Jaune Arc, and the rest of his team, were vicious in their attacks.
Their combatants didn't waver in their tidal wave of assault. They ducked and weaved out of the way but were hit by the occasional bullet, jab, or punch.
Flashy team combos went against other flashy team combos. The entire arena was filled with dust explosions and the booms of metal hitting metal.
Jaune ducked under a pincer attack, by both Ruby and Weiss, and raised his shield. He activated the light dust and jumped towards the red and white duo. Pyrrha, who fought near him, raised one arm up without looking towards him.
His armor and shield were pulled out of his control by the familiar ferrokinesis. Pyrrha swung her arms in an arc launching him forward like a steel battering ram. His hard light extension hit both girls with massive force.
Their auras lit up and they flew away. He cushioned his fall with aura and quickly ran after the girls to finish the job.
Suddenly, the beep of the buzzer loudly emanated from the top of the arena. All combat stopped and the entire room fell into silence.
Nora's last dust bomb went off in the air. Its boom rocked the bone of everyone. When the last of its pink/grey emotes fell to the ground everyone let out a collective sigh.
All around the arena people helped their combatants up excitedly whispering to them. Nora helped a prone Blake up to her feet and comically dusted her off, Ruby and Weiss were helped up by Pyrrha and Ren, while Jaune helped Yang pick up loose shotgun cases.
Murmured voices filled the room as the eight teens congregated outside of the arena at padded benches.
Jaune sat down and hydrated. He was honestly not that tired but he did push himself during the training. He was getting stronger he had to put a bit more effort to keep up with his team and team RWBY.
Now that he had introduced his free-for-all training method to team RWBY, he and their team were attached to one another from training to everything else. Team RWBY had shot up in skill and his team was still shooting up.
They had even developed some new team and inter-team combos after he convinced Ruby how helpful they might be if their teams were mixed or switched with one another.
After all, their teams would be heavily involved together. They would need strong inter-team bonds so that no matter how they were arranged they would all work as one cohesive unit.
He sat between Ruby and Pyrrha cooling down.
Ruby suddenly piped, "Jaune, I can't believe I never thought to create moves between our teams. We're practically one large team already so I don't know why it didn't come to me sooner."
He shrugged, "Sometimes things just elude us. But now you know better and we can work on our team's bonds. We'll all get stronger together."
She eagerly nodded, her eyes twinkling, "I've already got an entire planner full of team activities. I can probably expand them to incorpatre two teams. I can't wait for all of us to hang out!"
He smiled at her excitement. He looked at Pyrrha who avoided his gaze. Things were still icy between them, but he promised himself he would fix the rift.
He thought to one of the secret reasons for why he had chosen to train both teams together. It was some last-minute training for both him and Blake so they would be at their very best when they raided the White Fang outpost tonight.
Speaking of Blake, he looked over to her and saw her in deep conversation with Weiss. She glanced at him and gave him a stoic nod.
Ruby started to discuss the school day and their shared hobbies. The conversation went on for a while before the doors to the training room suddenly burst open.
In walked team CFVY with Coco at the lead.
Jaune and Ruby stopped their conversation and focused on the new arrivals. The rest of their friends became silent.
Blake and Jaune already knew who CVFY was from the videos but they both needed to act like they were meeting them for the first time. Compared to all the other things he had lied about thus far, this was going to be a cakewalk.
Coco stepped up to Jaune and Ruby. She put her sunglasses down revealing her hazel eyes.
She moved her eyes over them; Ruby pelted under her gaze while he raised his brow.
Letting out a quiet hum, Coco extended her hand, and in a confident tone, said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Coco, leader of team CFVY. We're in our second year."
Jaune and Ruby both introduced themselves in a similar manner. She looked at them again and at the rest of their team with curious eyes.
Why was she so keen about them?
She spoke up again, "So you guys are the famous team RWBY and JNPR, the best teams of the first years. A pleasure to make your acquaintance but, sorry to say this, you guys don't look like much."
Ruby suddenly shot up and faced the fashionista.
She huffed, "Hey! What's the deal, you walk in here and start insulting us!"
"Woah, Woah calm down there Red. I'm just saying that you guys aren't what we expected of the famous first-year teams."
"We're famous?" Ruby said, simmering back down to her seat.
"Yea, you guys are the talk of the town with all the other first years."
"Huh I never even realized we were that known," Jaune responded
"How come? Both of your teams are at the top of the rankings and you have Pyrrha Dam Nikos on your team. Of course, you guys would be popular."
"Well, thanks for the compliments but what do you guys need?" Jaune asked bluntly.
"This room booking just ended so we were going to train in here but now that you're here, why don't you guys spar with us? We wanna see what the strongest first years can do and maybe you might even learn a thing or two."
Jaune turned at Ruby who shrugged before she and the rest of her team got up.
She loaded up her gym bag, "That sounds like fun and all but we just got done doing a brutal training session. Weiss also has a study session that she's making us all attend so we have to go, bye!"
She waved before her team quickly left the gym.
Coco spoke up, "So your team is still down to tango?"
He looked at his side to where the rest of his team were sitting. They gave apprehensive mods except for Nora who was shaking with excitement. They didn't look too tired and he wasn't as well. They could go for some more training and maybe they could make some new connections or even learn a thing or two.
The worst that could happen was that they would get beaten black and blue. But that was already par for the course in their own training.
He got up and shook Coco's hand, "Sure we'll be happy to spar with you."
She shook his hand with a steel grip. It must come with lugging around that minigun in its handbag form all the time
Nodding her head, the glass-wearing girl got into the ring with the rest of her team. His team did some warmups and followed them in.
His team started to make light conversations with the other members of team CFVY.
He walked next to Coco and discussed their respective leadership classes. The class was taught by Ozpin taught. The old headmaster somehow mixed fairytales and huntsmenship to create lessons that left them all speechless.
Both teams went to their respective corners. Jaune turned to his team and was about to tell them about team CVFY's semblances and combat styles he stopped just as he opened his mouth. His team would get weaker if he gave them a shortcut with his future knowledge.
The only way they would get stronger would be by experiencing and adapting themselves.
He turned back around convinced he shouldn't baby his teammates. Team CFVY had their weapons practicing swings. Coco swayed her mini-gun around with ease.
She swung her minigun on her back and put a finger to her chin. He stood in front of her waiting for the buzzer to go off.
She suddenly spoke up, "Why don't we switch it up a bit?"
The buzzer beeped and Coco used aura-infused legs to lunge at Pyrrha. Pyrrha was monetarily shocked for a moment before she redirected herself from facing Fox to quickly reflecting Coco's initial strike.
Jaune, looking at Coco's trajectory, didn't notice the giant bronze great-sword suddenly flying into his peripheral view. He only recognized that Yatshuhashi had hit him when a steel freight train rammed into him.
He flew away but had the sense to push all of his aura straight into his front. His massive aura pool took the brunt of the damage but he was flung into the air.
He hit the light dust wall of the arena with a meaty thump. He used his aura to grip it and hop to the floor. He took a quick breath as Yatsu closed the distance.
Because of the man's size, he couldn't move that fast. Although, he still moved rapidly for his hulking figure.
Jaune spread his feet in a light stance. The towering giant was much stronger than he was but much slower. He couldn't win a battle of outright defense so he could win one of agility.
The green-clad giant crossed the last few feet and swung in a short arc. Jaune feigned defense by having his shield up but ducked away at the last moment.
He rolled under the bronze streak and to his combatant's side. He activated his grav-dust function and thrust his heavier sword, with aura-infused hands, at the giant's thigh.
It connected and the sword shredded off an olive green aura. It sounded like he had stuck his sword into a meat grinder.
He quickly leapt back as Yatsuhashi turned around and tried to grab him. The giant turned his half turn into a full one and cleaved a wide arc with his sword in his other hand.
Jaune ducked low and activated his dust light projector. The metal sword impacted the blue rim and thudded off. The force pushed him back several feet but aura stopped him from tumbling over.
The swing itself was done by Yatsu's offhand. It wasn't that powerful in that regard but still packed a meaty punch. He was afraid of what kind of damage the sword could do at its full potential.
Arms aching, he turned off the light dust shield. Yatsu approached again with his sword to the side. His aura flared around his ankles and feet.
Jaune knew what the giant was about to do so he quickly rushed at Yatsu to throw off his balance. He closed the distance before his combatant could, making Yatsu stumble.
He couldn't get back up and used his remaining foothold to launch himself at an unsteady angle. In the split millisecond he launched, Jaune raised his shield up.
Yatsu instinctively closed his eyes. This proved to be a mistake. Jaune stepped to the side and swung his sword in a horizontal Arc.
His sword cut through Yatsu's entire side. It scraped along his aura like a knife on rigid mountain rock.
Yatsu flew into the hard light hall, and with his momentum, made a sickening crunch. His aura cocooned around his body violently flashing before it calmed.
Jaune ran after him as he already saw the bulky man stirring. He lunged at the downed man and expected an easy aura break. Instead, Yatsu suddenly flared up.
His meaty hand caught Jaunes sword mid-swing. Jaune activated the grav-dust which made Yatsu grunt and let go. He jumped back but not far enough as Yatsu reached him in a single stride.
Jaune raised his shield but Yatsu dropped his sword. Just as the bronze cleaver made a giant impact on the ground, the green giant grabbed his shield and pulled it down with force.
Jaune activated the grav-dust on his shield emblem but that didn't faze his opponent. Yatsu reared back and delivered a devastating punch to his face.
The world went black and he saw stars. His hearing had also disappeared.
Slowly his senses returned to him. His head throbbed as he opened his eyes to the ceiling. He got up; he still held his sword and shield.
The aura reader of the arena showed that his aura was almost in the red and that Yatsu's was right at the beginning of yellow. Did they fight so hard that his massive aura pool depleted that quickly? Or did his opponent not hold back their powerful strikes?
It was probably a combination of the two.
A figure stepped into his vision blocking the light. His eyesight was blurry and he had to blink a few times to clear the fuzz. Yatshuhasi stood in front of him with his bronze sword at his side.
He offered a hand to Jaune who gladly accepted. The tall man easily hauled him.
Golden aura flaring all around his body healing him. He walked with Yatsuhashi out of the arena.
Everyone else had finished their fights and was also leaving the arena.
He spoke to the stoic man, "You threw one hell of a punch there. I think my entire face is just going to be one big bruise for a while."
To iterate this he cradled his cheeks which flared with golden aura.
Yatsuhashi barked out a laugh, "I'm sorry for going so hard on you. I don't normally get to go all out in sparring with anyone else but my team. I lost myself in the heat of battle and forgot that you were a first-year and this was simply just a spar."
"Don't worry about it. I like getting beaten up anyway. It lets me know that I still have a lot of room to improve. Anyways, you were one of the most skilled heavy hitters I've ever faced."
"Thank you, you are very skilled for a first year. You were quite a challenge."
"Yea, but not skilled enough to beat you," Jaune lamented.
"Of course, I have an entire year on you of being a huntsman trainee. Also, you lost because you made a fatal error. You tried to end me in a quick battle but that only works against people with medium and lower aura pools. I have a much bigger amount than the average person. You should have taken the fight slowly, taking precise hits when you could. Against people like me, it is a war of attrition not brute strength unless you can match."
Jaune nodded storing all of this information.
They met with the rest of their respective teams. His team looked worse for the wear with their auras flashing all over their body like strobe lights. But they were all elated from the exercise.
Team CFVY spotted much fewer wounds. They whispered amongst themselves and looked towards him and his team with respect. The teams broke apart and began to talk to one another animatedly.
On screens around the room, video footage ran clips of the fight. They pointed at the scenes and took note of them with one another.
Suddenly, as he was talking with Nora, a hand slapped his butt.
He jumped around to a grinning Coco. She draped an arm around his neck before he could react to her slap.
"Well Arc, that was one hell of a fight. We wanted to continue with a full team fight but you guys look like a sneeze could drop you. Maybe we could do it another time, for a bunch of first years you guys aren't so bad. Here's our details," she said.
The brown-haired girl pressed her scroll against his own. It chimed loudly. His teammates' scrolls also dinged as well.
Team CFVY gave their final goodbyes and exited the training room.
He let out a groan as all his muscles flared in exhaustion.
Inside the team JNPR dorm, they all watched a movie. They weren't really that into it and found more entertainment from making fun of how bad it was. They were now resting.
They all sat on big giant bean bags, all color coded, that were brought by Nora on their last outing to Vale.
He was sunk into his barely aware of his teammate's conversation. At their feet, lay cold packs and scattered food.
He had a few of the bright blue chilling packs draped over his body like the decorations on a holiday tree. At his side, Pyrrha, who was the least affected by the training, dutifully dabbed an ice pack over him.
He reached out for a bottle of water. He sipped from the bottle's straw and savored the cool drink.
He offered Pyrrha a bottle. It was a small thing but he hoped it would be one of the first building blocks to fix the rift between them.
She paused at the offered drink but eventually took it. She smiled softly before going back to talking to Nora. It wasn't much but he would take anything he could get.
The movie ended and he joined in the final conversation. They made fun of the hilariously bad ending and cleaned up the dorm.
He and his teammates went over to their own beds. They all began to do separate things. There was quite some time until they went to sleep.
He sat on his bed and pretended to scroll through the net. In reality, he looked over the news report of the factory outpost. He had already read it a dozen times but he still hadn't found anything substantial.
Reading it now, he used it to pass the time. He also used it to redirect his attention from the bubbling sense of anxiety/excitement that usually came right before he made a big change to the future.
He and Blake were going to hit the derelict Fang factory. They would meet up in a few minutes to discuss strategy and other details about the plan. The biggest thing they needed were clues on how/where the Paladin was being transported.
Hopefully Blake had something. His research hasn't bore much fruit; all he learned about the outpost was that it was built long before he was born, no one occupied it, and it was in the hands of the Vale government rotting away.
There was nothing concrete or specific about the old structure; the small newspaper was this only real source and he had already run that well of knowledge dry.
He closed his scroll as it was almost time to meet with Blake. He exited the room and didn't even bother to give an excuse.
His teammates knew his habits and even his new one of staying out very late. They didn't question where he was going.
Nora and Ren bid him goodbye although Pyrrha simply nodded in his direction. She had a frown over her face as he left the room but that quickly disappeared when Nora roped her into a conversation.
He closed the door on his teammates vigorously talking with one another.
He turned around to the back of Blake, closing her dorm door. She waved into it before she shut the door and turned around.
She stepped back in surprise but quickly composed herself.
She gave him a quick nod and they hurried off to the library. They didn't speak to one another as they walked to not attract any attention. He was bursting with anticipation at what Blake had might have dug up.
There was a medium number of students in the halls. Many were walking in the opposite direction towards the airship docks.
Turning a corner, they came upon a group of nondescript students gathered around a wall. They paid no heed to them and walked by.
A few of the students whispered to themselves for a moment as Blake passed by. He noticed this and was about to mention it but Blake had a stoic expression. She seemingly didn't notice them.
Her twitching cat ears in that direction proved otherwise.
Suddenly the students stopped whispering. One of them sneered at Blake, "Hey kitty-cat stop stepping so close to Blondie. How about you find a mate of your own kind?"
The group of students all burst out laughing.
Jaune stopped and stood shocked at the blatant anti-faunus racism. Angered flared through him like a hot knife. He clenched his fist.
He went to stomp towards the group but suddenly Blake grasped his hand.
He looked back at her shaking her head. He opened his mouth to argue but a frown creased her brow.
Sighing, he wrenched his hand out of her grasp more forcefully than he meant to.
Suddenly a commotion started behind him. He turned around to Cardin angrily shouting at the bullies with his team off to the side.
Cardin spoke with seething anger "Why don't you shove those ideas somewhere else?"
One of the bullies put their arms up in a calming gesture, "Hey man, we're just teasing someone, weren't you also into teasing those types of people before."
Cardin's face pinched in fury, "I may have once but not now. How about you leave or I'll show you just how much I've changed."
Another bully stepped forward, "What are you gonna do?"
Cardin sneered and raised his meaty fist in front of the person's. His clenched hand encompassed their entire face. He reared back to punch but faked it at the last second.
The person stepped back in shock falling into the group of bullies. They all picked yp the fallen person and fled in terror.
Cardin looked back at Jaune and nodded gruffly. He walked out of the corridor with the rest of his team trailing behind him. They didn't meet Jaune's eyes.
Blake and Jaune were both dumbfounded at Cardin's display. He turned to Blake who wore a similar shocked expression to his own.
He had defended Cardin from that Ursa in forever fall forest which created some unsteady truce between them. But he never would have imagined that Cardin, of all people, stood up for a faunus.
Blake suddenly spoke up, "I can't believe he just did that."
"Neither can I… but he seemed different after that Ursa fight. People can change Blake and I think he just did," he responded.
Blake nodded and walked towards their original destination. He moved in pace next to her.
If he could change someone like that in the present without any of his future knowledge, how many people could he change with his future knowledge?
He was pulled away from his thoughts by the creaking of the library doors. He stepped and Blake went over to their usual spot. He filed away his earlier thoughts for later.
They sat down and just like all the times before, their area was devoid of any people. Even though there was a substantial amount of people in the library. most were spread throughout the giant space.
He helped Blake set up the usual precautions and they got to work.
Blake pulled out some files from her scroll and transferred them to the holo-comp. He focused on her screen with rapt attention; he had a feeling the cat faunus had found something substantial if her energetically swaying cat ears were any indication.
She pulled up images of old musty floor plans of a factory. They weren't scans but pictures she took with her scroll.
She pointed at the pictures, "I managed to get the floor plans of the factory."
"Were they online?" he asked, looking at the brown colored paper with a keen eye.
"No, most of the building floor plans in Vale are pretty old so there are only physical copies you have to view in person. . I had to go into the city to get pictures of these."
"Wouldn't it be strange for some random Hunter in training to sweep into the city and take a look at floor plans?"
She shook her head, "No, not at all. A Lot of strange people look at the plans and I don't think they don't care enough to report a random student requesting to see one. Anyways, I said the excuse of needing it as a project for Beacon."
He nodded satisfied with her answer. He re-focused his attention back on the layouts.
If the barely legible was any indication, the factory was medium-sized and was mainly filled with workspace. The first image showed the first floor of the factory. The middle of the floor was a giant open room that was filled with machines all lined in orderly rows and columns. Other items filled the room at the edges but he couldn't make out what their minimalistic shapes were because the handwriting was faded.
Off to the side of the main room were three other rooms. Two of them were small bathrooms and the other was a medium-sized break room. On the opposite wall was a storage room that was much bigger than the break room but smaller than the main workspace.
The storage room had two exits. The final fixture of the main room were two sets of stairs that led to the second floor of the factory.
Blake switched over to an image of the second floor plan.
The second floor was a hexagon shape with sharp angles. The middle of the floor was empty except for a single long rectangular shape designated as the catwalk. The catwalk connected both sides of the hexagon. The entire floor was dedicated to administration with the inner walls that looked down on the factory being lined with windows.
He finished observing the plans and sat back in his seat. Already a plan churned in his head for the best approach. But he deferred to Blake as her White Fang past and general subterfuge knowledge would give them a large advantage.
She looked at him and he nodded that he was ready for their planning to begin.
She pointed towards the documents and spoke with a calculating shine in her eyes, "I'm willing to bet that most of the low level grunts of the Fang are holed up in the break room. Their commanding officers are probably living it large on the second floor."
"I think that the stolen dust is stored in the storage room. It would be pretty easy to transport or bring them out from there," Jaune added.
"That's a definite guarantee. This place is very far away from the populace and hasn't been under scrutiny for who knows how long. The Fang would have gotten lazy and have the stolen dust out in the open. As long as we don't start a gunfight in the storage room the entire place wont go down on us."
"So all we have to do is find the intel that's probably going to be on the admin floor. How are we going to get up there?"
Blake hummed, "The building's falling apart so we should have no trouble climbing it if we used our auras. We should sneak in through one of the windows on the second floor, grab any intel, then leave."
"There's probably going to be a perimeter if my research into Fang busts has given me anything."
"Then we'll deal with them if we encounter them. No guns, just solid knockouts with our aura. Most of the Fang don't even have their aura so it'll be easy."
"That sounds like a plan. After we finish I'll call Qrow as Tungsten and let him deal with the stolen dust."
Blake nodded and they spent another hour or so refining the plan. Confident in what they had they had, the duo left the library.
They changed into their combat gear and headed to the air docks. They got on the first flight to Vale.
A train ride and a long walk later, they stood in an alleyway a few blocks away from the Factory.
The alleyway was in between two derelict brick buildings that once had a function Jaune could not discern. The entire area was an abandoned and crumbling industrial district.
Everything rusted and flapped in the strong night wind. Most buildings didn't even have windows, the few that did had shattered ones.
The most unsettling part about this place was that there were almost no signs of human life. There wasn't a mark of graffiti, cigarette stumps, or glass bottles dotting the ground. It unnerved him to think that this place was so far isolated from the rest of the city that no one ventured out here.
The only real-life here was the scuttle of rats and the growing flora on the buildings which looked more gray than green.
He shivered at the decay. It reminded him of the place the Grimm came from at the end of Volume 3. Maybe this was the very same place.
Inside an alleyway, Blake fiddled with a dark bag. Along the way to the factory, they had stopped at a Fang safe house and she had "borrowed" some equipment from them.
He turned away from the edge of the alleyway and walked over to Blake. She organized a pile of items on a sleek black cloth spread on the ground.
She finished the last of her organization and picked up several pieces of clothing which she handed to him.
He picked up the bundle and started to sort through them. Blake explained what each piece of equipment did as he put them on or tested them.
He unfurled a tight full-body black suit. It was matted and the material stretched without losing quality. If it was placed in the shadows the cloth was barely visible. She explained that it could stretch over clothing and armor without hampering movement.
He pulled it one with some help from her. It fit snugly over his white and gold armor covering every part of his body, even his feet. He did a few laps in the alley; his movement was not restricted.
Next was a pair of sleek goggles with blue lenses. He put them on and was struck by the heat signature of Blake. She pressed buttons on his goggles switching between a heat signature, night vision, zoomed-in, and a regular mode.
She handed him black gloves and a comfortable black mask that covered his entire face except for his eyes. The head covering wasn't as protective as the Balaclava he had worn to the docks but it was much more comfortable. He wouldn't get distracted by it.
The final pieces of equipment she handed him were a black sheath for his sword and a bulky knife.
He rotated the sleek black knife around in his hands, "What's this?"
"A present. You never know when you don't have the space to use your sword," Blake responded, putting on the last of her gear.
"Hopefully I won't have to use it," he said, sheathing the knife.
"Hopefully." Blake curtly added.
They both did one last equipment check before going out of the alleyway. They looked like spies and were much more professional than their prep for the dock fight.
Blake pressed a gloved hand into his one leaving an earpiece. He put it on and winced at the static when it turned on.
Blake spoke in his head, "These don't require you to press on them to hear one another. They turn on when you speak so just whisper to yourself and I'll hear it. But don't say anything embarrassing under your breath."
He nodded, "Copy that I won't embarrass myself."
She turned around but he couldn't make out her expression underneath the headgear and goggles. The only signs the person standing in front of him was Blake were the body the suit tightly hugged and the bumps on top of her head that indicated her flattened cat ears.
He checked himself one last time to make sure his knife, gun, and sword were all at his side.
Satisfied, he and Blake cut their way through dark alleys and empty buildings until they were near the back fence of the factory.
They spied on top of a squat building that was near the rusted fence. It was pitch black which, combined with a roof guard, allowed them extra stealth.
She was on one side trying to find a perimeter around the factory while he surveyed their back. He watched out for any activity but there was nothing on the distant horizon.
Suddenly a thought struck his head and he whispered to Blake through his earpiece.
"Blake, how does the Fang even have this type of gear?" he asked, fiddling with the goggles impressed by their versatility.
She responded back, "The grunts don't have any of this, just the people at the top. The Fang are guerilla fighters and they take everything they can get. All of this gear comes from a massive attack on a group of Atlas specialists and their safehouse. The Fang somehow won and took everything that wasn't bolted down, including this gear. Now only a select few Fang members have access to any of this. I was Adam's right-hand woman so I know where they're all located."
He nodded and got back to surveying. There wasn't much to do except sit behind the roof wall and watch the empty roads. But he still put his all into the boring job, he wouldn't let mundanity stop him from changing the future.
Suddenly, after about 20 minutes or so, Blake whispered into his head, "Jaune get over here!"
He crouched over to her position. He looked at the chain-link fence that surrounded the concrete island of the factory.
Turning on his night vision and zooming in, he tried to pinpoint whatever Blake spotted.
"Over there!" Blake whispered harshly.
She pointed towards the end of the chain-link fence, the furthest point away from the factory.
Without his goggles, the entire world would be a black canvas and he wouldn't be able to make out anything unless they were right in front of him. But because of the goggles, he was able to easily see two White Fang grunts walking around the corner.
They casually chatted with one another and held their guns lazily. They didn't even look around the yard. One even held a cigar in his hand and let out puffs of smoke as they talked.
"Looks like security really is lazy," Jaune mused.
"It seems so. Let's wait for them to sneak by and we'll take them down together." Blake whispered back.
Blake slowly crept to the side of the building and jumped down. He followed her but with a bit less grace.
They hugged the wall and eyed the two grunts as they got closer. Even though the grunts were faunus and had night vision, their pitch-black catsuits made them become one with the shadows.
They got closer and closer until they walked right by their building. Blake pointed to him and to the grunt smoking the cigar. He got the message and loosened his feet.
"And then Terry dropped the entire crate of du-" The Fang grunt didn't get to finish before Blake clocked him in the head. Jaune was right behind her and butted the end of his knife into the head of the other grunt.
A blue aura flared up and the Fang member let out a groan instead of instantly falling to the floor. Jaune was momentarily shocked before his battle senses took over and he struck again, with much more force.
The grunt's blue aura shattered; he crumpled to the ground with a whimper. Jaune turned around to help Blake but she dusted herself over her adversary. She signaled to him to drag away the bodies.
He nodded and both of them, using their aura, easily picked up the bodies and stuffed them inside of the building they were scoping from. They went back to the fence and scaled it.
They deftly stalked over the open concrete between the fence and the factory. He whipped around, no one was behind them.
No other perimeter stumbled onto them and there was no one on the factory roofs.
They reached the wall of the factory and stopped.
He took big heavy breaths as quietly as possible. His heart thumped rapidly. The takedown must have lasted not more than a few seconds, with the traveling taking up most of the time, but the adrenaline still rushed through him.
Although that mishap with the grunts' aura did startle him. He turned over to Blake who leaned against the wall. She was in a more muted state than he was but her chest rose strongly.
Turning his head around like an owl, he whispered into Blake's head, "Why did those guys have aura?"
"I have no clue, only the top rank in the Fang get their aura unlocked. I doubt they would just give aura to some random grunts in some far-flung base," Blake responded, eyeing the roofs of the building.
"Maybe they're protecting something really important like the Paladin so they gave the grunts an extra line of defense?"
"But then why would the grunts be so lazy? If they are guardians of the Paladin they would have sentries and perimeters all around this place combined with the aura. No, something strange is going on here."
"Whatever that is, hopefully, they have some intel on where the Paladin is."
Blake nodded her blue lensed goggles. Did she see the world in the same green tint he saw it in with the night vision mode? Would the night vision mode help or tamper with her already active Faunus night vision? All of these were questions to ask her after they got through this.
She scrunched her back to the wall and he did the same. They both scurried along the exterior like mice.
They went around to the storage portion of the factory. A worn ramp and turned-over forklift littered the front of one of the loading docks. The giant black metal door to the storage facility was closed; there wasn't a single window on it. A small regular door to the side was bolted shut by chains.
He crouched over to the forklift with Blake in tow. The windows of the factory were all barred shut with peeling planks of wood, the spaces between them let out no light. It looked like the Fang were using their night vision to navigate.
Blake tapped his shoulder and directed his attention to a broken ladder that hung next to the dock gate. It was a faded orange color and rusted to the point of flaking. A significant portion of the ladder was broken off.
They would need to use their auras to actually reach it. Blake tugged him along and they stood below the jagged remains of the ladder.
She pulsed her purple aura around her legs and quietly jumped up. Her gloved hands made no noise when they grabbed the rungs. He looked up and pushed aura to his legs but, just as he was about to jump, Blake turned around and held a hand out.
She dropped the black rope of Gambol Shroud. He grabbed onto it and pulled himself up.
The only source of light in the factory grounds was the soft lilac glow of Blake's aura supporting her hands and wrists.
He got onto the ladder and climbed with Blake. They went up the rusty thing very slowly and silently. His heart leaped out of his chest at almost any noise that penetrated the quiet night.
But they were able to get through the agonizing climb and onto the roof of the storage facility.
He took a few more steady breaths and shuffled over to the edge of the roof. No one had come out to investigate. Putting his ear down, he tried to listen for any noises inside of the building.
The only sounds that emitted from the old building were the groans of old metal.
With his ear still down to the roof, he whispered into Blake's head, "Do you hear anything?"
She sighed (he imagined her massaging her forehead in frustration) before replying, " Jaune. I can't hear through walls, even with my cat ears. But no, I don't hear anything at all. The Fang probably aren't doing much today."
"Hopefully," He replied, getting up.
They found another ladder, which was in much better condition than the first, and climbed it to the second-floor room.
The walls of the second floor were dotted with boarded-up windows/spaces where windows once were. All planks were boarded tightly leaving almost no gap big enough to crawl through.
Jaune walked with Blake over to a spot on the wall free of windows.
He faced her and she twisted the Gambol Shroud in her hand. She eyed a window that had a large gap between two of its bottom planks, but the gap wasn't big enough for them to go through.
She crawled over to that window and he followed right behind. His hands shook with anticipation as she readied her blade over the spaced-out boards.
She swung down and cleanly cut off one end of the board. The action did make a sound.
He quickly caught the end before it could fall. They waited with bated breath for something to happen. A few minutes passed and when nothing happened Blake cut the second end of the plank.
He caught that end as well. Putting the plank of old wood down quietly, he entered the second floor of the factory right behind Blake.
They entered a room filled with upturned office desks and scattered papers. He stepped carefully on the ground making sure not to make any noise. He ducked behind an upturned desk and took stock of the room.
There were broken filing cabinets off to one side, a water cooler with half of its machinery exposed, and shattered light fixtures. Because of his night-vision goggles, everything was in a crisp green view.
He picked up an old document off the floor. It was too faded to even make out.
The office space was large and took up half of the hexagonal shape of the floor.
At the ends of either side of the room were two rotting wooden doors that were hobbled together with newer planks of wood.
He whispered into Blake's ear, "I'll take one door, you take the other. We'll hopefully meet back at the end of the other half."
Blake hummed in response and walked towards her door. He stalked forward and put his ears against his door, nothing. He got up and tried the doorknob; it easily twisted and the door swung open without creaking.
Were they oiling up the doors? That was strange.
His feline faunus partner had already gone through her door. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door fully and scanned inside.
Nothing moved in his green view. He took a deep breath and put a foot forward into the other room. He closed the food behind him and fully crouched into the new room.
It was pitch black as the other room and in a similar state of disrepair. It was more akin to an angled hallway but it was made up of more toppled over desks and chairs. He stalked through it keeping his knife in a tight grip.
On one side of the hallway, the walls were lined with tilted glass panes. He crawled over to one and looked down at the factory below. He didn't spot anyone moving among the array of machines.
A rusty gray catwalk connected his hall and Blake's through an empty spot in the window panes. In the other hall, Blake deftly rolled between debris going much faster than him.
He passed by a broken-down vending machine which was one of the few things in the hallway that was upright; its glass front was broken and lit up. He stopped at it. It was the only source of light he had encountered so far.
Turning off his night vision so as to not blind himself, he inspected it. The machine was packed with drinks and bagged food. He took one cola and checked the expiration date, it was for this year.
It looked like the Fang couldn't do their work without the comforts of modern life. Did they export it here with their stolen dust?
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Blake's whisper in his head, "Jaune, are you at the end of your hallway?"
Jaune immediately turned around and stalked down the hallway again.
He responded, "I'm almost there, give me a minute."
He got to the end and saw an ornate door of an office. It looked like it had seen better days, its frosted glass visage was coated in dust and grime. A bright blue light, the light of a scroll, emanated from inside the room.
Ducking behind the closest turned-over office desk, he radioed in Blake.
He whispered as if his very voice would blow up the building, "Do you see the blue light from the office on your side?"
She responded back, "Yea it's a scroll light. I also see two shapes moving in there, one large and one average height. I'm going to try to get closer to hear them."
"Wait Blake!" he urgently whispered.
He didn't get a response back except for Blake's soft breathing. Suddenly new, but faint, voices started to speak into his head.
A gruff voice responded to something, "I do not care how taxed everyone feels. We are fighting for a righteous cause that will take blood, sweat, and tears. If they don't feel up to the task they can leave."
"But sir…no one is willing to leave. You've entrusted us with aura and everyone is now truly willing to die for the cause. It's just that these dust shipments. Almost everyone here has been worked to the bone," a meeker more feminine voice responded.
The gruff man sighed, "Fine, just for one day I'll slow down the shipments and everyone can relax. I'd rather have able-bodied men and women who won't drop like flies when a battle comes."
"Thanks, si-"
"But you still have to work and organize the transport between the other bases. We need to make sure that the black box is transported safely with the dust. Remember to use the new communicator equipment."
"I'll get right on that sir…if you don't mind me asking why are ere making this transport so complicated and what is the black box?"
The gruff man responded in a huff, "That's on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know."
With that, the conversation ended.
Blake took in a sharp breath of air on her line. H
He asked her, "Everything alright?"
"It's just… I swear I recognized that guy's voice."
"Is it Adam?"
"No, definitely not but it's someone I knew. I just can't figure out who."
Suddenly the door to the office, on his side, sprung open and someone walked out. It was probably the gruff man if the heavy footfalls were any indicator. Although Jaune couldn't tell who it was, he ducked under the desk and hoped to the brothers the man didn't hear his breathing.
His desk was turned over sideways allowing him to be unseen unless someone were right on top of him. But this also stopped him from peering over the desk and identifying who this person was.
He shut his eyes and slowed his breathing. The footsteps thumped further and further down the hall until they disappeared down the stairs of the factory. He hoped that whoever that was didn't see the gap in the window they came from.
Making sure the figure left, he stalked over to the office door.
He whispered into Blake's head, "The guy just went by me and went down."
Blake hummed back, "Ok, let's knock out whoever's still inside. You open first as a distraction and I'll come in and knock her out"
In a quiet countdown, he slowly opened the door. A female faunus with mouse ears in a White Fang outfit looked up at him from a holo-comp. The other door to the room slowly crept open as well but she didn't notice it.
"Boss? Do you need somethi-" she didn't get to finish as the ribbon of Gambol shroud constricted around her throat like a midnight snake. Blake hit her in the head with an aura sheathed hand cracking the mouse woman's teal-colored aura.
She slumped in her seat out cold. He stalked over to Blake, closing his door.
The room was a tightly packed office that was well maintained. There were open crates in one end that held weapons and packs of bullets. The filing cabinets of the room were emptied out but a few were stuffed with documents.
The centerpiece of the room was a black mechanical tower that had open wires running from it to the roof. It was jury-rigged with both homemade parts and highly advanced Atlas tech.
Blake looked at him and said, "Let's get as much info as we can."
He nodded and went over to the desk. He gently moved the mouse woman's head so she wasn't blocking their view. On the desk, there were many annotated documents like, maps of Vale, police routes, and even huntsman routes.
There was one particular aerial photo of Vale. As he inspected the photo, Blake took pictures of the documents one by one and the entire room itself.
The photo map was marked by bright red markers in both neat and messy handwriting. From what he could make out, the factory they were in was going to transport some of its dust to another Fang base. This factory would transport the rest of its dust along a winding path through Vale which ended near the edge of the city. In the middle of its route, the transport would meet up with something called the "Brigade".
Blake snapped a photo of the photo. She observed it as well and he told her his thoughts about it.
She mused, "So it looks like we have another lead. We'll check that base and see if they have anything about the Paladin."
"Do you think that "black box" he was talking about is the Paladin?" Jaune asked.
"Probably, and it looks like they're going to transport it in this "brigade" with the dust. We just have to find it before it actually hits the road."
He put his scroll away and tried to prop the mouse woman so she looked like she was taking a nap. He and Blake took some extra photos and checked over the documents once more.
They only had one part of the intel, they needed more.
Suddenly, as Jaune took one last look at the docs, his developing hunter sense caused him to duck down.
At that exact moment, a giant silver chainsaw screamed against the concrete wall where he was standing.
It cut straight through the wall creating a large gap. The shattered moon shone through and onto the masked face of the chainsaw wielder.
AN:
Cliffhanger!
Here's a new chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review or comment, it's greatly appreciated!