Chapter 43 – Bread End

Blake does a grocery run.

Jaune's plan slowly began to unfurl inside of Blake's head as she sped away from Mr. Callows' house as quickly as her legs could carry her. It wasn't clear initially, primarily because about seven days or so had passed since she'd even heard about the loaf of bread in the first place, but with nothing but time on her hands to ponder it as she fled, the memories came back to her.

He challenged Jaune by stealing a single loaf of bread. It was more a symbolic gesture to justify us apprehending him than an actual crime, but a crazy dude like our client is probably big on the meaning of symbols.

Now, in place of outright failure at capturing him, I'm doing my best to recover the 'stolen' goods and undo his crime. I'd have thought it insignificant, but the violent way Callows reacted to me seizing the bread and fleeing means he must view it as some sort of loss.

And his loss was Team Job's victory, so seize the bread and flee Blake did. She didn't have to get why Tyrian was Tyrian to see what her objective was today.

The sun was only just beginning to rise, as Velvet's shift had been the morning one, and her discovery of Tyrian's abilities had kicked this whole thing off. It was around the time most early risers would wake up and begin to get ready for their commute to work or school, so the streets were still mostly empty at the moment, but they wouldn't remain so for long.

Blake had seen firsthand just how fast Tyrian could move, so she sprinted outside of the neighborhood in which he lived and moved to stealth as soon as she was into the next door business district. She knew from memory that this area was generally office spaces and corporate headquarters, and there was then a small mall in the direction she was heading.

Jaune said to get to…Rosebranch Street? I'd assume that's where the grocery store is. Shit, what was the street address? Six…seven…I can't remember!

There was no time for her to stop and think, so she just kept running. Blake would just have to find the place once she got onto the street itself.

Her mental map of the area was good enough that she could afford to take the back alleyways and keep to the shadows without losing track of where she was. Outrunning Tyrian was a fool's errand, and Blake had no doubt that with her gone, Jaune and Velvet wouldn't hold him for long. He was already on her tail by now, no doubt, so evading him would be her primary tactic here.

The black of her outfit blended into the long shadows that came with the early morning well enough, but Blake made sure to stick to winding, weaving buildings with tall faces that obscured her, just in case. All of Team Job's hope for success was riding on her. If she got captured or lost the bread, they'd have wasted a full week with nothing to show for it.

The bread itself was a handicap, to some extent, since it occupied one of her hands, but Blake wielded a one-handed sword, so she was definitely best equipped to carry it. Jaune needed his shield, and Velvet's two fists worked best when both of them were free.

As Blake prepared to round a corner in an L-shaped alleyway, a noise came from behind her, causing her to freeze. Flattening her back to the wall, she slid over towards a dumpster to hide behind and surveyed her surroundings.

I don't see anyone or anything around me. It sounded like a rough thud, the kind of noise that comes from someone being punched. Was that Tyrian, punching someone?

Blake leaned in front of the dumpster and checked that the coast was clear. If it wasn't Tyrian, she needed to move, and if it was, she probably would want to get away from him as fast as she could. Either way, her best option was to waste no time in dawdling and book it for the store.

As soon as she took a single step out from behind the dumpster, the door on the wall opposite her that led inside the building (like the one that employees would use to access the dumpster) flew open, revealing a limber scorpion Faunus.

Tyrian cartwheeled her way and kicked Blake's throat before she could act, sending her into the wall behind her.

"Clever is that girl child of black and white, but none are better built than I for the fight."

His arms were pressed against her in a flash, one of them pushing her up against the wall but the middle of her chest and the other wrestling the loaf of bread out of her hands.

"No!" cried Blake. "No! Ugh!"

His semblance, whatever it was, didn't just allow him to get past aura; he was literally turning it off in the body parts he touched. Since he had her pinned by the torso with both arms blocked by his own, she was too weak to break free.

"No!" she screamed again.

Desperate, she tried to kick him, but he brough his knees together and caught her by the shin in time to prevent her attack from gaining enough momentum to injure him.

BZZZT!

Blake felt a sudden jolt of pain in her arms and chest, specifically the areas Tyrian was touching. However, the pressure on her eased up after a second, and she was released.

"Blake!"

Jaune, his stun gun raised, stood in the doorway through which Tyrian had exited.

BZZZT!

He fired again, making the Faunus man scream out in pain.

The scorpion tail of his hooked a metal trash can by the handle and flung it at Jaune, but without the death touch of that semblance to negate his aura, Jaune brushed the hit aside without flinching.

Velvet came from behind Jaune, pushing him aside with a Hard Light war hammer in her hands that was wound up for a heavy swing, and Blake remember her role in all of this. Grabbing the bread off the street floor where Tyrian had dropped it, Blake ran off as more stun gun pulses were fired.

There was a deafening racket behind her, likely Velvet with her hammer clashing with an unarmed Tyrian, but Blake trusted her partners to fulfill their own roles while she focused on hers.

Abandoning stealth altogether, Blake now made a mad dash through the increasingly crowded streets of Vale in the direction of the market. Several passersby complained or took note of her unsafe speed as she dashed through the sideway and even the bike lane in high traffic portions of the street, but Blake had too much adrenaline running through her veins to even notice them.

She passed by the intersection of Stove Lane and San Rider Boulevard, meaning that Rosebranch Street or Avenue or whatever it was was just one over – Blake remembered the location from her own mental map of Vale.

There was some commotion behind her – quite possibly Tyrian – but it sounded far away, so Blake just kept sprinting towards the finish line. He was fast, but she had a sizeable head-start over him that would be enough to guarantee her victory. As an added bonus, the streets ahead of her were a lot less full of people right now, meaning that he was going to have to navigate the crowds.

And the Faunus is victorious! Blake declared in her head, completely aware that Tyrian was also a Faunus and also completely not caring. Hell yeah!

She'd made it, and just in the nick of time. Blake quickly confirmed on a street sign that she was on Rosebranch Street, and then –

WHAT?

The street sign, it didn't say Rosebranch! It was for Stanson Street!

"Where the hell am I?" Blake asked no one in particular.

At some point, she must've either gotten mixed around or just misremembered the directions to the grocery store. It wasn't like she went there a lot – Jaune did most of the cooking and therefore shopping for their shared household, so he frequented the store more than her.

Fuck, I messed this one up, didn't I?

Blake didn't really have much time to ponder her fate, for something struck her from behind at the base of the spine, and her legs suddenly felt too heavy to support her body. This time, she was aware that an attack was coming and rolled into the fall the shelter the gods-damned bread that this whole thing was over with her chest, not willing to let Tyrian lay another finger on it.

Hugging it to herself, she prepared for another aura-free assault, but it never came.

"Blake! We'll hold him off! Just run!"

It was Jaune. Blake looked up to see that he had wrapped his arms around Tyrian's stomach from behind and was using himself as a weight to slow down the scorpion. It came at the cost of letting himself be battered around the head by the tail, but Velvet was catching up to them.

The brawl in the streets was attracting some attention, but most people were smart enough to see the hunter-grade weapons and turn the other way. When hunters dueled in the streets, it typically meant that there was a hunter-level criminal on the loose, something a typical civilian had no desire to tangle with.

Not that we're hunters or he's a criminal, but they don't know that.

"Which way, Jaune?" Blake asked, turning herself over and crawling backwards away from Tyrian as he dragged the blond along with him. "I'm lost! Where's the store?"

"Left and – grugh – two blocks! Another left, and you'll see it!"

It was embarrassing to nearly jeopardize the mission because of her poor sense of direction, but apologizing would be a waste of time. Velvet arrived, her own stun gun in hand, and began to unload its payload into Tyrian. It was meant to take someone down in a single hit, but that was for normal folks, so a huntsman like Tyrian could mostly just shrug it off with only a slowdown.

The downside was that the tasing effect of it transferred through the human and Faunus body, meaning that Jaune was subjected to a portion of the impact. He, too, howled in pain and let go of Tyrian.

Blake didn't let his sacrifice be in vain. As soon as she was up, she was running full tilt to the right. The trio of dueling aura-users was left behind.

"N…No…wrong…m-my…my…"

Jaune was back on his feet, the impacts of the stun gun having had more of an effect on him than Tyrian or the contact hit Blake had gotten earlier, but he was trying to say something to her. Blake slowed down and looked back at him.

"What?!"

"…my left, Blake!"

Shit.

It was on him as much as it was on Blake, but she had gone in the wrong direction yet again. The downside of this slip-up was that Blake would have to get past Tyrian in order to make her way towards the right direction of the grocery store.

Velvet and Jaune were fully engaged with Tyrian, the former shooting him with her taser liberally as the latter swung his sword. Tyrian was slowed down enough by the harmful electricity that he could only just barely keep up with Jaune, and every third hit was actually landing.

Blake watched and waited, creeping closer until she could get a perfect moment to slip past them. It would be possible for her to take a long way and make a wide circle around them, but Tyrian's eyes were watching her even still, and she knew that he would intercept her if she tried it.

When she moved left, he moved left. When she moved right, he moved right. They were at an intersection in the street, the one where Blake had realized her mistake in the directions, so there was a wide range of motion for them both.

I lost to him instantly every time I even tried to fight him solo. My only advantage is the others slowing him down. If I run away from them and he shakes them, it's over.

The opportunity came when Tyrian focused a little bit too much attention on Jaune. Instead of just dodging, Tyrian struck him in the stomach with a kneecap, then clobbered his face with a closed pair of fists. As expected, Jaune was no match for the scorpion when he actually tried.

But actually trying against Jaune meant that Blake wasn't under keen observation. His inattentiveness her way gave her a chance to dash forward, leap into the air, kick off a stop sign, and flip right over Tyrian's head.

As expected, his tail darted upwards to snag her, but Blake's sword batted it away before it could snake around her ankle and pull her down. Now past him, Blake charged ahead.

Jaune's down, so it's up to Velvet to stall him. We're so close…

With Jaune's directions fresh in her head (two blocks, then another left), Blake sprinted ahead at full speed. There was nothing left to hold back for, so she pushed her legs to their limits, taking care to not lose her old on the precious loaf.

Two blocks came and went, and Blake threw Gambol's hook around a traffic light to give herself the most optimal pivot without losing any speed.

Behind her, she heard Velvet scream in pain.

It's just me.

Velvet, the last and greatest bulwark between Blake and the destructive force that was the man pursuing her like a plague, had fallen. There was nothing in between her and the end of it all.

The grocery store, the one with the in-store brand that matched the bread in her hands, came into view. Blake bounded through the parking lot as a second set of footsteps followed behind her.

And they were closing in on her.

She could see it. She could see the finish line, but the gap between them was disappearing too quickly for her to make it.

There's no help. I…I can't run away from this one.

But what other option was there? Turn and fight? Surrender? Running was what Blake did best.

I'm going to be caught.

He's going to catch me.

…but that didn't have to mean the end of it.

He was inevitably going to catch her, but she had enough of a lead that she could control how she was caught.

So Blake turned around and threw Gambol Shroud at Tyrian, holding onto the ribbon.

He caught it effortlessly and pulled, yanking Blake to the ground through the tension in her weapon. However, he was still far enough away when Blake actually fell that he wasn't touching her.

Rolling out of the way as she dropped a shadow clone, Blake got a good look at Tyrian, and she didn't like what she saw. Gone was the playful confidence that he'd carried before, and in its place was a manic look of murder. As Blake picked herself up and got back to running towards the store, she couldn't resist looking backwards at the shadow clone.

Tyrian knelt over it, bloodlust in his eyes, and his stinger shoved straight through the head with enough force to crack the pavement beneath it with a burst of some sort of noxious purple fluid leaking out into the cracks.

That would have been me. He…He actually would have killed me.

Blake pushed open the grocery store doors and fled inside, her heartrate higher than it had ever been before.

She was sweating profusely as she walked past the register, bread in hand, and her aura was probably in shambles, but for some reason, Tyrian didn't follow her in. She could clearly see him outside, eyes wide as he watched her through the glass doors and windowpanes of the grocery store.

Then, he fell to his knees, mouth ajar.

Blake rubbed her aching back in the spot where he'd delivered that punishing kick to her and kept walking, now approaching the aisles. Despite the fact that she'd just exiting a harrowing and high stakes fight mere seconds ago, the store itself was utterly calm. Gentle music played on the ceiling speakers, and a few customers milled about the shelves, entirely unaware of the chaos that had played out in the streets just outside.

There was a man in a store uniform, the green and gold vest demarcating him as an employee. Blake took a second to catch her breath, not wishing to look crazy, and walked up to him.

"Excuse me, sir."

The man turned to her, smiling the ingenuine smile all employees here wore. "How may I help you, miss?"

"I think I saw someone trying to shoplift this." She handed him the bread.

If it was a weird thing to say or do, given that she could have just returned it to the bread section herself, he made no note of it, nor did he ask how or why she'd gotten some stolen loaf from a thief. The bread traded hands, and he promised to return it to the shelves with a basic word of thanks.

Once Blake was alone in the aisle, she bent over and caught her hands on her knees. The adrenaline from before was still there, but it was receding now. Tyrian was still outside the store, weeping like a lunatic in the parking lot as customers did their best to avoid getting to close to him when they entered or exited.

We did it. I don't know what we did, but whatever it was, we did it.

Mission Failed: Capture of Tyrian Callows

Mission Complete: Bread Recovery and Return

Client Review: Arrest me, Team Job could not; my stolen goods, they got; I received the challenge I sought. All in all, five stars for their grace, teamwork, and wisdom. I'd also like to mention the youths' exemplary professionalism. They claimed victory through their efforts, making them the winner. Furthermore, I do so hope they enjoyed my home-cooked dinner. [5/5 stars]

Current Holdings (lien): Ⱡ 86,615

Current Holdings (assets): Job Hunter airship, 12 handcuffs, 3 taser stun guns, long range tracker and console, tent, 3 binoculars

Current Holdings (realty): Team Job office (Vale branch)

Employees: 3

Coming Soon: Visionary

As Team Job licks their wounds, Jaune's faith in himself and his leadership is called into question.