Lay Down Hunter: Yay, I did well! Oh, and pairings? Spoilers :D
I am afraid that naming a char after you won't work, as most if not all of the names have to be named after, according to or reminiscent of a colour. As per Monty Oum.
Anyhow, thanks for the feedback!
Nightraze: I am happy to report that I will only be diverging more and more from the canon from now on.
Tuutje07: I am glad you like my humor :) As for your conspiracy…perhaps this chapter will shed some light?
"Most of our units are still stationed outside of the Kingdoms. I don't get why Yale doesn't want us to swarm Vale again; we did so back in the days, when it was formed, so why not now?"
"You don't get to question his decisions, Agent. Vale is currently ruled by a reluctant Council; they want to see what Ozpin can do to keep the situation under control. Fireteam Lima was simply there to reinforce Greystone's mission, just in case he failed."
"They accounted for Mantis to show up?"
"I'd think that they'd even account for humans giving birth to Grimm. You don't want to know what contingency plans have been installed; the Committee is there for a reason you know?"
Day 34 -Main Dining Hall- 13:54,
"So there we were," Grace happily said as she slapped several pancakes on her plate, stealing them a severely distracted Lisa. "Standing all alone in the middle of these biker dudes. They were all waving their guns around feeling smug, while Lisa was just staring at this dude's bike. And then Cho was all like-"
"Just tell us what you know and we will be off," Cho added, wanting to retain his honour by spilling his own honour instead of letting the girls do it for him. These moments in the dining hall were always so awkward. Happy banter and describing humiliating scenarios had stopped being funny ten years ago. There were several, more actual events at hand. Such as Jaune having finally gotten rid of Cardin´s bullying as he had told them yesterday evening. Or the fact that Jaune had snuck his way aboard Beacon using faked transcripts, nearly getting himself killed on several occasions because of his blind need to be the hero and resulting incompetence. Or the whole Ozpin-already-knew scenario, meaning that the Headmaster had known that Jaune would never be able to survive things like the Emerald Forest or other trainings.
And even if he ignored all those things, there was still the fact that Jaune had been made leader of team JNPR despite his complete and utter lack of training or experience. It wasn't as if he disliked Jaune or anything, but it was a very dangerous and risky decision to make.
"And while Cho and this hairy guy were talking, Lisa got herself a funny idea."
Even though everything was supposed to be alright now, he felt like the situation was far from that. There was a certain tension in the atmosphere…one that he could not explain or even describe. It was just there…and it made him nervous.
Mauves rarely got nervous.
The rest of the table waited for Lisa to add her own version, but the blonde kept staring at the window out back –looking directly away from the rest of them. So Grace continued. "Lisa said 'We totally need to blow up their bikes.'"
"Tell me you did not do that!" Yang replied in shock. Her preference for flashy vehicles was also a curious thing –and she hung around Johnson's jeep way too much.
"We had been ordered to chase that gang out of the building," Jason said, hoping that they could soon finish the conversation and start preparing for whatever was going to happen. Even the sky seemed charged with anticipation: the sky was dark and broody and the air outside was moist.
"You were so lucky that you had an actually cool mission," Jaune pointed out.
"It was cool…till one of those guys attempted to cuss at Lisa." That got their attention alright. It was a generally well-known fact that Lisa had the worst mouth out of all of them –someone bad-mouthing her was usually in for a big surprise…like Sky Lark had found out one day. The unfortunate guy had accidentally bumped into her, but then got stupid about it and called her a "blind idiot."
Lisa had not been amused. Professors two floors away had their lessons disturbed.
"Wait, what?" Ren asked, formulating the question that many were supposed to be having right now.
"Exactly that." Grace laughed and pointed at her teamleader with a fork. "The guy had a bad mouth, you don't want to know."
"What did you do then?" Pyrrha asked Lisa, who did not reply at first. "Lisa?"
"Hello, Vale to Adamant?" Yang said.
"What?" Lisa muttered and turned around to face them. "Oh yeah, totally agree with that one. Yes."
"You weren't listening, were you?" asked Jason.
"Wha-? The nerve! That is totally! Ah who am I kidding, of course I wasn't listening." Lisa then sighed and placed her head on her hand, ignoring her fruit.
"Alright, what's wrong?" Grace asked.
"It's just this…funny feeling, you know?"
"Bathroom's that way," Jaune pointed to the exit, earning a quick laugh from Nora.
"Not like that, more like the feeling that something is terribly wrong…" She then placed a hand underneath her chin and narrowed her eyes to show that she was thinking about something. The mere fact that she was letting Jaune off the hook after he made such a remark was one thing, but to see her actually thoughtful… scary.
Mauves did not get scared often. "Not this again." He sighed and reached for his coffee, feeling the inexplicable need to compensate for the tiny spec of apprehension that his partner had caused.
"Lisa…this is the second time," Alessa softly said, but the girl paid her no heed.
"CRDL being mysteriously gone?" She started.
"Punishment for blackmailing Jaune," said Ruby.
"Will disappearing?"
"Probably shy," tried Ren.
"Us getting assigned to useless warehouses and museums to protect for missions?"
"First-year practice." Yang yawned.
"Professors acting weird?"
"Beacon," Grace said and stuffed pancake in her mouth.
"Atlas wanting to have a new Vytal Festival?"
"That's just for festivities you dolt!" Weiss came, trying to be nice in her own special way.
"Soldiers coming to Beacon?"
"Body-guards," said Cho.
"Beacon needing body-guards?"
"Criminals and assassins," Blake reassured Lisa.
"And then Lisa was out of ammo." Grace joked, "Things are chill! CRDL is gone, we've been having cool lessons and everything is alright."
That was most certainly true. Just this morning they had had specialized Aura training, where Professor peach used the specially prepared Red sap to…do something Aura-ish. He had never been a fan of using Aura for so many things, even though she had refined the stuff into some sort of trance-inducing tea to "optimize their capabilities" he hadn't felt a damn thing.
Of course, he had thrown the tea away the second he found out that it tasted rancid, so that might have had something to do with it.
"I know, I know," Lisa said and downed a glass of juice. The orange kind. "But I can't help but shake the feeling that I am being watched."
"I know that feeling," Ruby joked. "Part of sharing a room with other people, I guess."
"Ruby," Jaune softly said, "You're in a team with other girls. You shouldn't be having that problem."
Ruby was about to reply when Yang interfered, causing the redheaded girl to fall silent. "I really want to know how that story ended. How did Lisa respond to that guy?"
"Well, of course the guy had a big mouth," Grace continued, "It was like a sailor. He nearly traumatized poor Mauve!"
"Cho…" Ruby corrected her.
"But…he did not anticipate that someone might be worse than him when it came to language."
"No!" Jaune replied in shock, "Don't say…did she really?"
"Like two sailors hitting their heads against a bar. On sea," Grace then cheerfully declared.
"What? What did you do?" Ruby asked Lisa.
"Well…" Lisa began an innocently formulated sentence, looking at Yang to spot any signs of disapproval. "I don't take crap from no one. Especially not bearded biker-types."
"What happened then?" Ren asked.
"While Lisa was providing a distraction that went into history as the most proficient usage of profane language in one sentence-"
"I believe it was seventeen, a new personal record," Grace quickly added.
"-Grace snuck off to sabotage their bikes. After Lisa nearly sent their leader into a coma by talking to him, we asked the rest of the group to leave nicely." He finished that part of the story.
"Of course, that didn't work out?" Pyrrha asked.
"While their leader had lost his lower jaw to the floor in his surprise, the rest started threatening us with silly things like death and pain and stuff." Grace explained. "It didn't help that they were testosterone-filled guys and we were girls."
Jason threw her a frustrated glance, but she ignored that.
"So the second I enter that building again to give Lisa the heads-up signal, she screams 'Blow their shit!' and then I detonated their bikes."
"Ouch." Ren stated.
"Very," he agreed.
"In the split-second of distraction, we decided that we had better convince them with a secondary argument." Lisa finished with a big smile.
"They couldn't have taken that very well." Ruby laughed.
"Not really, but having a Cho with us helps big time." Grace sighed. "People generally don't tend to fare well when under extreme Voltage."
"They don't," Jason added. "Which is why it's a popular torture-method."
"A different topic perhaps?" Pyrrha quickly asked, before any of them could process that last part. "Professor Adamant saw fit to inform us of the details of team CRDL's punishment. They had to leave Beacon yesterday to guard another museum. But they were also supposed to contact Beacon this morning…and I don't believe they have."
"They're probably mad or something," Yang waved her worries away.
"Or sleeping," proposed Blake.
"Or both?" Ruby asked, but Weiss merely patted her on her head.
"Yes Ruby…sleeping while mad," The girl told her leader patronizingly. It looked rather weird for a girl to pat another girl on her head…that wasn't typical girl behaviour, especially not for a girl like Weiss Schnee. He didn't regard himself a specialist in female interaction, but he was fairly good in predicting their behaviour under certain circumstances. This didn't look very natural for them to act.
He looked at Grace, who didn't seem to notice the subtle nonverbal signs in RWBY. Perhaps he was just imagining things?
No; Pyrrha was also looking at the two girls, but she had a look of amusement in her eyes. So there was something there that needed attention? Intriguing.
"But…" Ren suddenly said after a few minutes of continued silence. "CRDL was ordered to do that by Ozpin and Adamant. They wouldn't ignore their orders, especially not when this already was their punishment."
"I don't think the Professors would inform us of CRDL's punishment and their process, not even after the things they did to Jaune and Pyrrha," Blake then said. "So even if they didn't contact Beacon, we wouldn't know about it."
"That's the problem with Matt," Lisa then surprised them by initiating a conversation about her brother, "You never know if he is telling the truth or not. When he thinks that you are better off not knowing, he will blatantly lie to prevent anyone from finding out."
"That sounds harsh," said Yang.
"I never really looked at it like that," Grace mused, "I mean, a man can have his secrets, right? And he IS a Professor. Plus the fact that he kept Jaune's secret a secret after you told him…wouldn't it be a good thing for him to be secretive?"
"There is a difference between keeping secrets and lying…" Lisa then muttered, but Weiss merely sighed.
"If everyone knows everything, the world would be a very dangerous place."
"Or a very safe place…" Blake added, not looking particularly happy.
"Ooh!" Nora then exclaimed, succeeding in getting everyone's attention again. "I know what makes everyone happy! The shed!"
"Ehm…what?" Yang asked.
"Your…cabin of ultimate imprisonment and cruelty?" Lisa carefully asked.
"No, that would be Professor Port and his Grimm collection." Jaune corrected her.
"Right, Redgar the Boarbatusk."
"What shed?"
"You know, that shed! The shed where everyone's accomplishments are kept!" Nora explained.
"She means the trophy room," Ren clarified and grabbed a sandwich.
"What room?" Jaune asked.
"Oh, the trophy room!" Ruby then squeed. "The building to the north of Beacon where everyone's awesome victories of awesomeness!"
"Calm down sis'," Yang laughed and shoved a glass of milk towards the young Rose, "Use full sentences and words."
The contents of the glass disappeared quickly down Ruby's throat and then she took a deep breath, before starting all over again. "There is a building recently added to Beacon Academy, to the north of the main structures. Everytime a student does something awesome or amazing, the feat gets added to their wall. Weiss and I saw it yesterday evening when we were walking. Thus far, it holds quite a few strange things."
"Like what?"
"Like Pyrrha's accomplishments in Mistral!" Weiss eagerly told them.
"And…a few other things," Ruby then mumbled, her enthusiasm declining rapidly.
"Like what?" Lisa asked a bit louder than Grace.
"Like Jaune being the very first person to enter Beacon without pre-training!" The redhead then quickly flapped out, causing an awkward silence.
"Is that an accomplishment" Jaune asked, not looking particularly insulted.
"As long as you don't see it as one, it is," Pyrrha then stated.
She was right. If Jaune didn't see his lack of training as a good thing, it would be a good thing on its own. That was the true accomplishment; him dealing with it in a good way. There could only be one person capable of thinking in such abstract ways… "Let me guess, the Professors decide what goes there?" He asked.
"Yup," Ruby confirmed.
"What else is there?" Ren asked.
"Why don't we visit it today?" Yang proposed, "The only thing we got this afternoon is History with Oobleck."
"I hate to break it to you, but that college starts in…ten minutes." Lisa ruined the moment by reminding them all of their school duties.
"Yeah…we should visit it soon," Weiss sarcastically snapped. "As if school will let us!"
"One of these days Weiss," Grace laughed, "One of these days."
So after their conversation having been turned from funny to serious and back, the rest of the people simply continued their conversations, unaware of his feelings concerning the recent events. At least his teamleader was also aware of the hints that they had been receiving for a long time…and from the looks of it, Blake had the same feeling. He could see it at her demeanor –she was happier than usual, meaning that she had to compensate for something else. And Alessa…well, he never actually knew what Alessa felt like. The only person to whom she had opened up was Grace…and while he respected people's secrets, he was still very curious as to how and why Alessa wore a blindfold. It had to do something with…capturing and enhancing images…or perhaps she used her Aura…
"Cho, think fast!" Grace yelled and threw one of her balls at him –one of her explosive, newly-created balls.
He cursed softly and threw a sandwich against the device, knocking it off its path. "Stop doing that!"
15:13, Headmaster Ozpin's office.
Things never seemed to work out the way Headmaster Ozpin wanted them to work out. There was always something in his way, were it murderous criminals or shady organizations lurking in the dark. There were a few people he could trust with this issue and even fewer people he actually wanted to trust. But if he were to resolve this problem, he would need all the help he could get. And the two people in front of him were the correct persons to assist him.
"Professor Adamant, Professor Goodwitch. I am glad that you two were able to see me on such short notice," He told his colleagues.
"Anytime, Professor Ozpin," Miss Goodwitch replied.
The Adamant was not so eager. "Do you have something really boring for me to do? Because I will escape down the fire-escape if you do."
"There IS no fire-escape," Glynda corrected Matt.
"Window, fire-escape, whatever. Escaping is there nonetheless."
"If you could focus, Matt." Yes, he was aware of his usage of the word 'if' and the fact that the young Adamant could now say something along the lines of "So theoretically, IF I could focus, can I escape?" But now was not the time for such silly attempts at…humor. "We have a situation."
And then he had the utter and foremost attention. Excellent. "As you are well aware of, we have several places in the city that are deemed of extreme value to Beacon Academy. Roman Torchwick has already robbed one of them, while another attempt at robbery was averted."
"He has an uncanny fascination with our allied structures, yes," Glynda agreed.
"Agreed. But just three days ago, an important research laboratory was attacked and –in the subsequent fighting- its research data was wiped. Torchwick was not behind this attack."
"Who was?"
"We did not yet know. Two days ago, a small computer shop was raided and then robbed of their data. Data on the runes found in the ancient ruins, accounts of art throughout the ages…etcetera. As you two also know, team CRDL has been assigned the task of defending the Museum in the north sector of the city. They were confirmed to have arrived there yesterday-evening, sometime between nine and ten o'clock. They were also supposed to contact us in the morning. They did no such thing."
"Were they also ambushed?" His blonde colleague then asked, looking shocked at the idea of three attacks in a row.
"I fear they have been, as the museum was reported to be attacked and destroyed this morning. No casualties, but all it contained was lost."
Glynda placed a hand in front of her mouth and sharply inhaled, while Matt remained completely unfazed. That wasn't a sign of emotional repression or lack of empathy –on the contrary; it meant that he was aware that he was feeling emotions…and working very hard to not show it to the outside world.
"And the boys?" The woman then asked.
"Found outside of the blast-radius, all unconscious. They are currently recovering in a hospital not too far away from here. Two of them regained consciousness just a few hours ago, but the doctors haven't been able to gain any important information out of them yet." He stopped to take a sip from his coffee and then sighed. "We fear that someone is purposely targeting our allies and points of interest to cripple us. So far, there have been no casualties."
"If it's not Roman Torchwick who is behind this…who is?" Professor Adamant asked.
"That is currently unknown. But…considering this string of attacks, we can consider the next target and assign additional protection."
"No…wait, yes!" Matt said, a spark of fire jumping in his eyes as he exploded into motion, grabbing several electronic scrolls and one large map. "Gimme a marker!"
A shocked Glynda quickly handed him his marker.
"This one is red."
"So?"
"I need a black one too!"
A sigh and a black marker later, the busy Adamant started drawing. "Seeing how Ozpin is right with this, our saboteur –whom we shall call mister Nasty- appears to be specifically targeting buildings to cripple our availability of Dust and Ammunition. But! You said that Torchwick was not behind the data-wipings, but behind the Dust-robberies. So he isn't Mister Nasty –meaning that there are two separate Nasty´s. Now! What was the purpose of the museum that CRDL was supposed to guard?"
"It contained an important relic, recovered from one of the ruins just outside the Forever Fall forest," Glynda quickly pointed out.
"PRECISELY!" Matt snapped and began drawing large, complicated circles and squares at the piece of paper with one hand. The other hand suddenly started typing at two scrolls at once.
"Our saboteur seems to be willingly damaging our attempts at decoding that information," Ozpin told Matt. "So in this string of attacks, the next target is either the Sapphirus Warehouse, or…"
"The Red-Fire Research laboratory!" Adamant finished his sentence like they were married. "And considering the need to first wipe all digital information before destroying material properties…"
"The Saboteur-"
"-call him Mister Nasty-"
"-I refuse-"
"-Fine-"
"-Will most likely be targeting the Sapphirus Warehouse. That is where we will send the next team."
"Any idea who we will send?" Glynda asked, adapting to their rapid conversation most sublimely.
"Yes." He decided and quickly cataloged the arguments that he had been gathering for a while. The criminals in Vale being wiped out, Roman Torchwick's schemes and robberies and very troubled past, the allies that had been granted from Onyx Academy and the subsequent contact Ozpin had been having with Atlas and their representative.
The Headmaster still had to figure out what Onyx' true agenda was and he had to work with the diplomatic implications of suddenly having become the foremost negotiator of Vale. The decision that were going to be made the coming days would dictate the future of the Kingdom –and it would either mean peace once more, or full-blown war. He could not risk having some underground organization sabotaging his school –and he knew that Matt and Glynda thought the same. "What we need is answers. We need a team capable of taking down targets alive in a surprise attack –ambush stagers."
"Second-years?" Adamant mused.
"Students whom I know have complete combat experience and the discipline to add."
"Third-years?"
"Students with training that allows them to think outside the box."
"A maintenance man?"
"He means LACG, Professor Adamant." Goodwitch clarified, saving him a lot of time and effort.
"What, team LACG? Lisa, Alessa, Cho and Grace? That LACG?"
"Yes Matt. And don't worry; I think they are quite capable of doing this," Ozpin tried to soothe his colleague's understandable worry.
"Of course they will be capable but…if Mister Nasty works for the enemy…he will have back-up. Lots of it."
"Don't count on it, Matt." Glynda said and smiled reassuringly. "This person works alone; the officials have figured out that much."
"The person who murdered the White Fang protesters also worked alone," The bowtie-warning man retorted. "And I worked alone. That can be a very dangerous man out there."
"Or woman," Glynda added.
"Not helping."
"Team LACG will lay the perfect ambush for the Saboteur and capture him. Then we will interrogate him with the best techniques that Beacon has to offer." He coughed. "Miss Goodwitch, if you would bring the team up to speed?"
"Yes Headmaster Ozpin," The blonde replied. "It will be done."
And with that Glynda turned around and left, leaving him alone with Professor Adamant. The good man tinkered with the scrolls for a good few minutes before the silence needed to be broken.
"I know that look," He started, "And I don't think I like it."
"A Saboteur, taking out the entire team CRDL, destroying three high-profile targets just to strike at Beacon? Of course there will be a look on my face –there can BE only a look on my face. What do you suppose happens when we find this guy? Who will even interrogate him?"
"Who do you suppose?"
"A combination of Ruby and Cho, but that is beside the point. CRDL lived –they weren't killed. This person might work for Roman Torchwick or they might be working for a completely different faction, but things are escalating to such a degree that there are things that I don't know."
"Matt, take a break," He told him. The young Professor had the tendency to allow his thoughts to spiral completely out of the known boundaries of sense. His mind would jump from topic to topic with such a speed and ferocity that a conversation about frogs could have him thinking about creating a dating-site for bearded men the very next second –and it would make total sense in his head.
And when Matt Adamant had the time to think, dangerous things happened.
"What?"
"You have been working nonstop at these things since you randomly went out to find your target. Even you need sleep." It didn't help that Matt took not understanding things personally; he would deprive himself of sleep, food and even water for as long as was necessary –or biologically possible- to get the answers he needed. The problems that went coupled with Onyx Academy, Fireteam Lima and Roman Torchwick were enigmas that he was unable to solve…and that meant trouble.
"Don't be silly," The Adamant waved him off and moved towards the exit. "Sleep is for people who are sleepy. I have work to do…finding out who and what Onyx is, where they are tied in with my own knowledge…finding out who is responsible for slaughtering all those criminals…I need to find out who this Saboteur is, so that LACG can take him in without trouble."
"I wish you good luck…after you grab some rest," He ordered the fashionably-questionable man and grabbed his coffee. Of course he wouldn't force Matt to do anything…he was…intelligent… enough to look after himself…
Headmaster Ozpin really wanted to avoid using the word 'responsible' to describe the Professor.
16:06, dropship en route to Sapphirus Warehouse
"Can't this thing go any faster?" Lisa asked impatiently, her voice occasionally interrupted by the roaring winds around their airship..
"It's an old Beacon dropship. It won't go faster than thirty miles per hour," Cho explained. "You know this already, we arrived at the Academy in the same sort of ship."
"We REALLY need to upgrade our hardware," The blonde then sighed. "If this is all over, we'll gather all the mechanics in the school and throw them at the ships until they are awesome."
"That will be fun," Grace laughed softly and winked at Alessa, who acknowledged her in her own special way. Glynda Goodwitch had sought them out more than half an hour ago, telling them that CRDL had been ambushed and that someone was seeking out buildings that were important to Beacon. The place where they would be send was called the Sapphirus Warehouse; a place where important research data regarding…things…was stored. "Hey Cho?"
"Yes Grace?"
"What is it that this Warehouse has been storing for Beacon again?"
Jason sighed and shook his head. "Research data on glyphs and symbols found in ancient ruins."
The person that was out to destroy everything related to Beacon had to work for someone that wanted to sabotage them at all costs. So it had to be some supervillain of some sorts.
"How much ammo do you got?" Lisa asked her.
Grace went through her arsenal again in her mind and quickly came up with an answer. "Four mines, eight stun grenades and a few thermal charges. Enough Dust to fuel Dragon's foliage for three minutes of continues fire."
Dust really was a useful thing. She used the refined properties of the stuff to power her explosives and flamethrower alike, while Lisa and Cho used different forms of Dust to power their own weapons. The Dust was nothing else than a sophisticated form of contained energy; sometimes its properties were formed like electrical energy, sometimes thermal energy.
And in some cases, the Dust was simply refined to be simply explosive. That was the best kind of Dust, as it gave a pretty big bang. But in contrast to Weiss Schnee and her Myrtenaster, the Dust that LACG used for their attacks was simply energy-in-a-box. There were no weird side-effects and no leftover trails of the stuff when fired.
However, her explosives weren't exactly lethal against humans. The innate Aura of human beings usually protected them against blows that would have dismembered a Beowolf. Even if this guy were to stop in her mines, he wouldn't be killed by it.
And if she was honest with herself, that was fine. She didn't want to kill anyone –she didn't want to become a Huntress to take lives, only to slay monsters.
"You?" Cho asked Lisa.
"Ten high-kinetic impact shots and ten explosive ones. Enough to blow our Saboteur to smithereens."
"Beacon wants him alive," Alessa pointed out.
"Which is where our Cho comes in," Lisa replied with a smile as she started to explain their plan again, "While the three of us distract and wound him, Cho subdues him with a nice shock of his zapper."
"I want to say don't underestimate him…" Jason started, "…but the fact that he or she took out CRDL doesn't mean a whole lot. Still, be careful."
"Five minutes to target!" The pilot, designated Lotus, told them.
"Got it!" Grace focused her attention back on her team. Lisa and Jason had grown closer to each other –which had improved their effectiveness in battle quite dramatically. And similar to those two, she had grown closer to Alessa. The blindfolded girl was still a bit of a mystery to her, but she was starting to understand what made her tick. Her ability to see things without actually seeing them was probably based on her unique semblance.
And since they had worked with JNPR to get back at Cardin –for Alessa probably had bad experiences with bullies- she had opened up a bit more to her, actually initiating conversations now and then. Alessa was a complicated person, but she still valued peace and rest above loud and obnoxious conversations. But that didn't place her above human things like character traits: the white-haired girl disliked warm things like fire and explosives. She liked cold things and implosions –thought that last was probably because of the cryo-round she had used.
And Miss Noctis was quite ruthless in combat, as evidenced by their various training exercises. She wasn't above using…unconventional tactics to get what she wanted. And that was specifically useful to LACG, as their specialty as a team lay in ambushes and traps. Alessa could see when and where the enemy was coming and then she would proceed to lay traps virtually EVERYWHERE, while Cho and Lisa engaged the targets in mid- and close-combat.
"I was right though," Lisa suddenly spoke up after a few minutes if continued silence.
"How come?" Cho replied.
"I said that there was something wrong and nobody listened. Then, we hear that CRDL has been ambushed and someone is out to get Beacon by sabotaging our buildings. So…points to me, thank you very much."
"If we survive this," Grace told her teamleader, "we will buy you an ice-cream."
"On whose account?" Cho asked.
"Beacon's!"
"One minute to drop-off, get ready back there," The pilot said and the dropship suddenly lurched down, causing Cho to nearly lose his balance. The ride went a bumpy for a few seconds, but then the g-forces that were assaulting their senses ceased and the hatch to the front of them opened up.
"This is it ladies and gentlemen, thank you for enjoying Beacon airlines. We wish you a pleasant day and hope you kick some ass."
"Thanks Lotus!" Lisa cheered and exited the ship.
"See you soon," Grace told the pilot and followed Lisa. Cho and Alessa didn't say anything during their exit, but they liked the woman that had provided their ride for them equally as much.
The dropship quickly took off again and disappeared in the sky, leaving them all alone. They made their way to the Warehouse and spend the next hour in getting to know the surroundings, asking the people still inside to leave the facility in case of an attack and laying traps.
The surrounding area might complicate their goal a bit; on the eastern side of the Warehouse lay a forest, that could provide a good form of cover for any enemies approaching them. On the other hand, the western side of the Warehouse led to civilization. Just a few hundred meters of walking and then they would arrive at one of the city blocks. They had taken the southern approach to the Warehouse, which was relatively open. The north merely led to a river that ended in a lake, completely in the open.
The building itself was relatively old; there were four distinctive pillars that provided support. If those were to be destroyed, the whole building would collapse and the instruments that were processing the data would be destroyed. The solution? Not let the data get destroyed. Simple? No.
Thankfully, Cho had worked together with one of the Professors to pull a few strings. "This is a DSM-module," He explained and placed a black object on the table inside of the museum. It was roughly cube-sized, seven centimeters wide, ten high and twenty long. "It is essentially an armoured hard-drive. It is capable of storing up to ten gigabytes of software and takes a real pounding to collapse. Even then, what is designated as highly important will be stored on individual facets inside of its structure. The Saboteur won't crack this before we take him-"
"-or her-" Grace pointed out.
"-or her- down. However, it can still be detached by people with hands. It won't be able to resist high-caliber armour-piercing rounds, but we don't expect those."
"This is the plan," Lisa took over, "After we rig the area up to become our own personal battlefield, Alessa will take place at the top of the Warehouse to be the spotter. As soon as she spots anyone coming our way, she will contact Grace and assist her in reinforcing that direction. Yeah?"
"Yup."
"Yes." Alessa confirmed as well.
"Good. While you two do that, Cho and I will attack the guy and lure him over to the traps. If we can't take him out in close-combat, we will rely on the traps to do the work. If those don't work…we might have pissed off the wrong person. Then we will require you two to save our asses."
"Relax girl!" Grace laughed and cycled a grenade in her weapon. "It will be alright. This guy won't know what hits him; CRDL might have been easy to take out, but we have eyes above our eyes."
"In a matter of speaking?" Cho asked.
"Sure…" She looked at Alessa, who was currently looking at the building to determine how to get on the roof.
They continued to reinforce the area for at least another thirty-five minutes, during which they spoke of a few different subjects while working. Lisa and Cho were checking the interior of the Warehouse, having understood that the majority of the fighting needed to take place outside of the building. There were several objects of interest inside of the Warehouse and Headmaster Ozpin would NOT be happy when they reported that the machinery had been destroyed in the fighting.
She sighed and made her way to the roof, hoping that the weather outside wasn't an omen to how the fight would go. It was rather gloomy; the clouds were dark, the air was chilly yet completely still and it should NOT be so dark at…
She checked her scroll and noticed that it was 18:02; officially evening.
Still, it shouldn't be as dark as it currently was.
"Who do you think is behind this all?" Grace asked her partner once she had reached her. "Surviving criminals, wanting to get back at Beacon?"
"Someone leaked that they had hostages, but they didn't …" Alessa mused. "It is possible that someone wanted to trick us into attacking that compound. But who?"
"And this person wants Beacon gone…but why? Beacon trains students to fight the Grimm…and the Grimm are out there. The Kingdoms aren't that big, you know? You'd think that people would want as many Hunters as possible."
"Some people don't care about that," Alessa replied, a hint of bitterness hidden in her voice. "Some people care only for their own agenda."
"Hey Grace, come down for a sec," Lisa yelled from downstairs. "I need you to check something!"
"Duty calls, gotta go!" She got to her feet.
As it turned out, Lisa wanted her to take a closer look at the entrances of the Warehouse. There were several things like fire-escapes and open windows that could be used to infiltrate the building and they didn't have enough ordnance to properly shut those.
Cho joined them eventually and said that Alessa just had to identify the target and that they would do the rest.
"The building itself is unimportant," He explained, "He will fight us first. I am willing to bet on it."
They agreed with Jason and then they spent the next sixty minutes alternating between patrolling, scouting and simply relaxing and talking.
"But it was reported that every major crime-lord and boss had been killed that night. Fireteam Lima took out a lot of people."
"A grudge can be kept for a long time. Lima is mercenaries, we are students. Which one is easier to get back at?"
"I suppose so…"
Eventually, at 19:27, Alessa shot upright from her prone position, immediately alerting Grace that something was wrong. The two of them were stationed on the roof, with good lines of sight over the surrounding area. Lisa and Cho were waiting near the Warehouse, roughly half a dozen meters apart from each other. "We have a visitor."
"Just one?" Grace asked the blindfolded girl. "Really?"
"Yes…he or she is coming from the eastern approach…from the forest."
"Got it." She grabbed the communicator set that they had been assigned. "Adamant, this is Auburn. We got a bad guy coming from the forest; all alone. It might be a trap-"
"He's closing in slowly but steadily," Alessa added. "Using the trees for cover…and alone."
There was an open area roughly fifteen meters large that separated the Warehouse from the forest…Lisa and Cho would want to use that area to fight the bastard. Luckily they had placed quite a few items and props there to…tip the battle to their favor.
"He's coming alone, using the trees for cover!" She added and readied her weapon. "Holler if we need to save your asses!"
"Got it Auburn, don't get cocky," Lisa's reply came in. "Cho! Get ready to zap that guy!"
19:28
"Cho, get down!" Lisa Adamant yelled at her friend and unslung her large rifle, aiming it squarely at the shadowy form moving through the treeline. She couldn't see what he –or she- was wearing, but it had to be the bad guy. And bad guys got blasted.
She pulled the trigger three times in quick succession and sent three high-explosive rounds thundering down the range, blowing ferns and trees apart with violent shockwaves.
"Where is he?" Cho loudly asked as he rolled out of the way. He had been standing in front of her when she had spotted movement in the treeline –and he hadn't hesitated for a single second when she had told him to get down. Under normal circumstances she would feel glad that her partner trusted her to such a degree, but this wasn't the time to doubt her capacities as a leader.
"There!" She replied and tracked the figure with her barrel, not feeling up to fighting him in the thick forest where her large rifle would only hinder her.
"I got him!" Cho yelled and prepared his ranged weapon to strike, but the range was too great and he knew it. They would have to wait for the attacker to move again-
-which didn't happen, of course. As soon as the debris and leaves had settled down, the line of trees had grown quiet. Nothing moved, nothing struck.
"He is still there guys!" Grace came in over the radio. "Hidden behind the large tree a bit to your left."
"There are five trees over to our left Grace!" Lisa angrily replied.
"They are all large, too," Cho added.
"Flush him out then!" The demolitions expert then stated and broke contact again.
"Damnit…" She had not expected to feel this nervous already; this entire set-up was her plan. She had assigned her teammates to their locations and if things went south, she would be to blame. It would be her fault…and she didn't want to be the cause of her friends' possible hurt.
"Relax Adamant," Cho told her and closed in. "This guy is smart, but we're smarter. See that shape to the left, right next to the crater? That's his foot. He's there."
Lisa smiled, understanding how important teamwork could be when it came to unexpected situations. "Thanks!" She whispered back and aimed carefully at the spot her partner was describing. She could see the shape he was talking about, but if this proved to be a false lead, she would only waste her munition. She had twenty rounds before this started, now she only had seventeen.
She pulled the trigger twice and sent two rounds towards the target. She half expected to see movement again, but the blinding impacts prevented her from properly seeing what happened.
"Movement!" Alessa spoke over the radio and simultaneously, a figure exploded from the treeline. It happened so fast, Lisa couldn't even follow it. Before she could make out what it looked like and pull the trigger to tear it apart, the figure had reached such speed and heights that her follow-up shot cleanly missed.
Two gunshots rang out and she instinctively dove to the ground, understanding perfectly that the enemy was armed and ready to shoot, thanks very much.
"Lisa!" Cho yelled and moved to assault the target, "Keep your head down!"
"I'm trying!" She yelled right back at him and scrambled to her feet, stuffing a few new rounds in her weapon just as the enemy moved past her, attempting to make a run for the building. "Not so fast jerk!" He wouldn't escape her. She ran after him, firing another shot a few feet ahead of the guy, nearly causing him to stumble and lose his balance.
That opening was enough for Cho to intercept him and reach for his shoulders. Jason Mauve Cho had trained for several years with the Vale PD prior to coming to Beacon, honing his skills in running, tracking and interrogating targets. You didn't escape from Cho.
He grabbed the hostile's shoulder with one hand and attempted to stab him with his stun baton, but the guy immediately spun around and countered with an underhanded blow, armed with a large knife. Cho thankfully managed to block it at the wrist and sidestepped, unleashing two quick jabs with his other fist aimed at the nose, but those were somehow redirected and in one fell swoop, Cho fell to the ground.
And Lisa was able to fully determine the guy –for it was most definitely a guy that was attacking them now. He was wearing a long, black coat and red sunglasses that obscured his eyes. The rest of his face was hidden behind some sort of creepy mask with the underside of a skull painted on it. When combined with the red glasses, it made his face look like a grotesque skull –not very much unlike some scary pictures of the grim reaper. It was probably meant to intimidate civilians or something, but it did nothing to faze her. Nope, not at all.
Cho was allowed to stand up again and he struck at his foe once more. His arm was blocked by the Saboteur, grabbed him in an armlock and punched him in the face. His knife came up, went towards Cho's stomach-
-and Lisa blocked it with the blade of her rifle. "Mine's bigger!" She growled at him and twisted her blade, causing the guy to quickly pull his arm back and step backwards before the sharp edge could split his chest open.
Cho immediately charged in and swept at the Saboteur's head with his stun baton, intent on blasting a near-lethal dose of electricity through his body to knock him out. But his blows were all deflected by the black knife, which seemed to have a rubber handle as it didn't transmit the Voltage to his body.
Jason was very fast with his attacks; swiping left and right as he spun the black rod around in both of his hands like a smaller version of a Jō. But even with his highly-developed striking speed he was unable to land even one blow on the Skull-faced male, who managed to deflect all the strikes with great precision and even greater speed.
After three seconds of them exchanging blows, the baddie seemed to have grown tired and twisted out of Cho's reach –only to suddenly step forwards and slam his elbow in his gut. He grunted loudly when the limb was jammed in his abdomen, but before he could anything else, the Saboteur stepped backwards and performed a hind-legged roundhouse kick, knocking Jason to the floor.
"Grace, get over here!" Lisa ordered the rest of her team as she lunged forwards to defend the prone form of Cho. This was NOT going how she had planned it; they needed to improvise. She slashed at the hostile's face with her rifle, but he dodged her and stepped to her side. She felt his gloved hands at her neck and before she knew it, shew was lying on the ground as well.
"Go after him!" Cho groaned as he tried to get back on his feet. "Protect the data!"
Lisa nodded and climbed back to her feet, heading towards the building where Alessa and Grace were now moving to intercept the saboteur.
Cho had taken the armoured DSM for the information to be stored there, but he had come to her before acquiring it and had then proceeded to hand her another one; albeit a lighter version. In the brief moments they had had before they had to get on the dropship, he had told her that it was a fake. In case they needed a diversion.
And that fake storage unit was currently resting on one of her pouches, waiting to be used when the time was right. If this guy managed to break through their formations, she would switch the units and get the data out safely. Their mission would be a success whether the Warehouse got torched or not.
Land-mines went off all around the advancing Saboteur, but he handled perfectly according to the protocol that came with handling such explosives: he hit the ground when one of the mines jumped up, he rolled to the side to avoid the worst hit of one of the Energy-mines and on one occasion he simple used the concussive shockwaves of a mine to propel himself in the air.
And Matt had forbidden her to use the explosive rounds of her weapon to 'Rocket-jump'. ..he should take a look at this guy!
But even if the skull-faced bastard managed to get past the lines of defense, he still had Grace and Alessa waiting for him. There was no way that he was going to get past them when she and Cho were right on his tail…right?
Grace grabbed her Dragon's Foliage and switched it to its Melee form, while Alessa unfolded the claws at her wrists and prepared to strike.
The Saboteur jumped in the air, boosted by the explosive properties of the mines placed at the ground, before pulling a spherical object out of a pocket and landing right in-between them-
-only to receive a powerful swipe courtesy of Grace right to the legs, knocking him clean off his feet and causing him to fall flat on his face. Or so Lisa thought initially, but the very next second he rolled with the blow and got to his feet again, exchanging blows with Alessa. And Grace was staggering back to her feet.
The blindfolded girl was extraordinary agile with her weapons; capable of not only blocking every single jab or cut that was aimed at her, but also managing to push the offender back a few feet. Then, the girl jumped backwards to avoid an uppercut and grabbed a rock that was lying at the ground, throwing it at the masked man's face.
If red sunglasses were capable of radiating surprise, they would have burst into flames. Even Lisa had not expected her teammate to do that and she liked to think of herself as a gifted practitioner of the unexpected elements.
The Saboteur twisted ninety degrees to dodge the rock, but in doing so he left himself completely open for Grace to counter-attack…
…which she did. She swung her weapon at him in a sideways blow and quickly followed up with another five attacks, each coming faster than the previous one as she used her weapon's momentum to keep on swinging.
The Saboteur was only capable of dodging and blocking a few ones before he backed into Alessa, who attempted to skewer him with her claws. Only on the last second did he notice her, after which he dropped to the floor to avoid the deadly combination-attack of the demolition expert and the scout.
Then he lashed out at Grace with his leg, twisted on his hands and jumped back up. It caused Alessa to stumbled backwards and he pulled his knife again.
But by that time Lisa had reached him too and she was eager for round two. Cho was lagging behind, but it was only a matter of seconds before he reached the masked man too and then it would be game-over for him. She attempted to bash his skull in with her rifle by means of butt-to-head, but he reacted a bit faster than she had anticipated and she delivered a coup de grace to the ground.
The next second he punched her in her face
"Damnit-" She cursed and turned to face the Saboteur again, but he had shifted his attention to Alessa and Grace again. Why couldn't they hit him? Any untrained person would have long since fallen. This was an elite mook; she was sure of that.
Grace folded her weapon and turned it back to its flamethrower mode, preparing to drive the hostile back and create some breathing space for herself. Her weapon was a bit too slow to properly guard against a hyper-active bastard with a large knife –something Alessa didn't seem to have too much trouble with. He and she were fighting on equal footing, clashing, slashing and retaliating with speeds that eluded her.
"Back!" Grace yelled and Alessa immediately created some distance between herself and the unfortunate Skull-mask wearing jerk, who was about to be on the receiving end of pain. She didn't quite get away fast enough though and she received a stopkick to the stomach for her troubles.
"Bring the heat!" Cho yelled once he had caught up with them, clutching his side as he raised his black cattle prod.
Grace was happy to oblige and she released a hellish flame at the knife-wielding man, narrowly missing him as he jumped to the side-
-only for him to back into the wall of the building and run out of dodging space. His black coat caught fire and Grace was just about to shift her weapon to get him in her crosshairs, when his flaming form pulled off a trick that she had only seen on television.
He jumped against the wall, reached a few meters of height and performed a backwards back-flip while grabbing his gun again. The trigger was pulled three times and they instantly scattered to take cover from the bullets –that weren't aimed at them, strangely.
"That's bull!" Lisa yelled once she was where the projectiles had hit home: the jerkweed had destroyed the lock that Grace had placed on the window, locking a large iron plate in front of it to prevent it from being boarded.
The metal plate fell to the ground with a loud 'clang!' almost at the same time as the Saboteur, who was still on fire, funny enough.
"Watch out!" Grace snapped and jumped backwards as the Saboteur made a beeline for the now-vulnerable window, diving straight through it as if it were made out of sugar-glass.
"He was on fire!" Lisa told her childhood-friend when she looked at the scattered window. "On fire, beaten by you and cornered by us! That is so cheating! Who even hit him?"
"After him!" Cho broke their conversation up and gestured at Alessa, who quickly entered the building through the same window as the saboteur.
An explosion echoed through the lit hallway when they moved to pursue the person.
"Want to guess who is responsible for that?" Grace angrily snapped.
"Jealous at other people blowing things up?" Lisa hoped to keep the mood happy even though they had spent hours planning ahead on how to stop one guy –after which the one guy they had prepared for proceeded to completely blow through their preparations and start his job as a saboteur.
Basically, they had no reason to be happy at all. Hours of rigging the building and scouting the area and it hall all come to Cho getting hurt and the building getting infiltrated. She really, REALLY hoped that the DSM unit hadn't been destroyed in the process.
"Where did he go?" Cho gasped, looking like he was having trouble keeping up with them.
"Left," Alessa told them and they all followed her lead. They turned the corner and almost bumped into the masked man, who seemed to have just exited one of the side-rooms.
Alessa was leading their team through the hallways and as such, she was the first person who actually attacked him during their encounter. She attempted to slash at his face with her claws, but he brought his knife up with blinding speed and blocked her strike, diverting her arm to the right. The blindfolded girl then spun around and grabbed the guy by his throat, but he twisted his body sideways to create more room and reached out with his hand to slap her in her face –a bit unexpected, but still a very predictable move. Alessa leaned back to avoid getting smacked, but that proved to be a wrong move as the hand suddenly came down on her own hand and pulled it off in a painful-looking armlock. He then threw her away, leaving her clutching her hand.
But the masked person couldn't do much more than that, as Grace charged forwards and attempted to deck him in his skull-face.
The attack was easily deflected, but as Alessa stepped backwards, holding her bruised wrist, Grace revealed what she had been planning. In her hand she held a grey sphere, with her thumb placed at the top.
"What are you-" Cho tried to say words, but Grace displayed her amazing range of demolition expertise by detonating the device at extremely close range.
And one little puff of sparks later, the entire staircase was covered in smoke.
Throughout the coughing, Lisa managed to say exactly three words: "Damn it Grace!"
"Move out!" Cho snapped and grabbed her arm, leading her up the stairs after Alessa and Grace –who had apparently been able to negate the smoke by thinking positive thoughts and wishing it away.
"Grace," Lisa heard Alessa's voice upstairs, "Why did you do that?"
"He was hurting you!"
"But you let him get away?"
"Unfortunate side-effects. Besides; he is heading for the roof. There will be no place to hide there."
Auburn had a point, she had to admit. Chasing the Saboteur to a place where he couldn't hide from them was a pretty smart move…only there was something wrong with it. The Saboteur had too little distance between him and them, even though he had quite a lead when he had entered the building in the first place.
What had he been doing in the meantime?
Probably getting lost, as he had no way of knowing which way to go while they had spent considerable amounts of time getting to know the building, but still. It was a bit strange.
"Don't lose him!" Cho told them as they thundered up the stairs, following the criminal to the roof. Once they finally made it there, Grace and Alessa were already engaging him.
"Don't use your explosives!" She told her friend as ran towards the fighting parties, "You'll blow the roof up!"
"Don't want that do we?" Grace breathed and brought her hand to her side.
It came away rather bloody.
"What happened?" Lisa asked Grace and aimed her rifle at the bastard that had been messing with them so much. He held his black knife in one hand, ready to strike. A few droplets of blood stuck to the blade.
"I got nicked…barely…" She hissed and took a ragged breath. "Alessa said it's nothing lethal…idiot missed."
The masked man had made his final mistake; hurting one of her friends. If he was anymore screwed right now, he would be a screw himself.
"Wrong move tough guy!" Lisa yelled at him, "We got you trapped at a roof; surrender now and I'll only shoot your feet off!"
Not that she would actually do that; she didn't like gore very much. Grimm was one thing, but humans needed to remain in one piece at all times. Threatening them however, always worked.
The Saboteur pulled a black item out of one of his pockets and brought his thumb to a red button.
"What is that?" Cho asked, making his way towards her.
"It looks like a-" Grace started to explain, but then the hostile pressed the button and several explosions went off at the lowest side of the building. "-detonator. Well crap."
"Well," Lisa said, lowering her rifle we're fuc-" And then the building collapsed.
19:41
As the building disintegrated around them like a cardhouse made out of sugar in the rain, the one thing that Grace noticed was Lisa separating herself from the rest of them. Knowing her childhood friend, this would probably be due to specific reasons that were very important. However, knowing that would not assist her in surviving the collapsing building.
Awesome parkour moves would. She quickly scrambled to her feet on the part of the falling roof and jumped in the air, reaching for another slab of rock that had fallen after her own had. It happened so very fast that she barely had time to brace herself and as she went out of her way to slow her descend and get to the floor in one piece, she felt a flaring stab of pain in her side that kind of inhibited her breathing.
She focused on moving and surviving; pain was something had a lower priority.
Her feet landed on the grassy patch and she immediately rolled a few times to dissipate the force of the fall. In the middle of the immense cloud of dust and particles, she saw Alessa getting to her feet and running to another piece of debris, claws unfolding and her white hair trailing behind her.
What was she doing? Why was she-?
The sounds of metal clashing on metal then shook her out of her thoughts and she jumped to her feet, reaching for her weapon that had –miraculously- managed to stick to her side. "Cho!" She screamed, realizing that everything was going to hell pretty quickly. "Cho, where are you?"
A mumbled reply from either her left or right side was pretty much all the Cho that she was going to enjoy for the moment.
"Damn it…" Grace muttered and moved towards the clashing Alessa. The dust-cloud that had been whipped up by the collapse of the decades old building was seriously getting in her way; how was Alessa fighting in the middle of all of this?
She heard the sound of stone impacting on flesh as she stumbled towards the two fighting people. She seriously had the wind knocked out of her…it was hurting to breathe. Perhaps she needed to work at her landing abilities?
"Alessa!" She yelled and stopped abruptly when a brick fell in front of her feet.
Had someone thrown that at someone else? Did that explain the strange sound she had heard earlier?
"Grace!" A manly voice yelled and she turned around.
"Cho!"
The lovely Mauve was running towards her, ignoring the crashing debris around him. "Where is Lisa?"
"No idea!" She replied and rounded the corner, finally seeing where her own partner was. Alessa was doing…whatever was necessary to win, apparently. For a moment, a person thinking that the pale girl was fighting with unmatched desperation could not be blamed for thinking so. Alessa was spinning and twisting around, grabbing iron bars, bricks and even stones to fend the advancing Saboteur and his damaged Skull-mask off. His cloak-thing had burned away completely and he was bleeding from several places on his body; most prominent of all were the twin ragged lines running down his chest, pouring blood with every move he made.
And it did not faze him at all.
Alessa hurled a handful of sand at the man and that seemed to stop him for a moment, as his sight was not only blocked by the cloud but also by the many particles of sand that pelted his eyes.
He dodged another brick that went flying at his head, looking very confused by the strange tactics that Alessa deployed to fight him.
"Alessa," Grace started, but then she saw something that she totally should not see at that place and she felt her eyes widen at the sight. Her partner had actually picked up a kitchen sink and prepared it to throw it at the confused enemy.
"Is that a kitchen sink?" Cho asked.
"Yes," She replied softly.
There went the kitchen sink sailing at the head of the Saboteur –who barely managed to avoid it.
"Where did she get that?"
A trail of water pouring out of a burst pipe gave her a slight indication as to where Alessa had gotten the kitchen sink. Unconventional was one thing…this was a totally different thing.
"Grace, you still there?" The radar-piece in her ear suddenly came to live with a burst of static. "Grace, come in!"
"Here Lisa, where are you!" She pleaded her teamleader, hoping that she had good news for her.
"Keep our friend busy, I am recovering the DSM!"
Her heart skipped three beats when she heard that. Their mission wasn't failed yet! They still had a shot at victory!
"Got it…" She breathed, feeling so thankful that Lisa had been thinking on her head instead of landing on her ass –like she had done. Now, she had a duty.
"Cho, let's get this guy!" She told the only male on LACG with a smile. Alessa was slowly being pushed back as the wounded Saboteur unleashed a flurry of knife-attacks on her, combined with close-combat techniques that were almost impossible to defend against.
Cho charged towards the masked man and readied his synapses, going for the capture-shot. "Alessa, move!" He told the blindfolded girl –who promptly dove to the ground.
He activated his weapon and eight cables went flying to the perpetrator, sparkling with lethal doses of energy.
The Saboteur jumped forwards with frightening speed, attempting to use his knife to deflect the many wires that were coming for him…only partially succeeding.
Four of the synapses impacted on his chest, embedding themselves in his clothes and making contact with his skin. A dozen blue sparks flared through the air as the powerful charge was sent straight into his body –the same thing happened to Cho as three deflected synapses inserted themselves in his own chest.
Jason screamed as the Voltage ran through his body, causing him to involuntarily jerk when his muscles clenched. The Saboteur screamed as well, though his scream was more ragged and primal, almost animalistic.
The emotions Grace felt when she saw her trusted and seemingly indestructible friend get hurt like that were too painful to even describe –and they multiplied tenfold when she saw the fear-inspiring form of the Saboteur tear the synapses out of his chest and shrug off a dosage of energy that was capable of knocking an Ursa Major flat on his ass for seven hours or more. Half a dozen beefy, testosterone-fueled men had fallen to this inspired weapon, yet this masked man ignored the pain and electricity like it was nothing.
He accelerated at a fearful pace and when Alessa jumped forward to intercept him before he could get to the succumbing Cho, he lashed out with his leg and kicked her right in her stomach. She stumbled backwards and the Saboteur used that opening to escape her attack and reach Jason, grabbing him by his face and slamming him with the back of his head against the concrete floor.
She didn't hear anything crack nor did she see blood erupting like she had expected…but neither did Cho get back up.
"JASON!" She screamed when she saw the trusted Cho fall at the hands of this ruthless criminal.
"Grace, I found the module –but I have bad news. Very bad news. We got at least five jeeps heading to the building, filled with baddies. Criminals, looking a bit like those who attacked Beacon. They are coming in very fast…probably one minute or less before they reach us. I will hide the DSM module and upload the coordinates…get it after this is over." Lisa´s voice came through again
"O-over?" Grace whispered.
"Yeah…I have the fake model that Cho entrusted me with. I will lure these guys off to buy you time. Take the DSM and get out of here now!"
What was Lisa talking about…about putting herself in harm's way so that the mission could be a success? She would die! She couldn't do that, they were a team! Screw the data, screw the mission they had yet to start their education! "Alessa!" She screamed, desperately trying to get her body to work. It didn't work. Her body had taken too much damage and she could barely stand, let alone attack and fight.
Her blindfolded friend was now fighting the skull-masked man all on her own, fighting with everything she had at her disposal, including the recently reacquired kitchen sink.
It wasn't enough. She received a jab to the face, hook to the jaw and kick to the chest in quick succession and only managed to slash the attacker at his leg once before she went down.
No…oh no, this was happening way too fast. Lisa was going to face three cars worth of criminals on her own while wounded and almost out of ammo, while Alessa and Cho had been wounded –perhaps killed- by this Saboteur? Who was this guy even?
The masked man looked at the prone, unmoving form of Cho and shifted his gaze to Alessa, who was struggling to get up. Then he looked straight at her –before his head snapped up when distant explosions sounded.
Before she could even think of grabbing her weapon closer to fry him, he turned around and ran away, leaving behind only the devastation he had caused.
"Grace, the DSM is safe and the coordinates have been uploaded to you. I destroyed my scroll so they won't find the coordinates –I am out of ammo now and they will soon get me…bastard managed to skewer my leg with a spike during the explosion…don't wait for me, get it and get the hell out of here! I will draw them off the best I ca-"
And then the transmission broke off and Lisa's voice fell away.
"Alessa…" Grace whispered, feeling tears running down her face. Her chest hurt like hell, she was bleeding profoundly and the mission had turned in a disaster…and none of that was worth a damn when faced with the pain of her teammates.
The loud voices in the distance that she had been hearing slowly faded away, leaving only an eerie silence as she looked at her wounded or worse teammates. "Cho?"
"G-Grace…" Alessa coughed. "W-where's L-Lisa?"
"I…I…" She stuttered, unable to even bear speaking the words.
Lisa was probably kidnapped by The Lonely Angels. In her last action, she had saved the data and managed to spare all three of them from being captured or killed by criminals.
No. She couldn't allow herself to fall now. She had friends to take care off and the DSM module to find. And then…perhaps…there would still be a chance at finding Lisa.
What had happened?
ERROR: RADIO-LOCATION NOT FOUND.
HYPOTHESIS: COMMUNICATION-DEVICE COMPROMISED.
WARNING: STUDENT LISA ADAMANT M.I.A.