"Pretty bare for a terrorist hideout, huh?" Clark said. He, Sun, and Blake were at the Albain brothers' house. An abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, it didn't seem like anyone had lived there for years.

"It's expected. They cleaned out as much as they could before they left," Blake said.

Sun looked around. "Well it looks like they did a pretty good job. Do you really think we'll find anything here?"

"They must have left something," Blake said. "Whether that something is useful or not is a different matter."

The three of them entered the wooden building. The door was locked but they still got in with a solid kick from Blake. Legally too, since they actually had the chieftain's permission to search the building.

Inside, there were clearer signs that it had been inhabited pretty recently. There was hardly any dust, and spots of the yellow wallpaper were brighter than others. Whatever the Albains had hung on the walls had preserved the original color for longer.

The three of them split off to search different rooms, but the clean out had been thorough. No loose papers forgotten in the corners, no equipment left behind, nothing. The rooms were empty.

"Try tapping on the walls and floors to listen for hidden compartments," Blake suggested after their first round of searching ended without success.

Clark had already spotted a few of those with X-ray vision, but they'd been empty so he hadn't thought them worth mentioning. Not to mention the fact that it'd be pretty hard to explain how he'd found them.

However, with Blake's suggestion ready, he went back to one hidden door that might be important. He called the other two over to a closet in the side of one of the halls.

"There's a door here." Clark tapped the wall, and it gave slightly more of a hollow sound than the wall to the side. He could push the corner of the wall in and reach into a grip for a sliding door. He did so and pulled it to the right. There were stairs which went down a good deal below the ground. "Looks like it leads somewhere."

He'd already traced its path with X-ray vision. It was a tunnel which went out of town.

Clark turned back to the two of them. "Want to see where it goes?"

"Just like that? What if there are traps or something?" Sun asked.

"There probably aren't," Blake said. "This is an escape tunnel. They wouldn't risk slowing themselves down by avoiding their own traps."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense then." Sun didn't seem wholly convinced, but he followed them anyway.

Blake was up front as their resident White Fang expert while Clark and Sun followed her from behind. The three of them went at a brisk jogging pace.

"You alright, dude?" Sun asked a minute or so in.

"What do you mean?" Clark said.

"Well, I think it would be pretty dark in here for a human," Sun said. He was right. Someone without night vision would have been reluctant to run through the tunnel as casually as the three of them.

It was a minor indication of Clark's powers. There was no harm in admitting it. After all, it didn't indicate anything further.

"I can see just fine. No need to worry," Clark said.

Fifteen minutes later, they reached down the tunnel. It was a testament to huntsman endurance that Sun and Blake had gone the entire way without slowing. Even now they were breathing evenly with only minor strain from the run.

Their effort was rewarded with a ladder leading up to a trapdoor. Blake climbed up and opened it, letting sunlight stream in.

They all got out into the middle of a jungle. There was a dirt path leading somewhere but through the trees Clark saw that it crossed and merged with several others. It wasn't going to be much help in tracking the Albains down.

Clark extended his hearing and changed his mind. The road would be helpful after all. An engine whirred as it approached, and his vision picked out a car with three people in white masks. Still too far away to be detected with normal senses.

"So what should we do now?" Sun asked. "Check this out and hope for the best?"

"For the next hour or so, yes," Blake said. "If we don't find anything after that, it's not worth it."

"Hold on, I think I see something," Clark pointed. He'd chosen a moment when the black patch of the car was visible in between the green. "Come on, it's moving!" He jumped into action, running at about forty miles an hour. More than good enough to catch the car.

Clark wasn't sure if the two of them could follow him at that speed, but when he heard them land and jump off of the trees he actually sped up. They could handle it.

Once they reached the vehicle, Blake leapt down onto it. In a swift move, she tore the door open and pulled out the passenger by the driver, throwing him out of the car.

"Hey, what the-!" The driver shouted and nearly swerved off the road.

Clark caught the yelling passenger. He wasn't carrying any weapons so Clark set him aside without needing to worry about him attacking them. As Clark turned back to the car, he heard the terrorist's confusion and shuffling steps as he attempted to run. There wasn't any chance of him getting far though.

The second passenger had recovered her wits enough to reach for a gun, but not quickly enough. Sun jumped onto the car and hit her hard enough to make her drop the weapon.

Then Blake pulled out the driver and jumped off, leading Sun to do the same with the other passenger. The car careened off the road uncontrolled then slammed into a tree, the front crumpling.

Clark turned back to his terrorist who was still running away. With a bit of speed, he chased him down and brought him back to his buddies. They were flat on the ground, Blake aiming her weapon at them in warning.

"Traitor!" The driver shouted.

Blake's frown deepened. "You can call me that all you want, that doesn't change the fact that you're our prisoners. Where were the three of you going? Where did you come from?"

"Like we'd tell you." The one Clark had caught said, a hint of his faunus trait visible from his teeth. They were sharp and jagged.

"Hey, you guys can still make it easy on yourselves." Sun brandished his staff. That gave them pause, the woman who'd already been hit by it reacting the strongest. "Otherwise we might start getting rough."

"W-we're still not going to talk," the driver said.

"You know, I doubt we need all three of you," Blake said. "It's pretty clear that you're grunts, people who do simple tasks for the White Fang. One of you probably knows everything the other two do. Since you're so reluctant to talk, I guess we can get rid of you." She grabbed the driver and started to walk off.

"Hah! You think I'm scared?" His nervous tone didn't match his bold words. "You're not going to do it."

"Blake, wait," Clark said. He doubted she was actually going to kill him, but there should be another way to get them to talk besides threatening them with death. He faced the two watching their comrade. "Why are you doing this? If you're fighting for faunus rights, then why fight against other innocent faunus? Don't you see how insane the White Fang has become?"

"Don't listen to him! We know that-grk!" The driver was cut off by Blake hitting him in the stomach.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"You'd never understand, human," the woman layered the word with intense hatred. The sharp-toothed faunus looked at him with the same sentiment.

These weren't people that could be reasoned with. Even with that unfortunate realization, Clark lingered on the thought of being discriminated because people believed him to be a human. Things really were different on Remnant.

"Alright Blake, go ahead," Clark said. She went off and took the driver behind a tree. She shot by him, simultaneously striking him in the back of the head. Both of his companions tensed when they heard his body hit the ground.

Blake came back. "Still don't want to talk?"

The sharp-toothed faunus was shaking. After some moments of silence, Blake started walking to him and he faltered. "Alright! Alright! I'll say anything you want, just please don't kill me!"

"You coward!" the woman shouted.

"Shut up! I'm not dying like this."

Clark took her away, finding some rope and cloth in the car to tie her up and keep her conveniently quiet. Blake questioned the faunus, and as she'd guessed, he didn't know much. The weapons in the car were supposed to be dropped off in a stash in town. They'd been given orders by scroll with generic messages about picking up some supplies waiting for them at the town's dock. When mentioning their handler, the faunus said he'd only met him a few times and hadn't seen his face. He always used burner scrolls to message them too.

Not much they could go on. Although maybe if they questioned people at the dock they'd find something more useful.

"At this rate, it seems like it'll be a while until we take down the White Fang," Clark said. He faced Blake. "I think Ruby and Yang would appreciate a message from you before then."

"I'll think about it," she said. It could have been an offhand reply, but Clark heard genuine consideration in it.

\\\\\

Andrea walked home in a good mood. Oma's and the other girls' trials were going great, that bastard Atreus was going to pay.

Besides that, finding those girls had also given Andrea another benefit. Oma was a great friend. Her kids were annoying brats, Andrea had no idea what was so appealing about them, but she'd gotten pretty close to her when they'd been in hiding. It was only a few days ago when she'd managed to set up a meeting with Oma in a way that didn't hint anything about the Interference. Getting that friendship back on track was nice.

Just outside Andrea's building, a man came up to her. He had a large nose that didn't do any favors to his already blocky face.

"Excuse me?" he asked. "You're a cop, right?"

She was in her civilian clothes instead of her uniform. She narrowed her eyes, he seemed familiar. "I am, why?"

"Oh thank God. I need your help, please."

"If you need police, you can just call them. I'm off-duty right now."

"B-but this isn't something I can trust any police with. I've heard what your neighbors say, you can be trusted. Please, come with me."

"Okay . . ." Andrea laid a hand on her purse, an uneasy feeling prompting her to be ready to get her gun. She followed him around a corner.

Someone from behind grabbed her. No. Two someones. They had her arms in a strong hold. Andrea tried to scream but a hand came up and stifled her. The bastard who'd tricked her joined in and more of his buddies showed up.

They were tying her up. She didn't make it easy for them, fighting and kicking, but there were too many. They held her down and carried her off.

That ugly fucker! She knew why he'd seemed familiar. She'd seen him before at Malachite's place! Just seeing that misshapen, disgusting face once or twice weeks ago had been enough to ingrain the memory in her.

They covered her eyes and threw her in somewhere, the trunk of a car. It drove off immediately.

Andrea's heart raced. Her breathing was heavy and the gag was blocking her mouth. Breathe. Breathe. No, she couldn't through just her nose! She was going to suffocate!

'No. No. Calm down.' She told herself. She controlled her breathing and was able to inhale and exhale normally.

Damn it, had Malachite figured out about her involvement with the Interference? Was that what this was about?

She had to assume it was. It was possible that this only involved Malachite and Andrea, but she had to treat it as the worst-case scenario.

Phil, Paion, Xiang. She couldn't give up anything about them. Andrea wasn't confident she could hold out against torture, but she could hopefully give enough useless information to satisfy whoever these people were. Farmer and his friends wore masks. Even she had no idea who they were, so if she reached her limit it shouldn't be too bad to say a little about them.

The kidnappers had shown Andrea their faces. That was a bad sign. It almost certainly meant they were going to kill her after they were finished with her.

\\\\\

Jaune took out the radio from his desk. Clark was in Menagerie, so every night at seven he, Pyrrha, or Ruby were supposed to check for any updates from the police officers of the Interference. Phil and Andrea.

When Jaune turned it on, he was shouted at immediately.

"Farmer! Farmer, damn it are you there?!" The voice was Phil's.

"Phil, it's Knight. What's wrong?"

"I've been trying to get you for the past two hours! It's an emergency, Andrea's been kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped?" Jaune asked. "Wait, are you sure?"

"They sent me a picture of her!"

Jaune's mouth went dry. Oh no, this was serious. He couldn't handle this. He needed Clark.

"O-okay, just wait a second. I'll be back." Jaune put the radio down and ran out of his room to find Pyrrha and Ruby. Thankfully, it only took a minute or two to find them, explain, and bring them back so they could all to talk to Phil.

"Phil, it's Prevail," Pyrrha said. "Who gave you that picture?"

"I don't know. I found it under my door when I came back a few hours ago. There's a message too. It said that she's a hostage. They want the Interference to meet them somewhere in two days, otherwise they're going to kill her."

Both Pyrrha and Ruby looked to Jaune. Why him? How was he supposed to know what to do?

Still, Jaune spoke. "Does it say who they are?"

"No."

"What about the picture? What exactly is it showing?" Jaune asked, hoping there would be something that he could make an intelligent comment about.

"Andrea tied up in a chair. The background is a brick wall and I can't tell anything else from it."

Jaune turned to his friends with his finger off the transmit button. "Is there anything else you guys want to ask him?"

They said no.

"Alright, just wait Phil, we need to discuss this," Jaune said.

"Wait! Where's Farmer? I want to talk to him!"

"H-he's not available." Jaune cringed in expectation of Phil's response.

Instead of exploding, the officer seemed lost. His tone confused. "Not . . . not available? What's that supposed to mean? Where is he?"

"He's just not here right now, but don't worry. We're going to handle this."

Several seconds passed before Phil answered. "Alright, I'll trust you." Phil ended his transmission.

Jaune pushed away the radio like it was poisonous. He faced Pyrrha and Ruby and asked about the first thing that came to mind. "Is there any way we can contact Clark?"

Pyrrha made a pained face. "I don't think so. They don't have a CCT, after all. Information exchange isn't great except for rare events like the Vytal Festival."

Ruby frowned as she checked her scroll. "Yeah, it says you need special equipment to send messages to Menagerie from another continent and receive them."

So it was up to the three of them.

"Who could the kidnappers be?" Ruby asked.

"I'd expect the crime cartel alliance," Pyrrha said. "Beyond that, I'm not sure how much we can find out."

"Should we focus on that, then?" Jaune suggested. "Maybe we could find some clues about who took Andrea."

"Maybe," Pyrrha said. "I doubt we'll be able to do much detective work in two days, but I think that's the best we can do."

"Yeah, let's find out as much as we can," Ruby said.

Jaune nodded. Okay, they had a plan at least. "We should go to Phil then. He's her friend and an actual cop, he'd have the most experience."

They agreed and he made the call. They told Phil they'd be there soon with questions.

\\\\\

As Phil waited, he rooted himself to his desk and wrote down everything he remembered about when he last saw and talked to Andrea. He gathered every bit of evidence he could. His texts with her, the most recent less than half a day before he'd gotten the picture, and anything her friends or neighbors could remember.

It was going to be okay. Knight, Prevail, and Sharpshooter would be here soon.

But Farmer wouldn't be. Honestly, that frightened Phil. The man always had a confident, reassuring aura, as if he could accomplish anything he promised. After all, Farmer could get incredibly detailed information on the crime families and government officials, and the trafficked girls had said he'd taken on New Moon all by himself to free them.

If he'd told Phil that everything would be okay, that he would find Andrea and bring her back safely, Phil would have believed it in a heartbeat. If Farmer could change so much in the city after several months, with only a few other people to help him, then of course he could save Andrea.

That was right. The Interference was a small group, and even if Farmer wasn't with them, the three on their way had been chosen by him for a reason.

Phil tried to reassure himself with that. Even if he didn't know them that well, he could still trust them. It worked to make him feel a little better while he frantically looked for any clues on Andrea's kidnapping.

Someone knocked on the door as he was in the middle of a call with one of Andrea's neighbors. He gave the man a quick goodbye and got up.

"Coming!" Phil said. In moments he reached the door and opened it. However, instead of masked Interference members, a young man with short blond hair was on the other side.

"Hi, Mr. Helios," he said. A hand raised in greeting.

"Hello . . ." Phil had met him before but couldn't remember his name. He was a police officer. One of the most recent Phil had met through Balli's friends who seemed like they might support replacing Atreus.

The man gave him a brief smile. "It's Eugene Regas."

"Right right. Sorry, I'm expecting people soon, so I can't talk to you right now."

"You are?" Eugene leaned forward, curious. "Never mind, that's fine. I just need to show you something really important. One of the deputy chiefs is involved in some serious corruption. It looks like Atreus won't be chief for long, but it doesn't really matter if someone just like him takes his position, right?"

Phil thought about it for a second. That was important, but he still couldn't spare much time. "What do you need to show me?"

"It's all in here." Eugene reached into his jacket pocket and took out an envelope. He gave it over.

Phil took it in his hands and looked down at it.

Then Eugene rushed forward and grabbed his arms.

Behind him more men ran in and restrained Phil. Forget about shouting, he hadn't even had time to let out a breath by the time they'd gagged him. In fact, he was so shocked by the attack that he hadn't even fought back until they'd already gotten his arms bound.

They put him in a large box, disguising him as some kind of furniture. He fell into the dark and was moved out of his apartment.