RWBYFanon v5
RPG World of Remnant => The Vale Region => Topic started by: Xarias Fury on January 05, 2017, 10:36:03 PM
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In the dead of night the silhouettes of four masked individuals prowled the grounds of the target area in the far side of Vale near the heavy business district and not a mile away from the nearest police station. Smoke Shadows, as they preferred to call themselves, a small posse of white fang operatives hailing from major urban areas in Remnant particularly those of the major cities, majority of them hailing from Haven. Their existence is largely unknown to the kingdoms but the underground seems to know them as they really are. White Fang operatives consisting of once petty thieves led by an charismatic monkey faunus with a blue scimitar. The Smoke Shadows have been heard to have broken in to several secure locations once before but reports of them have since then dwindled to speculations and rumors. Not much is known of them to the underground save for the occasional appearance of their second in command, a snake faunus thief with a track record of breaking and entering having been in and out of prison several times since childhood. Sandwinder.
The group split up as Sandwinder's pair stealthily made their way past a patrol of guards and opted to stay in a nearby bush as they scouted the area. The building seemed to have little in way of windows and the nearest one was roughly several hundred feet high. Getting to the building without getting spotted through the front door was practically suicide with the number of imported Atlesian Knights guarding the immediate doorway and several human guards making regularly patrols. The task was simple, get the records of white fang activity in Vale, wipe them from the main database, and get out without causing a ruckus. That and planting a small hacking device near the servers. It shouldn't have been too hard but just a look at the area was intimidating enough that Sandwinder was beginning to think of staking out for a few days to study patrol patterns.
"Insertion successful. Sandwinder reporting in. The building seems to be heavily guarded at all entrances with guards posted around the perimeter with regular patrols. They're carrying automatic weaponry. Please advise."
"Then don't go through the front door, dumbass."
"Ugh, of course not but how do you expect to get inside then?
"Look up"
Sandwinder squinted his eyes and saw a masked, monkey tailed individual strolling upwards as if it were the ground. Shortly after another individual from a nearby building seemed to 'fall' towards the face of the building, his feet heading down first before his fall was slowed as if being tugged back towards his origin then finally plopped back with his back on the wall.
The radio cackled and a smug grunt sounded through followed by a sharp grinding sound muffled by something else. "Now hurry up sand for brains, we got a job to do. Let me make a little distraction for ya."
Holding a rock, the monkey faunus tossed it downwards straight towards a car outside the premises. The rock smashed into the windshield triggering an alarm prompting several guards to check it out, convenient creating an opening for the Sandwinder and his partner.
Sighing, Sandwinder signalled his partner to follow close and disappeared into building, making his way through the door while avoiding detection from droning cameras and an oncoming patrol. "You make this look easy, Ali." Sandwinder voiced over the radio.
"Easy? This is going to be like taking candy from a baby. Head for the emergency stairs, there aren't any cameras there. I'm sending beasty down to ya, should make the 'fall' up a lot quicker."
"Roger."
Ali clicked off his radio and put away the rather crude device back into his pack. Luckily the building seemed to have filtered CCTS transmissions but not short range radio waves. A flaw that Ali discovered a few days back when he scoped the place out. Sandwinder hated the bulky things but he'd take it a slightly ugly device over decades in jail any day.
Taking one last look at the city before jumping in the hole he and his partner made, Ali grinned and recalled a certain old friend of his fleeing to this city. Tucking himself inside the hole in the glass, he used his tail to pull the glass back in place and disappeared into the building behind his partner.
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Kei woke up in the middle of class only to be scolded by the professor in charge before apologizing profusely for misbehaving. Making a mental note to steal his coffee later Kei gazed off at the board with beady eyes and recalled the tidbit of info she overheard last night at slum area.
The White Fang have obviously already infiltrated Vale judging by the news but they usually wouldn't be so reckless as to be outright terrorists without good information and materials. Of course this didn't mean that he would be involved in the recent on-goings but Kei had the nagging feeling that it might be the case judging by the description she overheard a night before. Monkey faunus, blue scimitar, former thief. All this pointed to Ali but she couldn't be too sure, or rather she hoped she was wrong.
After class the professor called on Kei and gave her an assignment of joining a few other problem students on a small community service mission around Vale. Luckily it wasn't plain cleaning the streets like before but to be paired with a few other, probably lower yeared, students was going to be hassle. Maybe she could use the opportunity to listen to get some info. She'd have to lay low though, her identity as a thief wasn't exactly known in Beacon save for her teammates and she wanted to keep it that way.
Deftly swiping the professor's coffee in one hand while walking away, Kei nodded as the old pompous man scratched his head looking for the drink while Kei handed it over to a confused girl entering the classroom.
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Kei yawned as she waited for the so-called problem students to arrive, there were about....2?maybe 3 others according to the professor, not a very helpful estimate, and they were all late. Or maybe she was early, they didn't exactly have an exact meeting time. Playing with her yo-yo Kei idly listened in on passer-by's by the road in front of the meeting place and managed to pilfer a wallet or two from some people and return them with perfect grace before they even found out. Yawning again she checked the time and saw it was around 4 in the afternoon, not too late but still too early to be ditching the make-up task given to her.
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Chris bounced in place for a few seconds after stepping off the airship, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "I knew they would have me make that up eventually." he said, moving to an unoccupied corner of the airship dock so he could stretch out for a bit. He was supposed to go on a community service mission a few weeks ago, something about working security for a local parade. When his leg was shattered, that kind of put a stop to those ideas. Thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, he was back to top speed again, but he still had to make up the mission at some point.
He made his way over to the meeting point, stopping along the way to practice his freerunning on his healed leg. He rounded a corner, popping out of an alleyway just by the meeting location. "Man, it feels good to be on my feet again." he said to nobody in particular, moving with a small crowd. As he got to the meeting spot he saw her. It was the woman that chased him all over town and caused him to break his leg. He just went up to her, a shocked expression on his face. He pointed a finger at her and said the first thing that came to his head. "You!"
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"Huh?
Kei stared at the boy for a good five seconds, moving the finger aside with her own while studying the boy's shocked expression. Odd, she thought, the boy seemed familiar somehow. Did she steal from him? She had a vague feeling that it had something to do with a theft, or not. Just as she was about to ask who he was it all clicked and suddenly she found herself pointing back at him.
"YOU!?!?!?!? You're one of the kids I'm supposed to be joining? Wait, You're a student?
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You get caught with one beer on camp grounds. One. Her old master had bought it for her the last time they met up in town, and she decided to finish it off at home. But some damn hawk-eyed professor caught glimpse of it, and now she had to do community service.
She sighed as she stepped out into the streets. It was fine, though. After all, nobody would bend the rules for her. It would be downright silly if they did. As such, she would take her punishment with stride. The shield maiden was unarmed today, and dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top. She wasn't expecting to be fighting today, but she had at least brought Justice with her, currently in a scabbard on her belt. Better than nothing, at least.
She sauntered over to where they were supposed to meet up to see two people apparently quite displeased with seeing each other. Oh, joy. This was going to be a fun day.
"Afternoon." She greeted them, placing a hand on her hip. She sincerely hoped what they were going to do wasn't going to be heavily reliant on teamwork. It didn't seem like that would work out.
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Chris pushed the finger pointing at him out of the way, ignoring the girl arriving on the scene. She could be talked to later, but he needed some answers now. "You're the one that chased me off of that building! And you're supposed to be a huntress in training?!" he shouted back, giving Kei an angry glare.
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Kei scoffed at the remark and grinned, also ignoring the newcomer, "And who's fault is that? Mr. Failure of a pickpocket!" She said, puffing her chest out while recalling the funny chase. "Are you sure only your legs broke because it seems like you might've taken a little bump to the head too!
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Chris turned to the side, his hands to his face out of frustration. He quickly snapped back, going directly in her face. "I WASN'T TRYING TO PICKPOCKET YOU!" he yelled, fuming at this point. "If you really thought I was trying to pickpocket you, why did you dump 2000 lien on me and walk away?!"
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"So you were just trying to grope now. Kei added, smugly, "So you aren't a thief but a pervert. Also that 2000 was to help your broke ass with hospital bills since you can't jump for shit.
Craning her neck over to the newcomer it took Kei a good few seconds to process before saying, "See, even she thinks you're a weirdo.
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Chris gritted his teeth, trying to keep a level head and a calm demeanor. 'The professor told me that I'd be grouped up with a fourth year and a first year, so there's like a 50/50 chance that this slanderous bitch could drop me on the spot if I tried anything.' he thought, taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. "The only reason she'd have to think that is because you keep slinging bullshit around! You can't go chasing people around like a psycho and go chasing people off buildings and decide to call other people weird" he said, slipping his hand into his back pocket. He quickly pulled out a few bills from his wallet, tossing them in Kei's face. "I don't need your money, I don't need your shit, and I don't need you. I can do this mission by myself."
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Janna looked between the pair in front of her, and placed a hand on her forehead. God, she wished she had that beer now.
"Look, I don't know either of you, and I ain't gonna pass any judgement on either of you here. Can we just... Get going? What are we even here to do, exactly?" She asked, crossing her arms. Of course, if this guy decides to fuck off and do what they were supposed to do all on his own... Well, it's not as though she would complain.
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"Little brat. Kei muttered before turning to Janna. "Well, look behind you.
Kei and the others were conveniently standing right in front of the building they were supposed to be assisting. The building was part of an information distribution center and also had databases dedicated to storage and processing. Due to the nature of the place Kei and the other two little brats were stuck with mail distribution to the various cubicles among over a hundred floors each containing either office cubicles with telecommunications employees or private offices and computer servers. Exactly why they had to deal with mail. Physical, paper mail and sometimes packages, Kei didn't know. Didn't they have mailtubes and scrolls for that? Shrugging at the though Kei cocked her head towards the building as she lead the way through the gates presenting her school I.D while whistling at the moody boy to join them.
The sun was still up and apparently employees stayed late at the building. Unfortunately Kei, Chris, and Janna had to also assist with minor janitorial duties to keep them busy.
"Well, here we are. We have to register at the front desk or something before we get started, you two should be able to write your own names right? They teach you that much in first year? Kei laughed at her crude joke and hopped over the the front desk, manned by a dead-eyed middle-aged woman who seemed way too unenthusiastic about a bunch of kids 'helping' out a friend of the boss' - AKA the Professor Kei pissed off(and maybe the other two as well).
"Welcome to VALINCO or Vale Information Corporate how can I assist you students of Beacon Academy?" the woman greeted, her tone chip despite her appearance. "Oh, you must be the assistants sent over. Scan your scrolls here and head to floor 12 to start your duties."
"Thanks?" Kei replied, wondering how such a youthful voice came from such a depressing old thing.
Connecting her scroll the building's mainframe Kei received a detailed map along with job assignments as well as a prepared schedule. Talk about efficient. Unfortunately the trio had to do stuff as a group for the meantime until further notice and that meant having to stick with Mr. Loner back there.
Kei headed straight to the elevator and wondered if she could find a good opportunity to learn about good looting spots. Hacking wasn't her forte though and she quickly dismissed the thought. Unless she somehow got off radar she wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the servers. Security seemed tight enough that there were guards patrolling the grounds below and the occasional officers per floor as stated by the details in her scroll.
Waiting for the two kids Kei sighed and hoped the day would go smoothly and quickly. She didn't want to be stuck with two brats for the rest of the day. Besides, she was planning on her revenge on that damned professor.
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His point made, Chris kept quiet as he entered behind the other two. He put his energy into trying to remember the lyrics to a song he's heard maybe twice. A futile effort, but it gets his attention away from the obnoxious girl for at least a little while. He scanned his scroll, looking at his job assignment for today. 'Group work. Great. Just what I wanted to do.' he thought, keeping his eyes on the scroll to avoid having to talk to Kei. He stepped into the elevator and tightened his mask, moving his hand along the curve of his head to smooth it out.
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Janna shook her head once more and followed the girl who appeared to be the fourth year. She checked herself in with her scroll and checked the task. While certainly not exciting or pleasant, at least it seemed simple. Even if they needed cooperation, at least there weren't many ways for them to fuck it up. Hopefully.
She stepped into the elevator as well, pocketing her scroll and crossing her arms. Glancing between the two, she could feel the sexual tension. The shield maiden scratched the back of her neck and adjusted her belt, straightening out her scabbard. So long as things went swimmingly, she could at least be done with this early enough to meet her old master and nag at her for the whole beer incident. But somehow she also felt that wasn't meant to be.
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Kei yawned as the three of them got to the elevators and idly tapped her foot as some jazzy elevator music started playing. Just before the doors closed several other people, seemingly out of nowhere jammed the door with their suitcases and quickly pried the doors open, squishing the students to the corner with Chris and Janna pressed up against Kei. As the Elevator went up Kei noticed a funky smell coming from one of the employees and coughed, trying to hint at the rudeness of farting in an elevator full of people though the other employees just seemed as robotic as the rest of them. It felt like forever but they finally reached their floor and Kei burst out gasping for air as the doors opened and quickly leaned against a cubicle wall with a hand to her throat as she waited for the other two to come out. Angrily eyeing the office workers Kei got nothing but vacant looks and maybe even the occasional look of pity. This might be a daily occurrence to them it seems.
The torturous ordeal didn't come without reward however, and Kei managed to swipe a wallet or two from some people as she waddled her way out a moment before. Having hid the objects neatly in her satchel with no eyes having seen her get away with it, Kei grinned and motioned for the Chris and Janna to hurry up, unless of course they intended to live the rest of their pity existences as sardines in an elevator full of dead employees.
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Chris almost growled in annoyance when the group of people pressed into the elevator. He had enough to deal with with this assignment and that damn girl. He pushed through the mass of people, stepping off the elevator and reaching his hand back to press on the sides of the elevator. He looked back at Janna, regaining a lot of his composure. "Come on, wouldn't want the doors closing on you, right?" he said with a small smile. If there was one thing reliable about him, he could put away damn well anything if he thinks he has a chance at being smooth.
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Janna didn't really get too 'smushed' in that whole ordeal. Matter of fact, she held pretty well against the wave of people, though she did make room out of politeness. She scrunched her nose at the smells, though. So much for being polite these days, huh?
She waited for everyone else to get out before her, and was lightly amused at the boy's apparent attempt at being smooth. Oh, the poor guy's bound for disappointment there. Still, she nodded and stepped out. "Thanks." She plainly said, placing her hands in her pockets, and then producing her scroll to check where they had to go.
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Kei put on the most visible look of pity she had on her and stared at Chris and his apparent attempt of being a 'gentleman' or whatever it was he was trying to do. Funnily enough Janna seemed to have been unimpressed and Kei stiffled a guffaw at the scene, quickly popping open her scroll to check the floor layout.
"Looks like we should get going, the mail room is that way. She said, raising an eyebrow at the both of them, "So much for being smooth, kid. A stunt like that won't work on any girl worth her salt.
With a snicker Kei started walking towards the mail room and was slightly surprised by the sheer amount of paper and packages lying around. In the middle of the the mountain of mail was a burly white haired...bear faunus? lying around with his shirt exposing his navel as he napped on a pile of old envelopes.
"Hey, if he doesn't wake up maybe we can just lounge around till it's time to leave.
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Chris took his hand back from the elevator and followed suit. "What? A man can't be polite anymore?" he said, once again irritated that the world seemed to be against him.
He followed the two to the mail room, looking at the mass of papers and envelopes they were supposed to go through. "Isn't it a bit strange, though? I mean, we're fighters. The fuck are we going through mail for?" he asked the two he was with.
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(OOC: Just so everyone knows, Xar allowed me to join.)
"Well, it probably has something to do with your god awful personality." A voice spoke from above them.
Sitting casually on a large stack of boxes and papers was a teenage girl with scarlet red hair and piercing blue eyes. Dressed in armor with appeared to be long red butt cape, a large greatsword rested against her knee.
"Sup?" The girl waved, "The name's Tristan Pyrails."
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"Oh great, another brat. Kei muttered, receiving a message informing her of the last addition to their group. She was already getting annoyed by Chris' attitude and the fact she had to work as a courier but having another kid to the group just made it seem al little too much like real punishment. Maybe her suffering was what the professor wanted all along. What a dick. "Why don't you guys try waking him up. Assuming he doesn't rip your faces off. I heard bear faunus like doing that when they're angry.
Kei snickered and started making a paper plane out of a letter that landed nearby. It looked unimportant enough that she threw it and it landed straight on the burly man's belly.
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"Last I checked, we were doing this as a punishment. 'Course it ain't gonna be fun." She told Chris, then glances over to the new voice. She gives her a wave. "Janna Tarmac." She introduced herself.
She watched the paper airplane land, before sighing and heading over. She patted the guy on the shoulder, not particularly worried about some mailing room worker deciding to fight her. "Sir? Hey, we're here to help out with the mail."
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The burly bear faunus snorted and pointed at a nearby stalk of mail, conveniently arranged despite the mess. Yawning once he also flipped a switch that sent a shoot spraying more mail around the area.
Watching the scene before her eyes Kei gave a 'why did you have to wake him up' look at Janna before opening her scroll to find out it had been updated with their routes. Kei quickly picked the easiest route but re-picked a second later to be able to get nearer the higher floors. Higher floors usually meant richer folks.
"Great, well might as well get started. Kei groaned, grabbing a small trolley and filling it up with mail destined for her floor.
The room had around 3 more trolleys each empty for each student. They seemed to be brand new making Kei wonder if those tubes actually did all the work and this really was just useless labor.
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Chris selected the route closest to the mail room. Figured he could cut on travel time. He started piling mail onto his own trolley, stacks and stacks meant for the floors just above them. "Chris Sebei, by the way. I figure with four people we should be able to get this done relatively quickly." he said, turning and nodding to the redhead.
Chris started to work quickly, trying to get his portion of the work done as quickly as possible so that he could get the fuck away from this place and the people in it.
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By stark contrast, when Tristan started to work on her pile of mail, she was doing it as lazily as possible. Sorting the mail from highest to lowest, she started to pack it all away in the nearest trolley.
"Sooo...." Tristan clicked her tongue, "Whatcha all here for?"
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Janna took the last trolley and filled it up, organizing the deliveries to simply go from closest to this room to farthest.
She sighed. "Bringing alcohol into school grounds." She responded, starting to wheel her trolley out. "I would say this might have been overkill as punishment, but I can't say it was undeserved."
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"And I'm stuck with you brats cuz I dozed off in class... Kei grunted, tossing a box angrily into her cart. "Stupid professors.
Kei dragged her cart along and started doing her rounds, ignoring the lower years while scanning the area and its rather droll appearance. A couple of employees were on break and gave her a curious glance to which she replied with a glare and a check of their name tags for mail. Luckily, her scroll recorded the names of those who needed their packages as well as locations, hers being somewhat further away due to her need to get near the server room. Unfortunately break time meant employees were always in her way and more than a few men stared at the 'cute' dog faunus doing mail duty with a pout on her face.
[oc: Skipping because mail duty is boring af so gonna say it's around evening and the quad got assigned to menial tasks and cleaning. Feel free to have your characters do whatever during the period or if they interacted with each other during the time but keep up with time skip afterwards to get the real plot moving. :3]
10:00 PM
Kei groaned as she sat on an empty office worker's chair. Many already left for home which left her and the other students on cleaning duty and makeshift guard duty. Essentially patrolling the grounds for activity, not that they expected anything, while picking up trash. Probably using the free labor to make up for cut salaries and the like. Having her yo-yo nearby she played with it and looked around to see the current state of the area and saw that not many were left, as evident by the dying fluorescent lights above the cubicles. There wasn't anything worth taking what with the cameras around and the server room she passed earlier was under tight watch by heavily equipped guards, something around four with regular changes with patrols.
Giving up on such a petty want Kei knew that if someone was going to break in there they'd have to get in from the outside, which was over two hundred feet in the air, while avoiding trip wires. The face of the building was flat so that got rid of ledge grabs which meant a lot of unnecessary weight in equipment. Not worth the trouble. Sighing she checked her scroll and saw that they were allowed to leave by midnight, presumably escorted to the nearest transport terminal if they wished. Oddly enough.
Currently assigned to the same floor, just a few lower than the server rooms that Kei scouted, the lower years would be either lounging around like Kei or patrolling. Nothing suspicious was happening so far and it seemed that this job would've been nothing but a waste of time. For the moment at least.
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Chris took the stairs up the last few floors of the building, making his way toward the roof. He needed a break. After several hours of work interspersed with being chastised by Kei, a breather on the roof would do him some good.
After the door opened, he was greeted with a dose of fresh air, taking a deep breath. He leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the roof. "All this trouble for a damn prank. Pain in the ass teachers." he said, resting his head against the wall behind him.
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Meanwhile, Tristan was....well, she supposed to be "patrolling," but the reality was that she was basically just wandering around the building while she waited for time to punch out. So, that meant essentially just doing a bunch of random things to pass the time. She had contemplated going up to the roof...but nah, that jerk was up there, also, it was night and probably cold. So unless she wanted to wake up sick, she would probably stay indoors.
Stopping at a window, Tristan took a second to gaze out into the skyline, where the shattered moon lay hanging in the sky.
"....You know, I'm surprised none of those fragments have hit the planet yet." Tristan muttered to herself.
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Janna, on the other hand, was doing her work quite responsibly, keeping an eye out for anything strange. Menial work or not, they were huntsmen in training. It was their duty to protect and serve the people of Vale, and if that meant boring-as-hell guard duty, so be it.
The large woman was currently moving through the halls, she kept one hand on her sword. Sure, they weren't /expecting/ for there to be action, but her master had always told her to be prepared. Every so often, she'd pick up some loose paper or can someone had so disrespectfully discarded without finding a trash can, and dispose of it properly.
At some point, however, she stops and sighs, taking a seat on the ground near a window in an empty, dark hall. She had been going around for about an hour, trying to look prideful as she did, but she couldn't change the thought of how humiliating this whole thing was to her.
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The band of White Fang operatives, having just gotten in a moment before, begun their insertion and made their way into the building. The loud thud caused by a large falling rock distracted the guards enough for Sidewinder and his partner to make their way in, the sound wouldn't have been heard inside the building or even on the rooftops but the alarm caused a bit of a ruckus. After sneaking into the building they quickly slid by two patrolling guards while their comrades offered a small hacking service to get rid of the cameras. For now nobody noticed and they made their way to the fire escape, ascending a few steps before jerking at the sound of a buzz followed by a sigh.
"Took you long enough. Ali isn't the most patient guy around and sneaking past that front door should've taken you a lot less time than needed."
"Nice to see you too, Blue. Now, how do we get up?" Sidewinder replied, regarding the rather frail bodied bear faunus with a nod.
Blue scratched his head while pulling out his scroll. Rubbing the bridge of his nose to find no glasses there he squinted and fiddled with the small device while saying, "Hold on a sec, have to reroute the cameras back to the main feed. They're gonna notice the loop in a second if I don't."
"Nerd."
"Done. Now, Ali said we should just take the stairs for now. It's gonna take a while for him to tag all the cameras and find all the traps. That means no falling up for now."
"Damned monkey."
After making their way up the stairs, the bear faunus having had a convenient grappling rope the hauled him all the way up as the others climbed and walked, they met face to face with a wide grinned, red-haired monkey faunus with a scimitar at his side and an unconscious guard.
"Follow my lead. Sidewinder you'll have to stay behind with your pretty scaly ass and scout our escape route while me and Blue hack the servers. Apparently their patrols check in at regular intervals so we have roughly an hour left before they figure out a guard is missing. The guy isn't a faunus so I'll be hiding my tail but I trust you idiots wouldn't misfire on me if things go bad."
Ali seemed to be a lot more serious than usual, something must have ticked him off. Usually he'd joke around every few seconds but the look in his eyes suggested something else.
"Got it." Sidewinder replied, offering no further comment. He'd save the questions for later. After Ali left, dressing in the guards attire, Sidewinder tied the man up and gagged him with several layers of ducktape as well as a handkerchief in his mouth. They wore their masks just before he woke up and Ali was the only one with a tail. Sidewinder did his job and scouted ahead, dodging guards by a hair as the now hacked cameras played a loop of their patrols. Nothing should go wrong now, not with their goal being an arms reach away.
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Interrupting his train of thought, Chris heard the sound of a distant car alarm. The sound was soft and dull, only annoying if you paid attention to it. Unfortunately for him, Chris had nothing else to pay attention to. After a few seconds of sitting, he quickly stood up, walking over to the elevator and pushing the call button. "If I don't figure out what that damn thing is, it's gonna drive me mad." he said to nobody in particular.
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Tristan stiffed a yawn as she walked through another door. Wow, this place was one big maze, endlessly twisting on and on, no matter how far Tristan walked in a given direction. It didn't help the fact the walls were as bland as all get out, but one problem persisted in Tristan's mind above all else.
"Where the hell is the bathroom?" She asked no one in particular as she passed by another set of doors.
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Janna stood up after a while, stretching her arms out. She couldn't really wait to be done with this and get home to her bed. Though it wasn't like she could get much sleep, anyway - she had to do more training tomorrow, and as always she had to get up early to get in her gear. This was a lot more annoying than she had thought.
The shield maiden yawned into her hand, and went to the stairs heading down. Maybe she could get out soon already. The girl took out her scroll and looked it over for any messages from anyone at all as she started walking down the steps. At least the work today hadn't been too much trouble in general.
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As the night grew darker Kei decided to stop lounging around and try checking out the server rooms again. The guards posted there seem to have lazed as well since she spotted a few of them having a coffee break not too far from the cubicle she claimed just a moment before. Picking up her yo-yo from the table, having sprawled her stuff all over the place a moment before, Kei stealthily made he way past the guards enjoying donuts and coffee, and snuck her way back to the server floors.
Ali, having casually walked by a couple of guards, finally made his way to the massive housing of computer servers and checked his ID against the lock. No dice, apparently the area was locked to higher ranked security personnel and the guy he got was just some patrolling nobody. Recalling several guards walking by him earlier he noted that they seemed to have come from this general direction, a small detour but he still had plenty of time. Assuming he caught up to them in time.
Tuning in his scroll Ali called sidewinder on their private channel giving him instructions where to find the guard and to take their I.D. cards, by force if necessary, then sent a message to Blue informing him of the small predicament. Cursing himself Ali knew he should've foreseen this but his scouting time was running out so tonight was the best night to break in. The White Fang didn't really care too much about how they did something, they wanted results, and quick, so the lack of reconnaissance meant no inside jobs and no assistance from a mole inserted into the system. So much for a highly trained rebel cell.
Flipping his scroll closed Ali spotted a peculiarly dressed female dog faunus walking in his particular direction. She seemed a bit familiar at first but what he was more concerned about was the lack of uniform and by the looks of it she was a Student. A small amount of nostalgia as well as panic arose in him but what really confirmed his earlier suspicions was the blue yo-yo she was fiddling with as she spotted him and casually pretended to walk by.
Sidewinder closed his scroll as his partner, a fox faunus named, Kyuubi, began checking her weapons. The snake faunus didn't really approve of having to use force to get their way but he knew just as well that they were running short on time and the guards would be back to their posts any moment now. Corridors were awful places to hide in anyways and the only cover they had darkness from hacking the lights and the occasional door. Suffice to say it was barely enough in a real fight but if it came to it they were confident they'd get by, but it might cause a ruckus.
Sidewinder prepared his dual hooked punch daggers as he strode into the now darkened room, tuning in his natural nightvision as well as thermal sensing. Being a pit-viper faunus he could sense feint traces of heat. Sneaking onto the now surprised guards, wondering why the light went out, Sidewinder leapt and broke the aura of two guards in a few quick strikes as Kyuubi dragged the last guard out of their midst and into the darkness. In a matter of moments they got their much needed I.D cards and hurried to the server rooms as one hiding security guard sounded the alarm.
-
Chris stepped into the elevator, pressing the button to the ground floor as he passed. He leaned against the back wall, crossing his arms and humming a beat to keep himself off of the car alarm. A few floors down, an alert popped up on his scroll. An alarm was pulled downstairs, relatively close to the mail room. Chris took a deep breath, sighing as he pressed the button on the elevator. "I swear, if that girl is behind this, I'm gonna lose my shit." he said, putting his scroll away and flipping his weapon around to keep himself amused.
As the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Chris casually walked out. False alarms happen all the time, and this was nothing to be concerned about. He moved quickly around the floor, trying to determine the cause of the alarm.
-
Tristan looked up at the ceiling, and winced, "Oooh great, is that the fire alarm?" Double checking her grenade launcher, she discovered that, yes, all of her equipment was right where it should be. Breathing a sigh of relief, Tristan wiped her forehead, "Well, it wasn't me this time!" She chirped.
You could almost see the gears in Tristan's head grind to a halt, "Oh, wait, shit. That means there's a fire, or someone's pulling a prank." She blinked, "So either the building's on fire, or something bad's happening. Wonderful."
-
As soon as the alarm sounded off, Janna was ready. She uttered a swear under her breath, unsheathed her sword and hurried down to the floor the alarm had been pulled in. She was ready for battle!
Well, mostly. She only had her sword with me, and she was honestly better with her shields at this point. Still, a lack of armor and the added weight from the rest of her gear made her more agile than usual. Sure, she couldn't tank damage like she normally would, but her weapon was still loaded with 7 high-powered shots, and she was a force to be reckoned with. By this point, she half-hoped something exciting was actually going on.
-
Kei jumped at the sound of the alarm beeping off in the distance. For a second she thought she screwed up somewhere and triggered a nearby motion trap but she hadn't even begun to fiddle around before it sounded. Crud, if it was one of the brats she had to take care of there'd be no end to the number of chores she'd have to do, maybe it was even that one masked brat trying to make stuff harder for her. The little shit, maybe he had a grudge or something.
As she approached the server rooms she spotted one guard cursing as he slammed his hand across the server room door. Apparently something was going on, none of her business though, she'd rather go home and leave with the other workers if it came to that. The guard took one look at Kei and his eyes widened before quickly reverting back to patrolling posture. Something about those eyes bugged her so she calmly approached the man.
"Sorry kid but you're not allowed near this room. Alarm going off and all." the guard said, subtly angling his cap downwards as he spoke.
"Ah, sorry. Was just about to ask what the fuss was about. Kei replied, just as subtly noticing the attempt to hide his face. "But you know, I really don't know the ins and outs of this place so maybe you could tell me what's going on.
"None of your business. Now move along now befo-"
Before the red-haired guard could finish his sentence two black clad individuals sped through the hallway with weapons in hand and stopped midway upon seeing Kei. Bringing her yo-yo out Kei took a defensive stance but was suddenly launched, or rather fell, upwards. The sudden lurch caught her by surprise and she quickly raised her arms to brace herself leaving her open to a rapid kick to the gut by the larger masked individual who seemingly appeared right in front of her in an instant.
Kei gasped and blurred before splitting into two separate images. The copy pushed her away while in mid-air and found itself impaled by a nigh identical copy of her own scimitar that was tinted a frosty blue.
"Ali? W-Why are you here?! She asked, yo-yo hand shaking as she took a step back.
The guard pulled off his hat and ruffled his hair, pulling his tail out from behind his jacket while turning his head over to regard the girl.
"Hello Kei." He said, sand colored eyes sending several jolts of panic through her being. "It's been a while."
___________________________________________________
A minute after the alarm rang it suddenly died down but the server floor doors were suddenly locked tight. Chris inevitably ran into Janna and the two saw Tristan idly regarding the alarm. Not too far away two unconscious guards were sprawled on the floor of their cubicles while one hung upside down from the ceiling, several grappling-hooks embedded into the ceiling held him in place, he too was unconscious. Not too far away the trio would hear a shuffling noise followed by the rhythmic sound of firearm being loaded.
-
"I'd figure it's just a false alarm, but we have to find the-" Chris said as he walked quickly alongside Janna, pausing as he suddenly stopped his quick pace. Holding his facial expression mid-syllable, he took two large steps back. Looking into the cubicle, he saw a guard hung upside-down from the ceiling. "-guards. Well, shit. Weapons out, let's find Kei." he said, taking proper grip of his weapon, previously slung casually across his neck. He brushed the two tips of the nunchaku together to create a moderately-sized spark. Upon hearing the sound of reloading in the next room, he looked at the two girls and nodded.
-
Tristan didn't even regard Chris as she pushed past him towards where the reloading noise was coming from. "One of you should cut those guys down....gently, I might add." She said to the two, drawing her greatsword and hefting it over her shoulder.
-
"Guess this will end up being a bit more exciting than anticipated." She said, then hurried over to the hanging guards and proceeded to slash down hook holding the hanging guard, catching the man with her other arm and setting him down, before switching her weapon into its gun form and returning to the other two.
"My gun's got a good amount of firepower, but without the rest of my gear, I can't tank too much damage. Still, I got this." The woman says, before summoning a small aura shield in front of herself. "I can cover you guys if you head in there."
-
More shuffling was heard as the source of the sound approached the three, silent footsteps along with a rhythmic clanging of chains. Slowly but steadily the figure approached and brandished a large automatic rifle, aiming it high while shouting, "FREEZE!"
The person in question wore the typical guard uniform but judging by the look in his eyes and his haggard form he couldn't quite place the students as friendlies. His eyes darted back and forth between the girl with the aura shield, the greatsword user, and the masked boy. Most particularly the masked boy.
"LOWER YOUR WEAPONS OR I-I'LL SHOOT!" He continued, his form barely covered by the edge of the cubicle he was edging out of.
-
Letting out a short sigh, Chris dropped his nunchaku. "Look, bud. We are the beacon students sent here to help guard this place. The rest of the guards are in the cubicle behind us. If you can help us find the fourth year that's supposed to be leading us, we can try to figure out what the hell happened." he said, keeping his hands in the air. Chris was hoping not to be shot today, and the guard seemed more scared than anything. With luck, his compatriots would back him up so that this situation could resolve faster.
-
Tristan rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, she was about to mouth off at the guard about how stupid he was being, but then something clicked, "Wait, hold on." She narrowed her eyes, "Why would you come around here armed...unless there was a reason to be armed." She glanced back at her companions, "There's intruders in the building." She said plainly.
-
Janna looked the guard over for a moment. He seemed to be terrified, and she doubted someone with the intention of attacking them would announce their presence like that. "Whoever did all this managed to take down all of these guards and get away before anyone else arrived. I doubt they would give us a warning like that." The shield maiden told Tristan before turning back towards the guard.
"Listen, we need to contact the police right away, though I doubt they'll be that much help against those who pulled this off. The three of us should be able to handle ourselves quite well, I assume. If we find the girl who was leading us, we'll be even better off."
-
The man studied the three kids and shook as he slowly lowered his weapon, eyes darting around the area as he inched out of the cubicle. He stared at his friends, unconscious, on the ground and on the ceiling as if some nightmarish creature came for them. Maybe he was spending too much time watching horror movies. Not moving from his spot he did a quick scroll check on the students but his scroll buzzed with static a moment after he entered their names, same with most entries, once again arousing suspicion.
"I-I need to see some ID!" he said, once again raising his weapon, "Someone's hacked into the mainframe and for all I know it could be one of y-you! Or one of your friends!"
Desperately trying his scroll again he received nothing but a black screen the next second, shutting down his hopes of calling for more reinforcements.
____________________________________________________
Kei grimaced upon seeing her former friend and drew her own blade next to her yo-yo, one hand above the other as she slowly backed away. She wasn't too fond of fighting up front and her opponents seemed to outnumber her too. Three of them, unknown weapons and fighting styles for two, and someone she could now barely remember working with them. They were undoubtedly white fang, despite their blackened masks but she did recall a cell of them doing covert work. Apparently Ali worked his way up and was in charge of this group.
"You haven't answered my question Ali. Now that I know you're here everyone would know it's the White Fang that was behind this attack." Kei said, trying to buy time by running her mouth. She knew her threats were empty, they could try getting rid of her permanently or blackmail her using her past deeds. They probably had some info on her and her little escapades and that would ruin her new life here in Vale.
"Sidewinder, leave her to me. Make sure Blue's device reaches the servers. Kyuubi should watch for anything Blue can't catch on camera." Ali said, ditching the cap while donning his mask once again. Drawing his scimitar he charged at Kei and suddenly lurched upwards, falling towards the ceiling as he swung his blade catching Kei by surprise. He attacked at her from above, his feet locked onto the ceiling as he slashed repeatedly within the disorienting position while Kei struggled to fight back his longer reach. With the opponent so close by she couldn't swing her yo-yo so she was forced to fight back with the blade, the twin of that that was attacking her.
After exchanging a few slashes, Ali lurched repeatedly from the wall to the floor, to the ceiling again, his 'falling' speed and direction making him a difficult target. Every now and then he'd turn the fall towards her and she'd be lurched in a direction unexpectedly, giving him a free hit or two as she fell towards the wall or the ceiling and back to the floor, her blade barely able to deflect and parry his own attacks.
Kei took a few hits while being forced on the defensive, trying to find a way to get away while the relentless assault continued. Clearly Ali had the advantage, he was used to fighting this way and his semblance seemed to have improved much more than when she last saw him. He was breaking a sweat while repeatedly using it but she was definitely worse for wear.
-
Chris was already fed up with this nonsense. He quickly put his hand in his pocket, fetching out a wallet. He pulled out his ID and held it out in front of the guard. "Here, this is my travelling ID. Yes, I am legally known as El Pantera. It's because of rights issues I've had. Really don't feel like going into it right now. Okay? Okay. I'm gonna go start fixing this shit." he said, shoving his wallet into his pocket and grabbing his weapon from the ground.
-
Tristan rubbed her head with her free hand, rubbing her scarlet locks back and trying to ease the growing headache, "Well, I'm Tristan, and if you're going to keep pointing your gun at us, at least try to make sure the safety is off first."
-
The guard panicked and checked the side of his gun, yup, safety was on. He then noticed another thing, he had no magazine in. Great, now he'd just have to weep and grovel.
"Don't hurt me!" he shouted, cowering as he dropped his gun. The small handgun clanged on the floor and revealed the lack of ammunition. Bet those kids were feeling stupid for not checking now.
In the corner of the room a figure silently inched away from the hallway after placing a few gadgets on the wall, ceiling, and floor. Noting the convenient distraction the figure then moved back into the shadows, catching the eye of a groggily waking guard.
"W-what's going on? Why's it so dark?"
-
(Apologies for not posting. Computer problems.)
The shield maiden was also about to show her ID, when the man dropped down sobbing. Great. Janna sighed, walking over to him and crouching down.
"Alright, you need to get a hold of yourself. Contact the authorities, try and wake up the rest of your buddies here and get out. You'll only be a hindrance like this. We don't know who's doing this, and we don't know how far they'll go to achieve what they want, so just... Go."
Janna then stands back up and turns to the others. "What now?" She asked, glancing towards the awaking guard.
-
Chris slung his weapon around his neck, looking back at the cowering guard next to him. "Now, we go find Kei. Something's up here." he said, moving toward a jog as he went down the hallway. If it were pointed out to him, the lack of magazine in the gun would have probably annoyed him, but he was too preoccupied in leaving to be able to really care about it. Right now, he was being kept in the dark about something, and that annoyed him to no end.
-
"Well, I'm willing to bet that she's probably already found whoever caused this." Tristan shrugged, hefting her blade over her shoulder, "And, just a guess, she's probably caused some kind of propriety damage. So we should try to listen for any sounds of her..." She rocked her head to the side, "Or explosions. She seems like the kind of person who would..." She tilted her head, ears perking. Glancing down the hallway where Chris was starting to jog, Tristan blinked, "Hey, you guys hear that? It sounds kinda like...swords?"
-
A few seconds after Chris stepped into the hallway several wall mounted traps sprung into action and launched multiple minute wires surging with electricity towards him. Some wires missed and launched late but formed a web of electric wires behind the boy while several more activated quite a ways away. Cackling and sizzling could be heard as a figure in the dark sped towards the curious Tristan and a masked fox eared faunus lunged towards her with an electrified baton. Lights started flickering in response to the sudden surge of electricity from the wall traps and caused a strobe-like eye sore to anyone without proper eye protection.
-
Janna nodded and was about to follow after Chris, looking to Tristen to see some sort of confirmation from her. As the sound of swords was pointed out, she glanced over, wishing to warn Chris not to hurry out without them, but was a bit too late.
She was going to yell to the two to watch out, when she saw someone lunge at the other girl. No way, Jose! Janna quickly took a steady stance, summoning a shield in front of the baton! While the attack would now strike the shield maiden instead, the force and pain would be halved. She just bloody well hoped Tristan would react in time and deal with this bastard as she clenched her teeth for the blow.
-
By sheer benefit of having her sword already out, Tristan swung on reflex towards the speeding figure. The downside with having a greatsword for a weapon laid in the fact that most of it's cutting power came from weight and force rather then just sharpness of the blade. However, since her eyes were currently hindered by the lights, she couldn't really make an accurate attack and thus, swung blindly at whatever was approaching her, stepping back hastily as she did.
-
Chris quickly found himself surrounded by wires. His attempt to dodge them left him quite tangled in the wires that did hit him. From there, he turned into a ball of profanity and flailing as he desperately tried to get the wires off of him, causing him to get caught in even more wires as he managed to get some of the first ones off. Being electrocuted and running out of options, he grabbed his weapon and started firing in the general direction of the wall, hoping that it would cause him to stop being zapped.
-
The assailant quickly found its baton blocked by a shield of some sort and immediately pulled back its attack, expecting some retaliation of sorts and sure enough a wild swing of Tristan's greatsword flailed through the air missing by a mile. Chuckling behind her mask, Kyuubi wondered if the wires made short work of the boy yet, though the electricity wouldn't really put down someone with full aura, the devices didn't hold enough dust to last that long. Despite that the wires should still be able to restrain a weakened fighter and allow her to dispatch these two greenhorns without a second thought. Sidewinder was busy with the servers and Blue was being a little nerd behind his tablet again, not that she couldn't handle a few idiots with sharp sticks.
Slamming two batons together Kyuubi begun her assault anew with an electrified quarterstaff rather than her dual batons and pressed the attack against Tristan once more. Using the extended range to her advantage she attempted a vault by planting the staff down on the ground and flipped over Tristan's head, behind the shield projection, and aimed a long strike behind her head.
Surely enough, as Kyuubi predicted, Chris' electrotherapy session ended but not after a significant amount of electricity coursed through him and his aura. The wires still held though and it looked like it would take some time to untangle the mess he made with his struggle.
-
Janna took the attack in stride, keeping the shield up and raising Justice in its gun form. With the range here being so short, the blast should do plenty of damage if it connects. The shield maiden did, however, wish she had her shields. She might have to call them in after the fight.
When the assailant went for another attack and vaulted the shield and Tristan, Janna was ready. Mostly. While she couldn't necessarily fire before the attacker struck Tristan, she hoped she'd manage to somehow avoid the attack. Her main concern right now was blasting the shit out of this bastard, though she only fired once for now. The sound of the gun going off echoed through the room, a powerful blast from the hand cannon sending a chunk of lead towards the attacker.
-
The only warning Tristan had was the sensation that her hair was being brush aside by some kind of pole. It was too late did she realize that she had missed on her swing, and now her attacker had a clear shot to the back of her head, the common weakness shared by all lifeforms. Thankfully, the slight sensation was all Tristan felt, as the air behind her became warm. Turning quickly, Tristan saw her attacker be blown away by the slugs fired by Janna.
Giving her a quick nod of thanks, Tristan raised her sword and charged at the staff user. This time, she was ready, and she also made sure to stay out of Janna's line of fire, since she was the only one with a ranged weapon at the moment.
(Btw, Xar gave me permission to write that)
-
Kyuubi growled audibly as she flipped in midair to regain her footing and decided to aim for the ranged user instead. Dashing towards the cubicles she flipped over the partition between two of them to avoid gunfire whilst preparing several devices in one hand as she made her approach. Using the cover of the wall she lobbed a few of the devices and several wires shot out with electrifying currents, similar to Chris' situation, but these weren't well mounted so they'd be easier to get rid of. Instead of rushing head-on the fox faunus tuned in to her mic and started informing Blue of the situation.
Not too far away, just a wire wall and a short runs distance away, Kei laid battered against the wall with her limbs pinned by ice. Her head slumped down as she panted, catching her breath as she had lost both weapons and the capability to fight back. Watching her miserable figure Ali grimaced and wondered what to do with her. Technically it wouldn't be outside protocol to let one or two witnesses go and killing never did fit well with him. Especially not people he'd known for so long.
"Seems like your little group wasn't expecting an sudden attack like this, then again nobody ever is." He said, eyeing her down. "So Kei, tell me, won't you reconsider and rejoin the Fang? We could use skills like yours and hey, we could be a team again. I wouldn't even need half the muscle if we're never seen."
-
Chris' flails eventually got some of the wires off of the wall, but it would be a good few seconds of struggling before finally getting himself free from the wires ensnaring his body. Taking a step away from the tangled mess, he collapsed down to his knees. He sat there panting for a few seconds before taking a deep breath in and standing back up. He heard the sounds of the perpetrator of his embarrassing predicament just around the corner...on the other side of the mass of wires. "Oh, for the love of-" Chris groaned, stumbling back to the wall and beginning to tear out the devices holding the wires.
-
Janna snickered at her shot hitting the target, and in the nick of time as well! She aimed her weapon towards the opponent once more and fired another shot while the other girl was moving towards the attacker. This time there was some distance between them, so the attack would not be as devastating, but her main concern was to at least keep their foe distracted. She wasn't sure how powerful they were, but they had definitely underestimated them.
-
Tristan stopped as the staff person started to flip around like a rabbit Faunas on a sugar high around the cubicles. This was pointless, she was never going to catch her, she had to-
"...Then again, nobody ever is."
Turning, Tristan saw the man standing over Kei and saying something to her. She couldn't quite hear them, nor quite see them thanks to the wire wall, but she knew where they were, and that was enough. Shifting her position, Tristan morphed her weapon into it's grenade launcher form and fired a few rounds to the flank of the man over Kei. She hoped that at the very least, they would get him off of her for a moment or two.
-
Kyuubi was safe and sound behind a cubicle, waiting for the proper moment to activate the new devices she threw. Just a little bit longer and Sandwinder should be done and Ali would be finished with that little friend of his. Stupid bitch. Everything was going fine and she had to show up, hearing about "Ali's former girlfriend" caused her to slip up and miss whoever triggered the alarm. She's goimg to pay, Ali is way too soft on people sometimes.
As Kyuubi let her thoughts wander she failed to nptice the grenade, only seeimg Tristan launch it at the last second.
"SHIT!"
Jumping out of cover Lyuubi tried to stop the girl from firing butnot was too late. The grenade left the barrel amd flew towards Ali and Kei.
"Are you trying to kill your friend too? IDIOT!"
Hopping out of the cubicle, her devices landing a moment later while shooting out wires between her and Janna, she swung her staff towards Tristans head from behind. A moment later the grenade exploded.
-
Chris focused on the task at hand. He needed to get these damned wires out of the wall. His concentration only broke when he heard something whiz past his head. After taking a second to turn around and look at who was firing, he suddenly realized there was a live grenade relatively close to him and covered his head and neck with his arms. The explosion caused a bit of debris to hit his legs, but he was mostly unharmed otherwise.
After taking a half second to recover, Chris pulled the last of the wires out, rushing in toward Kei's captor. Between the electrocution, the security guard, and the explosion he was not exactly thinking straight. He went at the standing figure, attempting a shoulder tackle to the midsection.
-
Janna was half-aware of what was going on with Chris and Kei a little ways off, but right now, she was more concerned with finishing off the staff wielding opponent. Doing so would free up both her and Tristan, after all.
When the foe jumped out from behind the cubicle and the wires shot out, Janna was... At least somewhat prepared. She still had five rounds in her gun, and fired two of them towards the woman attacking Tristan. While one went through the wires slightly lowering the power of the blast, the other shot from the hand cannon was now given an opening. Much like last time, Janna fired as soon as the staff user tried to go for her attack. She appeared to be most vulnerable at that point.
-
Though she couldn't see whether or not she hit her intended target, at least Tristan managed to piss of the girl that was attacking her slightly. It wasn't much, but in Tristan's book, it was a win.
Of course, that feeling of satisfaction went away when Tristan got bonked upside the head by a staff. "Ow!" Tristan yelped, rolling with the blow and rubbing the spot where she was struck. Swinging her weapon, which was still in it's gun form, at her attacker, Tristan hoped that she would bat her away for a second or two.
-
The explosion didn't cause too much damage down the hallway but it was certainly enough to knock Kei off the wall. Ali was taken by surprise and raised his hands to protect himself from the blast. As the dust cleared the monkey faunus suddenly got knocked to the ground by a rather odd looking masked boy but quickly regained his footing after a brusk backflip. Kei was still dazed by the blast and a quick scroll reading would showmher aura at a rather low 25%. She felt around for her yo-yo which luckily was knocked off Ali during the tackle then she felt a smile rising up her cheeks.
"Playing hero now, kid?" She asked, her tone as if she hadn't been beaten up a moment before, " Appreciate thr help, maybe I'll give you a candy bar when thisnis all over."
Chuckling at her own joke she brought the yo-yo to a steady spin and chucked in forwards towards Ali who easily deflected the attack to the side and rushed forwards with his curved blade.
"You say I'm geeting rust? I guess you're not used to someone not watching your back!" Kei taunted, her yo-yo zipping back to hit the monkeys head from behind. His attack paused but he soon raised one hand and suddenly the immediate area around the combatants lurched upsidedown.
"Watch the ceiling, kid!" Kei shouted, flipping mid-"fall" to touch her feet flat in the ceiling. Ali landed at roughly the same time and immediately continued his assault. Dodging a yo-yo strike from Kei he copied Chris' earlier tactic and shoulder tackled Kei a few feet back while aiming his next slash towards Chris no matter what orientation he would currently be in.
_____________________________
Kyuubi felt a sudden barrage of bullets to her side and barely got her staff up in time to block the rifle swing. Her side ached in pain from the sudden sbots but she quickly shook it off and went back to the attack. Mindfulnodnthe bitch who kept shooting her now she used her staff to vault over Tristan to a safe spot behind rhe cubicles, keeping the former in sight while the latter out of clear firing range. The cubicles were arranged in a fashion perpendicular to the hallway with the entrance to the hallway being midway between the room. Between cubicles were spaces for people to walk, of course, and she used these to her advantage to get perpendicular of one and block Jannas line of sight.
Taunting Tristan with a finger gesture she switched her strobes back on and sebt consecutive rapid thrusts for the girl's body and face.
-
Chris was slower to stand back up than usual. He was still feeling the effects of the electrocution and explosion. "Yeah, the hero thing is kind of our jobs,
isn't-" he said before suddenly getting thrown to the ceiling. A quick activation of his semblance and a last-second tuck of the head was the only thing that stopped him from being dropped directly on the back of the neck. Rolling forward and trying to orient himself, he got hit with a slash right between the shoulder blades. He arched his back, letting out a pained yell and falling to the ceiling.
It took him even longer to get up this time. He quickly turned and ran toward the monkey faunus, aiming to grab a leg and get a lock in.
-
Seeing her opponent on the retreat, Janna used her chance to pull out her scroll and hurriedly call for her locker. She won't have time to put her armor on, but if she can get her other sword and her shields, she'd be much better off. While the situation was quite serious, so far she didn't see their opponents as particularly threatening. Yet.
The locker came crashing in, and Janna threw the door open, her gear all there. She grabbed her vambraces and slapped them on her wrists before taking her shields and placing them on the latches, feeling the familiar weight on her wrists. She then took out Honor, flipping it into gun mode. Now she had two guns, the one in her left fully loaded.
And with that, the shield maiden charged to where she had last seen the staff wielder, her shields by he sides. She had lost sight of Tristan as she had taken her gear, and hoped she was alright.
-
Tristan, in a (un)healthy dose of reality, was unable to hear what anyone was saying due to be attacked by a crazy spear wielder. Her weapon was still in it's ranged form, making it hard for Tristan to counter her assailant's swings. To make matters worse, Tristan's semblance would be of no help to her in this environment, that said, she was far from completely defenseless. since her opponent was using a quarterstaff, she lacked a proper way to hurt Tristan aside from simply bonking her upside the head. Aura or no, Quarterstaff were made for non-lethally disabling people, that was true even for this one. Still, Tristan wasn't able to get any clearance, so what was-
What was that about the ceiling? Well, whatever....actually, there was one thing Tristan could do. It would hurt like high hell...but it could work.
When she was stabbed at in her stomach, Tristan made to grab the staff, and in her other hand, the one holding the grenade launcher, she raised it at Kyuubi and pulled the trigger.
-
Taking a bear to the knee wasn't exactly what Ali expected from a supposedly huntsman in training to his followup swing missed as Chris tackled his leg. The boy was obviously an encumberance and while the monkey faunus grunted trying to shake him off he aimed a pommel smash on his head, hisnhand being stopped by a sudden yo-yo strike.
"Damn it, Kei! Get out of my way!" He roared, the girl suddenly falling back to normal gravity as he aimed another pommel strike at the boy, his fist hammering down hard.
_______________________________
An explosion rocked the room as Tristan's point blank grenade shot smacked Kyuubi in the chest and exploded, knocking both fighters away from each other. The fox faunus screamed and slammed into a cubicle wall, destroying it in the process, and her aura finally brokr. As she lay dazed on a desk full of plastic wall and other debris she looked up only to see yellow reptillian eyes gaze at her from the corner.
"S...sidewind.." a finger shushed her before she could alert the rest of the people in the room, blending back into the darkness after shaking his head.
-
As Janna was hurrying to get the jump on the staff user, she was instead met by the sight of an explosion, two figures getting launched opposite directions. The shield maiden faced a dilemma for the shortest moment - whether to go after the attacker or check on Tristan. She only had to think for a fraction of a second.
"Are you alright!?" Janna called out, rushing to see if Tristan was, in fact, okay. She hoped that was the case not just because she was worried about the girl, but because she knew they had more to deal with, something she could tell just from the sounds coming from the door.
Just in case, Janna spun around, her shields ready to block incoming attacks. There was, after all, no guarantee the staff wielder was done for - or alone, for that matter.
-
Chris inwardly lamented his form as he failed to get in proper position to pull off the leg lock. After coming close to being shaken off, he could tell that he was going to get nothing done in this position. As the pommel strike knocked his head down, his arms released the leg. 'Good thing nobody is going to be here to see this.' Chris thought, letting his arms slip from around the assailant's leg.
Chris lurched forward, putting his entire body weight behind one attack. With everything he could muster, he cocked his fist back and swung with all his might. He let out a yell, activating his semblance so that he could get the perfect positioning. He put every fiber of his being behind one powerful punch...directly to the groin of the monkey faunus.
-
Tristan herself landed against an office cubicle in a thunderous crash, not unlike her opponent. Her Aura flickered red, but by some miracle, it managed to stabilize for a moment.
Then flickered again before finally giving out. Tristan was out Aura, just like her opponent.
"....Ow." Tristan said quietly, spots filling up her vision. Lifting a gloved hand to her head, she tired to rise, she really did, but she found no strength in her limbs at the moment. "Okay yeah...that....hurt. A lot..."
Groaning, Tristan shifted around in her landing sight, trying to get a view of what was going on at the moment.
-
Ali was fed up with this kid, a few more smashes should get his grubby litte hands off his leg. Just before he could land another pommel strike the little brat punched him in the crotch. Keeling over in pain he dropped the hold on Chris, causing the boy to start falling back to the ground while he crumpled onto the ceiling in pain.
Kei, having seen the little ordeal laughed raucously and caught the falling boy in her arms. Grinning widely she said, "Playing dirty could mean the sifference between life and death. Good job, boy, but we're not out of the clear yet".
Ali slowly stood up and began falling across the coridor, his point of gravity being the wall at the end of the hallway. He wanted to beat the kid's lights out but Blue informed him of a group of more security personell heading up through the stairwell. Sandwinder tuned in confirming a successful hack and it was only a matter of time befofe they got the data they needed.
___________
In the blackness of the room a pair of golden narrow slitted eyes picked up the fox faunus in a fireman carry and brought her to a neearby vent. Knowing what to do Kyuubi begun climbing while Sandwinder kept watch. The shield girl seemed to have acquired her weaponry but at least thebither was down. He sighed and calmly ealked towards their position, tossing a small grenade once he was within range.
-
"Aw, shit. Alright, we'll need to get out of here. I bloody hope Kei and Chris are alright so we can..." As she spoke, her attention was taken by an approaching figure. While in the shadows, it didn't seem to be trying to hide, and Janna could see them well enough, as she was facing the direction Kyuubi had been launched in.
"Look out!" The shield maiden yelled out as she saw the figure throw something at them. She wasn't sure what it was, but she wasn't gonna let it hit. Lunging forward slightly, she slammed her shield at the object, intending to bat it back at the figure while raising her other hand to point Honor at who she assumed was a foe. She wouldn't fire unless the thing she batted back did something, however.
-
While he was glad to have not hit the ground...ceiling....oh, no it's the ground. Anyway, while he was glad to have not hit the ground, he was less than happy to be in the arms of the dog-eared bimbo. After a brief second, he pushed off against her arm, getting back on his own feet just in time to watch his assailant falling toward the exit.
"Now you wanna run, monkey boy? You primitive shit-slinging waste of brain cells going around hitting women and leaving before you get what's coming to ya? That punch must not have hurt much, 'cause you ain't got no balls!" he shouted after the monkey faunus, accentuating it by pounding his fist against his chest in an act of bravado.
-
Sidewinder honestly didn't care about the two stragglers but they did pose a threat to their escape. The grenade exploded into a cloud of smoke after getting swatted away and began filling the room and should have triggered the fire alarm. Unfortunately or rather fortuantely for Sidewinder, Blue had already disabled much of the buildings alarm systems including the sprinkler and fire systems, almost as if expecting things to get a bit messy. Using the smoke to his advantage Sidewinder dropped a few more smoke grenades to cloud their view even more while putting on a gasmask with the likeness of a black white fang mask with breathers attached. He savored the cleaned artificial air and waded through the smoke like a serpent through the grass, matching his mottled black form to that of the smoke currents in the room as he approached the downed fighter and her partner. He thanked himself for shoving the data into Kyuubi's pocket before forcing her through the vent earlier and brought out a pair of hooked daggers with long handles, apparently meant for puncturing rather than slashing.
Ali only barely heard Chris' insult and made a mental note to break his legs later, but for now he had to stop security from reaching the floor. Blue locked the elevators for the meantime, trapping a whole squad of officers with crappy jazz tunes and about 10 more floors between them and their objective. The stairs were a new problem though because locks could be broken and of course, Blue was kind of just twiddling his thumbs waiting for Ali.
The monkey faunus landed with a loud crash on a couple of photocopying machines, breaking a few but managing to slow his fall just enough to not cause too much damage. The entrance to the stairwell was just to his side but it wouldn't take too long for Kei and the brat to follow him here. Reorienting his point of gravity he dragged two of the photocopying machines and made them fall through the hallway, back towards Kei and Chris.
-
Smoke bombs. Shit. The shield maiden didn't hesitate to put a couple of rounds into the smoke cloud where she had last seen the assailant, but she knew that they would have moved by now. Janna switched both Honor and Justice into their sword forms, ready to counter attack.
"Tristan! Can you stand? You need to hide!" She called out to the girl behind her. Her aura had been broken, and Janna had no idea what were the intentions of this new attacker. But if she needed to, Janna would fight until her aura broke and beyond that. She had those shields for a reason, even if she lacked her armor.
-
Chris felt rather smug in seemingly having driven off the monkey faunus. "Yeah, you better run!" he shouted, taking a few steps forward to start his pursuit. He paused briefly when he saw the photocopiers start moving. After a brief second for his brain to put two and two together, he stumbled back and panicked slightly. He looked back at Kei, shoving her toward the wall while shouting "Look out!"
In doing so, he left himself mostly in the path of the photocopiers. He tried moving back, but that only served to awkwardly push himself against Kei. Thankfully for her, that only lasted a brief second before Chris ate a photocopier to the face and went careening down the hallway.
-
Well, it appears things were quite chaotic, but regardless, Tristan heard Janna's cry and, to her credit, Tristan tried to get up, but it seemed that taking a grenade to the face was like well..taking a grenade to the face. Tristan's head was spinning from the force of the blast, but more to the point, it made her feel sluggish, like her entire body was weighed down by lead.
"Can I...get back to you on that?" Tristan called back weakly, struggling to stand up, so much so that all she could accomplish was a mid point between a stumble and a crawl, as all she could really do was tumble over the shattered cubicles and try not to get hit by flying debris. Oh, and avoid the smoke, that was important too.
-
The photocopier ended up stopping its sideways fall and skid across the ground along with Chris on its side. A bright flash of light shone directly on his face, plastered on the copy surface and finally tumbled awkwardly with the boy right underneath, spewing an awkwardly positioned masked face along with a hand on paper across the hallway. Kei thought twice about going for Ali and with her better vision saw that the worst was over with murderous office equipment. Rushing to Chris' side rather than chasing Ali she saw that he was more or less alive and picked up a warm piece of paper with his face on it and chuckled as she hefted the machine off him.
Not too far off but content enough that he managed to squash the annoying one, Ali let himself in the stairwell and saw blue quivering in the corner staring at his displays.
"They're here! The fuzz is here, what do we do?" He whimpered, the display showing a squad of well equipped police making their way up.
"No huntsman, this is going to take just a sec." Ali scoffed, leaping down the gap in the stairwell.
__________________________________________________________
Sidewinder's brow furrowed at the loud sound of office equipment crashing nearby and used the loud distraction to close in on the two girls. Gripping two hooked daggers he slithered across the room and leapt out of the smoke with nothing more than a slight disturbance. Leaping towards Janna he planted both daggers towards the shield's edge and aimed to maneuver it against her while trying to jab one hooked dagger towards her throat. Spotting tristan starting to get up he aggravated his attack and even aimed to intimidate them using his reptilian gaze.
-
Janna found the situation she was in less than desirable, to say the least. With Tristan clearly too injured to go anywhere, they couldn't pull back from this fight, while her opponent would clearly have the jump on her - the smoke was blocking her sight, and she - what the fuck was that sound?
Even distracted by the noise, Janna could somewhat react in time as her attacker jumped out from the smoke, wielding two daggers. He was aiming around the shield, and she didn't have her armor. This put her in quite a pickle, but she quickly came up with a solution - hit back harder.
She actually moved her shield out of the way slightly, swinging her arm to the side, while her other arm came crashing towards him. If he were to go through with his attack, striking his initial target, he'd get smashed with the shield maiden's shield - hell, maybe even right into the blade she was holding in her other hand. This was all for naught if the faunus would see the attack coming, however - one thing for certain, someone was going to wake up sore in the morning after this.
-
Chris was not in great shape when the photocopier was finally pushed off of him. As it turns out, going face-first into photocopier glass hurts. His sweatshirt was torn in a few places from being caught on the machine, his face and mask had a good few tears in it, and he ended up spitting one or two pieces of glass out of his mouth. With little aura left, he was in no condition to fight. "Yeah, go ahead. Keep laughing." he said, mildly annoyed at the fact that he was taken out so easily. A cut in his mouth caused him to spit out some blood. He laid against the wall, looking down at where the rest of the students were.
-
Sidewinder was taken aback by the sudden change of direction of Jannas shield causing his strike to but scratch her in the face before jerking back as the shield slammed into his face. Retreating to the smoke he pulled a couple more grenades and rolled them on the ground, more smoke envelopping the area soon after.
"I really dont want to fight you right now." Sidewinder hissed, his voice calm but eerie as he waded through the smoke "I'll give you the chance to retreat with your friend and wait for authorities. I have the advantage here and I'm pretty sure you dont want to stay and suffocate along with the little miss over there."
Walking around the two whilst shrouded in smoke he continued, "If I wanted you dead I wouldn't have let you see me at all but with circumstances as is any further interruption would be nothing more than an annoyance and waste of time. I want to keep this job clean so do us both a favor and backdown. Unless of course you want you and your friend to be the little red stain to this otherwise death free operation. You have three seconds to decide."
______________________________________________
Kei slapped Chirs in the back in good will as she stared towards the end where Ali went. The server room was now vacant with only the knocked out guard flopped to the side and several blinking lights indicated some power still running inside. Kei motioned for Chris ti stay put and rest as she drew her sword and walked towards the server room.
"Stay there mask boy, I could tell your aura is probably on the low side and I cant babysit your butt in a fight." she said, though in all due honesty she felt pretty beat up herself. "It shouldnt take too long but I'm going to try and stop whatever it is they're doing in that room. All I need you to do is shout if you see Ali coming back. and maybe run."
-
Janna, while wincing slightly at the dagger striking her face, was pleased to have her attack connect. Still, as the smoke enveloped her and Tristan, she understood just how bad the situation was. She doubted this guy would make a mistake like that twice, and at this point, he could attack from any angle. Janna squinted, trying to spot her attacker, but coughed as the smoke entered her lungs. Damn it, even if she could stand any chance, she couldn't also risk Tristan's life here.
The shield maiden backed away, shields still raised, and crouched down next to the girl. Janna sheathed her blades and took hold of the sluggish girl's arm, guiding it towards her own shoulder. "Hold on, I'll help you get out of here." She said, letting her grab onto her before standing back up and heading to where she believed the exit was, not seeing it through the smoke, really.
-
Sidewinder quickly retreated through the smoke as Janna showed submission and entered the vent after Kyuubi. Unlike their entrance they couldn't simply 'fall' towards another building without Ali's help so regrouping was a priority. Ali was definitely going to make it out by himself once the data was secured and Blue was not too far away. Kyuubi on the other hand was not looking too good after taking a grenade to the chest and was grumbling about goimg after the kids someday .
After sliding through the vent and landing on a familiar staircase, Sidewinder greeted Blue with a nod and took a peek down only to see a police officer falling upwards for the ceiling. Blue whimpered something about casualties but Kyuubi was quick to throw an electric net of wires to catch the poor thing. Hauling the stunned officer to the side, Kyuubi smiled as she undressed the, newly discovered, female officer and donned her equipment as her own. Sidewinder sighed and checked on Blue's download progress and scrunched his brow as it showed an interrupted download.
"What now?" Sidewinder hissed
The bear faunus flinched and replied, "W-we could probably make do with what we have now. So let's get outta here! The cops are just going to get more persistent, I caught a few calls for a bullhead a few minutes back, it's only a matter of time. "
"Don't worry, Ali's back." Kyuubi chimed in, grabbing the monkey faunus' arm as he fell upwards towards them.
Popping knuckles as he set his feet back on the ground, Ali smiled at the trio and said, "Get ready to move out. We're getting ourselves a ride."
___________________________________
Kei scratched her head at the small device she plucked out of the server room core that looked like nothing more than an extra large, and hot, usb drive. Wondering if the thieves would be back to get it Kei was suddenly singed by the sevice which overheated and was now functionally useless. Probably some halfassed remote detonation, exploding stuff was way cooler.
Not knowing what to do now Kei returned to the hallway with the odd device and gave a tired look at Chris.
"You doing okay? I hear photocopiers aren't edible." Kei joked, giving a mischievous grin. "Let's check up on the other two, whatever caused that smoke seems to be clearing up now."
-
Tristan was still a little groggy as Janna carried her out of the room, but she was still coherent enough to actually growl at her, "Should've stayed, fought him off." She grumbled, "He got away, shouldn't have let 'em."
-
Chris took a good few seconds to get up, using the wall behind him for support. "I'm not sure on that one. Send another my way, we'll see if I get it this time." he laughed before grabbing his back and wincing. He struggled to make his way down the hallway by himself, but kept pushing forward regardless. As he walked, he favored his previously injured leg. It was clear that the strike had managed to aggravate the injury, if not fractured the leg once more. "We see that guy again, I'm knocking his damn teeth out." he grumbled as he limped forward.
-
"I couldn't risk fighting him with you in the room. We would've been at a disadvantage either way." Janna responded, leading the girl towards the nearest stairs. "We need to get out and get to the authorities. I doubt that those responsible for this will stick around much longer." said the shield maiden, heading towards the staircase leading down. Right now, her priority was getting the girl with broken aura away from danger. Any other part of her job could wait.
-
Outside the building several police cars started swarming the area coupled with special swat teams. A huntsman of sorts could be seen if one squinted hard enough but wasn't permitted into the premises. As the students met up one in particular, Janna, decided to bring her injured schoolmate to safety. Chris didn't look too swell either but the grudge he held seemed to push him on while Kei had had better days.
"Be careful on your way out." Kei said, squinting as a helicopter spotlight shined through their floor windows and briefly blinded them. Just as it did Kei grabbed Chris by the cuffs and started running.
"I know how they're planning on escaping! Keep up!" She huffed, sprinting ahead of Janna and Tristan.
_________________________________________________________
Almost on the rooftop with only a door between them and their escape route, Ali quickly picked the lock effortlessly and quietly peeked outside. A couple of guards shone their lights on the opening door but being dressed in guard garb they quickly holstered their weapons.
Ali casually walked out with Kyuubi while Blue and Sidewinder hid in the shadows, playing their personas flawlessly as they put on worried expressions. "What's happening down there?" the guard shining his light on Ali asked, clearly not too familiar with his own colleagues.
"Some kind of disturbance, we were sent up here to stop their escape." Ali replied, approaching with hands in an inquisitive position. As he spoke Kyuubi circled around to spot any other guards, patting one or two on the backs while secretly attaching small traps to their shirts. "How many of us are up here?"
"Counting you we got ten men. A chopper is touching down soon with SWAT for additional reinforcements, must be something huge if we got them coming down here, and here I thought this was just a plain office building."
"Well, clearly you're wrong." Ali replied, swiftly striking the guard just under his jaw and catching his limp body as another guard turned a corner. A few zaps buzzed followed by several thuds and Kyuubi emerged from the darkness with a sly grin on her face. "Good job, now our ride should arrive any moment...now."