Chapter 8
AN: Some of you might have noticed the edits made to prior chapters. Don't worry, I'm not going to start rewriting this thing. I just needed to make some tweaks to fix an issue readers on another site noticed. They're not enough to have to reread the chapters in question.
Now on with the chapter!
With an almighty heave, the truck was pitched into the air, floating with a deceptive mockery of grace that was out of place for a flying mass of metal and death. The students immediately all dove to the side; Aura or not, getting a truck dropped on you hurt.
The semi slammed into the street with an almighty crash, throwing up a huge cloud of dust that obscured the battlefield.
"Sound off!" Coco called out, coughing.
"Clear!" Pyrrha replied.
"Fine!" Velvet provided.
"Anyone see where Nora went?" Ren asked, concern tinging his voice.
"I think she ducked right with the others..." Sun said as he flipped to his feet.
"M'okay!" Jaune called out as he managed to get himself upright.
"You won't be for long, brat!" a tinny voice bellowed from above.
"MOVE!" Coco roared, prompting the group to scatter. And not a moment too soon.
A burst of machine gun rounds thudded into the pavement where Jaune had been standing not a two seconds prior, the armored form of Wings coming to a hover about a hundred feet off the battlefield. Growling, Coco swung her rotary gun at him.
"Oh, I'm so scared!" the flying exo-wearing menace cooed in a high-pitched, faux-girlish voice. "No, seriously, that thing would hurt if you managed to hit me with it." Though the helmet hid any kind of expression on his face, Coco had a distinct feeling that he was grinning like a loon underneath. "If you hit me. Which, in case you haven't picked up on it yet, I seriously doubt you can."
The fashionista had no time to react before she felt claws tear into her back, muted by her Aura. She staggered forward, catching herself in time to pivot on her foot and aim her gun at the spot she had been attacked from...
Only to see nothing, just a plume of dust only just starting to bloom. Once again, she felt claws tear into her back, and once again as she turned around she saw only a plume of dust.
"Good luck trying to tag Scout here," the flying man stated, smugness dripping from his every word. "He's way too fast for someone as slow as you. And just to be clear, I mean that in every sense of the word. Oh, and by the-! Gugh, wait one sec..." The airborne menace cocked his head to the side. "Yeah, Ace? ... Yeah, I put speakers on my suit, so what? ... To harass and demotivate them of course, why else?! ... Look, I don't care if it's against regulations or your orders, I'm not gonna keep quiet! ... You're damn right I'm being insubordinate! Now you listen to me you-!" And so it went.
Coco would've dearly loved to shoot down the bastard as he babbled into his headset, but this 'Scout' person was not letting her get any kind of shot lined up. Every time she tried, she got slashed, slapped, and kicked around for her troubles. And a glance at the rest of her group, and the vast number of drones swarming them, told her that she wasn't going to get any help soon.
Still, fast as this 'Scout' was, his attacks were eminently predictable. Whether it was due to how fast he was, or something else, all she needed to do was place her gun in just the right place…
There was a loud clang as Scout clotheslined himself on the barrels of her gun. The armored faunus's residual momentum sent him skidding on his ass for a moment before he used his tail to twist himself around into a sliding three-point stance, his claws digging into the ground in order to bleed off his momentum.
It was brief, but it was all the opportunity Coco needed to swing her gun around to target the flying soldier and fire off a quick burst, sending him into a frantic evasion.
And then Scout was on her again, her newfound ability to at least counter some of his strikes balanced by the steady stream of bullets and the occasional micro-missile barrage raining down on her from above.
'I hope the others are having better luck than we are…' she thought to herself as she got her gun in front of another one of Scout's strikes.
~o~
Bruiser grinned under his helmet as he blocked another hammer strike from the orange-haired girl. This was going great! The little grenadier/berserker (he'd seen the way her pupils had dilated for a second) was matching him blow for blow, strength for strength, despite the exhaustion written in her panting breath and quivering arm muscles, and it was exhilarating!
"Incoming ultrasonic," came the voice of Grenadier, and with a twitch of the finger he shut off his suit's audio sensors. Hammer Girl promptly staggered as the sonic grenade went off, and he immediately took advantage of the distraction to punch her square in the torso.
Just because he enjoyed a good fight didn't mean he fought fair. That was a good way to get killed in this business.
"Target Alistair is down. Shifting targets."
That was the blind kid, wasn't it? He was probably even more susceptible to the ultrasonics than normal people. And sure enough, there he was, lying on the ground and clutching his ears.
There was no time to gawk, though, as Hammer Girl picked herself off her the ground and fired a grenade at him. Bruiser reached up to bat it away like the previous ones, only to have it explode against his armor.
'Huh. Must've adjusted the fusing. Clever girl.'
Hammer met fist once again as the orange-haired girl dove onto him. They traded blows like this for a few minutes, before the girl placed her foot down on a loose rock and staggered just long enough for him to drive a full-bore punch in.
The punch hit the hammer, backed by crossed arms, with a clang. Bruiser grinned under his helmet.
'Gotcha!'
With a twist of his wrist and a hiss of pneumatics, the piston built into the outside of his suit's elbow jutted out of it's resting place. He savored the girl's suddenly terrified expression for a moment before twisting his wrist back, causing the rod of metal to slam back into place with three times the speed it had exited, the resulting impact launching the girl flying off her feet.
Bruiser didn't give her any time to recover, dashing forward with speed completely out of place on his bulky frame, and slammed her into the ground with another punch.
"It's been fun, kid," he said, though she couldn't hear it. And then he fired the primed piston again, slamming her into and through the concrete slab underneath.
When he lifted his fist up, she didn't move.
"Target Valkyrie down. Where do you need me, Boss?"
"Swish!"
Bruiser turned towards Sniper's position in time to see him sheath his sword as two halves of a car fell to either side of him.
"You're still on the main channel, man."
"Screw you guys, that was kickass!"
"Cut the chatter. Bruiser, go assist Heavy. Target Daichi is giving the Lieutenant a run for his money in pure aura."
"Oooh..." Bruiser grinned gleefully as he slammed his armored fists together, eyeing the goliath of a teenager as his buster blade clashed against Heavy's minigun. "Sound like my kind of-!"
TUNK!
Bruiser blinked in confusion as he got warnings about something landing on top of him. "What the-?"
A glance upwards awarded him with the sight of Hammer Girl standing on him, both her feet planted on his shoulders as she swung her hammer up with a furious snarl.
"Uh-oh."
SLAM!
"GRK!" Bruiser wheezed as he was knocked ass over teakettle by the hammerblow slamming into his faceplate. It took him a moment to reorient his thoughts before he managed to reactivate his comms. "Ugh... Boss? I made a bit of a mistake... Valkyrie is still going. No idea how, though."
"I know how," Grenadier growled, the sound of close-range combat ringing out over the connection. Bruiser twisted his helmet slightly and managed to catch sight of the squad's leader going head to head with the blind brat she'd said was down, her escrima batons out and clashing with the brat's arm-blades in a flurry of sparks and movement. "Alistair played possum. He must rely more on Aura than his ears and managed to tag Valkyrie with an Aura jolt when you weren't looking."
"Want me to put one between his eyes?" Sniper asked, hefting his rifle and taking aim.
"Aren't you still busy dealing with your brat?" Heavy grunted, shoving Daichi back few feet and letting loose a spray of bullets.
"He's inconse- OHCRAP!" Sniper barely managed to redirect the stab the blue-haired extra made with his halberd before wrenching his sword back out and going toe-to-toe with him. "Sonnuva-THAT LITTLE SHIT ALMOST SCRATCHED MY DAMN ARMOR!"
"I think Sniper just got motivated," Engineer's nasally voice provided flatly.
"I'M GOING TO CHOP THIS PRETTYBOY PUNK'S FUCKING HEAD IN TWO!" Sniper roared, flailing his blade and rifle in a furious rampage.
"Yes! That's it!" Bruiser bellowed as he shoved himself to his feet, pumping his fists in the air. Noticing a pink blur heading at him, he swung his fist outward, detonating the grenade with relatively negligible harm before rushing Hammer Girl, bearing his full weight down on her in a flurry of blows. "Let the anger flow through you! Live for the fight! DIE FOR THE FIGHT! HAHAHA!"
"I told you to can the-! Oh why do I even bother?" Grenadier groaned as she dodged a slash from Alistair and performed a particularly impressive cartwheel back from him. "I've got Target Alistair. Everyone else concentrate on taking down theirs so that we can regroup. Engineer, how goes it with the others?"
"Honestly?"
~o~
"Surprisingly well," Engineer noted as he skittered through the factory's rafters, dodging and weaving around the stream of bullets that was peppering only a general area of the roof, as opposed to concentrating on a single area. "Wings is loud, but he's not compromising anything, and Scout is performing admirably. I'll need to see about integrating some form of reaction-enhancer to his armor, though."
"Much appreciated," the basilisk faunus noted as he zipped around the battlefield, raking his claws down Target Adel's back before ducking under a retaliatory swipe from Target Nikos' lance and dashing to the outskirts of the brawl anew.
"Bah! Entire team is babies!" Wings added both on the radio and through his speakers in a faux-Atlesian accent. "Actually, no, I take that back: babies would be more of a challenge!"
Wings dodged the retaliatory fire with an exaggerated mid-air flip, loosing a swarm of rockets as he went.
"Neener neener nee~ner!" he laughed as the rocket hit the space Target Adel had been occupying moments before, his hands waving childishly at the sides of his head.
"Didn't you just say they were less challenging than babies?" Scout asked as he ducked and dodged effortlessly around a series of kicks from Target Scarlatina.
"Childish insults for child targets! My logic is flawless!"
"So many things wrong about that statement, so little time..." Engineer groaned as he redirected some drones to keep Targets Lie and Wukong suppressed with a twitch of his left pinkie and right middle fingers. However, as he quickly flipped through the camera feeds, he saw something… odd. A swirl of his left ring finger, and the feed was front and center inside his HUD. A flex of his thumbs gave him a quick multi-faceted analysis...
And he did not like what he saw.
~o~
Velvet growled in frustration as her kick hit only empty air. These opponents weren't that strong; they were just incredibly annoying to fight. The only who'd been able to land any hits was Coco, and none of them had slowed down the fast one at all.
Still, he wasn't the problem. Nor was it the wisecracker flying overhead. No, it was those thrice-damned drones. They just… kept floating and crawling just out of reach like a bunch of cockroaches, and the few brought down were quickly replaced. Coco could've gotten some headway, especially in trying to at least take down their obvious controller, but she was getting double-teamed by the flyer and the fast guy, and none of the rest of the team had the sort of ranged attacks necessary. At least, not any with the appropriate amount of firepower behind them.
At this rate, they were going to all be pecked to death. And that would not stand!
"Pyrrha, cover me!" she shouted out. Not waiting for an answer, she hit the button on the handle of her box, the scaffolding quickly folding around her again. This time, though, the transformation finished. Armor plates slid over the metal lattice, most notably the dome-shaped shell on the back. Cables wrapped themselves around long extensions, shaping themselves into long arms. And a small head, packed with sensors and a large void for future additions, unfolded itself from where it was stowed on the back.
The final result greatly resembled a large metal bipedal turtle with no legs, huge fists, and no skin on its head that was hovering mere inches behind her back, metal extensions curving around her sides.
As the drones began to overwhelm Pyrrha, Velvet grinned. It was not a nice grin. "Alright, Cottontail!" she ordered, punching a fist outwards. "Get 'em!"
The massive turtlepack clenched a fist before mimicking her movement at ten times the speed. "Ora!" A drone fell to the ground, suddenly a pile of so much sparking compacted scrap metal. Another moved to replace it and was met with the same fist a second later.
The rest of the drones were swift to follow. Some attempted an assault from the rear, but the construct's shell rendered that avenue moot, forcing a frontal assault. All Velvet had to do was punch more. Drones fell into smoking heaps, unable to get past the super-fast pair of fists. "Oraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraora!"
As the barrage ground to a halt, final drone charged her in a desperate suicide-rush, but met a gruesome fate between the construct's fists as a result. "ORA!"
Velvet smirked and planted a foot on top of one of the downed drones, her chest heaving slightly from the combined fatigue of supporting the construct and punching so fast. "Not so tough now, are ya?"
"Oh, come on!"
Velvet looked up in surprise at the flying armored form, who was hovering in place and putting a hand to his forehead as if he'd just slapped it. "What?" she snapped, defensively.
"Cottontail?! Does that look like a goddamn rabbit to you?"
Velvet glanced at her turtlepack, her brows scrunched in concentration. "Y'know, you're right. It looks more like a turtle."
"Oh, thank Rem-"
"I'll call it Cottontail Carapace!"
The armored form twitched, ever so slightly. "Grrrrrgh…"
Velvet opened her mouth to respond-
"GOTCHA!"
"GAH!"
But was cut-off when a yellow blur landed on Wings' back, causing him to 'stumble' slightly midair.
"Hey, what the heck do you think you're-!?"
Sun cackled as he popped his head over Wings' shoulder. "Guess the movies were right! You strong flyer guys don't look out for things above you, do you? Aaaanyways..." Sun's smirk became vicious as he held up one of his pseudo-flintlock pistols. "Left or right, flyboy?"
Even with his armor, the students could all but see the blood drain from Wings' face. "Nonono, don't you-!"
"Too late!" And with that, Sun shoved guns into the flyer's jetpack and loosed a number of rounds, flipping off as the thrusters roared into an unholy overdrive.
"SONNUVABIIIITCH!" Wings howled as he was sent careening uncontrollably through the factory, ramming against the floor and walls without reprieve. Well, without reprieve until he went careening towards Velvet.
"FUUUUU-!"
"ORA!"
Wings let out a pained whimper from where his suit was imprinted into the ground before slipping into unconsciousness
"Wow," Pyrrha said, whistling appreciatively. "That's a very impressive weapon, Velvet. Though, if I may ask, why does it-"
"I DON'T KNO-O-O-OOOOW!" Pyrrha jerked back in shock when Velvet suddenly wailed, tugging on her ears as tears of embarrassment cascaded down her cheeks. "I've tried to fix it over and over again, but nothing I do wo-o-oooorks! It just keeps making that noooise!"
"Uh, there there?" Jaune said uncertainly, patting Velvet's head as the faunus started crying into his female teammate's chest. "I… sorry about this Velvet, but we are in the middle of a fight right now, so..."
"Right, right," Velvet sniffled, wiping her eyes. "Okay, we can-LOOK OUT!"
"Ora!"
The younger students flinched as Velvet, and thus her construct, suddenly lashed out, nailing the ground right in front of Scout and forcing him to grind to a halt. The halt was momentary, but long enough for Ren to come out of nowhere and hit him with a flying side kick. Pressing his foot Scout's shoulder, Ren flipped off, kicking him in the chin. And as he landed, he capped off the impressive combo by turning around and slamming an Aura-enhanced double palm strike that sent Scout into one of the main support beams, denting it and his armor noticeably. The sparks that leapt from the suit's joints were an appropriate deathknell.
In fact, as Jaune, Velvet, and Pyrrha looked around, the fight seemed to have decisively turned in their favor. Coco was hosing down the remaining drones, and Sun was trying to find the controller of the drones in question. Key word 'trying'. The man had shown himself to ludicrously agile in the confined spaces of the roof, and had swiftly lost Sun in the rafters.
"Sun, fall back! We don't have time to take him down!" Coco called out over the buzz of her gun.
Jaune's eyes widened in realization. "The others!"
"Yeah. If the other four are as good as these guys were, they're in trouble," Coco grimaced as she slowly tapered off her barrage, the last of the swarm smashing to the ground. "The last guy is nothing without his drones. I think it's safe to leave him here."
"Well, what are we standing around for, then?" Ren uncharacteristically snarled, his expression thunderous. "Let's go."
Coco stared at him for a second before chuckling and shaking her head. "Of course, of course. Just let me do the entrance, okay?" she said as she started walking towards the downed semi that divided the battlefield.
The rest of the team followed swiftly in her footsteps, their faces set in grim determination to save their friends.
For a moment, the ex-battlefield was silent, the defeated soldiers lying prone and the dust slowly starting to settle.
However, this moment of peace was swiftly, if silently, interrupted by the final member of the trio clambering back down to earth, his mechanical limbs making nary a sound.
He surveyed the damage morosely for a moment before shaking his head with what could have been a sigh. A moment later, he jerked his arms outwards. In response, the back of his armor opened up and disgorged a new set of limbs, these ones topped by an array of tools.
As the tools sparked themselves to life, the soldier cracked his neck back and forth, taking a moment to prepare himself...
Before going to work.
~o~
Bruiser ducked under the swing of the massive sword, and punched Yatsuhashi in the face. For a second, he stood there, expression frozen, before falling backwards in a boneless heap.
"Finally!" Sniper groused. "That took for-freaking-ever! At least that's the last of the little rugrats."
Indeed, Fox, Nora, and Neptune were lying on the ground, scattered across the battlefield and unconscious.
"Look alive, people," Grenadier cut in. "Engineer just told me that the other six are heading our way, so be prepared for round two."
"Can I cut off their heads?" Sniper asked, landing next to Nora and pulling out his sword. "Because I do not want any of them getting up in the middle of the fight. Bruiser can tell you all about how much that sucks."
"Denied; we don't have the time, and it's likely to get the others more pissed off."
"Don't have the time?!" Sniper snapped incredulously. "It'll take ten seconds, how much time do we have!?"
An electric whine filled the air, and there was the sound of rending metal as the downed semi was torn in two. For a second, everything was still, and then the two halves were shoved off to the side with considerable force. Coco stepped through, flanked by Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, Velvet, and Sun.
"Hello assorted shitstains," Coco said, sunglasses glinting dangerously. "You hurt our friends. We are going to have words."
"Oh." Sniper slowly and carefully edged his sword away from Nora's neck. "Okay, I gotta admit: that was a badass entra- OH SHIT!" Sniper only barely managed to get his sword up in time to block the two gunblades that tried to slice apart his face. It did nothing for the kick that thundered into his side.
~o~
Coco grinned as Ren pounced on the sniper. It wasn't part of the plan, but it did have the advantage of being completely unexpected. The fashionista slowly stepped out from between the two halves of the semi, watching her companions go ahead. Velvet and Sun were making a beeline for the armored woman to the rear, who she was fairly certain was the leader of this merry gang. Pyrrha and Jaune were making for the two big ones, keep them occupied while Velvet and Sun did their work, but she could see that they weren't going to be able to stop both of them in time, the taller, well-armed one breaking for the two faunus.
'Well, that's fine. They've got me here.' And with that thought, she aimed her weapon at the hulking exo-suit, and fired. Not her usual controlled bursts, but full auto. The bullets sparked as they pinged off the armor, and she saw one of the exposed weapons spark and snap. And then Pyrrha engaged him, and she had to check fire.
With no clear targets, Coco scanned over the battlefield. Ren seemed to have his opponent well in hand, and Sun and Velvet were doing a good job herding the leader. And Jaune was fighting the relatively smaller big one, and doing surprisingly well. She winced as a punch crashed into his shield, but the blond somehow stayed standing.
Coco grinned, letting her gun fold back up into its carrying case. Perfect opportunity to… indulge a bit.
The first sign the melee specialist got that he was under attack was when Coco's carrying case smacked him upside the helmet like a compact wrecking ball, staggering him. The brawler recovered quickly, swinging his arm at her in a vicious backhand, only for Coco to place her hand on the arm and swing herself up around the limb for a kick to the head, snapping his head up.
Landing deftly on the shoulder of the armor, Coco brought her bag down on the fighter with all the force she could muster - right as Jaune stabbed Crocea Mors into the armor's right knee joint. The leg immediately buckled, right as the case impacted the helmet with a sound not unlike a large gong, turning a kneeling fall into an outright faceplant, the helmet noticeably dented.
~o~
"Bruiser, status!" Grenadier barked into her comms as she continued to fend off the blond faunus.
"I'm gonna feel these bruises for months..." the fighter in question moaned. "Awesome as that is, I can't move. Systems are damaged as fuck. Aaand there goes the other knee joint. Smart brats."
"Fucking kung fu bullshit, I thought I was done with this when the blind kid went down!" Sniper added as he found his every slash and stab blocked by Target Lie's furious onslaught.
Hastily hopping away from the solid wall of punches Target Scarlatina was sending out - that had been a thoroughly unpleasant surprise - Grenadier considered her options, looking for a valid hail-mary.
Which at this point was hope like hell that Engineer was done and less than a minute away.
"Engineer, ETA?" she said, her tone of voice far calmer than she felt.
Her suit's sensor suite suddenly started blaring out missile warnings - missiles with friendly IFF tags.
"Right now."
~o~
"INCOMING!" Jaune yelped, throwing himself to the side as the air was suddenly filled with a hail of far too familiar missiles.
"Shit!" Coco spat, clamping a hand down on her beret as an equally far too familiar figure buzzed by overhead, flipping around and bringing his forearms up to point at her and her friends. "Everybody duck and cover! Now!"
The students beat a hasty retreat from the onslaught of missiles and bullets and lasers that the flier and the thrice-damned drones accompanying him unleashed, forced to watch as the rest of their armor-clad opponents regrouped, with the largest of their number hauling their melee-specialist along by one of his legs.
"How the heck did theeeeey ohfuckme," Sun trailed off as the drone commander dropped from the ceiling to land amidst his allies, power tools whirring and waiting.
"Stop him! Before he - GRK!" Ren's attempt to charge the soldiers was cut off by a blur of metal zipping by him and clawing him in the side. An attack that, worryingly, left a cut on his shirt.
'Attrition,' Jaune realized, cold dread tugging at his chest. 'We're getting worn down.'
The group could only watch as the enemy speedster devolved into a blur, running around his comrades in a tight circuit and kicking up huge quantities of dust in the process, effectively obscuring them from both sight and interference.
"This is gonna suck, isn't it," Sun stated with weary resignation.
"Considering they're probably repairing their suits in there?" Coco unfolded her gun and checked her ammunition with a distinctly unsatisfied groan. "Yeah, probably."
After a few tense minutes, the blur vanished, and the dust began to settle. They tensed, waiting for their enemy to show themselves.
It was then that a pair of metal canisters landed in the middle of their formation and began spewing smoke.
~o~
"Alright, people, you know the drill. Once the dust clears, initiate Castle Crasher and Crab Grab."
Around her, the rest of her mercenaries - minus Scout - were checking weapons, testing repaired systems so they broke at their base and not now, and bantering with each other, if Sniper's body language was anything to go by.
She smiled. Aggravating, insubordinate, and thoroughly unprofessional they may be, her team was her family. You don't spend over fifteen years working together and not bond. And most importantly, quirks or no quirks, they got the job done. Always.
The smile was swiftly replaced by grim determination as the dust began to settle, Scout blurring to a halt at the front of the formation. A quick flex of her fingers queued up a pair of smoke grenades in her palms. She counted down for a few moments before nodding resolutely and flinging the ordinance at their targets. Grenadier waited once more as she heard the metal clink against the ground before a flex of her palms caused the bombs to erupt in a blast of smoke.
"Have fun, boys," she purred, striding out of the dust cloud and into the smoke as her hands drifted to her side and flicked a pair of escrima sticks out to their full length. A twist of her neck had the combined benefit of both popping her neck and painting everything in infrared.
Grenadier didn't run, didn't rush. She, quite simply, prowled through the smoke, observing her foes' outlines - and how two were pulled away from the group, rushed by her boys.
Leaving the two to their fate, she instead circled around Target Lie, looking him up and down much like she'd inspect a piece of meat. To the target's credit, the swing he lashed out at her showed that he did somehow manage to sense her, but it was for naught as she leaned back from the attack.
Before the martial artist could react, she tossed a metal disc up in front of his face, detonating it in a blast of light and sound. As the kid reeled back, she struck out, one stick slamming into the forehead, curling him over the one she rammed into his lower back and flipping him around in the air.
Grenadier turned and started walking towards the monkey faunus as Target Lie flopped onto the ground, likely unconscious and definitely not likely to do anything for at least a few minutes. The blond's head was practically on a swivel, frantically looking back and forth for her. Probably wasn't used to having his vision obscured, with his natural night vision.
As such, he was completely unprepared when she appeared to his side and slammed a stick into his gut, causing him to double over with a whoosh of breath and giving her the opening to slam the stick upside his chin. She then proceeded to flip her stick in her grip and press the tip to his forehead before pressing the button located on the stick's butt sending the faunus sprawling with a controlled blast.
Turning towards her next target, she was surprised to find both Targets Nikos and Adel stalking towards her.
'How are they- ah. Target Nikos' Semblance. Impressive that they were able to communicate nonverbally, even through all this.' On that note, Grenadier promptly flipped another pair of smoke bombs at the two, detonating them inches from their faces and causing them to reel back coughing as their lungs were filled with the foreign gases.
With the two thoroughly distracted by the burning in their respiratory tracts, Grenadier had the time to precisely place her sticks to their chests and press the buttons. Twin explosions launched the two backwards, Adel sprawling but upright and Nikos flipping into a controlled cartwheel.
An ultrasonic, followed by a sticky explosive were launched downrange. The ex-gladiator's Semblance was entirely too dangerous to leave on the battlefield. The ultrasonic arrived first, not doing much against her Aura defenses, but serving its purpose in obscuring the sticky grenade that landed on her shield. The resulting explosion was quite a bit larger than the ones from Grenadier's sticks; hopefully that would take her out of the fight.
Especially since she could feel the muzzle of a very large gun poking into her back. Slowly, Grenadier raised her arms above her head.
"Give me a reason, bitch," Adel growled from behind her. "Give me one goddamn reason."
"How about the life of your bosom buddy?"
Grenadier smirked as she heard Wings' voice from her external sound. Perhaps the speakers were a good idea after all.
In the linked feed for all her suits, she could see Wings carrying Target Scarlatina a good five hundred feet above the ground, machine gun pressed to her forehead, as well as Bruiser literally sitting on Target Arc, with Heavy standing over him with his minigun pointed at his head.
"She's not my bosom buddy!"
"Ah, I didn't realize it was that serious. Sorry about that. Good catch, though."
"You- I- Grah!"
"Wings," Grenadier stated kindly but with a hint of reproach. "As much fun as it is watching you tease her, could you get her off my back?"
"Right, right," the flyer muttered into his internal comms before switching back to external. "Anyway, back away from the boss lady. Slowly."
Grenadier felt the pressure on her back recede, and she turned around to take in the scene, aiming one of her grenade launchers at Adel. Aside from Adel and Nikos - how tough was that girl?! - all the students were either unconscious or held at the proverbial gunpoint.
Victory. Still sweet after all these years.
"Oh fuck me."
She blinked. Had that been Heavy? What would get him, of all people, swearing like that? Grenadier glanced over her shoulder, and immediately sympathized with the large man.
There, hanging above them, glowing from active Aura, was one of their semis. And it was on fire.
"Engineer, tell me that's not who I think it is," she pleaded.
"Sorry, boss, but that's definitely Glynda Goodwitch and Bartholomew Oobleck coming up the street," Engineer sounding incredibly calm for the situation.
"Dude, you're way too calm for this situation," Sniper stated, barely suppressed panic leaking through the connection.
"Well, excuse me, but I'm currently terrified beyond capacity for rational thought because my drones aren't moving how I want them to."
Grenadier let out a choked sound of panic as she noticed that yes, not only were her comrade's drones pointing at her and her squad, but they were doing so while glowing a distinct shade of purple.
"Permission to void bowels?" Scout asked meekly.
"Waaaay ahead of you," Engineer deadpanned.
Bruiser, on the other hand, seemed to be vibrating with eagerness. "This is gonna be so freaking bada-OW!" he yelped as Heavy freed one of his hands to smack him upside the back of his helmet.
"Dumbass."
"Please tell me you've got a plan," Wings whined plaintively.
"Yeah. It's plan Call-For-Extraction-And-Hope-They-Get-Here-Ten-Minutes-Ago."
"... I like this plan."
"Agreed."
"Aye."
"I can't go back to prison, man!"
"The last time you were in there, it was to kill a target. We had you out in less than a day."
"Still, it's the principle of the matter."
"WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP!?"
"Sorry boss," six voices chorused in unison.
Grenadier blew out an exasperated snort as she slowly worked her hands inside her gauntlets. "Dumbasses... This is Grenadier to Command. Situation is FUBAR, I repeat, situation is FUBAR. Requesting immediate exfil on our location, ASAP."
"Acknowledged, Grenadier. Exfil ready to deploy on your mark."
"To all criminals within the premises!" came the voice of Goodwitch from outside the building. "You have two choices: surrender, or face me and my colleague. Though, in light of how you've been treating our students..."
Despite being unable to see the woman, Grenadier had a sinking suspicion Goodwitch was grinning like a shark that had spotted a bare and bloody behind. This feeling was only reinforced as the semi was torn into a multitude of smaller, but no less deadly potential projectiles.
"I do hope you choose the latter."
The flaming projectiles lurched alarmingly in midair. "Command, we need that exfil yesterday!"
"Roger that. Commencing exfil."
It was at that point that the roof seemed to explode inwards and everything became madness.
~o~
Glynda gaped for only a second as a mortar shell slammed into the old factory and exploded, the structure beginning to creak alarmingly.
"Bartholomew! Get them out, now! I'll cover you!" Glynda shouted as she began to run for the factory.
"Right! Hopefully some are still conscious to help." And then he was just a blur heading into the factory.
Glynda rushed onto the factory floor in time for Jaune, Velvet, and Coco to rush past, Oobleck following a fraction of a second later with Yatsuhashi slung over his shoulder. Pyrrha was standing in the middle of the main factory floor, her stance and expression one of someone holding up a great weight. As for their opponents, they were nowhere to be seen, presumably hiding behind the cloud of smoke and dust the mortar round had raised.
"I'll take over, you'd better get to safety," Glynda said. Her riding crop swished and flicked, and a massive glyph lit over the ceiling. Nikos collapsed onto the ground, panting, but though the ceiling creaked and settled, it did not fall.
"Good job," Glynda said to the girl as she caught her breath. "I recommend you follow Professor Oobleck out of the premises."
To her relief, the girl nodded and began staggering out. Already, Oobleck had moved half the downed students, and the ones still mobile were out entirely.
Bare seconds later, the factory was empty of everyone except Glynda and the hostiles. Hostiles that were almost certainly long gone. Still, Glynda whipped up a gust of wind to clear the air, confirming that yes, they were gone.
Oh well. The students were safe. That was what mattered. Glynda turned on her heel and marched out of the factory, idly dismissing the glyph and letting the factory collapse in on herself as she went. Outside, Oobleck was checking over the unconscious students, while the ones still standing had all slumped to the ground, clearly exhausted.
"Bartholomew, how are they?" she asked as she walked up to them.
"Alive, and in no danger of changing that anytime soon," he replied, adjusting his glasses. "Beyond that, all I can say is that they all need medical attention, though not urgently."
"Good. Then that means I have time to do this." Turning towards the four still conscious, she gave them her very best 'Stern Teacher Glare' and was gratified to see them all flinch. "There will be time for a more thorough lecture when we get back to Beacon, but rest assured that you are all in very serious trouble for today's fiasco. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"
"Maaaybe…" Jaune drawled as he undid one of the straps of his armor, reaching down to pull out a sheaf of papers and a thumbdrive.
Glynda's eyes widened, then narrowed again as police sirens started to wail in the distance. "Of course they pick now of all times to show up," she muttered under her breath. "I'll handle this. You will stay will here and not say anything."
The teacher sighed and shook her head despondently as she headed towards the officers. "And it's barely half past three..."
~o~
About a mile away and two thousand feet up and climbing, the Exo-7 were leaning against the walls of the metal beast that had acted as their savior.
"That... was way too damn close..." Scout groaned, flexing his aching muscles.
"How the hell didn't they notice us getting out?" Sniper asked, rolling his shoulder uncomfortably. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."
Engineer glanced around the transport for a second before shaking his head slowly. "I don't know how they did it, but somehow they've managed to build a Bullhead with low radar observability, drastically cut the heat emissions, muffled the engines to near-silence, and given it a chameleon coating."
"In English?" Heavy looked at him flatly.
Engineer sighed as he thumped his head against the wall. "It's a stealth Bullhead. Advanced beyond most modern military technology, mind-numbingly expensive..."
"And another example of why we are never getting out from under these guys' thumbs without each of us getting a bullet in our brain before we knew what hit us," Bruiser huffed. "Yeah, even I got that part."
Silence reigned for a moment as the mercenaries digested that thought before Heavy finally looked at Grenadier. "Boss?"
Their leader was contemplatively silent for a moment before looking at Engineer. "Did you get it?"
The mechanical expert brought up his displays and rifled through them for a minute before nodding definitively. "The data is secure. I'm transmitting it now."
"Then there's only one thing left to do." Grenadier brought her hand up to her helmet and pressed a very carefully concealed button. "Central Command, this is Exo-7."
Without even a second of delay, a very familiar voice rang throughout the helmets of the whole squad. "Report," it ordered frigidly, frost hanging off of every word.
Grenadier shivered in well-ingrained terror for a moment before rallying her nerves. "Alpha, Beta and Gamma objectives have been met. We..." she swallowed heavily before pressing on. "We were unable to complete Delta objective, but we suspect outside interference. Overall... mission accomplished."
The silence froze the Exo-7, holding them in place, until finally...
"Well done."
~o~
"Well, this was almost a disaster," Weiss grumbled.
Yang paused in watching the burning inferno before them, a mere shell of what had once been a very nice cafe. "Which part? The fact that if we hadn't sent the Exo-7 on this test run those rugrats would've achieved all their objectives? Or…" She leaned in close to Weiss, grinning ear to ear. "Maybe the fact that the older sister you specifically said was no threat is active and sniffing about?"
"Hmph," Weiss sniffed, holding her nose up and pointedly not looking at the blonde. "I don't want to hear that from the person whose uncle is being even more of a nuisance. We've lost twenty operatives from his actions in the past week alone."
Yang hesitated for a bare moment before smirking cockily."Yeah, whatever. That's Ruby's problem," she said dismissively, albeit just a bit too quickly. "I mean, you and I aren't exactly in a position to pursue one of the most famous hunters alive."
"Point," Weiss conceded as she went back to the tablet she had been scrolling through. "At least we got one good thing out of this. The Mark I exosuits worked exactly as advertised. Those students would have been defeated if Goodwitch hadn't shown up."
"Pff, students. Call me when they can beat graduates," Yang scoffed.
"Let me remind you," Weiss snapped testily. "That not only were the Exo-7 outnumbered, those students are all in the upper percentiles in skill and power. We're talking us at that age. For prototypes, I'd call their performance today a resounding success."
Yang opened her mouth to retort, but was interrupted when two figures strode out of the wreckage, somehow untouched by the roaring flames. One was dark-haired and wearing a black, sleeveless skintight suit made of an unidentifiable material, with long gloves and a domino mask. The other, shorter one had brown and pink hair with a white strip hanging over her forehead, an umbrella twirling in her hands.
"Great, you guys are done!" Yang exclaimed excitedly with a clap of her hands. "So, what'd you get?"
Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes in a long-suffering manner. "Like being with me is some great burden. But yes, we are quite interested in what you found."
The two glanced at each other before Cinder spoke up. "I'm afraid that there wasn't much to find. Which is good... and bad. Good, in that she can't have very much information. Bad, in that we're not sure what she does have."
Weiss heaved a tired sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damn it..."
"There is, however," Cinder hastily cut in. "A bright side. I believe we can safely assume it's just a grudge against you, Miss Schnee, and not an operation against our larger objectives."
Weiss and Yang shared a puzzled glance. "Wait, how do you know that?" the CEO asked.
Wordlessly, Neo pulled out a small, only slightly scorched photograph of Weiss, clearly dating back to her Beacon days. Scrawled sloppily on it in red marker were small devil horns, a mustache, and the words "Weiss sucks!" and "Gonna get her!" on the margins.
"Well, that's a pretty good answer…" Yang mused.
Weiss was decidedly less impressed. "That's hardly definitive proof."
Neo responded by flicking her hand and producing well over a dozen more photos of the same nature.
That caught the heiress off guard. "Uh...?"
"This is only a taste of what was in there." Cinder drawled. "There was an entire shrine set up in there, dedicated solely to lambasting you. The employees told me that your sister attended to it with a religious fervor before they... expired."
"Wow," Yang breathed, clearly both awed and disturbed at the same time. "That is astoundingly petty, even by my standards. But... impressive, in its own way."
"Nice to see that my sister has not matured at all since I last saw her," Weiss sighed, burying her face in her hand.
"Wait, you're not surprised by this?" Yang said incredulously.
"I'll go into more detail at the next meeting. Suffice to say, no, I'm not," Weiss ground out.
Yang shuddered dramatically. "Okay, so glad I'm not that bad."
"Oh, I don't know..." Weiss mused as she turned and started to walk down the street, away from the sirens that had started to wail and ring out. "I can see quite a few similarities in the two of you."
"Oh, come on!" Yang sputtered as she ran to catch up to Weiss. "I know you two don't like my puns - philistines - and I know Ruby doesn't like my occasional smothering, and I keep forgetting not to eat her cookies and okay yeah I can see your point." She sagged forwards with a defeated sigh.
"I'm teasing," Weiss assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're a good sister, don't ever doubt that."
"Even if I left her alone with Qrow for five years?" the blonde muttered.
"Ruby has forgiven and forgotten. I think it's high time you did so, too."
Yang sighed again, before letting out a mirthless chuckle. "It's not easy. I'm sure you know." Before Weiss could respond, Yang stood upright again, her trademark cocky grin on her face. "So! What are we gonna do about those students? I mean, at this point they're clearly on to something."
"Once is happenstance, I know, I know..." The heiress shook her head with a sigh. "It's being dealt with. Blake messaged me earlier today," Weiss replied as they reached her car, she and Yang climbing into the passenger seat while Cinder got behind the wheel and Neo went... somewhere. "She says she has a plan that will, and I quote, 'either get them on our side or scare them away forever.' She also said it'll get you an opening to get into Beacon, so be ready to answer the moment opportunity knocks."
Yang's eyes narrowed as she buckled her seatbelt. "I… kinda don't like the sound of that. It sounds like something that could get out of hand very quickly." Yang held up a hand to forestall the inevitable retort. "I know, I know, glass houses and stones and all that, but we know Blake can occasionally go overboard for the cause."
"We can only hope Ruby can keep her in check," Weiss answered, looking as if she'd bitten into a raw lemon.
Yang quirked an eyebrow at that. "Have you met my sister? Even odds Blake will either bribe her or get her to join in."
"A forlorn hope, I know," Weiss conceded. She heaved a weary sigh. "I suppose we must simply wait out the inevitable storm and hope it isn't the cause of too many headaches."
"Guh." Yang snorted, leaning her cheek against her fist as she glared out the window. "Waiting. I hate waiting. Tell you what, why don't we take the night off, get some ice cream, and watch a cheesy romcom in our pajamas? Try and get our minds off this."
"Why, Yang Xiao Long, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were asking me on a date," Weiss said, her imperiously skeptical tone at odds with the smile on her face.
"So, is that a no, or-"
"That is a yes, Yang. Some downtime will do us both good."
At that moment, the car's engine rumbled to life. The vehicle slid smoothly down the street, taking two of the most influential people on the continent with it.
~o~
"What do you mean he won't be able to see us until tomorrow?!" Velvet screeched.
After squaring things up with the VPD, Goodwitch and Oobleck had shepherded the students onto a Bullhead and returned them back to Beacon, sending the majority of them off to seek medical treatment with a stern reprimand. Velvet and Coco had stayed behind to speak with Goodwitch and fill her in on the situation, requesting a meeting with Professor Ozpin in the process. Unfortunately...
"Headmaster Ozpin is a busy man who can't drop everything just because a student says so," Glynda admonished the rabbit faunus, adjusting her glasses to emphasize the point. "Besides, Ozpin would much prefer you were all rested before seeing him. As it is, you all look dead on your feet."
"'M not dead on my feet," Velvet mumbled rebelliously, though the fact she was swaying in place made her protest ring hollow.
"Velvet, sweetie," Coco cut in with surprising gentleness as she grabbed Velvet by the shoulder. "I know you're impatient, but I don't wanna stay on my feet any longer than I have to. Besides, it's not like that intel's gonna get up and walk away."
Velvet took a moment to think it over. "Fine," she finally mumbled, yawning. "So, do we head back to our dorms, or…?"
"You are both going to get yourselves looked at in the infirmary first," Glynda corrected. "But yes, once that's done you may go back to your dorms."
"Cool…" Velvet muttered, before she started slowly and unsteadily walking down the hallway.
Only for Coco to grab both her shoulders and turn her around. "No no, this way, Velvet," Coco said as she led Velvet down the hall.
As the two turned down a corner and out of sight, Goodwitch let a smile creep onto her face. Honestly, those two were so adorable together. Schooling her features, she turned and started heading back to Ozpin's office. Work wouldn't wait just because some students go into trouble.
~o~
Though Fox and Yatsuhashi were ordered to stay in the infirmary overnight, just in case, Velvet and Coco had been quickly released. The two had taken the opportunity to head back to their dorm room and pass out on their beds, not even bothering to change into their nightclothes.
Thus, Velvet had been asleep for some time when her sensitive ears picked up rustling cloth.
'Coco… why you gotta go to the bathroom in the middle of the night…' she grumbled to herself. To her relief, the rustling stopped, only to be replaced by a soft *thump* and a sudden pressure around her legs.
'I swear to Remnant, Coco, if you're watching me sleep again-!' Velvet didn't get to finish that sentence as she opened her eyes to the sight of a pair of very familiar golden orbs in the center of a feline mask. She opened her mouth to scream-
"Scream, and I'll open your partner's throat."
And hastily closed it with a click.
"Good." Blake leaned back so that her face was a foot away rather than two inches. "It's been awhile, Velvet. I've actually missed you a bit, you know."
Velvet ground her teeth together as she glared at her old idol. "I've missed you too, Blake," she spat venomously. "How about you get off me and let me get my weapon. We can have a surprise sparring session. It'll be like the good old days."
"Tempting..." Blake hummed, tapping the chin of her mask slightly as she slid off of Velvet's bed. "But I'm afraid I'll have to pass. I'm here on business, you see."
"What, no time to spare on account of all the innocent people you have to torture?!" Velvet demanded as loudly as she dared, glancing furtively at Coco's snoring form all the while.
Blake waved her hand with a snort. "You know as well as I do that none of the people me or mine deal with are 'innocent', Velvet."
"They're not guilty enough to deserve what you do to them," Velvet countered.
"I suppose that's where our opinions differ. But..." She received a shrug as a response. "No, that's not my goal right this moment. No, my goal right now… is you."
Velvet blinked in confusion for a second before tensing indignantly. "You... you can't be serious."
"Come on, Velvet..." Blake crooned, gliding to the rabbit's side and ghosting a hand down her arm. "Think about it... you know how evil humans can be... you know how we're persecuted. Your skills are decent, but we can make you better. We can give you a cause. Come, and it'll be like old times... just you and me..." She leaned in close, whispering in Velvet's ear. "Against the world..."
Velvet shuddered heavily at the words. The worst part was... for a moment, for a sole, single, shining moment... she wanted to say yes. She wanted to say yes so bad that it hurt. But in the end...
Velvet snarled as she shoved Blake back. "I already have a cause," she spat caustically. "Putting you and every last monster who follows you behind bars, where you'll never hurt anyone ever again. You can take your offer and spin it to someone who cares. I will never follow you so long as I live."
Blake stared at her for a second before shaking her head with a sigh. "Disappointing..." she murmured. "Not unexpected, but disappointing. Well, I'll let you go back to your…" She glanced at Coco's sleeping form. "Idyllic school life. I just want you to think about how easily I got in here."
The cat faunus' form suddenly began to dissolve into smoke, her voice echoing from every corner of the room.
"About how this could have been so much worse."
By the time the last word had faded away, there was no trace that Blake had been there. Even the carpet was undisturbed. Velvet shuddered, and flopped back onto her pillow, trying desperately to not think about Blake's words.
Despite the effort, Blake's parting words swirled through her mind, repeating and looping like a broken record. When Velvet finally did get back to sleep, it was fitful and not terribly resting. Still, it was rest.
~o~
That fitful rest that was shattered a few hours later by the door slamming open and Velvet getting dragged out of bed by a familiar, desperate person.
"Coco?" Velvet murmured sleepily. "Where's the fire?"
"No time for jokes," Coco panted, dragging Velvet out of their room and down the hall. "You need to see this."
The serious tone of Coco's voice rapidly dispelled any lingering drowsiness, and Velvet started moving in order to keep up with her partner. "I need to see what?" she asked, more than a little annoyed. "Coco, seriously, what's going on?"
"It'll be easier to show you," Coco grimly answered. Velvet grumbled briefly, but shut up as her ears picked up the mass of panicked people ahead of them.
"Coco? W-what's going on? What's happened?"
Coco didn't answer in favor of turning the last corner and then pointing at the far wall. "That. That happened."
Velvet looked... and promptly had to fight to keep from retching up stomach acid.
There, pinned to the wall by metal spikes through his hands and feet, was Cardin Winchester. His blood liberally decorated the wall, the floor, some of it even going so far as to paint the ceiling. Any lingering doubt as to the identity of the perpetrator was dispelled by what the morbid tableau depicted: a massive snarling White Fang symbol that covered everything, the clawmarks going so far as to pass over Cardin himself. Thankfully, paramedics were in the process of pulling him down, but it was still an excruciatingly brutal sight.
Turning her ears towards the far wall, Velvet strained to pick up some of what the paramedics were saying.
"...amn this kid's lucky."
"Are you ...ing me?!"
"Yeah, whoever … was incredibly precise … probably not going to be crippled for life."
"Whatever … prefer not to be crucified…"
"Oh, no doubt…"
"Still... your point. It could have been worse."
"Way worse."
Velvet's knees nearly gave in at that, her body going limp with horror. Somehow, instinctively, she knew exactly who the message was directed at: her. Blake's words from the night before rushed to the front of her mind.
"I just want you to think about how easily I got in here. About how this could have been so much worse."
"Velvet?" Coco shook her partner in concern. "Hey, what's wrong? I know it's bad, but-!"
"Belladonna..."
Coco tensed at the words that slipped out of her partner's mouth. "Wha-?"
"It was Belladonna..." Velvet whispered in a dead tone of voice. "She... she came to me last night... she said... she told me it could have been so much worse..."
Coco paled as she processed the implications. "Velvet... shit, I'm so sorry... Look, Velvet, none of this is your-!"
"You think I don't know that!?" Velvet snapped furiously, swinging her head around to glare furiously at her leader, an unholy rage blazing in her eyes.
Coco reeled back in shock. "Velvet-!"
"That bitch snuck into my room while his blood was still wet!" Velvet snarled, her hands seemingly clenching around something only she could see. "She used him to intimidate me! She wanted this to fucking break me! She wanted me to feel guilty! Like it was my fault! But it's hers, it's all hers! I swear... I swear to god, I'm going to kill her! I'm going to kill each and every last one of those bigoted bastards if it's the last thing I do!"
"Velvet!" Coco snapped, grabbing her partner's shoulders and forcing her to face her.
"What, Coco!?" Velvet demanded, snarling in her leader's face. "Are you going to tell me to drop it!? T-t-to turn the other cheek!? Because you can fucking forget-"
Velvet's rant died in her throat as Coco swept her up into a tight hug.
"Of course not, Velvet," Coco whispered into her ear, glaring over her shoulder. "I'd never even dream of it. No... I wanted to correct you. You won't kill them, we will. We'll tear them apart, we'll burn them all to the ground. And it will be a 'we', because no matter what happens, even if something happens to Yatsu or Fox or anyone else, I will always be by your side until the very end and I never want you to forget, or even doubt it for a second."
"Ah... I-I..." Velvet stammered in shock.
"And furthermore..." Coco drew back, her hands still firmly planted on Velvet's shoulders as she looked the faunus dead in the eye. "I guarantee you that this will not be the last thing that you do, because so long as I'm at your side, I will not let you die. Understand?"
Velvet's mouth opened and closed uselessly for a few seconds before she finally clenched it shut and nodded firmly, fighting desperately to keep her tears from streaming down her face.
"Good. Now come on, we need to find the boys and Team JNPR." Coco grabbed her wrist and started dragging her away from the scene. "It's high time we had a talk with Ozpin."
~o~
"Hmm."
Jaune fought the urge to fidget as Ozpin flipped through the dossier they'd handed him. Bad enough that Glynda and Oobleck were also there, but the General Ironwood of Atlas was also watching via teleconference. That had been unexpected. And frightening.
"Well," Ozpin said as finished going through the document. "I think I speak for everyone here when I say that this information will be tremendously useful in ongoing investigations against the White Fang."
"Indeed," Ironwood agreed. "I have already contacted the council to obtain warrants for those on this list we hadn't known about. I expect I shall have them by the end of the day, and we can hopefully catch them off guard."
"As for the rest," Ozpin continued. "We shall send it to be analyzed by the Vale Police Department at the soonest possible convenience. I believe they're holding one or two individuals in custody without realizing just how important or dangerous they really are."
"That's it." Velvet stated flatly in disbelief, ignoring the warning look Coco shot her way. "A couple of crooks convicted that had already been captured, and maybe a few arrests. That's all that information fucking gets."
"That is all we can do without stepping well beyond the bounds of the law, Miss Scarlatina," Ozpin replied, his tone gentle but admonishing. "To go beyond the law just to catch them would make us no better, I'm afraid."
"What, you don't have any ongoing investigations this might help?" Velvet pressed, her voice rising slightly with a tinge of desperation.
"Had we gotten this information one week ago, then I would have said yes. Unfortunately-"
"Ozpin!" Ironwood cut in. "That is classified information!"
"Classified on a need to know basis," Ozpin sharply reminded him. "And these students are in deep enough that I believe they do need to know." Turning back to the students, he let himself frown a little. "All of our investigations on White Fang activities have gone cold for the simple fact that there have been no White Fang activities to investigate. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, they are completely off the grid."
The students said nothing, merely gaping, wide-eyed in disbelief.
"Yes, I had a similar, if less operatic, reaction," Ozpin chuckled. "In any case, you've done a good job. One of the first 'good jobs' we've had on the matter in quite some time, I might say. As such, I hereby give you my official permission: do not hesitate to follow any other leads you might have in the future. In the meantime, though, I believe Professor Port's class starts in… ten minutes?"
The students' eyes widened even further, and they all immediately scrambled for the elevator. Ozpin waited for a few minutes after they entered before turning back to Ironwood.
"And now on to more pressing matters," he stated solemnly.
"Indeed!" Doctor Oobleck nodded firmly, zipping up to stand alongside his employer. "I only had a moment to glimpse the fellows who assaulted our students, just a single one, but it was more than enough to analyze their capabilities: a demolitions expert; a close-quarters combat, or CQC, specialist; a heavy-weapons user; a pilot; a technological specialist; a high-velocity combatant; and an LDS, or 'Long Distance Shooter', or simply 'sniper' for short. Seven experienced combatants, mercenaries no doubt, each highly skilled in their own fields. I am afraid that in light of this information, the conclusion that can be drawn is grim indeed, pardon the pun, one we've dreaded for a long, long, long time."
Oobleck cut himself off as he took a deep sip from his thermos before staring darkly into his drink.
"I'm afraid that the Ever After have returned."
Ozpin instantly tensed, and Ironwood spat out a short curse. Glynda merely looked confused. "I'm… afraid I'm not familiar with that name."
"Not surprising, given that they were rather before your time," Oobleck replied with a sigh. "I myself was but a mere rookie at the time, much like our students. I believe they left the mercenary scene... what, ten years ago?"
"Ten years, three months, twelve days," Ironwood ground out furiously. "If you give me a moment, I can find the exact time we thought we finally killed those bastards too."
"So the Ever After are... an old band of mercenaries you thought were dead?" Glynda asked.
"You make two errors in your assumption..." Ozpin informed her in his usual stoic calm. "First, the majority of the original Ever After were killed ten years ago when they were cornered by a team of Huntsmen during a job explicitly intended to put them in that situation. Second, they were not merely a band of mercenaries. The best way to describe them would be the band of mercenaries."
"I'd call them assassins, myself," Ironwood countered with barely concealed disdain. "If you wanted someone dead, and you had the money to pay them, you went to Ever After. Criminals, politicians, hell, even philanthropists; didn't matter who you were, they'd work for anyone. It didn't matter if the target offered more, they completed every job to the best of their ability. And the target didn't matter, because they could guarantee the death of almost anyone in Remnant."
"Almost?" Glynda echoed.
"They could not guarantee kills against Huntsmen and Huntresses," Ozpin answered, taking a sip of coffee. "After all, from what we've been able to gather, they were not Aura users themselves. Or, at the least, their Auras and Semblances were quite weak indeed. They completed their jobs with skill, experience, and very careful planning, not soul power. Pit them against a trained Huntsman, and they'd retreat unless they felt they had a definitive advantage."
"Which is precisely how we finally managed to end them." Ironwood punctuated his point by slamming his fist on his desk. "We lured them into an ambush and attacked them with the best Huntsman teams we could find. When the dust settled, five were dead and two were unconfirmed but missing several limbs and almost a quarter of their blood apiece. We thought that was the end of it..." Ironwood blew out an exasperated breath as he massaged his throbbing temples. "And now they're back, and better than ever."
"Surely they can't be that much better..." Glynda frowned. "They'd only just managed to put our students on the ropes by the time Oobleck and I managed to intervene."
"Compared to their strength a decade ago, the fact that they managed to overwhelm a superior number of Huntsmen and Huntresses at any level of strength is an astronomical improvement." Oobleck informed her darkly.
Glynda frowned at the information, but decided instead to move on. "Very well then... answer me this: if they're still alive, what have they been doing these past ten years?"
"I suspect," Ironwood stated, slowly. "And Ozpin agrees with me, is that they were in hiding for some time, most likely training the replacements you saw, and were then hired long-term by somebody, somebody who no doubt helped them rebuild themselves. And considering the prices they charged, the list of people or organizations who could afford to keep them long-term is frightfully short."
"Add in the exo-suits they were wearing, and that list would be much shorter, I take it?" Oobleck ventured.
"Try 'non-existent'," Ironwood ground out. "Because whoever supplied them not only has access to military R&D, but they also developed them right under my nose. Until today, I didn't think people with those kind of resources existed."
"Oh, I believe they've always existed Ironwood..." Ozpin mused as he swirled his cup. "You just haven't ever considered them to be an option."
"Not this again, Ozpin..." Ironwood started wearily.
"You weren't here for this part, Ironwood, but Mr. Arc informed me of just whom provided he and his teammate with the dossier I just shared with you. Would you care to guess this individual's identity?"
Ironwood shrugged indifferently. "Most likely some disgruntled and disillusioned White Fang officer, why?"
Ozpin shot a frigid look up at his old friend. "Try Weiss Schnee herself."
"What!?" Ironwood jerked upright in his seat in shock. "But-! This kind of information would require running covert intelligence operations for years or-!"
"Or perhaps... she had an insider's perspective."
Ironwood fumbled his words for a second before rallying. "Ozpin, I've said it before and I'll say it again: what you're proposing is insane. The White Fang have been enemies of the SDC since their conception. They wouldn't work with them if they were the last people on Remnant, and vice-versa."
Ozpin shrugged dismissively. "Very well then. Lets at least examine this from another angle. You claim that developing those exo-suits the Ever After were wearing would require a vast amount of resources, yes?"
"Considering how we're years away from so much as a prototype, I'd say that 'vast' doesn't even come close to touching it..."
"And remind me, which company is coming close to taking the Atlesian Military's spot on the Fortune 10?"
"The Schnee Dust Company, I am aware," Ironwood ground out. "Need I remind you that any of the other companies on that list would be capable of pulling this off? And even the Atlesian Military would be capable of keeping a development like this a secret from the rest of the world."
"Unless of course the SDC were playing their hand close to their chest and you weren't aware of it..." Ozpin posited as he took a sip from his cup.
"Now listen here, Ozpin-!"
"Oh my would you look at this so sorry to interrupt but it would appear the Council of Vale is calling!" Glynda interjected hastily.
"Smooth," Oobleck hummed into his thermos.
"Shut up before I throw you out a window," Glynda hissed out of the corner of her mouth.
"I see," Ozpin said evenly. "I suppose we shall have to resume this conversation at a later date, General."
"Actually..."
Everyone in the room, Ironwood included, snapped to attention at the authoritative voice that came out of the room's speakers.
"We would prefer it if the good general stayed for this conversation. After all, it concerns him as well," the Councilor continued. "Professor Goodwitch, Doctor Oobleck, if you would please step outside?"
The two professors glanced at each other before nodding and stepping out into the lobby. As the door closed behind them, the Council turned their attention back to Ozpin and Ironwood.
"What in the name of Remnant was that?!" the first Councilor spat. "A running battle through the city, the destruction of a Schnee factory, and not only do you not stop it before it can get anywhere, you don't even capture the perpetrators?!"
"The perpetrators were the Ever After, Councilor," Ozpin pointed out, even as he hid a wince as he realized the implications of his words a second too late. "You know how good they are at evading capture and achieving their goals."
"Ever After?!" one of the other Councilors screeched. "Ironwood, you promised, no, guaranteed they were all dead!"
"I find it far more likely that they were simply misidentified. It would fit with the Atlesian Military's performance as of late," sniffed the third.
Ironwood took a moment to shoot a glare at Ozpin before addressing the Councilors. "Honorable Councilmen, I assure you, we confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the five Ever After we managed to terminate were members of the team. As for the two who escaped, we assumed their injuries were grave enough that their deaths would be a foregone conclusion."
"Obviously, your assumptions were wrong," the first Councillor growled furiously.
"In any case, it matters not to whom the blame is apportioned, merely that there is blame to apportion, period," the second Councilor declared gravely. "That Ever After still exists is a serious mark against you, General Ironwood, while last night's… incident reflects poorly on your handle on the security of your Academy, Headmaster Ozpin." He sighed heavily. "Do you know how many calls I've taken from the SDC about that factory? They don't like people destroying their property, abandoned or no."
"As such," the third Councilor nodded firmly. "In light of recent events, we shall be supplementing the existing security for the Festival by use of a third party. And not the one we'd originally been planning on employing." This last bit was said with a firm glare at Ironwood.
Ozpin felt a chill run down his spine that had nothing to do with the altitude of his office. "You don't mean-"
There was a tremendous bang as the doors to his office were flung open hard enough to crack the walls on either side. In strode Yang Xiao Long, her long blonde hair flowing behind her and a grin on her face that could only be described as "shit-eating".
"Hey, Ozzie, guess what!" she declared as she strode into the room, looking for all the world like some kind of conquering emperor. "I guess I do have business on campus!" Pulling out a sheaf of papers, she slowly flipped through them. "Very official business, too. Here, take a look!"
She slapped a very official-looking piece of paper on Ozpin's desk with a blood-thirsty grin.
"Federal fucking contract." Her grin stretched from ear to ear. "Eat it, old man."
Ozpin barely refrained from grinding his teeth as he glanced at the images of the Council. "Councillors, with all due respect, if I might-"
"You may not."
"Our decision is final. General Xiao Long, we'll leave you two to get acquainted. We imagine you have a lot of catching up to do."
"With pleasure," Yang grinned eagerly.
Ozpin couldn't help but equate the pings of the Councillors leaving to the sound of a death knell.
"Well, now that I'm here, I think I'm going to be making some changes," Yang mused. Her eyes fell on the White Fang dossier, still on Ozpin's desk. "For starters, I'll be taking that."
"On what grounds, exactly?" Ozpin asked, his tone colder than most glaciers.
"Oh, you know, nothing complicated, just evidence for an ongoing Council investigation," Yang said matter-of-factly tucked the document into her jacket, grinning at Ozpin's confused expression. "You didn't know? They have me handling that, too. It's all in the contract."
Ozpin dubiously eyed the 58-page document.
"Yeah, I know, but they insisted on all sorts of things," Yang said in answer to the unspoken question. "Anyway, changes. For starters, we're going to need to make this office more secure. I'm thinking we board up the windows a bit, and put in a ceiling. Don't want those big gears to fall on you, y'know?"
Ozpin's eye twitched ever so slightly.
"Also, you're going to be providing the food and housing for my soldiers," Yang continued. "All in the contract. Don't worry, I'm only bringing a few hundred."
Ozpin's other eye twitched just a wee bit more.
"Oh, and we're going to be enforcing a no-fly zone around the school so we don't have repeat of last night's incident," Yang added.
"And how, pray tell, are we supposed to bring in supplies, and let students visit Vale?" Ozpin asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Eh, talk to my Air guy. He'll be managing the flight patterns," Yang said airily. "Now, was there anything else? Oh, right!"
Turning around, she leaned into Ozpin's face, her grin replaced by a furious scowl. "Just a reminder that you're not some big shot. You don't have an army, you don't have connections, you don't have jack. You're just the headmaster of some rinky-dink no-name school, and if you care about yourself or any of your students, then you'll get smart and learn to stay the fuck out of games you can't possibly begin to play."
Ozpin stared at her flatly for a second before taking another sip of his coffee. "Oh, don't worry, Miss Xiao Long, I haven't even begun to play." He turned his head up, gaze boring into Yang's eyes. "Though I do wonder. If we're so insignificant… then why are you so afraid of us?"
For a moment, Yang didn't say anything, and then she stood back up, grin back on her face. "Believe whatever helps you sleep at night, Ozzie," she smirked. "In any case, I hope you don't get it in your head to try and stop this. It's happening, whether you like it or not."
"I beg to differ," Ozpin said. "You see, as Headmaster, I still have certain rights that even this contract hasn't taken away from me."
Yang started as she realized that the contract had… shifted. As if it had been read. "How'd you-"
"For instance," he serenely continued. "Anyone who threatens the Headmaster as you just did is to be… defenestrated from the office. An old rule, seldom-used, but one that I find quite appropriate to this situation."
"What the hell does 'defenestrate' even mea-" Yang froze mid-sentence as the glowing grip of an all-too-familiar aura wrapped her up in a full-body bind.
"It means 'To throw out of a window'. A very handy word that you might have learned had you completed your education."
"Oh you fuc-!"
CRASH!
A few students heard the window break. Every student heard the sound of Yang's body impacting the ground hard enough to make a small crater. The entire student body immediately rushed to the nearest windows to see the blonde pull herself out of the crater, her face thunderous and her Aura blazing.
"OZPIN, YOU FUCKER!" she shouted up at the top of the tower, prompting several students to scramble for the grounds to actually see who she was shouting at. "I AM GOING TO TAKE THIS ACADEMY IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO! AND THE FIRST THING I'M GONNA DO IS THROW YOU OUT ON YOUR ASS! AND YOUR BLONDE SQUEEZE, TOO!"
"In that case, Miss Xiao Long," Ozpin called from the shattered window of his office, the rising sun illuminating him from behind. "I suggest you bring an army next time."
Yang opened her mouth to retort - and then closed it, looking contemplative. "You know what, Ozpin?" she said to herself as she turned on her heel and headed for the landing pad. "I think those will be acceptable terms."
~o~
Glynda's eye twitched as she took in the veritable sea of Bullheads and Interceptors floating and soaring above and around the school. Her eye twitched again as she watched one of the various aircraft drop off a heavy anti-air gun slung under its belly. Though that might have been on account of the half-dozen brethren doing the same all along the perimeter.
That, or it was on account of the small legion of haphazardly equipped but surprisingly disciplined soldiers that were marching up to the school, headed by a number of tanks of all things.
Standing on the roof of the very lead tank, her arms crossed and clad in full military uniform with a pair of aviator sunglasses, was General Yang Xiao Long, smirking maliciously, victoriously at the pair of faculty members as her army advanced upon them.
"I think," she ground out. "That you should have chosen your words more carefully, Ozpin."
"Perhaps," he said nonchalantly, taking a sip from his mug.
But no degree of calmness could have kept Glynda from noticing the oh-so-slight shake to his hands.