Nanosuit and Soul Magic: A Crysis/RWBY crossover

chapter 15

I didn’t see Ironwood on my way out, and I didn’t want to go wandering around the top-secret military laboratory looking for him. Well, I kinda wanted to, but I felt that it might not be such a good idea. Going to a specific place in the company of the dude who runs the damn place is one thing, but looking around on my lonesome might cause some issues.

So, after saying my goodbyes to Penny (I did know where she was, after all) I wound up walking home.

I’m not pissed about it. I don’t really get sore feet anymore, and it’s a good opportunity to check out the city on my lonesome, see what I can find. I left Beacon around midmorning, and it’s only late afternoon, which means I’ve got plenty of time to wander around, see the sights.

The people don’t seem to be quite as scared of me now. I don’t know if I’ve just given them a chance to get used to me, or if SECOND’s been working on toning down that weird creep-factor I had going on earlier. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty nice.

I was in a commercial area now, filled with shops and offices. Plenty of people wandering around, and only a few of them are openly staring at me. Lots of people are taking little peeks out of the corner of their eye now and then, though.

Nice part of town.

Right now, I’m not interested in nice parts of Vale.

I keep walking, aiming away from concentrations of people. I’ve always found the most interesting places tend to be out of the public eye, and I’m betting that’s gonna be true no matter what planet I’m on.

It really doesn’t take that long to wind up in a less scenic area. Instead of restaurants and businesses, I’m surrounded by worn down buildings and warehouses, and the streets are empty. Well, guess there’s always a market for the ‘low rent and no questions asked’ business model.

Not a lot of buildings have any obvious signs of occupation. The ones that do tend to close their blinds when I walk into view. I don’t really blame ‘em. Sure, maybe my freaky-factor got toned down a bit when I wasn’t looking, but I’m still a strange guy that looks like a robot in an unfriendly part of town. I mostly just ignore them.

I dunno what I’m looking for, exactly. I head in a random direction every time I hit an intersection. To pass the time, I idly start marking locations of decent sniper hides and machine gun nests. Reminds me of home.

All of a sudden, I hear hushed voices, coming from an alleyway a little further on, where two crumbling buildings don’t quite meet. Probably nothing, just a homeless dude or someone wandering around in the wrong part of town. Still, it couldn’t hurt to go look...

I jog up to the entrance, cloak, and peek my head around. It’s not a blind alley, goes all the way through to another street. And on that street, there’s two faunus, a guy with antlers and a guy with tusks, walking and whispering to each other.

Two guys whispering in an abandoned part of town? In a city that’s known to have an active group of faunus-only terrorists? Riiiiight, that’s not suspicious at all.

Yeah, that’s probably racial profiling. Fuckin’ sue me.

I creep closer, and start listening in on their conversation.

“...In daylight? You’re sure this is a good idea?”

Antlers nudges Tusks with his elbow. “It’ll be fine. The only people around here are friends to the Cause. It’ll be dark soon, anyway.”

Oh yeah. Definitely following these guys.

Tusks grunts. “If you say so.” He doesn’t sound convinced.