Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Indolent]

Ruby's attention was temporarily taken aback by the sudden explosion.

'What had happened??'

It was all she needed.


Ruby was quite literally swept off her feet and forced to watch as her beam smashed through a chunk of the wall instead of demolishing metal and who knew what else? She collapsed into a heap on the ground trying in vain to gather herself. Everything was moving so fast, everything was-


The stump of her arm that was attached to the prosthetic began to ache terribly. It obviously wasn't a perfect 1:1 but that didn't matter for the part of Ruby's psyche that was still traumatized by what had happened back in the woods all those years ago with Yang. The one selfless act she'd ever done for her sister by saving them from the Beowulf that had lashed out at them upon sniffing the two out. At the time Ruby smiled through it. Sure, she'd lost an arm but she'd saved the two of them and that was more important than some measly limb, right?

Wrong.

Bandages, attempts at prosthetic replacements. Ruby hated looking at her stump. It reminded her all too much of when she'd been so vulnerable. A foreshadowing of things to come later in life with her so easily falling under Ozpin's spell and then Weiss's. She'd left her family behind with the former likely to never see them again and abandoned the side she'd maimed and killed people for only to end up fighting for someone else with the latter. She'd been weak both times and every time she showered or changed clothes she had to look at it. A reminder that in her heart of hearts she was still just the smiling little girl with a torn sleeve and a bloody stump back in the woods.

But the style in which this woman fought, the savagery inherent to it, it was a stark reminder of the rabid beast waiting within Ruby just as IIia had alluded to. It'd always been there from the moment Ruby could form words in her mouth. It was in her nature for better or for worse to fight and revel in the chaos it brought about it, it was why...she'd tormented Yang for all those years. The feeling of being in control and willing to do whatever to see what happened whether you acted like an animal or worse overrides everything else. In all the time she'd spent with Weiss, she'd hoped that side of her would have been quietly subdued and strangled. She was better than that now. She didn't need to foam at the mouth or scream and wail if things didn't go her way.


As claws tore into the rather professional red-black suit that Ruby had adorned in order to try and look more 'fitting' among those Weiss trusted, bare skin was revealed and the dozens of scars littering Ruby's stomach and chest were becoming more and more open the longer this feral barrage continued. Some of them jagged looking, others looked as though they were years old, regardless they all had one thing in common.

They were self-inflicted.

Failure was never an option in Ruby's mind. Even from her days in the bandit camp, she'd been firm in that mentality. As she sat in the cold cell in Vale and debated what would happen to her, dark thoughts came to the forefront but for whatever reason she never followed through on them.

Well, no more she said!

These clothes were lovely, everything Weiss had done for her was appreciated, but at her core Ruby couldn't change who she was and she was ultimately fine with that.

"grrrr....GRRRRRRRRAAAAGHHHH!!"

She thrashed back and lashed out with her prosthetic arm attempting to punch and backhand the attacking faunus off her. On one hand it felt as though it were pissing away dozens of the training sessions Weiss had put her through but lashing out like a feral beast felt almost like home. Biting wasn't off the table either!
​

Carnelian turned, at just enough of an angle that Bear could see the mechanical implant replacing his left eye ever-so briefly pulse red.


He also launched one of the swords in his hand in Bear's direction with so much force one might've been forgiven for thinking it were fired from the barrel of a gun, the faint whir of cybernetics from his bones drowned out thoroughly by the roar of the old foe before him as the sword took all of milliseconds to hurtle... absolutely nowhere near Bear, nor the path of his weapon.

Instead it whisked straight by him, struck a nearby support pillar, bounced, and drilled the grizzled old faunus's in the back of the head at the right angle with enough force to send even his mighty frame staggering forward, the path of his beam knocked off balance to rend through the floor dangerously towards where Greki now wrestled Ruby.

It was astounding how quickly the old man his wrath was so singularly focused on vanished completely from his eyeline in the brief moment it took him to adjust, and behind the crates Ilia was barely in the recovery phase of her dive when she felt her spine get spiked into the dirt by what felt like a jackhammer crashing down on her from above; a force that struck her dead-center in the nerve cluster and drove the wind from her lungs with force that made what Eve mustered during her most feral moments in sparring feel like a love tap. If she managed not to curl up into a ball from the sheer pain it brought, a glance upward told her it wasn't a jackhammer but a boot, and Carnelian's crimson eye glared behind it as it came straight down in an identical stomp for her head that all but guaranteed unconsciousness if it struck with that same force, even with aura.

The ordeal for the bandit princess Ruby Rose veered close to what might have been the conclusion for her part in this story, her idealizations of her standing by Weiss's side to further her vision and usher in the culmination of all her efforts, to find herself in spite of her deplorable beginnings and stepping onto the path to a better life, simply dissipating as if they were a breath on the wind. This was the precarious position she found herself in wrestling one feral faunus with another's weapon firing haphazardly for her position.

A strange occurrence took place nearly side by side the struggling riding red hood beleaguered by the big bad wolf, a rustling in the air that sounded less like scattered breezes and more a channeled stream becoming visible, terminating to a point with focused oxygen swirling into a compressed orb. It was visually unimpressive, minuscule compared to Winter Spring's own, and persisted there for hardly a millisecond, less than that in fact, before a spark of incandescent coloration ignited it. The resultant explosion was equally unimpressive, hardly as destructive as the first had been though no less effective in its intended purpose. The flooring scorched where it exploded, the outward force sufficient enough to knock about a huntsman proper with the concussive and audible forces more than plenty to rattle them.

That was why Greki and Ruby found themselves careened to the side, well and safely out the way of the incoming sonic beam.

A series of micro explosions followed then, situated with optimal placement across the raging Bear's body so as to further destabilize the faunus and force an end to the weapon's wanton howl. In tandem with this was a sequence of heavy footfalls, the weight to them stemming from more the attire than then person, as Colonel Ector made his presence more than well known, his features set in stern approximation of the situation that unfolded before him. His left arm was extended in his front, the thumb idling before his middle finger, with his right arm primly resting against the small of his back, with his posture straight as he stood before them all. He was adorned in his familiar blue attire, the heavyset jacket draped over his torso snugly with the likewise blue pants terminating tucked into black combat boots. More a formal representation of the Atlesian military than the General in any case and it was one Ector was eminently comfortable donning for battle.

There was admittedly a bad taste in his mouth for having followed the General Carnelian into the fray, though it was tempered by the recognition that there was perhaps good reason he had after all. Even though as he might begrudge his superior, there was no denying his exemplary prowess in the heat of battle though of course, where his focus fell was questionable to the Colonel, given Bear just moments before.



"I'm loath to allow you to be lost to us so soon, Ruby Rose. The councilwoman would be upset, more so than she already is. We can't have that." The colonel delivered a succinct statement on the face of it all, the terse brevity of his words accounting for far more that was left unsaid, predominantly his feelings surrounding the Red Masque. It was curt as curt could be without venturing into downright rancor for the entity, the Colonel shelving his qualms about the matter with little trouble as after all, he found herself along the same lines as Weiss Schnee where rehabilitation was concerned and more.

His focus cleanly shifted to the faunus he'd bombarded scant seconds ago, his expression remaining the same as he considered Bear thoughtfully, though he extended him the same courtesy as Ruby given the situation.



"Navano Cedar. I'd express my admiration for a figure of your repute but it would not be well received. Considering where we find ourselves now..." The distaste in his tone was plain, sharply delivered as he took note of at least two of the Talons given to a furor of some kind that seemed not so out of place so as to declare them bestial, a label counter to the numerous assertions made by them on the whole.

"I'd ask your surrender but I see there's no need. Pity, I abhor the loss of lives." Punctuating those words was the narrowing of the selfsame digits that summoned the explosions of before, the implication likely going ignored with nary a care on the faunus's part.

 

[Indolent]

Hound's shoulders practically deflated.

"....Really-"



The knives never found their mark; two were twirled through with laughable ease, and the third was quite literally snatched out of the air between two fingers, hovering a few fingers from Hound's forehead before he twirled in his hands to wave at Grey like he was wagging a finger him.

"Hey, hey heeey! Careful with those, someone could get-"

He whipped it behind his back without looking, sending it straight into the back of Nora's skull while she was occupied with Tiger.

"-hurt-"

Then grey literally ran right past him. Just right on by. The sheer audacity was enough for the reporter to slip by, Hound taken wholly offguard by some dude who's best move was 'spook gas while I hide and throw stuff' even daring to get into stabbing range of The Crim Culann. He sighed.

He was really gonna need to start killing more people if his rep was that low.

"leavin the midget with you arena meat! I think even you can handle her!" He snarked as he turned on his heel and brought his spear back for a throw. It was at an entirely wrong angle for throwing a spear, and he heaved it with all his might in a way that sent it spinning down the hall like a frisbee that suddenly turned into a propeller as the mini jets on it ignited to send its rotation even faster. A few seconds later, just at the same moment Grey entered the break room that had just been devastated, with Feri and Paradise' sudden standoff, Hound's weapon crashed into the back of his knees with enough force to send him flipping backwards twice in the air.

Not a moment later Hound leaped over his prone form, Grey getting the brief image of a dog faunus flipping him off overhead before the blur vanished towards the hangar.

"...and who the fuck are you supposed to be??? Is Atlas full of literal clowns instead of just metaphorical ones??? Do you celebrate halloween months early???" Feri felt obliged to complain

The blur had barely managed a brief dash in that direction before another blur as fast as he was crashed into his blur from the adjacent hallway, sending Hound's blur blurring through the wall and back into the scorched remains of the breakroom as the Hound's second, and far more deadly, obstacle made itself known, a cloak of shadows spreading out to cover the hallway behind her like it was less cloak and more living, breathing entity.

"He he hee, de-niiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeed!~"

The woman hunkered down into a half-crouch, giving a giggle that somehow sounded in equal parts exhilarated little girl and deranged crone despite what appeared to be very much a young woman's body as she crossed her arms and cocked her head with the most palpable pitying smirk in the world despite her mask, chin in hand.

"You're the Puppy, right? Sorry, but I'm supposed to stick to ya like you're rubber and I'm glue! Not how that saying goes exactly but wHATEVER I LOVE PUPPIES!!!!!"

The abrupt shift in the unique entity that was Maria's voice was succeeded by an equally abrupt change that followed in the next instance and it was almost as bizarre as she. What was definitely a foot, encased in a stark black combat boot of a kind, emerged from the flooring beneath the silver-eyed warrior with an intended trajectory for the chin, the weighty impact of the kick certain to leave an impression of its treads into her flesh. The owner materialized in suit, the boot followed by a shin, a thigh, another leg, a lower torso, the upper torso, arms, and a head donning a mask fitting the Talons' iconography, resembling that of a Panther, a role which once belonged to the Hand now occupied by her student.

Within the same expanse of time that transpired, Panther contorted his form midair to become that of an inverted top seemingly floating in midair for a fleeting second, the gyration intended for the build-up of power in an instant that was delivered in two segments. The first was a follow up to his opening attack in the form of a spinning kick to Maria's form, likely catching her in the forearm or midsection to bat her aside. The second was the rapid extension of a prehensile length of a cable, rapidly snaking through the air to deftly wreathe itself around one of Hound's limbs so as to yank him towards and below Panther, through one of the two holes within the break-room, into the Hangar.

Panther landed in the next instant with his back to the hangar's makeshift entry, a staggered, meaningful rise from the crouching drop down that was as graceful as it had been inscrutably silent, amber eyes affixed upon Maria in a penetrating stare. His arms were situated vertically over one another, the curving edges of his kukri organically extending from the grips of his hands as if they were extensions of himself.



It was self evident what his intentions were, to a degree anyhow.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

so many words

"YOU THINK I LIKE THIS?!" she roared, forgoing Weiss' offer of continued violence as she swept her hand out towards the sounds of violence and bloodshed in and past the ruined remains of a break room. "You think I get anything out this?! I hate fighting! I hate what we have to do, and unlike you, I haven't turned my heart off to cheat my way out of the guilt! I know there are humans who think this is wrong, that there are people and children who's lives I ruin every time I pick up my sword! But what other option is there? How can you just write off centuries of suffering?! Humanity's had its time to learn, grimm bearing down on or not! We tried fighting them alongside you, and look where that got us! NOWHERE! We won't survive another thousand underneath you! You think humanity's afraid of us!? YOU AREN'T THE ONES BEING KILLED OVER THOSE ANIMAL EARS! Shut the fuck up with your false moral high ground, and don't you dare compare me to your pet monster again." She finally sneered, some of the rage and frustration finally petering out as her breath heaved as she gave a helpless shrug.

"What, you think you really think you're any better than Ozpin for us? Than Salem? Really? Do you know how many grimm deaths have happened in Menagerie since the fang joined him? None. Zero. Its the only place on all of Remnant that a faunus can actually be safe, from all of the monsters. You can call him a megalomaniac and a man child as many times as you want Schnee, but he's kept his word. Have you ever? Is there any bridge you haven't burned? You act like you hate Carnelian, but you put stars on his chest instead of the bullet he deserves. You let hundreds die in Vale and Mistral to keep your own agenda. You lie to your own people to get them to empower you, just like the headmistress you profess to hate so much. You betrayed Ozpin, you betrayed Salem, you kill your own family and chase the rest off. You don't do trust, Weiss. You're not capable of it. You use. You don't see people, you see variables to solve in a equation. The faunus aren't anything but an obstacle to your perfect little world, another set of toy soldiers you want to put in your neat little lines to live and die as you see fit. I can't trust you with the future of my people Weiss. I couldn't trust you with anything. Because the moment the scales of the equation asked you to, you'd throw us right back to the wolves to keep your sordid little peace for the humans that outnumber us. Unlike Ozpin, the bigger end of the scale always wins out with a monster like you" She growled out-

A lightning bolt struck Weiss square in the chest. There was a brief moment of time where it was in the shape of Blake Belladonna, but it was so short an instant that even Blake's eyes didn't register it before it crashed into Weiss. There was another crack of thunder after the first, and the sound of two hollow balls of metal clinking against the ice, their payload depleted as Blake whispered at the back of Weiss' neck, barely audible over the din of combat.

"And fuck that."

Two more bolts followed, and Feri let out a slightly terrified squawk as a living lighting bolt shot into the break room and straight past Hound and Nora through the hallway.

 

[Gus Gungus]

"YOU THINK I LIKE THIS?!" she roared, forgoing Weiss' offer of continued violence as she swept her hand out towards the sounds of violence and bloodshed in and past the ruined remains of a break room. "You think I get anything out this?! I hate fighting! I hate what we have to do, and unlike you, I haven't turned my heart off to cheat my way out of the guilt! I know there are humans who think this is wrong, that there are people and children who's lives I ruin every time I pick up my sword! But what other option is there? How can you just write off centuries of suffering?! Humanity's had its time to learn, grimm bearing down on or not! We tried fighting them alongside you, and look where that got us! NOWHERE! We won't survive another thousand underneath you! You think humanity's afraid of us!? YOU AREN'T THE ONES BEING KILLED OVER THOSE ANIMAL EARS! Shut the fuck up with your false moral high ground, and don't you dare compare me to your pet monster again." She finally sneered, some of the rage and frustration finally petering out as her breath heaved as she gave a helpless shrug.

"What, you think you really think you're any better than Ozpin for us? Than Salem? Really? Do you know how many grimm deaths have happened in Menagerie since the fang joined him? None. Zero. Its the only place on all of Remnant that a faunus can actually be safe, from all of the monsters. You can call him a megalomaniac and a man child as many times as you want Schnee, but he's kept his word. Have you ever? Is there any bridge you haven't burned? You act like you hate Carnelian, but you put stars on his chest instead of the bullet he deserves. You let hundreds die in Vale and Mistral to keep your own agenda. You lie to your own people to get them to empower you, just like the headmistress you profess to hate so much. You betrayed Ozpin, you betrayed Salem, you kill your own family and chase the rest off. You don't do trust, Weiss. You're not capable of it. You use. You don't see people, you see variables to solve in a equation. The faunus aren't anything but an obstacle to your perfect little world, another set of toy soldiers you want to put in your neat little lines to live and die as you see fit. I can't trust you with the future of my people Weiss. I couldn't trust you with anything. Because the moment the scales of the equation asked you to, you'd throw us right back to the wolves to keep your sordid little peace for the humans that outnumber us. Unlike Ozpin, the bigger end of the scale always wins out with a monster like you" She growled out-

A lightning bolt struck Weiss square in the chest. There was a brief moment of time where it was in the shape of Blake Belladonna, but it was so short an instant that even Blake's eyes didn't register it before it crashed into Weiss. There was another crack of thunder after the first, and the sound of two hollow balls of metal clinking against the ice, their payload depleted as Blake whispered at the back of Weiss' neck, barely audible over the din of combat.

"And fuck that."

Two more bolts followed, and Feri let out a slightly terrified squawk as a living lighting bolt shot into the break room and straight past Hound and Nora through the hallway.

The crack of thunder was envious of the shriek that finally tore its way from Weiss's lungs.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?! FINE!"

And the lightning never quite made it out of the room, because somewhere in that far more concise labyrinth of words Blake had managed to push so many of Weiss's buttons so thoroughly and aggressively that holding anything back seemed a distant memory for the maiden. The glyph she had enhanced herself with was of the time dilation variety, her lightning dust canister burning empty after having imbued Ruby with a mere quarter of its payload at the skirmish's fore, and while it still wasn't quite enough to let her avoid the path of actual lightning it meant both her reflexes and aura sparked with enough electricity that Blake didn't feel at all out of place during the brief instant she occupied Weiss's personal space bubble.

What she did feel was an unexpectedly solid surface between her and the breakroom, as from the secondary glyph layered over the first a solid wall of translucent blue energy erupted into a sudden and sturdy pillar, one that solidified just in time for Blake's lightning dash from behind Weiss to carry her facefirst into the barrier at whatever velocity lightning propelled her at.

"We'll do it your way. I don't know why I thought you might be capable of even pretending to hold your disdain for me long enough to indulge me my lying, oppressive notions like communication and courtesy. I h-haven't the slightest idea, really."

It was more or less a high-speed, high-impact equivalent of a cat running into a screen door. She had precious little time to breathe before having to contend with a multiple choice follow-up, either the prompt detonation of the glyph spinning into existence in front of her face or the flurry of thrusts that rained down on her back so quickly and relentlessly they would've felt as one were it not for the fact that it felt like her aura had just been skewered by about a dozen lances. Wherever her semblance tried to hurtle her to avoid them, in that particular moment, with lightning still coursing through the surface of Weiss's aura, the faunus was the slower of the two, and she felt both ankles snagged by more precise glyphs that brought her momentum to such a sharp, jarring halt the whiplash alone might've broken a non-aura enhanced combatant's neck. They formed in perfect unison with the third snowflake appearing directly in front of her, which wasted no time in jettisoning a trio of rapidfire meteorites into her at near point-blank range, before the coup de grâce of the gravity glyph that spawned beneath her in the same instant as the other three hastened her descent back to the floor and made her limbs feel as encumbered and unwieldy as a lead balloon, right before about a dozen seized around her extremities with perfect timing to hold her and her weapon in place, trigger agonizingly just beyond reach.

"Maybe because above all else I still feel sorry for you? Or because, in spite of everything the groups you claim are justified have done to make my life a living hell since I was a little girl, I STILL think enough faunus have suffered at my family's hands to merit some amount of guilt? OR BECAUSE I'VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR THE THINGS YOU HATE ME FOR, THINGS I DIDN'T EVEN DO?!"

The assault itself couldn't compare to the sheer unadulterated audacity of Weiss's heel coming down atop Blake's throat, a very literal realization of all the name Schnee had come to mean to the faunus. From this angle Blake could make out her eyes, which were red and burning in a way that had less to do with the ancient powers she wielded or her dubious means of acquiring them and more to do with simple hurt feelings as she used her inner wrist to scrub the tears away in as ladylike a manner as an act of such weakness and fallibility could even be executed. Yet when she spoke again it was through a filter of forced, almost shaken propriety, whatever vein of emotion Blake's words had bitten deeply enough to bring about the unprecedented (besides today in particular) sight of Atlas's ice queen reduced to tears a mystery behind the curt pretense of composure she forced her speech behind. Frankly she was proud of herself just for keeping her breathing under control with how her heart was threatening to tear its way free from her chest, though less so of the involuntary, distressed sniffle her lungs forced her to accommodate as she shook her head and tried to hide it behind a scoff.

"No, perish the thought, THAT wouldn't mesh with the preconceived image of Weiss Schnee you've been nursing a grudge against since long before either of us met, WOULD IT?! IS THAT WHO YOU'D PREFER TO SEE?! THE WEISS WHO'D LOVE NOTHING MORE THAN TO SQUASH YOU LIKE AN INSECT?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EASY IT WOULD BE FOR ME NOW?!"

It didn't exactly mesh with idea of a ruthless, unrepentant human calculator either, the cracks Blake had dealt to one of her weak points severe enough to expose the stressed circuitry and frayed wires beneath. The spike in volume had come in tandem with her weight shifting forward, applying more pressure than necessary on Blake's neck for a few seconds before she scowled, gave her head a second to clear and immediately removed her foot, replacing it with Myrtenaster's tip. She forced a measure of restraint back into her voice and bearing as she started picking apart the other woman's presentation to ground herself, speaking through clenched teeth.



"...I beg your pardon, it's been a stressful day. That had all the makings of a wonderful speech up until you tried to seize the last word and run away, Belladonna, as much as that is your MO. A little personal towards the end, but I have no doubt it all sounded very convincing during Sienna's brainwashing sessions. There's just one point in particular where you stop being a mildly interesting college essay and start being deeply, utterly, unfathomably full of shit: The part where you decided to make your problems everyone else's."

A hand immediately went up, as if to cut off the stream of angry invective she anticipated before it could begin.

"Yes, I know, I know, here comes the wicked Schnee overlord to downplay all the different ways the world is mean to you again. I get it, darling, believe me. It's mean to everyone. Only you've never actually suffered a great deal personally, have you Blake? Being a 'princess' and what have you." She rolled her eyes, complete with contemptuous hair flip as she re-erected her emotional barriers in full force. "Don't take that the wrong way—I'm sure you've accrued enough survivor's guilt to last several lifetimes at this point. But as two people whose only real input on the situation is what they can offer it, I'd prefer to think we can have a frank discussion on the matter without resorting to childish hysteria. And speaking frankly, this is what I see."

Weiss's eyes were without prejudice as she gazed down at her, though they weren't exactly flush with sympathy either.

"A broken-down, sad little ruin of a girl who never found a healthy outlet for her feelings. You really allowed the world to reduce you to this, didn't you? I was wrong before. You aren't just sad, Blake. You're pathetic." She dismissively flapped her hand again, having apparently stopped bothering to give Blake the courtesy of treating her like any sort of a threat at all. "Do you ever just stop and listen to yourself sometimes? Seriously. I'm done arguing, I just want to know. 'Do I really think' I can do better things for your people than the lord of Grimm? Yes, you ridiculous tool. Is that how low you've set the bar? What are you, a fourteen-year-old reading gothic fiction? Do you even know what the Grimm are? What happens to your wonderful stability in Menagerie when your parents rally to support the kingdoms, I wonder? When the faunus spread across all four of them join in on the riots? You think that man is just going to forgive the slight, ignore his enemies, deny his creations the chance to feed on all that negativity? I know it's hard to tell from the view looking up from his boots, dear, but do you really think he's the type?"

Her lips were pursed so tightly they formed a thin line, but rather than press her point she just shook her head and heaved out a deep, headache-laden sigh, tapping her chin.

"I'm bickering with an infant. Okay, new approach."

Her tone hardened, and the steel that flashed in her eyes was both alarming in depth and a bit threatening.

"You keep bringing up my inaction at the CCT towers, yes? And how I'm just as much at fault because I didn't swoop in and stop you from committing your atrocities. Or something." She made her thoughts on that known with a supremely patronizing eye roll. "What's happening in Mistral is unfortunate, that much is true. I've sent relief support, but Ozpin will have to be dealt with before I can really start undoing the damage you've caused there. But Vale?"

She put a finger to her lower lip, feigning doe-eyed confusion as she paced.

"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean. Personally I think I performed rather well in stemming the loss of life there, considering my position at the time. I still needed to build trust, and somehow it was hard to imagine an eventuality where the political affiliate didn't end up dissected on your messiah's dinner table if the relevant authorities caught wind of things. So I improvised. And credit where it's due, given how quickly you pulled your forces out? I think my substitute was more than sufficient." The shrug was casual, excessively so given the weight of the revelation it preceded.

"Or did you seriously think Eve Taurus and her cronies just happened across your battle plans by accident?"

Her eyes betrayed nothing as she spoke. Simply stayed rooted on Blake's, drinking in her reaction with nary a shift in tone to denote any feeling or intention. Finally, she turned away, smoothing out her skirt.

"I hear she's on quite the decline. The first of many faunus 'saved' by your methods, I take it?" Her pout was as mocking as it was unimpressed. "Still, I think it'd be rude not to check in on her given my hand in things. And to tell you the truth, dear, you're boring me a little. So you know what I'm going to do?"

She held up a pointer finger with sudden vigor, seemingly inspired.

"I'm finally going to engage you on your level, Blake! Won't this be fun? Oh, and for context: all this blood I'm covered with previously belonged to someone important to me, who was forced to suffer for no reason other than you don't care. Now, since I don't care, since this is all an equation and you faunus are just obstacles, since there really isn't a contest here no matter how adorable it is you still think you're a match for me, and—Most importantly—Since you appear to be some sort of child, I'm changing this to a game. The rules are simple. For me, find Eve Taurus. For you?"

She sneered.

"Do something about it."

Blue and red light exploded from each eye, and by the time Blake was released from what by now felt like a billion glyphs of varying dust types pinning her down Weiss had already blasted up through the ceiling and to the next floor, tearing off through the warehouse facilities in search.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Within the same expanse of time that transpired, Panther contorted his form midair to become that of an inverted top seemingly floating in midair for a fleeting second, the gyration intended for the build-up of power in an instant that was delivered in two segments. The first was a follow up to his opening attack in the form of a spinning kick to Maria's form, likely catching her in the forearm or midsection to bat her aside. The second was the rapid extension of a prehensile length of a cable, rapidly snaking through the air to deftly wreathe itself around one of Hound's limbs so as to yank him towards and below Panther, through one of the two holes within the break-room, into the Hangar.

Whether the once absolute monstrosity hybrid grimm person that was Maria needed the assist or not, it came nevertheless as a hardlight shield popped into existence, the hard cushion keeping the woman from being forced too far away by that assault. It vanished almost as quickly as it popped up, its purpose served. "My, my. Did you see that, Jennings? This one almost literally came out of the woodwork!" The platinum haired woman that approached didn't bother to hide the hint of excited amusement in her voice as her armored footsteps likewise heralded her approach. The wide smirk on her face also reflected a degree of interest in the so far silent attacker. "Quite so, Master Helios. My visual receptors are operating at peak efficiency, I assure you." She seemed to ignore that response entirely, tapping on her wristpad, her holographic visor receding and the infrared vision mode going with it. "You should go after the other one." Gwen directed towards Maria. "I can handle this." That was all she said towards the frankly freaky person that had dominated a lot of Merlot's interest for quite some time, her attention already back on the quiet attacker.

"So, hey-" She greeted conversationally enough, all things about this current situation considered, and even gave a small almost friendly wave over towards Panther. "Listen. Panther, yes?" That position had once been Blake Belladonna's if she remembered correctly but this was clearly not Blake. Was this guy the one who took up the mask after her or after the one who had been first after her...Gwen wasn't sure. She didn't keep up with those files much. As far as she recalled, the Talons were like the faunus special forces...and also a revolving door with how much of them seemed to come and go. Well, either way, this guy was one of them. "I'm in a bit of a dilemma, you see. I was in the middle of some interesting and time-critical experiments, if you will, before somebody decided to bomb one of our installations and provoked an immediate military response that drew me away from there. Granted, there are worse distractions that getting a workout and some practice in the field...but I would prefer to be done with this as soon as possible, you understand?" The smile dropped as she drew her weapon, a simple pistol from the looks of it.

"Surrendering would be the fast, simple, easy for all of us option but something tells me that's not an option with you. I shall endeavor to end this swiftly." The gun was raised and aimed in an instant, several electric dust shots fired off in an attempt at both trying to stun the guy as well as gauge how this guy reacted and fought. All the better to determine what form of her extraordinarily malleable weapon would be best to deal with this particular foe. Maybe she'd get lucky and have to resort to one of her rarely used ones...been a while since number 51 got to see some action.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The blur had barely managed a brief dash in that direction before another blur as fast as he was crashed into his blur from the adjacent hallway, sending Hound's blur blurring through the wall and back into the scorched remains of the breakroom as the Hound's second, and far more deadly, obstacle made itself known, a cloak of shadows spreading out to cover the hallway behind her like it was less cloak and more living, breathing entity.

"He he hee, de-niiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeed!~"

The woman hunkered down into a half-crouch, giving a giggle that somehow sounded in equal parts exhilarated little girl and deranged crone despite what appeared to be very much a young woman's body as she crossed her arms and cocked her head with the most palpable pitying smirk in the world despite her mask, chin in hand.

"You're the Puppy, right? Sorry, but I'm supposed to stick to ya like you're rubber and I'm glue! Not how that saying goes exactly but wHATEVER I LOVE PUPPIES!!!!!"

Hound didn't so much rebound off the wall he was slammed into as land on it, such poise and grace in his stance as he flipped himself in the air to touch down on it feet first that for a moment it was almost as if gravity had turned perpendicular for him. Then it was over as he hopped off the wall and landed with his arms crossed, a flicker of dull amusement on his face as he looked Mariah up and down. "Everyone wants a piece of the champ today, geez. I don't got time for you grandma! The only thing you're going to stick to is the ground when I toss you outta here."

There were two important thing Mariah noticed immediately, far more relevantthan anything Hound would ever say in his life. One, that one of his hands was rapidly twisting and flicking in downright bizarre fashion. Two... his spear wasn't in his hand, or even anywhere in sight.

He also launched one of the swords in his hand in Bear's direction with so much force one might've been forgiven for thinking it were fired from the barrel of a gun, the faint whir of cybernetics from his bones drowned out thoroughly by the roar of the old foe before him as the sword took all of milliseconds to hurtle... absolutely nowhere near Bear, nor the path of his weapon.

Instead it whisked straight by him, struck a nearby support pillar, bounced, and drilled the grizzled old faunus's in the back of the head at the right angle with enough force to send even his mighty frame staggering forward, the path of his beam knocked off balance to rend through the floor dangerously towards where Greki now wrestled Ruby.

It was astounding how quickly the old man his wrath was so singularly focused on vanished completely from his eyeline in the brief moment it took him to adjust, and behind the crates Ilia was barely in the recovery phase of her dive when she felt her spine get spiked into the dirt by what felt like a jackhammer crashing down on her from above; a force that struck her dead-center in the nerve cluster and drove the wind from her lungs with force that made what Eve mustered during her most feral moments in sparring feel like a love tap. If she managed not to curl up into a ball from the sheer pain it brought, a glance upward told her it wasn't a jackhammer but a boot, and Carnelian's crimson eye glared behind it as it came straight down in an identical stomp for her head that all but guaranteed unconsciousness if it struck with that same force, even with aura.

Ilia couldn't even gasp as the hit came, no air left in her lungs for such an action as she rebounded off the metal floor. It was an act of will that she wasn't capable of to move in the moments that followed it. It was an act of will that she wasn't capable of to even open her eyes, to even look up at her assailant with a vicious glare as he moved to strike her again. But she made it happen anyways. Out of spite, out of rebellion, out of a godforsaken sense of justice that still existed in poor Ilia's heart that refused to this monster even an iota of fear to enjoy, she made herself open her eyes and glare at Carnelian past her mask as he moved to stomp her brains out, nothing in his actions, demeanor, or history telling her this would be anything but a kill shot.

And she did it out of necessity.

*TONK*

Carnelian got his first taste of the receiving end of violence since maybe all the way back in Haven as a blood red spear collided with the metal in his face at mach speed, as much a sightless as the general himself and with the accuracy of a divine smite. The impact made it spin off until it came to a suddenly halt in the air as dozens of tiny thrusters along its haft kicked in to catch its momentum. It hovered in the air, a silent specter that seemed unerringly pointed at Carnelian whether her richoceted or righted himself.

So strong was Ilia's feeling about this that, past the adrenaline, fear, and anger that was dilating her pupils and threatening to burst her heart, the most coherent thought she could form as she forced herself to roll to her feet wasn't any satisfaction at getting to witness that, or any real relief, but a bone deep frustration that she was never going to hear the end of it from Hound.

The abrupt shift in the unique entity that was Maria's voice was succeeded by an equally abrupt change that followed in the next instance and it was almost as bizarre as she. What was definitely a foot, encased in a stark black combat boot of a kind, emerged from the flooring beneath the silver-eyed warrior with an intended trajectory for the chin, the weighty impact of the kick certain to leave an impression of its treads into her flesh. The owner materialized in suit, the boot followed by a shin, a thigh, another leg, a lower torso, the upper torso, arms, and a head donning a mask fitting the Talons' iconography, resembling that of a Panther, a role which once belonged to the Hand now occupied by her student.

Within the same expanse of time that transpired, Panther contorted his form midair to become that of an inverted top seemingly floating in midair for a fleeting second, the gyration intended for the build-up of power in an instant that was delivered in two segments. The first was a follow up to his opening attack in the form of a spinning kick to Maria's form, likely catching her in the forearm or midsection to bat her aside. The second was the rapid extension of a prehensile length of a cable, rapidly snaking through the air to deftly wreathe itself around one of Hound's limbs so as to yank him towards and below Panther, through one of the two holes within the break-room, into the Hangar.

Panther landed in the next instant with his back to the hangar's makeshift entry, a staggered, meaningful rise from the crouching drop down that was as graceful as it had been inscrutably silent, amber eyes affixed upon Maria in a penetrating stare. His arms were situated vertically over one another, the curving edges of his kukri organically extending from the grips of his hands as if they were extensions of himself.

View attachment 761641

It was self evident what his intentions were, to a degree anyhow.

His eyes shot open in surprise as he saw Panther's sudden entrance, not even aware he'd been in the building. "When-"

Then something caught his leg.

"Wait wh-

Then he was in the Hangar, a completely bemused look on his face as he far less gracefully rolled to his feet than before.

"I MEAN OKAY SURE BUT WHY?!?" He complained despite the help as he broke off in a sprint for Carnelian. He knew he'd been tasked with taking down the big C but that didn't mean he needed a god damn baby sitter.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Ruby's attention was temporarily taken aback by the sudden explosion.

'What had happened??'

It was all she needed.


Ruby was quite literally swept off her feet and forced to watch as her beam smashed through a chunk of the wall instead of demolishing metal and who knew what else? She collapsed into a heap on the ground trying in vain to gather herself. Everything was moving so fast, everything was-


The stump of her arm that was attached to the prosthetic began to ache terribly. It obviously wasn't a perfect 1:1 but that didn't matter for the part of Ruby's psyche that was still traumatized by what had happened back in the woods all those years ago with Yang. The one selfless act she'd ever done for her sister by saving them from the Beowulf that had lashed out at them upon sniffing the two out. At the time Ruby smiled through it. Sure, she'd lost an arm but she'd saved the two of them and that was more important than some measly limb, right?

Wrong.

Bandages, attempts at prosthetic replacements. Ruby hated looking at her stump. It reminded her all too much of when she'd been so vulnerable. A foreshadowing of things to come later in life with her so easily falling under Ozpin's spell and then Weiss's. She'd left her family behind with the former likely to never see them again and abandoned the side she'd maimed and killed people for only to end up fighting for someone else with the latter. She'd been weak both times and every time she showered or changed clothes she had to look at it. A reminder that in her heart of hearts she was still just the smiling little girl with a torn sleeve and a bloody stump back in the woods.

But the style in which this woman fought, the savagery inherent to it, it was a stark reminder of the rabid beast waiting within Ruby just as IIia had alluded to. It'd always been there from the moment Ruby could form words in her mouth. It was in her nature for better or for worse to fight and revel in the chaos it brought about it, it was why...she'd tormented Yang for all those years. The feeling of being in control and willing to do whatever to see what happened whether you acted like an animal or worse overrides everything else. In all the time she'd spent with Weiss, she'd hoped that side of her would have been quietly subdued and strangled. She was better than that now. She didn't need to foam at the mouth or scream and wail if things didn't go her way.


As claws tore into the rather professional red-black suit that Ruby had adorned in order to try and look more 'fitting' among those Weiss trusted, bare skin was revealed and the dozens of scars littering Ruby's stomach and chest were becoming more and more open the longer this feral barrage continued. Some of them jagged looking, others looked as though they were years old, regardless they all had one thing in common.

They were self-inflicted.

Failure was never an option in Ruby's mind. Even from her days in the bandit camp, she'd been firm in that mentality. As she sat in the cold cell in Vale and debated what would happen to her, dark thoughts came to the forefront but for whatever reason she never followed through on them.

Well, no more she said!

These clothes were lovely, everything Weiss had done for her was appreciated, but at her core Ruby couldn't change who she was and she was ultimately fine with that.

"grrrr....GRRRRRRRRAAAAGHHHH!!"

She thrashed back and lashed out with her prosthetic arm attempting to punch and backhand the attacking faunus off her. On one hand it felt as though it were pissing away dozens of the training sessions Weiss had put her through but lashing out like a feral beast felt almost like home. Biting wasn't off the table either!
​

'Wow. That's fucked up'

So thought the mind piloting one beast as they caught site of the cavalcade of old gashes and cuts that lined the skin of the other. It was a lucid, bemused thought that didn't at all match what Greki's body was doing, as was the analysis she gave to the wounds. All similar in size and method, all similar angles.

'Poor girl rips 'erself to shreds for the giggles.'

Contrary to popular belief among most her other talons, Greki Argent wasn't an idiot. Sure, she didn't take this whole revolution thing quite as seriously as most of them, and she was easily distracted, but there was a reason she'd caught Bear's eye in the first place; she was a professional, one of Remnant's premiere bounty hunters and wilderness trackers. She'd worked with everyone from the Atlas Military to Beacon hunters to the White Fang before the split, so long as there was cash on the table, and they all paid; because she was one of the best. Wounds, weapons, and blood, all could tell a story that led to the prey.

This prey's story looked sad as shit.

The entire reason that her thoughts could wax poetic while Ruby was literally chewing on her ear as they thrashed back and forth across the ground was because Bloodhunt didn't turn Greki feral; only her body. It became a beast, a vicious monster who could track prey from across the world at the scent of its blood, and who fought without out thought or mercy with the purity only born of instinct. Her mind simply held the leash and directed, like she was her own hound and huntmaster rolled into one.

It was a hunt Ruby wasn't winning. The mask was a feral beast herself, more than capable of violence and mayhem matching Greki's own, but Greki wasn't the one who'd gotten a faceful of the Roaring Claw, and Ruby's semblence didn't offer anything in a grappling scrum the same way Greki's claws, fangs, and muscles did. It was a fight she was going to lose, at least until they both blew up.

The ordeal for the bandit princess Ruby Rose veered close to what might have been the conclusion for her part in this story, her idealizations of her standing by Weiss's side to further her vision and usher in the culmination of all her efforts, to find herself in spite of her deplorable beginnings and stepping onto the path to a better life, simply dissipating as if they were a breath on the wind. This was the precarious position she found herself in wrestling one feral faunus with another's weapon firing haphazardly for her position.

A strange occurrence took place nearly side by side the struggling riding red hood beleaguered by the big bad wolf, a rustling in the air that sounded less like scattered breezes and more a channeled stream becoming visible, terminating to a point with focused oxygen swirling into a compressed orb. It was visually unimpressive, minuscule compared to Winter Spring's own, and persisted there for hardly a millisecond, less than that in fact, before a spark of incandescent coloration ignited it. The resultant explosion was equally unimpressive, hardly as destructive as the first had been though no less effective in its intended purpose. The flooring scorched where it exploded, the outward force sufficient enough to knock about a huntsman proper with the concussive and audible forces more than plenty to rattle them.

That was why Greki and Ruby found themselves careened to the side, well and safely out the way of the incoming sonic beam.

A series of micro explosions followed then, situated with optimal placement across the raging Bear's body so as to further destabilize the faunus and force an end to the weapon's wanton howl. In tandem with this was a sequence of heavy footfalls, the weight to them stemming from more the attire than then person, as Colonel Ector made his presence more than well known, his features set in stern approximation of the situation that unfolded before him. His left arm was extended in his front, the thumb idling before his middle finger, with his right arm primly resting against the small of his back, with his posture straight as he stood before them all. He was adorned in his familiar blue attire, the heavyset jacket draped over his torso snugly with the likewise blue pants terminating tucked into black combat boots. More a formal representation of the Atlesian military than the General in any case and it was one Ector was eminently comfortable donning for battle.

There was admittedly a bad taste in his mouth for having followed the General Carnelian into the fray, though it was tempered by the recognition that there was perhaps good reason he had after all. Even though as he might begrudge his superior, there was no denying his exemplary prowess in the heat of battle though of course, where his focus fell was questionable to the Colonel, given Bear just moments before.

View attachment 760887

"I'm loath to allow you to be lost to us so soon, Ruby Rose. The councilwoman would be upset, more so than she already is. We can't have that." The colonel delivered a succinct statement on the face of it all, the terse brevity of his words accounting for far more that was left unsaid, predominantly his feelings surrounding the Red Masque. It was curt as curt could be without venturing into downright rancor for the entity, the Colonel shelving his qualms about the matter with little trouble as after all, he found herself along the same lines as Weiss Schnee where rehabilitation was concerned and more.

The explosion knocked them both backwards, the feral Greki rolling backwards into a surprised snarl as it backed away a few steps on all fours, her eyes snapping between Ector and Ruby with a leery gaze as Greki's mind kept herself at heel while she tried to get her own bearings. When Ector turned away, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but the little Rose had to be kept at bay; Bear could handle himself.

Thus did the monster of the hunt careen forward once again, claws scraping against metal floor as she charged to dig them into Ruby's flesh once more.

 

[MidwayLives]

The entire reason that her thoughts could wax poetic while Ruby was literally chewing on her ear as they thrashed back and forth across the ground was because Bloodhunt didn't turn Greki feral; only her body. It became a beast, a vicious monster who could track prey from across the world at the scent of its blood, and who fought without out thought or mercy with the purity only born of instinct. Her mind simply held the leash and directed, like she was her own hound and huntmaster rolled into one.

It was a hunt Ruby wasn't winning. The mask was a feral beast herself, more than capable of violence and mayhem matching Greki's own, but Greki wasn't the one who'd gotten a faceful of the Roaring Claw, and Ruby's semblence didn't offer anything in a grappling scrum the same way Greki's claws, fangs, and muscles did. It was a fight she was going to lose, at least until they both blew up.

"Grrrr!!!!"

As the two continued to roll along the floor, rage was bubbling up within Ruby like a geyser on the verge of blowing.

It didn't seem to matter how much she was dressed up, how hard she 'tried' to sound just like she belonged with Weiss's ilk.

It just wasn't who she was at her core. It hadn't been who the Red Masque was either. Ozpin's quiet enforcer moving through the night and destroying those who'd seek to hamper the dreams she shared with him.

No, at the end of the day she was still just that same feral girl from the Brawnen tribe.

...And she was losing.

Her animalistic shrieks and howls met Greki's own as she chomped and punched.
​

"I'm loath to allow you to be lost to us so soon, Ruby Rose. The councilwoman would be upset, more so than she already is. We can't have that." The colonel delivered a succinct statement on the face of it all, the terse brevity of his words accounting for far more that was left unsaid, predominantly his feelings surrounding the Red Masque. It was curt as curt could be without venturing into downright rancor for the entity, the Colonel shelving his qualms about the matter with little trouble as after all, he found herself along the same lines as Weiss Schnee where rehabilitation was concerned and more.

His focus cleanly shifted to the faunus he'd bombarded scant seconds ago, his expression remaining the same as he considered Bear thoughtfully, though he extended him the same courtesy as Ruby given the situation.

Ruby rolled along the ground thanks to Ector's timely intervention.

She returned the stare with an equal amount of distaste.

The two had never talked 1x1 before but she'd seen him around. She formed her own conclusions in her head. What he meant to Weiss and so on.

Just another person among the group she was working with that hated her.

....Almost felt like home.
​

The explosion knocked them both backwards, the feral Greki rolling backwards into a surprised snarl as it backed away a few steps on all fours, her eyes snapping between Ector and Ruby with a leery gaze as Greki's mind kept herself at heel while she tried to get her own bearings. When Ector turned away, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but the little Rose had to be kept at bay; Bear could handle himself.

Having seconds at best to collect herself, Ruby looked down at her shirt.

It was in absolute chaos, the fabric torn to shreds.

"Tch.."

'Who did I think I was? Dressing up like that? Did I really think it made me look more professional? Like I fit in more?'

She gripped onto one of her sleeves with her teeth and snarled as she ripped it off. Gripping what remained of the mangled shirt, she pulled it from her person and left it to drift to the floor. The scars marked around where her stump connected to her prosthetic and more all visible. The same chill that'd coursed through her moments prior after being attacked by Greki returned upon seeing the constant reminder of what she'd lost that day. But it was for the best in this case.

'My head hurts. My nose is bleeding.'

Clutching on the left side of her head, Ruby inhaled and exhaled. Although there was no lost love on this world's Yang for Ruby, the two shared the same mental instability that seemed to have plagued from their youth and onwards(Yang's stemming from Ruby's treatment, and Ruby's....well...From day one really.)

'I've tried so hard to fit the mold Weiss wants from me, no, believes I can achieve. The rehabilitated one that she'd fixed. But that's just not who I am.' She grabbed a handful of hair and a low growl escaped from her. 'THIS is who I am. No better than a savage putting on the guise of being civilized, domesticated... '
​

Thus did the monster of the hunt careen forward once again, claws scraping against metal floor as she charged to dig them into Ruby's flesh once more.

'You won't hear this.'

Ruby spread her feet apart and watched as Greki charged for her.

'But I have to thank you.'

The distance was closing quickly.

'For being the eye-opener that I needed.'

She vanished right as Greki barreled through where she'd previously been standing.

The petals surged upward as Ruby reappeared above the wolf faunus. Wrapping her legs around her waist and slipping her prosthetic arm around her neck, Ruby tried to sink her teeth into the faunus's neck while also using the strength afforded by her artificial limb to put pressure on Greki's throat/crush her windpipe.

'THAT THIS IS WHO I AM!'

"GRRRRRAAAAAAGHHH!!!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Hound didn't so much rebound off the wall he was slammed into as land on it, such poise and grace in his stance as he flipped himself in the air to touch down on it feet first that for a moment it was almost as if gravity had turned perpendicular for him. Then it was over as he hopped off the wall and landed with his arms crossed, a flicker of dull amusement on his face as he looked Mariah up and down. "Everyone wants a piece of the champ today, geez. I don't got time for you grandma! The only thing you're going to stick to is the ground when I toss you outta here."

There were two important thing Mariah noticed immediately, far more relevantthan anything Hound would ever say in his life. One, that one of his hands was rapidly twisting and flicking in downright bizarre fashion. Two... his spear wasn't in his hand, or even anywhere in sight.

Maria wasn't normal.

That much had been the case long before Merlot took an interest in her. Before Ozpin. Silver-eyed warriors had a natural potency in battle, the Brother of Light's chosen few destined to wage war on his sibling's engines of darkness, though as Ruby was learning a short distance away that wasn't necessarily a guaranteed victory over the best and bravest souls humanity had to offer on its own merits. Maria herself had discovered as much only a short time ago; Ozpin's grotesque masterwork, the abomination dispatched only for key targets or pesky huntsmen who just wouldn't die, the most concealed and twisted of the dark immortal's cabal running headlong into a bitchy, controlling brick wall.

But the prestige attached to the name Maria Calavera didn't come from the monster Ozpin warped her into. She hailed from a time when being a huntress was a prestigious thing, when their exploits became the stuff of myth and folk tales, and perhaps chief among the legends of her era was Maria Calavera, the Grimm Reaper, the woman Hound just sarcastically referred to as his grandmother.



"Wahhhh, I'm so special and awesome 'cause I'm blasè and like, sooooooooo unfazed by everything, isn't that cool? I'm way too used to fighting people streets behind me and have no idea what 'grandma' just saved me from! I like pretending I'm some anime character! I'm a big, dumb, STUPID FATHEAD WITH A SKINNY BUTT AND EVERYONE HATES ME WITHIN 2 SECONDS OF MEETING ME-"

The abrupt shift in the unique entity that was Maria's voice was succeeded by an equally abrupt change that followed in the next instance and it was almost as bizarre as she. What was definitely a foot, encased in a stark black combat boot of a kind, emerged from the flooring beneath the silver-eyed warrior with an intended trajectory for the chin, the weighty impact of the kick certain to leave an impression of its treads into her flesh. The owner materialized in suit, the boot followed by a shin, a thigh, another leg, a lower torso, the upper torso, arms, and a head donning a mask fitting the Talons' iconography, resembling that of a Panther, a role which once belonged to the Hand now occupied by her student.

Within the same expanse of time that transpired, Panther contorted his form midair to become that of an inverted top seemingly floating in midair for a fleeting second, the gyration intended for the build-up of power in an instant that was delivered in two segments. The first was a follow up to his opening attack in the form of a spinning kick to Maria's form, likely catching her in the forearm or midsection to bat her aside. The second was the rapid extension of a prehensile length of a cable, rapidly snaking through the air to deftly wreathe itself around one of Hound's limbs so as to yank him towards and below Panther, through one of the two holes within the break-room, into the Hangar.

Panther landed in the next instant with his back to the hangar's makeshift entry, a staggered, meaningful rise from the crouching drop down that was as graceful as it had been inscrutably silent, amber eyes affixed upon Maria in a penetrating stare. His arms were situated vertically over one another, the curving edges of his kukri organically extending from the grips of his hands as if they were extensions of himself.

View attachment 761641

It was self evident what his intentions were, to a degree anyhow.

Whether the once absolute monstrosity hybrid grimm person that was Maria needed the assist or not, it came nevertheless as a hardlight shield popped into existence, the hard cushion keeping the woman from being forced too far away by that assault. It vanished almost as quickly as it popped up, its purpose served. "My, my. Did you see that, Jennings? This one almost literally came out of the woodwork!" The platinum haired woman that approached didn't bother to hide the hint of excited amusement in her voice as her armored footsteps likewise heralded her approach. The wide smirk on her face also reflected a degree of interest in the so far silent attacker. "Quite so, Master Helios. My visual receptors are operating at peak efficiency, I assure you." She seemed to ignore that response entirely, tapping on her wristpad, her holographic visor receding and the infrared vision mode going with it. "You should go after the other one." Gwen directed towards Maria. "I can handle this." That was all she said towards the frankly freaky person that had dominated a lot of Merlot's interest for quite some time, her attention already back on the quiet attacker.

"So, hey-" She greeted conversationally enough, all things about this current situation considered, and even gave a small almost friendly wave over towards Panther. "Listen. Panther, yes?" That position had once been Blake Belladonna's if she remembered correctly but this was clearly not Blake. Was this guy the one who took up the mask after her or after the one who had been first after her...Gwen wasn't sure. She didn't keep up with those files much. As far as she recalled, the Talons were like the faunus special forces...and also a revolving door with how much of them seemed to come and go. Well, either way, this guy was one of them. "I'm in a bit of a dilemma, you see. I was in the middle of some interesting and time-critical experiments, if you will, before somebody decided to bomb one of our installations and provoked an immediate military response that drew me away from there. Granted, there are worse distractions that getting a workout and some practice in the field...but I would prefer to be done with this as soon as possible, you understand?" The smile dropped as she drew her weapon, a simple pistol from the looks of it.

"Surrendering would be the fast, simple, easy for all of us option but something tells me that's not an option with you. I shall endeavor to end this swiftly." The gun was raised and aimed in an instant, several electric dust shots fired off in an attempt at both trying to stun the guy as well as gauge how this guy reacted and fought. All the better to determine what form of her extraordinarily malleable weapon would be best to deal with this particular foe. Maybe she'd get lucky and have to resort to one of her rarely used ones...been a while since number 51 got to see some action.

It was far from Maria's most abnormal trait at this point, but nevertheless worthy of mention was her semblance; the distorted sliver of soul left within her, plucked straight from the same subtle-yet-effective category as Carnelian's own. Preflexes; total attunement with the world around her. A complete, unilateral awareness of everything happening on a battlefield at all times. It went beyond the physical senses, but every heartbeat may as well have been the sound of a cannon, every bead of perspiration hitting the floor a cascading waterfall. Hound's weird shit may have made it happen faster than her eyes moved, but there was no fooling grandma's senses as her masked gaze followed its trajectory out through the hole almost immediately.

"...Ruh roh. Bad puppy."

Panther's ambush was basically perfect, and Maria's focus was elsewhere. For anyone else it would've been an all but guaranteed hit.

The whoosh of air friction against a boot tip, like the beating of a Nevermore's wings.

Maria arched her back at an unnatural angle and let the boot just about whisk by her chin, falling backwards into a handstand that had her alight on both heels with impossible levels of flexibility, scythes already drawn in tandem as Stream pushed the offensive aaaaaaand barrier.

"YEEEEEEE, THAT KITTY SMELLS LIKE A DOG! THAT KITTY SMELLS LIKE A DOG!!!! SOMEBODY CALL THE NEWS, THE ARMY, CALL EVERYBODY!!!!!!!! Also bye."

The same serpentine grace underlay her movements as she scuttled off after Hound in pursuit, only to screech to a sudden and terrifyingly still halt as something honestly way more important to her than her job of keeping puppy chasing his tail caught her eye.

The explosion knocked them both backwards, the feral Greki rolling backwards into a surprised snarl as it backed away a few steps on all fours, her eyes snapping between Ector and Ruby with a leery gaze as Greki's mind kept herself at heel while she tried to get her own bearings. When Ector turned away, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but the little Rose had to be kept at bay; Bear could handle himself.

Thus did the monster of the hunt careen forward once again, claws scraping against metal floor as she charged to dig them into Ruby's flesh once more.

The final, most crucial, and most self-evident manner in which Maria wasn't normal became evident to Greki in that moment as something speared her in the midst of her continued grapple with Ruby. The use of 'something' was no accident; Maria hadn't been herself for a long time, at least not in the individual sense. The nature of the silver-eyed had made them of interest to Ozpin's dark experiments over the years, vessels born with the touch of light that made them just as susceptible to the taint of darkness. From his position Ector most certainly caught enough of a glimpse of the writhing, abominable blur that intercepted Greki in a violent scamper, almost insectoid in the way the folds of its cloak curled inward to cocoon the three of them together, plunging them into a thick, unending sea of night.

Darkness that might've been an issue, if not for two of their number being who they were, and with her enhanced vision Greki could make out enough of the face in front of her to know it wasn't human.

It just wasn't animal either.



ℙ𝕌ℙℙ𝕐 𝔹𝔸𝔻 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋 ℝ𝕌𝔹𝕐 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋ℙ𝕌ℙℙ𝕐 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋 ℙ𝕌ℙℙ𝕐 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋 ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕋

Neither was the unholy shriek that reverberated around the darkness through the sea of gibberish, and the teeth that sank into her shoulder most definitely wasn't as points like dozens of miniature needles ground and sawed against her aura. The jaw confining them was unhooked, the limbs wrapping around Greki's own of the long, boneless sort, and so it was that the surprisingly lucid Talon found herself beset by two of Ozpin's most feral; the monsters Weiss felt the Shadow Fang in their barbarism had earned the company of.

And they weren't even the worst in the room.​

 

[MidwayLives]

She bypassed it all entirely. This time she did throw her hammer, Magnhild wildly spinning as it closed the distance between them, the glow it emanated bathing the room in purple light. Nora herself followed in its path, her gauntlet likewise glowing as the gravity dust sought to reunite her with her weapon. The thundermidget shot through the air like a bullet, letting the blow of earthquake proportions just crawl along the floor under her. Just before Magnhild would have made contact with Tiger on its own, Nora's fingers gripped the handle and immediately shifted the blow.

Tiger's eyes widened as the distance between them was closed.

'What a quick one...'

She braced herself and...
​

Instead of the wild, unguided strike into Tiger's side that would have occurred if the thrown weapon connected, instead, Magnhild swung up in a fierce uppercut style blow meant to slam into the big faunus lady's chin and send her up into the ceiling this time.

The blow connected....

But Tiger was still standing and hadn't been uprooted from her spot.

"It's...impressive.."

Tiger murmured as she reached out to grab part of Magnhild and pull it down from her chin.

"To be this strong..."

Tiger lashed out with a right kick that was meant to send Nora into the wall.

"But not strong enough."

Gripping onto her chin, Tiger huffed. That one had something of a different feel to it than the other blows had. Something to do with this girl's semblance perhaps? Tiger couldn't say for sure and there was no real way of confirming it beyond asking. She supposed that in the end it didn't particularly matter either way. The girl was strong and she had every right to be proud of that. But Tiger didn't have a choice. She was born strong and had to learn to actively control it lest she destroy everything around her just trying to go about her day to day life. Something like that required patience and years of hard work. It was part of why Tiger stood out so much from the man she was usually partnered with. Hound was loud, vulgar, and boisterous. All things Tiger saw as a waste of time. Fighting was the only thing she was good for, the only thing her great strength afforded her. Whether it was a simple retrieval mission such as the case in Mistral or a situation where outright murder would be involved as the fight club, Tiger gave it all as though it were just any other job.

Laziness and lethargy were never rewarded. Do what you needed to do and move on.

It was how this woman even got to be 'Tiger' in the first place. She hadn't enjoyed killing the previous wielder, not at all. If circumstances had been different Tiger would have perhaps gotten to know her better. As it stood though she was in the way of Tiger's goal and to achieve said goal she needed to die so Tiger made that happen. It wasn't easy and the faunus took no pleasure in it but it was 'what needed to be done.'

This situation here was no different.

"You weren't lying, your strength shows that you'd undergone serious training. It's better than what I can do..." A brief glance was given to Tiger's overly muscular frame.

"All I can do is puff up my muscles. Nothing too special I suppose. Just enhancing what's already there."

Tiger took a step forward.

"I'm telling you this though because it doesn't matter if that's all I can do. You're not going to win this fight."

The purple miasma from before flowed and swayed around Tiger's person. Her ears gave the slightest twitch and she calmly placed her forefinger against her thumb.

"Here's a move I showed your friend."

The battle in Mistral had been the first time she'd ever gone to 100% since learning she could actually do it after months of brutal training. All to make sure she got to Hound's side before his frozen body hit the ground and shattered killing him in the process. The girl standing before her was strong-of that there was no doubt-but she wasn't maiden level by any means. 84% would do just fine.

*flick*

Nora felt something fly past her head and impact the wall down at the end of the hall. Enough to leave a quarter sized dent in it. Some of whom had fought Tiger wondered why she'd never seemed to carry a weapon unlike her comrades. The truth was that she'd tried some attempts at weapons in the past but either they never really felt right for her(long range) or they couldn't handle the strain she put them through as she clicked through her various percentages. Eventually, after her sword broke mid-combat, she declined the use of any further weaponry.

She'd be the weapon.

*flick flick flick*

And so on.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The blow connected....

But Tiger was still standing and hadn't been uprooted from her spot.

"It's...impressive.."

Tiger murmured as she reached out to grab part of Magnhild and pull it down from her chin.

"...............Oh."

It was a remarkably subdued response from someone usually so lively and energetic, somebody whose energy could light up just about any room on Remnant that she stepped into. There was no hype, no excitement, no amusement or anything along those lines in her voice now. There was just plain worry, though neither her tone of voice or the frown currently starting to emerge on her face properly reflected all the worry she felt inside her at that very moment. To not only stay standing after that blow, but to not even be moved a single dang centimeter??? Not even big guy Hazel, er...the badder Hazel, could claim that. And worse still, to take hold of Magnhild and push it down like that...

"Uh-oh--" She'd hardly gotten those two words out before the faunus lady struck in the middle of her own words.​

"To be this strong..."

Tiger lashed out with a right kick that was meant to send Nora into the wall.

"But not strong enough."

The strike hit so hard that it had Nora more than cough, some spit and whatever was left of the breath she'd just taken were violently expelled from her tiny frame, her grip on her weapon slipping away and leaving Magnhild solely in Tiger's grasp as Nora got launched into a wall for the third time today. The force of impact was enough to splinter damn near the whole thing. Jagged cracks spread all over the wall around the tiny warrior and she herself not only felt like she was one with the wall at this point but honestly...if this was like one of those cartoons that used to show on early mornings, she felt like there would probably be an indentation of a size 27 boot or something in her chest.

That single blow alone...she could have pulled out her scroll and checked aura levels(as soon as she felt like moving a muscle again) but she really really really didn't want to make it official in her head. It certainly felt like that blow had dropped her aura by 50, maybe even 75%. Confirming it, yeah no thanks. Soooooo....mistakes were made. Right. Nora made no move to extract herself from where she was embedded in the wall. "Hey so, I hope you don't mind but could I maybe just sit here a sec, take a breather for a--"​

The purple miasma from before flowed and swayed around Tiger's person. Her ears gave the slightest twitch and she calmly placed her forefinger against her thumb.

"Here's a move I showed your friend."

The battle in Mistral had been the first time she'd ever gone to 100% since learning she could actually do it after months of brutal training. All to make sure she got to Hound's side before his frozen body hit the ground and shattered killing him in the process. The girl standing before her was strong-of that there was no doubt-but she wasn't maiden level by any means. 84% would do just fine.

*flick*

Nora felt something fly past her head and impact the wall down at the end of the hall. Enough to leave a quarter sized dent in it. Some of whom had fought Tiger wondered why she'd never seemed to carry a weapon unlike her comrades. The truth was that she'd tried some attempts at weapons in the past but either they never really felt right for her(long range) or they couldn't handle the strain she put them through as she clicked through her various percentages. Eventually, after her sword broke mid-combat, she declined the use of any further weaponry.

She'd be the weapon.

*flick flick flick*

Okaaaaaaaaay...this is gonna suck.

She felt more than heard the sound of something whistling past her head at high speeds and that was concerning. It seemed a pretty clear no to her. She managed to rip free from the wall and also got into a better position, gauntlet glowing in an attempt to pull her hammer back into her grasp. It was all for nothing as she felt the first of the follow up flicks smack her right in the forehead this time instead of flying past. The tiny ginger got knocked right the fuck off her feet from the force of that damn thing and the following ones only added to that, and she skidded along the floor for a ridiculous distance before the building's structure finally forced her into a stop.

The first of those flicks alone might have been enough to get her aura to cave in but the others definitively sealed the deal, the Valkyrie's pinkish aura flickering as she laid sprawled out there before said protective aura dissipated completely. On top of that, they'd managed to rip open a gash in her forehead, blood streaming down her face and into her eyes. She laid there for a good while, and despite the lack of motion, her open aqua eyes indicated that she was still conscious...and judging from the small, just barely noticeable movements of her arms and legs, it seemed she was still struggling to get up and back into the fight.

To her credit she did manage to get back up to at least a knee with heavy strained breaths, glaring dangerously at the faunus lady...but the fierce expression relaxed, the brief glimpses of the look on her face after that were more of the blank variety before it was seen no more, Nora slumping face-first back down to the ground. She was unconscious before she even landed.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The crack of thunder was envious of the shriek that finally tore its way from Weiss's lungs.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?! FINE!"

And the lightning never quite made it out of the room, because somewhere in that far more concise labyrinth of words Blake had managed to push so many of Weiss's buttons so thoroughly and aggressively that holding anything back seemed a distant memory for the maiden. The glyph she had enhanced herself with was of the time dilation variety, her lightning dust canister burning empty after having imbued Ruby with a mere quarter of its payload at the skirmish's fore, and while it still wasn't quite enough to let her avoid the path of actual lightning it meant both her reflexes and aura sparked with enough electricity that Blake didn't feel at all out of place during the brief instant she occupied Weiss's personal space bubble.

What she did feel was an unexpectedly solid surface between her and the breakroom, as from the secondary glyph layered over the first a solid wall of translucent blue energy erupted into a sudden and sturdy pillar, one that solidified just in time for Blake's lightning dash from behind Weiss to carry her facefirst into the barrier at whatever velocity lightning propelled her at.

"We'll do it your way. I don't know why I thought you might be capable of even pretending to hold your disdain for me long enough to indulge me my lying, oppressive notions like communication and courtesy. I h-haven't the slightest idea, really."

It was more or less a high-speed, high-impact equivalent of a cat running into a screen door. She had precious little time to breathe before having to contend with a multiple choice follow-up, either the prompt detonation of the glyph spinning into existence in front of her face or the flurry of thrusts that rained down on her back so quickly and relentlessly they would've felt as one were it not for the fact that it felt like her aura had just been skewered by about a dozen lances. Wherever her semblance tried to hurtle her to avoid them, in that particular moment, with lightning still coursing through the surface of Weiss's aura, the faunus was the slower of the two, and she felt both ankles snagged by more precise glyphs that brought her momentum to such a sharp, jarring halt the whiplash alone might've broken a non-aura enhanced combatant's neck. They formed in perfect unison with the third snowflake appearing directly in front of her, which wasted no time in jettisoning a trio of rapidfire meteorites into her at near point-blank range, before the coup de grâce of the gravity glyph that spawned beneath her in the same instant as the other three hastened her descent back to the floor and made her limbs feel as encumbered and unwieldy as a lead balloon, right before about a dozen seized around her extremities with perfect timing to hold her and her weapon in place, trigger agonizingly just beyond reach.

"Maybe because above all else I still feel sorry for you? Or because, in spite of everything the groups you claim are justified have done to make my life a living hell since I was a little girl, I STILL think enough faunus have suffered at my family's hands to merit some amount of guilt? OR BECAUSE I'VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR THE THINGS YOU HATE ME FOR, THINGS I DIDN'T EVEN DO?!"

The assault itself couldn't compare to the sheer unadulterated audacity of Weiss's heel coming down atop Blake's throat, a very literal realization of all the name Schnee had come to mean to the faunus. From this angle Blake could make out her eyes, which were red and burning in a way that had less to do with the ancient powers she wielded or her dubious means of acquiring them and more to do with simple hurt feelings as she used her inner wrist to scrub the tears away in as ladylike a manner as an act of such weakness and fallibility could even be executed. Yet when she spoke again it was through a filter of forced, almost shaken propriety, whatever vein of emotion Blake's words had bitten deeply enough to bring about the unprecedented (besides today in particular) sight of Atlas's ice queen reduced to tears a mystery behind the curt pretense of composure she forced her speech behind. Frankly she was proud of herself just for keeping her breathing under control with how her heart was threatening to tear its way free from her chest, though less so of the involuntary, distressed sniffle her lungs forced her to accommodate as she shook her head and tried to hide it behind a scoff.

"No, perish the thought, THAT wouldn't mesh with the preconceived image of Weiss Schnee you've been nursing a grudge against since long before either of us met, WOULD IT?! IS THAT WHO YOU'D PREFER TO SEE?! THE WEISS WHO'D LOVE NOTHING MORE THAN TO SQUASH YOU LIKE AN INSECT?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EASY IT WOULD BE FOR ME NOW?!"

It didn't exactly mesh with idea of a ruthless, unrepentant human calculator either, the cracks Blake had dealt to one of her weak points severe enough to expose the stressed circuitry and frayed wires beneath. The spike in volume had come in tandem with her weight shifting forward, applying more pressure than necessary on Blake's neck for a few seconds before she scowled, gave her head a second to clear and immediately removed her foot, replacing it with Myrtenaster's tip. She forced a measure of restraint back into her voice and bearing as she started picking apart the other woman's presentation to ground herself, speaking through clenched teeth.

View attachment 761866

"...I beg your pardon, it's been a stressful day. That had all the makings of a wonderful speech up until you tried to seize the last word and run away, Belladonna, as much as that is your MO. A little personal towards the end, but I have no doubt it all sounded very convincing during Sienna's brainwashing sessions. There's just one point in particular where you stop being a mildly interesting college essay and start being deeply, utterly, unfathomably full of shit: The part where you decided to make your problems everyone else's."

A hand immediately went up, as if to cut off the stream of angry invective she anticipated before it could begin.

"Yes, I know, I know, here comes the wicked Schnee overlord to downplay all the different ways the world is mean to you again. I get it, darling, believe me. It's mean to everyone. Only you've never actually suffered a great deal personally, have you Blake? Being a 'princess' and what have you." She rolled her eyes, complete with contemptuous hair flip as she re-erected her emotional barriers in full force. "Don't take that the wrong way—I'm sure you've accrued enough survivor's guilt to last several lifetimes at this point. But as two people whose only real input on the situation is what they can offer it, I'd prefer to think we can have a frank discussion on the matter without resorting to childish hysteria. And speaking frankly, this is what I see."

Weiss's eyes were without prejudice as she gazed down at her, though they weren't exactly flush with sympathy either.

"A broken-down, sad little ruin of a girl who never found a healthy outlet for her feelings. You really allowed the world to reduce you to this, didn't you? I was wrong before. You aren't just sad, Blake. You're pathetic." She dismissively flapped her hand again, having apparently stopped bothering to give Blake the courtesy of treating her like any sort of a threat at all. "Do you ever just stop and listen to yourself sometimes? Seriously. I'm done arguing, I just want to know. 'Do I really think' I can do better things for your people than the lord of Grimm? Yes, you ridiculous tool. Is that how low you've set the bar? What are you, a fourteen-year-old reading gothic fiction? Do you even know what the Grimm are? What happens to your wonderful stability in Menagerie when your parents rally to support the kingdoms, I wonder? When the faunus spread across all four of them join in on the riots? You think that man is just going to forgive the slight, ignore his enemies, deny his creations the chance to feed on all that negativity? I know it's hard to tell from the view looking up from his boots, dear, but do you really think he's the type?"

Her lips were pursed so tightly they formed a thin line, but rather than press her point she just shook her head and heaved out a deep, headache-laden sigh, tapping her chin.

"I'm bickering with an infant. Okay, new approach."

Her tone hardened, and the steel that flashed in her eyes was both alarming in depth and a bit threatening.

"You keep bringing up my inaction at the CCT towers, yes? And how I'm just as much at fault because I didn't swoop in and stop you from committing your atrocities. Or something." She made her thoughts on that known with a supremely patronizing eye roll. "What's happening in Mistral is unfortunate, that much is true. I've sent relief support, but Ozpin will have to be dealt with before I can really start undoing the damage you've caused there. But Vale?"

She put a finger to her lower lip, feigning doe-eyed confusion as she paced.

"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean. Personally I think I performed rather well in stemming the loss of life there, considering my position at the time. I still needed to build trust, and somehow it was hard to imagine an eventuality where the political affiliate didn't end up dissected on your messiah's dinner table if the relevant authorities caught wind of things. So I improvised. And credit where it's due, given how quickly you pulled your forces out? I think my substitute was more than sufficient." The shrug was casual, excessively so given the weight of the revelation it preceded.

"Or did you seriously think Eve Taurus and her cronies just happened across your battle plans by accident?"

Her eyes betrayed nothing as she spoke. Simply stayed rooted on Blake's, drinking in her reaction with nary a shift in tone to denote any feeling or intention. Finally, she turned away, smoothing out her skirt.

"I hear she's on quite the decline. The first of many faunus 'saved' by your methods, I take it?" Her pout was as mocking as it was unimpressed. "Still, I think it'd be rude not to check in on her given my hand in things. And to tell you the truth, dear, you're boring me a little. So you know what I'm going to do?"

She held up a pointer finger with sudden vigor, seemingly inspired.

"I'm finally going to engage you on your level, Blake! Won't this be fun? Oh, and for context: all this blood I'm covered with previously belonged to someone important to me, who was forced to suffer for no reason other than you don't care. Now, since I don't care, since this is all an equation and you faunus are just obstacles, since there really isn't a contest here no matter how adorable it is you still think you're a match for me, and—Most importantly—Since you appear to be some sort of child, I'm changing this to a game. The rules are simple. For me, find Eve Taurus. For you?"

She sneered.

"Do something about it."

Blue and red light exploded from each eye, and by the time Blake was released from what by now felt like a billion glyphs of varying dust types pinning her down Weiss had already blasted up through the ceiling and to the next floor, tearing off through the warehouse facilities in search.​

Blake gasped in a breath as she rolled to her feet, wasting precious seconds in steadying herself after what felt like minutes of physical torture and hours of the mental equivalent of listening to Schnee talk.

What utter bullshit.

False tears from the false messiah. There hadn't been a single moment in the now years that Blake had known Weiss where she hadn't been manipulating someone. Even if Sienna hadn't convinced her of her evil before they'd met, none of it would change now. Weiss Schnee had never uttered a truth in Belladonna's presence, not that she could contrive. Lies to the kingdom, lies to Salem, lies to Ozpin, to her people, to the faunus, to the very people she employed. Monsters and killers alike all culled under her banner, nary a care towards who they were or what they'd done so long as they killed on the queen's command, and died just the same.

She wasn't backing down. Weiss Schnee had to die. It was logically necessary; One more human who wanted to sit at the top of the table with the faunus under heel, and thus one more human who needed to die to stop that from coming to pass. It was commanded by the ideals Blake strove for, and by both of those who held the haft of the blade she'd been forged into. This wasn't the field for it; A vicious ambush like this would never result in a victory. Their only feasible option was to make it out, no matter how deadly the obstacles between them. But eventually, Weiss was going to need to die, and nothing she'd said had convinced Blake otherwise



None of this meant she wanted to kill her. Blake Belladonna hadn't wanted to kill anyone since the night after her father was attacked and she retaliated. Of all the violence Blake had enacted on the world, only two acts still haunted her dreams; when she thought she had to kill Eve, and almost did were it not for some blonde tart, and the only time she ever thought she wanted to kill someone. It wasn't as if the man hadn't deserved it. Even the kindhearted could understand the rage and fear of a young woman who held her dying father in her arms. Yet somehow it was still the kill that stared at her from the dark. It had been a long, long time since Blake had ever actually wanted to kill someone, rather than made herself out of grim necessity or revolutionary fervor.

If Weiss laid a single finger on Eve Taurus, the faunus who had her name branded over her face, by the very man she oh so fervently insisted was a necessary evil... she was going to learn what a Blake Belladonna who wanted a person dead looked like. No retreat. No quarter. No more battles of words and ideals. There would be death. If that monster hurt Eve more than she already had, there was not a world where the heiress and the hand both walked out of here alive. Weiss Schnee would be dead, or Blake would be

She checked the feed on her mask, and cursed under her breath. "Damn't Eve, just this once" Feri was holding her own, Ilia was blessedly ok, and Hound was on Carnelian's trail. Wolf was in deep shit, and Bear not much better. All of that paled against what was hunting Eve. Weiss had made that apparent; there wasn't a more dangerous creature in this building than her. The tiniest bit of amusement sprinkled across the ball of dread and fury coiling around Blake's heart; She wasn't use to that feeling. Eve absoltuely needed Blake the most.

...If Weiss could find her. Blake was silent death incarnate, but her forlorn love was no tromping brute herself, and she knew with painful acuteness just how swiftly an Eve who didn't want to be found could disappear. Weiss wanted her to chase. She wanted her frantic. She wanted Blake to play her game. to play by her rules.

All the rules had ever given the faunus was pain. The Fang didn't win by playing by them. They earned their victories through blood and ingenuity against the odds, no matter the cost.

Weiss wanted blood? She wanted Blake on the hunt? So be it.

"Snake."

The crackle through the mask's comms was hesitant.

"...Yes, Hand?"

If there were any words to be said about Weiss' insinuations, they weren't to be had now

"Do you have any access to the facility's functions?"

"In a... technical, manual sort of way, yes."

"Do you own any buildings that aren't armed with explosives?" Blake asked, a dull, tired smirk on her face despite herself.

"Well. No. No I don't."

"Kill the lights."

"Very well."

There was a rumble through the facility, the telltale sign of an explosion rocking its foundations and holdings joining the other sounds of violence, and then everything went pitch black. Blake's eyes were the only thing visible in the darkness, before even they faded away.

Blake would play Weiss' game. She'd play the hunter. But, terrible liar she might've been, she never played fair.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feri leaped back from Paradise' strike, her movement's graceful and fluid, but her breathing was heavy as she gave an indignant growl and swiped her ringblade through the air just quick enough to deflect a pair of knives coming at her from behind. "Seriously, why do I get the clown show-"

The lights cut out with a sputtering crackle. It had barely any affect on any of those in the room-

*SPLURCH*

Feri froze at the sound of such a violent wound, and if Paradise didn't himself, he likely clocked the poor wolf faunus straight in the face with his next strike.

He probably did though. The sound had come from right where he'd gently laid Magenta.

The spot where Blake was now standing, the duck faunus hanging off the edge of her weapon, suspended in the air for a few moments before she tossed him to the side with a wet thump, his blood gushing from the new chest wound he'd gained in a sickly black against the greys of faunus nightvision. Her voice was solemn and taut with quiet rage as she spoke, distorted by the mask.

"He'll bleed out in a minute. Do something about it. Or keep fighting so you both can die."

 

[MidwayLives]

Feri leaped back from Paradise' strike, her movement's graceful and fluid, but her breathing was heavy as she gave an indignant growl and swiped her ringblade through the air just quick enough to deflect a pair of knives coming at her from behind. "Seriously, why do I get the clown show-"

"Call me a clown as much as you want! It doesn't change the fact that you're under arrest! Magenta's made me the pinnacle of faunus achievement!"

A strike that didn't connect fully left one of the few remaining walls with a dozen new holes. Mostly stemming from the rods that continually erupted from Paradise's arms and attempted stabs with the blade built into his back. He'd suspected that these Shadow Fang terrorists would be skilled but he hadn't imagined this skilled!

Grey was there as well!
​

The lights cut out with a sputtering crackle. It had barely any affect on any of those in the room-

'Mind fading...Growing dark...Wait.'

Grey ran a hand across his chest.

'No. Lights just went out.'

"UGH! HEY! CIVILIAN! STAY CLOSE TO ME-"
​

*SPLURCH*

Both men froze in their respective places.

Normally Grey's masks had lights built into the sides of the eyeholes to allow Grey to better see in situations like this. He could also see through the depth of his fog which helped when he made enough to coat an entire hallway or room. But having come in without a mask and more than slightly out of it, he could only hear the noise and call out.

"Rabbit solider!! Are you okay?!"

So what if he gave away his position. He wouldn't let another life be lost if he could help it.

'Can't see. Mind slightly clouded. At a major disadvantage.'

His grip grew tight on Poisonheart.

'I refuse to run.'

Paradise's reaction was a bit more immediate.
​

Feri froze at the sound of such a violent wound, and if Paradise didn't himself, he likely clocked the poor wolf faunus straight in the face with his next strike.

As though it were on instinct, he lashed out with his right arm, rods at the ready.

With the intention being to smash Feri right in the side of the head and bean her against the wall. Or what was left of one anyway.
​

The spot where Blake was now standing, the duck faunus hanging off the edge of her weapon, suspended in the air for a few moments before she tossed him to the side with a wet thump, his blood gushing from the new chest wound he'd gained in a sickly black against the greys of faunus nightvision. Her voice was solemn and taut with quiet rage as she spoke, distorted by the mask.

Paradise's eyes followed where Magenta had been thrown.

The wound looked bad, horrible even.

If Magenta was awake it'd be an easy stitch up with his semblance. But his aura had been shattered by the earlier explosion.

Paradise's semblance only worked on himself and it gave him amnesia every time.

The rods seeped back into his arm, a messy spider web of blood running down from the various holes pocketed across the limb.

"Magenta..."

That was the rabbit's voice! Good, so he was okay. But...what had happened...?
​

"He'll bleed out in a minute. Do something about it. Or keep fighting so you both can die."

Maybe the doctor wasn't the nicest person to get along with. Some people wrote him off as creepy. Others wondered just how far the 'professional' relationship went between the two men. But through it all, criticsm and whatnot, Paradise's faith never swayed in him. The procedures in order to implant Paradise's body with the various weapons(the rods, spikes, 'Twisted Love' itself, etc)were incredibly painful and at times Paradise worried he'd never survive but Magenta always reassured him that things would be okay.

The two of them knew of the struggles inherent to them as faunus. It was why for the longest time Paradise had hid his ears no matter how much it hurt. Better to be safe than to be sorry. But as for achieving great change themselves, Magenta simply didn't see it as his role to do such a thing. Whether humanity's views changed or whether his people benefitted simply didn't matter to him so long as he-as an individual-survived. Paradise was a touch more optimistic than that and was kind and respectful to all fellow troops and even superiors-human or otherwise. But as far as change went, well, he was still just a soldier at the end of the day.

What could he do...?

"You think you're helping the faunus by doing this..." Paradise took a step forward.

" I grew up here in Atlas! This is the only place I've ever known! I joined up to protect my HOME! I wasn't going to kill your friend! I would have arrested her and had her wounds treated!" His bottom lip trembled and Twisted Love loomed overhead ready to strike downwards at the exact moment Paradise willed it. "Magenta wasn't even a threat to you! HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!"

Paradise charged but found himself stopped by Grey. Clumsily grabbing onto the faunus's waist, Grey tried to reason with him.

"Stop!! You can see but I can't! If you attack her what's to stop her from going after me?! Grab your friend and let them go!"

"HE didn't deserve what he got! NEITHER OF US DID!!! WE WERE ONLY FIGHTING BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GIVE US A CHOICE!'

"I know. I know...But you can't win this."

Magenta's wound had looked deep and assuming Blake wasn't bluffing, he'd be gone before any sort of fight came to a conclusion. On top of that as 'advanced' as Paradise felt himself to be, going toe to toe with another member of the Talons after having struggled with the other one seemed risky. More so when a civilian had decided to enter the fray. Twisted Love lowered and Paradise held Grey's hand as he moved towards Magenta's prone body. "Don't let go of my hand." He whispered though the tone behind it suggested it was an order above all else. Once he approached Magenta, Paradise couldn't help but start to sob. "You monster.....He wasn't even fighting anymore. *sob*" " There wasn't much he could do...Neither his or the civilian's semblances had any medical attributes. Putting a hand on Magenta's wound to try and staunch the bleeding, he glared daggers at Blake.

'Take your friend and go! GET OUT OF HERE!"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"You think you're helping the faunus by doing this..." Paradise took a step forward.

" I grew up here in Atlas! This is the only place I've ever known! I joined up to protect my HOME! I wasn't going to kill your friend! I would have arrested her and had her wounds treated!" His bottom lip trembled and Twisted Love loomed overhead ready to strike downwards at the exact moment Paradise willed it. "Magenta wasn't even a threat to you! HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!"

Paradise charged but found himself stopped by Grey. Clumsily grabbing onto the faunus's waist, Grey tried to reason with him.

"Stop!! You can see but I can't! If you attack her what's to stop her from going after me?! Grab your friend and let them go!"

"HE didn't deserve what he got! NEITHER OF US DID!!! WE WERE ONLY FIGHTING BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GIVE US A CHOICE!'

"I know. I know...But you can't win this."

Magenta's wound had looked deep and assuming Blake wasn't bluffing, he'd be gone before any sort of fight came to a conclusion. On top of that as 'advanced' as Paradise felt himself to be, going toe to toe with another member of the Talons after having struggled with the other one seemed risky. More so when a civilian had decided to enter the fray. Twisted Love lowered and Paradise held Grey's hand as he moved towards Magenta's prone body. "Don't let go of my hand." He whispered though the tone behind it suggested it was an order above all else. Once he approached Magenta, Paradise couldn't help but start to sob. "You monster.....He wasn't even fighting anymore. *sob*" " There wasn't much he could do...Neither his or the civilian's semblances had any medical attributes. Putting a hand on Magenta's wound to try and staunch the bleeding, he glared daggers at Blake.

'Take your friend and go! GET OUT OF HERE!"

If there was an ounce of pity behind the mask on Blake's face, it wasn't in the eyes as she watched Paradise move over to his master.

"You did choose. You chose to side with the monsters."

"That... that wasn't necessary!" Feri snapped, a waver to her voice despite her indignant glare. "I had that well in hand-"

"-Check the feed." Blake interrupted with a taut snarl as she turned towards the hangar before vanishing, her last words carrying through the air like a thrown knife

"Your sister is dying."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ordeal for the bandit princess Ruby Rose veered close to what might have been the conclusion for her part in this story, her idealizations of her standing by Weiss's side to further her vision and usher in the culmination of all her efforts, to find herself in spite of her deplorable beginnings and stepping onto the path to a better life, simply dissipating as if they were a breath on the wind. This was the precarious position she found herself in wrestling one feral faunus with another's weapon firing haphazardly for her position.

A strange occurrence took place nearly side by side the struggling riding red hood beleaguered by the big bad wolf, a rustling in the air that sounded less like scattered breezes and more a channeled stream becoming visible, terminating to a point with focused oxygen swirling into a compressed orb. It was visually unimpressive, minuscule compared to Winter Spring's own, and persisted there for hardly a millisecond, less than that in fact, before a spark of incandescent coloration ignited it. The resultant explosion was equally unimpressive, hardly as destructive as the first had been though no less effective in its intended purpose. The flooring scorched where it exploded, the outward force sufficient enough to knock about a huntsman proper with the concussive and audible forces more than plenty to rattle them.

That was why Greki and Ruby found themselves careened to the side, well and safely out the way of the incoming sonic beam.

A series of micro explosions followed then, situated with optimal placement across the raging Bear's body so as to further destabilize the faunus and force an end to the weapon's wanton howl. In tandem with this was a sequence of heavy footfalls, the weight to them stemming from more the attire than then person, as Colonel Ector made his presence more than well known, his features set in stern approximation of the situation that unfolded before him. His left arm was extended in his front, the thumb idling before his middle finger, with his right arm primly resting against the small of his back, with his posture straight as he stood before them all. He was adorned in his familiar blue attire, the heavyset jacket draped over his torso snugly with the likewise blue pants terminating tucked into black combat boots. More a formal representation of the Atlesian military than the General in any case and it was one Ector was eminently comfortable donning for battle.

There was admittedly a bad taste in his mouth for having followed the General Carnelian into the fray, though it was tempered by the recognition that there was perhaps good reason he had after all. Even though as he might begrudge his superior, there was no denying his exemplary prowess in the heat of battle though of course, where his focus fell was questionable to the Colonel, given Bear just moments before.

View attachment 760887

"I'm loath to allow you to be lost to us so soon, Ruby Rose. The councilwoman would be upset, more so than she already is. We can't have that." The colonel delivered a succinct statement on the face of it all, the terse brevity of his words accounting for far more that was left unsaid, predominantly his feelings surrounding the Red Masque. It was curt as curt could be without venturing into downright rancor for the entity, the Colonel shelving his qualms about the matter with little trouble as after all, he found herself along the same lines as Weiss Schnee where rehabilitation was concerned and more.

His focus cleanly shifted to the faunus he'd bombarded scant seconds ago, his expression remaining the same as he considered Bear thoughtfully, though he extended him the same courtesy as Ruby given the situation.

View attachment 760881

"Navano Cedar. I'd express my admiration for a figure of your repute but it would not be well received. Considering where we find ourselves now..." The distaste in his tone was plain, sharply delivered as he took note of at least two of the Talons given to a furor of some kind that seemed not so out of place so as to declare them bestial, a label counter to the numerous assertions made by them on the whole.

"I'd ask your surrender but I see there's no need. Pity, I abhor the loss of lives." Punctuating those words was the narrowing of the selfsame digits that summoned the explosions of before, the implication likely going ignored with nary a care on the faunus's part.

Bear stumbled back up to his feet as the Roaring Claw petered out and Maria tore past him, and for a moment he was silent.

"...Heheh... Hahahaha."

The laughter was perhaps an improvement over the feral rage that had been present before he'd been rocked off his feet, but there was no joy or even bitter amusement in it. It was a tired sound, the full weight of his long years weighing down across the room with a heaviness the roaring claw couldn't match.

"Aaaall the old ghosts come out of the woodwork in the end, all wearing that old Atlesian blue. Carnelian, The Burning, young miss Maria. Yet they wonder why we fight? Why we could never trust our future to you humans?"

He rose to his full height as his cybernetic slid and clunked back into its claw form with a somber anger upon his face. His anger hadn't vanished, but seeing Greki's life so endangered and Ector's surprise interruption had reigned it in. Leashed the bear back into the schooled calm he tried so hard to instill in his pupils.

"Surrendering would be pointless for me, little Burning. My heart would give out long before I saw humanity fail our kind once again. No. No more cages. No more chains. I've failed the young ones for so long, little Burning. I will not fail them again."

The lights in the hangar cut out with the dull whirr of generator's grinding to a halt. A momentary setback at best for a master of flame, but it was a moment; When the flames inevitably ignited and the darkness briefly lit, Bear wasn't standing where he'd been before.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wahhhh, I'm so special and awesome 'cause I'm blasè and like, sooooooooo unfazed by everything, isn't that cool? I'm way too used to fighting people streets behind me and have no idea what 'grandma' just saved me from! I like pretending I'm some anime character! I'm a big, dumb, STUPID FATHEAD WITH A SKINNY BUTT AND EVERYONE HATES ME WITHIN 2 SECONDS OF MEETING ME-"

"...Rude" He said at some point in the midst of all that other stuff

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[MidwayLives]

To her credit she did manage to get back up to at least a knee with heavy strained breaths, glaring dangerously at the faunus lady...but the fierce expression relaxed, the brief glimpses of the look on her face after that were more of the blank variety before it was seen no more, Nora slumping face-first back down to the ground. She was unconscious before she even landed.

"..."

Tiger made her way over and looked down at Nora's fallen form.

Propping the sole of her sneaker atop the young girl's head, Tiger mused it over. It'd be so easy to simply cave in her skull and be done with it. Make it certain that she wouldn't come seeking revenge.

"...I want to see her get stronger."

It'd be such a waste to kill her. Same with the boy she'd encountered twice at this point. Let them continue to grow and flourish. Maybe someday they'd beat her.

Leaning Nora up against the wall, Tiger took her leave and moved to catch up with Hound.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

To her credit she did manage to get back up to at least a knee with heavy strained breaths, glaring dangerously at the faunus lady...but the fierce expression relaxed, the brief glimpses of the look on her face after that were more of the blank variety before it was seen no more, Nora slumping face-first back down to the ground. She was unconscious before she even landed.

"..."

Tiger made her way over and looked down at Nora's fallen form.

Propping the sole of her sneaker atop the young girl's head, Tiger mused it over. It'd be so easy to simply cave in her skull and be done with it. Make it certain that she wouldn't come seeking revenge.

"...I want to see her get stronger."

It'd be such a waste to kill her. Same with the boy she'd encountered twice at this point. Let them continue to grow and flourish. Maybe someday they'd beat her.

Leaning Nora up against the wall, Tiger took her leave and moved to catch up with Hound.

A face came through the floor.

Not in any sort of a destructive, forceful, or even respectful-of-the-laws-of-physics way. A pair of straining, twitching ears just passed straight through the steel tiling like it was no denser than air, followed by a crown, followed by eyes, a nose, and a pair of lips that immediately froze in a goofy smile the moment their owner set eyes on Tiger, the hand she swung down to swat something on the other side of the floor prompting her to bob awkwardly to the left a few steps until she was in range of Nora.



"Zoinks."

Then she grabbed her, ducked down, and pulled her through the floor like a pair of stones breaking the surface of a pond.

---

The barmaid winced as Nora continued the stone metaphor by plummeting straight from the ceiling to the floor of the basement office they now both inhabited, swinging herself down off a long-suffering Cookie's shoulders and shooing off the robotic question she immediately rumbled her way.

"Why are we here?"

The barmaid hummed as she shoved Nora into a seated position, rummaging through a duffel bag next to her that cast a suspicious prism of colors across her face.

"Well, ya know it's like they say. Set out ta make a buck one morning, suddenly it's a race war."

"Huh?"

"COOKIE I'M BUSY OKAY, THE HUGEST LADY I'VE EVER SEEN IS UP THERE AND IF SHE COMES DOWN AFTER US YA GOTTA FIGHT HER!!!!"

The titanic bouncer sniffed.

"The hugest?"

"I dunno, getcher measurin' tape out. Okaaaayyyy, let's see here, if dine-'n-dash lady gets roughed up, iiiiiittttttttt's......."

Her gentle rooting culminated in her pulling two yellow dust crystals out, a devilish look on her face as she eyed Nora thoughtfully.

"I'm s'pposed to just stab her with a buncha these."

"With unprocessed dust shards? A gruesome task. Are you certain you can-"

"Yup!"

She literally was already doing it. Nora had two shards jutting out from her arms and the barmaid was already fishing two more out of the bag, tiny arcs of electricity shooting out through her veins from the breach point.

Ilia couldn't even gasp as the hit came, no air left in her lungs for such an action as she rebounded off the metal floor. It was an act of will that she wasn't capable of to move in the moments that followed it. It was an act of will that she wasn't capable of to even open her eyes, to even look up at her assailant with a vicious glare as he moved to strike her again. But she made it happen anyways. Out of spite, out of rebellion, out of a godforsaken sense of justice that still existed in poor Ilia's heart that refused to this monster even an iota of fear to enjoy, she made herself open her eyes and glare at Carnelian past her mask as he moved to stomp her brains out, nothing in his actions, demeanor, or history telling her this would be anything but a kill shot.

And she did it out of necessity.

*TONK*

Carnelian got his first taste of the receiving end of violence since maybe all the way back in Haven as a blood red spear collided with the metal in his face at mach speed, as much a sightless as the general himself and with the accuracy of a divine smite. The impact made it spin off until it came to a suddenly halt in the air as dozens of tiny thrusters along its haft kicked in to catch its momentum. It hovered in the air, a silent specter that seemed unerringly pointed at Carnelian whether her richoceted or righted himself.

So strong was Ilia's feeling about this that, past the adrenaline, fear, and anger that was dilating her pupils and threatening to burst her heart, the most coherent thought she could form as she forced herself to roll to her feet wasn't any satisfaction at getting to witness that, or any real relief, but a bone deep frustration that she was never going to hear the end of it from Hound.

It all happened as described, with one minor exception.

When the spear collided with his head, the resulting noise wasn't the dinky TONK of Hound's blood-red alloy meeting what little Atlesian steel constituted the general's eye. The noise that rang across the hangar floor was deeper, a loud, resounding boom that implied the presence of far heavier body modification than was visible in the old man on the surface.

CLAAAAAAAAANGGGGGGGGGG

It was as if the spear had been struck by another weapon. Exactly what lengths the man called Carnelian had gone through to transform himself into that weapon through the years were his to know, the limitations of what Schnee blood money and Atlesian innovation could accomplish higher than the tallest Solitas peak. Unlike the man he replaced, the current general had never mechanised himself to replace anything that was lost; His semblance, the soul it was affixed to, had given him the boon of navigating his way through life without a scratch.

The only enemy that had ever taken anything from him was time. And rather than accept that, rather than let his killing instincts dull and his body succumb to the frailty of old age, he had done everything in his power to ensure he was every bit as deadly as the young man who committed so many atrocities so long ago. Except he wasn't.

He was worse.

His head turned with the impact of the javelin, yet the old man didn't stagger or stumble. His boots skidded across the floor with such intensity they left scuff marks the whole way from where Ilia had been to where he was now, driven back by the force a good half dozen feet.

But he kept his footing. And though his brow's crease was heavier, the muscles on his face more rigid and the folds in his leathery skin deeper, there was no mistaking any of it for consternation.

He was grinning.

And beyond that he just stood there, not budging so much as a muscle as he waited for the next offensive move against him. Waited for somebody to make his day.

When the lights fizzled, his grin only widened. How very faunus of them.

The red of his cybernetic eye cut through the black, only for the barest touch of a finger to his temple to shift the hue to fluorescent green, the change accompanied by a tiny whirr as he cycled through to the next vision mode.

---

Weiss's plan to locate one of her father's greatest travesties was as elaborate, cunning and machiavellian as they came.

She was visible through the lens in the discarded Bull mask as she touched down in the more disused portion of the warehouse, where the heat signatures she was reading off the device in her palm informed her a lone blip stalked with what she could only assume to be the brooding surliness of her quarry.

Unlike Carnelian, her father, and just about every other person of wealth she knew, Weiss had never really been a proponent of of hunting. Killing Grimm in controlled environments, yes. Stalking and killing animals so their pelts could become part of her furniture and handbags, no. She hadn't the slightest clue how to go about it effectively, quite honestly.

She was, however, impatient, and didn't really feel threatened by anyone in this building either, as much as they thought themselves to be the reckoning she deserved by right of birth. The concept of irony eluded them as gracefully as intricate hunting tactics did her, in her opinion, but she was done feeling like she had anything to prove to these bloodthirsty idiots. Apparently they had already decided who and what she was, long before she was ever in any sort of a position to change it, so now all that remained was to fulfill their expectations, meet blood with blood, perpetuate the eternal cycle of violence between their people and her name. So she touched down in the center of the warehouse floor, cast an already bored look around at the various storage containers and bits of machinery, and rolled her eyes as she sort of just... started roaming around in a brisk walk, projecting her voice like a megaphone.



"Oh joy, here I am. Another inherently wicked, morally corrupt human miscreant, because that makes total sense, on my way to brand more innocent faunus with my name! The younger, the better!"

As tone deaf as the words were, the tone she spoke them with was like that of a listless cat owner wandering around with a bag of food, trying to coax their escaped pet back inside. Then the lights went out, and Weiss gave a tut and an eye roll that made all that came before it seem positively paltry as she sparked a blue fireball in her palm to light the way.

"...In the daaaaaaaark."

Deep in the shadows of the catwalk above, a figure gave a barely restrained growl where she was crouched that might not have gone unheard had her quarry been a faunus or a huntress herself and not this... Complete tool.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"..."

Tiger made her way over and looked down at Nora's fallen form.

Propping the sole of her sneaker atop the young girl's head, Tiger mused it over. It'd be so easy to simply cave in her skull and be done with it. Make it certain that she wouldn't come seeking revenge.

"...I want to see her get stronger."

It'd be such a waste to kill her. Same with the boy she'd encountered twice at this point. Let them continue to grow and flourish. Maybe someday they'd beat her.

Leaning Nora up against the wall, Tiger took her leave and moved to catch up with Hound.​

Though she had indeed been knocked out by the raw strength behind Tiger's attacks, the length of time the small warrior was unconscious was less than it might have ordinarily been with somebody else. The residual electrical energy still coursing through her body was enough of a stimulating shock to start to rouse her, though it was not until after Tiger had already gone away that some level of awareness began to return. A byproduct of the nature of her semblance. She remained unmoving all the same, and it was not until-​

"I'm s'pposed to just stab her with a buncha these."

"With unprocessed dust shards? A gruesome task. Are you certain you can-"

"Yup!"

She literally was already doing it. Nora had two shards jutting out from her arms and the barmaid was already fishing two more out of the bag, tiny arcs of electricity shooting out through her veins from the breach point.

-right exactly then that Nora was fully roused from the unconscious state Tiger had left her in. Turquoise eyes shot open IMMEDIATELY with alarm and pain practically swimming in those wide eyes. OW OW OW, OH CRAP, MOTHER OF GRIMM, OW OW, IT FUCKING HURTS, WHY THE HELL, WHERE AM I, WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHO WHAT WHEN WHY-- Her awakening thoughts ran predictably wild at the stabbing pain of dust crystals getting shoved into her arms. Her subconscious was even more wild and on pure reflex Nora accidentally punched the adorable faunus barmaid. Though it was a light one by her standards, that didn't stop Nora from almost immediately feeling guilty. She began to stammer out an apology but it barely got out before the pain had her stop with a sharp cry escaping her lips instead. She bit down on the pain and looked at the cause of the pain, trying to reason out why the heck she had those sticking out of her dang arms...

The color of them dawned on her and beyond the pain, as her aura began to recover, she could feel the extra power rushing through her imparted by the pure lightning dust. It was energizing as hell, that lightning fueling the hyperactive young woman. If anybody ever wanted to clock the speed at which a screaming-in-pain-young-woman-who-totally-accidentally-punched-somebody-could-go-from-that-to-practically-exploding-with-sudden-energy-outta-nowhere, Nora gave a fine example as she jumped to her feet so fast it seemed she almost took flight. Lightning sparked all around her, and beyond those big aqua eyes of hers, there was a glint that matched the color of the lightning. She exhaled and took several heavy breaths, trying to get the whole lot of EVERYTHING right now under control.

She didn't quite manage that but after a short time, her head jerked over to look at the faunus barmaid with a smile. "Hey, thanks uh...please don't be mad but I forgot your name maybe you could tell me it again sometime but not now obviously because we got more important things going on in fact maybe you could--" Nora suddenly quieted, stopping her motor mouth in its tracks. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was with a far more serious look. Her mouth was a thin line, her eyes narrowed dangerously but none of it was meant for the barmaid who'd come to her aid. A fact that was further emphasized by those next, frighteningly calm words.

"Where did she go?"​

 

[Indolent]

Whether the once absolute monstrosity hybrid grimm person that was Maria needed the assist or not, it came nevertheless as a hardlight shield popped into existence, the hard cushion keeping the woman from being forced too far away by that assault. It vanished almost as quickly as it popped up, its purpose served. "My, my. Did you see that, Jennings? This one almost literally came out of the woodwork!" The platinum haired woman that approached didn't bother to hide the hint of excited amusement in her voice as her armored footsteps likewise heralded her approach. The wide smirk on her face also reflected a degree of interest in the so far silent attacker. "Quite so, Master Helios. My visual receptors are operating at peak efficiency, I assure you." She seemed to ignore that response entirely, tapping on her wristpad, her holographic visor receding and the infrared vision mode going with it. "You should go after the other one." Gwen directed towards Maria. "I can handle this." That was all she said towards the frankly freaky person that had dominated a lot of Merlot's interest for quite some time, her attention already back on the quiet attacker.

"So, hey-" She greeted conversationally enough, all things about this current situation considered, and even gave a small almost friendly wave over towards Panther. "Listen. Panther, yes?" That position had once been Blake Belladonna's if she remembered correctly but this was clearly not Blake. Was this guy the one who took up the mask after her or after the one who had been first after her...Gwen wasn't sure. She didn't keep up with those files much. As far as she recalled, the Talons were like the faunus special forces...and also a revolving door with how much of them seemed to come and go. Well, either way, this guy was one of them. "I'm in a bit of a dilemma, you see. I was in the middle of some interesting and time-critical experiments, if you will, before somebody decided to bomb one of our installations and provoked an immediate military response that drew me away from there. Granted, there are worse distractions that getting a workout and some practice in the field...but I would prefer to be done with this as soon as possible, you understand?" The smile dropped as she drew her weapon, a simple pistol from the looks of it.

"Surrendering would be the fast, simple, easy for all of us option but something tells me that's not an option with you. I shall endeavor to end this swiftly." The gun was raised and aimed in an instant, several electric dust shots fired off in an attempt at both trying to stun the guy as well as gauge how this guy reacted and fought. All the better to determine what form of her extraordinarily malleable weapon would be best to deal with this particular foe. Maybe she'd get lucky and have to resort to one of her rarely used ones...been a while since number 51 got to see some action.​

If there was a reaction to the sudden interference upon his interference, it wasn't overt so as to be noticeable beyond a bemused quirk of the head towards Maria's reaction to the wolf faunus masquerading as the panther, doubly so with her abrupt disengagement in hounding Hound. His battle ready pose was forwent in favor of a more lackadaisical demeanor rapidly adopted as Gwen's appearance followed her foray. It wasn't so much that he dismissed the idea that the individual before him was a credible threat, rather to the contrary, he recognized the special operative from the various briefs disseminated among the Talons when needed, especially in his case given that he had operated within Atlas all this time.

No, the posture was more that of immaculate serenity. Whether that stemmed from confidence which easily could be construed as arrogance or from something only he was privy to or perhaps that out of the three wolves that comprised the Talons he was an unrealized lunatic.



Gwen found herself herself the subject of a penetrating gaze that lingered as she introduced herself and talked to a length. At her words' conclusion, Stream's initial remark came in the form of his eyes flickering to one side, annoyance exuded in the minuscule act, as his body reacted to the incoming shots with deft maneuvers appropriate of his lean figure and arduous training under the Hand. Stream weaved between the shots with masterful footwork, his eyes still fast upon Gwen even as he deftly bent his body with a grace the envy of professional contortionists in his avoiding them.

If a lull presented itself in the space between the projectiles as they were shot, Stream would finally acknowledge her words with a short sentence that was as scathing as it was simple, "Atlesians talk too much."

Panther froze then, as if bidden by an unseen force.

"Snake."

The crackle through the mask's comms was hesitant.

"...Yes, Hand?"

If there were any words to be said about Weiss' insinuations, they weren't to be had now

"Do you have any access to the facility's functions?"

"In a... technical, manual sort of way, yes."

"Do you own any buildings that aren't armed with explosives?" Blake asked, a dull, tired smirk on her face despite herself.

"Well. No. No I don't."

"Kill the lights."

"Very well."

The demolished state of the break room lent itself to a more hospitable environment for the likes of Panther, less so with the interior's space but more so the ruined lighting. While the former presented an advantage to a consummate assassin versed in close quarters melee like him, it was the latter that was intriguingly important yet. An advantage that multiplied exponentially with the power cut to the outlying areas beyond the break-room, stifling any errant beams entering from outside.

Panther cocked his head, the predator's gaze unrelenting, before straightening and crossing his arms as if he were in a reposeful slumber, a fresh corpse laid to rest within its coffin. Then he fell backwards, the motion eerie in its descent as the faunus plunged into the depths without a sound. What came next was comparable to the blitzing assaults the Hand was capable of visiting upon her foes, the student emulating the master with the distinction of utilizing his own techniques. A pair of fangs glint in the darkness from above biting along Gwen's flank in a downward trajectory, before it became an upward, sidelong, even diagonal, a dizzying array of strikes capitalizing all vectors to their fullest delivered by a specter manifesting from the dark. An unforgiving assailing of the special operative within mere seconds speaking to a lack of mercy with openings painstakingly excised in Panther's each and every precise movements.

 

[Indolent]

Bear stumbled back up to his feet as the Roaring Claw petered out and Maria tore past him, and for a moment he was silent.

"...Heheh... Hahahaha."

The laughter was perhaps an improvement over the feral rage that had been present before he'd been rocked off his feet, but there was no joy or even bitter amusement in it. It was a tired sound, the full weight of his long years weighing down across the room with a heaviness the roaring claw couldn't match.

"Aaaall the old ghosts come out of the woodwork in the end, all wearing that old Atlesian blue. Carnelian, The Burning, young miss Maria. Yet they wonder why we fight? Why we could never trust our future to you humans?"

He rose to his full height as his cybernetic slid and clunked back into its claw form with a somber anger upon his face. His anger hadn't vanished, but seeing Greki's life so endangered and Ector's surprise interruption had reigned it in. Leashed the bear back into the schooled calm he tried so hard to instill in his pupils.

"Surrendering would be pointless for me, little Burning. My heart would give out long before I saw humanity fail our kind once again. No. No more cages. No more chains. I've failed the young ones for so long, little Burning. I will not fail them again."

The lights in the hangar cut out with the dull whirr of generator's grinding to a halt. A momentary setback at best for a master of flame, but it was a moment; When the flames inevitably ignited and the darkness briefly lit, Bear wasn't standing where he'd been before.

"Well, it seems the shock brought you back to your senses. Though I could do without the trite nickname, it's as inaccurate as it is deplorable." The colonel sniffed, clearly irked by the unnecessary appellation Bear deigned to confer him. The shift in his countenance aside, Ector still carried the bearing of the soldier flush with experience and knowledge, giving way to a confidence that could only be extricated from those circumstances bolstered by his station. It was a presence that drew attention with little effort, something he had no qualms fully taking advantage of even if it was in the presence of the few.

"I'll spare you the rhetoric if you do the same, I am lacking in that area at least when compared to other, finer elocutionists. I will say with there won't be a future for us all if this continues," Not that he sought out a discourse here of all places on the subject, moving to the general gist of why he really was here, "I insist you surrender anyway, stand down and you have my solemn promise no further harm will come to you. The bloodshed to follow is unnecessary."

At the final vowel, the illumination in the hangar dispersed as the generators died, prompting an inconsolable scowl from the colonel as he remedied the issue with the deft flick of his pointer finger, a swirling lick of flames above the tip as if it were a will-o-wisp lingering idly by a lone branch. Ector intuited Bear would no longer be where he stood, the natural conclusion of the understanding being that he kept all his senses alert as he peered to the roiling shrouds of shadow in the dark where Maria, Ruby, and Greki extracted their pounds of flesh from one another.

His demeanor illustrated his distaste for it all, a side he had no compunctions displaying in the moment as he worked to depart from the ironclad facade of the mechanical soldier the military prided itself on.

"I have my answer then." A weary sigh followed, though it wasn't commensurate with the tiredness that personified Bear, it was of the sort palpable enough to set him apart from the likes of General Carnelian. A soft rippling emanated from the Colonel's position as he maneuvered through the hangar with purpose.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Gwen found herself herself the subject of a penetrating gaze that lingered as she introduced herself and talked to a length. At her words' conclusion, Stream's initial remark came in the form of his eyes flickering to one side, annoyance exuded in the minuscule act, as his body reacted to the incoming shots with deft maneuvers appropriate of his lean figure and arduous training under the Hand. Stream weaved between the shots with masterful footwork, his eyes still fast upon Gwen even as he deftly bent his body with a grace the envy of professional contortionists in his avoiding them.

Rather than holding any frustration for the utter ease with which the faunus dodged around her shots, as some might have, Gwen only tilted her head in an appreciative manner. He moved like water, graceful and sublime...honestly, the way he weaved between the dust projectiles seemed almost like an art form to her in some ways. Not bad...not bad at all. She didn't outwardly express that thought however. Instead her thoughts moved on, briefly considering what weapon option would be best for someone like that. Hmmmm.​

If a lull presented itself in the space between the projectiles as they were shot, Stream would finally acknowledge her words with a short sentence that was as scathing as it was simple, "Atlesians talk too much."

She didn't get too far with her mental calculations then, interrupted as they were by two things. One, that blunt sentence. There was still no annoyance within her after hearing that and, contrary to what might have been expected, she actually agreed with an easygoing grin. "Oh you have no idea how true that is. Consider yourself lucky you don't have to sit through a briefing with the councilwoman or the general or colonel." Her reply was completely amicable, despite everything. She'd never been one for talking with people at extreme length, far more comfortable with her machines than people, but she dealt with it as duty demanded. But that didn't mean she had to like it.​

The demolished state of the break room lent itself to a more hospitable environment for the likes of Panther, less so with the interior's space but more so the ruined lighting. While the former presented an advantage to a consummate assassin versed in close quarters melee like him, it was the latter that was intriguingly important yet. An advantage that multiplied exponentially with the power cut to the outlying areas beyond the break-room, stifling any errant beams entering from outside.

The second thing being the lights going completely out and filling the whole place with instant darkness. That was clever of them, presumably the faunus had the place set up to give themselves an advantage just in case something like this ever occurred. Clever, but not enough in this particular case.​

Panther cocked his head, the predator's gaze unrelenting, before straightening and crossing his arms as if he were in a reposeful slumber, a fresh corpse laid to rest within its coffin. Then he fell backwards, the motion eerie in its descent as the faunus plunged into the depths without a sound. What came next was comparable to the blitzing assaults the Hand was capable of visiting upon her foes, the student emulating the master with the distinction of utilizing his own techniques. A pair of fangs glint in the darkness from above biting along Gwen's flank in a downward trajectory, before it became an upward, sidelong, even diagonal, a dizzying array of strikes capitalizing all vectors to their fullest delivered by a specter manifesting from the dark. An unforgiving assailing of the special operative within mere seconds speaking to a lack of mercy with openings painstakingly excised in Panther's each and every precise movements.

With a single thought, her influence over technology had her holographic visor pop back into place just as Panther fell back in that dramatic fashion, with the nightvision mode engaged this time. The whole area was bathed in pale green light from her perspective, and she nodded, satisfied. "Much bett--" Her aura forewarned her of the incoming danger and she leaped backwards, narrowly avoiding the attack from above. With the veritable tornado of strikes that followed, she did her best to replicate Panther's own ease in weaving between the attacks with her own agility and advanced special operative training...but it didn't go quite as gracefully. In recent times she had spent more time in her lab rather than hitting the gym or sparring, and enough of that showed. Many of the attacks she managed to avoid, but a number of them managed to hit home. She sprang back after the latest blow that landed, a roll into the darkness to briefly put some distance between them.

When she rolled back to standing, the weapon in her hands was a far cry from the pistol it had been. The gun was longer, the barrel more elongated and it glowed a bit with a pale blue light in the darkness. She couldn't quite match his agility and speed but she believed her tech would make up the difference. There was only one way to test out that hypothesis though. Her eyes flitted to his exact spot in the darkness. "Let's try this one out, huh?" Gwen aimed and pulled the trigger, firing not a single shot but rather a constant stream of absolute chill. A blast that spread out wide, almost like a cone and almost like a flamethrower, except...cold.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

There was an important distinction to make in how Greki's semblance worked; while it did impart on her the ability to keep herself lucid even has her body went feral, it didn't make her any more calm and lucid than she'd normally be.

Ruby disappearing in a cloud of rose petals was expected, and in the face of it Greki stayed calm. Greki's laid back nature obscured her sense of professionalism, but didn't get rid of it. She'd read up well enough on Ruby Rose and what she did and how she worked, how she fought; the Fang had files on all of Oz's leuitenants after all; they were human, and you only ever trusted a human so far. The feral beast Greki was piloting twisted with nimble ferocity, catching her diving crash on the arm instead of the back of the neck with a growl as she tried to wrestle herself back on top.

The thing that wore Maria's skin was not expected. What, exactly, had been done to Maria Calavera was something the Fang had never fully deduced, and until twenty seconds ago none of them even knew she was working with Weiss. Even if Blake had been made aware of the failed checkup turned murder attempt, there was no reason to believe that ended in anything but the Grimm Reaper's demise. There was barely any homework to be had, and what little could've happened Greki hadn't done.

So when some beast that looked like no grimm the expert huntress had ever seen suddenly slammed into her side and beset her with fang and claw, she panicked. The upside to her semblence was that even when Greki panicked, her body didn't. The downside was that, when it was in charge, all it did was fight back, and it was not a fight that it was prepared to win on its own. Greki's aura flared in the darkness, a smattering of light silver piercing the black in flickers-

A massive wave of sound enveloped the trio from the dark, shattering the rest of Greki's aura in a burst. It was almost impossible to ascertain where it was coming from in the dark and with their senses so assaulted as it pummelled the floor tiles into ruin, its massive roar echoing across the walls loud enough to rupture and un-aura'd ear drum even if it wasn't in its line of fire. Greki, with her aura gone, got the worst of it; her eyes bled, and the feral beast howled and wimpered and tried to weakly scrabble out of the pain. This time, however, it wasn't the rage fueled spewings of a man lost in old memories, an impotent roar from an addled beast. Greki was It was merely the setup.

A pair of tsize eighteen tabi crashed down from the rafters,likely barely missing Maria by virtue of her semblence, but Ruby had no such early warning system amid the assault of pain and sound, and a massive hand lashed out to grip her neck while she was pinned.

If it worked, Ruby was the first one to truly escape the pain tonight; a blessed sleep overtook her, likely the most peaceful one she'd gotten in years.

"Stand down, beast and flame." the bear growled at Maria, Greki gasping for air from where she laid nearby suffering from a terrible collection of internal bruising and ruptures that were nonetheless not the torn to shreds state Bear could only picture that travesty ending in if he'd not intervened. "Or your precious Schnee loses the silver eyes she'll so desperately need in the coming days"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

It all happened as described, with one minor exception.

When the spear collided with his head, the resulting noise wasn't the dinky TONK of Hound's blood-red alloy meeting what little Atlesian steel constituted the general's eye. The noise that rang across the hangar floor was deeper, a loud, resounding boom that implied the presence of far heavier body modification than was visible in the old man on the surface.

CLAAAAAAAAANGGGGGGGGGG

It was as if the spear had been struck by another weapon. Exactly what lengths the man called Carnelian had gone through to transform himself into that weapon through the years were his to know, the limitations of what Schnee blood money and Atlesian innovation could accomplish higher than the tallest Solitas peak. Unlike the man he replaced, the current general had never mechanised himself to replace anything that was lost; His semblance, the soul it was affixed to, had given him the boon of navigating his way through life without a scratch.

The only enemy that had ever taken anything from him was time. And rather than accept that, rather than let his killing instincts dull and his body succumb to the frailty of old age, he had done everything in his power to ensure he was every bit as deadly as the young man who committed so many atrocities so long ago. Except he wasn't.

He was worse.

His head turned with the impact of the javelin, yet the old man didn't stagger or stumble. His boots skidded across the floor with such intensity they left scuff marks the whole way from where Ilia had been to where he was now, driven back by the force a good half dozen feet.

But he kept his footing. And though his brow's crease was heavier, the muscles on his face more rigid and the folds in his leathery skin deeper, there was no mistaking any of it for consternation.

He was grinning.

And beyond that he just stood there, not budging so much as a muscle as he waited for the next offensive move against him. Waited for somebody to make his day.

When the lights fizzled, his grin only widened. How very faunus of them.

The red of his cybernetic eye cut through the black, only for the barest touch of a finger to his temple to shift the hue to fluorescent green, the change accompanied by a tiny whirr as he cycled through to the next vision mode.

Carnelian's nightvision treated him to the sight of Hound slowing his sprint when it became apparent that he wasn't the focus of Maria's attention any longer, the run drifting towards a confident stride as the spear ceased hovering to instead snap back to his hands as the thrusters reversed, landing a waiting hand that caught it with a spin before letting it rest across his shoulders. Hound couldn't give a shit about what was going on behind him. The old man, Greki, they had their own reasons for being here. They'd known what they'd signed up for. He winced slightly as Bear's roar echoed once again as he stopped a twice dozen feet away from the general, and his mouth flicked into a toothy smirk, regardless of how it all ended.

"Jesus, all this talk of surrender. What about you old man? You sellin? You buying?"

Somehow, hound didn't think so, and a wicked bark of a laugh echoed half as loud as all the other violence through the room but twice as sharp as he let his spear thump against the ground with a clang. "Y'know, grandpa Hound used to tell stories about you, mom too. Big bad Borous, worst of the worst, just an utter, soulless bastard. There was a difference between when mom and gramps told it, though. Mom just hated you. Don't think she ever fought your herself. But Gramps?"

The smirk deepened, getting close to as feral as Greki had been in the throes of her semblence.

"Gramps always had a twinkle in his eye. Sure, sure, he hated you too, but you? You were his best. The only one who ever really made him flex in a fight. Still got it old man? Cuz me?"

The spear spun in his grip as he squatted low, letting the tip of it arc over his head as he took his stance.

"I'm just so tired of being bored."

Despite all the big talk and grandstanding, hound didn't make the first move. He didn't make a move at all, even as his semblence began to flare and his aura glowed, as Carnelian's semblence gave him the preview to just how annoying Hound intended to pursue this fight.

'Counter this old shit's every move'

Somewhere else in the hangar, blending with a perfection even a faunus couldn't catch in the dark, Ilia almost threw up as she used her semblence and got half a fake eye, and then almost threw up again when the other eye was looking at hound.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Carnelian's nightvision treated him to the sight of Hound slowing his sprint when it became apparent that he wasn't the focus of Maria's attention any longer, the run drifting towards a confident stride as the spear ceased hovering to instead snap back to his hands as the thrusters reversed, landing a waiting hand that caught it with a spin before letting it rest across his shoulders. Hound couldn't give a shit about what was going on behind him. The old man, Greki, they had their own reasons for being here. They'd known what they'd signed up for. He winced slightly as Bear's roar echoed once again as he stopped a twice dozen feet away from the general, and his mouth flicked into a toothy smirk, regardless of how it all ended.

"Jesus, all this talk of surrender. What about you old man? You sellin? You buying?"

Somehow, hound didn't think so, and a wicked bark of a laugh echoed half as loud as all the other violence through the room but twice as sharp as he let his spear thump against the ground with a clang. "Y'know, grandpa Hound used to tell stories about you, mom too. Big bad Borous, worst of the worst, just an utter, soulless bastard. There was a difference between when mom and gramps told it, though. Mom just hated you. Don't think she ever fought your herself. But Gramps?"

The smirk deepened, getting close to as feral as Greki had been in the throes of her semblence.

"Gramps always had a twinkle in his eye. Sure, sure, he hated you too, but you? You were his best. The only one who ever really made him flex in a fight. Still got it old man? Cuz me?"

The spear spun in his grip as he squatted low, letting the tip of it arc over his head as he took his stance.

"I'm just so tired of being bored."

Despite all the big talk and grandstanding, hound didn't make the first move. He didn't make a move at all, even as his semblence began to flare and his aura glowed, as Carnelian's semblence gave him the preview to just how annoying Hound intended to pursue this fight.

'Counter this old shit's every move'

Somewhere else in the hangar, blending with a perfection even a faunus couldn't catch in the dark, Ilia almost threw up as she used her semblence and got half a fake eye, and then almost threw up again when the other eye was looking at hound.

The general was unsettlingly still for much of Hound's taunt, easily mistakable for a statue, until about halfway through he let his head loll back and grimaced at his neck's stiffness, a hand going back to knead the muscles there as he idly started pacing with a heavily resigned sigh. Not pacing towards the young faunus; around, keeping to the perimeter the Talon himself set and accomplishing nothing more than making Hound have to rotate awkwardly in place if he wanted to keep addressing him, unless he wanted to give such an experienced killer his back.

"You'd have to be more specific, son. Seem to remember at least two dozen mangy little runts with spears who thought they were the one. Look at my face; I'll ask you the same thing I asked each and every one of them."



He shot the lance-wielder what could only be described as the most, dull, flat and uninterested look he'd ever been on the receiving end of, the general not so much as sparing Hound the irritation and vitriol he was used to drawing out in his opponents.

"Which part of it looks like I give a shit?"

He reached the point where he would've started circling around behind Hound and simply kept going, no apparent reservations whatsoever about showing the younger warrior his own back as his boots started treading a calm, measured pace away from their standoff.

"You mongrels think you've finally earned your seat at the table? A slice of the kingdoms we built, the territory we ripped away from the Grimm?"

His snort was derisive, his movements smooth as his eyeline swept away from addressing Hound to refocus on the path before him.

"Come take it from me. But here's a tip: tired old grudges and glory hounds won't get you far."

That was when Ilia, with the blessing of her semblance's perspective, realized.

She was looking at herself. Carnelian's eyes were locked on exactly wherever it was she was standing, her perfect camouflage apparently no better than a layer of paint to the general's violent eyes as he continued on his slow, inexorable path towards her, his eye's beam glinting off the swords in his hands.

"It's gonna take rage. And I'm eager to see if this new generation of fleabags are finally capable of enough hate to earn what your kind always felt the world owed you. Another blowhard with a pointy stick and a chip on his shoulder, though? You trying to bore me to death?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Though she had indeed been knocked out by the raw strength behind Tiger's attacks, the length of time the small warrior was unconscious was less than it might have ordinarily been with somebody else. The residual electrical energy still coursing through her body was enough of a stimulating shock to start to rouse her, though it was not until after Tiger had already gone away that some level of awareness began to return. A byproduct of the nature of her semblance. She remained unmoving all the same, and it was not until-



-right exactly then that Nora was fully roused from the unconscious state Tiger had left her in. Turquoise eyes shot open IMMEDIATELY with alarm and pain practically swimming in those wide eyes. OW OW OW, OH CRAP, MOTHER OF GRIMM, OW OW, IT FUCKING HURTS, WHY THE HELL, WHERE AM I, WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHO WHAT WHEN WHY-- Her awakening thoughts ran predictably wild at the stabbing pain of dust crystals getting shoved into her arms. Her subconscious was even more wild and on pure reflex Nora accidentally punched the adorable faunus barmaid. Though it was a light one by her standards, that didn't stop Nora from almost immediately feeling guilty. She began to stammer out an apology but it barely got out before the pain had her stop with a sharp cry escaping her lips instead. She bit down on the pain and looked at the cause of the pain, trying to reason out why the heck she had those sticking out of her dang arms...

The color of them dawned on her and beyond the pain, as her aura began to recover, she could feel the extra power rushing through her imparted by the pure lightning dust. It was energizing as hell, that lightning fueling the hyperactive young woman. If anybody ever wanted to clock the speed at which a screaming-in-pain-young-woman-who-totally-accidentally-punched-somebody-could-go-from-that-to-practically-exploding-with-sudden-energy-outta-nowhere, Nora gave a fine example as she jumped to her feet so fast it seemed she almost took flight. Lightning sparked all around her, and beyond those big aqua eyes of hers, there was a glint that matched the color of the lightning. She exhaled and took several heavy breaths, trying to get the whole lot of EVERYTHING right now under control.

She didn't quite manage that but after a short time, her head jerked over to look at the faunus barmaid with a smile. "Hey, thanks uh...please don't be mad but I forgot your name maybe you could tell me it again sometime but not now obviously because we got more important things going on in fact maybe you could--" Nora suddenly quieted, stopping her motor mouth in its tracks. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was with a far more serious look. Her mouth was a thin line, her eyes narrowed dangerously but none of it was meant for the barmaid who'd come to her aid. A fact that was further emphasized by those next, frighteningly calm words.

"Where did she go?"

"U-Up there! Please don't hit me again!" She mewled as she pointed, scrambling back with a look of flabbergasted terror on her face at someone recovering so fast and clocking her. She whipped her gaze around with a glare. "Cookie, I thoughtcha were supposed to stop that from happenin'?!"

"Well you stabbed her though, so..."​

 

[MidwayLives]

There was an important distinction to make in how Greki's semblance worked; while it did impart on her the ability to keep herself lucid even has her body went feral, it didn't make her any more calm and lucid than she'd normally be.

Ruby disappearing in a cloud of rose petals was expected, and in the face of it Greki stayed calm. Greki's laid back nature obscured her sense of professionalism, but didn't get rid of it. She'd read up well enough on Ruby Rose and what she did and how she worked, how she fought; the Fang had files on all of Oz's leuitenants after all; they were human, and you only ever trusted a human so far. The feral beast Greki was piloting twisted with nimble ferocity, catching her diving crash on the arm instead of the back of the neck with a growl as she tried to wrestle herself back on top.

The thing that wore Maria's skin was not expected. What, exactly, had been done to Maria Calavera was something the Fang had never fully deduced, and until twenty seconds ago none of them even knew she was working with Weiss. Even if Blake had been made aware of the failed checkup turned murder attempt, there was no reason to believe that ended in anything but the Grimm Reaper's demise. There was barely any homework to be had, and what little could've happened Greki hadn't done.

Ruby didn't budge, no matter how she'd been clawed or bitten at herself.

Ruby knew that she wasn't the strongest phyiscally.

She knew that this wasn't the most oppertune way for her to fight.

But it was how she loved to do it. Just giving it all with all the energy her own body had to muster. The carnal feeling of giving into your baser instincts and using tooth and claw. It didn't matter how many times she was knocked aside or torn into. She'd keep running back until she physically couldn't stand anymore.

That's just how Ruby Rose was.
​

The thing that wore Maria's skin was not expected. What, exactly, had been done to Maria Calavera was something the Fang had never fully deduced, and until twenty seconds ago none of them even knew she was working with Weiss. Even if Blake had been made aware of the failed checkup turned murder attempt, there was no reason to believe that ended in anything but the Grimm Reaper's demise. There was barely any homework to be had, and what little could've happened Greki hadn't done.

So when some beast that looked like no grimm the expert huntress had ever seen suddenly slammed into her side and beset her with fang and claw, she panicked. The upside to her semblence was that even when Greki panicked, her body didn't. The downside was that, when it was in charge, all it did was fight back, and it was not a fight that it was prepared to win on its own. Greki's aura flared in the darkness, a smattering of light silver piercing the black in flickers-

Ruby's face lit up.

Her face despite it being marred by blood and cuts was still somehow just as genuine as it'd always been. From the moment she'd first been introduced to what Ozpin had made of the Grimm Reaper and how she saw her now.

"Maria!~" Ruby called out.

Though it was more than a bit muffled with her currently trying to gnaw on Greki.
​

A massive wave of sound enveloped the trio from the dark, shattering the rest of Greki's aura in a burst. It was almost impossible to ascertain where it was coming from in the dark and with their senses so assaulted as it pummelled the floor tiles into ruin, its massive roar echoing across the walls loud enough to rupture and un-aura'd ear drum even if it wasn't in its line of fire. Greki, with her aura gone, got the worst of it; her eyes bled, and the feral beast howled and wimpered and tried to weakly scrabble out of the pain. This time, however, it wasn't the rage fueled spewings of a man lost in old memories, an impotent roar from an addled beast. Greki was It was merely the setup.

Why was everything upside down-ohp-she'd been hit by that old man's weapon again hadn't she?

She really hoped the ringing it left in her ears wasn't permanent.

Crashing in a heap on the ground, Ruby's aura shimmered around her entire body as it trembled. An attempt was made to stop the oncoming surge of vomit but it was to no avail. A pathetic storm of coughs followed it as Ruby sat there hunched over, the bare skin of her back left drenched in a cold sweat. Her head felt as though it'd been stuck in a box and beaten over the head repeatedly. Collapsing forward with her arms pulled over her head, Ruby seemed to whimper and mewl in response to the severe pain wracking her body.

As her arms lowered though, her organic hand seemed to have grabbed something out of her pocket...
​

A pair of tsize eighteen tabi crashed down from the rafters,likely barely missing Maria by virtue of her semblence, but Ruby had no such early warning system amid the assault of pain and sound, and a massive hand lashed out to grip her neck while she was pinned.

*click*

Ruby barely had time to turn before-

"AAAAGHHHH!!"

Her aura flared like a wildfire out of control.

She writhed and wriggled under the faunus's weight, her face turned up into a pained grimace.

Then the hand came in.

The grimace vanished having been replaced by a blood stained grin.

"I...may have been caught like prey..."

The palm of her hand began to glow an icy blue. Not unlike the signs that'd been clear when Feri launched ice spikes at Weiss.

"But I'm more of a predator than you'll EVER BE!"

*VSSSSSSHHHHH!!!*

A beam modified by the added ice-dust canister streamed from Ruby's arm. The last shot Ruby had attempted to take had been knocked off course by Greki. Now that she wasn't a problem and Bear had done Ruby the honor of closing the distance between them, everything was set to go. If it worked out like she intended, the faunus would have been frozen over by the beam. Vanishing in a trail of rose petals from under the aged warrior's frame, Ruby didn't get too far before having to come to a stop. Eager as she was to indulge her wild side/her truer instincts as she saw them, Bear's weapon had been no joke. After experiencing the gauntlet of pain of having been blasted not once but twice, Ruby saw taking it out of the equation as a necessity. Thinking on it, she had her doubts the initial beam she'd fired would have actually been enough to sever Bear's prosthetic. At least without weakening it's structural integrity.

"Ector!" ​