Chapter 16: Intermission: Four Seven Niner

Five Years ago

The morning after the Breach of Vale there were none of the usual life signs of the city much to everyone's joy. No cars honking or vehicles traversing the streets, it was eerily quiet, as Vale wasn't used to a Grimm breach, it had gone for many years without the walls ever coming down, and even then it made one wonder if they ever really were destroyed. Most of the damage only covered the city square.

Even after the students left and the seasoned Huntsman and Huntresses of Beacon took over, they were still under emergency rules; they'd remain so until they were absolutely sure the last Grimm had been killed. It meant no one should leave their homes if they were not called to the following crises, and Isabella was one such person.

She'd experienced one small event in the tower, though thanks to the team — she'd later come to know it was Team Juniper — saved her life there, and now she was being called to help save many more. It wasn't just day-to-day communication they handled, but essentials. Supply chains, official quests, even international council affairs, if it all broke down at once… no, she didn't like thinking about that, she liked thinking they'd advanced enough that some of this just couldn't be taken from them.

The terminal she couldn't boot up however, disagreed with her assessment.

It wasn't physically destroyed, she'd checked that twice, all components were brand new, pristine even. Hers wasn't even the only one affected, even her boss had been locked out of hers with seemingly no prior notice. The tower at the edge of the Emerald Forest was essentially a useless piece of atlesian technology, nothing to offer, no messages to deliver.

A man she quickly recognized as Gray poked his head into the room, he said:

"Boss says there's not much else we can do. We've tried everything, now we have to wait."

Isabella glanced at the man, "Wait for what? These things," she hit the side of the terminal, "to feel like finally working again?"

"I don't know," Gray shrugged, "It's not like I can do anything about it, plus there's a giant hole in the floor I work at so I wouldn't get any work done even if I could. I'm going down to the lobby, see ya." He walked away a moment later, the sound of his steps becoming ever more distant.

Isabella looked around, inspecting the terminal floor she worked at, only to finally realize she was completely alone. How? Only a few minutes ago there were others, they were quiet and confused, sure, but they couldn't have given up just like that, could they?

She ran a heavy hand down her face, shoving herself down into the open terminal tower once again. Maybe she could try and replace some of the core components?

A heavy sigh later, she gave up. Who was she kidding, there was no fixing this mess short of starting from square one, something way out of her reach. She got up and made her way outside, maybe the vending machines at the main lobby were still working, the ones right next to the door, those weren't connected to the Cross Continental Net.

To say the others at the lobby were exhausted was an understatement. Just under a few months they had all been subjected to so much. First a group of bandits took the tower hostage, then the news networks made a case of hounding them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And after that little spotlight there were all the people who stalked them, either online or — in Erin's unfortunate case — real life. Those were the ones who either couldn't believe a Beacon Teamw would just save people and a Faunus without it being a White Fang plot, or the ones who didn't want to believe.

And, of course, there was the Breach. They couldn't exactly sleep well after it, not when they might've been just meters away from murderous monsters, and during it all Cross Continental Network access was completely halted. No more phone calls, internet, even some of the fancier mundane house appliances stopped working. Speculative as it was, someone in Atlas had likely ordered it, they had their hands in building the things in the first place after all.

To her delight, the vending machine still worked. She heard they had the new Solitas Sweets, the bags full of lollipops, translucent lollipops that looked like they had dandelions in them. The tagline on the bag said "Make a Wish!", it was one of the newer campaigns, where they said there was a chance of finding a ticket inside, to a vacation in Patch with all expenses paid. She wasn't sure how or why they'd ever deliver on such a thing, Isabella couldn't ever remember hearing of anyone who actually won one, but the candy was good.

Just as she finally got her hands on some, the lobby's reinforced glass door opened to swirling wings and rose petals. Standing in the doorway was a young girl, sixteen at most, wearing a bright red cape, and carrying a cardboard box. Isabella stared at her wide-eyed, surprised at the teen's sudden appearance.

The girl smiled at her, "Hi! I'm Ruby Rose, a student from Beacon. Can you point me to Jade… Have we met before?" she asked, tilting her head a bit to the side.

Isabella hesitated, maybe Ruby had seen her in the news, but she wasn't exactly looking for a reason to bring that back, especially when she didn't know who this girl was.

"Uh… I don't think so," she said.

Ruby nodded, "Ah. Well, anyways I'm looking for a Jade Knightley, I have some new documents I need to deliver," she said, showing the sealed cardboard box.

"Ah, that's my boss, I think she's still up in the A.I room, fifth floor, that's where I saw her last time."

"Oh I see. Thanks!"

Before Ruby could run up to the fifth floor, Isabella realized she'd been talking to a Huntress in training. Out of instinct she stopped her, "Wait!"

Ruby looked at her, confused, "Yes?"

"You're with Beacon right? Can you tell us what happened? We've been in the dark all day."

Confusion turned to sincere rigor as Ruby answered, "We were attacked by Atlas military in Beacon last night. I was in the fight so that's all I know so far, sorry."

Surprised by the words, Isabella took a step back, "You fought them?"

"Yeah," Ruby said casually, before coming to a realization of her own, "Oh we won though so don't worry."

"You won?"

"Well… yeah. I mean we're still around and they're arrested so I think that counts as a win. But don't worry, it could all just be a mistake so we made sure not to kill any of them."

The words stunned Isabella, They fought the military!

"Look, I have to go. They have me as Courier for now because the CCTS is down and all that, but I'm sure you'll find out more later. Everything should be okay in the end!"

Ruby hurried off to the stairs, disappearing from sight in a few moments. Isabella wondered for the rest of that day, what would they do without the CCTS then? They couldn't possibly rely only on a single teenager to deliver every important message, was Beacon the only the only prepared for the future ahead?

What would that future be like?

—❖—

4 Years ago

The sun was rising that day at the pier when the pamphlet glued to the telephone post caught her attention. It was professional, almost inconspicuous among the many other mundane announcements packed into it. It detailed job openings in Beacon Academy for operators, people with experience handling information and a few for experienced Huntsmen. It could've been mistaken for a simple job offer at a public school if she hadn't looked closely.

If she looked back on it, she could've seen how it coincided with Beacon's brand new Transmit System.

Isabella almost thought it was a prank, she thought when—if anyone at the other end of the phone answered the call, it would've been some random person or some jackass at a radio talk show. Even though the number was the same Beacon's old number, she didn't really think anyone would be answering at all. Maybe she lacked in faith a bit, a result of the past year or so where nothing much had changed other than the gradual removal of conveniences from her and everyone else's lives.

No more androids were one such loss, if she could even call it that. Years ago they'd been almost useful in patrolling streets, but after the Breach more and more attacked people at random. Gray had died in one such incident at the tower, as did Erin.

Actually, most people who'd worked there when she started were either dead or had moved to other cities, a thought that never crossed her mind before.

She stepped into the ferry to Beacon, her mind still stuck in the past, her attention completely focused on those events. The tower she worked at? Discontinued, demolished for parts. Maybe it had been for the better, given the area couldn't be patrolled by Huntsmen all day every day, and the location it was built on was for nothing more than Atlesian posturing, all just to say they were stronger than Grimm, without the ability to back it up.

A woman bumped into her by accident, bringing Isabella to the present. "Sorry," the woman said. It was to anyone with a pair of working eyes how beautiful she was, with long, voluminous locks of blonde hair. Ah, she shouldn't be fawning over every woman now, that was kind of creepy wasn't it?

"Ah.. Ah, no problem," Isabella answered, completely aware she'd taken too long to feign ignorance.

The woman eyed her for a second, then grinned, "Hey, I've never seen you here before! What are you going to Beacon for?"

Isabella fished the pamphlet out of her pocket, then pointed at the announcement, "This. Though to be honest it's a bit confusing for an ad, I still don't know exactly what jobs it's referring to."

"Can I see that?" the woman asked, then took the booklet as Isabella handed it, "Ah, so you're looking to be an Operator? Whoa."

"Is that… a bad thing?" Isabella asked.

"Of course not! We wouldn't be able to do half the stuff we do over at Beacon without Operators!"

Isabella stood there, wide-eyed, "You're a Huntress?"

"Yeah! Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Yang! Yang Xiao Long. And you?"

"Isabella. Wait, what do you mean?"

"Well there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the background. We train and train but there's only so much a Huntress can do. We can't hunt Grimm and pilot a plane at the same time, you know?"

"You think the job will let me pilot a plane?"

"Well that will depend on how good you are. Why, you wanna?"

Did she? When she was a kid, maybe Isabella thought once or twice it'd be cool. She'd seen it in movies, but in real life she'd been anxious just sitting behind the wheel in a car.

"Maybe. Sounds a little scary though."

"Well, I think you'll do just fine," Yang said with a wink of her eye. She turned around and walked away, to some other part of the ferry, leaving Isabella to her thoughts.

In the distance, she could see Beacon behind the edge of the precipice that it rested near. The gothic walls of the building made themselves apparent below the bright blue sky.

—❖—

30 Minutes ago

"Not over there, over there!" Isabella said, pointing the crewmate to where she should have put the supply box, which was along with all the other boxes! Why the hell would she ask him to put one near the huntships turbines?

She removed her helmet for a moment. It wasn't technically necessary, she could breathe in it just fine, but she didn't like the sensation, the hot air she breathed in. The mirage was quiet for a rare moment, and Team Ruby was kind of enough to tell her why: The teams were at their most vulnerable.

Never before were all of them incapacitated, much less unable to protect the Mirage, and that was one such situation at that moment. The reason for such was classified, and the purpose was somehow even more so, at least according to Weiss' words.

But they trusted her. They'd let her know they'd be fine, only in a trance, for a while. That was all she could tell her, but she trusted Isabella would be able to protect them.

Protect them! She was just one normal Faunus, nothing more, and somehow they trusted her to protect them when they could take missiles to the chest and walk it off! If it was coming from anyone else she'd almost think it was a joke…

Until all alarms blared in unison. When the red lights flickered on, all personnel were called to their posts. The Mirage would soon be under attack by none other than a flock of Grimm, and the only Huntresses aboard were completely unable to act.

There was a short briefing, an announcement that weather conditions were unfavorable, cloudy skies along with strong wings. The numbers were unknown, only their general position a few miles just above The Mirage. They were expected to walk into it blind and at the very least stall whatever Grimm they found there, they couldn't tell which Grimm they were. The effort would be led by The Mirage's bridge.

Within minutes Isabella was piloting her interceptor out of the carrier ship, along with eleven others, five helicopters that carried spotlights just to give them some vision of the field, in formation. Seventeen ships, Twenty two operators moving into the fight.

The skies were dark, the early afternoon in Solitas was no different than early evening in Vale. she could see droplets of rain pour on the window of her single-person cockpit, under these conditions they wouldn't…

"This is three-four three, nothing yet. over."

"Five-six two, nothing, over."

Isabella could've cursed fate. Maybe she could've cursed the fact she was born a Faunus, but she could've done so many years ago, she wouldn't now. Not when being able to see in the dark was something of an advantage.

"This is Four-Seven Niner, I've got visual, over."

It was almost as if she'd started the chain of events. From within the clouds, blasts of fire cut through the sky, all at once, they took out a helicopter, reduced it to a ball of flames, and it hit the interceptor right below it. Three-four three's interceptor.

She fired missiles of her own into the clouds, hoping to hit something. They detonated in the fog and she cursed quietly at not being able to confirm it.

Isabella swerved from her path by reflex, something dark almost collided with her. The two interceptors behind her weren't so quick, she could only hear the aircrafts blowing up on impact.

"Bridge, we need backup, now!" she said over the comms.

"Acknowledged, they'll be there in 30 seconds."

Something large and winged flew — almost swimmed — between clouds, taking out another helicopter. She wasn't so sure they'd have another fifteen seconds.

She flew up, into the sky just as it threatened to take her out, a dark maw struck from within the dark clouds, inches away from the left wing.

Thinking quickly, Isabella disengaged the missiles without firing them. Whatever tried to eat her aircraft was probably below her and-

The multiple explosions were followed by a beastly roar that cut through the sounds of her Interceptor's engine. She got one!

On to the next! Isabella thought as she fixed her flight path, flying forward. It was the moment she came face to face with the Grimm, in the clouds.

A Dragon. It wasn't a dragon like the one Team Ruby fought, but rather something like the beasts out of fairy tales. Wings coming out of it's back, it was a Grimm large enough to swallow a car whole, and it was flying at her, it's maw open and ready to bite her plane in half.

Isabella swerved left, the Dragon bit down as she collided with it, taking out the entire right wing in a single bite.

The impact hurt, even if she'd never been struck directly, half her body hurt like it never had before. As she lost control of the plane, it took a nosedive, losing altitude quickly… She could see The Mirage, and she couldn't avoid it!

The speed of the plane increased, she reached for the ejection handle, aware how it would make her vulnerable to the Grimm in the sky. Still she could only wish she'd been more useful in the fight

Closing her eyes, Isabella pulled the handle, ejecting from the plane.