A/N: I had originally intended to release this chapter at the start of February 1st in memory of Monty Oum, but I forgot about the dates and kinda dragged my feet with this, so it might end up uploading a day later - at the most. Monty was an inspiration to me, probably not as much as he is to some others, but he's up there with my muses. I put a lot of my effort into my writing, and hope that this stuff holds a candle to the art the man has made over the years.
May you tear up the celestial dance-floor in the afterlife, Monty.
Clandestine Grey
Fifteen hours later…
Having to pick out fruit from a stall had to be one of the most menial, yet relaxing tasks SK had done all month. The fact was that this was not the first time this month that he had to go through normal, everyday tasks to stay alive. For the past two or so weeks, the rogue had taken the time to get around Mistral and explore the place as a temporary resident after T had left him and the others at the local airport with only the faintest ideas of what their next move was.
"Stay alive, and I'll come find you in a fortnight." T had told them. "We need to be careful about our next move."
Well, it had been roughly two weeks, and since then the hacker had only given them a potential rendezvous point that they were supposed to check in on at a certain time of day to see if T would show up. The fact was that while T did explain and share with them much of his knowledge of Cinder and her operations, he still avoided any straight answers and had yet to tell them what the next course of action would be against the woman.
In SK's opinion, they had been sitting around doing nothing for a week too long. If it were up to him, they would have gone after Cinder as soon as they were rested and had restocked on Dust, but it wasn't up to him, and he didn't know where Cinder was.
Tapping the side of his glasses, he checked the time to make sure he was not running late for the rendezvous set in less than half an hour. Nodding to the fruit vendor that he was ready to make his purchase, SK gave him the balance of Lien before accepting the plastic bag of fresh fruit before heading down the street to the hotel where he always went to wait at this time of day.
To say that the city of Mistral itself was unique to the other Kingdoms would have been a great understatement in SK's mind. He had seen villages spring up and develop in valleys before, but never could the rogue have imagined a Kingdom to cover an entire valley, with buildings, towers and defensive structures lining the mountains that surrounded central Mistral. It didn't hold as much territory as Vacuo did, but from what SK could tell, it had a better time of holding onto it, unlike Vacuo's sandy dunes and waterways, which were constantly contested between the Grimm and the Kingdom itself.
This security gave way to the vast sprawling culture and structure designs that Mistral was famous for, which the rogue couldn't help but admire now that he had a chance to really see it. The people here were also happier than those back in Vacuo, but they were also more careful with what they did, and it was quite clear that they did not blindly trust outsiders.
SK had to stretch the neck-lining of his cowl as he was reminded of one of the downsides of Anima; the weather. Back in Vacuo, the weather was quite consistent; hot and dry all year round. Here, however, the Mistral temperature could drop when a cool breeze blew some clouds their way only to rise back up an hour later, with the atmosphere being perpetually humid no matter what the temperature was.
Still, it didn't stop the rogue from getting a walnut-brown tactical vest that zipped up along the middle and had a thicker fabric weave. It wasn't as comfortable as the plain shirts he wore before and restricted mobility more, but it made up for it in the numerous pockets along it that SK used to store a variety of munitions and tools.
He had his cowl pulled back now in order to look less conspicuous among the people going about their business in Mistral, and to better take in the details around him.
It was only when SK had to stop at the side of an intersection in the road to let a few cars pass by did he realise that something was off. Trying to hide it with a fake yawn, the onyx-haired boy slowly turned his head about in different directions in order to get a good look at his surroundings. At first, it didn't seem like anything was off, until he noticed a man staring straight at him from across the street. The man was wearing several layers of light military-grade body armour, and while SK didn't notice every little detail, he could tell the man was armed.
When the rogue turned his head slightly to get a better look at the man a second time, the man had already disappeared behind a crowd of people walking in the opposite direction to him. Not wanting to completely dismiss his feeling as simple paranoia, SK began walking at a faster pace once the traffic cleared to get to the hotel, taking the opportunity to turn invisible when no one was looking.
Along the way, he felt more eyes following his movements before finally reaching the hotel lobby and pushing in faster and harder than he had meant to while subconsciously dropping his Semblance. No one paid him any attention beyond a passing glance, however, and SK quickly found his breath and regained his composure as he took a seat by one of the waiting tables near the hotel windows.
To his credit, the hotel T picked out was better than the rogue could have hoped for. It wasn't one of the better-looking hotels in Mistral, but it didn't get much business, which worked to their advantage and reduced the chances that someone who would recognise them would walk in. From his experience of coming here every day, there were never more than seven people in the lobby at all times, counting members of staff, and given how out-of-the-way the hotel looked, he could tell that most people that stayed here didn't want to be found. The staff were helpful enough, but kept to themselves and didn't ask too many questions. Most of all, they hardly reacted or paid attention when the three came in under less-than-ideal conditions; such as the time Mason walked in with a knife in his arm or the time that Tanner walked in with a bloodstained undershirt.
It was almost like they were used to this sort of thing happening, which made SK suspect that the hotel may actually be a front for crime in Mistral.
But what did he care, they never asked questions.
Quickly taking stock of everyone in the lobby, SK tried to avoid any and all attention as he pulled out one of the fruits he had bought earlier and ate it to pass the time. He checked the time between bites to count down the seconds to when the others would arrive.
If they arrived at all. While SK was determined to do whatever it takes to follow up on the one advantage he had over Cinder, the other two were beginning to get bored of waiting, and had even discussed splitting away from T to work together without the aid of the hacker.
Fortunately, none of the talk had come to pass – yet.
It was after he had finished his first apricot and halfway through his first banana that someone approached SK, tapping him once on the shoulder before plopping down in the lounge chair opposite to him.
"Mind if I sit here, stranger?" Tanner asked him while tipping his new hat – a white fedora, after putting down one of the two glasses of alcohol in his hands.
"Not at all…stranger." SK replied without making direct eye-contact as he wrapped up the remains of his fruit in the tissue paper the hotel provided at each of the lounge tables.
"Brandy?" Tanner asked while offering one of the two glasses he brought with him.
"I don't drink – it throws off my aim." The rogue answered curtly as Tanner took a swig of his own brandy. "Isn't white a bit too obvious?" he asked while throwing the bundle of trash straight into the trash can three metres away, startling a housekeeping lady that was walking by it.
"Nonsense, it goes with the outfit." Tanner replied while glancing the rogue up and down. "Meanwhile I see you still refuse to change your style beyond a new shirt."
"We can't afford to waste time or money shopping for clothes every other week." SK rebutted with a hard frown. "How many Lien did you burn on…this, anyway." SK asked while gesturing to the new marble-white coat Tanner loosely wore over a black undershirt with his emblem sewn into the fabric. The military coat looked like it could afford a week's stay at one of the classier hotels in Mistral, as evident by the shiny brass buttons that lined its front and the Atlesian impact-proof fabric weave of the coat.
At least, I think they're brass…could they be…no, they couldn't be gold. SK thought to himself. Shit, are they actually gold? I might actually slit his throat if they're gold. The whole ensemble must be custom.
"Hey, it's not for me to judge if you want to go into battle looking like a street urchin." Tanner quipped while leaning back and taking a sip of his brandy. "As for me, if I'm going to have to fight someone, I want to look classy while doing it."
"Yeah? Well you'll stand out like a white knight if we ever have to sneak around in the dark again."
"I take that as a compliment." Tanner replied smugly as he took his hat off and tossed it on the table between them.
Resigning to the understanding that this is how things would be, SK pinched the bridge of his nose while talking. "Where's the marauder?"
"Who, Mason?" Tanner asked rhetorically. "He'll be here, he just said he wanted to go eat some meat or something like that? What's with you today, you seem…well, even more on-edge than usual?"
SK took his time with checking his surroundings before returning his attention on the swordsman sitting across from him. "I think I was being followed." He said in his usual dead-serious tone once he was sure no one would listen in on their talk.
At that, the brunette quirked an eyebrow before taking a quick glance to his right and left. "Followed? What'd you mean followed? How're you so sure?" the barrage of questions came gradually, but quickly enough that SK wasn't able to get a reply in.
"Across the street while I was walking here – a guy in body armour was staring right at me. He had to have been looking at me for at least a solid five seconds." The rogue explained when he was finally able to get in a few words between Tanner's questions.
Tanner fell silent for a few seconds as he processed the rogue's words and serious tone. "Did he look like he was sizing you up?"
"Maybe. When I turned to look at him properly, he was already walking away and didn't seem to be heading in the same direction as me." SK continued.
"Well that doesn't mean shit in my book." Tanner stated firmly. "Anyone could find an alternate route to cut you off down the road. Best case scenario: you threw him off by coming here."
"And worst case?"
The swordsman's tone was dead serious as he picked up the spare glass of brandy and downed half of it in one go. "He already knew where you were going."
SK took a moment to ponder on what the brunette said before replying with a question. "Anything like that happened to you?"
Tanner looked like he was about to reply, but was cut off by Mason's arrival, which he announced with a loud, "Hey, guys!" before walking over. When SK turned to look at the marauder, he was just as shocked as Tanner to see the redhead carrying a severed arm under one of his armpits.
"Mason," the swordsman yelled in a hushed voice. "What the f-"
"Shut up and hold this." The redhead interrupted by tossing the severed limb at Tanner, who fumbled with getting a comfortable grip on it as Mason plopped down in the seat next to him before drawing out a gun that had been partially stuffed in the back of his pants.
"What's that?" SK asked while trying not to look at the detached body part.
"This is the weapon the asshole with that arm tried to kill me with." Mason explained while gesturing towards the arm that Tanner was barely holding on to between two fingers, keeping it as far away from him as he could as Mason placed the gun on the table and began taking it apart. "Thought he had me and led me into an alley so he could ice me quietly, so, naturally, I took his gun."
"Then why am I holding his arm?" Tanner hissed between gritted teeth.
"Oh, because I killed him and his hand wouldn't let go of the gun at first, silly. Isn't that obvious?" Mason asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "This piece of eye-candy here, isn't as obvious."
"What'd you mean?" Asked SK, now more interested in where the redhead was going with this. It isn't often Mason actually looks like he knows something useful – must be important.
"This here is a custom-made foldable machine-pistol, complete with settings for semi, burst and auto-fire, thirty round magazines, airsoft anti-jamming mechanism, adaptive rails and a foldable knife concealed in the fore-grip." Mason explained while dismantling the gun, only finishing once the machine-pistol was a pile of individual parts.
"…Ok," Tanner exclaimed after taking a few seconds to process everything the berserker said. "What does it mean?"
"Well it's a Mistral design but the parts are made from Vale." The redhead continued while holding up the dampener frame of the gun. "See it says so right here, 'Made in Vale'."
"Which means it's a custom make, not distributed by a weapons dealer or normal gun store." SK finished for him. "What does that mean though, he's some kind of merc or hitman?"
"Could be, could not be. We may never know." Mason said with a shrug as he began picking through the individual weapon parts. "Also, I found his Scroll and it had a selfie of me in it along with a bounty reward, so yeah, probably a bounty hunter."
"Well why didn't you-" Tanner was cut off as his Scroll began to ring loud enough for all three of them to hear. "That's weird, I thought I muted this thing." The brunette mused to himself while pulling the Scroll out of his pocket. He gasped when his eyes landed on the screen of the device. "It's T."
That got everyone's attention, and the other two mercenaries moved to crowd behind where Tanner sat to get a better look at his Scroll. "What did he say?" SK asked.
"It's…just some numbers. Wait, this looks like the name of a hotel room, probably in this place too." Tanner thought out loud as he re-read the message. "I think he wants us to meet him there."
"Let's not keep T waiting, then." SK declared, grabbing the handful of items he brought with him before standing up and making his way to the elevator. On his way, the rogue tossed away the remaining fruit he had bought, not wanting to carry around the extra baggage on the chance that something came up and they had to start running.
He was standing by one of the open elevators by the time Tanner and Mason arrived, the brunette somehow managing to dispose of the severed arm he had been carrying before stepping into the elevator before SK. The last to enter, the onyx-haired boy tapped his foot impatiently as he watched the elevator doors close.
Only to be stopped by a hand that forced its way between them.
As the doors began to automatically part again, they revealed a woman about SK's age in a dark-red hoodie with a short katana-like blade slung on her hip, standing on the other side of the door. Her hair was tied back in a bun, and without hesitation the woman stepped into the elevator with the three other occupants.
All eyes fell on her as she kept her gaze fixed to the door as the lift made its ascent, as her off-hand held on to the scabbard of her sword while her free hand looked like it would move to draw the blade any second.
Though there was no reason to suspect anything, SK had a feeling that she knew who they were, and was here because of them. However, she remained completely silent the whole trip up, which felt more like ten minutes instead of ten seconds. At times, SK was tempted to reach for his own blade, and could tell by the untrusting look in Tanner's eyes that he wanted to do the same with his guns.
Mason, on the other hand, was the only one who tried to open up with conversation. "So, you like jazz?"
Admittedly, it was as much as SK expected out of the berserker.
They arrived on their floor only a few seconds later, and as they exited the elevator – SK and Tanner keeping the girl in their line of sight at all times, the girl remained where she was as the doors slid shut again.
"You felt that too, right?" Tanner asked him in a hushed murmur.
"Yeah," SK replied. "You didn't see her push any buttons in there, did you?"
"No I did not." The brunette replied before taking off at a brisk pace down one of the hallways. "C'mon, we better get to T before we run into any more trouble."
Tanner took the lead as they walked down the empty corridors lined with doors on either side at different intervals before the swordsman suddenly stopped at one of them. Pulling out his Scroll, he took a glance at the screen before nodding to himself. "This is it." With the Scroll still in his hand, he waved it over the scanner that acted as the door's locking mechanism before standing back as the light changed from red to green.
More out of concern than fear at the sound of several mechanisms behind the door to the hotel room whirring loudly, Tanner took another involuntary step backwards as he and the others waited for whatever was behind the door to stop working before attempting to open the door. Knowing T, it was likely a trap that would only disarm for whoever T wanted it disarmed for.
Surprisingly, the door to the room slid open to the side by itself as soon as the whirring stopped, giving the three passage into the unlit room in front of them. The blinds in the room had been pulled over the windows, cutting off nearly all light aside from the little slivers that slipped in through the gaps at the edges of the thick curtains, making it hard to make out any shapes in the room.
Tanner's right hand involuntarily fell on Beofield's hilt as he walked in without hesitation. The other two followed, and as soon as Mason was through the door, it shut itself, plunging them into darkness.
"T, you here?" Tanner asked as he tried the light switches with no effect. "I can't see shit."
The sound of something humming to life in the centre of the main room caught their attention, and was soon followed by the lights on a circular object on the floor coming on before glowing brighter and brighter as the device began to project shapes and images in the air around it. Standing in front of it was T, with his hands clasped behind his back as he stared at them intently.
"Couldn't have been a little more vague with the details?" Tanner asked sarcastically as he stepped in the light of the holo-projector. From what Tanner could see, the hotel room – unlike the others here, which the brunette did in fact rent one night just to try out – was completely devoid of furniture or any appliances.
"I couldn't take the risks – we're being monitored." T replied curtly as he grabbed at a holographic screen floating by him.
"I knew it." SK stated as he stayed on the edge of the projector's field in the room, which casted some light on his front. "So I was being followed earlier."
"Chances are that any bounty hunters after us already have a good idea of where we are, so the decoys I set up won't work for very long." T declared while enlarging the encrypted screen of text in front of him.
"Wait, wait, wait! Bounty hunters? Decoys?" Tanner asked in a tone of disbelief. "You gonna start telling us what's happening or not?"
"I thought you had connections to the criminal underworld, Vermillion." The hacker countered as the screen began its decryption process.
"Yeah, but you specifically told us to 'Lay low, or else'." Tanner replied, emphasising each word with finger gestures. Tanner knew better than to reach out to any of his underground contacts if he was trying to lay low, even if he was in Mistral, word travelled fast, and he had enemies in every Kingdom.
Unperturbed by Tanner's reply, T continued as if he hadn't said anything as soon as the screen of light in front of him finally deciphered into readable text. "Roman Torchwick had put up an open bounty on all of us: dead or alive." He explained while enlarging the images of each of their wanted posters for everyone in the room to see.
"Ten million Lien!" Mason exclaimed in shock. "Finally, a bounty worth the ass on me."
"Word about the bounty has spread all over Mistral, and rumour is that Roman is contacting acquaintances all over Remnant to try to get them try and collect the reward." T continued as another screen showing lines of communication all over Remnant appeared. All the lines seemed to converge back to Mistral, but the number of outgoing lines to other Kingdoms was somewhat alarming to the swordsman.
"So now we've got to worry about all sorts of bounty hunters and mercenaries coming after us on top of Cinder, the White Fang, the Mistral police," SK listed off. "-need I go on?"
"Then what's our next move?" Tanner asked, wanting to get straight to the point as his growing paranoia was finally getting to him. "If we get Cinder, then it'll at least take her, the White Fang and the threat of the Kingdom's collapsing out of the picture, right?"
"Possibly, but we can't attack Cinder head-on or try to trap her like we did last time." T replied as the holographic screens around them began to change. "Assuming she somehow has control over small numbers of Grimm, the only chance we'll have of taking her down while reducing the risk of casualties on our side is to force her to make a mistake."
"Ok, how're we gonna do that?" Tanner asked.
"Much of Cinder's plans right now hinge on the support of the White Fang and several other criminal organisations in Mistral." As T explained this, a map of Anima appeared in front of him, with several blue and red crosses on it. "Her operations are close to achieving the amount of Dust and weapons she needs to destroy Haven academy, but if we hit the Fang and the individual crime syndicates and cut off her supplies at the source…"
"We stand a chance at slowing her down – and making her more reckless." Tanner finished as a smirk developed on his face. "Clever. Where do we start?"
"Since the blows we dealt to the White Fang over the past month, they've become more careful and wary. They're constantly moving their strongholds around in an irregular pattern, meaning any intel I have on them is outdated." T continued. "Therefore, it would make sense to go after the criminal organisations, but recently Overwatch picked up an outgoing message from one of the members of the White Fang, claiming he wants to defect." A new window appeared for everyone to see, showing them the mugshot of a deer Faunus with almond-brown hair. "He's going by the codename: Trojan, and claims to know where nearly all the White Fang camps throughout Mistral are going to move next week."
"Sounds too good to be true." SK muttered. "What does he want in return?"
"An 'out' from the Fang and a new ID to slip away." T replied.
"So the usual stuff a traitor asks for." The brunette swordsman commented. "Can we trust him?"
"Unlikely," T replied immediately. "-but he's the only lead we got at a possible coordinated attack on the Fang. We don't even have to be there to take them down – so long as I can confirm the coordinates, I can order a small-payload ballistic missile strike on the sights and wipe them off the face of Remnant."
"Any direct contact with him?"
"Only through secure communication lines. He's given me a time and a place he wants us to extract him from, so we've got a window of two days to pull this off." The map of Anima quickly zoomed in on one of the red crosses on the map, enlarging to show a transparent red circle over a part of the land. "If we miss it, we won't have any leads on where the Fang outposts will shift around next, and by then it'll be too late to stop Cinder's plans to bring down Haven."
"That can't be it, right?" SK asked sceptically. "It's too straightforward."
"Well, maybe we could use a little straightforward for a change." Tanner reasoned.
"I'd like a little straightforward." Mason stated. "Y'know, a little swing-swing, slashy-slash. Some simple M-rated violence; blood and gore, maybe some partial nudity and sexual content if we're lucky?"
"What about Neo?" SK asked, causing the whole room to fall silent apart from the constant hum of the projector. "You didn't give us a straight answer last time, so I expect one now." A few seconds passed with nothing but silence from T as the hacker averted his gaze from the rogue and redirected it at the floor. "Look, we're going to have to go up against them at some point again, and if you're not going to give me a reason to spare Neo, I'm walking out of this – right now. I won't stand for it if I have a clear shot on her, and you throw me off, so talk!"
When T looked up again, he held an unwavering stare at SK, who didn't back down either. Eventually, the hacker let out a resigned sigh. "Neo's my-" the change in colour of the central beam of light coming from the projector from a steady blue to a pulsing red cut the hacker off, however, as a red screen appeared in front of him. Even though he could only read it backwards from where he stood, Tanner could still make out what it said with alarm.
'Proximity Alert! Danger Imminent!'
"T what's going on?" the swordsman asked while reflexively drawing his triple-barrelled pistol.
"We're out of time." He said as the screens spinning around the holo-projector blinked away one-by-one, only to be replaced by a pulse of light that covered the entire room and line all the edges in the empty room. "They're making their move."
"Who?" SK asked while also drawing his falchion. "Cinder?"
"Bounty hunters." T stated calmly while bringing up his Scroll. "Three by the door, one preparing a breach charge set to go off in ten seconds." As T spoke, a flat outline of three figures appeared on the walls and door in the room, created by the projector to mark them out. "Two snipers on the roof of the ramen shop opposite the hotel." Another pair of smaller outlines appeared on the far wall by the covered window. "Five on the street, waiting to intercept us if we make it out. Five seconds."
"Aw, yiss. Finally, some action!" Mason exclaimed while drawing both his weapons and standing in a ready position.
"So then what's our move?" Tanner asked frantically as he processed all this information while drawing his sabre, looking back and forth between the marked targets.
"We need to make it to Overwatch. There are likely to be bounty hunters at the airport – Mistral PD has just been alerted of a bombing. Two seconds." The hacker's blurted jumble of words didn't make sense to the brunette, so he turned to his next best option with the little time he had left.
"SK, what're your sug-" when he turned his head, however, the rogue was nowhere to be seen. Before he could even curse under his breath, the entrance to the hotel room was blown open in a shower of splinters.
Without any clue as to how the others would respond, Tanner went with his gut instinct and fired at will.