Augmented Prey

“In unprecedented news the terrorist group that kidnapped four girls from Vale just two months ago has made an appearance.” Varius news stations and online videos appeared on screen, each one telling the same story.

“Everyday commuters were shocked to arrive at the Glensview plaza today only to find Ruby Rose on her knees in the plaza center. Within moments what looked like an armed soldier stepped out and responded to Ironwoods call.”

“All experts have yet to come to an understanding about what the terrorists were after and some are even asking if it’s possible they know something we don’t.”

“Look I’m not saying it’s supernatural but let’s be honest here Ironwood’s group is the greenest military organisation in the world. A terrorist barges on about nature? Seems suspicious to me.”

“Supernatural genetic augmented persons of interest, I’m telling you that’s what’s going on. I’m not crazy!”

“People are scrambling, the terrorists are clearly willing to kill their hostages, why don’t we know anything about this! What is Ironwood trying to hide? What can he gain by not telling the public the story? Are we even sure these are terrorists? They’ve attacked nowhere.”

“This group just showed up and kidnapped four random girls? I’m not buying it, something’s going on and Ironwoods hiding it.”

“At this point I just want to know what Ironwood did. It’s clear this group isn’t angry with the world and doesn’t have a vendetta against the country, Ironwood’s the only one they’ve called on, why? What has Ironwood done to earn their ire?”

“Turn it off.” Ironwood called. His body was tense and his voice held an edge. “It’s clear what the public’s response to this is. We need to prepare a response.”

“What could we tell them though?” Clover gestured at the center of the room. “There's no explanation that could satisfy the public on this.”

“We’re stuck.” Marrow said. The wolf faunus stared at the central board with anger. “We can’t do anything about this. They backed us into a corner and they weren’t even trying.”

“Are we certain that we have no possible response?” Vine said, his fingers coiling together. “We have nothing to work with?”

“Well we have one thing. It’s risky and could sway the public against us.” Harriet tapped on her scroll and sent the image to the big screen. “The old genetic experiments, they never went anywhere but it’s a viable motivation.”

“That would give them the option of utilizing their abilities in public. We’re trying to hide the augmented not reveal them.” Elm said, her voice held an angry edge. Harriet smirked and leaned forward.

“They’ll only have access to basic enhancement if we do this and if they use them we have reason to detain them.” Harriet gestured to the screen. “There could be serious health concerns if they were affected by those experiments.”

“Harriet is right.” Clover tapped the table in front of him. “If we can give ourselves a reason to capture them while ensuring the public that we know what is going on…”

“We’ll control the narrative again and will once more hold the power.” Ironwood stood up. “The problem comes in the form of their response.”

“We’ll have to be careful, and try to anticipate their responses.” Clover said. He reached out and expanded one of the text boxes on screen. “They may use it as an opportunity to appeal to the public, try to sway us into helping them. Our lower operatives who don’t know the truth may be a liability.”

“This is what we’ll do then.”

“We believe we may have some idea of why this organization is active.” Ironwood said. Once more in front of the podium used for public addresses. “Years ago there was an experiment. The goal was to see if it was possible to make humans and faunus stronger, faster, more able to fight. Ultimately, these experiments appeared to have been unsuccessful. Human trials were only attempted once and no evidence of the experiments succeeding was ever found, no harm came to the subjects.”

“Despite trials leading up to human testing bearing fruit there were never any noticeable effects on humans, nor were there on faunus subjects. For these reasons the testing was suspended with no plans to resume the experiment.” Ironwood said. He coughed to the side before continuing in a more somber tone. “We have come to the conclusion that in some way the four girls they have taken were affected by these experiments. We have no way of knowing how or to what degree however it is clear to us that this is the only thing they could conceivably be after.”

“For these reasons our level of concern about the situation has been elevated. Due to these experiments never seeing results in humans we have no idea of any side effects that may occur should it be true that the three girls were impacted. This means that there may be serious health concerns for them.” Ironwood just barely caught sight of Harriet leaving the room at this point.

“Oh wow.” Blake’s jaw dropped as Ironwood spoke on the TV. The fact that Ironwood admitted openly to genetic experiments was incredible. “We can work with that right?”

“Can? Blake, Yang’s little sister just died due to the experiments of Ironwood.” Ruby said, her smile growing and the glint in her eyes taking on a new light. “Not only can we work with it, we can use it to vilify him.”

“Imagine the public's reaction to one of us seemingly joining the terrorist because of Ironwood’s words. The power we can wield is incredible.” Weiss said, her laptop open as she typed their plans away. “We can manipulate everything now, let Yang loose with her strength, make it clear that we don’t want to harm the public…”

“And suddenly I look like an angry grieving sister planting blame on the only ones I can actually hurt.” Yang said as she leaned back in her seat. “But the question is when and how?”

“That’s where it gets simple. Tomorrow, so it looks like you're lashing out due to new information. You’ll need Blake with you, everyone who knows us knows about me and her.” Ruby said. The redhead sliding out of her seat as she spoke. “She’s also the most level headed about things, so her in the background trying to calm you down and then losing it on Ironwoods goons with you will only further paint the image.”

“Once more passing the ball into his court, the only problem comes in that this can backfire.” Weiss spun her laptop around to show the article condemning Nora Valkyrie from years ago. “Remember that the last person Ironwood targeted was painted as an enemy to the public after one mistake.”

“Either this works or we become the enemy.” Blake glanced at the screen one more time. “Either way we go on the offensive and actually fight.”

“The more we do the closer we come to the truth.” Ruby turned to face the other three. “Tomorrow everything changes.”

Yang kept her head low and her hands in her pockets. The grin on her face would be far too telling to risk people seeing. Blake stood besides her in much the same way. Yang glanced up slightly and surveyed the area one more time. Ruby had outdone herself with the location, forty-two seconds out from the nearest post for Ironwood's goons and overlooking a sheer drop into the bay.

“Showtime girls.” Weiss’s voice carried over the earpiece and Yang looked up. Summoning her rage took little time or effort as she knew her eyes had shifted to red. “Make it count.”

“They killed her Blake!” Yang stalked across the road as she spoke, letting her hood fall. After a quick glance to make sure it was empty she grabbed a car by the underside and flipped it into the bay. “They fucking killed her!”

“Police were called, car one is twelve seconds out.” Weiss’s voice came again. “Delaying signal to Ironwood’s base.”

“Gale’s been alerted of the damages.” Ruby’s voice crackled to life in her earpiece.

“I know Yang but look where we are!” Blake stepped out now, her own hood falling back. Now the two of them were standing in the middle of the road. “These people did nothing! They’re as innocent in all this as you and I.”

“If they weren’t so fucking nosy.” Yang said with a deep growl. Her eyes swept the gathering crowd.

“I know, they’re stupid for trying to get involved but Ironwood told them to consider helping us.” Blake swept an arm out to gesture in the general direction they thought police would be coming from. “We both know who’s at fault for what happened and believe me I am as angry as you-”

“She was my little sister!”

“She was the love of my life!” Blake all but screamed. “Do you think I don’t get it? That rage and hate? I feel it too Yang but we need to save it, hold it, let it brew and in the end unleash it on the one responsible.”

“I’m going to kill him Blake.” Yang’s hands were shaking. “I’m going to rip him apart, piece by piece. I want to see him destroyed.”

“I do too. And we will, we’ll make him pay Yang.” Blake turned her head just in time to see a second cop car pulling up, the first pair of officers were already in positions with guns out. “But these people aren’t involved. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Ten seconds you two, finish it up.”

“You right, your right.” Yang glanced to the damaged railing, letting her anger fade slightly. “I shouldn’t have done that, I never should have lashed out at innocent people. It just hurts so much Blake.”

“I know Yang, I know. It feels like part of my soul was ripped away.”

“Time for the real show girls.” Ruby said, the smile audible in her voice. “Have fun.”

“I don’t know what to do anymore Yang, all I feel is anger at them for this. For what he’s caused…” Blake’s voice trailed off as the first APC came into view. Her lips pulled back in a snarl as she let her anger at Ironwood boil to the surface. “ Them. ”

Yang’s head turned and her eyes flared back to red. Rushing forward she ripped the door off the closest police car before anyone had a chance to react and threw it with all her strength. The door smashed through the windshield of the first APC like it wasn’t even there. Blake leapt into the air and landed on top of the APC. With a grunt of effort she ripped the top mounted turret off and tossed it to the side.

“Right into the bay! Nice toss Katnip.” Blake snarled and reached into the APC to yank the gunman out by his collar. She tossed the man to the ground and dropped into the vehicle. Quickly she set to work destroying the interior equipment. Yang meanwhile reached down and grabbed the bumper of the second APC. With a roar of rage the blonde lifted the APC over her head and slammed it down behind her on its roof.

“More are on their way, get out of there.” Weiss sounded slightly frantic. Blake jumped out of the APC and grabbed the gunner by the collar again.

“You tell him, tell Ironwood that we’re coming for him. Tell him he’ll pay for what he’s caused.” Blake waited for him to nod frantically before dropping him and turning to run with Yang.

“Well I find that unquestionably what they did was wrong.” A man said. He was sitting on a couch across from another man and woman on what appeared to be a talk show. On a screen to the side were two images, one of Blake as she ripped the APC turret off and the other of Yang just before she threw the car door. “But at the same time there are things to consider. Is their anger at Ironwood justified is certainly the biggest.”

“Do you think it is?” the other man said.

“Oh yes, certainly. While the man may be a third party in Ms. Rose’s murder he is still responsible. This so-called terrorist group wouldn’t be around if not for him, these experiments that may have affected them wouldn’t have happened and that lady wouldn’t have been foolish enough to try and lend aid.” The first man said. He leaned forward and clicked a button on the table to allow the screen to transition. Now showing an image of Ruby holding her gun out at the woman. “That one event being removed from the chain keeps Taiyang Xiao-long at home, prevents Ms. Rose from being killed and stopps the bayside confrontation.”

“Are you saying you’d charge General Ironwood?” The woman said, she was now leaning forward, clearly intrigued.

“Without question. Unfortunately things aren’t so simple anymore and now we have to consider everyone in the equation in a light we didn’t before. There are criminal intentions seemingly on all sides.”

“And what do you think of Ms. Belladonna's declaration?” The woman said.

“Of love for Ms. Rose? Irrelevant. She’s gay big deal, who cares.” The man snapped back. “Now onto the big deal here. How much can we really trust Ironwood-”

“You can’t.” A garbled voice spoke as screens showing the feed shifted to static. “There is no reason to trust Ironwood.”

The static vanished being replaced with a video feed of Ironwood in a meeting discussing the events surrounding the four girls. The video would end and start another, then another, and another and another. Eventually the clips would catch up to the conference before Ruby’s murder and his words at the end.

“General James Ironwood is not the hero of this story. Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long were being watched for a month and a half before any of the events surrounding them occurred.” The voice said. “He is not to be trusted. He is not our friend.” The feed cut out.

Harriet watched as her team’s gazes turned to her. She had always been the odd one out of them, the only one that wasn’t friendly. A member of the team had to be the one behind that voice and those leaks, to them the answer was obvious. Just as she wanted it to be. Clover took a step back but froze at her smirk.

“Remember what we do? What we’re after?” She could tell Marrow was the first to get it.She let the energy fill her but refused to let it out. “We’re natura, not augmented.”

Yellow lightning flared to life over her body and Harriet gave one last salute before vanishing through the open door. She laughed at the screams and cries of those she passed and vaulted over a passing cart before bursting through the doors. Once out of the building she vanished over the horizon, confident in her plans and trusting Winter to get things done.