This chapter was originally going to be longer but I wanted to get it out before it took more than three months. Apologies, I am slow at writing, the fact this story is more than 1000 words is a miracle alone.
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Vacuo, Industrial district, 2:17 am.
Vigilant eyes scanned the street in front of him, it had been 10 days since he had been stationed in the abandoned factory. He stayed in that empty room on the third story, day in and day out. The IPS agent had not been allowed to leave, he slept in the day, and kept up at night. All he had to eat were MRE rations, and all he had for entertainment were his own thoughts and a shard of glass that he had picked up off the floor. When he wasn't asleep during the day, he'd sometimes tilt the shard to reflect a little light on the wall. He did this out of sight of the window, of course, no use letting people think someone was living up in the derelict building.
That was to say, no matter the result of the next few minutes, the agent would finally get to leave this room. He had timed everything every single night since he had found this street that the transport always passed, as indicated by the ding of the alarm that he had set.
"Bravo unit, deploy the road spikes." The agent calmly said over the comm link, he turned the first alarm off as the rattling of steel spikes slid into the street. The chains being pulled by Bravo unit, the secondary strike team the IPS had strategically placed in an alleyway before the transport reached past their watchful agent.
The freight liner truck faltered, with its wheels unbalanced and the rear sliding to one side. It was enough to disorient the driver, but not enough to stop it completely. This was alright, they had a secondary plan. It too, had an alarm dedicated to it, to which the agent decided to communicate with the Bravo unit.
"Activate the mines." No sooner had the agent commanded it, the mines went off. They were only powerful enough to knock over the transport, the explosion was heard miles away. Asphalt was ground up and spat up everywhere, despite this, there would be no reprieve. "Alpha unit, move in on the transport."
"Alpha unit, moving in." The response crackled through the comm link, the screech of tires came to a halt in perfect view of the window. A blue four door SUV had parked behind the trailer, the doors clicking open.
Stepping out of the vehicle, four men in sand-colored tactical gear quickly approached the trailer. Two of them had set to work on breaking the lock on the door, the other two keeping watch on either side of the trailer. Gunfire rang out from Alpha unit's side, two men had climbed out of the freight liner, quickly advancing on Alpha unit.
The first few shots were to warn the security detail, it only became hostile when the men in black started returning fire on Alpha unit. These men were organized and responsive, but Alpha unit was ultimately better trained. The bullets from their assault rifles seemingly piercing through the security detail's body armor, their bodies crumpling down to the ground.
With the security team incapacitated, Alpha unit was now more focused on breaking the lock. An audible snap rang out in the street, the lock pieces fell to the floor. The leader, Alpha one, grabbed onto the upper swinging door, he wedged his fingers in between the crack of the door.
The IPS agent watched from the window, his heart beating with every agonizing second that passed.
And finally…
The bottom door, slammed to the floor too fast for Alpha one was pinned under the door. Somebody had forced it open to trap whoever tried to pull it open.
Whoever, or whatever it was, rushed out of the trailer. A blur of motion crashed into another man, Alpha two, who was so stunned that he had squeezed off a couple rounds. The rifle was shoved out of the way by the assailant, who had angled it so that Alpha two's shot would hit Alpha four, who was preparing to intervene. Alpha four went down, Alpha two was knocked out before four even hit the floor.
"Fall back, Alpha three!" The agent in the abandoned building commanded.
"No." The soldier muttered into his comm's link, at the same time training his rifle on what now seemed to be a young man. A focused gaze was aimed at the soldier, but he didn't buckle under the intense scrutiny of those bright crimson eyes. "You're going down!"
The agent in the building watched everything as it went down, almost in disbelief at the incredible skill this young man was employing to dismantle the highly skilled team of military trained operatives.
Alpha three squeezed the trigger, the young man sidestepped, he caught a round on the side of his torso. The young man was thrown back, despite this, he got back up and pursued once more. Alpha three's rifle was snatched out of his hands, the barrel now aimed at the soldier.
Three shots rang out and the soldier went down, with the young man approaching Alpha three's prone body.
The agent in the factory watched all this, slightly shaken, he pulled up his communications device. "Bravo unit, flank the hostile!"
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Kaiser held the rifle in front of him, the metal heavy in his arms. Looking down at the soldier who had shot him, he kicked the man in the side. "Did you really think this would stop me?" Kaiser had plucked the bullet from his side, showing that the bullet had not even been a lethal round.
It was shaped like a regular bullet, except that it had been covered in a coat of rubber, a baton round.
"I can only assume that the rest of your unit is equipped with the same loadout?" At the nod given by the soldier, he delivered a knockout blow to the soldier. Crouching down he searched the soldier's equipment. Among the things he found were a sidearm, a tactical knife, a sidearm, and a small first aid kit. He couldn't take anything with him, the remains of the security detail would probably make him give it up. Kaiser felt a groove near the man's collar, something embroidered onto the uniform. Kaiser shifted just a bit, allowing a street lamp to shine a bit more light on the situation.
Kaiser froze, disbelief etched on his face, he wanted to back away as soon as possible. Clearly, whatever was embroidered onto the soldier's collar had unnerved the boy.
A hand lay on Kaiser's shoulder, he almost jutted his elbow back to get away. He stopped this as soon as he realized that it was Qrow, the expression on his face confused and frustrated.
"What the hell was that?!" The older huntsman looked around, all the soldiers were knocked out.
"Don't know, but they were clearly here for what was inside, seeing as the trailer is full of people, these guys were mistaken." Kaiser did his best to act like he didn't know anything about the soldiers, instead he motioned to the front of the toppled truck. "Go help up the security men, I'll go see if everything's alright."
Stunned by Kaiser's sudden shift to being the one in command, Qrow only nodded and headed toward the front. Kaiser himself headed toward the trailer entrance, he ducked under the hanging door, looking into the long trailer. Terrified looks were faced towards him, some people were still huddled up on the floor.
"Everything's clear, let's head out of here." Kaiser gestured outside, his hand outstretched to help one of the fallen workers.
More wheels screeched against asphalt, a terrible buzzing running through Kaiser's head.
"Hold on." Kaiser whipped around, looking outwards from the trailer. His hand held steady away from him, signifying his want for the people behind him to stop.
Way out into the darkness, another dark blue SUV barreling towards the trailer.
There's always a secondary team!
Kaiser immediately brought his gun up, aiming for the window, he let two bullets shoot forward. The impact shattered the windshield, the vehicle ground to a halt. Kaiser waited with bated breath as he aimed at the door, expecting any minute for other soldiers to file out.
Instead, Kaiser caught two non-lethal rounds to the chest.
The wind was knocked out of the boy as he was knocked to the ground. It was only the combination of Kaiser's aura and his natural resilience to pain that kept him moving after the initial shock of the bullets. He scrambled behind the first abandoned SUV, the windows burst out as the secondary team shot them out.
Taking hold of the rifle, Kaiser poked the barrel of the gun through one of the blown out windows. A bullet whistled through the air, right by Kaiser's head. He had to be careful, even with aura, it was still a piece of metal flying through the air at 1800 miles per hour. Maybe if he'd had the body armor worn by either of the soldiers, the bullets wouldn't be so much of a problem. But by this point, his aura wouldn't last much longer if it kept taking direct hits.
Kaiser grit his teeth, the way the car was angled, there was a minimal gap between the two passenger windows. He couldn't bother to use his instinctive shooting technique, with a gap this small, he had to carefully aim the rifle to point the bullet near one of the soldiers in their vehicle. He had a target now, his finger on the trigger, multiple shots rang out.
The shots didn't come out of Kaiser's gun, but rather, they were coming from all around them.
It took all of five seconds for the vehicle to be riddled with holes, this time with real bullets.
And along with real bullets, came with real death.
Kaiser kept himself aware of this fact as he quickly scanned his surroundings, looking for the source of the gunfire.
Six muzzles flashed as they assaulted the car full of soldiers, the crackle and shredding of the metal was grating on the ears.
"Get down!" Someone shouted, to which Kaiser had immediately dove to the floor. Bullets flew overhead, Kaiser's senses going haywire. Where was Qrow? Hopefully he ducked under cover, Kaiser put the older man out of his mind. Right now he had to focus on what was important, crawling on the floor, Kaiser crept inch by inch to the trailer door.
A hand gripped the boy's leg, Kaiser yanked it forward to no avail.
Looking back, it was one of the soldiers that Kaiser had taken out, he had recovered it seemed, and was desperately gripping onto Kaiser's leg. Kaiser swung his other leg around, hitting the man with another knockout blow to the head. The soldier went limp, Kaiser continued crawling until he had reached the trailer. His fingers dug under the door, it was much heavier than expected.
"Need a little help there?" Qrow had suddenly appeared at the boy's side, helping the boy shut the door.
"Where the hell were you?" Kaiser locked the damn thing, ensuring the worker's safety from stray fire.
"Checking the battlefield, these other guys came out of nowhere!" Qrow relayed, he had gone up high as a crow, spotting the way that the security men had surrounded the invading soldiers. Before either side of the battlefield could gain significant advantage, the most curious thing happened.
The soldiers… retreated.
Their car had started, speeding off into the night.
Kaiser stood up, adrenaline running through his veins, he watched as the soldiers left. Leaving behind the mess of a war zone in their wake.
As well as leaving behind the bodies of their fallen comrades on the street.
"You two!" One of the security men barked, sounding like a drill sergeant.
The shout was so loud and authoritative, Kaiser had to resist the urge to salute, the way he had done with his old training instructors back in Atlas.
"Get those men back in their vehicle, push them into an alleyway." The security man ordered, we'll send transportation to pick you up. "Anyone stumbles upon them and we could have cops swarming the place."
"We'll, we better be paid for overtime." Qrow muttered under his breath, he heaved up one of the soldiers.
Kaiser tore open the car door, pieces of shattered glass and metal sprinkled on the floor. Qrow stuffed the man in the backseat, Kaiser going off to pick up another one of the men.
While they were doing this, a number of vehicles were making their way to the freight truck. Off-road vehicles to be precise, modified to have an open truck bed. This must've been the backup transportation that the security men had arranged.
Kaiser let out a big sigh, tucking the soldier's vehicle deep in the alleyway. Qrow began stretching out, Kaiser leant on the car. He stole one more glance at the uniforms the soldiers wore, before turning back and walking towards the off road vehicle the security men had brought in. Kaiser and Qrow hopped in the truck bed, sitting across from each other. His head hung low, zoning out to the world around him, one thought parading around his mind.
What the hell are the IPS doing here?!
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The agent stationed inside the building stared at his communicator, pondering over the orders he had been given, and who those orders concerned.
The kid…
At first he doubted whatever his superiors had said about this kid, even doubted that the boy would show up.
That is, until the boy in question had seamlessly taken down a team of highly trained soldiers. Though, he wasn't as clever as everyone had claimed.
The boy hadn't noticed the thin tracker planted on his leg, not knowing that he would be the key to ending this operation.
And as the last off-road vehicle drove off with the IPS' former golden child, the agent stationed above opened his laptop on a nearby table.
He began issuing orders, everything was all set up, all that was left was for the boy to act.
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The night air flowed around Kaiser, he sat in the truck bed, stewing in his own thoughts. He had not been paying any attention to his surroundings, well, not until Qrow had called his attention. Kaiser had looked up.
"What the hell is that?" Kaiser looked at the beginning of a dark abyss, shadows threatening to swallow him whole.
"It's the daily commute to work." The security man sitting in the back with them, clearly amused with the bewilderment of the newcomers.
It was the damndest thing, but the road was opening up, leading to a slope downwards. A small stretch of road had angled upwards against them, like a huge trap door. The vehicle easily rolled downwards, the little light from the outside dwindled as the hatch had closed. Nobody could see the confusion on Kaiser's face in the dark.
It was an underground tunnel, one that ran below the streets of Vacuo. The entrance had been a random portion of the street which would lift itself up to open for the transports, the headlights of the vehicles illuminating the way. Kaiser closed his eyes, feeling the air blow around him as the vehicle turned corners and sped up on the long stretches of road from the underground tunnel.
Wherever they headed, it would be what the IPS were after. Kaiser had cut his ties with Albert Ross, and wasn't even associated with Vacuo's branch of the IPS, so he had no intelligence to work with here. Essentially, Qrow and Kaiser were flying blind in their investigation, either way it seemed that their mission in Vacuo was derailed to the point in which they were no longer locating the source of the grimm.
The passengers in the truck bed were jostled, the vehicle they were riding in all of a sudden went up a ramp. Presumably, they were now above ground, even despite the total darkness that surrounded them. The vehicles stopped in an arranged fashion, wherever they had been taken, it had a parking garage closed off to the public.
The vehicles slowly came to a stop before reaching a set of large steel double-doors. With the light finally flooding into the parking area, everything was much more clear around the vehicles. Dirty concrete settled under everyone, it was still relatively new, according to the lack of cracks in the floor.
"Move it people, we got a busy morning ahead of us." A security man at the front had yelled, he pushed one of the many truck beds open, ushering the workers that had sat in that first vehicle.
It had gone on like this for a couple minutes longer, until they had got to the last one. Qrow and Kaiser were told to hop out, then made to march towards the steel doors. A long line had formed behind the door, with each person quickly rushed inside.
"What do you think?" Kaiser softly mutters, leaning into the man to minimize eavesdropping.
"I don't know." Qrow responded, he had gestured towards Kaiser to stay silent.
Kaiser did so, instead wondering what could have been happening here. Perhaps a money laundering scheme, it could've been an unlicensed construction job, maybe-
Oh…
Kaiser had passed the threshold of the doorway, giving him a clear view of the area. It was a huge factory space, with half of the squared room dedicated to large open chemical vats, some with visible slits in the sides that were covered using tempered glass. The chemicals inside showed off a familiar orange glow, the sight of which made Kaiser's heart sink to his stomach.
"We currently have intel that there is a black site in Vacuo producing it."
Albert Ross' words bubbled up into Kaiser's head, the black site where they were making the super-steroid classified as Hercules! Another horrifying thought had occurred to the boy.
Kaiser was stuck inside a Zodiac compound, one that belonged to the Gemini branch of the organization.
Qrow had noticed the way the boy next to him had stiffened up, and even more color than usual had left his face. "You alright, kid?"
It seemed to have caught the boy's attention, as he snapped in Qrow's direction. A brief nod, and Qrow was put to ease.
Kaiser did his best to steel himself, the last thing he needed was to draw Qrow's suspicion. Doing that here in a Zodiac compound was sure to get them burned. That was, if he was completely sure this was a Zodiac compound. Kaiser scanned the multiple men dressed in black combat uniforms, looking for one that may be a leader that would signify their affiliation.
Among the group of men, was one who had a distinctive look compared to everyone else. The one who stood apart was powerfully built, a former powerlifter maybe, definitely had been an athlete at some point. The most defining trait had been the man's face, even from this far away Kaiser could make out the waxy sheen the burnt recovered skin had put on display.
Flashes of a leering face showed up in Kaiser's mind, recognition sparked as he remembered that same man taunting him as he got away from the Valean docks the night Kaiser fought Jasper. He was the man hauling away Jasper's shipment of Hercules, he was connected to the higher ups in Gemini!
"We're gonna need half of you down here packing up the formula, the other half goes upstairs, working on the manufacturing process." The burned man commanded, he gestured to half of the group, about twenty workers.
One of those people included Kaiser, none of those people included Qrow.
Kaiser moved along with the crowd, the small crowd he was in was being shepherded up a set of rusted iron steps. "Sure these are safe?" They weren't directed to anyone in particular, but someone behind him answered the question anyway.
"They're safe, pretty boy, just go up the stairs!" One of the security men- the Zodiac agent, Kaiser had to remind himself, had lightly shoved the boy up to the rickety steps. Despite holding on to the railings, Kaiser was sure that he could feel the steel collapsing. As he got to the top step, he had a better view of the manufacturing plant.
One half of the base level was lined with open chemical vats, a wide circumference that bubbled with a menacing orange liquid. Kaiser knew the drug all too well, having seen its effects firsthand, as well as having had to fight against its users. From Julian Mars, the original creator of the drug, to the superpowered assassin, Jasper Greene. Kaiser had known the devastating damage someone could cause with Hercules running through their veins.
They had walked into a scenario completely unrelated to their original mission, despite this, Kaiser resolved to burn this place to the ground. Not even Albert Ross could be allowed to have this, the steroid needed to be destroyed.
Kaiser snapped out of his thoughts as the security man commanding them started to speak.
"You guys know the drill, break off in pairs, get to your station, and mix the formula. Might be some new guys here, so make sure to help them get up to speed!"
Kaiser went to one of the stations, one closer to the edge of the mezzanine that overlooked the lower level. He spotted Qrow, he was lined up with the others around an aluminum workspace, taking up half the space was a crowd of glass chemical vials. These vials were the same as the ones he'd seen in the shipping container he was shot into by Roman Torchwick, as well as the shipment that Jasper Greene tried selling a week ago.
A machine stood at the end of Qrow's station, and one person grabbed it. They connected it to one of the vials, squeezing the trigger, Hercules trickled into the glass.
"Are you gonna start?" A voice called out to Kaiser.
Red eyes blinked toward the source, a middle aged woman stared at him with a stern face. Black hair fell to her shoulders, a worn green shirt one size too big adorned her body.
"Are you gonna start?" The lady asked again.
"Sorry, I'm new here, not sure how to start." Kaiser gestured to their own work station, set there were two tall 4 Qt. Measuring cups. Behind them were two large bins, one was filled with a nondescript white powder, the other filled with- good god!
"Is that fire dust?" Kaiser tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but the idea of being near this much explosive material was unnerving.
"Fire and lightning dust." The lady corrected, as she took a small plastic measuring scoop from the bin containing dust, she tapped it on the side of the bin to shake off excess. She poured the scoop into the measuring cup, pulling a hose from the side of the work station. She turned a valve to pour a clear liquid into the cup, quickly turning the liquid a orange hue Kaiser had been familiar with. Then she took a much larger scoop from the other bin, and poured the white powder into the cup. A thin metal stirrer was brought up, the lady used it to mix the chemicals into the cup. It started to glow a little once the chemicals were well incorporated, she finished with a huff, "got that?"
"Sure." Kaiser said tersely. He grabbed his own cup, going through the motion. Pouring in the dust mixture, beginning to scoop up some of the white powder-
Kaiser's hand was smacked away, his eyes tracking the lady.
"Are you trying to kill the both of us!" The lady grabbed the hose, filling Kaiser's cup with the liquid. "You're supposed to fill the cup with the dissolving solution first, then put the steroid powder in."
"I'm not exactly a chemistry expert!" Kaiser protested, he tried not to alert any of the guards of the altercation.
"Yeah, but I didn't think you were stupid!" The lady walked him through the steps, she didn't care about the annoyed boy glowering at the materials. "You have to be exact with the measurements, or the chemicals won't be balanced, and we'll have to throw it out!"
"Yeah, okay."
"I'll take these to the foreman, and be more careful next time. The last time someone messed up too many times, the foreman's second-in-command beat him up. He was a former boxer, ya know?" The lady picked up the measuring cups, sauntering over to one of the pathways jutting out of the mezzanine, leading to a square platform in the middle, there sat a man in an orange vest.
Kaiser looked at the foreman, next to him was the scarred man from before. He gulped, keeping his head down, he needed to make sure the man couldn't identify him. Thinking back to what the lady said, maybe he didn't need to burn the place down to destroy the Hercules supply. All he had to do was make a bad batch and get it poured into the vats below.
The lady came back a couple minutes later, and she returned with empty cups. Kaiser had managed to grab a spare cup from an empty workstation, already having had another batch ready to put in the vats. The lady raised an eyebrow, giving a condescending look to the boy. "That's wrong, throw it out."
"How could you tell?" The boy sarcastically replied, not letting anything show.
"I just know, I won't let you mess this up for us!" The lady shouted back, forcibly taking the cup, and pouring into the sink area of the workstation.
There was no indication that he had done anything wrong, this lady just didn't like Kaiser, and likely wanted to assume the worst of him.
So, Kaiser was stuck here for the next couple hours, not able to interfere with the lady quite literally hovering over his every move.
Hopefully Qrow was having better luck downstairs.
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Qrow had dropped his fourth glass vial in 10 minutes, at least this one didn't have that weird orange liquid that they had been packing. Which led to a new set of questions, primarily regarding what the hell this stuff was for. And why the hell had it put the kid on edge like it had earlier?
Back then, back before Kaiser enrolled into Beacon, Qrow was in charge observing the boy. This mostly consisted of following him around all day, which was boring as the boy seemed to only sleep in his motel room, walk around Vale, and do odd jobs like painting over graffiti for enough money to eat. Oftentimes, he'd wondered why he was on babysitting duty, and where exactly did Ozpin hear about this kid?
Then he had seen it, one night he followed the boy to a more unsavory part of Vale. It was an underground fighting arena, similar to the one that Oro ran in the El Dorado, but much larger. People were betting against the boy, seeing as his opponent at the time was a much larger, and stronger looking man. What came next was a display of martial skill and brutality that was comparable to seasoned huntsmen. He understood then that the boy was a potential prospect for his ability to take on people who seemed out of his league.
That wasn't to say that fighting was the boy's only talent, his sense of awareness had been insane. Despite how careful Qrow was, he knew that Kaiser was aware that someone was following him. Even in his bird form, there were times that Kaiser had caught sight of him. Once even locking eyes, as if Kaiser knew that the bird watching him was doing so with its own agenda.
And then the boy had stumbled upon the White Fang… and had faced off with the leader of Vale's branch: Adam Taurus.
Qrow had been tempted to step in during the fight, but had been strictly ordered by Ozpin to observe unless the boy seemed in imminent danger.
That danger became apparent when the White Fang leader impaled his sword through the boy's stomach. Worst of all was the bit of information that Ozpin had missed at the time about Kaiser.
The boy had not unlocked his aura, resulting in him bleeding out on the sidewalk.
The next time that Qrow had seen him, the boy was seemingly unfazed, simply marveling at the architecture of Ozpin's office. Even going so far as to calling the headmaster out for having him followed, which is when he officially met the older huntsmen.
Going through a traumatic near death experience had done little to actually affect the boy Qrow was in charge of supervising, but the very presence of this place had seemingly put Kaiser's head on a swivel. Within seconds he noticed how Kaiser tensed up and tried to take in every single detail of the place. Maybe, he should do a little investigation on his own.
"Do you guys even know what this stuff is for?" Qrow gently shook the vial he had been holding, the orange chemical inside sloshing around.
"Think it's for exercising." One voice chimed in, this person also sealing vials of the chemical.
"Yeah, for bodybuilders, something about making your muscles bigger?" Another man across the table had hesitantly contributed.
"So… like steroids?" Qrow managed to do three more vials without breaking a single one.
"Probably." The first person that answered Qrow had replied, just as Qrow looked back at the vial.
"Those are kind of dangerous, aren't they?" Qrow asked once more, waiting for someone to answer.
"Only if you're not careful, you should be good if you take small doses." Another of the workers said, nonchalance radiated from her as she filled another vial. "I mean, it's the only thing we can do around here to make a bit of money."
Qrow had been reminded of the pool of people that had been pulled into this business, many here would take more ethical, and honest paying jobs if given the chance. Whoever these people were, they targeted the homeless' vulnerability to recruit them into their labor force. While this practice was indeed scummy, none of this seemed to justify the sudden onset of nerves the boy had displayed.
He continued to ponder over the events of the last hour or so, lost in the monotony of the work, when a sudden booming crash had shot off above the ground level floor. This had caused all the people on the floor to look up, the sight of who had fallen made slightly easier by the small holes made in the elevated walkways.
"Looks like something's happening on the foreman's platform." One of the other workers near Qrow had stated. "Looks like Hammers got 'em."
Hammers… isn't that the-
"Wait!" The startled gasp came out raggedly, a voice all too familiar to Qrow had come to the very forefront of his mind.
As the heavy footsteps approached the body on the foreman's platform, Qrow understood that no matter how hard he worked to complete his mission…
…his semblance would work harder to cut it short.
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10 minutes earlier
Every movement was calculated, every word spoken between the lady and Kaiser was measured. He aimed to perfectly craft an image of himself in her mind, one that was sure to appeal to her biases.
He acted like an uncoordinated idiot…
"Geez." A stray hand of Kaiser's had swiped a little too hard across the table, knocking his measuring cup over. He made sure to feint this action when the only thing in his cup was the dissolving solution, if he did so with the dust mixture, he might've started some sort of chemical explosion.
"What the hell!" The lady shot a death-dealing glare at Kaiser, deeply wishing she could throw the boy out of the factory. Alas, she couldn't, she scrunched up her nose when she saw the boy aiming to clean up the mess. "I'll do it, you'll probably mess it up and spill more."
"It was an accident." Kaiser protested, his hands up in defense.
"A lot of accidents with you, I'll clean it up, you'll just make more of a mess." The lady grabbed some paper towels stationed at the corner of the worktable, she leaned down in between herself and Kaiser, not having a good view of what was happening on the table.
This was when Kaiser had made his move, while she was ducked down, Kaiser had discreetly grabbed an extra scoop of the steroid powder, pouring the stuff into the lady's measuring cup. A quick stir using the thin metal rod had rendered the powder completely dissolved, and more importantly, visually undetectable.
When the lady did finally come up, she saw the boy innocently stirring up another batch in his own cup.
"You did it wrong again." The lady had said without even checking the mixture, taking both of the batches. "I'll throw this one out while I go turn mine in."
Kaiser continued making a new batch, casting a wary eye towards the lady as she approached the foreman, next to him was the man with the face scarred by burns. Flashes of the way the man had grinned at him had instantly come to mind, Kaiser would grin right back at the man if he could, especially if the man knew just how badly he messed with his operations.
There wasn't much to Kaiser's education, mostly the spycraft and combat techniques that he had learned from his instructors in the IPS. The things he had known, like a mild understanding of chemistry, would give him the knowledge needed to employ more… unorthodox actions. He knew that chemistry was an exact science, where numbers mattered the most. Changing one variable would need an overhaul on the entire formula, or else the results would be catastrophic.
A recent news story came to mind, a prototype airship had blown up in Atlas when a technician had miscalculated with a zero.
This was the same principle, mess with the Hercules formula, it'd be unstable and unsuitable for sale. But he'd never be able to sneak a tampered batch by the lady who always thought that he was up to no good, she'd never suspect that her batch was the one that had been wrong. Her ego inadvertently helped Kaiser to interfere with Gemini's plan, and it seems that he had already raised the alarm, if the foreman berating the lady had indicated.
Kaiser put his head down again as soon as the lady had pointed in his direction, a little more focused on making more batches.
Heavy footsteps approached, followed by two more sets of much lighter steps. Whispers floated around the room in a hushed tone, all with Kaiser being in the middle of it.
"Boy! Are you stupid? Or do you just not want to get paid?" The foreman shouted, the start of a tirade getting Kaiser's attention.
"Is there a problem, sir?" Kaiser threw out an apologetic smile, yet still, managed to keep an air of feigned innocence.
"You messed up the formula, something must've gone wrong with the measurements! I know it wasn't Mauve here-" The foreman gestured to the lady, the catalyst to Kaiser's problems. "She never gets it wrong, so it must've been you who fucked up!"
"I'm sure I didn't make a mistake." Kaiser touched a finger to his cheek, playing the role of the incompetent fool.
"What if it wasn't a mistake?" The other man with the foreman had spoken up, the one with scars burned to his head.
"Excuse me?" Kaiser asked, sounding almost shocked that he'd been accused of sabotage.
"You heard me, what if it wasn't an accident?" The burned man stepped closer, close enough to make Kaiser suspect that he'd been recognized.
That was impossible, Kaiser had looked much different with his face all busted up and hair matted with blood when they got one the burned man and the boy caught a glimpse of each other the week prior.
"See, a couple of my boys updated me on the situation that went down before you guys made it to the tunnels." The burned man glowered at the boy, sizing him up, not impressed by the leaner body the boy possessed. "They tell me that you fought off a bunch of the guys that were trying to raid the transport. More suspiciously, these guys used rubber rounds, they weren't trying to kill any of us, meaning they weren't trying to take anything. It's like these guys weren't really planning on doing anything to us, like they didn't have to."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that nobody would risk their life to make it work, no matter how much they needed the money." The burned man gestured to Kaiser, the boy now wearing a look of genuine confusion. "It's like you knew you'd be alright."
Kaiser let a little smirk take hold, he'd try to play it off. "Perhaps I'm not like everybody else here."
"That's exactly my point." The burned man proclaimed, his tone momentarily catching Kaiser off guard.
It happened in a flash, the stirring rod on the lady's station came up, then dropped with the force of a hammer. The thin metal jabbed into Kaiser's resting hand, forcing a yelp out of the unsuspecting boy. Kaiser facing the man, a pained sound coming through his throat as the rod dug further into his hand. It wasn't enough to break skin, but it felt as if his bone would pierce at any moment.
"You have those same eyes as before." The scarred man had muttered.
"Huh?" A small gasp escaped Kaiser before he was roughly grabbed by the torso, dragged by the vice-like grip of the man. "Hold on."
"You know, even if you washed out whatever crap you had in your hair, I still ended up recognizing you!" The scarred man tightened his grip as the boy started to struggle, walking him towards the elevated pathways, leading to the direction of the foreman platform. "Still the same as when you were snooping around the Marigold estate, trying to keep your head down, acting like another dumb kid."
Marigold estate? How did this man know about that operation! As far as he knew, Zodiac wasn't involved in Chrysan Marigold's insane plan to wage war against the other kingdoms. There was only one other significant person on Marigold's side for that!
The scarred man let go, shoving Kaiser to the middle of the foreman's platform. He wasn't going without a fight, with a pivot, Kaiser aimed a perfectly executed roundhouse kick at the scarred man's head.
What he wasn't expecting was for the scarred man to duck briefly and deliver two straight and heavy punches to Kaiser's face.
"Still using those same old tricks." The scarred man gloated.
The shock of the blows knocked Kaiser to the ground, looking up, he got a good look at the man.
A powerful frame, perhaps a champion weightlifter? Remnants of chestnut brown hair sat buzzed short, broad shoulders that fired fists like pistons. All this combined with the southpaw stance that the man had adopted had sent flashes of memories better forgotten to the forefront of Kaiser's mind.
"You're…" Kaiser did his best to hide his hesitation, unconsciously stepping back as he stood back up. "You're Hank Hammers!"
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Amazing, I think I've cut off a chapter at a character reveal for the third time now. I'm definitely becoming formulaic now, rip. The next chapter should be out much sooner, since I have the majority of it written out already, crossing my fingers, but I also have to be realistic about this thing.