Screw It, I'm Going Out to Find It!

Chapter XXVIII: Behind Bars

It was nearly impossible to follow Cinder's instructions to be 'inconspicuous' when Mercury had to hobble with every step. The sound of wood tapping against stone permeated throughout Vale's nocturne streets, easily noticeable over everything else. That was still ignoring his few close-call stumbles and the other times he hadn't caught himself.

"Would you hurry up?" Emerald called back to him. His eye twitched with ire. There were many choice words he had for her, but he had known Emerald long enough to know it wasn't beneath her to steal one of his legs from him.

The monstrosities beneath him hindered his every movement, and he couldn't wait to have them replaced. Sure, he was fine with having a pirate aesthetic, but ignoring the difference between a small bit of fun and putting up with something for much longer, it was supposed to be one pegleg, not two. In his opinion, it was impressive to walk around like this. Evidently Emerald agreed, but he still didn't appreciate the term 'circus freak.'

"We're going to be late," Emerald rushed, knowing damn well what was taking him so long. "If you don't hurry up, I'll just have to go on ahead myself."

Mercury ground his teeth together. "It's just a meeting with the damn White Fang. They won't care if we're a bit late."

"Adam's a beast ruled by anger," Emerald replied flatly. "It would be a miracle for him to be reasonable a single day in his life. Besides, Cinder told us to meet at this time, so we should be there by then."

"It's Cinder that has that beast cowed," Mercury bit back, looking down to carefully place his legs along the sidewalk. His peg legs had been given a slight edge to them, only enough to keep the sneakers he was given from falling off. At the moment, one was cockeyed and the other was backwards. It was still better than earlier when one shoe had fallen off and the leg had gotten caught in a crack. He was sure the crowd loved seeing a wooden rod torn out of his pant leg as he hopped around to get it back.

Emerald didn't offer a retort of her own, mainly because they had reached their destination. Or, she had and it took a moment for Mercury to catch up. The warehouse for their meeting was large and unassuming, at least in the sense that it was unknown what criminal activities went on inside of it. A large, abandoned building on the poorer side of Vale was suspicious, but the authorities didn't know if it was a place for drugs or a home for squatters. They likely wouldn't have assumed it to be terrorists.

Emerald rapped her knuckles against the large front doors. The metallic sound echoed through the area like small thunder. After a minute of waiting, the door slid just far enough for a single eye to peer through.

"What do you want?" The voice on the other side didn't give them the hospitality they were expecting. Adam should know better than to treat Cinder's people like this, but the voice wasn't Adam's.

As Emerald opened her mouth to respond, Mercury found himself falling. Slightly adjusting his foot to the side, his shoe had tumbled to the side. Concrete, for how rough it was, seemed smooth to wood, and one of Mercury's supports launched out behind him. He caught himself on the metal doors, causing a loud slam that put Emerald's knocking to shame.

The eye peeking from behind the doors visibly flinched, retreating slightly. Gritting his teeth as he tried to right himself, Mercury grunted, "We're here to see Adam." He had to push himself off of the door to right himself, and it was a herculean task not to simply fall back the other way. Luckily, he had just enough experience not to. As subtle as they had been so far, Mercury put the peg leg back in its shoe, though it was now angled inward.

The door slid open, revealing a tanned woman with chestnut hair and freckles dotting her skin. What she wore wasn't the usual attire of the White Fang, sporting a black, sleeveless jacket and black gloves. However, she still had the monstrous, grimm mask they all wore.