Shine laid out what she wanted Watts to do--and Hazel and Neo...and she made one more addition to the squad:
Little, the mouse.
Little had stayed out of all this drama and hidden in Shade, rather than go around with the humans the last few days--and it took a lot of explaining to get her to even remotely understand the problem.
But when Ruby expressed that Yang was in trouble, Little said that she would help her friend out.
"What is a mouse going to do?" Whitley asked.
He'd returned hours ago, pretty mad that they'd all forgotten to pick him up--in their defense, at least they'd had a real crisis this time to distract them.
Weiss apologized at least, but Whitley let it go, surprisingly, once he heard someone had been kidnapped. Maybe he was secretly glad it wasn't him.
Libby had come with him again and this time just stuck around rather than walk home in the dark. But they'd hardly noticed her.
"You never know," Shine said. "Have you ever heard the fable of the lion and the mouse?"
No one had.
"Isn't that the one story about the lion who doesn't eat a mouse?" Wally had read some kids' book with it once.
"Yes, and the lion takes pity on it, so the mouse offers to do the lion a favor in return. The lion thinks it's silly, but then later he gets caught in a trap, and the mouse nibbles through the net and frees him," Shine said. "The point is, no matter how small you are, you can do something. Who would suspect a mouse? She'll stay with Neo."
"The mouse can't read," Blake objected. "How will Neo communicate with it?"
Neo flipped her off.
"It's a fair question." Blake frowned.
Little seemed to prefer Neo to the two tall, scary looking men and hopped onto her hat obligingly.
"All right, Team Bait And Switch, I suppose it's time for you to go," Shine said.
"I hate that name," Watts said. "How about Team Doctor Watts And His Guards?"
"How about we just go and get the girl," Hazel said.
"And Raven," Shine said.
"If we must," Watts sighed. "Why do you want her back so badly? It's not like you can trust her."
"Oh, don't try to be too clever, Watts," Shine said mockingly. "Just go."
"Excuse me," Penny interrupted. "But I understand that my new friend was behind this."
Everyone glanced at her awkwardly.
"I feel bad," Penny said. "This is partially my fault. Perhaps I should help."
"No, no," Pietro said. "You mustn't. I remember this Franklin woman. She's a fanatic. Till you all told me the story, it had quite gone out of my mind, but I should have known that only she and her husband could have designed that boy. Clunkier than Penny, but functional. That's how they were."
"Oh, you must have known Derek Kanap then," Shine said.
"Only briefly," Pietro said. "We went into different departments. The point is, I don't trust them. They shouldn't get ahold of Penny."
"But, Father, if I hadn't brought Kip here, it might not have happened," Penny argued.
"You can't blame yourself for that. We had no way of knowing the young scoundrel would take one of our own," Pietro said.
"This is riveting and all," Watts said, "but I have a scientist to go annoy, so if you'll excuse us."
"I'll watch him," Hazel said to Shine in a low voice. "I hope this plan works."
"So do I." Shine was finally beginning to look nervous. Took her long enough.
The squad left.
"I'm going to go pray," Shine said. "Anyway who wants to join me, feel free."
"I'm down," Wally said.
"All power to you, but I had better get back to my team," Robyn said. "Let me know how it goes. Someone has to keep things running out there."
"Shine, can we talk about something before we do the praying thing?" Oscar asked.
"Of course, Oscar, but I hope it's short," Shine said. "I'd like to focus on something else just now."
"I'll try," Oscar said.
* * *
Yang had dozed off at some point, but she startled awake when she heard Victoria talking again.
"The results were outstanding," she was saying to Raven. "It makes such a difference having someone who can really take it."
"Screw you," Raven muttered dully.
"Aura still a little low? I can fix that." Victoria took something out of a safe.
"Hey, lady," Yang said, "about my mom--Summer Rose, you mentioned her before. What else do you know about her?"
"Only what I told you." Victoria glanced up at her. "Theo might know more. But then, I haven't talked to him in ages."
"Liar," Yang muttered under her breath.
"Is this over yet?" Raven sat up slowly. "Got enough samples?"
"My dear, we're just getting started," Victoria said. "But I have to tell you, having two types of magic has proven to be the break I think I needed. I finally identified a similarity between the bird and the Maiden powers...call it the signature of them, the thing that shows they are both like Ozpin, though they are different. I might finally be able to replicate it. But there's the transfer to think about also. I have something that can hold the powers, once I extract them...but without Aura... That's the interesting thing, though--did you know that the bird form hardly uses any Aura at all? Magic works separately from Aura, even though it boosts it also..."
"I don't want to hear this," Raven said.
"But don't you get it?" Victoria said. "I suspect I could extract the magic just from parts of you, feathers, hair, etc., and put it into something else, using only the tiniest bit of Aura.... Maybe separating the two completely wasn't the solution. Maybe it's just maintaining the amount of Aura that's moved. I've been looking at it all wrong. We need a regulator, not a complete barrier...just like the Penny Project--ah, if I just had those plans, I could have done it by now."
What a thought!
"I'm ecstatic about this," Victoria went on. "But I have to know more. I mean, what are the limits?... How much Aura can you not use while using so much magic? Maybe there's a way to mitigate the effects on stamina."
"You're not making sense," Raven said. "Magic boosts Aura but drains stamina. How can you hope to modify that?"
"You have no idea how easy it is once you have the right code," Victoria shrugged. "And you're right: The reason is that magic boosts how much Aura you have for a short time but drains it faster than usual activities--I believe the reason is that human bodies compensate for using a power that is no longer natural to them. But over time the effects get less. My other theory is that slowly transferring magic bit by bit to a human could make them able to retain it naturally. Acclimate to it, as it were. I think the magic from two different people might do it....l No one has tried crossing Maiden powers yet."
"That is insane," Raven said. "You have no idea what you could do if you did that."
"I'm dying to find out," Victoria said. "I'm already planning it out now...but like I said, I need more tests. I need to see how long you can keep that up. Have you ever tried to use the Maiden power in bird form?"
"Not answering that," Raven said.
"I doubt it," Victoria said. "But with enough control, you probably could... That would be such an advantage--stealth mode, but able to cause a storm..." Her eyes got that same manic look in them as before.
"Mother," Kip called suddenly.
"What is it?" Victoria said in a different tone.
"Do you want breakfast?" Kip called.
"Oh...huh, it's morning already." Victoria checked her watch. "Oops...I guess nutrition is important. Well...okay, I'll just put the stimulator on, and then I'll go eat..."
She did so, making Raven's powers appear inside the tank...but the walls nullified any effects from going outside it.
"You hungry, girl?" Victoria looked up at Yang.
"No!" Yang was, but she wasn't going to admit it.
"You really should eat," Victoria said, walking out of the room.
Yang waited till she'd gone to say, "Okay, be honest with me...how screwed are we if she keeps this up?"
Raven gritted her teeth. "I don't know how long I can do this for, but if she keeps reviving me every time, it could take...days. You should think about a way to escape."
"I can't. Even with my Aura back, I can't break this thing." Yang banged on it to no avail.
"Use your head," Raven said. "She seems a little more friendly to you. Perhaps if you played along with this, she'd let you out of the tank. You could run."
"Run where?" Yang said. "I have no idea where I am... Even if I could get her to do that, I don't want her to do something to me..." She shuddered.
"I imagine it will take a few minutes for her to be ready," Raven said. "It might work... It seems like none of this lasts forever..."
"You're suggesting I should just let her in order to get out?" Yang said.
"I don't know, Yang. We have to do things we don't like sometimes." Raven was terse.
"Maybe you do, but I'm not going to be part of this!" Yang said. "How can you suggest it anyway? She's been treating you like some toy!"
"But I'm still alive," Raven said. "Clearly she's not after our deaths. That gives us some leeway."
"Why don't you then?" Yang said.
"I can't!" Raven said. "She's trying to use me. You have a better chance."
"And leave you here?" Yang said.
A pause.
"Well, if you got away you could get help," Raven said.
"If they wanted to help, they'd be here by now." Yang leaned on the glass dejectedly. "Likstar could have found us--she's got the weird Scouting power...l. Face it, they cut us off. We're collateral damage."
"We don't know that. They could have taken the time to plan," Raven said.
"The team didn't like either of us that much," Yang said blandly.
"Your father, my brother, and your sister would never do that," Raven said.
"Maybe they just can't, then," Yang said. "If they could have, they would have. It's not like we're that far away or that they didn't know where...so they just chose not to. Maybe they didn't want to blow cover... I guess we're not worth it."
"This is crazy talk," Raven said more strongly. "And I'm sure no member of the Branwen family would just give up that easily. Now, you snap out of it and start trying to think of an escape plan, before I get angry."
"What are you going to do to me?" Yang said snarkily.
"It won't be me you have to worry about," Raven said significantly.
That was kind of a good comeback...
Yang was annoyed, what was she supposed to do? Victoria was probably too smart to fall for it anyway...
Victoria came back in just minutes later and adjusted the stimulator.
"Now I think I can get both magics to work at once," she said. "And that might finally..."
A storm began to grow inside of the tank...
Raven then turned into a bird.
And...the storm stayed.
Victoria got very excited about this.
Yang felt sick. Whatever she was on the verge of cracking, it didn't bode well.
But what could she do?
Pursing her lips, she suddenly yelled, "Hey...Doctor."
Victoria looked up.
"I'm tired of watching this," Yang said. "You said I could move... I want to move back to the other room."
"Tied up?" Victoria said.
"Whatever," Yang said. "It's not like it matters, but I'm sick of this."
"I suppose now is as good a time as any." Victoria came and lowered the tank.
She unlocked it and Yang stepped out, rubbing her arms.
"I suppose I could tie you up in a chair instead if you wear the Aura-suppressing cuffs." Victoria pulled something out of her apron. "That would be more humane..."
"Didn't you say that you could enhance me?" Yang risked saying this.
Raven glanced at her and frowned.
Victoria paused. "Yes..." she said hopefully.
"I mean...like, how do you do that?" Yang tried to sound like that idea wasn't repulsive. "Do you inject dust?"
"You want to know?" Victoria said, "I could show you right now, actually. Step this way."
She walked up to one of her locked safes.
Yang followed, slowly.
Victoria typed in a code, and one vial of something got deposited outside the box. Like an evil vending machine.
"This is a pretty weak dose," she said. "With time, you can increase it. All you have to do is drink this."
"And what does it do?" Yang asked.
"This one...should increase your fire ability exponentially," Victoria said. "That is the most compatible with you--a lot of Semblances, they have some similarity in dust activity, which is a part of my theory that dust is the crystallized form of ancient magical beings and their powers, which is where our Semblances are derived from, but much, much weaker, and no longer compatible with magic in its pure form so easily, but dust is like a muted form of magic... If I could get dust to store magic, I could probably make more of it..."
Yang tried not to listen.
She glanced at the safe...hmm...
She slowly tapped it. "So this thing is just full of dust serum?"
Yes," Victoria said absently. "I've got scores of combinations, some are still untested--what are you doing?"
Yang had pulled her arm back.
She had stored up some power from hitting the wall of her tank, though she'd had nothing to use it for up till now, and she unleashed all of it and hit the wall of the safe.
Unfortunately, it didn't fully break apart, but she did put a dent in it.
"What have you done?!" Victoria cried.
"Not much..." Yang was disappointed.
"No, you fool! You have most certainly punctured some of those vials. Get back!" Victoria yanked Yang back, and the safe exploded--
Chunks of metal flew different ways, and fire blazed up out of it--but then ice put it out, and rocks began to creep up out of the safe, and part of it floated up to the ceiling with gravity dust attached and froze over that too.
Yang had only broken about 6 vials with that hit, or it likely would have been much worse, but a bunch more clanged to the floor and rattled around.
A few more broke and released dust vapor into the air, and some of it lit on fire but then fizzled out without a target, and some formed into ice and just fell on the ground or rock, or snapped with electricity.
"That was hundreds of lien worth of dust you just wasted!" Victoria was livid. "And one of my biggest safes! How dare you, you ungrateful little nuisance!"
"Mother, what's going on?" Kip flew into the room and then paused and glanced at Raven in horror.
Raven, suddenly sizing the kid up, began to pretend that the effort was hurting her a lot more than it was.
She startled Yang, doing that, and Victoria also.
"What's going on?" Victoria jumped up, forgetting Yang for a second.
Yang sprang to her feet and hit Victoria--but the hit was much weaker. She'd put nearly all of her Aura into the last hit, and it hadn't been that much.
"Hey, leave my Mother alone!" Kip dropped down and grabbed Yang's human and robotic arms both.
Yang squirmed and pulled her human arm free, then detached the metal one and took off running.
Victoria turned around angrily, but then she said, "She's too weak to do anything to him without her weapons. He can handle it. What was that? Nothing should have gone wrong at this stage."
Raven rolled her eyes.
"Oh, it was a trick?" Victoria said. "Not bad, you had me for a second...but you know, I don't really take well to that kind of tomfoolery, or to damaging my stuff. You want me to crank this up? I can do that."
She moved a dial.
The effects went from annoying to painfully intense.
* * *
Yang was lucky to find the door to this hell hole had been left open by Kip when he came in, and she jumped through it while he was still it behind her, but he was too fast for her to get much of a lead.
She kicked it shut behind her, but it didn't lock.
He yanked it open.
Yang ran into the other room and looked for a way out... This wasn't the front room that Neo had found. It seemed more like...the living area of the hideout...just a few pieces of furniture and a TV and counter.
She moved to get more behind the chair.
Kip came in.
"Stop it!" he said. "Wild girl!"
"You leave me alone!" Yang was shaking after all that. "What did I ever do to you, huh?"
"Nothing," Kip said. "But you tried to hurt my mother."
"She's hurting my mother!" Yang shot back.
Kip stopped, confused. "But she's helping her." Puzzled.
"No, she's not!" Yang said. "She's using her! She's been using her, you idiot! She had you kidnap me just to lure her here! D--- it! Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's wrong to kidnap people?"
"But to help them--" Kip said.
"Help them?" Yang scoffed. "Ask us if we feel helped here. She just wanted to take our powers!"
"No..." Kip said.
"Yes!" Yang said. "You haven't listened to a thing she's been saying, have you? It's easier for you to hide in here and do whatever your mommy tells you than to think for yourself! Maybe you should ask some questions about what really goes on with this prison! Look what she did to you."
"That was to save me," Kip said.
"Well, we're not dying," Yang said. "But we might be if she keeps this up."
"My mother wouldn't do that. She's a good mom," Kip said.
"Sure," Yang said. "Hey, why did you sneak out of the house then?"
Kip froze. "Don't tell her I did that," he said.
Yang frowned. "I totally will," she said. "I'll go back in there and tell her!"
"No, she'll never let me out again!" Kip said.
"Well, that's better for me. You can't kidnap any more of my friends then," Yang said. "If you take me back in there, I'll tell her everything!"
Kip looked conflicted. "I... But you..."
"Can I have my arm back?" Yang asked.
He tossed it at her.
She put it back on.
"Your mom wants help from Pietro," she said carefully. "Right? Well, maybe if you help me a little, I could talk to him."
"I can't let you go," Kip said. "She'd be furious... Anyway she wants you here."
Yang pursed her lips... Strategy was not her thing... How could she use her leverage like this?
"Okay...fine, you have to lock me up," she said. "But maybe you could just put me in some room like this that's not as...spooky."
"I could put you in the cellar," Kip offered. "That has our food in it. It's a lot nicer than the testing room."
Sounded easier to break out of it...
"Right," Yang said. "Well, food sounds good...and then I won't tell her about you sneaking out."
"Really?" Kip said.
"Promise." Yang couldn't believe he was buying this... Kid couldn't have ever been lied to before.
"All right," Kip said. "This way." He went to a trapdoor that was just next to the living room and opened it.
"Dang it, it's kind of dark," Yang said. "If I hadn't dropped my scroll..."
"This?" Kip pulled one out of his pocket. "I picked it up when I got you. I thought it might be important..."
"That--yes, that's a light," Yang said.
Apparently Kip didn't have a scroll, because he bought that. "Oh, here." he handed it back.
"Thanks," Yang said. "I guess you should lock me in now, so you don't get in trouble."
"Yeah," Kip said.
Yang jumped down into the cellar, and Kip lowered the door and pulled the bolt over it.
Yang lit up her scroll and looked around... A lot of food...like they were saving for a famine.
She grabbed a package. She was starving anyway.
Now...she should be able to break the door with enough Aura boost...but how would she get out of here?
This wasn't that much of an improvement without some kind of way to get outside.
Looking around, suddenly she found another metallic/stone door in the back of the room... What was this?
* * *
Victoria suddenly got a message on her own scroll.
"You've got to be kidding me," she said, leaving the room with Raven still using her powers.
"Hey!" Raven called. "Stop this! It's reaching critical mass!"
But she was ignored.
Outside, Victoria found Watts and Hazel.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"You look a little frazzled," Watts said. "Late night?"
"Go to h---," Victoria said.
"Victoria, do you know Hazel?" Watts said.
Hazel looked down at her without much emotion.
"I think...yes, he's one of your cronies, isn't he?" Victoria thought Theo had mentioned him being in Vacuo... Hadn't he said he switched sides? Or was that the other one?...
"I've given your request some thought, and I think I have a prospect for you," Watts said. "Might we come in?"
"I'm right in the middle of something right now," Victoria said.
"What?" Watts said.
She frowned.
"We know that Raven Branwen is missing," Hazel spoke, in his gruff way. "We've been tracking her movements ourselves."
Victoria pursed her lips.
"Busted," Watts smirked. "You have been a busy little inventor, Victoria."
"Alchemist," Victoria corrected. "You cheap hack... Well, is this the part where you blackmail me?"
"On the contrary, we want to help," Watts said. "I think I've just the idea that might bring all this together, if you'll hear us out, but I'm afraid time is of the essence. You see...she might be on her way here."
"Her?" Victoria assumed he meant either Salem or Cinder... That could wreck everything!
"Her," Watts said significantly.
"S---," Victoria swore. "All right, come in...but hang on, I have to go...turn something off. Wait here in the foyer."
That meant the part of the mansion that led to the trap door.
Victoria went and opened it, carelessly leaving the trap door open as she went down.
Neo moved out of the background with the mouse on her hat still and nodded at them.
"Hurry it up, you little minion," Watts said. "She'll be onto this sooner or later."
Neo flipped him off also and then she camouflaged herself into a shadow and slipped down the steps.
"I hope she's good," Hazel muttered.
* * *
Victoria turned off the thing on Raven's tank, not a second too soon--Raven had gone very pale.
"Might have pushed a little too far," Victoria mused. "I think I've created an imbalance... I can fix it, but it'll have to wait. Just don't move at all. I've got a situation to deal with. Don't make me knock you out again."
She left the room.
Neo melted out of the background and motioned at Raven, who looked up and then gave a start.
Neo put a finger to her lips.
Little peered over her hat. "The bird is inside a cage," she said.
Raven glanced at the mouse.
Neo motioned at Raven like "talk".
"How can we get her out?" Little asked.
Raven pointed to the control pad.
Neo skipped over to it and looked over it, then she shook her head and mimed typing out something. Then she morphed into Victoria.
"Passcode..." Raven understood.
She crawled to the edge of the tank. "There might be another way. Do you see that half destroyed safe there?... There should be some vials in it, some kind of elixir that imitates dust... If you can find a yellowish-red one, you might be able to blow this cage up. I can't..."
Neo stepped over a lot of wreckage and peered at the safe... It had vials inside, but a lot of them Victoria had already retrieved and put on a higher shelf.
Neo turned and made a questioning gesture.
"A red one?" Little said. "Maybe there is one somewhere."
"They went everywhere..." Raven said.
Little scampered over the floor and crawled under some of the equipment.
Neo climbed on top of the safe to check the shelf, and she held up a blue one.
"Ice," Raven said. "Maybe something else too."
Black.
"Gravity...and ice also."
Yellow.
"It might work," Raven said. "Not sure."
"Small human!" Little called. "I think I have found a few extra of the strange glowing cattails. Here, under this strange box."
The box was a filing cabinet that probably has some notes in it.
Neo slid it aside. It made a nasty scraping sound, but of course, no one would have heard it.
There were a few vials under here--and just their luck, one of them was red.
Neo plucked it up and threw it at the tank.
"Wait!" Raven had been going to say they should time this carefully.
Instead the glass and the wall did shatter, and electricity also crackled over the cage and probably fried some circuits.
Raven tried to get back, but it still seared her slightly.
And then the alarms went off.
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"
Neo moved to Raven and pulled her up, with annoyance.
"There's still Yang," Raven said, over the sound of the alarm.
Neo shrugged.
"What is that growling noise?" Little asked.
The mouse's keen ears had picked it up before theirs, but then they heard it too.
And they heard grinding. In the back of the room, some doors were sliding up into the ceiling...
Raven and Neo looked in astonishment.
And things came out of the doors.
A couple were normal animals--appeared to be wild dogs, which were native to Vacuo's desert.
But then what came in, hard to see at first, were Grimm.
Grimm that didn't look right. They had strange marks running along their bodies...
"Is that...dust?" Raven said in a hollow voice.
Neo just looked terrified.
The Grimm sniffed the air and then all looked right at her.
"Run!" Raven choked out.
Neo began to run, attempting to bring Raven with her.
The dogs ran after them, and the Grimm charged.
Neo dashed around some of the machines, and the animals jumped over it.
She let go of Raven in her hurry, and the Grimm--ran right past Raven and just went after her.
But of course, Raven's Aura was almost gone, and the Grimm could hardly sense her without it. They were going to be drawn to the target that had more fear and more energy.
The dogs did not have any such issue.
They started snapping at Raven's feet, and she kicked at them frantically, then she grabbed a long tool off the table nearest to her where it had been carelessly left, it seemed, and hit one of them in the head with it.
The dogs backed off, not so sure now.
Raven started to form some magic in her hand. She didn't have much, but she made a fire.
The dogs glared at it, then they ran for it.
Raven then turned into a bird.
She flew upward and followed Neo, who was trying to stave off the Grimm and had stabbed at one with her umbrella's sword.
The Grimm had yellow marks strung along its fur.
Without warning, yellow electricity snaked over Neo's umbrellas and up her arm, frying half of her body.
She let go and fell back, dizzy.
Raven landed in front of her and resumed human form.
"Get back!" Fire came out of her eyes.
The Grimm snarled at her, but hesitated.
Raven could feel her stamina going, however.
"Get up." She kicked Neo furiously. "This is no time for a nap! You can nurse your wounds later."
Neo moaned--though without a voice it was pretty quiet--and tried to push herself up. Her arm seemed kind of numb.
* * *
Yang heard some kind of alarm going on upstairs and went very quiet.
But the last thing she thought would happen happened.
The door in the back of the cellar slid open, and Theo himself came out of it.
"Vic, are you in here?" he called, seeing Yang and mistaking her for Victoria. It was too dark to see clearly.
But then he held up a light and saw it was Yang. He stopped dead still.
A very awkward pause ensued.
"What are you doing here?" Theo finally said.
"Oh, you know, looking for snacks," Yang said, angrily. "I think I might have you for lunch." Her guns popped out of her metal arm, and she charged at Theo.
He ducked her easily. "Kid, I really don't want to do this right now."
"You don't get a choice!" Yang said.
"I had a feeling you'd say that." Theo put his hand to his belt and took out a knife.
[AMV-- Get Off Of My Back, by Lightning-in-my-Hand]
[Uh oh...
Bet the Grimm were a surprise... Yeah, Victoria is kind of a sick person. If the last few chapters hadn't made that clear already.]