Ch40:
(Sun, Y+1, M+5, D+2)
[The Cave, armory container]
"So, the tournament started a few days ago? How'd it go?" I ask; picking up ammunition, knives, grenades, and various other gadgets, and stowing them on my person.I unclip my helmet from my belt and put it on, making sure that the various systems are working. I remove it and reclip it to my belt.
"Yeah, RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, and SSSN all won their matches. We were out up against another under strength team and we made it to the doubles round, but we didn't make it to the finals. " Ivan says. "And your Uncle got into a fight with Weiss' sister."
I laugh out loud for a few seconds. "Did you get a recording of it?" I ask, cycling Blue Death through its various forms before settling on AR.
"Do you want to see it?" He asks, pulling his scroll from a pants pocket.
"Not now, I've still got to hand off some info to Ozpin and Ironwood." I say, pulling back on Blue Death's bolt and chambering a round. "Hang on." I say, placing a hand on each of their shoulders.
*bamf*
"I just don't think that we should hand over tournament security to a band of mercenaries." I hear Ironwood say, stepping from my usual cloud of purple-black smoke. He stops upon seeing me, processing the fact that I'm not dead. I look around to see Ozpin, Goodwitch, Ironwood, Qrow, Winter, and some lady that I don't know.
"Before any of you say anything, I realize that I've been missing for a week but I have intel on who's in charge of the White Fang." I say before anyone can speak a word.
"You have our attention." Ozpin says, taking a sip from his coffee cup.
"Adam Taurus, bull faunus if I'm not mistaken. he and Torchwick recently ran screaming from a White fang complex that is currently broadcasting white noise on all channels at full power. If the Grimm haven't trashed it yet, you may be able to get some intel."
"Go on." Ozpin says.
"He's also probably the person who decided that it would be a wonderful idea to kidnap, interrogate and then kill me." I say sarcastically, a slight echo in my voice as I say the last two words.
"Where were you?" Ozpin asks, an undertone of rage in his words.
"An underground base about one-fifty to two hundred klicks to the south-west of Vale. I thought I already told you."
"How did you get out?" Ironwood asks.
"I got Neo to come over with some of my stuff and, coincidentally, everything in the base died quite violently over the course of about half an hour." I pause for a second. "It wasn't my fault. Tucker did it."
Ozpin raises an eyebrow, Goodwitch's jaw drops, Qrow doesn't look surprised and the other two just stare. "Well then. Maybe you could explain what you meant when you said that they killed you? As far as I know, death is quite… terminal." The unnamed woman asks, a wearing white pants, a purple shirt, a white lab coat-like jacket, and a purple beret sitting on top of her equally purple hair. She's also standing quite close to Winter. I can sense a pair of wolf-ears under the beret.
"And you are?" I ask calmly.
"I'm Dr Violett Grey." She says cheerily. "I'm here on behalf of Alpha Company."
"Wait. You said your last name was Grey?"
"I did."
"You're Slate's little sister!" I exclaim.
"You know my brother?"
"Yeah; big teddy-bear of a guy, runs an Atlesian-style place down in Patch, likes to pull waiter-duty. That sound right?"
"Yep!" She says cheerily. "I guess that means that you're Kurt!"
"Kurt Wagner, at your service." I say with a smirk. "how'd you know?"
"Ah-hem." Ironwood coughs, a bit irritated.
"Oh, yeah, right. So, there are a few key things I've learned. First: Torchwick and Adam Taurus are working together to enact some unknown plan. Second: the SDC is leaking proprietary tech like a damn sieve, Torchwick mentioned having some sort of source in the company. Finally: the White Fang has the resources and manpower to construct and defend multiple underground bases outside of the city. In the past month or so, three separate and rather large White Fang bases have been discovered outside of the city, I find that a bit disconcerting."
"Is that all?" Ironwood asks, sounding irritated. "Now, if you and your teammates would leave, we were in the middle of discussing something."
"Actually, I have a question for Winter." I say, turning to look at her. "Have you ever heard of a compound by the name of CD-003? Torchwick managed to get his hands on some and he mentioned it being some sort of failed experimental drug."
Winter's expression doesn't change. "I know that my father's company was working on a compound by that name and that was shut down in the testing phase. I didn't pay too much attention to the Experimental Pharmaceuticals Division." She says, and I sigh, starting to turn to leave. "But Violett used to work for the SDC, she was working directly on the project before she left."
"Yes, the Dust compound known as Cranial Dust, number zero-zero-three was an attempt to use a newly-created Dust formulation to improve higher brain functions in test subjects. Unfortunately the compound caused the rapid and painful deaths of all test subjects." She says sadly. "I'm guessing Torchwick managed to obtain some."
"Yeah. They used it as a method of executing people. Two days ago, I was stuck in a rather unpleasant cell courtesy of the White Fang. They'd been interrogating me for three days but hadn't gotten anything. They tried to scare me into talking by bringing in a captured Atlesian soldier and injecting him with the compound. It didn't look pleasant. I still refused to talk and they carried through with their threat, I guess they were tired with me. Next thing I know I'm lying on the floor of the cell and I've got psychic mindpowers." I say, levitating Ozpin's coffee cup and Qrow's flask and spinning them around in circles in the middle of the group.
"Oooh! I've never heard of somebody having two semblances! This opens up a whole new field of research!" Dr. Grey exclaims, overjoyed. The others just look confused. Except for Qrow and Ozpin, who are attempting to obtain their respective drinks.
"It's not a semblance." I say, returning the coffee cup and flask to their owners.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because I was using it while still under the effect of Semblance-suppressing drugs. That brings up another point: shouldn't that kind of stuff be, you know, a little harder to get!?" I say, letting my annoyance with the fact that nobody on Remnant seemed to be able to properly secure and guard things that criminals really shouldn't be able to get.
"Calm down Kurt. There's no reason to be angry." Ozpin says.
"I'm sorry sir. It's just that if they hadn't been able to get those Semblance-suppressing drugs, I'D STILL HAVE MY FUCKING TAIL!" I shout, my voice echoing and my eyes flashing dark blue for a few brief seconds.
"Oh." Is all Ozpin says, I can sense near-thermonuclear levels of rage building behind his calm expression. "Thank you for bringing this information to our attention. Maybe you would like to catch up with your sisters, they're doing quite well in the tournament." Ozpin says, taking a sip from his cup. "Thank you as well Dr Grey, your company's proposal will be considered. You and Winter are free to leave." Winter and Dr Grey walk to the elevator and I motion for my teammates to follow me into the same elevator.
We enter and the door slides closed. Grey looks ecstatic at the chance to ask me more questions and Neo possessively cuddles up to me. I just chuckle and lift her up to face level, kissing her. She just smirks and latches onto me. '"Mine."'
'"I love you too Neo."'
I look to Dr Grey, who is currently trying to keep from giggling. "So Dr, I guess you have some questions you'd like to ask."
"A lot actually." she says with a smile, pulling out a scroll pad and opening a note-taking application. "What happened when Torchwick injected you with the compound?"
"I felt power. Pure, unadulterated power. I felt like I could sense everything. I could crush a man's brain within his skull. I could put a round right between someone's eyes while facing in the opposite direction. I could communicate telepathically with Neo while she was still in Vale. I could even tear someone's soul from their body." I explain, Winter and Dr Grey recoil a bit.
"Well then. That's quite… interesting." Dr Grey said, "Now, did you have any idea that you could do any of this before you were injected with the compound?" Dr Grey composes herself and quickly gets back onto the subject at hand.
"Sort of. I could telepathically hear Neo." I say, pointing at my girlfriend. "And I think it improved my aim." I say, shrugging.
"Telepathy?" She asks. I nod. "And you say that it isn't a semblance?"
"I don't think it is."
"Would you mind stopping by my lab on Wednesday so I can run some tests?" Dr Grey asks. "Asking questions is great, but running a small battery of tests would allow me to get a better grasp of what's going on in that head of yours." She says.
"Any needles involved?" I ask.
"I will need to take blood samples, but I can probably borrow an experimental IV-patch from Medical Research to achieve the same results."
"Sounds fun. So, where is your lab?"
"I'll send someone to pick you up from the airship docks at 1605." Dr Grey says cheerfully.
"Alright, we'll be there." I say, gesturing to Neo, Ivan and myself. "Just to let you know, I'm not going unarmed."
"Oh, that's not a problem. My lab is right in the middle of Alpha Company Command's complex, heavily-armed warriors are no issue. You just have to let the security personnel know what you're carrying and everything will be fine." She says cheerily. The elevator dings and the doors slide open, revealing a rather grand room which acted as the central hub for the teachers' wing of the academy. Currently occupying the room were a few teachers and staff members going about their daily business while trying not to pay too much attention to the ten-man squad of Alpha Company soldiers standing guard in full grey combat armor with black undersuits and blue trim. One sergeant, armed with what appeared to be a drum-fed automatic shotgun and what appeared to be a sword hilt, and a blue stripe running down the center of his helmet. Four soldiers armed similarly to Winter's guards from about a week ago. Two soldiers armed with what appeared to be Squad Automatic Weapon versions of the aforementioned assault rifles, sidearms, and folding hatchets. As well as a soldier with a rocket launcher and an SMG and a soldier with a DMR variant assault rifle. In other words, a rather well kitted-out squad. most of whom seemed to be directing attention to me.
"Now, weren't we going to go somewhere after this honey?" I hear Dr Grey say, turning to see her and Winter quite close to each other. 'Oh. I see it now.' I think as the two kiss.
"I think we should leave those two lovebirds alone." I say quietly to Ivan and Neo, motioning away from the pair. We make our way towards our room, talking about the tournament along the way. As we walk through the courtyard, I spot Mercury and Emerald out of the corner of my eye. I note their widened eyes and slowly turn my head to stare at them, my face expressionless.
"So when're the finals?" I ask Ivan, turning back to my teammates.
"They start tomorrow."
"..." I just stare at him, alarm bells ringing in my head. "Ivan, is your armor ready?"
"It's not painted, but-"
"Good. Tomorrow we're going to the tournament in full kit. I have a bad feeling about tomorrow." I say. "So, my Uncle Qrow fought Winter?" I ask my red teammate.
"I've got the video right here." He says pulling out his scroll.