OHH YEAH, BABY! I'm feeling good today. Ain't y'all feeling good? WELCOME…. To the 11th Chapter and before we continue, a little announcement. This isn't exactly a whole chapter, it's one half of a chapter . Also, I think it's time we switch things up a little, so for one time only, or at least till date, I'll try to do this a little differently so expect something new this time. As usual, grab your seat, popcorn, charge your devices and let's go into the Eleventh.
"My name…. is [STATIC]" – Unknown
Vale City. One day after Blake went missing. POV-?
Been a few weeks since we got here. What brought me here? I don't have a clue. All I know is that we followed a great energy source and it led us here. Oh, my name? My name is actually nobody's personal business but mine, and the wiser ones know not to stick their noses in my personal business. As for what I'm doing, I been keeping tabs on a few people, and tonight, I feel it's high time I added another one to the list. I sat in an undisclosable location in Vale, reviewing the footage that my drones had picked up in the few weeks I let them roam free in Vale. Most of it was boring, nothing that really caught my attention, but then I found it: Something that would be worth my time.
It seems some unlucky fools went straight into hell and challenged the demon of a man in his newly acclaimed territory. I mean… literal beasts and monsters fear this beast and you dummies think that the best idea is to charge him head-first in numbers? Anyways, the kill count was something that shocked me, and I'm a hard one to surprise like that. For someone with such unimaginable ferocity and strength, his body count in this beatdown was quite low, but this wouldn't stop me from focusing on what I needed to see. Judging from the way they presented themselves and the way Miss. Red Gown gave out orders, it was safe to assume that she was the leader of the pack, and she was packing a lotta heat. 'Didn't save her from getting her a** whooped.' I thought to myself as I chuckled a bit.
I looked closer at the people that accompanied her. Most of them were uniformed, wore broken variants of those masks on the Grimm creatures. A private army, maybe? One way to find out. I ran a quick scan on their uniforms and compared it with the most similar ones in all of Remnant's databases. Only one result popped up; The White Fang, A faunus rights activist group turned terrorist group and the same group that Black had been associated with in the past if I heard right. The only other familiar face with them was that man in a bowler cap. Roman Torchwick, an infamous thief and criminal mastermind. So now when one mystery had been solved, another one arose. What would the White Fang be doing with not one, but 5 humans? I mean, there's Roman, red gown, two face, metal legs and grass head… Permit my lack of knowledge of their names. This is definitely strange, but I'll figure that out later.
But hey! Someone like them who could make the Fang, a group that hates humanity, to abandon their cause and help them instead would be either very rich, resourceful or… persuasive. Such a person would be perfect to watch for a while. Considering I couldn't immediately get my gloves on some information about the leader, I would have to try to try getting something on the most familiar figure there, Roman. I get him, I get Red Gown. With this new mission as top priority, finding Black was definitely not going to happen now.
'How could I find a criminal mastermind like Roman?' The man was definitely a crafty one, hiding his steps to avoid detection by the authorities. There's a problem though; I'm not the authorities. I brought my right hand to my left forearm and tapped it once to reveal a screen on it. With a look of concentration, I tapped away at the screen. It took some time to do it, but I had it done at the end. I had just breached the Vale Comms System, meaning that I'd be able to listen in on any call that went through.
Most of the uh… Shady calls in Vale would usually be made with some form of protection and Roman was no exception. Using the holo-screen on my forearm, I filtered out any call that went through at the standard frequency,, as well as had only one security key meaning I filtered out any unprotected call so I wouldn't have to hear any of the various things that the normal people of Vale would talk about.
For about an hour, I sat still, listening to the conversations of Vale's underworld and I must admit, this city's got quite a low number of organized criminals. Who knows? Maybe some of em make normal phone calls and expect that stuff to be secret. While I thought of this, my holo-screen alerted me to another call. 10 seconds later and I was listening in. "Yeah?" The first voice said.
"Sir, we've managed to get some information on an SDC freight coming in from Atlas." The second one said back. "When's this happening?" The first voice asked. "Tomorrow, night. At Vale Docks." The second replied. "Then get your soldiers ready. Tomorrow night, Vale Docks." The first finally said before the signal got terminated.
Nice, Nice… A Dust robbery. Hey, why does this sound familiar? Come to think of it, The Fang has been suspected for Dust robberies round Vale, probably the result of their work with Torchwick. And since it was the man with the first voice that ordered the second to prepare his men, he was most likely the superior, and the superior between these two parties… was Roman. I had found the person I was looking for, and now it was time to reach out to him. I retrieved the scroll that I… obtained, and left the building I was in. Then I called the number of the receiver on the scroll in my hand.
It didn't take long for him to pick up. I guess he must have been expecting some news but damn, I'd kill to see the look on his face when I greeted him. "Hello Roman. This is Roman, right?". "Who's asking?" He asked me. "A partner… a friend." I answered him as a grin formed on my helm-covered face. "Last I checked, I don't have any friends that sound like death." He responded over the call. "Relax, Roman… Now I know of red dress, metal legs and green hair, as well as what happened to them." I told him all about his associates and their conditions after their encounter with the beast. Needless to say, he was shocked, couldn't see it but his voice told the story. "What about them? What do you want? Who are you?" He was getting a little bit… jumpy, started asking me all these questions.
"ROMAN! COMPOSE YOURSELF!" I yelled at him out of frustration. After a few moments, and hearing him take a deep breath, I continued. "In their current condition, your associates won't be of much help when you hijack that freight. That's where I come in.". "I didn't plan on doing this one with them, but I'll consider your offer." He replied back, albeit hesitantly. "How much is your price?" He asked me. I guess I kind of skipped that part. "I don't need your money, Roman." I answered his question. "Then what do you want?" He asked again.
*beep beep beep* A few minutes in, my holo-screen beeped, signaling that the brute force was complete. I had successfully brute forced through all the keys that protected his device, obtained its IP and used it to obtain his location. Remember kids, if brute force doesn't work, it just means you didn't use enough of it. Having enough of this conversation, I decided to end it at this point. "We'll talk in a few minutes, Roman. Meet me in that alley, about three blocks out from where you are, 20 minutes. Come alone, else I'll give you to the police in two pieces. Oh, and don't be late" I ordered in my most menacing voice and immediately ended the call. I didn't waste time to drop the scroll on the ground and introduce it to the heel of a Titanium alloy plated boot, completely smashing it into pieces. What? I had to stay safe too…
It was getting a bit late and I had to go off, but before that, Roman. As luck would have it, the alley that Roman was to meet me in was just over a hundred meters away. With the streets almost empty and minimal sunlight, I was free to walk the hundred meters. Just hope nobody notices a 6'3 hulking figure, covered completely from head to toe with a black Titanium alloy plated armor suit, a skull carved helmet with glowing red eyes (that I dimmed with a layer of black tinted glass) made of the same alloy, and a black leather cape walking down the street into an alley. It didn't help that I was armed to the teeth like I was going to war, but personally, I don't consider 2 revolvers, a combat machete, a launcher strapped to my left arm and a makeshift SMG gauntlet strapped to my right arm as overkill… That is if you don't count the gadgets.
I was broken out of my thoughts when I arrived our meeting point. As expected, Roman was nowhere to be found, yet. The alley was dark, very dark, yet so perfect for the occasion. I leaned on the wall to my right and crossed my arms, waiting for Torchwick to show up. About ten minutes later, I noticed another figure entering the alley and if that cap and cane were anything to go by, then it was the man himself. "Well, you asked for me, and here I am" He said to me, stretching out his arms sideways.
I flipped a small switch on the side of my helmet to activate its thermal sensors and looked around, checking for any other persons. Nobody, just as I asked. "Well done. You came in time." I started, as I walked closer to him from the shadows. "As I said before, I'm a friend, and I want to do you a favor. Friends do each other favors, right?" I asked with my menacing voice and let out a little chuckle as I stepped into the light right in front of Roman. I towered over him, both in height and thanks to the suit, mass. "Yeah… they do." He responded in a low voice. It wasn't very audible but I could swear I heard him gulp. "Good. Now remember, I did say I don't want your money. All I need… is a little dust." I laid down my requests. He looked at me for a while, then hesitantly agreed to them
"Excellent. Where do we meet?" I asked. He handed me a piece of paper with an address written on it. An old warehouse in town, most likely their hideout. "Meet us there at the time specified in that paper tomorrow." He said as he handed me the paper. "Pleasure working with you." I said as I stretched out my hand to shake him. Reluctantly, he took my hand and we shook hands for a clean 3 seconds.
"I turned around and walked deeper into the dark alley, leaving him alone. "Tell Miss. Dual Colors that she can come now." I said as I walked away, seemingly disappearing into the darkness and leaving him alone but not for long. Not long after I said that, the colorful woman appeared in front of Roman. Heh heh, turns out I was right. But I had left them alone, how did I know of her appearance you ask? I left a micro drone to watch him, simple yet effective.
Welp, that's enough menace activity for tonight. Time to catch a little z's. It might not seem like it but after everything, under the mask, armor and voice, I'm still human. I quickly made my way back to my safehouse at Undisclosable location to rest for a while. Once I arrived, I started off by taking all my weapons off me and then my torso armor which I set to charge alongside my helmet, then the alloy plating covering my legs and hands. This left me with only a shirt, combat pants and a pair of black socks which I quickly took off, leaving me with my underwear- the best choice sleeping gear. I didn't bother doing anything else and fell asleep on the small couch in the room I stayed in. Who knows what the others would've said if they knew I was here? Luckily, it definitely wasn't me and it wasn't going to be either.
Vale, Current Day, Afternoon. POV-?
Working in an armored suit all day sure does make a bed seem far more comfortable than it should be. It was today that I was going to meet with Roman for the job but first of all, I had to check on Little Miss Blake and her monkey friend. I stood next to the bed, wearing every part of my armor except for the helm. The bug on Blake didn't transmit anything but her location, meaning she was either not in a conversation, or she was away from Sun… The former seemed to be it. The bug had told me where to go to find her, she was on her way to a Café right at the heart of Vale, presumably with Sun.
I have no idea whether if it's because I made that damn promise or something else, but I took it upon myself to watch her and make sure she was okay before going to meet Mr. Torchwick. Of course, I couldn't be seen wearing the armor during the day, so I only chose a few parts of it. A brown turtle neck along with the same combat pants I wore yesterday and the alloy plated boots would do. To top that off, the Nano Gloves and my Skull helm. Next, I thought of what to bring with me. A drone would've been optimal, but I didn't have any extra on me so to observe them, I needed something that could allow me to see and hear them.
I picked up my black briefcase and placed it on the wooden table. 'A quick modification wouldn't hurt.' I thought as I opened up the case to reveal its contents: A Rail Sniper with a few attachments in another case. I glanced at the attachments and then it dawned on me. I knew what I needed. My hand rushed to pick up the Parabolic Microphone, so I could hear them from a distance. For the second and last attachments, a switchable thermal scope to be able to see them through walls if the need arose, as well as a bipod to mount the rifle without too much sway. 'Per-f**king-fection!' It was perfect in all ways, especially for what I wanted to use it for.
With all my equipment ready, I stepped out of the building. I didn't spare any time before taking off towards the Café with a jog, which I later amped up to a sprint once I noticed the streets were near damn empty. Did someone important die, or was it normal during this festival? The answer… was still none of my business. I ran for almost twenty minutes before changing routes so that I would approach a building not too far from Café building from behind said building. Didn't take too long for me to find the right building. I took a glance at it and conveniently found a ladder leading to the top. One short climb later and I was at the top of it. First things first, the helm. I produced my signature helm and mask from a small box then slowly put it on, meaning it was time for some serious duty.
Pulling out a gray cloth and a long briefcase, I quickly assembled my Sniper, refitting it with my preferred attachments before covering it and my prone self with the cloth. By the time I had done this, Blake and Sun were already in the café and seem to have treated themselves to some cups of a beverage. Ah yes, for a few minutes it was nothing other than the casual sip and sigh from Blake and Sun drinking… with his tail? Well, at least I can add that to the list of crazy sh*t I've seen in this place. A few more minutes and I rolled out of the damn cloth, like isn't anything gonna happen?
I got my answer once Blake started speaking "So, you want to know more about me...". This caught my attention. "Yes, I do." I replied to nobody in particular. I quickly rolled back under the cloth to avoid detection and aimed down the scope to catch whatever Blake had to say.
"I'm listening" I said as a grin formed on my face.
DUN DUN DUUUNN, A NEW CHARACTER'S JOINED. This one seems to weirdly have plans for everyone, especially Blake, Cinder and Roman. Also, why must he keep doing this to us? I'm writing this and I don't even know who he is. Guess we just gotta keep on watching and see what he's up to. If you seeing this, this is the Doc, signing off. Have a beautiful, blyatiful day!