CNBR

by sungrass

After the fall of Beacon, strange reports emerge from the fringes of Vale. With no experienced huntsmen available to investigate, Vale leadership assembles a scouting party from the fragments of academy teams to investigate. As the only non-Beacon huntress, Reese Chloris thought her biggest challenge would be adapting to her temporary new team. She was wrong.

8. Chapter 8

CNBR Chapter 8:

Royce padded down the hallway, swinging his halberd back and forth like a metal detector as he walked. Coco followed close behind, ready to pounce on anything that reacted to Royce's advance. At the end of the hall, he peered out over the railing, then gestured for Coco to follow.

She followed his gaze to see a man lying sprawled on the ground floor, unmoving. A moment's observation showed a slight rise and fall in his chest.

"So, trap?" Royce murmured.

"Of course." Coco said, her voice low. "We could grab him and run for the door but they'll have the exits covered, and we need to regroup before we leave. Is there anywhere we can hole up downstairs?"

"The kitchen. There's a walk-in pantry that only has one door, but they can't lock us in like they could with the freezer."

Coco tightened her grip on Belle Mort's handle. "Okay, I'll jump down and haul him there, you cover me with your rifle and try to follow when you can."

Royce grimaced. "You really like charging into traps, huh?"

"We're not having this conversation again."

"You're right; but not for the reason you think. BANZAI!"

Royce vaulted over the railing midway through his shout and dashed towards the fallen innkeeper. Coco swore, scanning the room for any sign of trouble. A curtain rustled on the far wall, seemingly of its own will.

"On your left!" she shouted.

Royce looked up from where he crouched next to the innkeeper. He began to stand, lifting his halberd, but something collided with his knees before he could bring it to bear, knocking him onto his back. A weight landed atop him before he could rise, pinning his chest to the ground. Royce brought his halberd up, oriented across his body, and slammed its haft into the unseen attacker's chest. He felt them press down against it, gradually folding his arms closer to his body. As his arms collapsed, something cold and metallic pricked his throat.

A shout came from Royce's right, and Coco flew into the attacker feet first. There was a cry of surprise and Royce felt the weight leave his body. A dagger clattered to the ground a few feet away, and a few yards past that the chairs on one side of a table scattered like bowling pins.

"Take him!" Coco shouted, climbing to her feet. Royce tucked his halberd under his arm, seized the innkeeper by his wrists, and dragged him towards the kitchen. Coco took the dagger in her free hand, then ran after Royce.

Royce passed through a doorway into a narrow kitchen. Rows of prep areas, sinks, and ranges lined either side of the room. Cooking utensils hung above the rows, and two doors sat in the far wall of the room; one heavy metal, the other wood. As Coco passed into the kitchen, running footsteps sounded from behind her. She spun, bringing Belle Mort up in an arc, only for their assailant to sock her in the gut. Coco doubled over, gasping for breath and dropping her weapons. An arm wrapped around her neck in a chokehold, and she felt her feet leave the ground. She clutched the arm at her neck as it squeezed tighter, her feet flailing. She kicked the opposite counter and cursed at the sudden pain in her foot.

A flash of insight hit her. Coco planted both feet on the opposite counter and pushed, slamming her attacker's back into the hard metal edge of a sink basin. He didn't let go, but he hunched over enough for Coco to plant her feet on the ground. She threw her weight forward in a violent burst and tossed her attacker over her shoulder. A loud smack came from the floor in front of her, followed by the sound of someone climbing to their feet. Coco assumed a boxer's stance and listened for movement. She heard the tip-tap of short rapid footsteps and swung a right hook in that direction. Her fist grazed the edge of someone, only for her opponent to land hits to her ribs and jaw. She stumbled back, hands raised in defense.

"Royce, if you don't get your hayseed ass out here right now—"

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he shouted. A large eggshell-colored package landed on the prep area just in front of Coco with a thud, followed a moment later by a shot from Royce's rifle and an explosion of white. Coco flinched and clutched her ears, now ringing from the gunshot in the confined space. She looked up to see everything covered in white powder…including a figure a few inches taller than her mirroring her posture of agony. Upon seeing him Coco forgot about her pain and grinned with bared teeth.

"Hey there, buddy!" she said.

Coco surged forward, landing strikes on the man's temple and chin before he managed to rise into a defensive posture and strike back. The man had slightly better reach, but now that Coco could see him, she was able to dodge some hits and take the ones she couldn't on her arms and shoulders. The man growled in frustration and threw a straight punch at her face. Coco ducked inside the attack, lowered her shoulder, and body checked him into the counter. He stumbled after the impact, but before he could stand Coco slammed his head into the countertop and shoved him to the ground. His head hit the tile with a muted crack and he lay still.

Coco watched to see if he'd rise, her chest heaving as she caught her breath. When she was satisfied he'd stay down, she gathered the knife and Belle Mort, and scanned the room for any other threats. The floor was covered in a thin layer of flour; undisturbed, save for where she had sparred with their attacker. Royce stepped out from the pantry, bags of flour tucked under each arm.

"The innkeeper's going to hole up in there with his favorite carving knife until he can move again," he said. "You ready?"

Coco half-turned to Royce. "You were right: Your plan would have sounded dumb if you'd told me."

"It worked though."

Coco sighed, shaking her head as she led the way back to the front of the inn.

…

Reese and Blake reached the bottom of the stairs just as Coco and Royce returned to the front. Reese blinked at Coco, coated in flour, and the additional bags of flour that Royce was carrying.

"Huh," said Reese. "My idea doesn't seem that stupid anymore."

"Care to elaborate?" Coco asked, refraining from a sharp reply.

Reese unslung her pack from her shoulder and produced several vials of oddly colored dust from within. "This should help mark anyone who's invisible. It's a blend of water and earth dust that'll coat anything it hits with mud. It doesn't solve the problem of actually finding our attackers, but it's all I've got on short notice."

Royce dropped his bags and took some of the dust. Coco examined one of the vials, then slipped it into her pocket. "It'll have to do. Did either of you contact Nora?"

Blake frowned. "Short-range communication on our scrolls isn't working. They've probably got a jammer outside the wall."

"We'll just have to let her know there's trouble the old-fashioned way," Royce said. He converted his halberd to its rifle form, drew a round with an orange tip from his vest pocket and chambered it. "I'll shoot this off and try to secure the meeting hall so the village can shelter there. If this goes how I want it to, it should draw enough attention to let you guys sneak out to the gate. I'll catch up with you after I've got the hall secured."

"Alright," Coco said. She looked at Reese, her eyes dropping to her belt. "Reese, give your new toy to Blake."

Reese balked at the order. "Blake's already a ninja! I need every edge I can get."

"You are not quiet, at all. The most you'll get out of it is a few extra seconds while they track you by sound."

"Coco—"

Blake laid a hand on Reese's shoulder. "Reese, you'll be fine. You made me work for that ring out back in our tournament match. If I hadn't tricked you, that match might have been even closer.

She leaned in, and her mouth turned up at the corners. "Besides, these jerks think their assassins killed me. Can you imagine the look on their faces when the ghost of Blake Belladonna decides to get revenge?"

Reese stood straighter, a little swagger returning to her posture. "I'd pay money to see that," Reese said. Amusement glimmered in her eyes as she handed the cloaking device over to Blake. Blake clipped it to her belt, turned it on, and blinked out of sight. She made an uncomfortable sound.

"This is so weird," she said.

"How many of those guys do you think are out there?" Reese asked.

Blake's voice came from thin air: "If they're utilizing typical White Fang tactics, they'll have sent in two or three infiltration teams for a village this size. Leaving out the two we already dealt with—"

"At least six more?"

"It's a conservative assumption, but yes."

"Ain't that peachy."

"There is a bright side," Blake said. "They'll be spread thin attacking multiple targets inside the village. So, there's a reasonable chance no one's close enough to the inn to notice us leave. That should give us a chance to catch them off guard."

"What, exactly, is our plan for that?" Reese asked, turning to Coco.

Coco gave them a smirk. "Find Nora and raise hell. Keep it simple."

Reese spun her hoverboard in her hands, a grin spreading across her face. "I like simple." she said.

…

The inn door burst open. Royce popped out, pointed his rifle straight up, and fired, sending a red sphere rocketing skyward with a shrieking whistle. It burst, lighting up the village and the fields beyond. Royce switched the rifle back to a halberd and sprinted down the street, shouting; "THE WILDS ENDURE!" Just as the flare began to fade, a bell started ringing somewhere in the village.

After a few moments had passed, a window opened in the wall of the inn facing away from the front door. Coco climbed out of it, followed by Reese, and the sound of Blake landing behind them. They sprinted down an alley, towards the main gate. From behind them, Royce's shouts echoed down the street.

"He is way too excited about this," Coco said, turning a corner and dashing across a street to an alley on the opposite side.

"He did say he was going to create a distraction," Reese said, hopping onto her board.

"There's creating a distraction and there's pure idiocy."

"You should hang out with Arslan when this is all over; she says weaponized idiocy is the only reason ABRN functions, and no, she wasn't including me."

Coco opened her mouth to say something snarky, when a scream came up from up ahead, followed by the sound of rifles firing. Reese stomped on her board and shot forward, speeding along the alley and shooting out the opening at the far end. She whipped her hips around, bringing the board to a stop behind an empty cart. She separated her hoverboard into a pair of revolvers, then spun out from cover, guns raised.

The street widened into a small square with a fountain in it just before the gate. Atop the wall, guards moved in frantic confusion. Men tumbled to the ground below without apparent cause, or collapsed bleeding atop the catwalk. One group of men had barricaded a section of the wall with containers and shields. They rattled as their unseen assailants tried to press through. The opposite side of the barricaded section was guarded by a small silhouette swinging a large hammer.

Closer to where Reese had emerged from the alley, a man limped past the fountain, swinging his rifle around with wild spastic motions. A swirl of dust rose in the street just in front of him. The man trained his rifle on the spot, but as he fired the rifle's muzzle jerked up, sending the shot into the air. It slammed back into the man's face, knocking him down. He started to crawl away, his arms shaking but something pinned his foot in place.

"Oi! Jackass!" Reese shouted. She fired a volley of shots at the space above the man's foot. Most of the shots hit buildings down the street but two struck home, coating a shoulder, an upper arm, and a thigh in thick viscous mud. She took more care with the following shots, revealing the rest of a torso. The attacker crouched and moved towards a building in an attempt to take cover. Reese reloaded and advanced towards him.

As Reese neared the fallen man, the attacker swept his arms in rapid arcs. Something whistled by her ear, accompanied by something else ricocheting off her shoulder, and the painful impact of what felt like a sharp rock slamming into her forearm. She fired back and dove behind the fountain. She looked down at her arm and pulled a flat x-shaped piece of metal out of her arm.

"Ninja stars?" Reese called back. "What are you, twelve?"

In response, two more of the stars flew past the fountain and clipped her calf. Reese swore and scooted back, pulling her legs into cover. She blind-fired around the side of the fountain, and more stars buried themselves in the dirt just past her gun. Another struck the gun, sending it tumbling into the line of fire. Something splashed in the fountain and Reese popped up to her knees, holding her remaining gun in a two-handed grip. At first, there didn't appear to be anyone in the fountain. Then she noticed a small round object sitting at the bottom and leapt back.

The grenade turned the fountain into rubble, taking a chunk out of Reese's aura, and sending her remaining pistol flying. She lay on her back, her ears ringing, then rose to her feet, wobbling. She had only moved two steps towards her weapon when the man charged at her, moving with speed that seemed impossible in Reese's shell-shocked state. She brought her hands up to defend herself but the motion was sluggish, like swimming through molasses.

As he drew closer, something snagged his foot and yanked it behind him, sending him sprawling onto the ground. A ribbon appeared from thin air, wrapped around his foot. The man curled into a defensive position as something struck him repeatedly, drawing blood and revealing itself to be a cleaver-style blade as blood coated its edge. There was a crunching sound, and his cloaking device died, revealing a man with a grimm mask and dark armor. His head whipped sharply to the side as if someone had kicked it and the man lay still. The ribbon disappeared, then the man's tunic ran itself along the blade, cleaning off the blood to make it invisible once more.

"Thanks for the save," Reese said.

"Anytime," said Blake.

Reese went to gather her weapons and help the fallen villager to safety. She had just moved him inside a house when Coco caught up with her. She doubled over, her shoulders heaving as she caught her breath.

"Damn you're fast," she said between breaths.

"Maybe you could keep up if you didn't wear five-pound boots," Reese said.

"All the better to kick your ass with."

"Guys, the wall!" Blake said.

Coco looked to the gate. Without a word Coco deployed her gun, tossed Reese's new dust blend into it, and spooled up her barrels. "Let's make it rain."

"Hey up top!" Reese shouted. "Hang on to something!"

Coco sprayed the top of the wall with gunfire. Reese's dust blend diminished the rounds' ballistic energy, leaving anything sturdier than glass intact, but the torrent of mud covered everything like water from a firehose, knocking friend and foe alike against the inside of the ramparts. Reese switched to ice dust and fired at each newly exposed enemy. Only a few shots landed direct hits, but the rest struck the ramparts and catwalk, separating the attackers and the guards with large jagged crystals. Moments later, Coco exhausted Reese's dust blend, but it had done its job. Outfitted for stealth, the intruders had little in the way of firearms, save for a few pistols. The villagers had hunting rifles.

The villagers aimed through their new frigid defenses and fired, driving the intruders back. On the villagers' other side, Nora switched Magnhild into its grenade launcher form, spun its drum, and fired. There was a loud whump sound, and everything in that direction of the rampart went flying as if they had been hit by the world's briefest hurricane. Nora herself got knocked onto her rear by the force of the shot.

"What the hell was that?" Coco asked, opening the dust chamber on her gun for a new elemental effect.

"Airburst grenade," said Reese. She reformed her hoverboard. "I figured she might need a less-lethal option for her grenade launcher."

Coco narrowed her eyes at Reese.

"Marginally less-lethal," Reese said.

"Eyes-on," Coco said, indicating the bottom of the wall. Some of the attackers were retreating down inside the wall, taking cover from the wall guards directly below the rampart catwalk. Coco revved her gun again. "Let's pin those jerks like—"

Before she could finish, two weighted lengths of chain spun through the air, pinning Coco's arms to her sides and snaring her ankles. She toppled to the ground, dropping her gun and landing on her shoulder. Reese heard someone charging from their right. She swung her board with both hands, circling herself and Coco in a c-shaped wall of ice six feet tall. Something knocked against the outside of the ice, then again atop the barrier. Reese heard someone land behind her just before something slammed her into the ice wall she had just erected. She groaned and slid to the ground, clutching her head. She tried to rise, only to be kicked to the ground again. A foot stomped on her wrist and she cried out as pain shot up her forearm.

"Is this really the best Vale could offer?" a low voice asked.

One moment there was nothing. The next, a sword coated in blood appeared in the center of a dripping red shoulder and the low voice roared in pain. Reese felt the weight of his foot leave her wrist, then the rest of the man popped into view as someone yanked the cloaking device from his belt. He wore dark close-fitting clothing that wouldn't snag on anything or compromise his range of motion, and a pair of combat boots. Dull gray plates of armor covered his clothes and boots in strategic locations. He wore a black grimm mask that covered his entire face and tapered to a pointed, almost angular chin. The sword twisted in the man's shoulder and he recoiled in on himself.

"Maybe not," Blake's voice said, "But we'll do."

The man made an ugly sound, both vicious and gleeful, grabbed a rod from his belt and thrust it behind him. Blake screamed as blue sparks from the stun baton danced across her body. Something popped and she became fully visible again. Her arms fell limp to her side and she dropped the man's cloaking device and her katana. The man kicked backward, knocking Blake down. He removed the blade from his shoulder and gave it a flourish, then turned to face Blake. He retrieved his cloaking device, placed it back on his belt, and flicked the switch. He shimmered for a moment, but remained visible. He growled and ripped it off his belt, throwing it to the ground next to Blake.

"Bitch."

"Hey," Reese said, anger and pain slurring her speech. She stumbled to her feet, walked towards the man, and brandished her board, swaying a bit. "My friend didn't fry your toy; that happened because you zapped her. Don't get pissy because you're a clumsy asshole."

Everything happened fast: The man spun towards Reese, snarled, and raised Blake's katana. Reese drew back her hoverboard like a baseball bat, but before she could strike, Nora swooped in from her right and struck him with her hammer. The blow sent the man flying into a nearby house, putting a small crater in the wall before he fell to the ground. Before he could get up, Nora closed the distance and thrust her hammer down like a spear, pinning the man at his injured shoulder. He screamed in pain. Reese stared dumbstruck for a moment.

A chuckle and the rattling of metal came from behind Reese. She turned to see Coco, her arms freed, untangling the chain around her ankles.

"Good thing Vale made us take her," she said.

The two of them gathered their weapons and rose. Looking back towards the wall, the other infiltrators were retreating from the villagers, slipping towards an alley. Their enemy momentarily occupied, the two huntresses helped Blake stand, then joined Nora and the struggling attacker. He writhed beneath Magnhild's head, trying to slip free, but Nora held him firm.

"It's nice to finally meet you guys face-to-face," Coco said. She prodded him with her foot. "You want to tell us why you've been attacking these villages?"

"Do you really think I'd tell you?" he said. Under the pain, there was an amused quality to his voice, laced with arrogance and contempt.

Nora twisted her hammer and the man made an agonized sound. "If you want to keep your arm, I think you will," she said.

"Let's start with something easier," Coco said. "You're White Fang, aren't you? You never claimed you were, but your masks look similar to theirs, and the way you've attacked these villages just screams 'I hate humans'. I'll eat my beret if you're not White Fang."

The man craned his head up to look at Coco. "The White Fang are…cousins."

Blake leaned over to Coco and murmured in her ear. "They must be a splinter group. After Sienna Khan took over, certain branches of the White Fang took the opportunity to flout or alter established code and procedures."

"'Flout' is such an ugly word," the man said. "The only people who flout are headstrong fools like Adam Taurus, who cause just as much trouble for us as for the humans. Driving away the last loyal Belladonna shows just how competent he is, despite his strength and devotion." The man turned his head to look at Blake and his voice grew cold. "If you had fought for our branch Blake, you'd have become a distinguished leader or you'd have left the White Fang in a hundred pieces."

Blake shivered and took a step back. Reese swallowed a lump in her throat and retreated towards Blake. Coco stood fast, but clenched her hands hard enough for her knuckles to go white. Nora just stomped her foot down on the man's wrist.

"We get it: You're the big bad boogeymen of the White Fang," she said. She continued, grinding her heel against his wrist. "All we want to know is why. I can understand attacking the Vale government, but these people never hurt you! They're too busy surviving out here to bother anyone. Why can't you just leave them alone?

The man grunted and slid his feet back, pushing his hips and shoulder up with his feet and free elbow. He stared up at Nora. "Practice makes perfect," he said. "I'm actually a little impressed. You fared much better against our stealth equipment than any of the other villages. We might actually have to use some of our other resources."

Nora bared her teeth at the man. "Tell me about them."

"In time," he said.

The man gave his legs and arm a sudden thrust. There was a nauseating crack, and he scurried away from Magnhild, leaving his trapped arm behind. Coco fired at him, but he scrambled up a wall and onto a roof with his three remaining limbs before she could hit him. Reese pressed a hand to her mouth, fighting the urge to puke, while Nora stood dumbstruck by his sudden escape. Blake bent down, pushing Nora's hammer aside, and sliced open the separated arm's tunic sleeve to reveal scaly brown skin.

"Great, he's a lizard faunus," she said. "Yet another thing to worry about."

"How much more of that gunk dust do you guys have?" Nora asked.

"It doesn't matter," Coco said. "Even if we had a lot more, they know we discovered their stealth equipment. They won't get caught off guard by something desperate as mud dust or bags of flour again." She turned to Reese. "We need a permanent solution, Skate Rat."

Reese took a deep breath to dispel her nausea. She walked to the lizard faunus' discarded cloaking device, picked it up, and began pacing, turning the device in her hands. "Okay, so thanks to Blake getting tased we know a big enough electric shock will fry these things. We have plenty of lightning dust, but we can't short their equipment out if we can't see them. I could throw together grenades for Nora, but that would be just as likely to shock us; maybe more likely since grenades don't totally solve the aiming issue…"

"What if you made a grenade that went straight up and soaked the whole village with mud?" Nora asked.

Reese shook her head. "Even if I could cover that much area, they could just hide in a house. If I could make something with a wide area of effect that wasn't stopped by buildings—" Reese's face lit up in revelation for a moment, then scrunched up in concern.

"What is it?" Coco asked.

Reese bit her thumb, hesitating. "I have an idea, but even I think it's a really bad one."

"Really? This is when you decide to look before you leap?

"There is a big chance that this will make things worse in the long term, it might irreversibly screw us over!"

"Reese, we might be screwed over anyway if we don't turn things around soon. We can't worry about the long term if we don't get that far. Look, if this works, will we survive the night?"

Reese kneaded her hoodie in her fingers. "Probably, if Blake's right about their numbers."

"Then let's do it," Coco said.

Reese took a deep breath, then nodded. "Okay. We need to bring as much lightning dust as possible and the repeater I built to the antenna. One of us needs to put our scrolls in a metal container somewhere safe; a literal safe if possible."

"Why do we need a safe?" Coco asked.

"You trust my stupid idea, but not the steps to make it less stupid?"

Coco conceded the point with a nod. She turned to the group. "Nora, keep holding the wall. Blake, hide our scrolls; Royce might know a good spot. Meet up with us back at the antenna when you're done. I'll help Reese get what she needs and watch her back while she works her magic."

She flashed them a grin. "Let's get some payback for Beacon."

…

Blake cursed as she leapt down to a lower rooftop, stumbling as she landed. Her throat still hurt from the thwarted assassination, and her encounter with the stun baton left her with cramps where it had struck, and a general fatigue like she had spent all day in the gym. Travelling via rooftops wasn't helping, but she was less likely to be cornered than if she traveled through the alleys. She jogged in a stumbling gait, sprinting only when she leapt between buildings as she moved towards the center of the village.

She stopped on a low roof overlooking a square. A long building with a peaked roof sat in the square, next to Marta's home. The windows were shuttered and a small crowd of people stood at the front door. The doors were cracked open wide enough to let people enter in a single file line, ensuring no infiltrator could slip through unnoticed. From behind a makeshift barricade, a small group of villagers pointed rifles out towards the square, a fresh layer of gravel spread across the space.

A patch of gravel shifted of its own accord, drawing the attention of a guard. He swung his rifle towards the movement and fired a little ahead of it, sending up a plume of gravel that bounced off a point in the air just behind where the shot hit. Something shimmered in the air and sent of a spray of gravel as it retreated back from the hall.

They're resourceful, but they can't last for long, Blake thought.

She was watching the square, assessing the best way to reach the door without getting ambushed by the invaders or shot by a jumpy villager, when she heard someone land on the roof behind her. She remained still, pretending she hadn't noticed. She listened for more footsteps and heard them, almost perfectly silent, as they edged towards her. When they were a few yards behind her, Blake leapt out over the square, turning in midair to fire a few rounds from her pistol. Lightning rounds struck home, revealing an infiltrator with curling ram horns on either side of her mask.

Blake began to tumble in midair, and she cursed as she hurtled towards the ground head first. She summoned a shadow clone and used it to propel herself towards the door of the building, but it made the tumble worse in the process. She struck the ground on her stomach and rolled to a stop halfway across the gravel field. She scrambled to her feet and lurched towards the building, only for something to collide with her from behind. She rolled onto her back and brought Gambol Shroud's sheath up in a two-handed block just as the horned girl swung a short thick hand mace down at her. The impact shot down Blake's arms, making her teeth vibrate. The girl drew a second mace from her belt with her free hand and raised it above her head.

"Nice horns," Blake wheezed. The other girl tensed at the implication she was visible. Before she could spring away, three shots pinged off the armor plates on her shoulder and chipped part of her left horn. She howled, stumbling backwards, and scrambled for cover. Blake rose and continued to the door. After a few steps, Royce hopped the barricade, slipped her arm over his shoulder, and helped her up the steps. The doors opened wider to accommodate the both of them, then closed back to a bottleneck.

Royce guided her through a large crowded room, lined with chairs and cots. Villagers filled the room, watching the barricaded windows, maintaining weapons, calming the younger children, and attending to those who had been wounded. Royce stopped at the back near Marta and some of the other village leaders.

"Is it racist if I say something about you having nine lives?" he asked, helping Blake sit back against a wall. She snorted.

"I'll allow it," Blake said. She let out a grunt as she settled. "Some punk by the gate got me where I hit the tree a few days back."

"Are the others…?"

"They're fine. Nora's still at the gate, and Coco and Reese have some plan involving the antenna." She held up a pouch containing their scrolls. "Put this in a safe, or some other kind of metal box. Reese said it was important."

Royce arched an eyebrow, but took the bag. "Greenie say anything else?"

Blake shook her head. "Just hurry. When you're done we need to help out at the antenna. We only incapacitated four of them. Plus, they know we can counter their invisibility trick. They won't get caught off guard again."

Royce frowned and looked around the meeting hall. "Blake, we can't leave. I need to help hold things together here, and you're running on fumes. If we hadn't scared off that girl with the ram horns, she would have turned your brains into jelly. If you try to fight in your condition, they'll kill you."

"What do you think will happen if they take the village?" Blake said, standing back up, a hard edge in her voice. "We can't run, and we can't hole up forever and hope they'll go away. I really don't like it, but all we can do now is try to drive them off."

Royce stared at her a moment, then sighed. He hefted the bag. "You're right. We'll have someone patch you up while I stash your scrolls, then we'll head out. Sadie, can you give us a hand?" A girl around Royce's age appeared from near Marta and took Blake's hand, guiding her onto a cot. Blake let the girl examine her and patch a few wounds while Royce stored the scrolls. Royce reappeared a few minutes later.

"You said they'll be at the antenna, right?" Royce said. He stopped, looking down.

Blake lay sprawled on the cot, spent. Even unconscious, there was a frustrated resignation in her posture and on her face. Royce sighed, slipped her coat off with Sadie's help, and covered her with a blanket.

"I'll wake you when it's over," he said to Blake, then walked towards the door.

…

"How much longer Reese?" Coco asked, her voice low. "Things are way too quiet right now."

Coco pointed her gun down the street towards the village center. The antenna stood twenty feet tall in a small earthen plaza where two streets met. Two villagers stood on the other side of the antenna watching the opposite direction, while four more peered down from windows and rooftops to watch the rest of the square. Every so often shots came from where they had left Nora. More came from the direction of the shelter, but around the antenna things were still.

"It'll take as long as it takes," Reese said, grabbing a vial of dust. "Makeshift field engineering does not progress at our convenience."

"It doesn't have to be pretty," Coco said.

"But it does have to work. This is going to literally blow up in my face if I don't do it right, and before you ask, it will probably not have the effect we want on these Black Fang dickheads if it goes off prematurely."

"Black Fang?"

Reese reclined onto her back and ran a pair of wires to the antenna base. "Well, they run around like paranormal ninjas, they're up to something creepy and mysterious, and even though no one's heard of them before they're planning something big for Vale. That just screams special operations, so 'Black Fang' seemed like a good name for them."

"Someone actually proposed that one, but most of us thought it sounded too juvenile," said a husky contralto to Coco's right.

Coco spun and fired a burst in the direction of the voice, shredding the front of a house. The villagers in elevated positions swung their rifles in that direction, but there was nothing there. Coco squinted, looking for any sign of movement. The voice spoke again several times, each time coming from a different section of the square, the tone conversational.

"Oh my, how quick! Heavy hitters don't usually have such reflexes."

"I wouldn't put money on her in a sword duel though."

"On the other hand, a boxing match might be a solid bet…"

The villagers looked around, confused and nervous. Coco swallowed a lump in her throat that felt like a ball of sandpaper. She swung her gun slowly across the square, fighting to keep her hands from shaking. She looked back to Reese, who sat frozen in place, and exchanged a wide-eyed look with her before turning back to the square.

"It had to be illusionists," she whispered.

"Illusions?" the voice called from ten yards to her left. "Hardly. This is me speaking, and surely you all can't be sharing one giant hallucination. Or can you?"

"Ignore her," Coco said, a little louder than necessary. "She's testing our reactions and trying to distract us from her friends. If she was going to attack us, she would have done it already."

"Right you are!" the voice said from up high. Coco turned towards the voice in time to see one of the men on the rooftop get shoved off. He fell with a scream that ended in a crunch upon the ground. All hell broke loose as something large assaulted the other two men on the ground, while the other man on a rooftop fell onto his back, interposing his rifle between himself and his attacker. Those in the windows pointed their rifles at the chaos on the ground but didn't fire for fear of hitting their allies.

"Reese, turtle!" Coco shouted. Reese swung her hoverboard over and around her position from a crouch, forming a half-dome of ice that connected to the antenna, shielding her back and sides while she worked. Coco heard something rustle from the rooftop where the villager had fallen to the street, like a flag flapping in a strong wind. She dove to the ground just in time to feel something swoop through the air over her. She stood and fired in the direction it had traveled but only hit air and buildings.

"Good ears on you," the woman's voice called, with something like approval. "Most people wouldn't have heard that in the chaos."

Coco growled and moved around the antenna towards the large attacker on the ground in order to expose him, spinning up her gun barrels as she went. A foot hooked around her ankles and sent her sprawling before she could fire a shot. The woman made a clucking noise with her tongue.

"I know it's frustrating that you can't find me but it's rude to leave an opponent in the middle of a fight. Please stay focused."

Coco drew the dagger she had picked up at the inn and hacked at the air with haphazard slashes. "Is this a game to you?" She thrust forward and someone seized her by the wrist, twisting her arm behind her back. She flinched as her arm came within a hair of dislocating, pain shooting from her elbow to her shoulder. The woman brought her to her knees and spoke, her words laced with venom this time.

"It was, until you drew my teammate's dagger on me. I am going to enjoy squeezing information out of you later."

Coco tried to twist away, but the woman just drove her closer to the ground. There was a soft click as the woman unclasped something from her belt, but before she could use whatever weapon she had drawn, a rifle cracked and the woman shrieked with anger. Coco felt a small jolt, and the woman let go of her arm. Coco scrambled away and rose, turning to see a woman dressed like the lizard faunus. Massive bat wings spread from her back, and sparks from the lightning dust round danced across the wings' membranes. She let out a feral sound and lunged at Coco with vicious speed, taking to the air as she struck. Coco ducked and felt something prick her neck as the bat faunus flew overhead, out into the night.

She looked around, trying to find the source of the shot and saw a pistol protruding from a hole in the ice dome. It withdrew into the dome, and a moment later the hole filled in. Coco felt her mouth twitch up at the corners, and she went to gather her weapons

"How are we doing, Reese?"

"Almost done!" she replied, her voice slightly muffled by the ice. "Keep them off me a little longer!"

Coco looked around the square. The men in the windows were facing inside, as if someone were trying to break into the rooms they were positioned in. The two men on the far side of the antenna were sprawled on the ground, attempting to crawl towards Coco and Reese, but something had ensnared their legs, impeding their approach. The other man on the roof had joined his counterpart on the ground in a crumpled heap.

"We don't have time!" Coco shouted. "Get it done—" Coco paused, suddenly light-headed. The spot on her neck where the bat faunus had nicked her throbbed with pain. She reached towards it, touched something hard, and yanked it out of her neck. She opened her hand to find a metal barb with a small grip on the end, like a toothpick-sized throwing knife. She found herself on her knees again, and couldn't remember kneeling.

"God damn it," she muttered, and slumped to the ground.

…

Reese's eyes flicked up from her work for a moment to look through the antenna scaffold. The two men on the ground had started to contort, their limbs pressing against their sides or twisting at strange angles. She lowered her gaze back to the repeater and connected a few more wires, then gave everything a quick glance-over.

"Alright, here we go." She reached to flip a switch when a sword pierced through the ice, missing her ear by a fraction of an inch. She yelped and dove to the ground, covering her head as a fist and a second blade pierced the ice close to the sword, shattering a hole in the ice dome. Hands seized the back of her hoodie and yanked her halfway out from her shelter. Reese grabbed the sides of the hole and wedged her feet against the inside of the opening. The hands jerked her back and the ice buckled, jabbing her fingers and her heels. She winced, clenching the ice harder with one hand while she reached into her pocket with the other, grabbing her still-cooling soldering iron.

"Piss off!"

Reese jammed the tool into one of the hands gripping her hoodie. Her attacker cried out in pain and released her, letting her fall to the ground. She scrambled back inside, lunged toward the machine and turned it on. A low thrum started, quickly increasing in pitch. Reese grabbed her board and lunged through the hole in the ice just in time for the machine to crackle with electricity and pop, ending the sound. The ice remained intact, but Reese felt a jolt of electricity zap through her and her knees buckled. Her stomach churned and she fell to one knee, breathing hard and slowly wrestling her nausea under control. Groans rose from around the plaza. Someone made a loud retching sound to Reese's right, drowning out the rest. Reese stood and looked around.

The Black Fang were visible now. A faunus man with a wolf's tail lay on his side in front of Reese clutching his hand where she had stabbed it. Across the square where the two villagers lay on the ground was a massive man with a thick sinewy tail in place of legs, big around as a tree where it joined his upper body. His tail lay coiled around the villagers, though it was now loose enough for them to crawl free. Reese turned in the direction of the retching to see a woman at the base of a building on her hands and knees. A mask stylized with eight eyes sat on her forehead and she supported herself on arms with a martial artist's lean musculature—six of them. Reese shrunk back for a second, unnerved by her appearance. Then she rolled her shoulders, steeling herself, and started towards the woman with a sway that was half bluster and half fatigue.

"What's wrong?" Reese asked. "The itsy-bitsy spider can't handle a little EMP? Or do you just have PTSD from all those times you wandered into a bug zapper?" The spider faunus drew a knife, but before she could use it Reese closed the distance and kicked it out of her hand. The spider faunus shouted and clutched her wrist. Reese gave her another kick, sending her rolling onto her side. She stared up at her, giving the huntress a menacing glare.

"I'll kill you for that," the woman growled up at Reese. "And I'll take the time to savor it."

Reese smirked at her and encased her in ice with her hoverboard. "That might have intimidated me earlier, but you're all nothing but a bunch of basic thugs without your toys."

Reese turned to check on the villagers. She had taken two steps when someone slammed her into a wall, making her drop her board. Her head exploded with stars and she slid to the ground. She looked up to find the wolf-tailed faunus holding a short sword inches from her ribs. He snarled with a voice like gravel.

"Thugs, maybe. But not cocky ones."

Reese flinched, but before the man could skewer her he leapt backwards. Two rifle shots whistled through the air where he had stood. Reese turned in the direction of the shots to see nothing but a pile of gravel in a collection of construction materials outside a storefront. Then some of the gravel stood, rippling, and changing color and texture as it resolved into Royce. He spun his rifle as he turned it back into a halberd and walked to stand between Reese and the wolf faunus. The wolf faunus sneered.

"Impressive semblance. Too bad you're too noisy to take advantage of it."

"You need to leave," Royce said. "Leave my village, my forest"—he glanced at Reese—"my friends, alone." He raised his halberd in a ready stance. The wolf faunus turned sideways, exposing less of his body to Royce, then pointed his sword at him.

"How many grimm have you fought, boy?" he asked

"I've killed hundreds."

The faunus made an approving sound. "Excellent. Now, how many people have you fought?"

Before Royce could answer, the man lunged, closing half the distance to Royce. Royce stabbed forward with his halberd's head spike, shuffled forward like a fencer, and stabbed again. Each time the wolf faunus dodged back, evading the thrusts by inches. He dodged to one side from the third thrust, and Royce let out a shout and chopped sideways with his axe head. The faunus threw himself down, rolling under the strike, springing out of the roll to stab at Royce. Royce thrust his forearm out, catching the blade on his mounted shield, then shoved the man back. With the space he created, Royce swept the butt of his halberd at the man's feet knocking him onto his back. He raised his halberd overhead and brought it down with a furious roar.

The wolf faunus rolled to the side and the halberd dug into the ground. He sprung to his feet in a blur and swung his sword down into Royce's arm just below the shoulder. The blow made a cracking sound and Royce cried out, dropping to one knee. The man drew his sword back and slashed at Royce's head. Royce jerked back and the blade sliced across his face as he fell away from the man. The man planted a boot on his chest.

"Amateur." He raised his sword.

Reese slammed into the man with the flat of her board, knocking him off Royce. She swung her board in a series of rapid swipes, and though she never landed a solid hit, the man was forced to parry or step back from each strike. He leapt back, and Reese seized the opening to load a dust crystal into her board and to leap forward onto it. She closed the distance and spun, turning her hoverboard into a ring of fire. The man grunted as it singed his arms, then rolled to the side. Reese u-turned back and placed herself between Royce and the wolf faunus, gripping her board like a bat. The wolf faunus brandished his sword. He clicked something in the grip, and it thrummed with sound.

"Do you really think you can beat me?" he asked.

"Do I look like someone who thinks when they fight?" Reese asked, her voice dripping with scorn.

The wolf faunus chuckled. A cracking sound came from Reese's left. The snake faunus had broken the spider faunus free from the ice. He looked up, then slithered over so that he, Reese, and the wolf faunus formed the points of a triangle in the plaza. Reese's eyes flicked back to where the snake faunus had lain and saw the two villagers lying still. She licked her lips, then clutched her board harder.

"Let's get this over with," she said.

Both faunus surged towards Reese. She steeled herself as the wolf faunus leapt to close the last few yards, soaring with his sword outstretched. Then the snake faunus slapped him out of the air as a volley of gunfire whizzed past. One round still grazed the wolf faunus' leg and he cursed in pain. Two rounds struck the snake faunus' tail while the rest bounced off one muscular shoulder. From down the street, Marta brandished a rifle, leading a band of villagers towards the plaza. With the Black Fang's stealth equipment neutralized, the villagers' numbers gave them renewed boldness.

The snake faunus let out a rumbling growl. With a speed unnatural for someone so large, he scooped up the wolf faunus with one arm, the spider faunus with the other, and fled the square heading toward the gate. Reese gave chase on her hoverboard, shouting for Nora as the fleeing infiltrators neared the wall. The snake faunus simply slithered his way up the walkway scaffold where the guards were thinnest, and surged over the wall. By the time Reese reached the top and looked out over the field, the only traces of his presence were a long furrow in the earth where he landed, and a section of flattened crops where he had fled into the field. Reese collapsed to lean on the top of the wall, panting from her fight and the climb up the steps.

Nora approached from along the battlements, grenade launcher drawn. "I think they're gone for now," she said. "The ones near the walls all bailed once they stopped being invisible."

"Cowards," Reese said. She inclined her head towards the fields. "Leg-less did the same thing when most of the village showed up."

Nora laughed. "Nothing livens up a party like the cavalry arriving." An uneasy look crossed Nora's face as she finished speaking. She turned to Reese, who wore the same expression.

"You don't think…"

"Flare, now." Reese said.

Nora chambered a flare grenade and fired skyward. It streaked up with a whistle and burst with white light. Unlike Royce's flare, it hung suspended from a small parachute, descending slow as a feather. They scanned the fields, searching them for activity. At first they saw nothing but the gentle sway of wheat in the night breeze. Then Nora's eyes narrowed, and she pointed to a spot two-thirds of the way to the tree line. She picked up a fallen rifle, looked through the scope, and paled. She handed the gun to Reese who looked at the same spot. Her stomach dropped.

There were at least thirty more Black Fang in that section of the field, armed for assault instead of infiltration, wielding combat rifles and heavy blades instead of pistols and short swords. But the worst difference sat at the front of the group: Several were handling a pack of komodos. They were the size of large dogs instead of their matured size, and they were leashed with thick chain, but they pulled insistently in the direction of the walls. Reese set the rifle down and slid to a seated position against the ramparts.

"Great," Reese said, "More friends."

Nora sat next to Reese and took stock of her ammunition. "I think we can give them a good fight, but that many will wear us down after that first attack. Besides, I bet there's more of them, and if those grimm get close, they'll break through the walls." She gave Reese a wan smile. "I don't suppose you have one last surprise in your bag of tricks."

Reese let out a weak laugh. "I might. Problem is, there's a good chance it'll also kill everyone in the village."

Both huntresses sat quiet for a moment.

"If it kills us," Nora said, "Will those guys die too?"

Reese chuckled. She drew two grenades designed for Nora's launcher from her pocket and held them out to her.

"Aim about ten yards past the near side of the field, then do the same to the fields outside the wall opposite the gate."

"I could make that second shot from here," Nora said, loading the grenades.

"Just don't miss. You do not want this going off inside the village."

Nora nodded, spun Magnhild's drum into position, and exhaled. Then she rose, aimed, and fired. The shot flew in an arc. It was bright red, similar to the rounds that had helped slay the big komodo outside Razor Ridge. That was where the similarities ended.

The grenade hit the ground, sending out a wave of fire, then bounced forward a considerable distance, striking the ground and spewing flame again before bouncing once more. Many of the assembled soldiers had fled into the paths between fields by the time it reached them, but the flames still bathed several of them in the grenade's final bounces. The previously quiet fields erupted with panicked screams, and the hisses and roars of the attack grimm. Some of them sought cover in other sections of the fields, but most retreated to the woods as the flames spread through the crops with unnatural speed.

Nora stared at the flames with a mixture of awe and horror. "You do have something to put out the fires if they get too close to the walls, right?" she asked.

Reese stared at the distant shapes writhing in the flames or fleeing them. The fires had spread the length of the east wall and were steadily catching around the corners. She turned away, her face pale. "At this point I might not have enough."

Nora shrugged, then angled her launcher in a high arc towards the far wall.

"Might as well go for broke."

…

Royce woke the next day to sun striking his face and the smell of smoke in the air. He looked around the room, recognizing it as one of the spare bedrooms in Marta's house. As he stirred, a dull throbbing grew in his arm, and a sharp ache spread across his face, accompanied by a tightness, as if some of the skin there had shrunk. He brushed his fingertip along the tight skin and felt a line of stitches crossing his face just below his eyes.

He rose to a sitting position on the side of the bed and his left arm screamed as it shifted in his sling, making him clench his teeth. He looked down at himself to see someone had changed him into a t-shirt and a set of pajama pants with a tropical fish print. He made a huffing sound that was equal parts amusement and pain.

"Survey says we're not under enemy control," he said to himself. He stood and walked to the stairs, grimacing at the pain of simple movement. He followed the sound of voices towards the tea room and entered without knocking, passing into an ad hoc war room.

Marta sat at the far end of the table, chewing on a pipe as she scribbled something on a legal pad. Coco sat on the floor a few steps back from the table, wrist deep in Belle Mort's internals. Blake sat next to Coco, thumbing through what looked like an old field journal, and supporting her forehead as if she was suffering from a strong headache. Nora had piled several cushions against a wall and lounged back against them, dozing with her hammer laid across her lap. Opposite Coco and Blake, Reese sat grinding a dust crystal into powder with a mortar and pestle. When she had finished, she poured the fine yellow powder into a second bowl, mixed it with the tip of a screwdriver, and poured the mixture into a small vial. They all turned towards Royce as he entered, and he felt a weight leave his shoulders.

"Thank the gods, we're all here," he said. He looked at Reese. "Thanks for the save last night."

Reese rubbed the back of her neck. "That was pretty awesome, huh? But it would have ended a lot differently if your grandma hadn't rallied the village so fast."

"Or if you hadn't given Nora a forest fire in a can," Blake said, never looking up from her journal.

Royce grinned and took a seat next to Reese. "So we won then."

"Absolutely not," Marta said. She looked up from her notepad and exhaled a narrow plume of smoke. "We only found five bodies in what's left of the fields. Twice as many of our people have died, and even more are injured. The walls are still intact, and there don't appear to be any stragglers hiding inside the village, but we're not capable of repelling another attack."

Royce paused for a moment, his mouth open. "But if you really hit them as hard as you said, they can't all be able to fight."

"I'm sure at least a few more that got clear of the fields aren't in fighting shape," Coco said, "But that still leaves too many to handle with the supplies we have left. Let's say another five of them are too injured to fight or support the others. That leaves about twenty lethal Black Fang who'll want revenge for killing their people and making them look stupid; not to mention that simply knowing they exist means we're a major threat to their plans. Consider that they almost certainly have more in reserve somewhere, and we're looking at a force that will overwhelm everyone that's still able to fight."

Royce looked at each person in the room one by one. None of them looked unwilling to fight, but there was a resigned air to their postures and expressions. "But…you guys are trained huntresses. I've seen Beacon students fight in the Vytal tournament, you're each worth five of one of our people in a fight."

"And the weakest of the people we're fighting are just as dangerous," Blake said. "They aren't normal White Fang, and we're fighting them outnumbered in a guerilla war, not an arena or an open field."

Coco closed her gun and began wiping her hands on a greasy rag. "We might be able to hold the village another night, but no longer than that. That wouldn't be a problem if someone hadn't detonated an EMP and fried anything we could have used to call Vale"—Blake elbowed Coco in the ribs, eliciting a glare from Coco—"but, I suppose we wouldn't be having this conversation if the Black Fang were still invisible."

Reese's cheeks turned pink and she folded her arms. "Can't say I didn't warn you."

She turned to look at Royce. "Anyway, we're still trying to figure out a plan. Could we make a run for that village you mentioned towards the Vacuo border?"

Marta let out a short grim laugh. "If one of you wants to sacrifice the rest of us to slow them down, sure. It's a three day journey if you hurry, which isn't possible transporting the entire village without motor vehicles."

"So we're stuck until Vale comes for us," Reese said.

"And there's the rub," Coco said. "We're supposed to check in at noon tomorrow. They'll tack on a six-hour margin of error to account for spotty broadcast conditions and possible delays on our part. Since Vale is stretched thin right now, I'd estimate another six hours to assess the situation, load a bullhead with supplies, and gather a new team. Add in five hours of flight at top speed, more if weather conditions aren't optimal, and they'll show up around five in the morning the day after tomorrow. All that assumes we get top priority and they fly directly to Crescent Hollow."

Silence followed as Coco's words sunk in. Blake set down her field journal and closed her eyes. Nora looked up and just stared at the far wall. Marta puffed her pipe, her face pensive. Coco laid her hand atop her gun and gently stroked it with one thumb. Reese's shoulders sagged. She rubbed at her forehead with her palm and ran a hand through her hair.

"So that's it?" Royce asked. "We're just going to hunker down and pray for a miracle, like a random huntsmen team wandering the woods?"

Reese sat up and struck her palm with her fist. "We forgot about our stash! It wasn't intended for a long siege, but we should have enough supplies to make it last at least one night, two if we're lucky."

"I didn't forget," Coco said. "I just don't think it's worth the risk. If we were just trying to sneak through the forest maybe we could pull it off, but that's a lot of stuff to haul back here. We won't be able to make the return trip with any sort of discretion."

Reese shook her head. "We don't need discretion. My sledge is shielded against static just like my hoverboard, so it should have survived the EMP, and my board's tow mode can haul ass if we don't worry about keeping a low profile on the way back. If the four of us can sneak out there, you three could ride the sledges on the way back and shoot anyone that comes too close."

"Those woods will be crawling with Black Fang."

"Maybe not," Blake said. Everyone turned to look at her. She continued:

"These people have dominated this region for months with no serious opposition. On top of that, most of them were the kind of faunus that aren't used to losing, especially not as badly as they did. Last night wasn't pretty, but we struck back harder than they were expecting. If I were leading them, I'd proceed with caution. They definitely have scouts observing us from the forest, but I doubt they have large numbers nearby. They might not attack tonight if we wanted to resupply."

"And they might attack anyway when they see us leave," Coco said.

"Which is why this plan is still not a great idea."

"Oh it's stupid as hell," Reese said. "Honestly, the last time I tried something remotely this gutsy, it…didn't work out." She exhaled, then continued, her voice unsteady. "I'm actually freaking out at the thought of doing this. But we're boned if we can't hold out until help arrives. I think this might be our best shot at surviving until then—if we all agree."

The other three huntresses sat in silence. Blake looked apprehensive, but she shrugged, conceding. "What do we have to lose?"

"One last night of waiting for them to make the first move," Coco said. "We've been reactive since Razor Ridge. I'd like to make the first move again." She turned to Nora. "What do you think, Valkyrie?"

"An insane plan with a high chance of mayhem," Nora said. "Do you really need to ask?"

Coco smirked. "Okay, we'll sneak out sometime tonight. Until then, let's work on making this plan highly risky instead of suicidal."

She turned to Royce. "You have any recommendations for getting to the old sawmill without anyone seeing us?"

Royce puffed up a bit. "With me leading the way, we'll get back before they can finish closing the gate."

Silence fell over the room. Marta watched Royce, her expression unreadable, while the four huntresses exchanged glances. Finally, Reese spoke up:

"We can't take you."

Royce stared. "But I can help. When you came to Crescent Hollow, you never noticed me spying on you between my camouflage semblance and my knowledge of the area."

"Can you use your semblance on other people?"

"No."

"Then you need to stay," Coco said. "You can't fight right now, and you know it. If they spot us, you'll be a liability in your state."

"I can still move, I can still shoot—"

"—but not at the same time!" snapped Coco.

"Royce, even if you weren't injured I saw everything last night," Reese said. "You're on my short-list for slaying grimm, but you're bad at fighting other people."

Reese let out a dry laugh. "You're kind of my opposite that way."

Royce stood silent for a bit. Then he sighed, and took a seat at the table.

"Give me a map. I can show you the best ways out there and back."

"There wouldn't happen to be a tunnel under the village to conceal our departure, would there?" asked Blake.

"No," said Royce. A glimmer of mischief crossed his face. "But I think I might know a way to throw them off."