Monday fun day. Kill meeee…

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 110

Blake liked to think she wasn't a petty person.

It wasn't always easy thinking that way, especially when she felt such an overwhelming desire to be petty with Pyrrha Nikos.

"So, what's it like working for the Containments Office?"

"Oh, you know, the same as your job really—" Except that they didn't casually murder everything they came across. "We investigate, we seek, and we remove the anomaly so it can't influence innocent people and risk exposing the anomalous."

"It must be hard having to take them alive."

"It is what it is." Killing them was the easy option. "My mother always says the best things in life are rarely easy."

Pyrrha hummed, obviously not believing it, and Blake pretended she believed the other woman was asking out of professional courtesy. It wasn't so much a verbal spar as the proverbial shove in a playground, each skirting around the issue of starting a fight while passive-aggressively getting their jabs in.

I may have to reassess the idea that I'm not a petty bitch, thought Blake.

But at least she was in good company. Two childish and petty idiots poking holes in one another while making their way out of Argus toward some ranch-slash-homestead. The definition mattered, apparently, for what Blake could only assume was tax purposes. The fact that Argus split allegiance between Mistral and Atlas meant it split taxes – which sounded easy on paper, but actually meant filing two whole sets of tax returns, each following a different set of laws and policies. The accountants in Argus must have been eating well.

"You should be reaching the homestead soon," Terra's voice came through their earpieces. "Also, I'm pleased to see you're getting along."

Pregnancy hormones were making Terra stupid. That, or this was a sarcastic pointer on how Blake and Pyrrha's passive-aggressive conversation hadn't fooled anyone. It could have been either.

"You're looking for a Mr Alabaster. And Pyrrha, please be nice."

"I've caused no issues with Agent Belladonna."

"I meant with the witness."

"Hngh." Pyrrha frowned, causing Blake to raise an eyebrow. "I shall be professional."

"That's not what I asked, but I suppose it'll do."

The homestead's outer wall was the first thing to breach the treeline – a set of wickedly sharp and multi-layered barbed wire fences and spiked metal pickets that were meant to keep Grimm out rather than animals in.

Barbed wire didn't normally deter Grimm, but this was so thick and so numerous that even if it didn't kill, it'd tangle and wrap around a Grimm and prevent then moving further until the homeowner could come and shoot it from a safe distance. Sure enough, some of the barbed wire was out of place, looking like it had been dragged along with some creature. Fresh metal stakes were driven down to secure it in place. Blake didn't envy the job of the one who needed to go out there and set it all back up again.

Inside the fearsome perimeter, the home itself was much simpler, little more than bungalow with a few extensions, beside a larger wooden barn and a few henhouses. The barndoors were open on the side leading into a grassy paddock where cows and sheep and goats roamed together. Further away, a smaller area ringed with tall wire fencing had numerous ducks and chickens picking seed from the grass. A small field of crops lay nearby, but it only looked to be enough to feed the people living here and the animals. Livestock was obviously their primary business.

There was no obvious route in so the two of them had to navigate the barbed wire, which Blake assumed was pulled aside when they needed to transport animals out via truck. Given this was outside any city walls, there was no point having a driveway that was unprotected unless you wanted to invite Grimm in to kill you. The two of them were about halfway through when the farmer appeared on the other side, probably having been alerted by some home security system.

At least it wasn't dogs.

"Goodness me!" shouted the tall and wiry rancher. Despite working with food, he was thin and gaunt, with long hair swept into a ponytail and big, round sunglasses. "I can't believe the Pyrrha Nikos is visiting my humble homestead. This is an honour and no mistake."

Pyrrha smiled tightly and offered a gloved hand. The Fist Office also subscribed to the "don't touch anything with bare hands" approach to doing anomalous business, it seemed.

"There's no need for that, sir. I'm just doing my job. I understand you have missing cattle."

"I do, I do, but I have to say I couldn't believe when you up and left the tournament circuit for government work. I used to watch all your fights, you know. There were many that said you were going to go on to become a huntsman. Whatever happened to that, if I might ask?"

"I reconsidered my career options, sir. The missing animals—"

"Hm. Hmhmhm. I suppose that's your choice and all. Maybe the fights get boring after a while. Goodness knows I've been doing the same job for thirty years and there are times I wonder if I wouldn't be happier packing it all up. But then I wonder if I won't regret it after it's all gone. Do you ever miss the tournaments?"

"No. I don't."

"Damn shame. Damn shame!" he repeated, louder. "But I suppose you have the right to choose your own path—"

"Thank you, sir."

"—but I hope you'll put some thought into going back one day. Seems such a waste, it does, to learn all of them skills and be so good at something, only to throw it all away. You've got a real talent, lass. There are those who would give up a lot to have even a fraction of it."

Pyrrha closed her eyes and smiled even wider.

It didn't fool Blake.

"They're welcome to it if they want it, sir. I'm quite happy with the career I have."

"You have a gift!"

Blake cleared her throat. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to help Pyrrha, but more that even she was getting annoyed with how this was going. Being blanked didn't help, but the last thing she wanted to hear was someone singing Nikos' praises for the next few hours.

"This is Agent Belladonna," Pyrrha introduced her, and smiled gratefully for the interruption. "And I'm afraid we're both on the clock. Not to mention that the longer we wait, the older the evidence becomes. Can you show us to the sight of what you believe to be an... alien abduction..."

The dramatic pause at the end was intentional. It was designed to sound sceptical so that the man would become annoyed and double down. ARC Corp had an entire "Alien Species Policy" and it wasn't what to do with them, because that was covered in the anomalous policy of "destroy, destroy, destroy."

The "Alien Species Policy" that Jaune had shown her with some small amusement instead focused on how to pin people's beliefs on aliens. Basically, it was a multi-step guide to hiding anomalous interaction as alien activity, while also making the people claiming it was aliens look like idiots so no one believed them.

A Guide to Gaslighting.

Stay classy, ARC Corp.

Apart from the obvious idea of letting the witness think it was an alien, the instructional booklet included such tips as making sure to sound confused about the evidence, getting defensive when questioned, offering intentionally vague and poor explanations to the homeowner so you looked suspicious, and destroying all evidence in as obvious a manner as possible and with no explanations given.

Did it look massively suspicious? Yes. And that was kind of the point of the "Alien Species" policy. The whole point was to look so damn suspicious that the witnesses instantly thought you were part of some government coverup – which they were right about, but it wasn't aliens and no one was going to believe them. Right now, Pyrrha was adopting the "express doubt and make excuses" part of the policy, which would annoy the witness and make them feel like you'd made up your mind before coming out.

"I'll lead you to the spot," he said, heading to the barn. "Now I swear I'm not crazy. Aliens, ghosts, supernatural nonsense? I'm not one to believe it – never have been. Something goes bump in the night, it's probably an animal or a rodent in the walls. But this is different." He rubbed his hands together nervously. "You may think me crazy but I've seen and heard things. Flashes of light, animals acting up, and now... well, you're about to see. I didn't dare touch it."

"That's the right decision," said Blake. "Don't touch anything you don't understand. Even if it's from an animal, it could be rife with parasites."

The man scowled. "This ain't from no animal! I know my animals!"

Step two, antagonise.

"I'm sure you do, sir."

Mr Alabaster scowled Blake's way at her patronising response.

The barn was empty on the inside, the day being too bright and warm for the animals to stay inside. There were numerous stalls and stables along two sides, along with some metal areas fenced off for the sheep. The hay was all freshly laid, and there were even bit industrial brushes with attached to the walls for the animals to rub up against. Blake had watched videos online and knew cows and horses absolutely loved them.

One stall was not clean, however. The straw was messy – partially with manure, but also with a strange, glowing goo. Literally, the ooze glowed a pale blue, pulsating with colour generated internally.

It's a good job we can blame this on aliens, Blake thought, Because I really don't know how we'd try and explain this away as normal otherwise.

"Not many animals give off glowing blue gunk," the man said, with a smug smile. He crossed his arms over his chest as if daring Blake to try and explain this away. "I had two cows in here that were being isolated from the herd. They'd been sick and I had them on medicine. The sickness wouldn't have spread but the medicine is put in the food and I needed them kept away from the rest so they wouldn't have it stolen by the others. They were fine last night and then there was a flash of light and the animals went wild. I came out to check but, by the time I got here... well..." He nodded to the mess. "No sign of them to be seen."

Eaten, Blake assumed, but there was no blood, bones or body parts remaining. That wasn't to say they couldn't have been eaten whole or killed by other methods. Absorption into a body, transformed into food – hell, they could have been melted down into this blue goop, and that was what the anomaly ate. Nothing about this had to make any sense.

"We're going to have to collect samples," said Pyrrha. "Do you have any security equipment that might have caught something?"

"Afraid not. Dust is a luxury I can't afford on that scale, and there aren't any thieves out here. We get Grimm occasionally, but there's not much point reporting them to the authorities. That said, I do keep the barn locked up at night and it was locked when I came in. But the door is just the way a person would get in."

He pointed upwards, to where the barn walls met the ceiling. There were openings in the wall there, designed to let light in and help regulate temperature. They were big enough for a person to fit through, albeit climbing that far up would be difficult for a human. A bird would have no trouble.

"That's likely the way the animal got in," said Pyrrha. Again, the farmer huffed, knowing this was no mere animal. "I'm going to have to ask you to give us some room as we collect the material. We have aura and should be safe, but we don't want to risk placing you in danger."

"I've already been around it."

"Even so, sir, it's government policy. We'll be the ones getting in trouble for this."

The man snorted but made to leave.

Blake stopped him. "Could you bring us a sample of the medicine you gave the cows? With the packaging, if possible. If they were targeted then it might be something to do with the medicine. We'd like to check."

The farmer nodded and left to do that, while Pyrrha nodded. "Good call on the medicine," she said. "It could be the anomaly."

It was best to assume everything was and be wrong than to miss out on something obvious. Blake shrugged and pulled out a glass vial, joining Pyrrha in scooping up some of the goo. Technically, it was unneeded, but it'd help sell the story of what they were doing and there was always the small chance that this would be important, as opposed to just a waste product.

"I can have our team analyse these," Pyrrha said.

"Your team...?"

"Research team, I mean. Scientists." Pyrrha said it, then realised the Containments Office didn't have that and grew awkward, trying to pass it off as not all that worth it. "They can't always help, especially with anomalous material, but they might be able to identify if any cow DNA is in this. That'd at least tell us if this is waste material from the cows being eaten or something similar."

"Hmmm. Sounds useful to have."

Pyrrha winced and corked her vial, then went off to call Terra to arrange a team to pick it up while Blake used a pronged fork on the wall nearby to shovel the mucky and gloopy hay into a pile for them to burn.

A Bullhead landed some fifteen minutes later to collect their samples and leave, which would only go even further to selling the idea of this being a coverup. Which, again, it absolutely was, but not in the way they wanted the man to think.

Blake met back up with Blake after burning the hay. "Evidence is disposed of. You find any tracks?"

"None. That could mean anything, though. Too small to leave tracks, a vector other than touching the ground, or just a method of hiding them. I'm leaning toward the cows being food right now. A lot of animals pick off sicker members of the herd, and the fact they were isolated would make them even easier targets."

"The farmer would have interrupted the feeding. Strange it didn't attack him. Perhaps it isn't aggressive."

"That doesn't matter."

The snappish response made Blake raise an eyebrow, but she realised what had Pyrrha on edge a moment later. "I didn't say we should spare it, Nikos. I simply said it isn't aggressive towards humans. Understanding its behaviour is important in hunting it."

Pyrrha blushed faintly. "Sorry. I jumped to conclusions."

Not a bad one. If this were her call, she'd already be considering this anomaly as non-threatening. It had a way past all the barbed wire so it could have killed the human at any point, but it never did. It could even be argued it went for sick cattle because they were less harmful for the farmer to lose.

That kind of statement would have the Fist Office upset at her, however. This was their turf, their mission, their rules. Blake hated it, but she'd worked for people she disagreed with before. The White Fang was a perfect example. Blake shook her head, and wondered at how the survivors from the bunker were adapting. If the Fist Office had found them, would they have killed all the survivors, children included? Sure, they didn't belong in this world but there was no evidence to suggest they, in themselves, were anomalous.

It might not matter to Saphron's office.

"We're going to have to spend the night in the barn, aren't we?"

"Probably," Pyrrha agreed. "And there's always the chance the anomaly won't come. It fed last night so it may not be hungry."

That was a risk they'd just have to take.

/-/

Mr Alabaster offered them spare rooms in the house which they politely turned down. He offered one to each of them, but it was obvious he wanted to talk more to Pyrrha. He even prepared them a duck dinner and spent the whole time talking to her about tournaments and how much of an inspiration she was to young women everywhere, while ignoring Blake.

Pyrrha didn't seem to like being an inspiration, but she was unfalteringly polite – the kind of polite that wasn't really very convincing, like a store clerk being polite to a customer screaming in their face. There was no way he believed she meant it, or so Blake assumed, but the man was old enough and stuck in his ways enough to assume she was just listening to the advice of her elder.

So, he went on and on and on until they'd long finished their meals and were only saved by Terra calling with the lab results. It was as good an excuse as any to take the call outside and escape the conversation.

"We've analysed the results and the lab team thinks it's the remnants of feeding as you suspected. They found no evidence of cow DNA in the material, but there were enzymes that are digestive in nature, mimicking to some degree an animal's stomach. Anomalous creatures do sometimes contain non-anomalous microbes and biomes within their bodies that mimic natural systems."

"Any chance of them being a problem if let loose?"

"Not really. They were half-dead when they got here and have died now. Chief of Research thinks that this might be the equivalent of saliva from a messy human eater, scattered about either because the anomaly was in a rush or felt threatened by the noise of the other animals. Or the risk of discovery."

"Anything else we should know?" asked Pyrrha.

"The enzymes aren't really threatening on skin contact so they won't be a weapon of use against you. You would have to swim in it for over twenty-four hours, and even then you'd be more at risk of drowning than dissolving. That suggests it has other weapons with which to kill."

"Teeth or claws seem unlikely given the lack of blood or evidence of a struggle," Pyrrha said. "So, we're looking at something more unusual. We're going to spend the night in the barn and see if we can't catch it."

"Roger that. I'll arrange for someone to call for a report every four hours until daybreak, and I'll make sure you're booked in for a day off to rest when this is over. Are you and Agent Belladonna getting along?"

"I'm right here," Blake said.

The call was on speaker.

"Ah. Well, the question remains. Are there any issues?"

"None."

Pyrrha gave the answer Terra trusted. "There haven't been any, Terra. The biggest issue has been the witness bothering me on my career choices. Agent Belladonna has been professional."

"That's good to hear. Will there be any issues on dealing with the anomaly?"

Blake scowled and crossed her arms. "I've fought and killed numerous anomalies, you know. I was there at Mountain Glenn. I killed Winter Schnee myself. You don't have to act like Jaune and I are pacifists afraid to get our hands dirty."

"..." Terra sighed. "I'm sorry if it came out that way. I'll leave you both to it."

The call ended.

"It's not like you think," Pyrrha said, coming to her colleague's defence.

"How do you think I'm seeing this?" asked Blake.

"As some sort of test, as us seeing whether you're a threat and trying to pull you away from your partner." Hm. Well they had her expectations on point at least. "It's not like that."

"Oh? Then Saphron isn't biased against us?"

"It's not bias..." Pyrrha seemed to realise that was a bad angle to take and changed her mind. "It's not hatred. Saphron has said just as much negative about the other offices as she has yours. You shouldn't take it personally and think every other word out her mouth is hating on you. She disliked the way the Secrets Office was run, and also the Burns Office."

"Oh goodie. She's a bitch to everyone. I feel so much safer."

"The Associate-Director has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. You don't understand what it's like. Director Jaune has none. No one expects anything of him. They don't make him do extra work."

Blake snorted. "Because they don't trust him. That's because they see him as a ticking bomb."

"Perhaps! But that still gives him a lot of free time! Saphron has to do everything. She has so much riding on her – from extra management work to meetings with the Chief Director, to financial meetings. She's dragged all across Remnant and has to constantly deal with the fact that she'll take over one day. Even beyond that, there's been the pressure on her to carry on the family line – regardless of her preferences or how much she loves Terra."

"Isn't Terra already pregnant?"

Pyrrha let out an angry whine. "Nicholas Arc had eight children and almost half of them have died in the line of duty. One child isn't enough, and no one else is really of an age to be having any. As I understand it, the Chief Director's opinion is that there's a benefit to Saphron and Terra being in a lesbian relationship." Pyrrha's face twisted into an unhappy grimace. "And that advantage is that there are two sets of wombs."

Blake winced. "Ugh."

"Exactly! No one is pressuring your boss to have children – and yes, I know it's because he's considered tainted. I don't get to change that. But you can change how you act around Saphron and Terra. They don't deserve your ire."

"Yeah, right." Blake crossed her arms and shook off her disgust at what Jaune's father had implied. "I'll admit I feel bad for what they're going through but you're making it sound like I've been unreasonable. Multiple times, Saphron has made aggressive motions towards us. You made to pull a weapon on us in that bunker."

Pyrrha flinched. "That was a mistake, I realise now—"

"Doesn't matter. If you treat us like we're threats to be dealt with, we'll see you as threats in turn. We've put up with your various tests. We've given in to Saphron's demands to have containment facilities, we've given in to having backdoors into our systems, and we even gave in and accepted giving Amber work experience when we knew she'd be spying on us for you."

Pyrrha didn't deny it.

"There comes a point where you can push too hard, Nikos. That's something for your whole office to keep in mind. Jaune and I aren't threats to you but keep treating us like we are and you'll make for a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"..." Pyrrha closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "I'll keep that in mind. And I will attempt to argue your point to the Associate Director once she's back."

"Appreciated."

"Hmm. Let's go make our bunks in the barn. We have an anomaly to kill."

Next Chapter: 29th July

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