Episode Terra: Chapter 2: Fissure

Chapter 2 of Terra's adventure.

Two Days After the Heist

 

 

            Terra watched as the sun rose over the rest of the mountain of the Kingdom of Mistral above her while she continued to wash some of her clothes down by the river along with several other people who lived in the slums. Most of them were just splashing water to try and make some of the mud wash away, while Ember was mostly trying to get not just mud but blood out of some of her fabrics.  As she was doing so, out of nowhere a bullet hit her in the shoulder from across the river.  Her Aura ensured that the bullet did not do any damage to her own body, but the force of the shot caused her to fall back a short ways.  As she quickly gathered herself, the people around her started running in random directions following the sounds of more shots coming Terra’s way.  As soon as she saw the bullets, she punched the ground and erected a stone wall to stop the barrage.  But as she was dealing with the bullets, several bandits leapt up at her from around the barrier and started firing at her and moving in closer for close quarters combat.  Terra took a few more hits from the bullets, and realized her best chance was by keeping everyone close to her as opposed to trying to keep a distance.  So she used a bit of energy to call parts of the rock that was originally her wall to her fists to allow herself to begin fighting back.  The grunt soldiers were nothing too difficult, but there were a lot of them and she was starting to feel the pressure of the growing numbers.  She decided to begin to make a push back towards the slums, but before she could make an escape, she felt something hit her legs causing her to fall to her knees.  And as she did fall, before she could create a defensive cocoon of rocks around herself, some of the bandits secured her arms and made sure she could not get up.  Terra looked up and saw that the thing that hit her legs was the clubs of a man she thought looked familiar but she did not know personally.  He was standing next to a woman with blonde hair that also looked familiar, but then another woman stepped forward with hair as long as the blondes but this hair was pitch black.  The woman also wore a red and black ensemble with a bright red sword in her hand.  Terra did not need to guess as to who this woman was.

            “If the great Raven Branwen wanted my services”, Terra said with a bit of a snarky tone,  “I would have been willing to lower my price.”

            “But clearly you didn’t have too high a price to attack one of my facilities?” Raven said with a growl.

            “Wait, that was one of yours?” Terra said starting to become a bit worried.  “If I had known then….”

            “Just shut up and tell me where the briefcase is” Raven said bringing the sword to Terra’s throat.

            “You want to reign it in?” the blonde woman said standing next to Raven.  “She’s just a kid.  Looks not that much older than your granddaughter.”

            “You and your persistent Ozpin told me that these vials needed to be kept safe from the rest of the world Yang” Raven said, “and this kid just made a fool of some of my best agents and took them without thinking.  I don’t think I’m going to reign it in anytime soon.”

            “Look, I’m sorry but you should know by now that’s the game!” Terra said trying to move her neck in a way where the sword wasn’t about to pierce her own throat.  “You had something somebody else wanted and I got paid to take it from you!”

            “And yet you said if you knew it was me you were stealing from…” Raven said as she began to push the tip of her sword into Terra’s throat, causing her to quicken her breath.

            “I’ll tell you who currently has it” Terra said trying to not pass out.

            “Talk quick”

            “I gave it to Lil’ Miss Malachite.  Not sure what she had planned for it but she paid me to take it without any other questions so….”

            “She must be auctioning whatever is in those vials at the black market” the blonde woman said cracking her knuckles.  “Nathan’s intel was right.”

            “Then let’s get moving” Raven said pulling the sword away from Terra’s throat.  “Keep her in custody,” she said to the group of bandits holding her back.  “I’m going to want to deal with her once we complete this task.”  The bandits nodded their heads and held Terra in place with Raven and the rest of her team made their way into the slums.  Terra tilted her head in confusion as the bandits simply just continued to stand there holding her like she was a helpless child.  As if she hadn’t beaten up several other bandits only days prior.  She waited a few minutes to let Raven and her team get further away and to let her own Aura regenerate, and then she threw her head back, causing a rock near the shoreline of the river to fly up and hit one of her captors in the face, releasing her left arm.  Before the other bandits could respond, Terra took her free hand and punched her other captor with a stone gauntlet and freed herself.  She then charged at the shocked bandits and knocked them out without much issue, and then looked around to see if there were any other bandits hiding out nearby.  She didn’t see any, but knew she needed to skip town as quickly as possible.  She made her way back to her rock hut, grabbed what she could, and made a beeline for the bar that Lil’ Miss operated.  As she reached the doors, she hoped that Lil’ Miss wasn’t foolish enough to try and host the auction for dangerous items in her own bar, and thankfully she was not.  Terra saw that the bar was mostly guarded by a handful of patrons and a few of Lil’ Miss’ spiders.  But she did not see the person she was trying to find.  She went up to one of the spiders and grabbed their shoulder.

            “Where’s your hacker?” Terra asked spinning the spider around.  “I need a favor.”

            “You finally joining the web, Terra?” the spider asked mockingly.

            “Just answer the question sleezeball” Terra said with a groan.

            “He’s not here, he’s out with the boss at the auction.”  Terra’s eyes widened in fear, and she quickly ran out the doors.

 

 

 

            The underworld of Mistral has had to be resourceful over the years to avoid the prying eye of the police.  Through the years, they found ways to have unique facades and small buildings hide the fact they had found a way to burrow into the mountainside to create their own network of tunnels and secret meeting chambers.  And it was a welcoming hideaway for criminal organizations from other regions of Remnant either conducting secret business or trying to lay low from the eyes of the law for some time.  This would result in once a year, the biggest crime organizations would gather in one of these hidden mountain fortresses and offer unique and dangerous items for sale to the criminal underworld.  Terra had attended a few times in the past as a hired bodyguard, but this time she knew it would not be as simple.  As she reached one of the hidden entrances, she saw the doors busted open and the normal guards unconscious off to the sides.  She quickly ran inside and heard the chaos of battle raging on deeper inside.  As she reached the railing that overlooked the main hall, she saw the Branwen tribe doing battle with just about every major player in the crime world.  And they were all trying to get their hands on the briefcase that Terra had stolen.  But she did not care about that.  She just wanted to find what she needed and get out.  She then saw him: one of the best hackers in all of the Mistral underworld who also just so happened to be under Lil’ Miss’ employ.  He was hiding beneath a table amidst all the chaos, just trying to stay alive.  Terra leapt down, grabbed him while raising a rock wall to deflect any stray bullets and then pulled him out into a side room.

            “What is the meaning of this?” the hacker yelled in protest.

            “You’re welcome” Terra said rolling her eyes.  “Look, I’ll cut to the chase.  I need to lay low for a while and skip town.  So I need you to get me some fake documents and papers to help me get out of Mistral for a while.”

            “And why would I do that?  In case you haven’t noticed, we are kind of in the middle of something right now!”

            “Because for me there’s no time like the present” Terra said picking up the hacker by his collar.  “And besides, I’m not giving you any say in the matter.”  The hacker squeaked in fear, and then nodded his head in understanding of Terra’s demands.  She then let him go and he guided her through some of the back rooms away from the chaos of the battle.  Eventually they reached a room with a computer in it and the hacker quickly started typing away.

            “How long will this take?” Terra asked as she kept watch outside the room.

            “Not long at all” the hacker said as he wiped away some of his sweat.  “The authorities will be monitoring communication channels, not registration channels.”

            “Registration channels?”

            “I’m enrolling you as a student at Beacon Academy in Vale.  It’s easy to pull off right now and the Branwen Tribe wouldn’t think of attacking you there.”

            “Wait, I said I wanted to skip town not go to school!”

            “It’s your best option at this point.  Nobody would think to look for a criminal on the lam in a place of learning.”

            “Well I’m glad my preferences are being taken into such careful account” Terra said with a growl.

            “None were provided” the hacker said as he continued to type away on the computer.  After several more minutes, the computer dinged, the printer hummed to life, and new registration papers popped out.  The hacker then put them all in a folder and handed them to Terra.

            “Paper trail is easier to convince is legit than a digital one” the hacker said with a grin.  “Head down the hallway and you will find an emergency escape hatch that leads to the Argus Limited.  From there, you’ll take the train to Argus and then an airship to Patch.  Afterwards you’ll take a ferry to Vale.  It should cover your tracks from prying eyes.”

            “True” Terra said with a smile.  That means only you would know what happened to me.

            “And if you pay me well I will not even know where you went” the hacker said rubbing his hands together.  “Ten thousand.”  Terra snarled at the hacker, but he did not back down.  She quickly pulled out her payment from Lil’ Miss from the other day and handed it to him.

            “I just need to make sure…” the hacker said as he grabbed the money bag and turned his back on Terra to begin counting.  Terra looked at the hacker like he was stupid.

            “Never turn your back on an enemy” she said with a growl as she snapped his neck.  As the hacker’s body fell to the floor, she grabbed the money bag once again and made a beeline for the escape hatch.  As she was running through the chaotic corridors, she saw the massive battle in the main hall continue to rage.  Looking down, she made eye contact with Nebula for a brief moment, who was busy trying to fend off attacks from several Branwen warriors.  But Terra did not hesitate, and made her way into the escape chamber.  She then saw a few guards keeping the tube safe.  They tried to stop her, but she hit them hard and fast without stopping.  The markers on the escape hatch were warning that the train was about to leave.  Terra threw her personals through the tube to await her on the other side.  But before she could follow, she felt a shot in her shoulder.  Turning around, she saw Nebula had somehow broken away from the fight below and made her way here.

            “You ratted us out!” Nebula yelled as she started firing several shots at Terra.  Terra knew delaying her escape to fight would be detrimental, so she simply created a wall between herself and Nebula and got ready to escape through the hatch.

            “You didn’t pay me enough to lay down my life for you dumb bugs!” she yelled as she jumped down the tube.  As she slid through the network of pipes, she used her Semblance to crush the tube behind her as she went to ensure nobody followed her.  After a few moments of sliding around the tube, she found herself on top of the Argus limited along with the rest of her belongings.  She quickly gathered everything up, and ran inside one of the train cars as it began to pull out of the station.  The train then got up to maximum speed and left Mistral in the dust.  Terra weaved her way through the general crowds and found a part of the train that was all but empty.  She sighed and watched the scenery roll by while looking over her student paperwork.

            “Well then,” she said with a sigh, “I wonder if I could do kids homework for money.”

 

 

 

 

Two Weeks Later

Hours after the formation of Team BEAT

 

 

 

            Terra sat in the corner watching Arri and Ember work with Bovia to try and set up bunk beds in their dorm room, the three of them laughing as they set things up.  She did not care about them, but what Ozpin had told her in the Emerald Forest had worried her.

 

 “I work alone old man.” Terra said as she walked through the holographic projection of Ozpin.
            “Young lady,” Ozpin replied in a stern tone, “ if you are going to attend my school, you will abide by its rules.  Unless you would rather be expelled.  And trust me, my standing with the World Council will guarantee that not only will you not be allowed enrollment into any of the other academies, but also that your record will be discovered by the authorities.”  Terra stopped dead in her tracks when Ozpin said this.  Her whole body shook in surprise and fear.

 

 

Terra sighed and just curled up in a ball with her own sleeping matress in a corner and tried to get some sleep.  But before she could, she felt someone poking her.  She looked up to see Bovia was standing over her.

“Have you been helped?” Terra asked condescendingly.

“No,” Bovia said with a smile, “but your bed is ready.”  She then stepped aside to reveal that one of the bunk beds was ready, and Ember and Arri were working on the other one.

“Pick the top or lower bunk” she said with a smile.  “I’ll take whatever is free.”

“You are so weird” Terra said with a growl.

“Says the grouch” Bovia said offering Terra a hand up.  Terra ignored the hand and helped herself up and took the bottom bunk.  The Grover cousins kept making a lot of noise, but Terra found a way to fall asleep despite it.

 

 

            The stars shone bright in the sky, the cold of the desert still lingered there as Terra looked over the body of the man who tried to harm her.

Author's Note

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