Fortune Favors The Prepared

I sat in one of the buildings that was not as destroyed as the others around it and was close enough for me to have the entrance of white fang's hideout in my sight. 

Two nights had passed and I only had something resembling a plan. Once again, I am not a professional fighter or combat genius so I have to be smart about this. 

Like my mom always said, with the prep time and the right tools, you can do anything. I'm pretty sure she got that from Batman but she never admitted it. 

Onto my tools for my self imposed mission. After some work, I fit a shrinking and a dismantling enchantment to a rod, a confusion ability on another one, then there were still the ones I made for unlocking and mending items. 

Each pocket in my pants had a largely expanded space, my shoes enchanted with silence and the ability to let me step on air. 

I haven't figured out how to constantly use my aura as a shield so I added a shielding effect to my ring. I don't plan on entering a fight but I equipped a rod with the ability to shoot lightning and fire just in case. 

There's a lot of them and only one of me. I don't like those odds at all. 

That's as prepared as I can get. Cinder plans to blow a hole into Vale for the Grimm to attack, I plan to get rid of the bombs.

Hopefully Cinder's still playing student at Beacon or Haven. I can't really remember which one she's in at the current time but I know that I'm definitely not prepared enough to face her directly. 

Let's hope for the best. 

On the third night, with my aura tank full and my body well rested, I watched the patrol team of the night from afar until they decided to return to their base. As usual, there are only two of them.

As they return, I once again wait a full minute before sneaking in as well. I was soon greeted by the sight I witnessed before. 

Glancing around, I see the duo not too far ahead and on their way down to the large number of faunus. 

As we get to the ground floor, I see the train and a number of people moving in and out of it to carry out tasks. It seems like they don't understand the value of sleep, not that I could talk. I haven't slept in over four days.

Separating from my oblivious guides, I moved to the front of the long train. Seeing nobody close enough to notice, I pull out a rod, pointing it at the front tire of the train. 

With a silent pop, the tire fell to pieces, the dismantling rod doing its thing. I quickly did the same to the other tires, the locomotive creaking slightly at the loss. 

That is a precaution in case I'm not able to stop the bombs. At least they'll have some trouble getting the train to move and without the train they'll have a little trouble making that hole into Vale unless they wanted to spare a bomb to do that. 

I'm honestly surprised when nobody came to inspect it. I'm not racist but these guys aren't very observant, are they? Better for me I guess. 

Hopping into the air, I gained my balance as the air beneath my feet solidified. It's a weird feeling but that's something I'll think about later. A few more hops in the air and I'm standing atop the train. 

It doesn't take me long to find the compartment where the bomb is placed. After a quick look around, I pulled it open as quietly as I could, pointing the rod at it and internally praying that it wouldn't blow up in my face. 

To my relief, the bomb came apart easily, separating into multiple pieces of metal and wiring. With a use of the rod's shrinking ability, those pieces were downsized and stashed safely in my pocket. 

One down, many more to go. 

——

Twelve…that's how many bombs these lunatics had. They'd only placed ten of them and had the last two prepped to be placed later. 

Maybe it's just me but I don't see how this helps with faunus rights. Either way, I managed to dismantle and shrink all of them into my pocket. That's the good news. 

The bad news is that they're now on alert after somebody went to pick up one of the bombs to put it in place only to find both gone. 

"I don't understand! I put it in here just yesterday!" One of the white fang members said, standing over the empty compartment that was supposed to hold a bomb. 

"Well it's not there now, is it?" Roman Torchwick said, standing beside him with a deep frown on his cigar smoking lips. 

A call from another faunus standing over another compartment far ahead got their attention. "They're all gone! The bombs aren't here!"

Roman's eyes widened before looking around suspiciously. 

"Oh someone is playing games and I don't like it." He said, pulling the cigar out. "Search the entire place, nobody goes in or out of here!"

Standing in the air high above them, I held in a curse. The one time I need them to continue being idiots. Looking towards the entrance I came in through, I see two faunus already at the door, guns out.

Shit! What should I do?

As they spread out to search around, I ran above the air and into one of the many abandoned buildings through the broken window. 

Still invisible, I peek out through the window to see them all scattering and scouring the place in search of me. Grabbing a rod from my pocket, I quickly added a silence enchantment to it. 

Any melee attack made with it will make no sound whatsoever. Satisfied, I move out the window, once again treading on air. 

It takes me a while but soon I'm near the entrance but there is one tiny problem. It's closed and opening it would alert them so I couldn't just slip away. 

Grabbing the rod I enchanted with the confusion ability much earlier, I pointed it to one of them, causing him to stumble in place. 

"Huh? What's going on?" He asked out loud in a dizzy voice, alerting his companion. "Where am I?"

"Um, Dave? What are you talking about?" The other faunus asked his confused partner. 

"Who's Dave?" The befuddled faunus asked. 

Before the other could question his partner's sudden delirium, I pulled out the rod of silence, whacking him on the head. Despite the lack of sound from the collision, I'm pretty sure I broke something. 

His skull isn't supposed to bend in that way. The other faunus, still under the effects of the rod, could barely comprehend the fact that his partner was down. 

Before he could make any more befuddled statements, I gave him the same treatment to the head, taking him down to the floor. 

After a moment of thought, I grabbed the white fang masks off their faces as well as the black bracers on their forearms, stuffing it in my pocket. 

More things for me to enchant! I didn't stop there, grabbing their guns as well as looting their bodies for anything valuable. Other than some lien and their scrolls, there was nothing else important enough to take. 

With my looting done, I made my escape through the door. This would no doubt confirm that someone was here but that's by the way. They already know that something's wrong. 

All in a night's work. 

-[Cinder Fall]-

"What do you mean the bombs are missing?" She ground out slowly. 

If glares could kill, Torchwick would be dead three times over with how intensely she glared at him through her scroll.

"It means exactly what it means. One moment the bombs were there and then the next, they were gone." Torchwick said, barely managing to contain his annoyance, the snarl on his face not doing him any justice. 

"And you're sure none of Taurus' men took it?" She asked. 

The thief let out a scoff. "They're animals but they're not that stupid. Plus, we found two of them dead so I highly doubt that."

That was true. No matter how angry faunus were about their discrimination or how much they hate humans, they wouldn't go as far as murdering their own. 

That didn't help her. Somebody was messing with her plans and they needed to be dealt with. 

"Keep searching. Whoever is responsible has to still be around somewhere. Find them and end them." Not waiting for the man to respond, she ended the call. 

Incompetent fools, all of them! She didn't claw her way to getting part of the maiden's power and strong arming Torchwick and the white fang only for some pest to just wreck everything.

Forcing a breath to calm herself, she turned to Mercury and Emerald who sat obedient on the bed. Her two loyal minions. 

"What do we do now?" Emerald asked. 

That was the most important question. Getting more bombs on such short notice would be impossible. There was also the fact that whoever stole the ones they had could do it again. 

The fact that they were able to sneak through a large gathering of faunus, snatch the bombs and kill two of the faunus all without being seen gave the picture of a dangerous foe. 

Until they were found and put down, that would be the main priority for the white fang under Roman. 

"We wait. Another opportunity will present itself but for now, be on alert. Whoever did this, we have no idea how much he or she knows." She answered, earning nods from both of them before turning to Mercury. 

"There's still the 'Invincible girl' to worry about. Learn as much as you can about her and how she fights, I'll leave that to you." The gray haired teen nodded lazily. 

Despite his seemingly nonchalant attitude, she knew Mercury was quite competent. After all, that was why she picked him in the first place. 

-[Corvus]-

These guys really don't let up. Even after I escaped the underground city, it didn't take long before the white fang began pouring out of their hideout. 

The previously empty streets were now filled with armed white fang members roaming in search of me. Shaking my head, I forced down the guilt that came after the adrenaline left me. 

I'm not a fool, I know those two faunus are dead. It's not like I really had a choice in the matter. It's either them or me, I'll pick myself every time. 

I favored high vantage points to hide in, it allows me to have a good view of the land. From said vantage point, I can see the grimm moving towards the surrounding faunus, their frustration and probable anger at my murders making them a beacon for the creatures. 

Putting those out of my mind for a moment, I pulled out my loot. Two scrolls, some money, two guns, two masks and two pairs of bracers. 

Starting with the guns, with my new knowledge of weapons, it only took me a moment to know what parts to begin enchanting. In about a minute, I had a silenced gun with a magazine that refilled itself and shot bullets with greater force and precision. 

Even in modern days, 'silenced' guns only had the sound muffled rather than actually being silenced. 

I repeated the process for the other gun before placing them to the side. The next to be enchanted were the bracers. This took a while because only after the bracers kept burning up did I realize that it couldn't handle more than one enchantment, that being one to double my melee strength. 

I'm not heavily built so it's quite needed on my part. The feeling of putting it on was weird but fascinating as I somewhat felt the effects. 

Before I could go further, I heard footsteps in my rather hollow hideout. Quickly stashing my goods back except for the guns, I pulled my hood back up, turning me invisible and moved to lean in the corner. 

Not more than three seconds after I did that, one of the white fang strolled in, gun out and ready. Rather than leaving after seeing the place empty, he seemed fixated on where I previously sat. 

Looking closer, I then notice the dog nose that he sported in place of a human one. That's not good. If his nose is as good as I think then he'll probably be able to find me now that he has my scent. 

My hand on the trigger trembled for a moment. I dared not breathe loudly as I raised my enchanted gun, still invisible. Apparently that didn't matter as he then turned to face my direction in apprehension. 

I stopped thinking, letting my body decide for me and pulling the trigger. I underestimated how good my enchantments are, that was evident as the gun trembled after the shot, the dog faunus now sporting a bullet hole at the way through his forehead. 

The shot may have been silent but the bullet wasn't, hitting the wall behind him and making a sound. 

"What was that?!" Somebody said, alerting me to the fact that the faunus wasn't alone. Footsteps followed before they came to a stop closeby. "Oh God!"

I moved quickly, now looking down the stairs the previous Faunus had come through, another one standing there, staring at his dead comrade. I didn't let him react further, pulling the trigger once more, leaving a similar hole in his head. 

So the masks don't actually provide any protection, good to know I guess. The pooling blood makes me nauseous but I push that feeling down as I loot the two corpses. More lien, scrolls and guns but I don't really need their guns so I'll leave that. There's a knife which I'll gladly take. 

I pause upon pulling something out of the second faunus' pocket, a ring. Guilt wells up in me as I realize what it is, an engagement ring. 

I'm officially a bad person but it's better to be bad than to be dead. Channeling my aura into it, I already know what I want to use it for. 

I smiled as I felt the enchantment set. I now have a storage ring. Another thing I figured out while experimenting with my semblance is that I can enhance previously placed enchantments, making them better. 

That's exactly what I'm doing with the ring, increasing the small pocket dimension inside it many folds. Satisfied, I empty my pockets, stashing all my items inside my new hammer space. 

At the cost of investing almost half my aura on this single enchantment, the space in the ring is the equivalent to that of a small room. With all of that space, I don't mind the extra guns, stashing them in it as well. 

With my pilfering done, I contemplated my next move. I stopped the bombs but now I'm being hunted. I could probably call an emergency line to get help here or something but I'm not satisfied. 

In the grand scheme of things, I've only slowed Cinder down a bit. Canon was as good as fucked already so why bother stopping now?

As it stood, I had a list of options to consider. Option one; Find a way to deal with all of the white fang here. By doing that, there's a chance that the others who hear about it will start having doubts about working with Cinder. 

Option two; kill all the Grimm on mountain Glenn. The Faunus and Grimm are already tearing each other apart so that's a win for me. 

Option three; kill the ancient grimm hidden at the top of this mountain. Option four; kill Roman Torchwick. The problem with this is that I don't want to face Neo one on one. She'd kill me, plain and simple. 

That leaves option three. Kill the ancient Grimm that destroyed part of Beacon Tower and can spawn more Grimm…I hate my life.