Discovered
“Alpha squad report.”
“She’s still in the building sir.” a man in a suite sat behind the wheel of a van. His gaze locked firmly on the main entrance of the highschool he was in front of. Besides him was another agent and two more in the back.
“Good, keep tabs on her. We can’t have one of their kind get away.”
“Of course sir.” The four agents kept watch of the school. Nearly an hour before anything important came to pass. Their radar technology picked up on something they needed.
“Oh come on Weiss-” the voice cut off and the agents looked at each other. Had they been spotted? “Shit Weiss, I left my textbook in my looker.”
“Ruby I can wait here.” That’d be good, the girl being alone would offer an advantage. One of the agents in the back gripped the door handle and prepared to jump out.
“But Cardin’s still in there!” the driver cursed. “You know how much I hate being alone near him.”
“Ugh, fine!” The two kids turned back to go into the school. The agent in the back relaxed and turned back to the front. The driver leaned his head against the steering wheel.
“Target spotted sir, she’s gone back into the building.” He pauses to listen to the reply. “No, I doubt she spotted us, she simply forgot her textbook. I know, we’ll keep an eye on the building.”
“Damn it.” The agent besides him slammed his fist onto the dash. “Can never be easy!”
“We’re hunting down supernatural augmented freaks and you expect it to be easy?” The only woman in their group piped up from in the back. “If they don’t fight they run.”
“This is Beta team, the target is yet to leave the building.” The driver groaned at his sister team’s words. “Her schedule is inconsistent, may not have even shown up today.”
“No nononono, not now why are they here?” Ruby dropped her board and stepped onto it. Weiss grabbed her arm.
“Ruby what’s wrong?” Weiss could see the fear in her best friends eyes as they darted around the hall. Ruby tightened the straps of her bag and bit her lip.
“I’ll explain later okay but we need to get out of here.” Weiss nodded and dropped her own skateboard down. “There’s a black van outside with two men in suits in the front seat, we need to get away from them.”
The two flew out the front doors of the school and slid down the front railing. Out of the corner of her eye Weiss saw the van Ruby was talking about. The driver pointed to them and the van kicked up. Pushing once more she and Ruby turned a corner and kept going. Weiss recognised the route leading to the skatepark. Looking back Weiss saw the van turn down the street.
“Hey Weiss, remember that long boarding trip we went on?” Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby’s words, of course she did. Weiss smirked as Ruby waved to her and turned into traffic. The street they were on was steep and they had once managed to go nearly as fast as the speed limit.
Ruby wove between cars as they flew down the street. Weiss had always loved watching Ruby on her board, it was like time slowed for the redhead and she just moved. Glancing back she caught sight of the van again, Ruby was in oncoming traffic which would keep the people within at bay for a short time. Weiss shook her head and weaved by one of the cars on her side of the road.
“Ruby!” Weiss flew by another car. The light up ahead was red and she wasn’t sure Ruby could see it. The younger girl's head snapped to the intersection and looked back to Weiss. Weiss groaned internally at the smirk on her face. Ruby gestured for her to turn. Weiss looked back and ran through the numbers in her head, she wasn’t going fast enough to merge with traffic so she had to speed up.
At the last second Weiss spotted a bus incoming. Weiss turned her head to call out a warning just in time to see Ruby angle her board to go to the bus. Weiss screamed as Ruby kicked off her board and dove through the open window. Dimly she heard a siren behind her, the van blaring the sound out. Ruby’s board rolled out from behind the bus and Ruby dove out the window on the opposite side from her entrance. Rolling on the ground her feet slammed down on the board and she came up standing.
That was impossible, Weiss had proven so on their long boarding trip when Ruby mentioned the trick. The speed alone would make it nearly impossible let alone rolling onto a raised edge that’s moving. Weiss took off down the street while Ruby kept going on her own. The van skidded to a halt to a halt as traffic quickly cleared. Weiss turned back and hoped Ruby got away.
The two of them would meet back at the skate park. Weiss having taken the direct route and arriving first was shocked to see Ruby yanking her favorite red hoodie over her head and stuffing it in her bag. Weiss watched her pull a black one over her head and had to catch the white one tossed at her face.
“Put that on.” Ruby pulled the hood up and slung her backpack over one shoulder. Weiss trusted Ruby and assumed this wasn’t really the time for questions so she pulled the hoodie on. Ruby grabbed her arm and dragged her into a group of other skaters, including the pair’s pseudo mentors Coco Adiel and Velvet Scarlatina.
Weiss was supposed when the two older girls moved to block them off from the view of the street and drummed up conversation with other nearby skaters to expand the group. Within minutes the van blew past the skate park, Ruby’s shoulder loosened and she sighed as the van vanished down the road.
“Thanks guys.” Coco ruffled Ruby’s hair and smirked at her.
“No problem, what’s goin’ on though?” Ruby’s smile faltered as she looked back to the street.
“Gents.” Weiss frowned at the look Coco and Velvet shared. She had the distinct feeling that there was something going on here, something far beyond what she expected.
“They found you?” Coco glanced around them. “The Adiel family runs eighteen safe houses across the country. What about your sister? Your girlfriend?”
“About to call her, if they were at the school they were at the gym.” Weiss knew Yang liked to visit the gym on Fridays due to her lack of classes. Ruby pulled a pair of headphones from her bag and slipped them over her ears. She tapped the button twice. “Hey Silva, call… Katnip.”
“You call her Katnip?” Velvet was clearly trying to stifle laughter, she was failing. Ruby blushed as she turned and walked away.
“She’s been calling Blake that for the past year and a half.” Weiss watched Ruby walk away briefly.
“Hey.” Ruby sounded far more nervous than usual. “Gents were at the school, chased me and Weiss through town for a bit. Yeah, get in touch with Gale, tell him the story.”
“Gale?” Weiss looked to Coco and Velvet, they at least had some idea of what was going on.
“Not in public.” Coco kept her eyes on the street the whole time she spoke. Weiss assumed she was keeping watch for the van if it came back. “Keep your hood up.”
“You're coming to pick us up? Our emergency stashes? Alright, see you then Katnip.” Ruby pulled her headphones down and turned back to them. Weiss felt like she wasn’t getting an explanation yet but the relief in her eyes made Weiss pause. “Blake and Yang are on their way, apparently another van was at the gym this morning so they already have our emergency gear ready.”
“Emergency gear?” Weiss looked to Ruby, she knew her friends family had prepared for a worst case, the spare sweater Ruby kept was part of that, but she had no idea how far it went. She had always thought Ruby and Yang’s family were paranoid but it seemed they were right to worry.
“We may be a little over paranoid.” Ruby chuckled.
“A bit? Rose, your little group has a no strings attached apartment with prepacked grab and go emergency supplies.” Coco laughed and watched a black van drive by, her eyes never leaving it. “I know we say be ready to run at the drop of a hat but you guys take the cake.”
“I’m sorry, whose family has eighteen safe houses?” Ruby’s smirk turned into a self satisfied grin as Coco fell silent. “That’s what I thought.”
“Ruby, I still have no idea what’s going on.” Weiss watched the younger girl for a moment longer. For some reason the air felt heavy, as if this was bigger than her. “All I want is a when, when will you explain?”
“Once Blake and Yang get here.” Weiss found that acceptable, she could wait until Ruby felt safer for an explanation. The two of them sat in near silence for twenty minutes. Coco and Velvet kept to either side of the entrance gate while Weiss and Ruby were at the top of the highest ramp.
Weiss knew with certainty that she and Ruby had the advantage over anyone coming in after them. It didn’t take long for a familiar truck to pull up, an old beat up red pickup with Blake’s trailer hitched to the back. Yang was sitting in the front seat and Blake popped the back door as it stopped. Within seconds she and Ruby were in the truck next to Blake, far faster than what Weiss thought possible.
As soon as they were in the door closed Yang kicked the truck into gear and peeled off down the road. BLake was on her phones frantically typing something out. She looked up suddenly and yanked her laptop out of her bag.
“Shit Yang! They moved!” Blake was clearly controlling her drone from the machine. “I’ve already sent the alert to Taibut one of the van’s is at your place.”
“Tai?” Weiss still had no idea what was going on but found comfort in the idea of Ruby’s father being involved.
“Damn it, explain to Weiss, we need to skip town.” Yang shifted the truck and merged into a new lane clearly waiting for the onramp to come up. “Start with Gale, he knows we’ve got her.”
“Right, Weiss we’re not the only ones involved in this, others like us and even others.” Ruby yanked her seatbelt on, little late if you asked Weiss. “Gale is one of those normal people. When talking about people though we don’t u8se names, too much risk.”
“Stop saying normal like we’re not Rubes.” Yang’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel as she spoke.
“Right anyway, Gale is, well Weiss he’s your father.” Weiss blinked, that actually made an odd kind of sense. “We didn’t even know until we went to hang out at your place.”
“Right, so that explains how I’m coming without issue but not what the hell is going on.” Blake looked up and to Ruby.
“Alright, this is going to sound crazy.” Weiss highly doubted it was something she wouldn’t believe. “We’re not exactly human, or well faunus either.”
“Your right, that does sound crazy but I trust you Ruby.”
“We’re, well, augmented is what the government calls us, we use the term super-natura.” Ruby’s arm blurred slightly, rose petals falling from the limb. “We have powers and well, historically revealing them didn’t turn out well.”
“Witch hunts are the most notable one but there have been others.” Blake closed her laptop. “Most of the time when one of us is revealed they die.”
“And the government is trying to hide your existence from the public.” Weiss glanced out the front window, they had made it to the highway.
“Bingo Ice Queen.” Yang leaned back slightly as she spoke. “Natura have rules to remember, the big one being to hide.”
“But our discovery rates have gone down over the years.” Weiss glanced back to Ruby, something sounded odd about that. “The rapid evolution of technology and public outcry about tracking has worked in our favor.”
“You outsourced hiding from the government didn’t you?” The silence that followed was all the answer she needed. “Of course, with so many working to hide themselves you could simply piggyback off their work. This all would explain how you jumped in and out of a bus at fifty kilometres an hour.”
“There’s more to explain.” Yang glanced at them through the rear view mirror. “We’re heading north, there’s a pit stop there and then we need to move east.”
Jacques Schnee was sitting in his main office. A lone old flip phone rested on the desk to one side, his fingers twitched towards it. He’d seen the vans in the city earlier and knew there was only one reason for them to be there. He didn’t know who had been found but he was worried. As soon as the phone rang he snatched it up.
“Gale.” Of course it was her, of course his daughter would be dragged into this. “Sol and Thorn were discovered.”
“Jaguar, what of Frost?” He knew his daughters closest friends and their routines. While he’d never approved of the hobby Ruby had gotten Weiss into it proved a useful talent. “I know where they usually go after school, especially on Fridays.”
“They were together when Thorn spotted the vans, ran together.” Jacques pinched his nose, just his luck. “I’m sorry Gale.”
“Keep her safe, I’ll get in touch with Ice and see what I can do for you four.” Jacques heard her thanks and hung up. Pulling open his draw he dropped the receiver phone into the hidden part and pulled his outgoing out. Dialing a familiar number he brought it to his ear.
“This is Ice.” Jacques took a breath.
“They found Thorn and Sol, Frost is with them.”
“Damn it.” Jacques heard something clatter to the floor on the other end. “I can try to throw the general off but it’d risk my position.”
That wasn’t good, they needed that position among the government to better help the natura hide. Jacques sat in silence for a moment while looking out his main window. The government was starting to get tighter and making it harder for them to be on top.
“Do what you can.”