Ox's POV

This was going to be tricky.

We'd spent the last two days researching the truck route, studying the information the Blood Fangs had on the ACEOps, and putting a plan together.

There was one part in the route that led into a small tunnel blasted into the side of the mountain. Apparently, it was cheaper to blow a hole in a mountain then continuously use aircraft.

Neon and I would wait at the end of the tunnel, me in repelling gear her strapped to my back, and when the transport was in position I'd detach from the ropes and we'd drop onto the truck.

From there Neon would release her straps and climb over me to the cab and take control of the transport while I would make my way into the cargo hold, where I could fire on the ACEOPS while, hopefully, not receiving any return fire out of fear that they'd hit their precious cargo.

The tricky part was timing it right, so we'd land where we needed to and not make two people sized splats on the road.

"One minute till showtime." Neon said.

Our repelling gear was equipped with a quick release. Hit a button and our harness dropped us. I had made sure to keep my hands very far away from that button until now.

This might very well be the dumbest idea I'd ever had and that was saying a lot. I was about to drop my 315lbs onto a speeding transport with a safe window of five seconds.

Some days I really missed living in the ruins.

"Three. Two, One. DROP."

As one we hit the quick releases.

We slammed down on top of the truck and I used my semblance to increase my strength. I grabbed fistfuls of roof and held on for dear life.

When I got a secure hold, Neon unbuckled herself from my back and crawled over me to the cab.

Even though I knew she was trying her best to be gentle, I was certain I was going to have bruises for a week. I watched her crawl to the roof of the truck and reach over and slam a circular object on the driver side window.

It was one of my new inventions, a sonic glass breaker. It was essentially a high-powered speaker with an adhesive end. Stick it on glass and it emitted a sound at a frequency that could shatter even reinforced glass. The driver's window shattered, and Neon vaulted inside. The transport swerved for a minute before steadying out.

"Trucks mine, drivers taking a nap." Neon said over the radio.

"Copy that, moving to cargo bay now."

Except before I could, I felt something tug on my ankle hard enough to almost pull me off the roof. That said, the roof peeled back almost a foot before I stopped.

"What the hell?"

I turned back to see what appeared to be a hooked fishing line wrapped around my ankle.

"Leone change of plans, put the pedal to the floor and drive us into town."

"What? Why?"

"Because they have something wrapped around my ankle and if I'm going to fight them, I want it to be somewhere I can easily get lost in instead of an open field."

"Damon, fighting them is suicide."

"I don't need to win, hell there's no way I could win. I just need to distract them long enough for you to get clear and then I can disappear."

"That's the single dumbest plan I've heard."

"Got a better one?"

Her silence told me her answer.

Another tug on the line dragged my lower legs completely off the roof of the truck. However, I could see the city coming into view. Just needed to hold on a bit longer.

Another tug brought me halfway off the roof. I chanced a view and saw that the big woman, Elm, was helping the leader, Clover, pull the line. Damn she was strong.

Neon got us into the city and quickly became a traffic nightmare trying to lose the ACEOps.

"Leone." I shouted. "Think its time for me to let go. Remember our mission."

"I...I understand. Good luck Damon."

With a grunt, I let go of the truck. While in the air, I hit the button on the underside of my left forearm that engaged my hard light shield, hoping it would help break my fall.

Instead, I crashed into the windshield of the ACEOps car. Not what I was going for, but I'll take it.

Riiight up until the driver swerved into a pole which sent me flying into the side of a building.

Crap.

As I sluggishly got to my feet, I saw the ACEOps surrounding the wreck. The big woman was pulling a thin pale guy, Vine I think, from the drivers seat while Clover was helping a smaller woman, Harriet, out of the back seat. Their Faunus member, Marrow was looking right at me.

"He's up." he shouted, a hint of panic in his voice.

He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "STAY"

I froze. Couldn't move a single muscle, no matter how much I tried to get my arms to respond. His semblance was just as impressive as his file said.

Fortunately, I prepared for situations where I was restrained or paralyzed. I wasn't a brute who relied solely on his hammer and knife anymore.

"Shriekers Right!" I called.

From my right gauntlet, four seven-inch long darts shot out into the ground where my arm was pointing. As soon as they embedded in the road, they released an ear-piercing sonic shriek that made Marrow and the other operatives instinctively cover their ears. I wore special earplugs that blocked out that specific frequency.

With Marrow distracted, his semblance broke. I ran up and landed a mother of a punch into his stomach that sent him flying into Harriet and Clover. Clover dodged the flying Faunus, but Harriet wasn't as lucky, and they both collapsed in a tangle of limbs.

Not wanting to push my luck much farther, I reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a cylinder about the size and shape of a soda can. I pressed a button on the side and tossed it. Thick black smoke billowed out of both ends and within three seconds the area was a dark cloud. Combine that with the still going Shriekers and the entire crash site was pitch dark, loud mess. I took the opportunity to bolt down the nearest alley.

I had no ideas of single handedly beating the ACEOps, so I was going to use every dirty and underhanded trick I knew to get the hell away as fast as my furry butt could manage.

With that in mind, I pulled a thin spike out of my pocket and jabbed it into the alley wall. I didn't waste time to look back and make sure it set, but I heard the tiny concrete anchors contact the opposite wall.

The tube was an anti-follow device. The spike end was jammed into a wall and the other end fired out a web of thin, but strong lines. They were almost invisible to the naked eye unless one was looking for them. When someone ran through them, they tripped a trigger inside the tube, which active the concussion grenade inside the tube. I called them WireWalls

I turned the corner into a second alley, zig-zagging my route to help evade pursuit, slamming in a couple more WireWalls as I went.

A minute later I heard a loud bang that let me know someone tripped the wires in one of them. I tore through the back door of a building and ran inside.

The building, like most in this part of Mantle, looked abandoned. I closed the back door and pulled another gizmo out of my jacket. This one was about the size and shape of a CD, but when split in half produced a thin film. I stretched the two halves over the door jam, affixing one half on the door and the other on the wall. When the film broke, it would explode with ice dust, creating a second door jam and freezing the person who tried to open it. I called it the Cold Open.

With it in place, I risked a moment to check my map. I was about nine blocks from the Blood Fang hideout, based on the tracker I put on the truck. I'm sure they'd find it eventually, but it looked like an Atlesian model. I pulled out my Papyrus and sent the coordinates to the others, with a message saying "BF HQ. GL." Blood Fang Headquarters. Good Luck.

I closed the Papyrus and got ready to run when the back door burst open. Fortunately, that broke the Cold Open. With a flash of Ice Blue light, I saw that Elm was frozen up to her neck. And that her frozen body was blocking Clover from getting in. I'd call that a successful field test.

Clover however, got the better of me and jumped through a window to get to me.

Craaaaaap.

I drew Retaliation and switched it to blaster mode, aiming it at him.

"Put down the gun. It's over."

I fired twice at him. I didn't think I'd hit him, but I had a couple tricks up my sleeve.

I dropped another smoke bomb and took off running, dropping another grenade behind me. This one was incendiary and used wind dust to spread a cloud of fire dust over everything before igniting it. It created a large cloud of fire that also put a wall of flames between me and Clover.

I burst out the door and ran into the street. The locals were looking at me weird but I didn't think they'd turn me in. I was in the Faunus part of Mantle, where Atlas soldiers weren't well liked and rarely helped. We knew from planning that so long as we didn't have White or Blood Fangs marks on us, we could disappear in plain sight.

I ran into a another alley, slammed a WireWall behind me and ran.

I didn't hear any pursuit though and after ten minutes of running, I stopped and pulled out a small sensor wand to check for trackers. Annnnd found one on my back. I pulled it off and stuck it to the underside of an idling delivery truck.

I took off in the opposite direction and took an obscure path back to the Blood Fangs HQ.

Twenty minutes later, I was banging on the outside of the door.

Two guards came out and let me upon recognizing me. Cinna, Codiak, and Neon were standing around a table and all three looked up when I walked in.

"Damon!" Neon yelled, running over to hug me.

Cinna and Codiak came over, both wide eyed in surprise.

"You escaped the ACEOps?" Codiak said dubiously.

"With a combination of cheap tricks and arson." I said.

"Ooooooh my favorite combination!" Cinna said.

A tech came over and scanned me for trackers, found none, and reported me clean.

"Well well, I wasn't sure it could be done, but the two of you have truly lived up to your reputation. And you're just the kind of people we want in our organization. Codiak, my love, if you please." Cinna said.

Codiak snapped his fingers and two Blood Fangs came over with folded uniforms.

"Welcome, my dears, to the Blood Fangs."