So. The schedule;
Today and Friday (12/1): Shattering
12/4 and 12/8: Reforging
12/11 and 12/15: Engraving
12/27: Burn the Night Away
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Cold.
That was the last thing she felt before falling, frigid cold covering her entire body. All because of that damned bandit; hopefully karma decided to act in her favor and hurt that bitch in return.
The fall was mostly a blur, save for the start when she was thrown from the cliff. In truth, she thought that was it, that she'd shatter as soon as she hit the bottom, if there even was one. This was not how she thought she would go out. She thought maybe a betrayal by the "good" doctor or the specter, the latter didn't really need an explanation, he'd gladly do that to anyone really but the former just never really liked her. So, he'd be the most likely to betray her if the scenario was favorable. He'd probably get torn to pieces by Cass shortly after, but still.
Instead of shattering to pieces and finding death at the end of the fall, she suddenly jolted awake.
Cinder Fall was alive and she was panicking. Her good eye darted around quickly seeing that she was underwater, no doubt at the bottom of the Vault cave under Haven. She started to struggle, hoping to get her limbs moving again, getting rid of that last bit of numbing cold. She had to get air, having already let some water into her lungs by now, thanks to her initial panic.
Cinder swam up, it was the only thing she could do right now. Swimming wasn't something she ever learned, but if she drowned, like this, weak and defeated, she would know the whole world would just laugh at her. Laugh and tease and poke at the girl who fought for everything.
Cinder broke through the water, resurfacing God knows where; she didn't recognize the place, but this sure as hell wasn't Haven Academy or the Vault anymore. She was lost.
All around her were various trees and the occasional rock, definitely a far cry from the mountainous landscape of upper Mistral. With all the panic and confusion in her mind, she pieced together that...somehow there must have been an exit from the Vault, a natural one. Maybe a cave system that not even Ozpin or Leo knew about fed into this...river. She swam for the shore quickly, stopping at the banks and coughing, trying to get the water out of her lungs. She blinked a few times, her vision a little blurry from everything...and she was probably hallucinating because she could swear she heard someone.
"Miss? Are you okay?" A voice asked. Cinder looked up to see a figure. She was wearing brown and tan robes, something that she could-
Cinder coughed some more. She needed to draw her 'victim' in and get a nice recharge as well.
The woman got closer, thinking that maybe Cinder didn't hear her. This poor girl looked terrible, soaked through entirely. She was probably a victim of a gang, an all too common occurrence in Lower Mistral.
"Miss? Can you hear me?" the woman asked again, kneeling down in front of her and setting aside a basket of freshly picked fruit. Her eyes then looked over the girl, seeing if she was wounded in any way...and then she froze in fear as she saw this mysterious woman's arm. She jolted back in horror and gasped.
"W-what in god's name..." she whispered in fear.
And that's when Cinder struck.
And things don't get nice from here.
In a town not too far from where she was, Cinder, now dressed in the clothes of the woman she encountered earlier, stepped out of an alleyway. Her Grimm arm was bandaged up, as well as her face, hiding the scars since her mask was gone. She didn't need much context when it came to her missed time. She knew that she failed, and had guessed Ruby and her annoying ragtag group of friends had somehow prevailed.
But it was outright confirmed when she passed by a holographic screen broadcasting the news. "The perpetrators have still not been seen since the attack and are presumed to have fled the city," a reporter explained, "We recognize one criminal, declared missing after the brave heroes stopped her attack, the terrorist known as Cinder Fall. Though she was defeated, no body was ever found in the aftermath of the assault. The Mistral police department is offering a reward to any citizen..." Cinder clenched her fist.
"That bitch..." Cinder said behind grit teeth. She walked out into the rainy streets of Mistral, among crowds of people with their umbrellas up. People still carried out their businesses as usual, both legally and illegally.
As much as she wanted to rip that silver-eyed brat apart...she had no means to get there. She knew where Ruby had gone, probably flew back to the tundras of Atlas. If she was still with Salem, she could simply call up Breach and walk through a rift. Now she was stranded. Salem wouldn't even bother looking for her. This was twice now, twice she had failed in such a monumental fashion. Yes, she brought Beacon low, but she was brutalized before she could collect the relic. And now a Relic was firmly in Ozpin's hands. Dying at that bandit's hands would have been a mercy, if still humiliating, because now she had to deal with Salem's-
"Hey! Stop that thief!" A voice yelled.
Cinder turned her head, the commotion snapping her out of her fear, and saw someone bolt past her. The moment was brief, but Cinder could make out a dark hoodie and an interesting pair of legs, more insectoid than human.
An insectoid Faunus, she rationalized. Cinder shook her head, trying to just keep going.
In a way, Cinder felt like she'd already seen this scenario. Or at least heard it before.
And she quickly realized she had. Emerald.
When she first brought Emerald and Charmcaster into Salem's cabal, it was an oddly similar story.
And maybe she could recreate its ending. After all, those two had been kept rather loyal because of Salem offers of help. Only this thief would be her own personal resource, not Salem's. Well, not yet anyway.
"...hm." Cinder hummed, following in the tracks of the thief. A few dozen men were already tailing them, but Cinder knew that the thief would get away with ease. The way they weaved through the crowd- they'd done this before.
But, of course, she'd done her fair share of dodging authority. Cinder looked around and, instead of following behind the guards exactly, she wove a more complex path to try and cut off the thief. By the time she would meet this Faunus, the guards would be left in the dust.
But Cinder always knew where thieves would most likely hide.
The thief had checked a dozen times. No guard had followed her here. She gave a good sigh of relief and put her hood down. Cricket shook her head and huffed, finally given some time to take a breath.
"Those guys barely gave me a challenge." She pouted, as she unzipped her hoodie to reveal an array of stolen food.
The triad had a rule: fine to steal from big corporation stores, bad to steal from 'ma and pa' shops and morally ambiguous to steal from farmer's markets.
Today's actions were morally ambiguous.
"Guards like them never really do," Cinder smirked, catching Cricket by surprise. The insect Faunus quickly turned to see whoever this new figure was walking up to them calmly. Cinder had pulled up her own hood, hoping to hide as much as possible, the bandages helped, but she was just being cautious. She wanted to pass herself off as a fellow thief and...at least for now it seemed to be working.
"Hey, stay back-" Cricket said, lifting up a leg. "I can launch you into orbit with these things!"
"I'm sure you can." Cinder said, a slight hint of amusement in her voice. She held up her arms in mock surrender, trying to ease the tension somewhat.
"But, I'm not here for any trouble. I mean...do I look like I'm with the guards?" Salem's disgraced Maiden asked.
"Maybe. They've tried the 'we're a fellow thief' thing before, and that blew our last hideout." Cricket frowned.
"Wow, they must be getting desperate. Maybe that just says more about you than it does them."
"Look, I appreciate the praise, really do, but you're trying to sell this a little too hard."
Cinder rolled her eyes and sighed, "So what? Do I need to steal something for you to prove I'm just another thief?"
"Code of honor works well. Steal something nice, and we'll be able to trust you then." Cricket frowned. "Maybe like a ham or something. Not these table scraps I have."
"Fine. I'm assuming I'm on my own for this? No 'oversight' from you?"
"Yeah. Do whatever you want." Cricket said. "I don't have time to babysit someone."
Cinder frowned at that. "Very well."
Cricket was waiting in an alleyway, leaning against the wall and checking the clock on her phone. She wasn't gonna help the rookie out, but she was at least gonna be around if she was telling the truth. She was gonna time the rookie too, see how long it took for her to get this done. She wasn't expecting some kind of record or anything, but sometimes jobs did need a little speed.
What she wasn't expecting was just how fast this girl managed it. No one was chasing after her, she just walked out of the store like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Ok. Might have misjudged you. How did you-" Cricket was about to ask.
"You have your methods...I have mine," Cinder smirked.
(Cinder's methods were also far more brutal, there was no trace of a body. She just made it look like the shopkeep had "gone home" for the night.)
Cinder held up her prize, a nice, large ham, perfect for a meal. "There."
"Like I said, might've misjudged you," Cricket said, putting her phone away, "Now, come on. The others should be back by now and what better introduction than walk in with that?" The Faunus thief looked up to the sky above, noting some clouds rolling in as well.
"And a storm's coming. Let's see how fast you are with a haul, eh?" Cricket smirked a little before racing off. Cinder rolled her eyes a little before following after the Faunus. This was either going to be incredibly promising or outright nightmarish. At this point, the Fall Maiden couldn't really tell.
Cinder could lie low for a while. If she could follow the news and politics, then she'd know when to strike again. The election in Atlas was a bigger focus now, especially with the two frontrunners. That'd be fun and not nightmarish to follow...
The group she was with was surprisingly young. Cinder was in her late 20s, so interacting with this 'generational' gap was a bit odd. Sure, Mercury, Emerald, Cass and Hope were in a normal interaction group, but they weren't 'typical teens' like this.
Though maybe typical wasn't the right word for them either. Two of them were Faunus, the cricket-like girl who recruited her and a squid Faunus aptly dubbed Cricket and Skwydd respectively. Well, at least those were their "street names" they explained. (And people poked fun at her own name?) The other one was...more interesting. An Osmosian. Personally she only knew of the two that followed Rose and Tennyson around. Though she did admit to herself, she wasn't expecting the powers of an Osmosian to be as specific as cloth.
Any one of them would've made an excellent asset to use here to permanently recruit them. True, Salem already had a thief in the form of Emerald, but after she had learned some spells from Hope, the normal thief role was left a little vacant. But she also heard them mention the...newest pain for her to deal with. Rex. She'd overheard them wondering about what he was doing up in Atlas, now that he was an Ace-Op, what kind of top secret covert-ops missions Ironwood was sending him on.
It was all so juvenile, really. But oddly, Cinder didn't find herself hating it here. It was odd. She still wanted to get back out there, find Ruby and Ben and rip them apart with her blades, and yet…
She related to these three.
Well. most of the time.
"No, I swear. It's real. There's a note that just makes you crap yourself." Skwydd said, as the quartet walked down an alleyway.
"That's bullshit." Tuck frowned. "There's just no way something like that exists."
"It's called the Brown Note, google it." Skywdd argued. "It's real!"
"Hmmmmm." Tuck shook his head. "Doubtful."
Cinder just sighed and shook her head. Unbelievable.
"Trust me, they go over dumb shit like that all the time," Cricket suddenly said, chuckling a bit,"Don't worry, you get used to it."
"I'm sure you do..." Cinder sighed, "Remind me, where are we even going?"
"We just go wherever nowadays. Ever since we had to go on the run since well, we're wanted and everything. Mistral just seemed like a nice change of pace." Cricket said.
"Understandable," Cinder shrugged.
"Well that, and it's movie night," Skywdd chimed in.
"...what?"
"Movie night. Not just gonna have scraps for that either, so we're looking for some good food."
"Is he serious?"
"A hundred percent," Cricket smiled, "Bit of a tradition with us."
Cinder would have objected, but at this point, she was oddly content with the antics.
"Right. What are we stealing?" the Fall Maiden asked.
"Well, the supermarket in town sells some good ice cream and popcorn," Tuck answered, "Think you can handle that, Amber?"
Amber, that was the fake name Cinder chose for herself. It was a bit insensitive, but probably only to the people who knew the full story. Thank God these kids were more out of the loop than a derailed rollercoaster.
"Should be easy enough," "Amber" said with a nod. She split off from the others, knowing exactly which supermarket Tuck meant. Wasn't exactly easy to miss, especially in Lower Mistral; it was probably one of the biggest buildings in this part of the city. She walked right in, using the crowd to just slip by unnoticed, going for the popcorn first. The whole theft was actually pretty easy, not a single witness. She'd actually gotten better at the more traditional means of stealing.
Cinder might not have always understood what the trio talked about, case in point, the conversation from just a few minutes ago, but she wouldn't say this span of time was a complete waste.
Cinder's outfit meant she could easily snatch up the popcorn bags, and she was absolutely going for it. Was this a fall from grace? No. She was just as feared as she was a month ago. The search for her was intensifying too, but...she could care less.
This was strangely liberating for her. To ot be in Salem's company, to care 'less' about the bigger picture…
So why did she find herself still wanting to go back to Salem?
And then she heard it echo in her head. The same phrase she once said to...someone else and then to Salem. It was her way of affirming loyalty to her new master.
"Without you, I am nothing."
"Whazzat?" Cricket said, passing by.
Cinder snapped out of her daze. "Huh? Oh...just. Saying how empty I am without-" Cinder held up the popcorn with her bandaged hand. "-popcorn."
Cricket blinked. "Ooooooooooooookay."
"Let...let's just go. Did you get the ice cream?" Cinder asked, throwing that little slip up aside. She didn't even realize she said it aloud until Cricket chimed in.
"Juuuust a second," Cricket sheepishly moved on and left Cinder behind. The Maiden sighed a little when the Faunus was out of earshot. Now was really not the time to be having a conflict of conscience. She knew what she wanted and the only path to that goal was through Salem, she'd made that perfectly clear.
There was a fear in the back of her mind- if she returned empty handed, then maybe Salem wouldn't 'need' her anymore. Everything she'd worked for would be over. She needed to show something of use to Salem.
But what? She doubted the dark mistress would be pleased with popcorn.
Her mind immediately shot to the Relic. True, it was her failure to acquire it in the first place, but surely the queen of the Grimm would be forgiving if she brought it back. Better late than never, right? But then the question became how she would get it. Ironwood would have it locked down with enough security to where she'd need her own army just for a distraction. She needed something else, her own ace. But it's not like an idea was just going to fall into her hands here.
"If I can...secure it..." Cinder hummed. "I'd need more practice, of course. Atlas tech is far more superior to...this." Cinder looked at the popcorn mascot on the bag, a cartoon depiction of a corncob.
She despised it.
But what could she steal in the meantime?
She started making her way towards the exit, still trying to figure out a plan. Some means to get past Ironwood's tin army...
"I'm telling you, this could be what we need," a voice suddenly said, getting her attention. They were trying to be discreet, whispering to each other...but they were probably the most standout people here when it came to attire. Most people native to Mistral had the usual eastern-theme to their outfits, but these two had pristine black suits, one wearing a matching black fedora. Both of them had matching red ties and glasses as well. Cinder tried to make it look like she was still looking around for something else to "buy" while she was carefully eavesdropping on the two.
"And I'm telling you, it's a stupid idea. I get it, you're new and the boss' businesses aren't doing the best since the fall. But we don't fuck with the Wave. If this was some fancy Schnee auction? Yeah, I'd be all for it. Score like that'd help," the second said to his companion.
"Fuck the Wave, what are they gonna do?"
"Fuck the Wave? Ohhhhh no, trust me, that's a path to an early grave."
The Wave? Cinder thought to herself. That name sounded familiar. Maybe Watts or Mercury brought it up before. From her very limited knowledge, The Wave was a relatively young criminal syndicate founded in Mistral. But, beyond that, they were nothing special.
Still, she was curious about the hushed tones.
"No ambition with you older guys, I swear," the inexperienced crook sighed.
"Ambition? Plenty of that, but also enough common sense to know that if we hit something like that we end up risking a gang war. Cause we hit that and they figure out it was us? Every fucking crime family in the kingdom will be on our asses! Hana, Black Sheep, Hearth, Spider."
"What, they're gonna fly half-way across the world to kill us?"
"Spider did it before. Who do you think ran this outfit before Junior? And why isn't he still around?"
Cinder was intrigued now. The power of multiple crime families that were well established, under the thumb of some newbie syndicate. What was their power...
And how could she take it?
"So what? Just forget the auction?" the rookie asked.
"If you wanna keep breathin'. Trust me, a score'll find its way to us."
An auction? A new crime syndicate with enough influence to get all the major crime powers to attend? Was it blackmail, a power play? Or was the prize something that none of them could refuse?
Cinder had that thought in the back of her mind, as she sneakily left the building. She had to make the thefts look inconspicuous- the others would follow suit home, and they'd watch...what was tonight's movie? Something something 'Scary Stories.' It sounded weird, but she'd seen worse stories. She'd lived them, too. Maybe this one would at least be funny.
She was wrong about it being funny. Well, the movie was neither funny nor scary, the current scene focusing on some teenager running for his life from, of all things, an old, rotting scarecrow. A little cliché maybe, but she couldn't really say it was bad either. Pretty good atmosphere and sound design for the scene. She'd seen scarier things emerge from the wasteland surrounding Evernight or in the Dollhouse though.
The real highlight of the night were the reactions of the other three. It was fantastic. Cricket was clutching an old pillow to her chest, trying to stay calm throughout the scene. Tuck didn't look like he was scared of the film, but Cinder had seen enough false courage recently to see right through that mask. Skywdd, on the other hand, was obviously terrified, ready to jump out of his skin at the drop of a hat.
Honestly she was half-tempted to scare all three of them at this point.
But she was more focused on that auction those people at the market were talking about. Sure, there could be a good profit there, but Cinder thought money wasn't power. Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. She'd seen it rise and fall, and lived under its heel long ago. Now she had real power, power that could subjugate and divide freely.
And why not grab some more? She could maybe learn why this 'Wave' was so popular...
Besides, even if she didn't really care about the money, the score could probably help out these three. She was brought back to reality when she heard someone scream. She turned to Cricket, thinking it was her. The movie had gone on to where that teenager had been impaled through the back with a pitchfork, courtesy of the living scarecrow, giving Cinder some context, but it wasn't Cricket. She was looking over towards someone else. Cinder followed her gaze and found herself, Cricket, and Skywdd all looking at Tuck.
"Not a word," Tuck said.
"Oh, I'm not saying anything," Cinder smirked, "Not yet anyway. There's still so much movie left."
"How are you so calm with this?!" Skywdd asked.
"I've just seen worse."
"...when the fuck are we gonna learn your backstory, Amber?!" Tuck said.
"When I feel comfortable." Cinder lied. "But get back to your screaming. That at least got SOME reaction out of me."
Tuck was about to say something in his defense, but she was right. Still plenty of movie left, so he just rolled his eyes and just endured it. Skywdd was just happy he wasn't the first to break from the terror.
Which was proven false when the four of them saw the teenager who was stabbed stagger forward a bit, before starting to turn into a scarecrow himself. From the inside out.
"WELP. There's the nightmare fuel for tonight!" Skywdd said, breaking the tense silence after the scene cut. Even Cinder had to admit, that was possibly one of the most painful ways to die she'd ever seen in a horror movie.
"Yeah, that was fucked up. I'm not even gonna lie." Cinder admitted.
Cricket scoffed. "Like you're EVER afraid."
"Afraid? Maybe not. But I can still be disturbed. Case in point."
"You seem kinda distracted, Amber." Tuck said. "Something happen?"
"It's…it's nothing." Cinder said, feigning any sort of claims.
"I don't buy it," Cricket said.
"And you would know how?"
"I'm kinda good at it. Skywdd wanted to try and plan a heist without us one time. If I didn't figure out what he was hiding, it would've gone south fast."
"You know, we weren't supposed to talk about that, but this is a good example so I'll let it slide," Skywdd added.
"I heard something about a big score. That's all." Cinder said. "There. Happy?"
The three of them shared a look before Tuck spoke up.
"What kind of score?" The Osmosian asked.
"I...I did hear some details, but it might be too big for us."
"What? Is it a mafia thing?" Cricket asked, half-joking.
"Yes, actually," "Amber" answered.
"…well, shit, where do we sign up?" Cricket said.
"What?" Cinder was caught off guard. This wasn't expected. She just thought they'd freak out a little. "I….I'm sorry?"
"Where do we sign up? Not the first time we've screwed over other criminals," Cricket explained.
"I don't think you understand. This had quite a few big name syndicates and-"
"And we used to work for the biggest syndicate in Hong Kong," Tuck interrupted. That made Cinder raise a brow in disbelief.
"I...do not believe you," Cinder admitted flatly.
"Well, yeah. Who'd believe our story, especially when it includes some grim reaper chick and her alien boyfriend?" Cricket snickered. Cinder's pupils shrank.
They were telling the truth.
"R-right," the Fall Maiden said, trying to hide her surprise. These three knew Tennyson and Rose? What were the odds of this happening?
"Well if that's true, and we're going through with this, what do you know about the syndicates around here? I heard a few names tossed around," Cinder inquired.
"Who are we talking about?" Skywdd said, opening his mouth to put some CheeseWhiz on his tongue.
"A few big ones, but the most significant is 'The Wave'." Cinder said.
Skywdd paused. "…meh."
"'Meh?'" Cinder repeated, "So you've never heard of them?"
"No, totally have. They're just a bunch of pushovers. Old boss tried to push pennies with some of the other big bosses," Skywdd said, swallowing his CheeseWhiz. "And it didn't really go well."
"Well apparently they're not pushovers anymore. The other names I heard were Spider, Black Sheep, Hana and Hearth."
Cricket almost choked on some popcorn when she heard those names. "What?! And you're sure the Wave's in charge of this?"
"Yes. I take it that those names have a better reputation behind them?"
"Oh, absolutely! They were buddy-buddy with our boss, and by God, they were...they were just so intense!" Tuck said. "If the Wave's now just on good terms with them...Jesus, did we miss out on a power vacuum or something?"
"It's possible, but this sounded less like an outright deal and more of a show. It's an auction and all the syndicates I just named were invited. It also sounded like they all accepted. They must have something very valuable to show off. The alliances would probably come after if everything went well."
"Would be a shame if someone stole that stuff, right?" Cricket said.
"Yeah, realllll shame." Tuck hummed.
"We would need to figure out where the Wave plans to hold this first," Cinder added.
"Well, we kinda already do. The only group from Mistral City outta that list was Spider and all the others are from Kuchinashi," Skywdd said.
"Kuchinashi? Never visited."
"Well, good time to visit now, isn't it?" Cinder said. "We'd need to gather info on when it'd take place so we can gauge how long we'd need to prep for."
"Fair enough. There are a few people we know who can help with that. Some of them owe us, others might pay us with the info," Tuck said.
"First thing tomorrow then?" Cricket asked.
"Yeah, why not? Gives us more time."
"But first," Cinder's eyes darted back to the movie. ",I'm curious on how they follow up the scarecrow kid."
"I'm kinda not but, hey, morbid curiosity, let's go," Skywdd said, laughing nervously, trying not to show his fear. It really wasn't working.
(Everyone but Cinder screamed a few more times that night. Cinder was more amused than anything.)
The next couple of days were pretty busy for the gang. A few of Tuck's contacts in Mistral were pretty forthcoming with whatever intel they had on Kuchinashi and the Wave. Admittedly, it wasn't as much as he'd hoped, but it made sense. Like Skywdd said, the Wave were one of the most unremarkable players in the organized crime game so there wasn't too much on them. The bigger bits of info came as payment. The four of them might have traveled across all of Lower Mistral over those days, committing small thefts across the community for bigger info brokers.
The Wave was going to hold their auction in an old estate in the city. Apparently the estate itself had been bought up by the Wave while some of the previous owner's possessions were being sold off. Of course, these weren't just some old antiques that, while valuable, would be utterly useless. The former owner was originally a member of a smaller Dust mining company who tried to make a name for himself, separate from his family. But, being an eccentric rich elite, he was bound to gather up a personal collection. Some of the items from that collection were advertised as...special. The exact words that piqued Cinder's curiosity were: "Something beyond Dust and Semblance." This might be the ace she'd always been looking for.
Security for the event was apparently less common knowledge. There were normal agents of the Wave of course, but no exact number, no mention of cameras(but they were probably present all over the place), and no other fancy surprises. Sounded like they'd actually need to scout the place before they made their move...
Cinder overlooked the place with a pair of binoculars. "Clever bastards." She hissed, amazed at their craftiness. "That's one way to hide a base."
"I don't see why it's clever." Skywdd said.
"It's too normal." Cinder said. "No one would even think deals go down in there."
"Kinda feels like the place our old boss would love," Tuck said, looking over the security. A few agents of the syndicate were patrolling the estate, each one wearing a very professional outfit almost like the two crooks that Cinder learned about the auction from, white business suits with teal blue ties and tinted sunglasses. Each one was armed with either a pistol, submachine gun, or some form of melee weapon ranging from swords to axes. But the interesting bit was that weapons seemed specific. White metal frames that reminded Cinder of Atlesian weapons.
"Atlesian gear..." Cinder muttered.
"Yeesh, they're paying millions for those overhyped weapons." Cricket frowned. "We've dodged gunfire from those weapons with ease."
"What makes you think they paid for them?" Cinder asked, looking out for any other security measures or ways to get in and out.
"How much you wanna bet there's a secret passage in there?" Skywdd chuckled a bit.
"...really?"
"What? Isn't this supposed to be the 'crime capital' of Mistral? Why wouldn't people like this have a secret passage?"
Cinder rolled her eyes and sighed, "I'm not going to argue this one. Aside from the option that gets us shot, anyone see a way in? Or out?"
"Beyond the front door, not really picking anything up." Tuck said.
"These guys really stepped up their games. Seriously." Cricket frowned. "Last we checked, these guys barely could guard their internet history."
"Wonder what changed," Cinder hummed. She kept scanning the estate until she saw the main doors of the building open. Someone walked out, seemingly dissatisfied if the look on their face was anything to go by. He seemed to be on the shorter side, clad in an almost entirely black outfit consisting of a black leather jacket over a white collared shirt, gray and black gloves, black pants and boots and plenty of black belts with silver buckles.
"Wow, someone's trying way too hard," Tuck said, taking note of the person.
"The hell is this dude's situation?" Cricket snickered. "Looking like a lead singer of an emo scream band."
"Looks like someone you'd avoid at school." Skwyd scoffed.
Cinder thought this guy looked like an edgier version of that kid Ruby and her friends had added to their group. The new Ozpin. What was his name, Oscar?
Cinder zoomed in with her binoculars. She could barely make out what the emo Oscar was saying.
"Have they arrived yet?" He mouthed. Cinder couldn't make out what the masked guard said and the Emo Oscar's neutral reaction also made it hard to guess too. "Keep an eye out. We shouldn't keep her waiting."
Her. The leader of the Wave. No doubt, an incredibly powerful and serious lady... Cinder mentally hummed.
This edgier doppelganger of Oscar pulled out his Scroll and started going through some files. She tried zooming in on the files, see if she could get a name to this guy.
She could barely make it out, Sil...something. Sil flipped some hair away from his face. He began to talk to the guards about some plan, making a few vague gestures that Cinder could barely make heads or tails of. "Weird..."
"So what are we thinking? Higher up for the Wave maybe?" Tuck asked.
"I dunno, actually. Doesn't he seem a little short to be a crime boss's lieutenant?" Cricket joked.
"Really?" Skywdd chuckled a bit.
"What, it works!"
Cinder didn't take her eyes off this Sil character. Something about him just didn't feel right. Maybe they could ask about him around town. Someone had to know him right?
"Let's tail that guy." Cinder said. "One of us should try and get close to him."
"Sounds good to me. If he's being buddy buddy with the guards," Tuck hummed. "He's got some power."
"So who's going?" Cricket asked.
"I'll follow the edgelord. You guys see if there's a better exit for this place. Who knows, Skywdd might even be right about the whole secret passage thing."
"If I am, you guys all owe me at least twenty," the squid Faunus smirked.
"Remember, only if you're right!" Cricket shot back.
"I just gotta play it cool." Tuck grinned, flicking his collar. "And believe me. I know how to be cool."
"Scary movie night begs to differ." Cinder smirked.
"We are never speaking of that again. Especially if we run into Rex. He would never let me live it down."
"Right." Cinder nearly forgot about the boy and about Atlas. There was a sort of newfound fun in this fake life, but it just didn't sate the need for power.
It almost made her wish things had gone a little differently. Cass might've even enjoyed this.
And then Cinder's mind wandered to that. God, what was Cass going through? For all she knew, Cinder was dead, killed by some bandit. She had to get back but she couldn't. Not yet. She had to prove she could still be useful. If she didn't, Salem might just kill her on the spot or worse, let Zs'skayr do it.
Cass was resourceful, so hopefully she wouldn't be treated like an object, but the thought still lingered in her mind.
"Amber, you good?" Cricket asked, snapping Cinder out of her thoughts.
"Yes." The maiden said, acting as if nothing had happened. "I'm fine."
Cricket didn't entirely buy it, but unlike before when she wasn't hiding the info about this score. No, whatever this was seemed personal. She'd try and ask about it, but later. "Amber" might not even want to talk about it but, she could at least try.
With that, Tuck made his way after Sil. He didn't want to give off the impression he was directly following the guy, just that he was heading the same way. Sil could probably hear him anyway, so best to try and trick him a little. Of course, Sil turned around at one point to see who was following him, only to see Tuck turn down an alley. He didn't think much of it at the time, simply pulling out his Scroll again and sending a text. He got a response in short order and nodded, heading towards a local bar.
On the way, he heard someone behind him again. He sighed and tapped a small button in the middle of his glove. He then quickly turned around and made a diagonal motion with his arm. A few seconds later, the top part of a box slid off...after it was sliced apart.
Sil just sighed and pressed the button again, "You're getting jumpy, Sil. Probably just the work stress." He turned back around and continued on his way.
Tuck held his breath, as Sil walked out of the alleyway. Tuck's head was inches away from the perfectly clean cut. He huffed a few times, feeling sick- holy shit, this guy was intense! He had such a calm, boring demeanor, but Skywdd was right- this dude was someone he needed to avoid.
Tuck looked over the box. Perfectly cut, by something thin.
"Wires." Tuck rationalized to himself. Cables and metal wires could be used to inflict not so clean but still pretty nasty wounds, provided they are of the right material and/or sufficient force is applied. Sil had the right mindset for this weapon. Not even Rex or Ruby could make a clean cut like this. "He's skilled with wires...gonna have to warn the others about that.
When Tuck peeked out from his hiding spot, Sil was gone. The Osmosian cursed to himself and ran out the alley, trying to find the Wave agent only to catch no trace of him.
"Damn it," Tuck muttered. He wasn't going back empty-handed, but something told him that Sil was just the start of what they needed to worry about.
The worst part was that Tuck was right. It took Sil a few minutes to get there, but he eventually found where the others had gone to meet up for the job. It wasn't anywhere special, really. Just another run of the mill Mistralian pub, meaning it was the perfect place for people to meet with questions asked. Hopefully it had a good selection of drinks. He needed one after dealing with those idiots for most of the day. He pushed open the door and walked in, seeing the other members of his team scattered across the pub. Two were enjoying a drink at the bar while the third was in the middle of a game of cards. And winning, of course. Keeping her tell hidden under a helmet might've been cheating, but then again who here didn't cheat a little?
Tuck walked over to the bar, and put an arm on the table. He needed to just act natural.
"What's the best brew you got?" He asked the bartender, who was cleaning out a glass.
"We got some Pitchfork, pretty good stuff," The barkeep answered, unimpressed by Tuck's cool act.
The Osmosian sighed, "Sure I'll take some."
The bartender nodded, getting a bottle of the stuff off the shelf and pouring a glass for Tuck. Honestly, it was dumb luck he found this place. He wanted to see if he could find Sil again. Losing before wasn't exactly his best moment and while figuring out what his weapon was good, figuring out what exactly his position was in the Wave was better. Especially when he also managed to find out that Sil had some friends. While Sil tried way too hard to be intimidating, at least one of them was able to pull that off without issue. That was the one playing cards, a rather spindly and tall woman with black hair, the only feature that wasn't hidden behind an iron mask. She wore a purple trench coat with a single silver pauldron on their left shoulder over a dark violet shirt, silver gauntlets, two armor plates by the waist for extra protection and dark violet pants. She let her opponents lay out their hands before she laid out her own, winning the game, much to her opponents' displeasure.
The other two were less intimidating at first glance, at least in comparison. One of them was a tall, heavier set man with dirty blonde hair and a matching goatee, wearing a rust-red jacket over a dirty-tan button-up shirt and dark gray pants. A black shoulder cape covered most of his right arm and a pair of goggles was situated over his eyes. The other was a girl with dark hair, part of it tied up while most of it flowed down to her mid-back, wearing a fur-trimmed dark tan aviator jacket, khaki cargo pants, brown boots and black gloves. Kind of a dull color scheme for her outfit. Sil had gone over to these two and ordered up a drink himself. He had no idea Tuck was the one who was tracking him earlier.
"So, how'd it go?" the man, Marton, asked.
"About as well as it can when you deal with the grunts," Sil sighed, annoyed.
"They're hopeless." The trench coat wearing girl said. "I don't know why she puts up with them..."
"They're cheap. That's all I know." Sil huffed.
"Cheap and replaceable," the other girl chimed in before taking a drink, "She doesn't really lose anything if they die. Small time thugs like them are a dime a dozen in this city. People like us though?"
"Professionals, you mean," Marton smirked, "Little harder to come by."
"Professionals, opportunists, mercenaries...doesn't really matter."
"So how many people are coming in again?" Marton frowned.
"A lot. Lotta troublesome people in one room, but whoever's gonna be the biggest one...oh, that's gonna be fun to figure out." Sil shook his head.
"My money's on Raddock," the iron-masked woman said, "Probably not too happy with a new player in the game. He knows most of the gangs in the kingdom but he never paid attention to the Wave. He's got nothing on 'em."
"You ask me? The Albain twins. Never trusted those guys. Way too nice," the khaki-clad girl added, "It's creepy, honestly. What's the saying? Offer one hand to shake while the other slips the knife in?"
"Nah, those fucking weird twins are gonna pull something. Believe me." Marton frowned. "I don't trust twins. Never will."
"They should be on their best behavior, especially with Lemon in the room. You know what she can do." Sil said.
"Yeah we might, but they won't. A few days ago, Black Sheep probably never even heard of Lemon," the iron-masked woman said, getting up from her table and joining her team at the bar.
"Mina's right. They'd behave, but not because of her. Raddock being in there, Lil' Miss' daughters? If they tried something, it'd be a bloodbath for everyone," Khaki, the girl in the aviator jacket, added.
"Or they end up learning first hand. Could be part of the play," Sil suggested.
"Wish we could hire some competent guards. I swear, those guards know jackshit. Probably would get lost in a paper bag." Marton joked.
"...the fuck does that mean?" Sil asked.
"If I have to explain the joke, it doesn't work."
"What...that...that wasn't even a joke. If it was, it was the worst one I've ever heard," Mina said.
"Well maybe you guys just don't have a sense of humor."
"Or yours is just that shitty and only you don't see that."
A side eying Tuck listened in, as he was served his drink. These guys were all about business, yeah but there was also that casual edge to their conversations. Signs of a good sense of teamwork.
Something to also keep note of.
The girl in the helmet suddenly turned to Tuck, catching him off guard. "Something interesting to you, kid?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just...heard you worked for the Wave. Any openings?" Tuck asked, hoping the lie was believable. Even though he couldn't see her eyes, he felt Mina looking over him, probably trying to gauge if he was lying.
"...no. Besides, we don't handle recruitment anyway," Mina answered. She bought it.
"Ah. Right."
"You don't look the type to get hired on, anyway," the mercenary said, shrugging a bit.
"I've got the skills for the job." Tuck smirked. "Maybe a demonstration or something?"
"Hm." Sil frowned. "You're confident."
"I mean I have a reason to be."
"Really? Well then. how about we take you up on that offer? Demonstration and all." The other two members of Sil's group had turned towards Tuck now, their own curiosities having been piqued by the new guy.
Tuck was looking around for some kind of chance to show. Nothing really big, but he had a feeling these guys had never even heard of his powers before. He got the chance when he saw the bartender almost knock over a bottle of one of the more expensive brews in the selection. Fortunately for him, one of Tuck's bandages wrapped around the bottle before it could hit the ground and placed it back on the counter.
"That's...a weird Semblance," Marton said.
"None of us have any room to talk," Mina shot back, "Especially you, with how situational it is."
"Situational, but still damn useful. Saved your ass more than once."
"Let's just say I'm special." Tuck grinned, walking over. "So, impressed?"
"How good are you in a fight?" Sil hummed.
"I'm pretty g-" Before Tuck could finish, Sil jumped up and prepared to land a haymaker in Tuck's face. Tuck's bandages reacted immediately and wrapped around his arm. "…rude."
"So are we all-?" Marton started to ask.
"Just me," the group's edgy leader said, "good reaction time." Sil then pulled Tuck by the bandages and flung him off the chair he was using. Sil smirked a little with Tuck caught off guard by that. The Osmosian got back to his feet and dusted himself off before getting into a fighting stance. Guess they were doing this. The bartender sighed and put away some of the more expensive glasses he had behind the counter.
"If you're gonna fight, take it outside. Just finished fixing up the place from the last time some idiots decided to turn this place into a fight club..." the bartender said.
"Hey, I'll keep it to a minimum." Tuck said, as the bandages unraveled off his arm. Sim's gloves started to slowly let some of the wire loose…
And the two flung their weapons at one another. Tuck made sure for his bandages to maneuver through the wires as best they could…
Sil raised a brow in surprise a bit at that. He watched the bandages weave between the wires with ease, though some of them were still slightly cut as they went. He was more surprised that Tuck knew about the wires to begin with. A slight flick of Sil's wrist threw the trajectory of the wires off, slicing into Tuck's bandages fully. The Wave enforcer smirked a little at that as the cloth was neatly sliced apart.
"I'm impressed. No one's been able to do that before." Sil said. "You've got a good eye, kid. Got a name?"
"Just like everybody else. Name's Tuck." Tuck grinned. "Am I in now?"
"We'll put in a word for ya. No guarantees, obviously, but it's more than most people get."
"Could have 'im work the auction...trial by fire sorta thing," Marton suggested, "He does well enough, another bit of favor."
"Too calm if you ask me," Mina shrugged, "Besides, he's not even with the Wave fully. Lemon'd never agree."
"It...is free security. Nothing lost if he doesn't get in. Not like he'll be next to anything important. Just make sure all the guests behave." Khaki hummed.
"Should I mention my references?" Tuck asked. The four looked at him, a bit confused.
"What?" Khaki asked. "You have references?"
"I'm in the same business as you guys, you know. Only reason I came to this place." Tuck smirked.
"O…kay," Sil said, crossing his arms, not really believing Tuck, "What are your 'references' then?"
"Ever heard of Vulkanus. From Hong Kong?" Tuck grinned. "The big bad underboss?"
"Until some kid from Atlas took him down." Sil frowned. "Still…"
"You really expect us to think you worked for him?" Khaki asked, "Word is, most of his operation got caught over a few weeks."
"Not wrong," Tuck admitted.
"That whole thing was led by the Ace-Ops. If you're not bullshitting us then how'd you get by them?"
"Hey, gotta have some secrets. Besides, I think that should help me. If I can get past 'Atlas' finest'..."
"I mean he's right," Marton chimed in.
"So you're just gonna keep siding in his favor?" Mina asked, crossing her arms.
"What? It's a valid point."
"I don't think the kid's bullshitting. You saw the way those bandages went." Sil hummed. "Incredible. Such precision can't be unnoticed."
"Fine. Let's say he's being serious. We're still gonna just let him run security?" Khaki argued.
"If I'm being honest, he'd be the most competent guard there aside from us."
Tuck grinned. "Hope the pay is good." He just got some blank stares in return.
"Yeah, about that…" Marton said.
"I don't get paid till I fully join. Right?"
"Well, if you survive the job." Khaki said. "Which is kinda rare, but you'll be fine, maybe."
"It's an auction. How bad could it really be?" Tuck smirked a little.