It took me a moment to fully take stock of what was happening. My morning had already been full of surprises, so I should have expected a few more. But then they wouldn't have been surprises, because you can't expect a surprise. As it was, I'd been caught off guard instead.
CFVY stood in the hallway just outside the doorway. Coco was closest to the door, hips cocked to one side in her usual stance, smugly looking in. Velvet and Fox were immediately behind her on either flank. Velvet had her arms casually resting behind her back, a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. Fox had his hands stuffed into his pockets, and his smile was dry and bemused. Then, taking up the rear was Yatsu. Towering over the other three, and standing tall enough the doorframe clipped part of his head off. They all seemed a little tired, but otherwise were dressed and seemingly ready for anything.
They'd even thought to come armed.
How quaint.
"… So, you gonna invite us in or…?" Coco asked, before her gaze trailed down slightly, and her brow crinkled. "… Were you going to shoot us-"
My hand snapped out and grabbed Coco by the collar. I hauled into the room and immediately repeated the action with her teammates. None of them really resisted my doing so, but they definitely hadn't been expecting it. But better that than wait out there for Tukson's neighbors to come snooping. As soon as they were inside, I slapped the door shut and locked it.
"Lucky I didn't Malcolm Holmes you," I grumbled.
"Who?" Velvet asked
I ignored her and turned to face the four of them. Who in turn, outside Velvet, didn't really bother to look at me, and were more interested in the apartment. My teammates and partners in anti-crime, who were effectively still paused mid-chew, were watching with bated breath. Though Ruby did wave 'hi' when Yatsu motioned to her.
"Sweet place kid." Coco said. "You rent it yourself or you mooching off a friend?"
"He's out of town on a long vacation," I said diplomatically.
"He leave you in charge of the shop downstairs too?" she pressed.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, ignoring her.
"A little early morning shopping," Coco replied smoothly. "Something you might know about."
"We saw you on the way back here carrying everything," Velvet supplied. "It was actually a lot easier to find you than we thought it would be."
"You were looking for me?" I asked.
"Well, no, not just you." She corrected, before looking at everyone else. "We weren't really sure who-… Penny?"
Penny smiled and waved at Velvet. "Salutations, Ms. Scarlatina!"
Velvet, on the other hand, just looked at her in bemused confusion. "How did you- when- what!?"
"Who's that?" Coco asked, turning to look at Velvet.
Velvet floundered for a moment, looking for an answer. "I-uh-um… why are you here right now?"
"Not important," I said, diverting the conversation. I motioned to everyone currently sitting at the table then to CFVY. "We should be asking you that before this goes any further."
"It's too early for this," Jaune droned.
Coco leaned past me and looked briefly at Jaune. She smirked, then stepped past me, deeper into the room. "Well it's really not that hard to figure out, kid." she said, snagging a piece of bacon off the table. She bit into it, before fixing me with a look over her shoulder. "Or would you prefer I call you Steve?"
I didn't answer that. It felt like I should've been surprised, but that button had already been pressed enough times for one morning that the reflex wasn't working anymore. So I stayed silent for a moment, as did my teammates, who were watching the situation curiously. After a moment, I looked at Coco's own team hoping to find some explanation as well. They were just watching us expectantly… and looking at the breakfast table.
Another moment and I motioned that, yes, they could have some.
As they began to trickle towards it, I ordered: "Explain… please?"
Coco smirked, again. "Not too hard to figure out, kid. Some guy in dark armor with red eyes starts showing up in the news about the same time we start training you? You suddenly aren't getting enough sleep and are collapsing during training? We didn't need a whole lot of help putting the dots together, especially with all the news reports…" She then pulled out her Scroll and waved it in front of us. "You all might want to check this morning's broadcast, by the way."
"We did, Jaune and Pyrrha made the front page," Ruby said, pushing her food around her plate.
Coco chuckled like a cat toying with a particularly energetic mouse. "No, they were a special edition. The headline broke about an hour ago. You're gonna want to see it, Red Hood."
"Red…?"
Ruby paled. Immediately, she began flicking and tapping at her Scroll.
"So how do you and Penny know each other?" I asked Velvet, in the midst of devouring a bowl of fruit.
"Dad's an engineer in the Atlas Military." Velvet explained, looking between Penny and me "I've met Professor Polendina and General Ironwood a few times." Velvet then settled her gaze on Penny, clearly confused. "Though never for long."
"Papa had a lot of work to do." Penny said, beaming.
Velvet nodded. "… so what are you doin-"
"SIX!" Ruby suddenly shouted. "You might want to check your Scroll!"
"Inside voice, Ruby," I said, noting that the others were now, curiously, beginning to mess with their Scrolls as well. "What's wrong?"
"They took our pictures!" Ruby squealed.
"…"
I pulled out my Scroll and began tapping through it. Having gotten used to it by this point, I figured out you could access a branch of the CCT that handled mass communications. Couldn't seem to transmit large files and things, but messages and news updates were possible. Advertisements too, kept getting these ones for instrument polish and male enhancement supplements. It was part of how I'd found out about Jaune and Pyrrha's misadventure the previous night.
Tapping a little further along now, I was immediately bombarded by a new headline, released maybe an hour prior.
'Ballroom Blitz and Gala Gunfight! Masked Vigilantes Caught On Film As White Fang Hold Atlesian Military Hostage!'
I felt an uncertain little tickle in my heart as I read the headline. A brief glance to Coco showed her smirk had blossomed into a full shit-eating grin.
"Oh no, please," she said, snapping up a mug of coffee. "Keep reading, it only gets better."
'… shit.'
"Hey, it comes with a video!" Nora chirped.
'FUCK!'
Nora promptly set her Scroll down on the table and slid it out towards the center. She tapped on it, and it began to project a hologram into the air, as I'd seen before, displaying the screen's contents. There was a prompt for a video-playback, a still frame depicting some chaotic looking room, and a blur of red flying through the air over blurs of black and white.
Judging by the look on Ruby's face, that was her and a snapshot of last night.
"OOOoooo…" Nora chirped, tapping at the screen. The playback began.
The image vanished and was replaced by a title crawl with the symbol representing the Vale News Network. It was followed by a tinny bit of fanfare and music from the speaker of Nora's Scroll. It probably would've sounded more impressive and grand on a proper display, but sounded cheesy and half-assed otherwise. Every other note was crushed, and the balance was half chewed and spat-out by a Yao Guai. But it was still clear enough to understand, as the title scrawled away and the video began to play. A disembodied voice began to speak, the reporting party.
A moment passed as the video began to play. The guy behind the camera was clearly an amateur, or wasn't getting paid enough to do the job. The image shook and blurred haphazardly as the person holding it fussed and fidgeted. Granted, they were also clearly being crammed into a crowd of people, so not easy to keep the camera steady. How much of it was their own fault was open for debate. But even with the shaking and thrashing, the image that came through was by all accounts a harrowing one. The cameraman, and the people crowded around him were being corralled. Forced backward at gunpoint. The camera only briefly flashed over the ones responsible, only showed maybe two or three people. But I recognized the gala immediately, the White Fang even faster. There'd been a few dozen White Fangs in total. Not good odds when you're not prepared for a fight but your enemy is.
The event kicked off before my or Ruby's intervention. I could tell by the level of control the White Fang had over everything. Gunshots were intermittent, if at all. But I could see one Fang, a skinny looking fucker, who was waving around a massive revolver in the background. He popped off shots at random, cackling.
"It was a harrowing scene last night, at the Vytal Charity Gala and Fundraiser," spoke a male voice. Wanted to say it was Cryil Ian again. "At what was supposed to be an event celebrating the peace and cooperation between Kingdoms, chaos and gunfire erupted." The scene panned over the room, shifting to a different camera, another person who'd been recording at the time. "During the exchange of pleasantries, the fine citizens of Vale and honored guests in attendance found themselves under attack by members of the White Fang."
"All fine and honored when they're spending a grand per plate," Blake muttered. She was immediately shushed by Weiss, but I noticed Velvet tittering at the remark.
The scene continued to pan over the ballroom. I could tell that most of it had been edited to really emphasize the terror and crisis. Frankly, not a tall order, but if you're in the business of peddling fear, there's no such thing as being heavy handed. One second they'd have a panning shot of the White Fang pointing guns at the crowd. The next they'd have a closely cropped shot of the muzzles, fire and smoke flare out of the barrels as they fired. Judging by what I knew, those shots would've been taken later, after Ruby or I intervened. There weren't many bodies from what I could remember seeing.
Almost naturally, the scene transitioned to show another shaky camera. What it was trying to show was initially blurred and out of focus. Though after a moment, the lenses adjusted, and displayed a very disconcerting sight: General Ironwood getting the absolute shit kicked out of him.
I could remember they'd had a bunch of people ganging up on him at the time. It wasn't until I'd an actual picture of how it happened that I understood. Guy didn't seem like a slouch, but they went to town on him.
"Despite promises of security and protection, no one was beyond the reach of the White Fang." Cyril continued, the scene lingering on Ironwood in a fashion I was certain wasn't allowed on TV. "Not even senior officials of the Atlas Military, such as General James Ironwood and his retinue, were off limits." The scene then switched to a still of Ironwood's retinue, who I immediately recognized. I'd saved one of them from near death while the other was behaving like a jackass.
'Now they're just milking it.'
"This seems a little gratuitous," Ren said, sipping his beverage.
"It gets better," Yatsu rumbled, smirking as he bit into a pancake he wrapped around a sausage like some kind of sandwich.
"As fitting with an unfortunate theme as of late, the official response from Vale's Police Force was a touch subdued," Cyril said, as the camera cut to a more professional view of things. An official recording I was almost certain was sourced from VNN itself. The chatter and banter was the usual back and forth I felt was expected between reporters and police. A tense stalemate of both sides trying to get the other to either leave or mind their own business. Though the general tone I was taking from it was that the police should've been more receptive. An impression only slightly sullied by the fact that the one reporting it appeared to have been Cyril himself. "However, despite this continued wave of lackluster performance, it would soon transpire that the situation was more in hand than first believed."
Another transition back to the Gala, another shaky camera. The image focused back on the Fang that had been cackling previously. He'd since focused himself on Ironwood's subordinates. With a disturbingly jovial gait, he walked up to the wounded member of the duo and put his gun to her head.
It was at that moment that something shattered overhead, and a red blur shot down from above. The blur crashed into him like a hammer and crumpled him into the floor, all its momentum fading.
The blur unfurled itself into the shape of a young woman, dressed sensibly in a dark ensemble. Her face was obscured by a scarf, head covered by a red hood that descended into a cape. It flared behind her in a scattering of crimson flower petals.
Held in her hands: a massive scythe.
As far as entrances go, points had to be given for timing.
I could hear the table collectively holding its breath. All except for maybe CFVY, and possibly Ruby. A quick look at her showed something I wasn't expecting.
Embarrassment.
"… Hi. The name's Red Hood," The girl who might have been Ruby said. "This is, like, my second time doing this, and I don't have anything cool to say…"
She then promptly swung her weapon up and blasted the nearest White Fang in the face.
It was all downhill from there. Not sure for who, but it moved fast. Our collective friend group was completely invested in what they were watching, even as multiple camera angles came and went, giving a sense of the barely contained chaos that followed.
"While many have been curious as to the sudden and recent rise in vigilante justice, it would appear others have begun to take it as an example to follow," Cyril continued, as the image of Red Hood swept off to the side in a cloud of rose petals, rifle fire tracking after her. She swiftly flew into a flying kick that caught another White Fang under the chin, then sprang off him, spinning her scythe as she connected with another Fang, and dashing aside as more gunfire roared. "A young woman, referring to herself as the 'Red Hood' was the first to intervene in last night's incident."
"That name's a little on the nose, don't you think?" Pyrrha asked, amused.
"It was all I could think of!" Ruby defended.
As Ruby defended her choice of pseudonym, herself from the previous night was furiously on the attack. I was again reminded of how impressive her speed truly was. The way she could cross the room in a blink, the only hint of her movement being that trail of rose petals. I watched silently as the scene played out a second time. Even from a different, more limited perspective, you could tell Ruby held her own. The fact she managed to take several of them was proof enough. What was really impressive, however, was her marksmanship. She was nailing people from across the room, while flying. She would nonchalantly reform, aim offhand, fire, and be moving in a window few could match. It wasn't impressive, long-distance shooting, but damn impressive all the same. Something none of the White Fang could match. It seemed all of the shots went wide of her no matter where they aimed.
"Wow, go Ruby," Nora chirped.
"It really looks like you were giving them a hard time," Ren agreed.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"It wasn't anything special," Ruby said, trying to sidestep the praise.
"Maybe not, but you clearly were holding your own," Weiss noted.
This was immediately followed by Red Hood shouting: "Look dad, no hands!"
She then promptly fumbled her scythe, managed to catch it, but then smacked against the ground. She was airborne before the White Fang could get a bead on her. But I could tell the guy holding the camera had probably almost pissed himself, watching their one ray of hope bite the ground.
It made our friends laugh. Though for Yang it seemed a more subdued chuckle, seeing as it was her little sister.
"It's not funny!" Ruby balked.
"Seemed like you were trying to be," I said.
Ruby sent her puppy-glare at me, but otherwise said nothing.
The footage continued to roll as the fighting played out. It only lasted a few more moments, they probably had plenty of it to sift through. But it was a clear transition to see, as Red Hood went from fighting, to largely dodging and remaining mobile. Despite the fierce fight, much as I'd guessed, she'd backed herself into a figurative corner, fighting like she did. The White Fang kept the pressure on, knowing she couldn't keep it up forever.
"With the intervention of the previously unidentified vigilante, police were bought enough time to properly reinforce their position and begin preparations to stage a rescue attempt." Cyril continued. Again the footage flashed back to the police on the ground, standing around, scratching their asses while wondering why the hell there was suddenly a lot more gunfire. The shot followed their gaze, panning up to the windows far overhead. "However, before they could properly intervene, the situation only further spiraled out of hand."
Cue me, swinging around the side of the building by Penny's sword, and smashing into the window.
The shot then jumped once more back inside, to one that faced towards the window. I could see the White Fang with the machine gun standing in front of it, taking aim at Ruby.
"Hey, I remember him!" Ruby said.
Then I cannonballed through the window. More glass falling, coat flaring out behind me. It all happened as I remembered it, albeit seeming much faster from an outside perspective. The White Fang turned as I crashed into him, we skidded across the floor, I shot a couple Fang, and then stole the machine gun.
"Knock. Knock." My counterpart growled.
About the same time he opened fire with the machine gun, my friends and CFVY erupted into laughter.
Ruby gave me a smug, satisfied smile.
"…" I shrugged. "Felt right at the time."
She chuckled. At least I didn't fumble my weapon.
After that, things played out from memory, lots of fighting and chaos as me and Ruby tried to contain it. The feed itself didn't last much longer after that. It almost inexplicably cut to everyone fleeing down dark hallways and stairwells.
"With the timely intervention of the vigilantes, the hostages were able to make a successful escape attempt," Cyril reported. "While injuries were documented among those released, in a miraculous turn of events, there were found to be zero casualties among them."
"Well that's a relief," Ruby said.
The camera then cut back to a scene that played out during the fight. Though the sound was removed, I recognized it from when I'd spurred the hostages into motion. The camera hardly had to track me, as I practically ran towards it. There'd been a few White Fang in front of it at the time, guarding the hostages. I removed them. Cost me my Aura at the time, but it hadn't been enough to change anything.
Surprisingly though, the footage did censor what I did to the White Fang guarding the hostages. I can't tell if that actually made it better or worse. The footage froze on a full body shot of me, right as I was about to stomp one of their heads in. Not a good look.
"Damn, you went hard on them, huh?" Coco asked, stirring her coffee. "Not every day the news puts up a censor bar."
"Figured they could take it," I said, indifferent. "Considering what was at stake, I knew my priorities."
Coco shrugged in response. Agreeing or not, there wasn't much to argue.
The still image of me panned off to the side, another of Red Hood appearing beside me.
"The vigilante, Crazy Steve, and the one known as the Red Hood are unknown to be of relation to each other," Cyril spoke. "However, their intervention in last night's incident has only further fanned the flames beneath our Kingdom's judicial system, especially those regarding vigilante intervention in police matters. While Chief Nutte could not be reached at the time of this reporting, it is in this reporter's humble opinion that serious review of practices may need to be on the horizon. I'm Cyril Ian with Vale News Network. Stay safe out there."
The video came to a close, and an arrow appeared over it, asking if the video needed to be replayed.
"… So," Coco said, setting her mug down. "Care to weigh in on it?"
The room stayed quiet for a moment, as everyone's eyes moved back and forth between me and Ruby. I was silently contemplating if there wasn't merit in just leaving the conversation behind altogether. But, well, what then? Just keep running around hoping I wouldn't bump into them again?
"… I plead the fifth," I answered.
Coco's brow quirked at me.
"The what?" Velvet asked. "What does trial by combat have to do with this?"
"Trial by- I meant the right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination," I said. "There's not much either of us can say here that wouldn't sound suspicious."
"Not that we're, like, not not being suspicious right now," Nora said, nomming on her pancakes.
CFVY looked at all of us, as they were eating their selections from the breakfast buffet.
"Alright, since you're settling in, let me see if I've got this straight:-" I said. "You came out here hoping to find Ruby and me, and just so happened to stumble across me while I was grocery shopping?"
"Pretty much," Yatsu answered.
"We were planning to check the dorms this morning and see if asking nicely worked," Velvet added. "Except, we noticed you guys disappeared last night. Then we saw the news, and decided we should try and find you…" Velvet chuckled. "Definitely shouldn't have found you that easy though, really lucky."
"Unlucky," I told her. "I'm jinxed, trust me. You found me because it was unlucky enough to count as good luck."
Velvet's head tilted in confusion. "That's not how that works."
"It is for me," I said.
"So you found him," Weiss said. "Then you followed him back here… How long were you waiting outside?"
"Only a little while," Velvet continued.
"Wasn't sure if he was going to give us the slip," Coco said. "After we realized there was an apartment above the store, we just took the normal entrance in."
"How pedestrian," I grunted, sipping some drink.
"So, what, you tracked him all the way back here just to ask him if he was crazy?" Blake asked. "Well, congrats, he is, we all are, is that all?"
"We were actually going to ask if you'd like some help," Coco answered.
There was a pause in the air, as we collectively regarded CFVY for a moment. On some level, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that Coco would say something like that. But to be fair, I wasn't expecting it either. Partly because, despite us being on relatively good terms, this seemed a little outside the realm of normal for them. Which is why: "… Somehow, that is the worst thing you could've said," I told her.
"Thought that would've been telling Ms. Goodwitch?" Jaune asked.
"I can deal with her," I said. "More hands stirring the pot though?... Yeah, nah."
I'd have expected Yatsu, Fox, and Velvet to have been annoyed by being brushed off. Maybe they were, but not in any way that meaningfully showed. Instead, they seemed more annoyed with Coco. They didn't raise any arguments, but I could see the way Fox was looking at her. There was a disagreement there. Coco turned and looked at him, smirking for a moment, before turning back to us.
"Won't lie kid, we don't normally do this sort of thing either," Coco said. "But, hey, things haven't really been normal recently. Normally there's not gunfights breaking out all over town, or terrorists attacking random people. If things were normal, we'd just let the police handle it and wait until it was time for our next field mission."
"So you're just bored and looking for something to do?" I asked. "Go read a book, we're not doing this for fun."
"Pff, fun? Yeah, no, I've got better things I could be doing for fun," Coco retorted. "I've got a whole wardrobe to play with. No, we're here because we felt like it."
Velvet cleared her throat.
"… And because it seemed like the right thing to do," Coco said, rolling her eyes. "Can't have all our hard work the past few weeks suddenly get kicked out of Beacon."
"But won't you be kicked out of Beacon if you get caught too?" Pyrrha asked.
"We get lee-way for being upperclassmen," Velvet explained. "Not a lot, but more than you would if you get caught without us." She then shrugged. "Which might happen, now that they've got pictures of at least two of you."
"Four if you count the two love-birds," Coco said, before looking at Jaune and Pyrrha. "Congrats by the way, Champ."
"But we're not dating!" Jaune protested.
"Whatever you say, Jauney-come-lately," Coco smirked.
"That's what his mom's worried about, but not the problem right now," I said. "We've got enough crap to deal with right now, and you guys aren't in the loop. What we're trying to do isn't as simple as going around and punching bad guys."
"It really seems like that's all we've been doing though," Ruby said. "That and scribbling on a map."
"If we were having any luck with it, we'd be done already," I said. "But dragging more people into the mix isn't going to fix anything, especially if they're not privy to all the details."
"You mean like how Blake's a Faunus?" Velvet asked
"Yeah, like-…" I turned and looked at Velvet, everyone but her teammates did.
Velvet just motioned up to her own, floppy, rabbit ears. "You think you're the first person to try hiding them with a bow?"
Blake's head bumped against the tabletop. "Is there anybody who doesn't know!?"
"…I'm pretty sure Cardin's still in the dark," Velvet offered.
I rubbed the bridge of my mask. We weren't getting anywhere at this point, and breakfast was getting cold. I turned to Ruby. "While I don't think bringing them on board will hurt, we've got to weigh things out, do we have time to get them up to speed? Will the extra hands make a difference, or will they just be getting in the way? I'd say we can do without, but it's you, Jaune, and Blake's call. Whatever choice we make, it needs to happen in the next five minutes."
"Why me?" Jaune asked.
"You're a leader, take a measure of responsibility," I told him.
"Sounds like you've got more say than they do," Yatsu grunted.
"I'm responsible for the planning, logistics, and early reconnaissance of what's been done so far," I said. "Since it's still under my purview, I need them to make a call so we can keep moving, otherwise we'll waste the entire day here sitting at a table of food."
"Sounds like you're just taking shots at all of us now," Coco said.
"I'm not trying to be rude," I told her. "I've got nothing against you four, really. But with everything already in the state it is, I don't think we're in a spot to be calling in more help."
"But we could use it, considering Sun still hasn't answered us either," Jaune said. "And if they really are planning a prison break, I'm pretty sure we're going to need all the help we can get."
"Prison break?" Velvet asked.
"Long story," Ruby said, having apparently already made her choice. "We'll tell you in a minute. Blake?"
Blake didn't give an answer one way or the other. Until we heard back from Sun, it didn't seem she much cared about the extra help. She just shrugged indifferently. As close to a yes as anyone was going to get.
"… Alright, we'll start from the beginning then," I said, shaking my head. "Let's just finish breakfast first, can't fight crime on an empty stomach…" I looked around. "Has anyone seen Zwei? Would've expected him to jump out at the new company."
"*bark!*"
"Oh, there-…" I turned and saw Zwei standing on the table with all of the food on it. There was no indication how he'd managed to get on the table, nor that he'd touched any of the food. He was currently staring at all of us with a doggy grin, stump of a tail wagging so hard it was dragging his butt with it. Everyone else took note of it as well, as their chairs creaked at the shift in weight.
"What the-" Coco started.
She was cut short by a thirty-some-odd pound ball of fur slamming into her. Unable to brace for the impact, Coco flopped back and hit the floor, Zwei standing over her, panting contentedly.
Her teammates started laughing. Ruby started panicking, and scrambled around the table in her pajamas. "Zwei! No! We don't jump on people!"
"I hear chocolate isn't good for dogs either," I muttered. Pretty much everyone missed it, or ignored it. But I could tell Yang heard it. It didn't do anything for her.
As Ruby began fussing with Zwei, apologizing to Coco, Velvet asked, "You didn't answer me before, how do you guys know Penny?"
"Met her a few weeks ago, helped kick this whole mess off really," I said.
Velvet's brow quirked. "General Ironwood is letting her help with this?"
"Oh no, we accidentally kidnapped her."
"… What?"
…
It took the majority of the morning to try and bring CFVY up to speed on everything. We left out the parts not pertaining to the job at hand, such as my origins, but had a lot of ground to cover. That was without the constant tangents we'd find ourselves tumbling down. Such as: How'd we find the apartment? Or, there are how many safe houses in the city? Better yet: How the hell are you alive? A particular favorite after I had to explain the incident at the substation. Leaving out the mess that followed me trying to get back to Beacon. Then we had to cover everything that'd happened the previous night, and what we'd done then. Most of it seemed obvious, but we had to cover that for our own sake then.
By the time we were even marginally up to speed, it was the middle of the afternoon again. Everyone was mostly recuperated, and coming to terms with the morning's antics. We still hadn't heard anything from Sun, and while I wasn't in a worrying mood, I knew a bad sign… occasionally. Knowing that there was going to be some big trouble, and that Sun hadn't answered, it didn't bode well. If he'd been made, then whatever became of him was on me. Should've had him just blow his cover and escape with us.
"And this crosses off the last of Yang's leads," I said, marking the map on the table. I looked up at Nora and Ren. "You two are sure you didn't find anything else?"
"Not after the incident at the convenience store, no," Ren answered. "We managed to cross everything else off after, but didn't find anything."
"Someone wouldn't let me check the backrooms," Nora muttered.
I nodded, and straightened out, looking at the map.
"So when do we get to the part where we start kicking in doors and beating the snot out of people?" Coco asked.
"You'll get your fill of it soon enough," I told her. "Since we handled the last of the more covert locations last night, we're moving onto the places I've confirmed are actually stash-and-safehouses."
"And we're focusing on them instead of the actual prison break because?" Yatsu asked, motioning to explain.
"Well, we don't know where they're going to hit, do we?" I asked in response. "There can't be too many actual prisons around Vale. But I imagine most of the city's precincts have some form of lock-up or another. For all we know, they're raiding all of them at once in an effort to thin the herd or something."
"There's really only two jails I can think of around here anyway." Ruby said, pointing at the map. First to an open space off it, on the table, and then back into the city proper, at the city's western edge. "There's the one on Patch, think it's Percale Correctional or something, and then Kohl's-gate Keep here in Vale. Uncle Qrow told me that's where most people wind up when the police actually arrest them, or Huntsmen bring them in."
"It's also where they keep the drunk tank," Coco added, derisively.
"…" Ruby looked at Coco, confused.
"Don't ask," Velvet responded. "It's a long story."
"We like long stories, ask Six," Nora chirped.
"Regardless, that does help narrow it down at least," I said, rubbing the chin of my mask. "Name rings a bell, think Oobleck mentioned it in class a couple times… what was it used for again?"
Ruby shrugged. "It was an outpost. Helped control traffic, I think?"
"It's an arsenal," Velvet said helpfully.
"Then they turned it into a prison," I said. "For all the sense that makes." I pushed away from the map. "Alright, not much sense in us wasting time. Everybody partner up and we'll start moving. Someone's going to have to triple since Sun's not here."
"That's it?" Blake asked. "Just like that, we're moving on?"
"Unless you've heard from him, yes," I said. "You can message him again if you want, but unless he actually answers you might as well be talking to the wall."
Blake scowled and shook her head.
"Do we have a choice?" I asked. "If we don't keep moving, we'll fall behind. Considering what they were doing last night, that's not something we can afford to let happen. It'll be even worse tonight if they're actually pulling what you said they are."
"But Sun could be in danger," Blake said. "Danger… we both put him in."
"Danger he chose to be a part of," I countered, gesturing with my hand. "Believe me, I get it, and I'm not happy about it either. What do you expect any of us to do, wave a hand and just have him magically appear?"
This was, naturally, followed by a heavy *THUMP* at the exterior wall.
I immediately whipped away from the table, hand on my gun. Something the others did as well. My eyes tracked to the wall, scanning, to the windows facing the street…
"… Sonnuva bitch, there he is," I said.
Sun was hanging in the window, perched on the sill by his toes. Precariously. I could see the way he was bracing himself against the frame.
Not missing a beat, Blake bolted away from the table and across the room. She scratched at the window for a moment, before finally fiddling the latch open. About the point she managed to pry it open, the rest of us were following up after her. I briefly looked down at my hand, before focusing back on what was going on.
"Don't crowd him," I said, making sure he had room.
Sun rolled in through the window, flopping down between the wall and sill, at the corner, his weapon clattering to the ground as it hung at his hip. He was breathing heavily and sweating, his entire outfit was stained and dirty. His shoes had new scrapes and scars in them, his exposed chest smeared with grease. His hair was clumped together thickly and his eyes were heavy and glazed over. In short, he was a hot mess.
"I'm back, miss me?" he croaked.
"You look like ten pounds of shit crammed into a sock," I told him.
Blake shot me a look, telling me to knock it off.
Sun didn't even seem fazed. He just leaned back against the wall and sniffed the air, his eyes lighting up slightly.
"Food?" he asked.
"On it!" Ruby said, slipping back into the kitchen.
"Water too!" he croaked.
"You ok?" Blake asked.
"In one piece," Sun huffed, before giving me the stink eye. "Looks like you two made it out…" Then his gaze drifted past us and at the crowd. "… And picked up five more… Hey Penny."
"Hi Sun!" Penny chimed.
"And I think I recognize the rest of you guys, team CFVY, right?" Sun asked.
"That's us," Coco nodded. "And you're Sun."
"Glad we've got that all squared," I said.
Sun pushed back against the wall, sitting up straighter. As he did, Ruby came rushing back in with a plate. Most of breakfast had long since been put away or finished, but she brought him a bowl of fruit, a roll, and a tall glass of water.
The moment the food was into his hands, he tore into it like a wastelander. Table manners were for the well-fed.
"What happened?" Weiss asked. "We've been trying to contact you."
"We?" Blake asked.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "It's an implied we."
"A lot," Sun said between gulps of water. "After we got stopped and I got on the truck, they shut the door and we left. I thought about just escaping, but I figured: 'Eh, not the first time I've been locked in a box,' and went with it. I figured things would work out."
"Then why didn't you answer?" Weiss pressed.
"You try answering your scroll surrounded by guys who'd sooner shank you," Sun answered, ripping into his roll. "It was awkward."
"I have. Most of the time you tell them to screw off, or shank them first," I said. "What next?"
"They took us to some apartment building up town," Sun said, chewing. "Upscale place, but they basically threw us into random rooms and told us to wait until we were needed. I thought about running, but at that point I figured, I hadn't been caught, so might as well see where it goes."
"Sounds accurate so far," I said.
"Didn't even let us shower or anything, still weird," Sun continued. "About an hour ago they finally let me out and took me to a room with a bunch of maps and stuff." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "They told me to go to this address and ask to speak to the person on the note. Then I'd pass the note off to them when no one was looking."
He offered the paper and I took it. I looked at it for a moment, then went back to the map to confirm it. Yes, it was for one of the precincts in Vale. Likely one of the detention centers. The person it would be passed to didn't matter as much, he was background noise for all I cared. What was attached to the note was much the same. Looked to be codes, passphrases.
"I'll take it to mean that these were meant to help them escape," Weiss said, looking at the paper. Her nose scrunched up as she studied the map. "But why that one? Doesn't seem particularly special."
"I don't know, but there was more in the apartment," Sun said. "I tried to look it over but they didn't like me looking around. I bolted the moment I was sure I was out of sight." He paused for a moment, downing the rest of his water. "… We need to go back."
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"Because the pieces don't make sense yet," I said. "There's something else going on and it's going to be big." I looked back at everyone. "If we don't get ahead of it now, we're not going to."
Ruby nodded and looked at Sun. "Can you show us the way back?"
"Yeah," Sun said, finishing his food. "Just give me a minute to get something else to drink."
"Get it in a to-go cup," I told him. "We-"
I stopped, as a grinding noise began to fill the air.
It came from my Pip-Boy.
Velvet looked at me curiously. "What was that?"
"…"
I looked down at my Pip-Boy.
Quest START: One Piece At A Time
- Investigate the Apartment for more information.
"…" I took a deep breath. "The start of a very long night."