(A/N: Guys...the writing streak has died. Ah, well, it was a generational run for me. I'll let you know when I'm picking one up again but that whole experience has left me confident enough to say I'll be dropping at least three chapters a week until I do.)
XOXO
Mistral's black market was far more than what could be found on its surface. I'd seen that firsthand now. But it was also more than that hub of bright lights full of distractions that covered up the kind of things such a place truly thrived on.
Warehouses. Far more obscure and increasingly illegal shops. Even places for people to stay permanently if they preferred spending all their time within the mountain or just needed a place to hide indefinitely.
Arm shooting across and tightening against the neck of a patrolling guard dressed in dark clothing and a padded vest, I pulled them back behind some crates, their fallen rifle caught and brought along using telekinesis. Their struggle, so weak that it didn't budge my arm in the slightest, came to an end after only a few seconds. I placed their limp form among the crates I'd been hiding amongst and peeked out once more.
The tunnels throughout the mountains led to so many different things the black market might as well have been its own society, governed by a delicate balance between several less than savory groups. Miss Malachite was breaking that balance in the process of bringing this entire place under her control.
And the narrow tunnel I'd made my way through, secretly prepared by Spider, led into the compound of that group.
At the center of the sizable and well lit chamber was a large metal building. Little care was given to style, its simple shape favoring defensibility. Its few windows were high up and out of reach while the roof of the building had two different people patrolling its railed edge with rifles in hand. Fencing, tall and electrified, surrounded it, more guards on patrol on both sides of it. And, as I guided the reach of my telekinesis through the few openings I could find, it was clear that the building itself was full of far more, scattered cameras working in conjunction with them to deter any intruders.
I didn't care to pry too deeply into details but the important bits that Miss Malachite shared about them was turning out to be true. No doubt experienced with the weaponry they walked around with but what little aura training they did have was a rush job, all of their energy unrefined. Good enough for a basic shield that could take a hit or two and save their life but nothing to be proud of.
Still with so many of them around and the few cameras throughout the place, getting in and out without causing a commotion could be a bit of challenge.
But if everything was on track-
"Move! Move!" Hurried footsteps accompanied the loud command, a group of the men rushing out of the main building, the electrical fencing sliding open for them. A few on guard were called to joined them as well as people from some of the smaller buildings around the chamber, all leaving through the tunnel straight ahead.
Spider must've been going after something important to them to call for so many heading out like that.
There were still a good number of people around but slipping in and out before anyone knew I was ever here just got a whole lot more realistic.
As the surveying cameras aimed at my position turned away, I darted out of cover and leaped, telekinesis used to boost the jump and keep a few cameras in place for a few seconds longer. Clearing the fence as I tucked my feet in, the window I aimed for unlocked and slid open, a quick roll seeing me crouched within a small room full of metal shelves and crates.
Sneaking around wasn't something I needed to do often but, as always, Glynda's semblance lent itself to the job.
I quickly spread the reach of my telekinesis through every part of the building I could reach from here.
Now I just needed to find the twins.
XOXO
"Damn that woman." Slowing my steps, I stopped outside a room. Two people, a desk between them, and a spinning ceiling fan. Some kind of office with nothing noteworthy about it from what I felt. What caught my interest was the fact that they were standing around talking. Just about everyone else in this place was following some kind of route or maintaining a set position, all keeping on high alert after that group left.
"What about those brats? We could-"
"No." The first voice said sharply. "The only reason we haven't ended up like the others is because of them. That greedy bitch won't attack us directly for now. We do anything to them that she catches wind of and we won't be dealing with these half assed attempts to draw us out. Better we hunker down and force her to come to us for an agreement."
It sounded like Spider, Miss Malachite specifically, had the same far reaching reputation here as they did beyond it. The twins were probably alive and well, just imprisoned.
And I was pretty sure I'd already figured out where.
Silently rushing down the long metal hall, as I neared a corner, I pulled open a door around it with telekinesis. The guard just about to reach the corner separating us, turned, cautiously stepping towards the door, completely oblivious to me rushing past and heading down the stairway at the opposite end of the hall. All the while cameras were avoided with a bit of timing or the help of telekinesis.
I didn't stop my descent until I reached the bottom most floor, deep within the building's expansive basements. A single guard, standing beside a dark cell door, raised their rifle, mouth opening. With a pull of my hand, their aura shield slow to form, they stumbled right into my rush, one of my hands grasping their neck and the other forcing their weapon aside before a shot could be fired. Slamming them against the wall, they managed nothing more than choked gasps until they finally went limp, slumping against the wall as I let go.
This floor was different than the others. They hadn't bothered with any of the metal plating or any kind of infrastructure really, nearby lamps keeping the craggy walls and floor lit. It was more like an after thought and considering the cell door, I imagined it acted as a prison.
It'd explain why the conditions weren't a concern.
Breathing in the dusty air as little as I could, I stepped up to the cell door, peeking through it. A hall of cell doors sat beyond it. Ten, fifteen, twenty….and it contained well over two dozen people stuffed into confined spaces from what I was feeling.
At the very end of the hall, I caught sight of a familiar pair of near identical auras.
The guard I knocked out didn't have the key and there weren't any just laying around, so with a quick application of telekinesis I broke the lock, pushing the metal door aside.
I stepped in.
Young, some crossing over into middle age. Men and women, the latter in greater number. Faunus for the most part with a handful of humans mixed in. Those within the cells were bruised and beaten, the few awake and able to move cowering away from their cell's door, unwilling to risk even looking at whoever was walking past. There were some who couldn't be bothered to do much of anything, barely responding to my presence as I stepped through the dimly lit tunnel of cells.
I ripped my gaze away from them.
I'd come here for one reason and one reason alone.
Stopping in front of the cell containing the twin's identical aura's I peered in.
Straight ahead, back against the rocky walls and hands cuffed together, Miltia glared up at me. Melanie's head sat in her lap, her chest rising and falling in time with her breaths. Both alive and well, frazzled but lacking any signs of a beating or torture compared to others, were in good condition in comparison to everyone else down here.
Her pale green eyes dropped to the mask at my waist, widening.
I raised a finger before she could get a word out and with another focused use of telekinesis broke the cell door's lock, stepping in. I kneeled down beside them, moving Melanie's frayed dark hair aside. Along her neck, barely visible and already on its way to being healed by her aura, was a needle mark.
"They stabbed her with something?" I whispered
Miltia nodded. "She was yelling and-"
They probably got fed up with all her attitude and knowing her it probably took nothing less than threatening both of them at gunpoint for Melanie to lower her aura shield and let it happen. Based off that conversation upstairs I'd guess it was some harmless sedatives at work, but it was something to get checked out the moment we were out of here.
A quick wave of my hand and I broke the cuffs on them, lifting the unconscious Melanie up from the ground. Miltia knew to hold onto her questions, silently following after me as I stepped out of the cell.
I was one quick escape away from finishing what I came for, any business I had in this building said and done.
Despite telling myself that, my gaze wandered over to the other cells.
It hadn't been hard to connect the dots. The way some of those workers back in the main chamber of this place looked wasn't the kind of restrained dissatisfaction or even anger one had for a job or circumstances they hated. That rage, sometimes defeated and others barely leashed, were that of people being forced into something they wanted nothing to do with it. The kind that those being unfairly trampled over had.
The whole buy anything phrase wasn't an exaggeration.
It was one thing to know a society had a dark underbelly where all sorts of heinous things were going on. It was the kind of thing that could, however reluctantly, go ignored by even those who called themselves heroes.
Coming face to face with those acts and doing nothing was a far cry from that.
"What are you doing?" Miltia whispered as I stepped up to the cells and began looking through them.
Homeless faunus probably snatched off the streets beyond the market. Those stupid enough to take loans and gamble their money away down here. Anyone who went up against groups down here or just caught their eye.
Whatever the how and why, these people were all on their way to being enslaved and being put to work like those in and around the casino. Maybe it was under the guise or paying back a debt or something else, but it would be slavery plain and simple.
And no one deserved that.
But getting them out of here was one thing. What happened afterwards?
I stopped in front one of the cells in the center of the rocky hall, one of the imprisoned finally catching my eye as I tried to figure out what to do.
"You. You're from the White Fang." I said. The one I was speaking too, a man with short cut hair and a tattoo in the shape of wolf head with claw marks passing through on his shoulder, ignored me, staring silently at the ground. "If I'm going to free all of you-" That sparked reactions, many raising their heads, the man one of them. "-I need somewhere to take you. Does the White Fang have somewhere in the city for all of you?"
The man rose to a stand, his bushy tail hanging limply. A slow nod left him.
That was going to have to do for now.
With a quick use of telekinesis, I broke the lock of every cell in the hall. "Pick up those who can't walk themselves and stick close." I ordered as people began to rise to their feet. Any chance of quiet exit wasn't going to happen without the mass use of something like Emerald's semblance and that just wasn't on the table, meaning that a fight was inevitable.
Protecting this many defenseless people was going to be a pain in the ass.
XOXO
(A/N: To all my future secret agents, no you can not knock out people the way Talon did and not have them wake up in seconds without causing serious brain damage. If you end up crippling, murdering, or getting caught doing something you shouldn't using his methods don't blame me.
Now to address the elephant in the room.
What I managed a good month, plus a good few extra chapters without ever missing an update? It definitely taught me just how much I blamed on other things when I had good bit of control over whether or not I kept to my schedule. One time I was sick as all hell but I still got a chapter written and ready. One time I was having a bad day where everything I wanted to do was just getting messed up by something else but I still got that chapter done. A lot of the time I just didn't feel like writing over playing the game or wasting time scrolling but then I think I lowkey realized things l think those monks do.
My brain ain't me.
It sounds like some hippie or spiritual stuff but I mean think about it. If you can set a goal that you really want but still have all these wants or impulses that go against it, pulling you from what you want, are your thoughts really you? They're just thought patterns your used to and us humans like to be comfortable so whenever you try something new that you want to do, you're intentionally going against what your brain thinks is best.
The brain is just a muscle you got to train to benefit you like any other.
Now I'm just running my mouth at this point. Don't take any of that took seriously, after all, I'm just a guy with way too much free time on his hands.
Anyways like I said, at least three chapters a week while I prepare myself to tackle another long streak, along with whatever extra chapters come out of powerstone goals. I'll probably have to lower those goals after this week though. Less updates definitely mean less stones.
For those interested in reading ahead here's the link:
patreon .com/ thirdratewriter
Now, I'll see you all around.)