No updates next week as it's my stupid event. Glad to see it over and done with forever.

But today's chapter is a little short because I needed to go out today to gather a lot of supplies for the event, pick up the finished trophies, buy name badges and start getting those printed off, etc.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 50

Skirting the rooftops to the pharmaceutical lab wasn't so unusual for Qrow. He'd gotten used to a bird's eye view of Vale from flying, and the only odd part was having to touch the buildings. It wasn't really parkour or roof hopping. That suggested a degree of speed not everyone was capable of. Ruby could, with her Semblance, reach speeds capable of propelling herself from one roof to another, and land easily thanks to aura, but others were limited by what they were physically capable of. For Qrow and Owl, that meant jogging, jumping, climbing, and carefully picking routes involving connected buildings where the gaps could easily be crossed.

Technically, Qrow could survive a drop that far thanks to his aura. It wasn't so dissimilar to Beacon's initiation. The problem was whomever was below him, as even assuming he didn't land slap bang on some poor civilian, the shockwave from the impact could knock people down and crack their skulls open on the pavement.

"We take to the ground now," Owl's voice came in through his mask. "We're close enough to the lab that we're unlikely to be noticed, and there are no connected buildings around here."

Pharma companies were cagey about having neighbours who could peer in their windows. It was, to Qrow's limited knowledge, one of the most espionage-laden industries there was. A business where IP could be worth billions, and secret formulas for valuable drugs were guarded far more harshly than the formula for some fast-food burger sauce. The lab they were to infiltrate had an outer fence, and then an inner wall with barbed wire, followed by the building itself and whatever fun lay inside.

It's almost as well-protected as the lab Atlas has in Mountain Glenn.

As if that wasn't ominous at all.

"I will stay here and guide you via the camera in your mask. I'll relay tactical information and direct you as per the map."

"I thought I was getting training, not being thrown in the deep end."

"You're a student of Beacon. Our basic training would be wasted on you."

Qrow wasn't as flattered by the words as someone his age would be. This didn't feel like a setup, though. These guys wouldn't waste all this time and effort setting him up to fail, especially not in their own gear. It would have been easier to ambush him at the meeting site.

"Any last-minute advice, then?"

"Being seen doesn't mean failure. You're a huntsman and perfectly capable of fighting your way both to the objective and out again."

It was surprisingly useful advice. Sneaking might not be his greatest skill, but fighting was, and knowing this wasn't all-or-nothing was good. Of course, it'd put a time limit on him since the police would soon be on their way, and he obviously didn't want to kill anyone here. A decade and a half fighting non-lethally in combat classes against kids had made him an expert on not accidentally hurting people he didn't want to.

"All right. I'm going in."

"You're clear."

Qrow dropped from the fire escape they'd been perched on and landed a couple of metres down on the floor. The lab wasn't in the busiest streets of Vale of course, so there was no one to spot him slipping out and toward the fence. The gate was on the far side, manned by a late-night security officer. Qrow slipped to the metal chain link instead and tested it with his hand. It wasn't electric. This was based in the city where anyone could touch it. Qrow gave it a test with one foot in a link and found it tough enough to scale. There was barbed wire on the top, but he pushed aura into his hands and wrestled it aside, slipping over and down into the carpark. Come morning, people would notice the barbed wire being pushed down, but no one would in the dark.

Sadly, in the dark, there weren't many cars to hide behind and zigzag his way to the building, It was an open sprint. Qrow touched his hand to the comms device and activated it.

"Can we do anything about the cameras while I sprint in?"

"We can grant you a twenty-second localised power outage. Only once, though. Any more in a night and it'll look suspicious."

"Hit it now, then."

"Processing. Three, two, one—"

With a blink, the lights in the building went out and Qrow broke into a sprint. He covered the distance of a few hundred parking bays well within the twenty seconds, and even managed to get in through the doors. Surprisingly, the building doors were unlocked, but he soon realised it was just the doors leading into the lobbies and hallways, presumably so security wouldn't be slowed down and could reach public restrooms. The doors further in would be sealed.

Still, it let him also slip by the cameras in reception, which were hanging loose. Owl began counting down from five, letting him know when the cameras would come back on. Qrow rushed past them and into a hallway, delving into a nook behind some potted plants and a vending machine. It blinked on slowly and began to whir as the cooling units inside chilled the canned drinks once more.

"Power is restored. Security at the main gate is talking to another who came out to investigate. They've noticed the power come back on and don't look too alarmed. Gate security is heading back to his booth."

"Nice. You able to tell where I am?"

"You're on ground floor, corridor A. The office you want is on the floor above. There is one staircase back in the lobby monitored by a camera, or another ahead of you close to security's main office. Your call on which."

Security, ironically. Qrow figured the people there would be watching the main ways in and out, rather than looking at the cameras directly outside where they were. He gave it five minutes to let the power outage calm down in their minds, then slowly crept out and down the corridor. Stealth had never been a major facet of his training, only fighting, and he couldn't help but think his every footstep was loud on the spotless tiled floor.

Was there some special technique for walking quietly? If so, it would have been nice to be taught it before he was sent in here. In his head, Qrow had imagined sneaking into the Atlas facility would involve crawling through airducts. That might have been a little too much like one of Ruby and Yang's videogames in hindsight. Plus, if walking on tiles quietly was hard then he couldn't imagine how difficult it'd be to crawl in a thin metal vent without his knees and elbows making clanking noises.

When he got to security, the door was ajar, and light came out from within. He could just hear a man talking.

"No, it came back on after about a minute. Looked like a localised outage." There was a pause. "I couldn't say, sir, I came and reported it right away. I can ask around when the sun is up and see if any locals got the same, but it's not like there's anywhere open close to us." Another pause. "Yes, I'm back on cameras. Yes, sir. Hmhm. Understood. See you in the morning. Bring me a coffee, will you?" The call ended and the man sat down, his chair squeaking as he settled into it. "Asshole giving me shit. What am I meant to do? Personally storm city hall and hold them responsible?"

Ascending the staircase as silently as he could, Qrow reached the next floor and peeked around the corner. There were a lot of glass-walled rooms off to each side. The glass frosted about a foot off the floor and a foot off the ceiling, almost like a toilet cubicle. Signs on each door indicated lab numbers, but he slipped past those, moving on and keeping an eye out for a head office.

"You're in the right direction. Take a left and mind the camera there. You will come to a metal door sealed by biometrics. Be careful as there's a fixed camera pointed at it."

That would have been good to know ahead of time. "What are we doing about that?"

"There's a sample of the CEO's biometric material in a syringe in the pouch on your left hip." Qrow felt the hard plastic case there. "No needle. Just squirt some of it onto your finger and then press it to the scanner."

"Dare I ask what kind of material this is…?"

"Get your head out the gutter. There are easier ways of securing DNA than having someone seduce him and collect samples. This is dried skin in a liquid solution."

"Ruin all my fun. What about the camera?"

"You're going to have to break it."

"That'll draw attention."

"Sometimes that's unavoidable."

"But not in this case," Qrow argued, "You knew the camera would be here and could have warned me ahead of time about it."

"True. But this is a training exercise, and I need to see how you handle being discovered and escaping in one piece."

What an asshole. Qrow grunted and removed the syringe. It was just the tube and plunger, with no needle. Smearing some of the liquid on his thumb, Qrow ignored the camera entirely and moved in to press his thumb to the keypad. Destroying the camera and being seen were about the same thing, and there was always the chance that security might not be looking. If he could get in without being seen and close the door, that'd be less suspicious than destroying a camera and leaving it broken.

The door whooshed open. Qrow slipped in and closed it.

"The door opening signalled a notification to security," Owl reported. "They're aware of your presence."

"Another thing you forgot to mention?"

"It wouldn't have come up if you were going to be discovered anyway. The computer should be ahead of you. Boot it up and then insert the pen drive in your left wrist bracer into any port. You can activate the program when it boots."

"Will it crack the password?"

"No need. The password is Qoe97dXy9. Case sensitive."

Qrow sighed. "Read it out again slowly. And I can't hear case when you're speaking to me."

Owl chuckled and read it again bit by bit, and, sure enough, it got him in on the first try. Owl then casually let him know that had also sent a notification, this time to the CEO directly to inform him of someone logging into his device. Grumbling, Qrow inserted the drive and waited for the box to pop up on screen. It was barebones, just a box asking if he wanted to transfer files.

Qrow clicked "yes" and let it get to work.

"It's done. Do I have to wait?"

"No. It's transferring them already and there's no evidence that will be left if the drive is found. Leave it inserted and exfiltrate at your leisure."

"Leisure, my ass. What is security looking like?"

"Building has been locked down. Entrances have been sealed. Security summoned and ETA is 10 minutes. You have two security, one guarding each staircase down. They're armed with rubber bullets and stun guns, but also lethal ammunition should you put their lives in danger. They are not authorised to kill but know they will be protected by self-defence laws if you fire even a single bullet first."

That might matter against a normal thief, but it wouldn't against him. Qrow could fight his way out and be away before reinforcements arrived. Was that a good idea, though? This was meant to prepare him for Mountain Glenn, and if he was just going to fight his enemies head on, then he wasn't learning anything new.

Qrow swallowed his pride. "Any suggestions on how to get away without being seen?"

"Head to the roof and jump down. They don't expect a huntsman."

Good point. They were inside and guarding the staircases, mostly to keep him upstairs until help arrived to flush him out. That meant the carpark was clear. Qrow poked his head out and moved into the corridor, knowing his face would be hidden from the camera. Following directions from Owl, he scaled up an access ladder to the roof and inserted yet another code into a padlock to open it.

"You guys certainly seem to know everything…"

"An illusion we like to give off. In truth, we just prepare before each mission. Work has been done on this one for the last three months."

It wasn't a training opportunity pulled out their ass, then. Good to know. Qrow would have hated if all this work and a late night led to nothing more than a practice run. Out on the roof, he jogged to the edge and looked down. Sure enough, there was no one there. The drop would be leg-breaker territory for an average person, and since he hadn't fought his way in, they didn't believe him a huntsman. After all, huntsmen wouldn't need to be sneaky.

The drop was peanuts for him. Qrow landed with a flex of aura and sprinted ahead to the chain fence, jumped and caught it halfway up. Scurrying over, and letting the barbed wire bite into his aura, he dropped on the other side. Owl was waiting for him and waved him over to a nearby building. Soon, they were moving, though only as far as a parked black car.

"Get in," said Owl. "I'll drive."

"We could have driven here? You're really yanking my chain, bird boy."

"A vehicle driving up and parking before a heist would raise suspicion. This was delivered to us mere minutes ago and the driver abandoned it." Owl picked a key out from a hidden compartment in the dash and inserted it. The engine hummed to life, and even had a full tank of dust. Owl pulled them out and onto a quiet road, and then they were gone. "That's a successful mission."

Qrow leaned his head back, then grimaced and decided to do away with the helmet and mask. The windows were tinted, and it wasn't like they didn't know his identity. He tossed it onto the backseat.

"How did I do?"

"Good enough. We knew your basic fitness and ability would see you through."

"Is this where I get an invitation to join your secret club?"

Owl chuckled. "I'm afraid not. You're capable in terms of a smash and grab, and those are the skills we think will suit in Mountain Glenn, but our organisation requires much more than that. We prefer our agents be versatile."

"I'm hurt."

"We also don't believe you would have any reason to be loyal to us. The son of a killer, orphaned and picked up in Mistral to study at Signal. It's not exactly the perfect recipe for an obedient agent."

"Done your background checks, have you? Should I be concerned?"

"No. And it's not a threat, either. Your background is legally quite clean, the fact you chose to leave the group you were born to only speaks in your favour. It's simply that we expect your loyalty will be to yourself and your sister more than it would be to us."

Qrow grunted. "You'd be right."

"It's understandable. And it's enough that we can work together in this one instance. Were you younger, we might have had an interest in recruiting you and your sister both, but you're both too old and much too spirited."

"I feel like you're talking about my sister more than you are me there."

Owl chuckled. "Perhaps."

"I'll make one thing clear, bird boy, and to the Vincents no doubt listening in. Don't fuck with my sister or my friends. That's a line I won't let you cross."

"I don't imagine that will be a problem," Owl replied, not overly concerned by the threat. "Our mission statement doesn't involve interfering with the future protectors of Vale. You will both graduate and protect Vale from the threats without, while we protect it from the threats within. We may not be open allies, but we are allies."

Qrow snorted. "You're spies, then. Some secret service."

"Something like that. My superiors already chewed me out for accidentally revealing too much to you."

"They been listening in all this time, I assume."

"Yes. Speaking to me without you hearing them. Chastised me quite thoroughly for giving away things when you kept probing." Qrow got the feeling Owl was looking at him through the mask. "You're quite inquisitive for a teenager, you know. Perceptive, too."

"Little rich coming from another teenager, isn't it?"

Owl paused. "I'm twenty-four."

"Yeah, bullshit. You came into the clearing from Beacon's direction, out of breath from a run when the city was a stone's throw away. You're a student or a teacher, and a teacher wouldn't be that out of breath."

Owl shook his head. "I'm going to be put through remedial training for this. I just know it…"

Probably. It was almost unfair, since the guy hadn't been outwitted by a younger teen but by a forty-year-old man. It would have been more of a problem if Qrow couldn't work this out with all the clues being dropped.

"What happens now, then?" Qrow asked.

"I've been told that our group will gather what intelligence it can on the Atlas facility – passwords, timetables, floorplans, the like. You'll then be contacted on the scroll in the glovebox." Qrow opened and took it. "The code is 1-2-3-4. Please change it to something more secure. The information we have will be shared with you. A location will be set up in Mountain Glenn for you to have supplies left at, and HQ will be on call to you to provide logistical and tactical information as I did tonight."

"Hopefully a little more helpful than you were, throwing me into trouble to see how I'd react."

"I expect so. But you should keep in mind Atlas will be far more secure than this lab was tonight. They will shoot from the start, have backup generators, and could even have ASF on site. That's Atlas Special Forces. Our equivalent. They'll be capable of fighting you as a huntsman would, so you won't be able to brute force your way in and out."

He'd expected as much. Whatever Atlas had hidden in there, they wanted to keep it a secret. That was the reason why they were putting it in Mountain Glenn, away from prying eyes. Qrow just hoped this didn't all end up as some red herring.

If Mountain Glenn fell because of something else, this would all be a waste of time.

Sorry that it's short. The event will happen and be done this Thursday, and then I'll be free to keep going as normal.

Next Chapter: 12th October (2 weeks)

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