Chapter 3: Trespasser's will be shot

Well, been awhile hasn't it? Yes yes I know I said I'd update soon, I had a bigger writer's block than... The point is I haven't written anything in a long time, at least nothing I posted, so don't blame me if it sucks, and if you think it does well..go away I guess.

Bang! Neo dived as a round crashed into the tree through the spot she'd been only a moment before, she tried not to scream as fiery pain ripped through her bad arm, she scrabbled to her feet again and started running. It had been touch and go for the past...however long she'd been running, she didn't know beyond the fact that the sun was no longer up, she'd dodge into another thick cluster of trees, they'd lose her, another group would catch sight of her, shots whizzed by her head, she'd shield herself with her, umbrella then she was running. It shouldn't have been so hard to avoid them in dark, but there were just so many of them, it was like trying to be avoid water in the middle of the ocean. Good thing I'm a small target.

She ducked behind another tree taking a look at her surroundings, a lot of green, thickly grown trees and bushes dominated every angle thankfully obscuring her from the search parties' sharpshooters. She'd never been this deep in the forest before, everything seemed so, heavy, if she was as young as her height made her out to be she might have thought the branches were attempting to grab her off the ground and crush her, they just might if there were any geists around.

The colourful woman peered around the shelter of the trunk, she pressed herself against the tree trying to make herself a smaller target….as if such a thing was possible. She scanned the undergrowth trying to plan her escape, if she could just-

"Fuck! Where'd she go?"

Neo nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of a frustrated male voice cursing only a few feet to her left, as it was she fell backwards in surprise landing unceremoniously inside the prickliest bush within a five mile radius, not that she noticed, she was too busy shoving her fist in her mouth to prevent a groan of pain after she landed once again on her injured limb.

"What was that?" a nasally female voice said sharply making the young thief's blood freeze. Neo lay awkwardly on her side as still as possible, she held her breath, hoping, praying…

"What?" the male voice again.

"I heard something, in that bush."

"So go look."

"Why do I have to look, why can't you look."

"Because you pointed it out, and I don't want to be anywhere near that ice cream coloured psychopath."

Neo briefly considered jumping out of the bush and yelling BOO! With her blade pointed at their necks. She dismissed that thought when she remembered she couldn't fight...or yell. Still it was flattering that they thought she was so frightening, she really did put effort into her work…..it was amazing the kind of things you're brain spat up when you're about to die.

Suddenly another voice interrupted, a male, his voice was snarling and cruel edging on insane (Not that she would know anything about insanity thank you very much) "How about both of you idiots go look before I put my chainsaw to use on something other than trees."

Both the grunt's responded in unison, terror colouring their voices "Yes Lieutenant!"

Neo shrank back into the bush no longer caring about the pain ripping through her left side as a the soft rustle of footsteps neared her hiding place. The click! of magazines being changed sent an insane notion of running through her head; idiot She scolded herself you wouldn't make it three feet. The steps grew closer; What do I do? What do I do!? Fight? Suicide. Surrender? Even worse. Shit shit shit, think dammit THINK!

The footsteps stopped, they sounded like they were right beside her, oh who was she kidding, they were right beside her! She was done for, doomed, DOOMED! No way out, nowhere to run, death was breathing down her neck about to strangle her and she was powerless to stop it, she couldn't fight, couldn't call for help, this was it unless…

The branches rustled as a they were pulled away to reveal a pair of masked faces looking down the sights of some very big rifles, the White fang troops tensed as they stared directly at her helpless form, guns ready to fire. The silence lasted only a second before they exchanged looks.

"You heard something huh?" The male grunt said, a stocky teen with a lizard tail.

"You were the one so terrified of the ice cream lady." his partner responded in her nasally tone, the source of which was apparent as she let out a little trumpeting noise from the elephant trunk protruding from her face in place of a nose.

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

"Both of you shut up." The third voice responded as a faintly familiar figure stomped into view, a giant of a man with an ornately designed mask and a massive chainsaw held in his hands "Now let's get moving, we're supposed to be finding a traitor, not gawking at empty bushes." The grunts exchanged another look as their leader stalked away to look for more slackers to scold.

"He's such a douche." Elephant nose said darkly.

"I know right?" Lizard-butt agreed as they let the branches fall back into place and walked off.

/

Neo let out shaky breath as her illusion fell away, she thanked whatever god was listening that she was able to muster up enough semblance to fool the Fang members, it wasn't amazing but in the dark it was enough to make them see her as some particularly dense grass and not a multicoloured thief.

The young woman's eyes flashed through a kaleidoscope of colours as she strained her ears to listen, she could just barely hear the sounds of search parties in the same direction the grunts went but nowhere else, they had passed her by...at least she hoped they did. Neo lay still, listening for any indications of danger, after five minutes of silence she began the painstaking process of disentangling herself from the monstrous hedge. The activity was relatively painless but for the numerous thorns and splinters lodged in various uncomfortable parts of her body but she decided it was better to tolerate it and be grateful she hadn't skewered herself on her umbrella when she fell.

Neo froze suddenly as she spotted something out of place, thankfully however it wasn't another masked terrorist, peering through a gap in the brush she could see what appeared to be a wooden post, far too thin to be a tree, moving as quietly as was possible in the constantly rustling greenery Neo crept forward, her weapon folded up in her hand and held close to her body (She'd recently concluded waving around a large, obvious and very pink object while hiding from bloodthirsty extremist fighters was a bad idea) crouched only a few feet away in the tall grass she squinted at the post.

Now that she was closer she could see it was in fact a crudely made sign, it was obviously hand carved, the wood was scorched with lines which just so happened to be letters, burned into the wood was a very clear message Private Property, Keep Out. Below this welcoming sentence was a picture of what appeared to be a deer's skull with a pair of crossed swords behind it, she didn't recognize the symbol but it was very clear whoever it belonged to didn't want visitors, oh well, they'd just have to make an exception for her.

/

Beep! Beep! Beep! Jack's eyes snapped open as he launched himself out of his chair his left hand already curling into a fist as he glared at the scroll mounted on his arm, flashing in red letters were the words Perimeter breach, Sector five scrolling across his screen. "Well, that's concerning." He said in a completely unconcerned tone as he pushed the door open and strode down the hallway at a brisk pace, he tapped the device several times bringing up a live feed of the forestry surrounding his home, a camera hidden in an old oak on the west side of his land, the feed was panned to the right to reveal the trespasser.

The figure was shadowed by the trees but the form was obviously that of a woman, or a little girl as her size indicated. Jack hummed curiously as the stranger moved, she moved cautiously through the brush her, head constantly darting in different directions flinching at every step she took, she was hiding from something. Grimm maybe? The faunus frowned as he rounded a corner and trotted down a staircase leading to the door outside; No way, you can't hide from Grimm, every child with a scroll knows that, so who…. The young duke froze as the woman suddenly bolted full speed out of the cameras view as a hail of bullets ripped through the undergrowth, he stood poised at the bottom of the steps...waiting. Like a shot he ran to the door ripping it open and slamming it behind him as he sprinted full tilt to a shed nearby, all the while masked figures trudged through the camera's view, guns blazing.

/

"YOU CAN'T RUN FOREVER BITCH!" the Lieutenant's voice boomed behind her as he led the masked death party after their target.

Neo crashed through a bush and threw herself to the ground as another volley of rifle fire zipped over her head and impacted with her surroundings, any aura she'd managed to gather in her weakened state was drained immediately after the first shots grazed her flesh bringing her that much closer to the death she'd narrowly escaped several times tonight. The thief scrabbled to her feet and took off again as the extremists cry's for her blood drew closer, gunfire rang without stopping as they once more pursued her through woods. It seemed the terrorists had forsaken all hope of identifying the right target in favour of pumping Dust into anything that moved within their vision.

Neo's eyes were almost closed with exhaustion at her constant flight, she kept running however, desperate to reach some kind of safety.

Neo reeled in surprise as suddenly the dark forest transitioned into a clearing bathed in moonlight, her shock quickly turned to pain as she stumbled and fell rolling in the open.

"I'VE GOT HER!" A voice yelled causing Neo to scramble for some cover, a useless endeavour as it turned out, the clearing was the size of a field and her pursuers had a clear line of sight for at least a full mile. A shot rang out and Neo fell clutching her right leg and dropping her umbrella as a burst of crimson painted the pale moonlit grass, she let out a scream, puny and weak from exhaustion and lack of use, before she fell silent still managing to drag herself a few agonizing feet with her injured hand before a boot planted itself in front of her. Neo collapsed onto her side, whimpering quietly in pain as the shadow of her captor passed over her, a man stood in front of her with his rifle aimed at her forehead, he was saying something, calling for his comrades, taunting her, boasting, she couldn't tell, it was all getting sort of fuzzy...fuzzy faunus….hahaha….. The euphoria she was coming to associate with gratuitous amounts of pain was seeping back into her skull, dulling her senses.

More figures came into her view, slowly blurring into the background, the rifle poised to kill became a hazy image as the adrenaline drained from her system, replaced with a somber sort of peace, she could see the stars though….they were beautiful….so….beautiful…and just like that the stars winked out.

Suddenly, like a hot knife through butter, a roar cut into her senses, shocking her wide awake with a surge of energy that felt disturbingly like fear. As one the White Fang members turned away and raised their weapons as a mass of black fur, teeth, and glowing red eyes made itself known in the shape of the biggest beowolf Neo had ever seen stepping out of the shadows, a pack of it's smaller kin behind it.

The Grimm had arrived….