Chapter 32: Catching Up
He kicked his feet up on a table designed for eating a meal. It didn't matter. No one would be using it for that purpose any time soon… and technically, he was eating a meal. The distinctive snap of carrots breaking down between his gnashing teeth was evidence enough to prove it. The taste left a lot to be desired, but at least they were fun to eat. Mercury found himself tossing them into the air, and catching them in his mouth. He only choked on one or two of them.
The occasional growls from the Grimm reminded him of the danger of the situation he was in, but did not constitute much of a threat. From inside the building, Mercury was more than capable of handling any attacker in the tight confines of a hallway or classroom. This security was part of the reason that he had made himself at home. The other part was that he needed time to think of some way to deal with Emerald if… when they crossed paths again. Apologizing wasn't really his strong suit, and in his own defense, he had not actually done anything that Cinder wouldn't have allowed him to do anyway. Nonetheless, being at odds with his partner felt strange for him. Being separated after many months of working so closely with her was an unfamiliar feeling.
His uncharacteristically soft, emotion driven thoughts were interrupted by the distant, muffled sound of gunshots. Several, in rapid succession, followed by nothing. He wasted no time getting to his feet, and racing to the door to his claustrophobic hideout. Growls? Sure. He knew the Grimm were everywhere. Gunshots meant people, and people could mean any number of things. Mercury poked his head out into the dark hallway, but did not see anything that could be responsible for gunfire. The Grimm that had previously shown no interest in anything other than randomly patrolling the halls now rushed toward the sound.
With the halls now deserted, Mercury stepped through the doorway, and made his way in the same direction that he had seen the Grimm moving. He was careful to hide behind anything he could find to stay out of sight, in case there was a straggler. As he inspected the path ahead of him, more shots rang out. This time, they were much more clearly defined. It was dark inside, but he could make out a heavy, metal door very similar to the one he had used on the opposite side of the lecture building. Now that he considered it, the whole structure had some degree of symmetry to it.
It was difficult to say where all of the Grimm had gone. This door would almost certainly be the most direct path to the source of the sounds of battle, which now included the telltale squawk of a Griffon. Generally speaking, their intelligence left a lot to be desired. Mercury had no choice but to assume that because there was no direct line of sight, the Grimm had circled around to another exit. In any case, he continued his slow progress.
More shots echoed down the hall, followed by the silence that had almost cyclically come after, every time. The sound of a struggle reached Mercury's ears mere seconds before something slammed into the outside wall of the building, creating a dull thud. Whatever was happening outside seemed to be winding down quickly, so he made it his business to intervene. He covered the last few feet required to reach the door with a renewed sense of urgency.
The first thing he saw as he shouldered the door open was a pack of Beowolves, led by an Alpha. His appearance caused a moment of hesitation on the part of the Grimm. When some of them did not acknowledge his presence, he glanced down and to his left to see what could be holding the attention of a mindless monster more than the sight of their own imminent death. As it turned out, the imminent death of their prey was much more interesting to them. Mercury saw Emerald slouched against the stone wall, looking as haggard as he had ever seen her… more like defeated, really.
The time to play the part of an inquisitor would have to wait until later, even though Mercury had more than a few questions about how the circumstances of the scene unfolding in front of him had come to be. Instead of beginning an interrogation, he raised one of his boots, and fired several shots from its heel. His aim was not directed at a particular target, rather an assortment of Grimm and the dirt and grass all around them. His strategy was to disorient them as much as possible, and try to pull Emerald back inside before the hordes could swallow them up. It worked well enough. He was able to keep them at bay long enough to drag her back through the doorway and out of danger.
His retreat from the battlefield was neither subtle nor pretty. Emerald was light, but not exactly what you might call portable. Mercury was able to lift her over his shoulder, but her constant writhing motion made her difficult to carry. With the door closed behind them, Mercury made it a priority to get back to the tiny, isolated room he had stayed in previously. It was not a long walk, he had just completed it in the opposite direction. Of course, his original trip had been done very cautiously. This time, he could not afford to take the same care as before. If he were to be caught, both he and Emerald would be in a tough situation.
The Grimm, even considering the threat that they posed, were somewhat confused by the disappearance of the two humans behind the solid door. Since the direct line of sight had been cut, the creatures resorted to pounding on the door. They had a basic understanding of the fact that their prey still existed behind whatever this barrier was, but without the simple knowledge of the function of a doorknob, scratching and clawing was the most primal course of action for them.
Emerald kept creating unintelligible sounds with her mouth as she was carried down the long hallway by her partner. The concussive force that had been unleashed on her head was unlike anything she had experienced in a long time. Her thoughts were being processed just as they always had, but somewhere within her there was a disconnect that refused to allow her the freedom to express them normally.
Her fighting style primarily revolved around confusion and deception. She was skilled in hand to hand combat, but against such an overwhelming opponent, she was at a significant disadvantage. The numbers that she faced also favored the Grimm. If not for that Griffon, she assumed that the Alpha would have been a difficult, but not unbeatable, adversary. This and several other thoughts clouded her mind, before the sensation of movement ceased. For the first time, she stopped trying to force her body to do things that it was presently incapable of doing, which allowed her eyes to have the time they needed to begin to take in her surroundings.
What she saw was a tiny room, barely illuminated by the single light panel on the ceiling. For as much as she could perceive with her hearing, it was quiet, and she now rested on a sofa that was not nearly long enough for her to be truly comfortable. She would have to settle for safe. Mercury stood at the door for a moment, peering down the hall. When he was apparently satisfied with what he saw, he did not waste a moment before reverting back to the horrible, sarcastic monster that he usually resembled.
Emerald was almost positive that the words Mercury was saying were in poor taste. It was something to do with how she needed him. She didn't comprehend exactly what he was saying, but she got enough of the message to know it was facetious. The ridiculous smile that he donned every time he made a sarcastic comment was the best indication of that. No matter how much his snarkiness bothered her, Emerald was comforted by his presence. She allowed herself to close her eyes, and drift to sleep.
Mercury kept a constant watch over his partner in crime, who was in understandably rough shape. Exchanging blows with a Beowolf typically had that effect on a person. Before passing out, Emerald was not in the mood, much less the physical condition to chew on the carrot sticks that Mercury had so generously, in his opinion, offered her.
He had spent some time, after bringing Emerald to the tiny break room on the furthest edge of the building, evaluating her condition. She had very obviously seen better days. Although he didn't see her struggle with his own eyes, but Mercury could tell from the swelling on her face and her somewhat labored breathing that she would need time for her Aura to help her get back to her feet. As far as he could tell, her injuries appeared to be bruises and scratches, which was good news in his estimation. He was neither trained nor prepared to treat an actual life threatening injury.
For the rest of the night, Mercury tried his best to avoid looking too concerned with his slowly crumbling team. At this point, and for that matter any point in his recent past, Emerald was the closest thing he had to a friend. Of course, he could never admit such a thing to her. His callous exterior image would never recover from the damage he would be doing to it. In contrast to his attempts to appear distant emotionally, Mercury didn't sleep that night. He switched off the light in the room, and picked out a nice place to lean against the wall, near the door, where he would stay for the foreseeable future…
...Which turned out to be a lot longer than he expected. By noon, his patience was completely gone. He spent the night wondering what Cinder's condition was, considering that as far as he was aware, she had been left with a girl who never talked. Another point of interest for him was the heavy concentration of Grimm in the main courtyard and around the tower… that had chosen to ignore his presence since he pulled Emerald through that door and closed it. That thought alone had consumed several hours of deep concentration. The Grimm showed the same ferocity that they were infamous for outside, but they seemed to be either disinterested or disheartened by the prospect of a fight with a human within the relatively tight confines of a building. Maybe they were finally beginning to learn a thing or two about survivability, but so far as his current situation was concerned, this development only served to benefit him.
When his patience and cramps had reached their breaking points, Mercury pushed himself away from the wall, and lumbered his way across the room to Emerald. He took long, slow strides, which also served as a sort of stretching exercise. Now, he stood over her. The couch was so small that he wasn't sure whether it was her bruises or the position she had slept in that would cause her more discomfort. Speaking of her bruises… He knelt down and tried to get a good look at her injuries. It was difficult in the almost nonexistent light of the windowless, interior room. They appeared to be in the early stages of healing. The short distance between them allowed Mercury to hear that his partner's breathing had become much more regular. As far as he was concerned, she was going to be fine. And as far as she was concerned, he was way too close.
"Mercury. Personal space, please."
He had not been paying attention to her eyes, which had slowly opened, unbeknownst to him. The sound of her voice startled him, causing him to lurch back. It was the first human sound he had heard since the previous night, and the words that fell out of his mouth were sufficiently jumbled to communicate that. "I- uh- wasn't... you were sleeping and I had to make sure… Wait, shouldn't you be thanking me or something?"
Her head was throbbing, for a plethora of reasons. It felt like she had gotten too much sleep, not to mention too much blunt force applied to her. Understandably, this left her easily irritated. "I'll warm up to that. Right now, I'm getting off of this sofa before it finishes crumpling my spine."
Mercury stood up, but did not immediately give her the space she requested. "Do you uh, need any help with that?"
Emerald looked like she had seen a ghost. Is my semblance in effect right now? "Who are you? Where's Mercury?"
"Ha. Ha. That's funny. You're a regular comedian Em... I'm just saying... take it easy, you really got the dust beat outta ya."
She only partially heeded his warning, choosing to sit up in lieu of standing. It turned out to be a good choice when she immediately slumped forward a bit, and rested her head in one hand, supported against her knee. She let out a long groan, then sat silently for a half of a minute or so. "How long was I out?"
"I don't know what time it was last night when you had your… issues… It's a little after noon now. So… like... sixteen hours, give or take… Are you sure you're alr-"
"I feel like I got hit by a truck." Emerald's statements were concise and to the point, because they had to be. Sound caused her headache to flare up, but she wanted answers, so she was doing her best to endure it.
"To be fair, you looked like you got hit by a truck-" Emerald jumped up from the seemingly harmless position she had been slumped in. Apparently, she had not taken kindly to his assessment of her appearance, and her growling caused Mercury to flinch. "I said look-ed! You look… present tense... a lot better now! You have got to settle-"
His reflexes kicked in, yet again. This time, he had to catch Emerald as she lost her balance and fell directly into him. She remained alert, but not quite ready to be so active. For a few seconds, Mercury stood with Emerald in a half-embrace, half-crutch sort of scenario. It created an awkward, but not entirely unexpected silence, which was eventually broken by the female half of the team.
"So… about that thanks... Thanks. I don't even know if I would be in this… uncharacteristic, personal-space-violating situation if you hadn't shown up when you did." She sounded sincere, and she wasn't trying to cause physical harm in any way, so Mercury assumed that her gratitude was genuine.
Before she could say anything else, Mercury decided that she needed to return to a resting position, so he carefully helped her back down to a sitting position on the couch. Having completed that, he took a seat beside her, and allowed Emerald to continue her thought.
"But here's the thing… You really piss me off. Like a lot. You never want to play by the rules, or even acknowledge that there are any rules. Any time someone calls you on it, you have some stupid response… some kind of excuse for why you're right and the world's wrong. I hate you for that." She paused long enough to make eye contact with her partner. Emerald had to make sure that the things she was saying were registering with him.
They were. Mercury was somewhere between shocked and angry with this assessment of his character. It wasn't at all what he had been expecting, so he tried to let her know. "Wh- Wait a minute! I save you and this is the thanks I g-"
"Stop," Emerald instructed him. "I'm not done." She allowed for a few moments of silence, using them to gauge Mercury's patience and state of mind before continuing. "You're stubborn, hotheaded and abrasive. But… you're efficient. You always get the job done, even if I don't like the way you do it. On top of that, there's a good person inside of you somewhere."
He rolled his eyes. "How did you know about my work with children's charities?"
"Wow. Ok. Let's leave the downtrodden children out of this. I know you have a heart of stone, but the people you care about… and I know, whether you want to admit it or not, I'm one of them… You have the good inside of you to look out for them. You could have left me for dead back there. I might have even deserved it. But you didn't. I don't know where you went after we got down from that Tower, but the fact that you're still here proves that you have some kind of attachment to all of this."
Mercury couldn't decide whether to be flattered or flustered. "So… I guess we're cool then?"
"Almost." Emerald hesitated once again, giving her time to adjust to a more serious tone. "Mercury, I don't know if this means I've had the sense knocked out of me, or knocked into me… but I think we have to get off of this campus. It doesn't make sense for us to just sit here and wait for Cinder. Without knowing what her plans were… We've got to take things into our own hands."
Mercury's blinked once. Then once more. He shook his head in disbelief of what he was hearing, while simultaneously preparing himself for the backlash that would likely be unleashed on him after effectively taking the stance of 'I told you so'. "Em, I don't know how to break this to you, but that's literally what I've been saying for days." He let his words float for a few moments, until after receiving no verbal or physical abuse, he felt comfortable continuing. "So-uh, yeah. Let's do exactly that."
"Good," Was the immediate response that Emerald aired between them.
Mercury reciprocated it, "Good… Ya know, I think this might be us turning over a new leaf in our uh, friendship."
"I didn't get hit that hard Mercury. Let's worry about getting out of here first, then we can focus on sharing a plate of spaghetti afterward." The joke she made was not lost on Mercury, who volleyed back with his own dry sense of humor.
He acted as if he wanted to cry, "They grow up… so fast-OW!"
The the physical had violence begun. A quick shot to his arm was all Emerald needed to let him know that they couldn't be quite so loose, given their current predicament. "So I'm gonna rest for a little while longer. If you could find some food-" She saw Mercury open his mouth to speak, "Not. Carrots…" she continued, "somewhere without getting yourself killed, that would go a long way toward helping me get back on my feet faster."
"Too bad, I ate all of the carrot sticks."
"Yeah, too bad."
Mercury smiled. "Alright, well I'll find ya something. Maybe some broccoli or cauliflower or like, some beets... And if you're really good, I'll bring some ranch dip."
"Oh goody! Thanks Dad!" Emerald could trade sarcastic blow for sarcastic blow with Mercury. She always could, most of the time she just chose not to. Right now, she just wanted to get some rest. As Mercury got up from his seated position next to Emerald on the sofa, she took the opportunity to lay down as best as she was able, and close her eyes.
Mercury cracked the door open, and checked the hall for any potential threats. When he saw nothing, he leaned back towards Emerald. "I'll be back as soon as I find something. If you decide to fight an army of Grimm while I'm gone, at least try to win this time."
As he pulled the door closed, the words, "Shut up Mercury," could be heard coming from the room behind him.
He spent the next few hours, which was significantly longer than he expected, searching for food without much success. There were still Grimm inside of the building, which forced Mercury to constantly choose between either fighting or sneaking around. Each time he had to engage, aching muscles reminded him of the exhaustion that was slowly overtaking him. He hadn't slept the previous night, and had rested quite poorly the night before. In between, surviving had sapped most of his energy. Carrot sticks had done little to replenish it.
With regards to his search, everything that he found was now at least two days old. This was acceptable in some cases. A loaf of bread that he found still looked edible, but ended up being unbelievably stale. In his estimation, He probably could have killed a Beowolf with it. A few sandwiches were still on display at a small coffee shop on the second floor, but even they were beginning to gather some mold after sitting out for so long.
After hours of mixed successes, he had gathered an orange, three bags of miniature pretzels and two cans of soda. Having completed the review of his inventory, Mercury found himself watching the sun set over Vale. He cracked open the grape flavored drink, and took a few sips. He hadn't found much time to pay attention to the city while being trapped inside for hours, sometimes days at a time. But now that there was a peaceful moment, he noticed that there was now a very large ship hovering above it. Hm. Wonder what that's all about.
Having found something edible that wouldn't spoil any time soon, Mercury pulled a stool from the coffee shop up to the window and just looked out towards the city where, aside from the enormous ship, he could very clearly make out several plumes of smoke. In all likelihood, they were the byproduct of Torchwick's handiwork. I am NOT looking forward to seeing him again, he thought. Another observation was the fact that the Grimm prowled in decreasing concentrations the further away from the center of Beacon that he looked. This meant that the window near where he had taken a seat was a relatively safe place to relax for a little while.
Mercury hoped that his delay in returning to Emerald would allow her to rest more peacefully. With that thought in mind, he resigned himself to stay upstairs until dark. Eventually, he finished his drink, and tossed it in the general direction of a trash can. He missed. Should've punted it. He decided that enough time had passed, so he gathered his various assortment of snacks and started walking back toward the staircase when something caught his eye.
Mixed in with the smattering of Grimm outside of the boundary of the school was something not quite as mindless. People… There were actually people moving very slowly, methodically cutting through the scattered packs of Grimm. They seemed to have come from across the clearing, likely the forested area in the distance. Huntsmen. They have to be… and there's three of them. Why would they be coming here? Now? They were crossing the field en route to Beacon, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Mercury ducked behind a the counter, but observed the trio of newcomers for a short time.
No matter what their motivations were, he knew that he had to get back to Emerald. If the approaching huntsmen had malicious intentions, she wouldn't stand much of a chance alone. Mercury wasn't in prime fighting condition himself, but at least he could stand. By extension, he could also run, which is what he did, as fast as he could, all the way back to the first floor. He ran right past several small Grimm, even going as far as to shoulder one out of the way. It was blatant recklessness, but caution had quite recently been thrown to the wind.
He threw the door to the tiny room Emerald was staying in out of the way and flipped on the light. The commotion startled the occupant, who was standing now, without much trouble, over the sofa that had previously been critical to her ability to remain off of the floor. She held a forgotten umbrella in her hands, the same one that Mercury had tossed aside in anger many hours before. He chose to immediately dismiss the sight of it, and calmly began to remove the food that he retrieved from his pockets, and began towards Emerald.
"Where did you find this?" she asked.
Assuming that she meant the food, Mercury responded. "There was a snackbar on the top floor, I didn't think anybody was gonna eat it so I-"
Emerald interrupted him, as she was prone to doing when he began to ramble on about something that was not relevant or interesting to her. "No, Neo's umbrella. Why is it in here?"
Although he had been interrupted, Mercury continued his pace across the room, and more or less forced the food he had gathered into Emerald's possession. If she was going to interrogate him, she was going to eat while she did it. As he passed the snacks to Emerald, her expression changed from inquisitive to grateful. At the same time, however, she still looked at her comrade with an expectation that her original question would be answered. She seemed perfectly content to just wait for a response before beginning her meal.
Mercury's priorities were not focused on something as trivial as an umbrella, no matter who its owner was. "We really don't have time to do this right now, Em. Can you just eat something?"
The thought of a hunger strike hadn't really crossed her mind. Interrogation also wasn't the word she would have chosen to describe the words they were exchanging. Emerald, and most normal people, called it casual conversation. In fact, she had already opened a bag of the mini-pretzels, and popped a few into her mouth. While chewing, she made an attempt to understand where Mercury's change of pace was coming from. "What's the rush? You almost broke down the door on the way in here. I thought we were just resting. Or… at least I was. You... look like hell. Maybe you should be the one taking a nap."
Ideally, Mercury would have laughed ironically at her assessment of his outward appearance. In this case, his expression remained as dry and serious as it had been since entering the room. "I'm fine. For now. But someone's coming. Here. Now."
Her jaw stopped mid-bite. She raised both eyebrows and lowered her head slightly to indicate to Mercury that he should elaborate on the news.
He got the hint. "I-I think they're Huntsmen."
She swallowed the mouthful of pretzels. "They?"
"Mmhmm," Mercury answered. "I saw three. I don't know how much time we have, and they weren't moving fast, but they were definitely headed here."
Emerald wanted to know more things than Mercury could possibly tell her. "What does that mean for us? How should we handle them?"
"Not sure. I don't know who they are, or why they would want to come back to this death trap." Mercury thought for a moment, then his eyes opened wide. "I saw the old Huntsman and the Schnee girl leave campus two nights ago. They had Ruby with them. If she talked, then our cover is blown."
Emerald felt a chill fall over her. She recognized that if Ruby was awake and alert, then that was a misstep that fell squarely on her shoulders. Of course, she had no way of knowing that the hooded red huntress was still, in reality, unconscious in Vale. The possibility, though, meant that it had to be taken into consideration.
"You okay Em?" Mercury's voice snapped her out of the paralyzing guilt that she felt for letting such an important witness off the hook. "You've got that… 'I just saw a ghost' look on your face again."
"Yeah… I'm fine," were the words that she managed to blurt out. She tried to collect herself, and keep from saying or doing something that might tip Mercury off to what she had done atop Beacon Tower. "I was just thinking about what to do, and I think we have to try to hide from them. At least until we figure out who they are, and how much of a threat they pose."
Mercury nodded. "Right, then the first thing we're going to do is get out of here. When I saw them, they were approaching from the woods to the northwest of here. If they come to this building first, there's a pretty good chance that they enter through the door right outside of this room."
Emerald wasn't in a position to argue, so she added her thoughts to the plan. "Let's get upstairs then. From there, maybe we can keep an eye on our visitors without being in their immediate path. If we have to evacuate, we'll be that much closer to the roof access… Not that I have any real desire to go back outside… but at least it's a viable option."
"It's a start," Mercury said. His tone let her know that he was in agreement with her plan. "Let's get out of here." It was as he started towards the door that he remembered the difficulties Emerald had doing simple things like standing, earlier in the day. When he looked back to check on her, Mercury was pleasantly surprised to see that she was able to move fairly nimbly. Everything that they had brought into the room was quickly collected and carried out.
Mercury checked the hall for Grimm activity, then ushered Emerald out of the room. He flipped the lights off, and closed the door, leaving only an umbrella as proof that anyone had been there. He turned back to Emerald, with the intent of leading her to the staircase that would take them up. He found her standing in place, swiveling her head back and forth, as if trying to find something.
"What're you doing? Something wrong?" he asked.
Emerald raised her index finger to her mouth. "Shhh… Don't you hear that?"
He tried to focus, listening for anything that sounded out of place. This proved to be more difficult than he anticipated, given how long it had been since the last time he slept. But there was a sound that didn't belong. Emerald seemed able to detect the exact moment when he heard it. "That sounds like crying. Who's crying?"
Mercury seemed aggravated with the prospect of who he thought it could be. But when Emerald began to follow the sound, he had no choice but to do the same, even though he wasn't particularly fond of what seemed like a colossal waste of time. It didn't take long for her to follow the sound to the next room on their left, heading deeper into the building. Carefully, she leaned into the wooden double door, revealing a large lecture hall.
"Isn't she supposed to be with Cinder?" Mercury asked, having laid eyes on the familiar, two tone girl bawling at the center of the floor.
Emerald bobbled her reply, "Uh, well, I never… actually said that… But we need to help her, she could be hurt… and I mean, we could use her help in a fight if it comes to that..."
"Nope," Mercury answered as he turned away from the doorway he had been standing in. "We had a bit of a disagreement earlier. One thing lead to another, and I end up with a hole in my foot." He looked down at his punctured boot, and Emerald's eyes followed him. "That should answer your question about why I had her umbrella…"
Emerald frowned at him. "There's no way you're some innocent bystander in all of this. What'd you do?"
"All I did was bring up Roman, then she goes ballistic on me." Mercury looked back towards the small room they had inhabited previously. "Tell ya what, I'll get her umbrella, and you can give it to her. But after that, I'm done with her."
A sigh came from down the hall. "You know, you can be a cold hearted-"
She was cut off by the shrill screech of metal piercing metal. Mercury whipped his head around to see three metal blades piercing the door behind him. Without hesitation, he swiftly pushed through the door to his left, which was another classroom. This one was adorned with hunting trophies and an assortment of weapons, all mounted on the walls. He quickly pulled the doors closed,, and hid himself just inside of them, so that if one was opened, he would be hidden behind it.
Emerald followed much the same protocol, except that instead of entering her classroom, she pulled the door closed, and retreated further down the hall, around the first corner she came to. None of the commotion had phased Neo, which Emerald assumed would become a problem sooner rather than later.
No more than fifteen seconds had passed since the blades interrupted their squabble, but both Emerald and Mercury had hidden themselves. Unfortunately, they were not on the upper floor where they wanted to be, they were not together and there was still the minor issue of their associate remaining detached from reality, crying alone inside a classroom. With Mercury holed up inside of a separate room, Emerald was the only one with a vantage point that allowed her to see down the hall, to the door that had been breached.
She stared intently at the door, as the blades retracted back through the it, and an eerie silence overtook the building again, for a short time. It was broken by the vestige of a door being kicked open, revealing a young man in some sort of overcoat, wearing goggles. Emerald was very careful to avoid poking her head around the wall far enough that she could be seen, but it appeared that the man was talking to someone. A few more moments of observation revealed a second intruder. She knew Port as soon as she saw him. The combination of his voice and silhouette were unmistakable.
After a few seconds of garbled dialogue, a third person entered the hall. Then, the door was shut behind them. Emerald tried to listen to what they were saying. The ambient sounds of Grimm both inside and outside of the building, combined with the muffled whimpers coming from the room between them made comprehension difficult. She was sure that she did hear the words "...split up," which was certainly good news.
She watched intently for a few moments as they discussed something, and then broke off individually. Port was first, and it worried Emerald greatly that he entered the door to the room Mercury had hurriedly retreated into. The one wearing the overcoat went into the break room that had been her home for the last day, and the last member of the squad began to walk toward Neo's room.
Just one. One is good. I can handle one. Emerald hadn't really tried to exert herself in any way since the beginning of her recovery, but in the interest of protecting Neo, she now had no choice. Worse still, using her semblance to hide Neo would rely on her associate doing something to get herself out of danger. In her current state, Emerald couldn't be sure how Neo would react to seeing someone she didn't know.
Emerald projected the image of a crying girl in place of Neo. The replacement was one she had used before. She was much younger, much more innocuous than the person she was hiding. It was the same illusion that she had deceived the Fall Maiden with, months before. It was far from ideal, but on short notice though, it would do.
This was a challenging situation for Emerald. Normally, she would have a direct view of her target, allowing her illusions to act and react more realistically. In this case, she had to simply create a facade to protect Neo, and then cross her fingers and hope that Neo was not only smart, but alert enough to get herself out of her predicament. It was a gamble. Emerald wanted to move closer, to peek into the room, just to be sure that everything was going to plan, but that would leave her exposed in the hall, either one of the other two intruders could reemerge at any moment.
She had almost convinced herself that it was worth the risk, until that exact possibility became a reality. The first of the men she had seen, the one in the overcoat, emerged from the break room. He appeared to have slung his weapon on his back, and was now twirling something else on his hand. He began moving down the hall towards the room that Neo had taken up residence in. As he moved closer, it became clear that the item in his possession was the umbrella from before. Neo's umbrella.
Emerald knew that if Neo was not hidden, she was about to be exposed. Her mind felt foggy and unconditioned, and she was using her semblance on just one target. Attempting two was simply not possible at this time. As the man in the overcoat rounded the corner to join his ally, she stopped her illusion. Neo, I'm sorry. I just can't. You're on your own now…
Several brutally long seconds passed. There was not any excessive commotion coming from inside the room, and no sounds of struggle or combat. Emerald could hear talking both before and after the second huntsman entered, so her semblance had apparently done its job, especially considering that both of the voices she could hear had a deeper, masculine tone. She wanted to see what was going on so badly that it almost hurt, and for the second time in the last few minutes, she almost convinced herself that it was worth the risk.
Then, she heard what sounded like a gunshot. The sound seemed to bounce off of everything in the relatively cramped hallway, and echoed down the long, dark corridor. It was difficult to tell, but Emerald's best guess was that it came from Mercury's room. Suddenly, the risks didn't matter any more. She knew he could handle himself in a fight, but the huntsman that entered that room was a seasoned veteran, despite his... portly build. She shook her head at the poor play on words she had just considered, and took off from her place of concealment, moving toward the origin of the sound.
Sprinting turned out to be a harrowing experience for Emerald. Up until this point, she had barely been walking more than a few dozen steps at a time. Moving so quickly, especially in dimly lit hallway felt reckless. Nonetheless, she resigned herself to taking a very quick peek into Neo's room as she darted past it. The weapon fire had been loud and unmistakable. The, at least, two occupants of the room would have certainly heard it as well. At that moment, two more shots rang out in rapid succession, coming from what seemed like the same place as the first. She tried to imagine what her partner could be doing that would require him to open fire on something, but didn't have time to fully consider it.
She approached Neo's room, and swiveled her head to get a quick look inside without breaking stride. As she did, the man in the overcoat emerged from the room in a full sprint as well. His head was turned to look behind him, leaving him with no warning of the imminent collision in front of him. Emerald could not react to the body that was barreling towards her, and before she could think about it, the two collided. Emerald was knocked off of her feet, although by her own admission, it was an outcome that was not overly difficult to achieve, given her current state.
One of the principal points of impact had been her abdomen. This meant that now, on top of being sore and a bit foggy, the breath had been knocked out of her. From her hands and knees, she rifled through a menagerie of thoughts ranging from how to talk to this man, to whether or not she should be prepared to fight him. Emerald decided not to wait for him to say something. She would try to play the part of the damsel in distress. Then, her body reminded her that it was still having trouble breathing.
"Sorry…" she gasped, "Didn't know… anyone else was… in the building… Heard shots…" Considering the trauma of the previous day, Emerald was surprised to find that she was able to pick herself up off of the ground before the, now very clearly, blue haired young man that she had collided with. He simply stared up at her, almost like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Emerald offered her hand to assist him, before continuing her introduction. "I came as fast as I could… I was already in the area… with my teammate. He wandered off… I thought the shots came from him… We've got to check it out…" Having completed her monologue, she could do nothing but hope that his intentions were not malicious. She was relieved when a moment later, he accepted her hand, and returned to his feet. As Emerald pulled him up, she noticed the second man, standing in the doorway. He seemed to be just as surprised as the first at what had happened.
Very quickly, Emerald glanced past the second man, into the room behind him. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw Neo casually stroll into frame, and pick her umbrella up from a desk, where it had apparently been left behind in the flurry of activity that lead to the two men to dash out of the room. She did her best to hide her reaction to what she saw in an effort to avoid tipping anyone off to Neo's presence, assuming that it wasn't already common knowledge.
She didn't even take the time to release the blue-haired man's hand from her own before she turned away from him and started back down the hall towards the source of the gunfire. Emerald didn't really care who they were, because for all she knew, they could be engaged in combat with one another depending on what was happening in Mercury's room. "We thought it was our friend too. I'm Neptune, and this is my teammate, Sage. I feel like I've seen you around, but I'm sorry to say I don't remember your name."
She knew who they were. Team SSSN. Skilled fighters, but not in the class of elite, except for their leader who, fortunately, appears to be absent. In lieu of some convoluted plan involving fake names and deception, Emerald decided it would be best to find out exactly what was happening with Mercury before saying anything other than what was asked of her.
As the trio approached the door that Mercury, and later Port, had entered, she placed her hands on the grips of her two holstered weapons. She was prepared for just about anything once she entered the room. For now, she just gave the information that had been requested of her, to avoid accruing unnecessary suspicion. "Emerald."