I hadn't been there for long, only about a week, but I had the strange feeling I hadn't signed up for the role of a trained assassin as I had imagined. This was mainly do to the fact that, instead of killing, Torchwick had been wasting my skills on robbery. I mean- I know that their plan, whatever it is, probably required a large amount of dust, but why the hell was I working under that man? I could have stealthily taken care of his jobs by myself, but NO, he needs to swagger up with a uniformed posey like the drag queen that he is to alert everybody that knows his face, which is on wanted posters by the way, that he's here to rob them.
First of all- You know what, I'm not even gonna get into that. I didn't come to rant about my BS job, I went to complete the mission given to me by master Baroque. Find the relic and call Baroque, simple as that. Of course, the first of those two steps would be a bit more challenging than expected, as it involved infiltrating Beacon academy, as easy as that was. The problem was getting to/finding the vault and then getting the maiden to open it. My plan was to just hang around Cinder long enough to get to/open the vault, and then killing her and her subordinates, and getting the hell out of there. And let me tell you, I was getting nowhere fast with this job.
"Akida! Akida! Hellooo, you in there?"
I came back to reality, Torchwick in my face, poking my helmet with the end of his cane.
"Sorry, late night." I said.
"Don't care, I have an actual job for you."
He shoved his scroll in my face and began scrolling through pictures of men and women.
"These lovely individuals are members of another crime group on the rise in Vale and have been interfering with business. I think you know where I'm going with this."
"I understand, where can I find them?" I asked.
"You won't have to, we're gonna pull a heist in their neighborhood as loudly as flashily as possibly. They come out, you take care of them, we get away. Simple, sweet, and easy. Just don't mess this up, capiche?"
"Understood." I said.
About two hours later the plan was in action. I was set up on top of a building with a good view of "Garder's Dust." Roman and some lackeys went in and shot guns at the ceiling to attract attention, shooting some shots outside for extra effect. As they grabbed all the dust they could from the cashier, I noticed a group of people shrouded in shadows in the alley next to the dust shop. One peaked their head around and they matched a brown haired woman from the photos.
I jumped down from my post and landed on the shorter building next to it, using my aura to absorb the fall damage, doing the same to scale down the smaller building and into the alley. Peaking around the corner, I saw that a few of them had vanished, probably trying to reach a better vantage point. I looked around me and found a beer bottle that wasn't quite empty yet and decided to use it as best I could.
I exited the alley, walking like a drunk with the bottle in my hand. I crossed the street and entered the alley way, easily being noticed my the people there, but not being taken too seriously.
"Hey." I said in a drunken manner, putting my arm around the middle man's neck, "You know what day it is?"
They quickly pulled out a knife and set it to my throat, "Get off."
His teammates had taken notice, pointing their guns at me, one a semi automatic, the other a plain hand gun. Though, they were already too late. Long spikes burst from my arm and hand, stabbing through the middle man's throat and destroying the other's guns while also going through the front woman's head. I stabbed through the back one's arm to make them scream in pain, couldn't tell if they were a man or a woman, screamed like a little girl though. After a moment I stabbed through their head as well. They never even saw it coming.
My spikes receded and their lifeless bodies hit the ground. Soon a man in a long white coat and a man with a machete came around the corner.
"Dario what's-"
Before the man in white could finish speaking, I'd stabbed through his head, through the through to the other man's head. People on the street who saw them screamed and presumably ran away. I tossed the bottle into the next alley over, where it broke and got rid of the problem of having it on me.
And just like that it was over. I walked back to base undetected and sat right back down on the wooden crate where Roman first told me about the job. Got my pay from Torchwick for the extra work, went back to my hotel room and watched some news before turning it off and going to sleep. All in a day's work.
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It was the dead of night by the time we'd arrived. We had stopped in a clearing by the tall wooden walls of the Naga tribe's camp. The ground was more sandy than it was grassy, and there was a large boulder at the edge of the clearing.
"So this is the spot?" Maxie asked.
"Yep, the clearing with the big grey boulder on the east side, exactly where Peach said to meet." Arcenciel confirmed.
I leaned up against the boulder and we all spread out to our own little spots to fidget around until their guy showed up, Vasta hunched over with her hands on the ground next to Arcenciel.
"So, what are you thinking so far?" Houzer asked, leaning against the boulder next to me.
"I think your guy is late." I said.
"No, not about the mission. I meant what do you think about the camp so far?"
"Oh, I mean, I haven't really gotten to experience the camp yet. It's been like 9 hours since I met all of you." I said.
"And as far as first impressions go, we're pretty great right?" Houzer asked.
"I guess, yeah. I think I'm starting to see how you guys work together." I said, "Arcenciel's the calm and caring leader. She's the smart reliable one. Ma- Greyscale is the angry hardass. And you're the comedy relief tough guy."
"Scratch the tough guy part." Maxie said, walking over to us, "He's basically the comedy relief."
"So? That just means I have a better sense of humor than you."
"I won't deny that, but where do you think you fit in newbie?" Maxie asked.
"Oh, uhh, I guess I'm just the new guy right now. I haven't exactly done anything cool or outstanding since I got here." I said.
"And it's only been a day man, you'll do something cool eventually. And maybe you'll even get your memories back doing it." Houzer said.
"You could also never get your memories back at all. Gonna have to give you a new name if that happens." Maxie said.
"Someone's coming!" Vasta whisper shouted.
"Get ready." Arcenciel ordered.
The three of us stopped our talking and looked in the direction Vasta was, Houzer stepping forward and holding his hammer with both hands, kinda like a long police baton.
A man came out of the woods. He had somewhat drained skin and black, spikes hair that reached the top of his back. His chin was a bit wide, and his eyes had a gloomy air about the. His yellowish brown pants had rough black snake and diamond patterns on them. A dark grey dress shirt that exposed part of his chest was tucked in neatly, gold and silver rings decorated his fingers on birth hands, and a large black coat with brown fur highlights that went down to his heels put it all together, all coming down to sharp black dress shoes.
"Howdy Quincy." The man said in a deep raspy voice.
"Peach." Arcenciel said, walking forward and shaking his hand, "Took you long enough."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I can't leave yet." Peach said.
"What do you mean? We agreed on tonight." Arcenciel asked.
"There's something I have to take care of." Peach argued, walking wast Arcenciel.
"Card to explain?" Arcenciel asked as Peach sat on a nearby rock.
The rest of us were basically just spectators, I mean, I had been all day, but the rest of the team was dead silent for a change.
"For the longest time, it's been a mystery to our tribe how the Naga bandits gained so much wealth and power, arguably enough to rival us. They're very secretive about their business, I had to raise several ranks in order to even hear about it, and admittedly, part of me wishes I hadn't..." Peach said, rubbing his eyes with his right hand, "They're slave traders. For years they've been selling off their captured victims as slaves, but not all of them. The grown women are sold off for sex to the highest bidders, and the men are simply worked to death. It's the children that they sell. Most are shipped off to Undrum, some are shipped to Vacuo and Mystral, while they're biggest partners are in Atlas."
"Schnee." Houzer said.
"Precisely. And that's why I can't leave, I need to stop this shipment. I've been looking at their statistics for years now, and I know that if they miss this months export, it will leave them wide open trying to get more in a hurry." Peach explained.
Arcenciel started pacing, his hand on his chin.
"Alright, we'll help you." Arcenciel said, exciting the others slightly, "But to me more specific, I'll help you. We can use the classic of you capturing me as a prisoner, but my team will have to stay out here. There's too many of us for this to not be suspect if we all go."
That put everybody back down again, but Peach seemed pretty happy about it still.
"Thank you Quincy, but I don't exactly have anything to fake restrain you with."
"Houzer." Arcenciel called.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Houzer said, pulling a pair of handcuffs out of inside his coat and handing them to Peach, along with a silver key.
Peach went to Arcenciel, who put his arms together and let him put the cuffs on, keeping his arms in the front.
"We'll be back soon, but if we aren't back in two hours I want you four out of here, understood?" Arcenciel ordered.
"You know we don't." Houzer threw back.
"Understood!" Vasta and Maxie said.
I just saluted.
"Alright, let's move out." Arcenciel said, leaving with Peach into the enemy territory.
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"This is the place." Roman said.
It was the middle of the night, the only time we were really able to work together, during the day I was stuck with Cinder, and if I were to disappear during the day it would be a bit suspicious. And we couldn't afford suspicion.
"Now the only question is how to get you in there." Roman said, lighting a cigarette and crossing his arms.
We were outside of a large police station. Our goal was to sneak in and get access to their drives, they had to have something on Cinder, Akida, or at the very least a bunch of White Fang members. I noticed a vent on the wall, only problem was that it was on the second floor.
I tapped Roman's shoulder and pointed to the small grated rectangle.
"Good eye kid, but, uhh, how the hell are we supposed to get you up there?" He asked.
I looked around saw a large green dumpster with bunch of cardboard boxes and some broken glass bottles next to it. I showed it to Roman, who then helped me to move it below the small entrance. I was too short to reach it on my own, so Roman had to climb on top and lift me up to the grate.
The sound of breaking glass came from our left, around the back of the building's back. "Freeze!"
We turned to see a female officer pointing a small black gun at us, she looked about my height with all brown hair.
"Put your hands where I can see them!"
I looked to Roman, who just got a stupid grin on his face, it was a very "I have an idea" grin.
He then immediately threw me at the officer, who was too surprised to act. I landed on my feet in front of them and swiftly kicked her face, knocking her into the wall, which knocked her out.
Upon further inspection, she seemed a bit taller than me, nothing heels wouldn't fix.
"Nice work kid!" Roman said, jogging over.
I simply gave him a death stare and he stopped in his tracks.
"It worked alright. Just take her clothes off and put them on you so you can get in there."
Fucking perv. I touched the collar on my jacket and used my semblance to change it to her police uniform and took her hat and gun. I also changed my hair and eyes to match hers, or at least what I saw of them.
"Oh right, that." Roman said disappointedly.
I held out my palm and he handed me the drive, which I put in my inner jacket pocket.
"Just make sure you don't seem too suspicious. One alarm and I'm outta here, got it?"
I nodded and headed through the back door, which put me into a hallway leading to the front desk, but there was an elevator in the hallway, so I just took that to the second floor instead. The doors opened to a bunch of desks, all with a person either looking something up or making a call.
They didn't seem to notice me come in, so I walked around the side towards a door at the back of the room, an office with large window shades concealing the contents of said office.
"Hey Ranika~"
Another officer, much taller than myself put his arm around the back of my neck.
"You know I was thinking, if you weren't too busy later, we could maybe grab a coffee and-"
He was cut off by me kicking him in the sack, something that didn't go unnoticed, but unaddressed.
"Maybe later." He said weakly, falling to the floor and cupping his junk.
I walked to the door in the back, but was stopped by another cop.
"Sorry, major's out sick tonight." A tall black guy said, a quick glance and I saw his name tag read Telika.
"Oh, my bad, must have slipped my mind." I said, speaking for the first time in Oum knows how long, it would have been a bit suspicious if I said nothing after all.
"You could probably call him though." He suggested.
I went over to the desks and walked around until I found the one with Ranika Hammond written on it. I sat down and shook the mouse, the computer immediately turned on, guess she didn't have a password, lucky me. I clicked the small - I'm the corner on the tab she had open on an article about proper dieting and opened a new one, looking around to make sure nobody was looking at my screen.
I accessed the computers files until I found one that contained info on foreign criminals and another in the White Fang, both of which I began downloading. I opened the dieting tab again and used it to both cover up my downloading progress and contain my boredom while I waited, occasionally moving it our of the way to check my progress. While reading I came to some shocking revelations about what I was eating, I mean, how could milk be that fattening? Still not going vegan, but it was good to know.
Ugh, well anyways, I got the info I needed in about 10 minutes. I took the drive back and headed out, waving back to anybody who waved at me before the elevator closed.
I met Roman, who was smoking another cigar, out back and showed him the drive.
"Alright, way to go Neo, now let me see that." He said.
I held it back and put my palm forward to signal him to stop.
"What now?"
I shook the drive and pointed to my face.
"What? Why?"
I pointed to my mouth and acted like I couldn't talk.
"Ugh, fine. But I want that once you're done with that alright?"
I nodded and shook his hand. He thought he was slick and switch out the drive for a fake, which I promptly switch back around before he could notice,
"A pleasure doing business with you Neo." Roman said, walking on his marry way.
I tossed the cop her hat and gun, leaving her on the ground as I changed back to my regular appearance. After that, it was a simple matter of sneaking back into my room at the academy and hiding the drive under my mattress. Until further notice, I would rate my mission a complete and total success.