatbread was laid out, a sharp smelling sauce was slapped down and spread onto the bread. Slices of meat were shaved down from the spit and stacked onto the bread, soon sprinkled with fresh vegetables and stacked with crisp fries. The food was packed up and handed to the boy, to which the man had asked another question. "Coffee?"
"Just one." Kaiser held up his index finger as he mouthed the words, then pointed at one of the drinks that had been sitting on display atop a cooler. "One of those." It was unbearably hot this morning, so he couldn't imagine drinking a coffee at this temperature.
"Ok! 25 lien." The man showed a toothy grin, attempting to charm the boy into paying the price for the food.
Kaiser had known at once, with his pale skin and his manufactured style of clothes, he stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the Vacuoan markets. The vendors classified him as a tourist easily, which would make him a prime target for price markups. He had an out, he could haggle with the man, though that would make the boy memorable. The last thing he needed was to get recognized in the streets during the operation as the boy who didn't want to pay full price for breakfast.
At last, Kaiser handed over the money, then received his food. A can of hot coffee, and a can of a cold drink. It was covered in text in a different language, but Kaiser just managed to translate and realized that it was plum flavored. He started his walk through the hot sun to make his way back to Qrow.
/-/
The bus had hit a pothole, jerking Kaiser awake from his open eyed nap. It had been a while since he had left the markets, his bag of supplies on the seat beside him. The streets blurred by as the transit entered the industrial district, his stop coming up. Though, there was something that caught his attention.
A suspicious figure lurked in the shadows of the alleyway of the building where he and Qrow had been occupying since 6:30 in the morning.
Kaiser was wide awake now, electricity running through his veins. Already he had narrowed down this man's intentions, he was lurking after Qrow and the boy.
Kaiser simply got off at this bus stop, then walked into another alleyway. He gazed up at the fire escape, one second to aim and Kaiser had already zipped himself up to the top of the low rise building. He strode over to the end of the building, looking down into the alleyway blanketed in shadow. He had a clearer view of the man skulking around, Kaiser couldn't let him out of sight.
Putting his drinks in the bag, Kaiser held the plastic bag handle with his mouth. What came next, he would need both hands. Stepping up on the ledge of the building, he dropped from the ledge.
Wind rushed up around him, Kaiser was quickly descending towards the fire escape on the wall opposite from him. Before he touched the iron railings, his hands extended towards the window frames outstretched against the wall. His feet never touched the fire escape, minimizing any rattling noise the rusted iron could make to zero.
The man was unaware of the boy making his way down to ground level, he was less aware of the look of annoyance in his eyes.
Kaiser finally dropped down, his knees bending to lessen the impact of the fall. He was a couple feet behind the man, Still looking deeper into the alley. Kaiser creeped forward, every careful step measured and devoid of sound.
Arms wrapped around the stranger's throat, one leg swept the other man's legs from below. Balance was lost, the man was helpless now, Kaiser dragged him behind a dumpster. The man struggled in the boy's grasp, he soon stopped when he felt jagged edges pressed his skin.
"I have a knife to your throat." Granted, Kaiser was holding up the plastic knife meant for the food he had just bought. The combination of sudden fear and Kaiser physically preventing the man from looking down at the utensil quite literally blinded the man from his current situation. "Talk, but quietly, I can't let you call attention."
"Who-" the utterance of the word had been too loud, so Kaiser constricted his arm around the man's throat.
"Softer now, please." Kaiser murmured into the man's ear, the cold plastic almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
"Who… who are you?" The words came from a place of apprehension, easily achieved when being held like this.
"Nobody in particular. What's more important here is who you are. Why did you come here? What are you looking for?" Kaiser lowered his voice as he heard voices outside the alley, he let them pass as he stayed unnoticed behind the dumpster. "Tell me a lie, and I'll pull out your tongue." Kaiser let his voice teeter with a playful edge, letting the man think he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
"I'm looking for Oro." The man fumed out, he was beginning to sweat under Kaiser's grasp. "Something happened at his club last night, El Dorado."
"Oh." Kaiser cooed in an impish manner. "Tell me, what exactly happened there."
"I don't know much, there was a fight. Some of the other guys tell me that a huntsman- no, two huntsmen there." Fingers uselessly tried to claw at the arm wrapped around his throat. "One of them- shit, one of them was Qrow Branwen!"
Kaiser wasn't surprised, Qrow was infamous among the huntsman circles. It was only a little surprising that a random gang member like the one in Kaiser's grasp was informed.
"You- you're Qrow Branwen, aren't you?"
"Perhaps. What good will it do you if I am?" Kaiser stifled any wriggling the man was attempting.
"I have orders to find Oro, then lead our strike teams to come in and retrieve him."
"You guys were just a bunch of uncoordinated gangsters back at El Dorado, what makes you think your 'strike team' can take me?" Kaiser was unnerved the moment the man let out a little chuckle.
"Won't just be gangsters, Oro has the Vacuoan police department willing to come find him, they'll be more of a challenge for you." The man sneered at the boy he didn't know.
Kaiser didn't let it show, but he was cursing himself in his head. Now it was clear that the police were in Oro's back-pocket, likely to triangulate on wherever Qrow had stashed the information broker. Worse than all this is the firestorm this would cause, Kaiser was an unregistered operator here in Vacuo, getting caught by their government would take this from a simple grimm extermination to an international incident. At the very least they could easily explain away Qrow's activity. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I've got contact with them, if they don't hear from me in the next hour, this place will be swarming with cops."
Kaiser's eyes narrowed, that was everything he needed to know. He proceeded to squeeze and constrict the man's neck. There was a lot of struggling, until the man went slack. Once he was unconscious, Kaiser removed himself from the man, dragging himself up using the limestone wall.
Throughout the entire interaction, Kaiser had been darkening the alleyway little by little using the shadows of his semblance. Now any passerby couldn't look in while the stragglers that were around wouldn't notice when the alleyway had gotten so dark.
Kaiser flipped the dumpster open, his hands moved the garbage bags to the side. Kaiser then hooked his hands under the unconscious man, picking him up, the boy unceremoniously dropped the man in the space he created.
"Sweet dreams." Kaiser said as he closed the lid on the dumpster, he turned to a window in the alleyway, the edges shattered circling a hole in the glass. Kaiser used the portion of the window sill swiped clean of broken shards, then vaulted into the derelict building.
Coughs filled the trashed hallway as dust particles floated up, they were quickly waved away as Kaiser walked down the hall. Eventually he came up some stairs, to which he took the 2nd floor.
Stepping out into another hallway, Kaiser spotted a square patch of water in the dim light of the run down building. He knew exactly what this was, as the rudimentary security measure was set up by the boy himself. With a running start, Kaiser jumped and ran on the wall, completely skipping his own trap.
Kaiser scanned the area in front of him, spotting a glow underneath a broken piece of limestone leaning against the wall. He dug under the fragment, fishing out his scroll that he had left out in the hallway.
Any regular person would have easily missed the puddle, splashing the water around. The sound would've been picked up by Kaiser's scroll, transmitting the noise to his mask to let him know that someone had passed through the second floor.
Qrow had already been told about the little measure, he would've been notified by the boy via his mask if someone was skulking in the building.
The light had gone darker every step he took into the dark hallways, a heavy door coming up just as Kaiser knew he was approaching it. He leaned against it, forcing his weight onto the door.
It fell open, the boy stumbling into the dusty room. Iron shelves stacked against each other lined the walls, the floor was covered in old construction materials, broken glass from a loose window pane sparkled on the floor with the little light that creeped through the wrecked building.
"Morning Qrow." Kaiser called out, in the middle of the room, stood a rickety wooden chair. Sitting in that chair was Oro, the hefty looking information broker who ran the fight club in El Dorado. The regal tyrant he looked like a couple of hours ago contrasted with the roughed up and haggard looking man currently passed out in the chair.
Qrow, who was standing in front of Oro, waved Kaiser over. Tiredness etched across both their faces, they came face to face in the low light. "Did you bring it?"
Kaiser held out the plastic bag, it was stretched and heavy due to the power tools. "I brought breakfast."
"Good thinking, keep our strength up." Qrow gratefully accepted the bag of food along with the cup of coffee. He took a tentative sip, before uncapping the cup, and throwing the rest into Oro's face. "Sorry kid, I don't like my coffee when it's tepid."
Kaiser only shrugged, he himself hungrily tearing into the Shawarma wrap. "I'm gonna go run surveillance on the rooftop."
"Yeah, yeah, you do that." Qrow waved dismissively towards the boy, he started digging into the bag of tools that was brought. "Looks like sleeping beauty's starting to wake up."
Oro had been sputtering on the coffee that was thrown on him.
Kaiser had left the room just when Oro had cracked his eyes open, and the door clicked close as the hefty info broker tried to lunge forward from the chair. His massive stomach held back by tightly tied rope, the rope strained against belly as his face reddened.
"Where am I!"
"Morning sunshine!" Qrow sang, he had unwrapped the food Kaiser had brought him. He had to hand it to the boy, he thought ahead well enough, that improvised security alarm was a testament to that.
"Where am-" Oro was cut off promptly from his shouts with a swift backhand from Qrow.
"I don't think you're one to be making any sort of demands." Qrow picked up the bag left on the floor, rummaging through the plastic packaging encasing some of the tools that Kaiser. First picking up a medium sized joint plier, then pulling out a hammer along with it.
"I'm gonna ask you a couple questions, and trust me, you'll know if I believe you or not." Qrow got a tight grip on the hammer, performing some hollow miming of actually swinging the hammer towards Oro's temple. Sweat dripped from Oro's forehead, to his credit, he wasn't immediately frightened.
"First off, tell me what you know about the grimm, and why they're gathering around the industrial district." He stared at Oro, his frown deepening when he watched the bound man start to smirk.
"It seems that you're in need of my services, Qrow Branwen, I'm sure we could make a deal for my freedom." Oro leaned forward, trying to get in Qrow's face.
"I really wish you wouldn't try this." Qrow said with a practiced solemnity in his tone, he grabbed the joint plier, carefully opening it with one hand. His other hand held Oro's index finger, the digit was held by the metal jaw of the plier. "I'm gonna ask you again, what do you know?"
"Go fuck yourself!"
Qrow twisted the finger, Oro letting out a pained cry, the combination of the immense pressure and the intense aching was too much.
"Again? Or are you ready to talk?" Qrow once again grimaced.
It had gone on like this for at least 10 more minutes, Qrow was on his third finger, the other two were bent in different directions.
"The grimm." Oro managed to exhale, his face red and sweating bullets.
"Oh?" Qrow had broken through.
"I don't know much about the grimm, but I heard…" Oro needed a bit of time to catch his breath. "A truck picks up a bunch of people late into the night, sometime just before the grimm show up."
Qrow narrowed his eyes at that, Rillo, the homeless man that he had escorted back to Sand Dune drive mentioned something similar about waiting to be picked up for labor.
"Any idea where this truck is headed?"
"I don't know its route or its destination." Ragged gasp escaped the man as another wave of pain emanated through his two broken fingers.
"Do you know who sends for these trucks?" Qrow had not let go of Oro's finger, to quit now would give Oro leverage once more.
"No, I just know that these trucks pick up workers some time around three in the morning."
"Fine, tell me about that man you were with at El Dorado."
"You may think me foolish, Qrow. But the last thing I have is a death wish, answering that is sure to get me killed." Oro muttered, sweat dripped down his torso, a stain spreading across his collar.
"I think you can afford to be a little stupid now and then, I mean, you already fucked with me which was already a dumb move." Qrow gripped the long blond hair that belonged to Oro, his head yanked back.
"You don't understand!" Oro tried to shout out, his cries went ignored. "There's people out there with orders to kill me if I tell anyone what I know!"
"No, you don't understand!" Qrow grabbed the wrench again, gripping it with both hands. "If they have orders to kill you, it'll probably be instant. That's the difference between the people you shouldn't be worried about and me." Qrow raised the heavy wrench, ready to swing. "They'll kill you because it's part of their orders."
"Wait!" Oro pleaded, he could guess just from the trajectory of the wrench that it would aim to bust his knee.
"I'll make this last because I think this shit is fun." Unrestrained rage flashed in Qrow's eyes as he swung downwards.
/-/
Kaiser took a couple more sips of the cold drink he had bought earlier, the sun beating down on his skin. He was stationed on top of the roof where he had first entered the building, the boy looked over the edge every now and then to scan the streets.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, cars passed by on their way to work in the morning. Kaiser pushed off the edge, hissing as the pressure from the action started straining against the injury from his arm, nearly getting cleaved off by Qrow's Harbinger.
It was only then that all the injuries sustained from that fight seemed to seep into his very bones, the battle from just a couple of hours ago weighing heavily on him, he thought about the new knowledge acquired from Des and Tank.
2 hours earlier
Qrow waited patiently at the red stoplight, there was no use in going through the effort of stealing a truck and stashing a man under a tarp covering the truck bed just to get pulled over by the police. In the event that Oro woke up while transporting, he had made Kaiser hide under the tarp with the information broker. It wasn't that Qrow was actively giving the boy the shit jobs, but between him and the two bumbling huntsmen that had helped move Oro, he trusted Kaiser with keeping the passed out man in line.
Speaking of the bumbling huntsmen…
"What's your story?" Qrow looked towards Tank and Des- at least that's what Kaiser said were their names- they had been checking each other over for their many injuries, one of which were some incredibly recent burns on who he assumed was Tank's arms.
"What do you mean?" The one without fried arms- presumably Des, aimed a tiredly haunted look at Qrow. Despite all the bravado the huntsman displayed when preparing to pummel Kaiser, Des looked drained and almost afraid.
"How'd you get tied up with Oro and El Dorado?" Qrow turned his blinker on as he approached a left turn.
"Might sound crazy, but we've actually never seen these guys until a couple hours ago." Des' tone was low, lamenting the time he lost while acting as Oro's bodyguard. "My team came over here to Vacuo for some temporary work, we heard there was a bunch of grimm coming out here at night, so we figured it'd be easy money."
"You too? Me and the kid just got here two nights ago to check on the grimm infestation." Qrow had entered the industrial district, the closest area to the lakeside bar that Kaiser had burned down.
"We took care of the grimm for a couple nights, then there was this redheaded chick about to get eaten by a beowolf. I saved her, and tried to- ahem… escort her somewhere." Des coughed a bit. "Then, all of a sudden, she brings out this weird looking dude with these fancy looking clothes."
Qrow's interest was piqued now, his gaze aimed at Des. If he could get something out of this conversation, he might be able to figure out what happened to him. "Then what happened?"
"I don't know, I just sort of passed out after that." Des scratched his head, his face contorted into terrible confusion. "Next thing I know, I wake up in a fucking hole feeling like I'm buried under a ton of bricks."
Qrow grit his teeth, there was almost nothing to work with. The only thing he could infer from this was that Jax Asturias was involved, if the comment about fancy clothing was any indication.
"Yeah, that was the kid's doing, he was trying to keep you guys from burning down along with the building." Qrow stuck a thumb back towards the truck bed, where said boy and Oro were stashed under the tarp.
"Where'd you pick up that scrawny runt anyways? Isn't he weighing you down?" Des leaned back into his seat, letting the cool night air flow in from the open windows. Vacuo was a nice place to drive around at night, he just wished it wasn't under these specific circumstances.
"He's on apprenticeship, supposed to shadow me when we're working here on the grimm problem." Qrow slowed to a brisk 20 miles per hour, slow enough to scope out a good spot to hide.
"Must've pulled the shit job getting paired up with a weakling like him, he barely put up a fight back at Junior's." Des laughed a little to himself, with Tank chuckling shortly after.
Qrow's eyebrows furrowed a little bit, he cast a glance in the rear view mirror, allowing him a view to the truck bed. "You guys met him before?"
"Yeah." The terse reply came from Tank, surprisingly. "We were drinking at a club, Junior's, the one in downtown Vale. Boss here-" Tank gestured towards Des, the latter looking over the dark stretch of road in front of them. "-was trying to pick up chicks for us to spend some time with before getting deployed to Vacuo. The little asshole in the back spilled drinks of this one lady he was chatting up, he was drunk off his ass. Then get this, he tells her to leave!"
Qrow was picking up on some details between the lines, he was starting to doubt parts of this story.
"Des here grabs him by his stupid coat to tell him off, then the kid decides to start some shit so we had no choice but to kick his ass."
"Hmmm." Qrow thought to himself a moment, his eyes snapping to an alleyway that he had slowed to a stop in front of. "There's a good spot." He pulled into the alleyway, killing the engine and the headlights. "This is where we part, boys. Well, only after you help me get this guy inside."
The three huntsmen stepped out of the trunk, opening up the truck bed and yanking the tarp off. Inside was the prone for of Oro, his large frame taking up most of the space, tightly squeezed beside him was Kaiser. Only now jolting up as the tarp was removed, he looked to his surroundings first, and then to Qrow.
"Is this place abandoned?"
"Yeah, we're moving Oro inside."
"Alright." Kaiser jumped out of the truck, stretching himself out, multiple bones popped. The boy sighed in relief, staying in the same still position was taking a toll on his spine. Kaiser pointed at a window caked with dust at one of the walls lining the alley. "Think we could fit him through the window?"
"Probably, we just need to get the glass out of the way. We could probably use some tools to remove it from the pane, that way we can replace it when we-" Qrow was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass, causing the two to stare at the source of the noise.
Des had punched the window straight through, dragging his arm back, shards of crystal rained down into the alley. Most unusual was the lack of any sort of cut on his arm. He shrugged as the Qrow and Kaiser fixed him with a questioning glare.
"What's the point of my semblance being invincible skin if I can't do stuff like this?"
"Now it might be obvious that there was a break in." Kaiser muttered, Qrow couldn't help but agree with that. Either way, they desperately needed a place to stash Oro, and this derelict building was the closest they could get to a decent hiding spot.
"It's fine, let's just get this over with." Qrow approached the truck bed, grabbing Oro by the legs, gritting out after pulling the man halfway off the truck bed. "You three, pick a limb and lift him into the building!"
"What should we do after we're done?" Tank asked, seething as he strained the arms that he had recently pulled out of scalding hot oil.
"You and your friend take the truck, report back to your station, act like you've never seen us." Qrow had stepped over the windowsill, pulling the first of Oro's legs through the window. With any luck, Oro would stay unconscious despite how rough the four huntsmen were handling him.
They ended up having to knock Oro out five separate times that early morning, only barely managing to get him into a secluded enough room when they had to knock him out that fifth time.
Kaiser grimaced at the scene before him, he was still looking down at the street. There was the usual hustle and bustle of cars and civilians walking through, but this time, there was a police vehicle parked on the street.
Kaiser raced to one side of the building checking the perimeter of the building. Managing to spot the telltale sandy colored fatigues of the Vacuoan law enforcement officers, bright red eyes narrowed at the man. Police officers normally traveled in pairs, but Kaiser had not caught sight of where the partner was.
This is what tipped Kaiser off, the man below was likely the corrupt officer. This cop was likely looking into the information that Kaiser had gotten from the man that he had left in the dumpster. It took the officer a couple of seconds to open the dumpster, digging around the trash bags he found the man left in there. The officer had taken a little while to converse and help the man out of the dumpster, unaware of Kaiser looking down on both of them from the rooftop. In seconds, the officer pulled out a radio, putting in a request Kaiser could not hear.
The radio crackled to life, much to Kaiser's chagrin. "Dispatch to all units, we have a situation that requires three units. Please respond to Alloi Avenue, immediately."
The police officer drew his gun, a Sig Sauer P226, a standard issue with most law enforcement agencies. The barrel of the gun was cautiously aimed forward as the officer approached the window, the same one Kaiser had entered earlier.
Alarms had started ringing in Kaiser's head, he had to get Qrow. In an instant, Kaiser whipped out his scroll with Qrow's number on speed-dial, he had gotten before the mission had started. It picked up after the third ring, sweat ran down Kaiser's forehead.
"Hello?" Qrow answered, grunt s sounded in the background.
"Qrow, there's a cop entering the building, with three more units on the way!" Kaiser managed to blurt out.
"Shit, I still need a couple more minutes here with Oro." A muffling of the background voice, likely Oro's was heard. "Can you distract them for a little while?"
"Yeah." Kaiser was already soundlessly sliding down the walls of the building, hurrying to catch up to the officer. He didn't dare enter the building, instead tracking the officers footsteps from outside by looking at the slight silhouette through the faded windows lining the building. Once reaching the corner of the building, Kaiser lunged at the police car parked at the end of the alley.
The shimmering blade of Plain Sight shot out, Kaiser aiming a slashing motion with his arm. The blade cut through the metal of the car door, a deep gash giving people a clear view of the car interior visible now from the outside.
The reaction was immediate, a shrill ear-splitting alarm blasted through the streets. Drawing all the attention from any passerby to the alley, more importantly, drawing the attention of anyone inside the buildings to the outside.
From the officer's position, Kaiser was certain it would take less than a minute for the man to come out of the building, even less to get to the car. It was difficult to say when tracking the man's position from outside the building.
Kaiser dove to the ground and quickly hid under the police cruiser, it was just a matter of waiting.
30 seconds later the crunch of glass sounded out, with a quick exclamation of, "What the hell?!"
With Kaiser's keen sense of awareness, he could guess that the officer was now deeply inspecting the gash in the car window, Kaiser himself pressed up against the hot asphalt. He hoped his skin wasn't searing against the road, his eye twitched as he sensed the presence of the officer shifting.
Indeed, the officer was lowering his gaze, a sharp feeling poking at him that he should check the undercarriage.
The officer pointed the barrel of his gun at the underside, in the rare case that someone did manage to sneak under.
What he found there was… nothing, at least, nothing that could be seen.
Kaiser held his breath as he clung onto the undercarriage, his semblance layering shadows attached to the car's underside as much as possible without making it obvious that it was an illusion. Kaiser simply covered himself with these shadows because having everything under the car would have just made everything look fake.
Eventually the officer stood up and kept an eye out for approaching police units. Kaiser lowered himself gently back onto the asphalt, checking his phone for any updates from Qrow.
Despite all his training in awareness, Kaiser failed to notice a black bird, more specifically a crow, fly out of the building.
Kaiser prepared to make his escape when he heard a couple distinct sounds, the first of them being the rattling sound of wheels rolling on asphalt, then the brief whoop of police sirens. Most uncomfortable was that the sounds were distinctly tripled, the three units had arrived.
The click of the car door had struck six times simultaneously, the officers had come out.
"What's going on here?" One of the officers asked.
The cop that had been there first had leaned in to the one who asked, a quick nod was exchanged.
"Ok men, stay sharp, we need to locate a hostage in the building, group up and we'll move in. I need two of you to stay out here to keep watch." The cop took a sip of black coffee he had stored in the car. "We don't want any press to come any closer."
The men nodded to each other, and eventually, a team of five men proceeded to enter the building.
Kaiser was still under the car when the four men plus their point man came out carrying Oro. They had hurried him into the police cruiser, Oro's weight brought the car down an inch or two, Kaiser felt himself closer to the ground.
"Reconvene at The Mirage." One of the officers ordered.
Kaiser pointedly ignored this, Qrow had already gotten what he needed from the information broker. He didn't know what or where The Mirage was, but he didn't plan to stick around long enough to find out. For now though, he couldn't get out from under the car without being noticed.
Car exhaust spewed out of the exhaust pipe at the ignition, wheezing coughs forced their way out of the boy while he desperately clung to the car. The car jolted forward, slowly accelerating into the city streets.
Kaiser kept a close eye on his surroundings through the gap between the car's undercarriage, and the asphalt. There didn't seem to be any other police vehicles, they had all gone in different directions, Kaiser reasoned that they would be grouping up once again at another place.
Kaiser was still gritting his teeth 15 minutes later as his arms ached from hanging onto the car. His exposed skin caked with dark smudges, his eyes stinging with the smoke.
Looking back, Kaiser could see the cop car he was clinging onto was being followed closely behind by what seemed to be another car. A sports car, he presumed, a voice broke out amongst the general chaos of the situation.
"Fucking pigs! Stay off the road!" Presumably, it was the driver of the sports car.
There was his out.
Kaiser gripped onto a metal piece under the car, a quick tank and it was pried loose. Hopefully, it wasn't something that would affect the car immediately. Kaiser dropped the chunk of metal onto the asphalt, it launched backwards, rattling the undercarriage of the sports car.
This must have pissed the driver in the sports car off, the tailgating intensified. Kaiser knew for a fact that the officer couldn't stop the car without attracting attention, something he couldn't do with such a high profile target such as Oro in the car. But something he could do was call another unit to deal with Kaiser should the spy be spotted.
When the rear of the cop car was touching the sports car's bumper, Kaiser let go of the undercarriage.
The movement was instant, painful, and discreet. Kaiser had hit the asphalt, his hands latching onto the undercarriage of the sports car. His body was being dragged against the street, he would've been grinded into paste if he hadn't been wearing his protective coat. The single maneuver was complicated and very costly to the boy's condition, but he had managed to pull it off without anyone noticing. Soon enough, the sports car driver would give up and Kaiser would make his getaway.
The worst of it was over now, he could only hope that Qrow managed to sneak out of the building unnoticed.
/-/
Qrow was currently sending messages to Ozpin, updating the headmaster on the state of his mission. More than that, he was sending the information about Jax Asturias over to Beacon, seeing if Ozpin could pull up any information on the man who took Qrow's mind.
A shiver wrapped itself around Qrow, just the mere thought of losing himself like that. The fact that he couldn't even remember any part of the skirmish unnerved him the most, he wouldn't say it, but he was glad that Kaiser managed to snap him out of it.
Even as he thought this, he wondered where the boy had gone. Qrow may have had some misgivings about the boy, but he knew how to follow orders, which made it easy to take command during the mission.
Speaking of the boy…
The door to the motel swung open, Kaiser marching in looking like he had fallen into a chimney.
"It's fucking incredible!" The words were brash with a posh tone to them, sounding much more arrogant than the soft-spoken boy who Qrow had come with. "It took me 30 minutes to finally stop at some parking lot, on the other side of town!"
"Uhh, you-" Qrow was cut off by Kaiser's inane rambling.
"I'm fairly sure I've inhaled enough exhaust fumes to give me four different types of cancer!" Kaiser buried his head into his hands, as if seeking solace in the darkness that covered his face. He looked up to see Qrow stare at him quizzically. "What?"
And then he heard it.
Exhaling deeply, Kaiser held his own throat lightly, readjusting himself. He spoke once more, this time the words were their usual soft-spoken neutrality. "Forgive me, I should not have let myself snap at you like that."
Qrow only chose to chuckle and point out the obvious, something which annoyed Kaiser. "Your accent is pretty thick."
It was a rare slip up, but when Kaiser was overwhelmed, he would revert to speaking with an Atlesian accent. Something that drew too much attention to the boy, so he always chose to mask it in a neutral non-specific accent. The combination of bruises and burns just hours ago, aching arms from clinging to a moving car, and having not slept since Sunday morning started to take its toll on the boy.
"It's alright." Qrow sighed as he plopped down on the bed. "We've had a rough night."
"What did you get out of Oro." Kaiser went to the bathroom, sink water ran as Kaiser tried desperately to scrub himself of the grime clinging to his face and arms.
"A couple things actually." Qrow quickly moved his hand away from the bed on a particularly wet spot on the bed, disgusted, he scooted away from the area to a spot closer to where Kaiser was scrubbing away at the exhaust residue. "First of all, Oro doesn't exactly know what's going on with the grimm."
"So all this has been for nothing." The water ran black with smog, Kaiser's face flushed with frustration. "Damn it!"
"Keep your head on." Qrow stretched out. "He did tell me the same thing our old friend Rillo told us, there's a bus in Vale picking up workers somewhere in the industrial district."
Kaiser pondered on it, his scrubbing paused for a moment. "It might just be the closest thing we have to actionable intelligence."
"Just say it's a lead, kid, no need for that spy film shit." Qrow yawned, he had to inform the boy of the other thing he learned before he fell asleep. "But there's another thing I found out, it's about Jax Asturias."
The look on Kaiser's face told Qrow everything he needed to know.
"The guy that was with Oro, the one in blue." Qrow sighed.
Kaiser nodded, now following along.
"Apparently, Oro works under him." Qrow's hand wiping his face. "He has a whole operation going on, where he-" Qrow coughed and held up two hands, "-recruits-" he made exclamation marks with his fingers, "prospective huntsmen."
Kaiser let out a wry laugh, "You mean the same way you were sent to tail me for Ozpin?"
"No, what this guy did was different. He took control of me, and those other two guys," Qrow responded.
"What do you mean?"
"Manipulation of the mind, brainwashing, as the kids say it." Qrow could only offer a shrug
"That can't be real." Kaiser crossed his arms, a stern expression on his face.
"There's a woman running around Vale with a semblance that makes you see whatever she wants you to see." Qrow stood up, staring at Kaiser. "But, brainwashing is where you cross the line, sure."
"Fair enough, so that was Jax's semblance then?" At Qrow's confirmation, Kaiser mused to himself. It was the missing puzzle piece that completed the picture, everything made sense in that moment. While Tank, Des, and Qrow did overpower him with their superior strength, they lacked the finesse and grace that professional huntsmen usually held.
If Qrow had been in control of his faculties, Kaiser would've been laying under El Dorado's wreckage.
"That's unrelated to our mission, correct?" Kaiser crossed over to his designated bed.
"Got it on the money, kid. The bus thing is the only thing we have to work with." Qrow splayed himself out onto the bed. "We'll go see Rillo at Sand Dune drive, and try to find our way to this transport."
Kaiser checked his scroll, it was too early, it being the middle of the morning now. "That's not until early morning tomorrow, what do we do until then."
There was no response to that, instead, Kaiser heard a soft snoring coming from the older man. Since staying awake from the moment they left Vale, both huntsmen were fatigued, it only made sense that Qrow would choose this time to recover.
Without hesitation, Kaiser climbed into his own bed, heavy eyelids eventually giving way to valuable sleep.
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Kaiser rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he, Qrow, and the homeless man, Rillo, had walked deeper into the industrial district of Vacuo.
"I'm glad you fellas came by tonight, after what happened with the grimm last night, I was scared to go find the spot my friend was talking about." Rillo pointed two blocks ahead of them, where a gathering of people had formed.
They did end up going back to Sand Dune drive, meeting back up with Rillo, who was all too happy to see the two huntsmen who had saved him from a beowolf. Armed with the right instructions from Rillo's friend, the three made their way through the industrial district. To blend in, they asked Rillo if he had any spare clothes that they could use, Kaiser and Qrow donned similarly worn jackets. Unfortunately, they did have to disclose their operation to Rillo. He understood, Rillo would do his best to keep from blowing their cover, and he wouldn't complain either since Qrow had given him 100 Lien for the trouble.
"You think they're here for the transport too?" Kaiser whispered to Qrow, receiving a grunt of acknowledgement.
"No doubt, there's at least 20 there." Qrow brought out his hip flash, taking a swig. As an afterthought, he offered the flask to Rillo, who took it gratefully.
"That's good stuff!" Exclaimed Rillo, who's positivity coaxed a diminutive smile out of Qrow.
"Good taste." Qrow stopped talking as soon as the three of them approached the crowd of people on the street corner. Once he got his flask back, he offered some to Kaiser.
"No thank you." Kaiser declined, he kept close to Qrow, Rillo decided he'd break off from the two.
"Think you're too good for it?" Qrow halfheartedly ribbed, probably the first time he had said something halfway reminiscent to how he treated the boy when they first met in Ozpin's office.
"No, I'd just be tripping over my feet while I'm supposed to be doing a job." Kaiser felt an inkling of a smile shadow on his face.
Qrow let out a little chuckle, he faced forward towards the street. "Lightweights, I swear."
Kaiser himself internally chuckled, with his terribly high tolerance, the boy would have to apply for a loan to actually get drunk. He couldn't jeopardize any part of himself on this operation, even with just a swig of drink.
A rumbling was felt through the streets, pieces of rock and broken debris vibrated against the floor. It felt like the land was ripping itself apart, Kaiser braced himself if any grimm were approaching, nothing could've prepared him for what had rounded the corner.
Light glinted off the silver grill of the large freight liner transport truck, wheels approximately twice the size of regular car's wheels ground to a halt next to the curb. A loud hiss was released into the night air, light barely reflected off the menacing black chrome of the truck, it almost paled in comparison to the huge trailer it was hauling around.
Approximately 70 feet of a trailer was pulled behind the truck, Kaiser noticed a faint layer of white underneath the black plating where the corners of the trailer met. He grimaced, it was heavily armored, but why would a work transport need to be heavily guarded. The plating was more than enough to resist against the grimm, it looked designed more for withstanding high artillery fire.
The deep click of the lock sliding out of place was enough to take Kaiser's attention to the rear of the truck. A soldier, or something similar to that, was addressing the entire group.
"Ok people, we only have a couple of hours to make this work!" He swung open the doors to the trailer. "Two at a time, you know the drill!"
Immediately two people would break off periodically from the group to board the trailer, meanwhile Kaiser got a good look at the man escorting the labor workers. A black tactical vest along with dark cargo pants, with a menacing looking assault rifle slung across their chest. It was a generic combat uniform for someone who wasn't affiliated with any of the kingdom's armies.
Local gang? No, too advanced for that. Looks more like a paramilitary force, why would the transport need paramilitary?
It eventually got to the point where Qrow had boarded, Kaiser following shortly after. Climbing up the foothold of the truck and into the trailer in two steps, Kaiser got a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. It was always like this whenever he got nervous on a mission, he sat down a couple seats down from Qrow. He didn't dare look at the man, the less that the transport men knew, the better.
The lengthy side of the trailer was lined with a long steel bench, running parallel to another bench.
Kaiser settled into place just as the last of the workers were brought in, the doors slammed shut. The truck began its slow acceleration to wherever they were headed. He could feel every crack, every pebble in the road as the truck bumped and ran its way down the industrial district. He had been deep into his own thoughts, thinking over the stressful week he'd been having.
The fight with Jasper Greene, the Scorpio assassin, felt like a distant nightmare. That had only been last Tuesday, at the start of the week. Then, there was the operation to retrieve information from Gideon Goldenrod. He had to deal with being thrown out a window, it was only his body's high tolerance for damage that had allowed him to survive that.
But there had been good things that had happened as well, like his conversation with Yang just after his confrontation with Jasper, he slept better than he had in months that night. There was also the surprising discovery that Martin Kane had still been alive, he couldn't really express it, but Kaiser felt something close to joy seeing his old partner again, knowing that he was ok. The dance had been a highlight of the week as well, Kaiser hadn't remembered all that much, but he felt content.
The thought of Yang in her dress at the dance flashed across his mind, Kaiser suppressed the blush that threatened to overcome him. The unconscious feeling of dancing with her, he knew that he didn't remember it as he was drunk out of his mind, but it was like his body still remembered the feeling of being in her comforting embrace. The situation afterwards had been awkward, in addition to the hard decision to make.
God! When did things become so complicated?
Kaiser felt more comfortable with the prospect of a battlefield than a relationship, the concept was just foreign to him. Worst of all, he couldn't find a reason to say no. Deep down, he knew he shouldn't entertain this idea. All his life, he was taught to deceive and keep everything to himself, the antithesis of the bond of trust that was meant for a relationship. More than that, he didn't want to lose Yang as a friend should things complicate. She had been his dearest friend since the day she came to help him at his lowest. Still, he wanted so desperately to accept her offer.
"Damn, what mess did I get myself into?"
As if to answer his question, the transport violently jolted, breaking Kaiser out of his thoughts. The screech of tires pierced the air, the end of the transport grinded diagonally. His hands gripped to the bench, his gaze searching for Qrow.
Just as he found Qrow, something exploded under the transport. The resulting crash had overturned the truck, the trailer now lying on its side.
Kaiser lay in a pile of bodies, limbs sticking out everywhere. Carefully, he maneuvered himself into a standing position. He steadied himself on the wall with his arm, he turned, Qrow was a bit behind him. With that confirmation, he turned towards the trailer doors. A ringing sound coming from outside, someone was trying to bust the lock open. A couple steps closer, Kaiser heard the sound of automatic gunshots, along with the roar of returning fire.
Still the ringing sound continued, whoever intercepted the transport was trying to get to the people inside the trailer, all the while a firefight raged on all around them.
Kaiser looked back at the people behind him, fear etched across their faces. They had only joined to work with these people out of desperation, they never did it out of obligation, now they were in danger because of it. Kaiser kept himself in front of the workers, he wouldn't let anything get to them.
Settling in a fighting stance in front of the rear door, Kaiser kept stock of the situation, two unknown fighting forces were waging war in the middle of the streets. One of these forces was attempting to breach the trailer, their intentions unknown. Worst of all, he left his weapons back in the motel. Qrow and Kaiser agreed that they should survey the situation before taking action, and bringing their weapons would give them away too easily. He had to make do with only his combat training, sweat dripped down his forehead.
The clanking sound stopped, it had turned into a sharp snap. The lock was broken now, and the people outside could come in at any moment.
The door creaked a little, and in that same instant, Kaiser lashed out with a vicious front kick.
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Really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, as always, reviews and feedback are welcome.