Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

"YOU really think that sounds logical? Repeat it back to yourself. I'm the ruler of the Bound Ashes! If it weren't for me, animals like the ones currently infesting our fine city would be roaming free and doing as they see fit! I keep Mistral safe and sound! It is through me that Mistral and it's people prosper! What's good for me is good for Mistral! So...to hear you say...that I'm under arrest? I can't help but laugh...But again you deserve to be commended. You're the first person in a long time to ever find out my name." The Boss's eyes narrowed as he blasted off from the ground.

"IT'S TOO BAD THAT KNOWLEDGE IS SOMETHING YOU'LL HAVE TO TAKE TO YOUR GRAVE!"

If Neo wasn't mute, the boss might've received some warning that the hawk faunus wasn't as alone as he seemed. She'd started to force herself up from her knees, putting all her weight on her good arm and hush as the Boss turned to face and shout at this new nuisance. Who did he think he was, turning his back on her? She wasn't dead yet. She could still fight. As long as she was breathing she refused to not do everything she could. She couldn't just let another foe walk away, couldn't turn away from the fight. It didn't matter if it wasn't a fight she could win. She'd rather be dead than try to keep living if something happened to her friends because she ran.

not again.

She finally reached her legs, and with a vicious, silent snarl, tried to raise Hush for a wild, weak swing for the Boss' exposed back, right before something knocked the air of her lungs. Something, someone had just landed silently next to her and Char, and suddenly they were both being carried away in another silent leap.

The Hawk faunus watched with disinterested eyes as the Boss started to take off. He took one last drag from his cigarette, put a finger up to a small device resting against his ear, and spoke a single word.

"Fire."

The clouds in the night sky above the streets parted a split second before the the destruction came


*kraKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A shell almost as big as the boss himself crashed into him from above so fast and hard that the accompanying sound didn't reach him till a second later; His semblance just barely withstood it, stopped the shell from hitting him directly, but both impacted the ground hard enough to bury him six feet into the concrete before it detonated in a storm of hellfire that engulfed the entire block. The Boss and the faunus disappeared entirely from view, and Neopolitan had to reflexively shut her eyes and shield herself against the monstrous heat as the flames shot up and past the building and towered up into the sky.

Apart from his clothes and hair billowing in the shock blast, the faunus stood in the midst of the inferno, unfazed. The most violent reaction it got out of him was an air of regret as he watched the cigarette still held in his fingers disintegrate into ash. The flames finally started to disipate, though smaller fires crackled and snarled along anything vaguely flammable that had been anywhere near the blast zone, as the faunus strode towards the crater the artillery blast had created.

He let out a low whistle at what he saw below, and pulled another cigarette from his jacket.

"Well, Mr. Crimson, I have to say I'm surprised; you are one tough son of a bitch."

His clothes were smoking, his skin was covered in burn marks, but somehow the man in the hole was still breathing.

"Doesn't change the fact that you're arrested." The faunus added, right as a pair of mantas crested over the other buildings in the district.

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

Neo stared in blank, uncomprehending shock at the carnage left below. What... what the fuck had just happened. She turned towards her impromptu savior, practically begging her with her eyes for an explanation.

It was a woman with raven black hair, done up in a ponytail behind a masked face. She also seemed military; sleek and light combat armor in hues of black and red with the JMLDU logo on one shoulder. A pair of short swords were magnetically holstered at her back, and a pair of submachine guns hung at her side. Keeping with the theme of twos, a pair of animal ears jutted out from just above the mask, but nothing else was apparent; the mask hid her face, and a pair of combat goggles her eyes. Said goggles were currently pointed towards the sky, tracking the approaching mantas, and Neo heard the faunus swear under her breath.

"...Shit. That wasn't part of the plan."

For whatever reason, she didnt' seem pleased to see what were supposedly on the same side, and she glanced back down to Neo as she reached for a pair of gravity cuffs hung at her belt loop.

"Neopolitan, you're under arrest as well. Sorry. Oh, and uh, you too... guy." She added to Char's unconscious form

The Boss reached out a hand.

"Die, you insipid freak-"


"WHAT?!-"

The Boss's cries turned into screams of fury as his effort to silence this newcomer literally began to blow up in his face.

His hands didn't move fast enough to cushion the impact. There wasn't even enough time to gather enough momentum to deflect the shell's course.

"DAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"




"Ngh...." Hands stained with dirt kicked up by the explosive landing clung to the closest corner of the crater.

"2...20...years of labor...of work...All gone to waste..." The Boss mumbled as his dark red aura shined around him while looking as though it'd experienced a nasty spiderweb fracture. "I....I won't submit to you...or...or to anyone..." This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to be in this crater hurting like this. Certainly not on an attack at the behest of some filthy flea-bitten aviary freak. His flowing mane of hair clung loosely to his back as he tried in vain to pull himself free of the crater but the strength just wasn't there. The little corner he clung to crumbled and he slid back down. But his eyes never left the faunus. The idea that for all of his efforts in keeping himself a secret, almost a persona non grata, in the course of over a few days and mere hours....he'd been found out. It angered him more than any words could say.

"You'll....You'll die for this...I'll..I'll see to it..." He threatened.

Then...the Boss vanished.

The body fell back landing in the center of the crater. The fractured looking pupils had returned to normal. The man laying in the crater didn't seem to have the figure of a man in his mid to late thirties anymore. It looked as though it were a youth...barely any older than Neo or her acquaintances

A weak voice called out.

"B-Boss...? W-What's going on.....? Why...Why do I hurt so much....?"

The Boss didn't answer.​

This had absolutely not been her priority. She had traveled back down this way for entirely different reasons, but yet, as she traversed the city, it proved impossible for her to ignore the sounds and sights of the chaos unfolding here. Her observing flew under the radar of all involved, from the faunus and the elite force looking woman to the raging screaming guy caught up in that powerful shot, for who pays attention to a simple bird in the midst of a mess like this. But her gaze was not focused on them either. Mismatched eyes looked towards one in particular, recognizing her straightaway...twice over, actually. That was the face of the killer she had stopped once, sent her running before she could make good on killing her daughter...but it was also not that woman. It was her younger counterpart, the huntress in training...or at the very least, had once had the aspiration to become a huntress.

The avian creature's head tilted, seemingly thinking about something. Then, inexplicably, if anyone had been close enough and if the sounds of everything going on wasn't drowning it out, they might have heard something of a small sigh escape the bird in the seconds before it took off in flight. She already possessed intentions that would make her an enemy of the local police force, the same these two seemed to belong to as well. Why not go for broke?

A few faint flaps of her wings were sufficient enough to get her down there. Just as the woman in full combat gear stood before Neo and reached for the cuffs, the small bird swooped in...and was a bird no longer. In an instant, another raven black haired woman also clad in red and black was there, dropping from above, and landed on her feet to put herself between the kitted out woman and the tiny awestruck Neo. It seemed she too was an impromptu savior? Not that she would have probably called herself that. It had been years since she or anyone really, would have considered her a hero. Her hair was cut much shorter in a messy look, and her mismatched eyes stood out in comparison to the last time the kids had seen either flavor of the woman, but at the very least she still seemed friendly-ish. Those red and blue eyes remained locked on the other woman.

"No." Raven declared in a stern voice, one hand hovering by her side ready to grab her blade if it proved necessary, and the other one...it held up a scroll, displaying her huntress license, one well-earned from Beacon. Albeit, not this world's Beacon, but for the purposes of this bluff it held up to scrutiny, indistinguishable from any that came from the Beacon Academy of this world. "Huntress authority. I'll take her and her friends in, the rest are all yours. See to them." She didn't have any rank among the police but it still came out sounding like a command, still carried the full weight of authority. She was no stranger to being in charge after all, not after years of ruling the tribe and even before then, even though she was not the leader, the amount of times she had chewed out Summer, or Taiyang, or her brother...

Raven stared unflinchingly at the woman and the bird faunus, waiting for them to either acquiesce to her demands or force things to go the hard way.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

She kept enough control to eventually continue along Carnelian's answer with a bit more context, through gritted teeth.

"Weiss' memories should confirm one way or the other, Lord Ozpin; I managed to acquire the staff for a short time, but she had placed a chip along my heart during the initial capture that killed me, much like the one she had put in herself. The fact that I knew what it was was the only reason I was able to revive her form in time for you to keep it. It would be best to ensure the general isn't merely leading you falsely along"

"Unfortunately, they can not." She replied. "Treasonous, underhanded, cold and foolish as Weiss Schnee proved herself to be...her force of will can not be denied. She is...keeping things from me. She has them locked away for the time being, a select several few things. What they are that she is hiding I can't be entirely certain of, but the location of the staff is among them. Like it or not, we will have to take his word on this regarding the staff. If he is lying, make no mistake he will suffer accordingly-" She glared intensely at the man. "-but I do not sense deceit here. Even if he is lying, I can confirm that Weiss arranged for them to get to Vacuo and they are there now with the lamp. That means the desert kingdom now has two relics assuredly there, and a chance that there is a third as well. This opportunity shall not go to waste. I won't let it."​

At that question, she bowed her head slightly.

"As always, I am at your disposal to use as you see fit, Lord Ozpin. However, Ironwood obviously made this choice in a bid to save his kingdom from open warfare; the man is a statiscian. Risking more atlesian lives may outweigh his continued loyalty. And as for the Shadow Fang... I would have to touch base with the High Leader. Just as I am your blade, I am her Hand; it is up to her if we have the manpower to spare. We have always been a smaller force. We do not have the luxury of expendability a Kingdom with a standing army has."

"Of course." Weiss nodded, considering... "No. No, I have no need to consult with your High Leader. Time spent reaching out would be a waste. The several of you shall suffice, provided you all are as willing as my daughter and loyal servant here." She gestured to Blake, even as she looked at Bear and Tiger and Greki.
​

"I'm always willing to fight..."

Tiger commented.

The first time she'd spoken since they'd landed to be pefectly honest. When it came to the strange surroundings and Grimm, she tried not to think about it too much. Wasn't really her place. Life just seemed so much easier to understand when you were fighting and that's how Tiger preferred it.

"This one has a good head on her shoulders." Finally she turned to Carnelian. "Well, how about you then?" She questioned once more. "Do you have any resources you could utilize, or plans worth noting?" Weiss asked as the whale continued to rumble in motion.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...Hmm. So you mean to tell that the lamp is assuredly in Vacuo, which also is home to the sword, and the staff is in all likelihood on the way there. In other words, three relics, in one kingdom." Weiss smiled with pure malevolence. An opportunity like that had never before presented itself! "Not to mention a significant number of my enemies, of this world or the other, an unaccounted for maiden, and, if Weiss's own memories are any indication, the last living members of her family. One of which who could possibly expedite my learning how to control this semblance, if I haven't already gotten a handle on it by then. It sounds to me like we have every reason to go to Vacuo as soon as possible, while we have this knowledge and my legions and all of you standing with me. Quite a dangerous force, even if I don't personally know..." She glanced at all the other Shadow Fang members aside Blake. "...some of you. Beyond that..." Weiss looked to Blake and then Carnelian in turn.

"Would any more Shadow Fang reinforcements or Atlesian military assistance be able to be arranged?"

At that question, she bowed her head slightly.

"As always, I am at your disposal to use as you see fit, Lord Ozpin. However, Ironwood obviously made this choice in a bid to save his kingdom from open warfare; the man is a statiscian. Risking more atlesian lives may outweigh his continued loyalty. And as for the Shadow Fang... I would have to touch base with the High Leader. Just as I am your blade, I am her Hand; it is up to her if we have the manpower to spare. We have always been a smaller force. We do not have the luxury of expendability a Kingdom with a standing army has."

"Unfortunately, they can not." She replied. "Treasonous, underhanded, cold and foolish as Weiss Schnee proved herself to be...her force of will can not be denied. She is...keeping things from me. She has them locked away for the time being, a select several few things. What they are that she is hiding I can't be entirely certain of, but the location of the staff is among them. Like it or not, we will have to take his word on this regarding the staff. If he is lying, make no mistake he will suffer accordingly-" She glared intensely at the man. "-but I do not sense deceit here. Even if he is lying, I can confirm that Weiss arranged for them to get to Vacuo and they are there now with the lamp. That means the desert kingdom now has two relics assuredly there, and a chance that there is a third as well. This opportunity shall not go to waste. I won't let it."



"Of course." Weiss nodded, considering... "No. No, I have no need to consult with your High Leader. Time spent reaching out would be a waste. The several of you shall suffice, provided you all are as willing as my daughter and loyal servant here." She gestured to Blake, even as she looked at Bear and Tiger and Greki.



"This one has a good head on her shoulders." Finally she turned to Carnelian. "Well, how about you then?" She questioned once more. "Do you have any resources you could utilize, or plans worth noting?" Weiss asked as the whale continued to rumble in motion.​

Carnelian's withering smile seemed to inch ever-wider at both the question and Blake's input, her threatening show of power and the insinuations regarding his honesty having gone entirely unacknowledged save the ever-present grin in an equally potent display of obliviousness. It was very obviously deliberate, just as much as it could've been construed as a senile old fool's genuine ignorance to the danger being posed to him.

"Your doting daughter's right, your lordship. In a sense. I've known Jimmy since he was young. The tin man's a different breed of traitor to our brave little lionheart." The mildest hint of a sarcastic, insidious sneer crossed his face as he spoke, and though the twisted official didn't avert his gaze or move Mistral's headmaster felt a fresh wave of involuntary terror bubble to the surface of his psyche, as if mined by a drill. "But let me assure you, that conformity to his principles makes him as predictable and pliable as all the rest. What doesn't break, bends. Always. I've danced circles around men like Ironwood my entire lifetime—I did it to his predecessor, who if you can believe it was even more of an insufferable asshole than he is. Brass tacks? If it means the citizens of Atlas and Mantle are spared undue suffering, there isn't a toll he won't pay. That includes the lives of enlisted soldiers, if it comes down to it; and he has their faith in a way I never had. Push came to shove, he could deploy 'em into hell and they'd salute and ask what factor sunscreen to bring."

He snorted and used his elbow to give Bear a sporting nudge in the ribs where he knelt beside him, as if the foibles of Atlas military delegates were as old and familiar a joke to the two of them as asking why the chicken crossed the road.

"Still, this arrangement is all new. Maybe it's a case of a little too much, too soon. But if you leave the matter with me, my lord, I guarantee you the full might of Atlas's military arm will be yours to wield like the fist of God itself on the day you lead your army to Vale's door. Despite what you were able to accomplish at Vytal with a more... limited fighting force—" His eyes flickered briefly to Blake again, and this time the smile did broaden, so slightly and imperceptibly it would've taken a cat's eyes and sense of spatial awareness to even register it. "—They remain the most organized and formidable armed opposition left to oppose you, and this time you won't be catching 'em off-guard. But they are nothing in the face of Atlas. With us at your disposal, the siege you'll have on your hands becomes a clean overnight victory. As for Vacuo? I believe I can offer up a suitable compromise. In this day and age, living, breathing foot soldiers only account for a fraction of our military power; with your leave, I'll roll out a battalion of our finest android troopers and await your arrival in the desert. They should supplement your forces and recoup the losses Schnee dealt your own army today nicely. Beyond that, we currently harbor an influx of criminals and deviants from all across Remnant apprehended as part of a strike against a bloodletting tournament just a few days ago. I'm more than positive some among them will be receptive to the notion of aiding your efforts in exchange for disappearing through the cracks in the system. Who knows? Maybe you'll even find a few keepers."

He smiled again, intrigued at the prospect. Assuming Ozwen was receptive to such an idea, he bowed his head in dignified veneration of Her and moved to stand, his knives and swords resheathed in preparation for his departure. He made as if to turn and stride from the room no less briskly and commandingly than if they had just concluded their minutes at any Atlesian war council meeting, but before he did...



"...Ah." He stopped. "Pardon me, your lordship. I don't suppose you could provide me with a mode of transit back to kingdom borders?"

If the figure noticed the look, it was not revealed or called out. Truth be told, the shadows provided by the hood left it impossible to even tell where the figure was looking.

The frequency of the Dragon's gaze flitting from the inner circle over to the pale figure had grown more and more frequent, her foot bounce more and more agitated and impatient with each passing second the elephant in the room went unacknowledged. Her sense of propriety and acquiescence towards her lord lasted only as long as it took the more pressing matters of the meeting to conclude; and no further, as she growled and swiped the general's mockingly fond hair tousle away when his gentlemanly amble carried him past her. No sooner than he had stepped from the room did she speak up again, voice slightly croaky.

"Hey, so uh... what the fuck?"



She stood up abruptly, a little bit too abruptly to be considered entirely respectful. It was the kind of sudden, almost aggressive movement the Dragon of six months ago would never have dared make in the presence of her lord. That Dragon couldn't even make eye contact with her lord most of the time, the years of robbed agency, throttled warmth, shame, and violence both accrued and self-inflicted having ground her down into the ideal cultist, something resembling a subdued, trained dog. But the Dragon had been changing since the attack on Haven. Not just from the arm, though its suppression and consumption of her infinite tap of negative emotions had certainly torn down the dam and paved the way for a tidal wave of spirited confidence to supplant them.

From the other her. Seeing a version of herself who could just... brush her off like that, who could laugh and smile and crack wise at her expense while she kicked her ass up and down the academy as if the feared and menacing Dragon she'd worked so hard to reforge her identity into was nothing more than a bad joke. The other world's Yang had been so dismissive of her. So completely unfazed and unmoved by a version of her who was clearly so far removed from her idea of what Yang Xiao Long was supposed to be that she didn't even care that she had, as she probably would've put it, 'broke'. And it wasn't like that was anything on her end, either. Dragon might've seemed impetuous to the point of idiocy, but she could pay attention when she wanted. She knew how the other Yang's first encounters with this world's varieties of the rest of her pathetic friends had played out. Blake got an impassioned plea and a sympathetic ear. Schnee, frigid little goddamned simp that she was, the same. Even the fucking fetus had gotten that.

Yang got spat on. She got nothing. Like always.

Well, fuck that. It wasn't fair. If being more like that trifling bitch was the only way for Yang Xiao Long to get some fucking notice in this world, then why the hell not? She was done with settling for nothing. She was done being treated like dirt.

And she was DONE letting people ignore her.

"Okay, look. I tried. I know I this isn't exactly kosher with the whole dom vibe in here right now, and maybe I'm about to shaft myself irreversibly, but... what the FUCK?" She repeated, eyes flaring wide with such a dangerous, incredulous aura of bafflement it sparked the urge to get out of dodge in any who met her eyes not far removed from the moment before a bull charged. She thrust her arms out towards the figure, incensed to the point of erratic breathing, the way she bared her teeth in a grin in equal parts raw, disbelieving and vicious. "Am I supposed to just... not question this? Is this one of those hidden camera shows? Am I on fucking Punk'd? WHAT THE FUCK even is this? WHY is she here? And you, you, ooohhhh-ho-ho-man, I mean, I mean YOU—"



That tore it. Whatever thin veneer of restraint Yang had left went through the shredder, and she turned suddenly, gripped the chair back, and pitched it straight through one of the stained glass windows behind the throne with a frenzied shatter that showered them all in a hail of broken glass. The Dragon exploded with a wave of rolling, searing heat so intense the cavity of Monstro rumbled with discomfort all around them, taking a threatening step or two in the prostrated figure's direction with a shriek that carried every last drop of the anguish, rage, and abject misery that had been building in her heart for the last... She didn't even know how many years.

That was a lie. She knew exactly how many.



"—WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT ME?!"

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Racing to exit the warehouse, Vanile turned towards Mercury and bowed.

"Thank you."

Hey, he was man enough to admit it. Not bad.

For a mook.

Neo stared in blank, uncomprehending shock at the carnage left below. What... what the fuck had just happened. She turned towards her impromptu savior, practically begging her with her eyes for an explanation.

It was a woman with raven black hair, done up in a ponytail behind a masked face. She also seemed military; sleek and light combat armor in hues of black and red with the JMLDU logo on one shoulder. A pair of short swords were magnetically holstered at her back, and a pair of submachine guns hung at her side. Keeping with the theme of twos, a pair of animal ears jutted out from just above the mask, but nothing else was apparent; the mask hid her face, and a pair of combat goggles her eyes. Said goggles were currently pointed towards the sky, tracking the approaching mantas, and Neo heard the faunus swear under her breath.

"...Shit. That wasn't part of the plan."

For whatever reason, she didnt' seem pleased to see what were supposedly on the same side, and she glanced back down to Neo as she reached for a pair of gravity cuffs hung at her belt loop.

"Neopolitan, you're under arrest as well. Sorry. Oh, and uh, you too... guy." She added to Char's unconscious form

"No." Raven declared in a stern voice, one hand hovering by her side ready to grab her blade if it proved necessary, and the other one...it held up a scroll, displaying her huntress license, one well-earned from Beacon. Albeit, not this world's Beacon, but for the purposes of this bluff it held up to scrutiny, indistinguishable from any that came from the Beacon Academy of this world. "Huntress authority. I'll take her and her friends in, the rest are all yours. See to them." She didn't have any rank among the police but it still came out sounding like a command, still carried the full weight of authority. She was no stranger to being in charge after all, not after years of ruling the tribe and even before then, even though she was not the leader, the amount of times she had chewed out Summer, or Taiyang, or her brother...

Raven stared unflinchingly at the woman and the bird faunus, waiting for them to either acquiesce to her demands or force things to go the hard way.

"Actually, officer—madame huntress—"



Interjected a bright, genial tone from the figure who had quite literally appeared by Neo's side so suddenly and without explanation nobody in the conversation was totally sure which angle she'd approached it from, a trio of very official (looking) IDs fanned out between her fingers as she shook them lightly in the JMLDU trooper's direction for perusal if so inclined. There was no sign that she recognized Raven by anything other than her authority, and she kept her eyes fixed largely on the other regardless.

When you came from her background, swam in her circles, a good pokerface could either make you or break you, prove to be the difference between a night spent with warm food and a bed and one spent with cold gruel in a colder cell. Emerald, despite only having turned eighteen last week (she didn't like to make a big thing of it) had already experienced roughly an equal ratio of both in her lifetime, and her pokerface was one of the very best. She wrapped her arm around Neo's shoulder with a squeeze, lightly pushing her in the opposite direction and waiting until the documents were taken.

A glance over Neo's, in particular, revealed what appeared to be a completely valid and in-date license issued by the Mistrali Bounty Hunting Guild for one 'Pinkiepie Balderdash', Mercury's and her own sporting similarly appropriate aliases ('Bonnie Pistachio' and 'Clyde Thunderboots', respectively) and likewise completely official (looking) as Em arched her eyebrows with an expectant smile. Mistral wasn't exactly her city, but it didn't take long for someone like her to kick over the rocks you needed to get set up with your bases covered.

"—I think you'll find everything's on the up-and-up here. Official Guild business. Apprehending a wanted felon sighted in the area—"

"This dude." Mercury confirmed as he manifested with equal spontaneity, hoisting Lupin up by the scruff of the neck for inspection. The real reason he was here.

"—along with our associate."

"This chick." He echoed, scooping Neo up in his other hand the same way. She was free to wonder why he shook her like a can of grape soda while doing so.

"Us and—"

Her eyes flickered away for a second, passing over where Tyrian was fully submerged in the depths of Crazy T mode and assaulting the downed and helpless Aurora, then back.

"—Absolutely no one else. Any proximity to your whole operation here is entirely coincidental, as is any resemblance you may think miss Balderdash here shares with this 'Neopolitan' character. Kind of a silly name, too, dontcha think?" She chirped, flashing that disarming smile again. In fact, if the woman peered closer? She could see that color pallet aside, miss Balderdash's facial features (both on the ID and standing in front of her) only passingly resembled those of Neopolitan's. Miss Balderdash was kinda lumpy, actually. "So you see, ma'am, per the unreliability of eyesight and our civil liberties and all that I'm afraid you guys really have nothing to hold us on. My partners and I have places to be and you don't have the resources to waste, so what say we just take our bounty and leave you good folks to your job, alright? If your boss decides there's really something worth pursuing here, feel free to look us up in the addressbook and come by our place with a warrant."

"That is," she added casually, almost as an afterthought. Only then did the breezy affectation finally drop an octave, her eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly at the woman with the kind of experienced scrutiny only someone who'd been in this situation a thousand times before could bring to bear.

"If you're even cops."

Emerald was that someone. And maybe it was just her nerves, a built-in sense of mistrust born from experience towards most members of humanity and the faunus alike, a glance towards Merc that told her he was thinking the same thing she was, or something else (like the fact that this lady didn't even know Char's name) that made her test that particular line, just to gauge how the woman reacted. She didn't know.

Something just didn't feel right.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Raven wanted to laugh so hard about pretty much everything about Emerald’s little display there but that urge was resisted, her face remaining utterly composed as she glanced back towards the other chick. If that worked for them to get out of this situation, by all means she wouldn’t bat an eye or interfere. But if it didn’t(which only seemed even more likely given Emerald’s or rather Bonnie Pistachio’s[god she really wanted to laugh] last words)...she would be ready.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Carnelian's withering smile seemed to inch ever-wider at both the question and Blake's input, her threatening show of power and the insinuations regarding his honesty having gone entirely unacknowledged save the ever-present grin in an equally potent display of obliviousness. It was very obviously deliberate, just as much as it could've been construed as a senile old fool's genuine ignorance to the danger being posed to him.

"Your doting daughter's right, your lordship. In a sense. I've known Jimmy since he was young. The tin man's a different breed of traitor to our brave little lionheart." The mildest hint of a sarcastic, insidious sneer crossed his face as he spoke, and though the twisted official didn't avert his gaze or move Mistral's headmaster felt a fresh wave of involuntary terror bubble to the surface of his psyche, as if mined by a drill. "But let me assure you, that conformity to his principles makes him as predictable and pliable as all the rest. What doesn't break, bends. Always. I've danced circles around men like Ironwood my entire lifetime—I did it to his predecessor, who if you can believe it was even more of an insufferable asshole than he is. Brass tacks? If it means the citizens of Atlas and Mantle are spared undue suffering, there isn't a toll he won't pay. That includes the lives of enlisted soldiers, if it comes down to it; and he has their faith in a way I never had. Push came to shove, he could deploy 'em into hell and they'd salute and ask what factor sunscreen to bring."

He snorted and used his elbow to give Bear a sporting nudge in the ribs where he knelt beside him, as if the foibles of Atlas military delegates were as old and familiar a joke to the two of them as asking why the chicken crossed the road.

"Still, this arrangement is all new. Maybe it's a case of a little too much, too soon. But if you leave the matter with me, my lord, I guarantee you the full might of Atlas's military arm will be yours to wield like the fist of God itself on the day you lead your army to Vale's door. Despite what you were able to accomplish at Vytal with a more... limited fighting force—" His eyes flickered briefly to Blake again, and this time the smile did broaden, so slightly and imperceptibly it would've taken a cat's eyes and sense of spatial awareness to even register it. "—They remain the most organized and formidable armed opposition left to oppose you, and this time you won't be catching 'em off-guard. But they are nothing in the face of Atlas. With us at your disposal, the siege you'll have on your hands becomes a clean overnight victory. As for Vacuo? I believe I can offer up a suitable compromise. In this day and age, living, breathing foot soldiers only account for a fraction of our military power; with your leave, I'll roll out a battalion of our finest android troopers and await your arrival in the desert. They should supplement your forces and recoup the losses Schnee dealt your own army today nicely. Beyond that, we currently harbor an influx of criminals and deviants from all across Remnant apprehended as part of a strike against a bloodletting tournament just a few days ago. I'm more than positive some among them will be receptive to the notion of aiding your efforts in exchange for disappearing through the cracks in the system. Who knows? Maybe you'll even find a few keepers."

He smiled again, intrigued at the prospect. Assuming Ozwen was receptive to such an idea, he bowed his head in dignified veneration of Her and moved to stand, his knives and swords resheathed in preparation for his departure. He made as if to turn and stride from the room no less briskly and commandingly than if they had just concluded their minutes at any Atlesian war council meeting, but before he did...

"...Ah." He stopped. "Pardon me, your lordship. I don't suppose you could provide me with a mode of transit back to kingdom borders?"

Though neither Ozwen nor Carnelian looked at him directly, Leonardo sunk down further into his seat as if both of them had. Fear might as well have hung over him like a stormcloud, chilling him to the bone. If he had any intentions to speak, that thoroughly quashed them, his face nearly as white as Weiss's hair and desperately hoping he wouldn't be personally addressed. If Ozwen noticed any of that, it did not show on her face as she still looked towards Carnelian. The thought of Atlesian forces backing up her legions as they descend upon Vale...it did bring a smile to her face, imagining that scenario. More than that, the imagined look on Salem's face as she bore witness to that alliance...that was supremely satisfying to picture.

And as for Vacuo...Ozwen nodded. She would not say no to more disposable troops serving under her, and Atlas's robots definitely qualified. "Criminals and deviants, you say?" Her head tilted in thought. "Very well, I suppose I could look them over to determine if any of them will be of value." The losses of Arc, Valkyrie, Calavera, Rose...if there was ever a time to bolster the size of her group of personal killers and tools...this might as well be it. "As for transportation, no need." Ozwen shook her head. "We've been heading towards the kingdom this whole time. Rest easy, no, we are not going there to attack. There is simply something there I need to retrieve. After I have done so, it will be no matter at all to have you dropped off--"​

"Hey, so uh... what the fuck?"

She stood up abruptly, a little bit too abruptly to be considered entirely respectful. It was the kind of sudden, almost aggressive movement the Dragon of six months ago would never have dared make in the presence of her lord. That Dragon couldn't even make eye contact with her lord most of the time, the years of robbed agency, throttled warmth, shame, and violence both accrued and self-inflicted having ground her down into the ideal cultist, something resembling a subdued, trained dog. But the Dragon had been changing since the attack on Haven. Not just from the arm, though its suppression and consumption of her infinite tap of negative emotions had certainly torn down the dam and paved the way for a tidal wave of spirited confidence to supplant them.

"-pardon me?" Ozwen questioned sharply, turning to face Yang. But by the time she opened her mouth to speak again, the Dragon cut off whatever would have been said with an even more explosive outburst.​

Well, fuck that. It wasn't fair. If being more like that trifling bitch was the only way for Yang Xiao Long to get some fucking notice in this world, then why the hell not? She was done with settling for nothing. She was done being treated like dirt.

And she was DONE letting people ignore her.

"Okay, look. I tried. I know I this isn't exactly kosher with the whole dom vibe in here right now, and maybe I'm about to shaft myself irreversibly, but... what the FUCK?" She repeated, eyes flaring wide with such a dangerous, incredulous aura of bafflement it sparked the urge to get out of dodge in any who met her eyes not far removed from the moment before a bull charged. She thrust her arms out towards the figure, incensed to the point of erratic breathing, the way she bared her teeth in a grin in equal parts raw, disbelieving and vicious. "Am I supposed to just... not question this? Is this one of those hidden camera shows? Am I on fucking Punk'd? WHAT THE FUCK even is this? WHY is she here? And you, you, ooohhhh-ho-ho-man, I mean, I mean YOU—"

That tore it. Whatever thin veneer of restraint Yang had left went through the shredder, and she turned suddenly, gripped the chair back, and pitched it straight through one of the stained glass windows behind the throne with a frenzied shatter that showered them all in a hail of broken glass. The Dragon exploded with a wave of rolling, searing heat so intense the cavity of Monstro rumbled with discomfort all around them, taking a threatening step or two in the prostrated figure's direction with a shriek that carried every last drop of the anguish, rage, and abject misery that had been building in her heart for the last... She didn't even know how many years.

That was a lie. She knew exactly how many.

"—WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT ME?!"

The anger returned full force, the fierce look on Ozwen's face matching the sheer intensity of even the Dragon's burning rage as the glass fell harmlessly around them. All the anger in the air was palpable, so much so that as Ozwen rose out of her seat, all the rest of the windows began to violently shake as if they too were about to shatter. A dark void opened up beneath the Dragon's feet but rather than swallow her up, several grimm arms shot out from within, aiming to restrain her. That was about the extent of what Ozwen could do with her limited supply of magic at the moment, which might have explained why there was no attempt at inflicting more lasting pain or punishment. Beyond the fact that this Yang would have probably enjoyed such. No, she was only intending to hold Yang back and get her to calm down to a degree. Fighting now, amongst themselves...that was not something she was about to let happen.

Ozwen held Yang back, but otherwise turned to the cloaked figure and waited expectantly. To no surprise, it was obviously who Yang figured it was, but also not. The hood got pulled back, revealing her face, the cloak parting to let the rest of her be seen by the dragon. Mismatched eyes of a different sort from Weiss or Raven stared at Yang finally, but still the figure said nothing.

Spoiler

Like Maria before her, Ozpin had seen fit to transform the person that was once simply Summer Rose into something far far more insidiously deadly, in ways even her inhuman appearance could not properly convey. It went beyond the limbs that the Dragon and the otherworldly Cinder possessed, and while those two were indeed quite a force to be reckoned with, the master of all grimm had faith that the full capabilities of all the things inhabiting the cloaked figure's body stood far beyond those arms. Likely beyond even the infamous Grimm Reaper. It was perhaps a startling reflection of what Yang could end up being if she had further outbursts such as this, or maybe a promise of what the future could hold if the dragon sought more power and more of the desire to enjoy life, as her arm had given her. But either way, Summer did not speak. She only stared, silent as a crypt, the eyes of both a human and a grimm staring deep into Yang's own.

Ozwen, however, did speak. She put herself in Yang's field of vision, standing before the dragon but in a way that did not hide Summer from her. "This is my work, she is here because I ordered her to be here, and she was not looking at you because I did not command it." Ozwen answered all of Yang's questions in order with a dangerously frigid tone, eyes narrowing further as she did so. "She serves me in much the same way the Reaper did, as you ALL do." A hand rose to lift Yang's chin up and Ozwen continued just as icily:

"I trust you have not forgotten that, even in the depths of your rage? That you remember your place? I hope so, and I also hope you will not do something so utterly stupid as what you just did ever again. Even you might find what happens then impossible to enjoy."

"Do you understand?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...no."



Ordinarily somewhere in the middle of all that was probably around when the Dragon's arm would've kicked in. Whatever fear, panic, helplessness or dismay she felt welling within her would've been swallowed whole like a rodent into the maw of a serpent, and replaced by a heady rush of giggles and endorphins before so much as a flicker of it ever broke the surface of her face.

For whatever reason, that wasn't happening this time. The limb still hung limply at her side, in a state of recovery after what had befallen it earlier, and in the absence of its kiss Yang's whimper when the hood slipped loose was one of the most abject, pathetic, downtrodden noises anyone present had ever heard, the sound of a beaten animal being forced back into its cage as she was yanked to her knees. The effort she pushed back against the the floor with even one-handed was enough to send a dense network of cracks running across its surface, yet it still wasn't enough to tear her free, and though the incandescent heat pouring off her in waves left the walls scorched, warped and blackened and drew beads of sweat from even the most distant in the room it was to no avail as the flames licked at the volume of Grimm, sizzled, and were snuffed out.

"No, no, nononono FUCK NO! Fuck that, fuck you, f-fuck this, f-f-fucking FUCK—ALL OF THIS! LET GO!"

She exploded in a shrill, volatile howl, coming to life again in a frenzied spree of thrashing, bucking and clawing that actually saw several of the Grimm arms snap like high-tension cords and the petrified Dragon rise more than halfway to her feet again with a surge of adrenaline. A nigh impossible feat, albeit one rendered meaningless by the time all was said and done, though it took about a dozen more of the arms to get her truly under control as she ripped her jaw away from Ozwen's grasp and screamed, heaved and clawed in hysteric fashion. Her gaze whipped around wildly, darting anywhere except in even the vague direction of what was in front of her, desperate not to make another second of eye contact with that thing after the first; whether it was anything conscious or just some sort of deep-buried pining of the soul, the sole pair of eyes her own ended up settling on were Blake's, frantic and imploring even for as much as she knew help was probably less likely to come from there than from anywhere else in the room.

Then one of the Grimm hands snatched her hair, and it was with a deep, reluctant moan that morphed halfway into a sob that her field of view was forced back onto Summer and Ozwen, bodily autonomy apparently as much a privilege afforded to the Dragon as it had ever been. She did everything in her power to ignore the former and instead bleated feebly up at the latter, an accusing tremor in her voice and tears blinking back in her eyes.

"WHY?! W-why her, the fuck's your problem, why not fucking—ANYONE else?! I don't want this! Get off, get off get it off get this FUCKING THING OFF ME!!!!!!" Came her fierce, renewed shriek, another blast of heat buffeting Ozwen's face more directly this time. It was more an involuntary explosion of the car bomb that was her emotional state right now than any active effort to offend this time, and there was no mistaking the look in her eyes as anything but pleading.



"You said! You said I could have anything I wanted 'cause I'm good, right, 'c-cause I'm a good girl and I did good, well, wh-w-well I decided and I want you to take this FUCKING THING OFF MY ARM!"

As if in guttural acknowledgement, the Grimm appendage twisted behind her back rumbled in a low, eldritch growl, aware of its host's meaning but still too weak to intervene.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You said! You said I could have anything I wanted 'cause I'm good, right, 'c-cause I'm a good girl and I did good, well, wh-w-well I decided and I want you to take this FUCKING THING OFF MY ARM!"

"No."

That brief, harsh, blunt answer was the first response that came. Those deep red eyes stared over in anger, annoyance and some degree of thinly veiled disgust. Nothing about Yang's pathetic whimpering, shrill howling, violent resistance, accusatory cursing, pleading tears, none of it seemed to have any effect in reaching what passed for Ozwen's good will. "I told you that you could have any reward you wished, so long as it was in my power to give. Ridding you of that, now, after all this time is not a reward. It would only be a detriment. An impairment. That, I can not have. I will not have it. You are too valuable to me." She stepped more in front of Yang then, cutting off the view to Summer as the latter pulled her hood back up and the cloak wrapped around her in full yet again. The grimm arms currently wrapped around Yang pulled even more strongly, an attempt to compensate as a number of them released their hold and vanished back into the void.

Ozwen knelt then to be more closely beside the restrained dragon. "And you do not demand things of me like that. Nobody does. But do not worry." The reasoning for her lessening up on the grimm holding the emotionally volatile woman down became more apparent as she reached out and took hold of Yang's own arm. The slivers of magic she had were redirected away from maintaining some of those and instead into doing all she could into healing the damaged appendage even more, willing it to return to its full capability as swiftly as possible. And simultaneously alongside that, though Summer did not move or shout or even so much as make a single sound, or at least none heard over Yang's outburst, a wave of feeling cascaded outward from her just as blasts of sheer heat had from the dragon.

The anger, the sadness, fear, the need to have this thing ripped off, she could feel all of it being sapped and stripped away in near an instant. Any concerns followed shortly after, as did any will to resist further, the feeling of being unconcerned and unbothered about what was going on around her rising in their place. Only dull passive indifference remained. Ozwen observed Yang's eyes closely, waiting, even as she worked on the dragon's grimm limb. And when whatever she was looking for settled into view, her voice grew softer. Something that could be mistaken as genuinely loving, strange as it was considering from whose mouth it was coming from and who was speaking through that mouth. "As I have promised you, daughter, you will have a reward worthy of all your efforts. Trust me."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"No."

That brief, harsh, blunt answer was the first response that came. Those deep red eyes stared over in anger, annoyance and some degree of thinly veiled disgust. Nothing about Yang's pathetic whimpering, shrill howling, violent resistance, accusatory cursing, pleading tears, none of it seemed to have any effect in reaching what passed for Ozwen's good will. "I told you that you could have any reward you wished, so long as it was in my power to give. Ridding you of that, now, after all this time is not a reward. It would only be a detriment. An impairment. That, I can not have. I will not have it. You are too valuable to me." She stepped more in front of Yang then, cutting off the view to Summer as the latter pulled her hood back up and the cloak wrapped around her in full yet again. The grimm arms currently wrapped around Yang pulled even more strongly, an attempt to compensate as a number of them released their hold and vanished back into the void.

Ozwen knelt then to be more closely beside the restrained dragon. "And you do not demand things of me like that. Nobody does. But do not worry." The reasoning for her lessening up on the grimm holding the emotionally volatile woman down became more apparent as she reached out and took hold of Yang's own arm. The slivers of magic she had were redirected away from maintaining some of those and instead into doing all she could into healing the damaged appendage even more, willing it to return to its full capability as swiftly as possible. And simultaneously alongside that, though Summer did not move or shout or even so much as make a single sound, or at least none heard over Yang's outburst, a wave of feeling cascaded outward from her just as blasts of sheer heat had from the dragon.

The anger, the sadness, fear, the need to have this thing ripped off, she could feel all of it being sapped and stripped away in near an instant. Any concerns followed shortly after, as did any will to resist further, the feeling of being unconcerned and unbothered about what was going on around her rising in their place. Only dull passive indifference remained. Ozwen observed Yang's eyes closely, waiting, even as she worked on the dragon's grimm limb. And when whatever she was looking for settled into view, her voice grew softer. Something that could be mistaken as genuinely loving, strange as it was considering from whose mouth it was coming from and who was speaking through that mouth. "As I have promised you, daughter, you will have a reward worthy of all your efforts. Trust me."

The effect of Ozwen's single, emphatic 'no' dealt a blow more abject and devastating in the pain-fuelled Dragon's heart than any dose of physical agony ever could no matter how excruciating, and the look of betrayal, hurt, and raw, bottomless despair that flooded her eyes as her breath hitched would've had them fade back to lilac in a heartbeat had there not been such a potent undercurrent of helpless anger to them all. They were awash with tears, glistening in the sinister crimson glare of the chapel as her face blanched, her lips started to tremble, and her chest started to heave shallow, unsteady breaths, voice finally emerging in a plaintive mewl.



"B-B-But this isn't right, this isn't what you told me! Everything feels so different and I've been with you so long and I've tried my hardest and, please, please please you promised, please just make it like before, I, you—yuh-you told me I was perfect the way I was! YOU SAID WE COULD BE A FAMILY AGAIN! You said... y-y-you said..."

She inhaled.

"—MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM—"

Yang may not have accrued any actual damage to fuel her, but it spoke to her stubborn ways and how much she sheerly did not want this to happen that the renewed flurry of frenzied thrashing when Ozwen's slender hand reached out for her saw a few more of the arms snap and fade away as she screamed and sobbed and spouted incoherent pleas in the direction of Ozwen, Blake, Summer, anyone who might listen, anyone she hoped might change their mind and finally decide they cared for her.

But nobody came.

"As I have promised you, daughter, you will have a reward worthy of all your efforts. Trust me."

By the time she felt her lord's healing touch slip away, the former bandit's fevered struggling had quelled. She was slumped forward with face touching the floor, hands still pinned behind her, head tucked and an unnatural quality to her low, labored breaths.

"...Weeeeeeeellllllll... there is one thing you could do."

She intoned, voice so quiet and dull it was impossible to make out much in the way of any affectation to it, in stark contrast to before. When she rose, there was a slow, languorous quality to her movements as she stretched out as much as she could and arched her back in a manner that was deliberate in its sensuality, meant to highlight particular curves as she turned her gaze back up to her master.



"Maybe, just maybe, could youuuuuuuuuu... scratch behind my ear for just a sec? Riiiiiiiiiight..."

She jerked her head, flicking her tangle of hair back to expose a single earring that gleamed in time with her crooked grin as she scooted and nuzzled in the direction of Ozwen's touch.

"...here. Oops! Sorry, daddy. Pretty pretty please? I mean, I'd get it myself but I'm a little tied up at the moment. Not that there's anything WRONG with that! Pahahahahahahaha!~" The brawler threw her head back entirely, letting it hang unnaturally to one side and erupting in a deranged, raucous fit of giggles that seemed to reverberate all around the confines of the throne room as she scanned its occupants once again, waggling her eyebrows in search of a laugh. As though what they had just witnessed were no more than the latest episode of an extremely disturbing dysfunctional family sitcom, and this the cue for the next laugh track.

"Ehh? Ehhhh? C'mon people, anything? Aren't I adorable? A̵i̶n̷'̷t̵ ̷I̷ ̷j̴u̶s̴t̵ ̷a̸ ̸f̷u̵c̵k̶i̶n̴'̵ ̷ri̵o̶t̴?̷"̵​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The effect of Ozwen's single, emphatic 'no' dealt a blow more abject and devastating in the pain-fuelled Dragon's heart than any dose of physical agony ever could no matter how excruciating, and the look of betrayal, hurt, and raw, bottomless despair that flooded her eyes as her breath hitched would've had them fade back to lilac in a heartbeat had there not been such a potent undercurrent of helpless anger to them all. They were awash with tears, glistening in the sinister crimson glare of the chapel as her face blanched, her lips started to tremble, and her chest started to heave shallow, unsteady breaths, voice finally emerging in a plaintive mewl.

View attachment 833554

"B-B-But this isn't right, this isn't what you told me! Everything feels so different and I've been with you so long and I've tried my hardest and, please, please you promised, please just make it like before, I, you—yuh-you told me I was perfect the way I was! YOU SAID WE COULD BE A FAMILY AGAIN! You said... y-y-you said..."

She inhaled.

"—MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM—"

Yang may not have accrued any actual damage to fuel her, but it spoke to her stubborn ways and how much she sheerly did not want this to happen that the renewed flurry of frenzied thrashing when Ozwen's slender hand reached out for her saw a few more of the arms snap and fade away as she screamed and sobbed and spouted incoherent pleas in the direction of Ozwen, Blake, Summer, anyone who might listen, anyone she hoped might change their mind and finally decide they cared for her.

But nobody came.




By the time she felt her lord's healing touch slip away, the former bandit's fevered struggling had quelled. She was slumped forward with face touching the floor, hands still pinned behind her, head tucked and an unnatural quality to her low, labored breaths.

"...Weeeeeeeellllllll... there is one thing you could do."

She intoned, voice so quiet and dull it was impossible to make out much in the way of any affectation to it, in stark contrast to before. When she rose, there was a slow, languorous quality to her movements as she stretched out as much as she could and arched her back in a manner that was deliberate in its sensuality, meant to highlight particular curves as she turned her gaze back up to her master.

View attachment 833562

"Maybe, just maybe, could youuuuuuuuuu... scratch behind my ear for just a sec? Riiiiiiiiiight..."

She jerked her head, flicking her tangle of hair back to expose a single earring that gleamed in time with her crooked grin as she scooted and nuzzled in the direction of Ozwen's touch.

"...here. Oops! Sorry, daddy. Pretty pretty please? I mean, I'd get it myself but I'm a little tied up at the moment. Not that there's anything WRONG with that! Pahahahahahahaha!~" The brawler threw her head back entirely, erupting in a deranged, raucous fit of giggles that seemed to reverberate all around the confines of the throne room as she scanned its occupants once again, waggling her eyebrows in search of a laugh. As though what they had just witnessed were no more than the latest episode of an extremely disturbing dysfunctional family sitcom, and this the cue for the laugh track.

"Ehh? Ehhhh? C'mon people, anything? Aren't I adorable? A̵i̶n̷'̷t̵ ̷I̷ ̷j̴u̶s̴t̵ ̷a̸ ̸f̷u̵c̵k̶i̶n̴'̵ ̷ri̵o̶t̴?̷"̵​

For just a moment, the briefest of seconds, the look that crossed Ozwen's face was extremely telling. The sting of betrayal on Yang's face, the sense of hurt, the sheer despair, the raw pleading, it all ultimately meant nothing if the brief distant expression on that face was any indication. If there had ever been a heart in there, such a thing was buried long ago. As much as she could appear to care when it proved necessary or to reward loyal service, it was only her manipulations. If push came to shove, if she had to sacrifice any of them for her goal...it would be done. Not that she had any intention on making that known. That was why that brief look was there and gone so fast it could have been mistaken as a trick of the light, some level of false concern seeping back into those eyes as Yang screamed out for her mom.

"Relax, child. All will be well." That was all she said, and it was.

When the Dragon she was more familiar with now returned, Ozwen allowed herself a small smile. She even obliged the scratch behind the ear but only for a moment and then she stepped back, though she did not laugh as the blonde likely hoped. As soon as Ozwen was a fair distance away, the remainder of the hands holding Yang down retreated back from where they came, letting her stand. It was just in time as well. The whole of the grimm whale rumbled and an even bigger smile emerged on Ozwen's pale face. "We have arrived." She noted, turning to the general. "If you'll come with me, I'll arrange for a mount to take you to your precious city. I have something to retrieve here, as it were. The rest of you...do as you see fit. Within reason."

She strode out the door then, purpose in every step as she made her way for the natural landing pads carved into the gargantuan beast. Several griffons were waiting there by the time she arrived and she gestured to them for the general. "I daresay I hope to see you again very soon, but do understand this...my daughter had a point. This host body turned on me before. Ironwood betrayed both Salem and Weiss. If you and yours even think of trying to do the same with me...no amount of Atlesian reconstructive surgery would ever be enough to put you back together." That was the only farewell given, her back already turned as she climbed upon a griffon herself. In the past, Ozpin would have just sent one of his grimm to take care of the matter, but now...in this case...Ozwen felt like the personal touch was warranted.

The grimm's flight path took her down to an absolutely devastated battlefield, where the scorches dug into the earth were still plenty noticeable, the snow of Solitas not yet enough to obscure them. They stopped at the edge of a gaping pit, the darkness making it rather difficult to tell how far it stretched. Even the small fireball that shot out of one of her palms fizzled out before it seemed to get close to the bottom. "Hmmm...impressive." Even she had to admit that much. A second small ball of fire erupted in her palm, but it was solely for the purpose of illumination as the griffon dove down into it. When they reached the bottom, Ozwen quickly disembarked, reaching out with her senses for--

Her head quickly snapped up to stare towards the right. There. The presence of a rather unforgettable grimm grew stronger and stronger as Ozwen strode into the darkness...and soon enough, found exactly what she had come all this way to get. The woman lying there was extremely battered, broken and burned, but whether through power or will, she still clung to life with ferocity. There was even a moment, as Ozwen moved to pick her up, where her single eye slowly opened and in the faint light provided by the fire, recognized her savior as appearing to be the very same person who put her down here. But before Cinder could question it, open her mouth and let her confusion out, she lost consciousness once more. The grimm hybrid got lifted up into a carry with both arms, and though the flame extinguished, Ozwen simply retraced her steps until she reunited with the waiting griffon. Quickly getting back onto it, they lifted into the air and soared straight up back to the distant light that was the exit out of here.

The whole rest of the trip was spent with her eyes focused on Cinder, and all her severe wounds. Weiss had really done a number on her. Yet, now, it was Weiss's own hands that were going to nurse the woman back to health. That was so funny in a sense that she almost laughed. Almost. As soon as they were back on the whale, Ozwen was swift to make her way to one of the more secluded rooms within and gently laid Cinder down to rest and to let her returning aura begin to ease the wounds. The dark lord turned there, making a mental note to return when enough of her magic was there to help assist in the healing process. The whale lifted and began its slow turn aimed south as Ozwen began to think upon other things.

Ozwen, the gigantic whale and her vast legions of grimm, two separate maidens, the dragon, the champion of mistral, the inhuman cloaked grimm monstrosity, the vengeful criminal, the several deadly shadow fang members aboard...even Lionheart had his uses for what was to come. All that, reinforced by the general and a battalion of robotic troops. Just imagining it was beautiful, bringing a crooked and cruel smile to her face. Vacuo was well past due for a day of reckoning.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

When the Dragon she was more familiar with now returned, Ozwen allowed herself a small smile. She even obliged the scratch behind the ear but only for a moment and then she stepped back, though she did not laugh as the blonde likely hoped. As soon as Ozwen was a fair distance away, the remainder of the hands holding Yang down retreated back from where they came, letting her stand. It was just in time as well. The whole of the grimm whale rumbled and an even bigger smile emerged on Ozwen's pale face. "We have arrived." She noted, turning to the general. "If you'll come with me, I'll arrange for a mount to take you to your precious city. I have something to retrieve here, as it were. The rest of you...do as you see fit. Within reason."

She strode out the door then, purpose in every step as she made her way for the natural landing pads carved into the gargantuan beast. Several griffons were waiting there by the time she arrived and she gestured to them for the general. "I daresay I hope to see you again very soon, but do understand this...my daughter had a point. This host body turned on me before. Ironwood betrayed both Salem and Weiss. If you and yours even think of trying to do the same with me...no amount of Atlesian reconstructive surgery would ever be enough to put you back together." That was the only farewell given, her back already turned as she climbed upon a griffon herself. In the past, Ozpin would have just sent one of his grimm to take care of the matter, but now...in this case...Ozwen felt like the personal touch was warranted.

Dragon didn't budge an inch from her knees when Ozwen rose to leave her, nor did the direction of her eyes follow her master from the room. It, like her, stayed rooted where it was, transfixed on where her lord had stooped to touch her, and neither breath nor blink disrupted whatever delirious trance the woman appeared to have slipped into in the wake of all that. The sight of Summer, whatever meaning it may have held to her before, appeared as water off a duck's back now. A dull, hazy sheen settled over her crimson eyes, giving the impression of a house with no lights on, and without any apparent further plans or direction in mind she simply knelt there, looking at nothing.

Staring.

Grinning.

Not because anything was funny.

Because she felt so good.

---

Carnelian had been watching on from beside the entrance, the most unruffled of calm, approving smiles on his face as he stepped to one side to precede Her approach. He clasped one hand over his chest, the other gesturing to the doorway, head bowed with dutiful reverence to allow Her to take the lead from the room.

He had less than a second before he'd be expected to follow, so he used that time efficiently.

He turned.



For that moment, even if only in spirit, a hot wind whipped throughout the chapel every bit as searing as the one a maiden could invoke. It could've been a face carved in stone, malice chiselled in every pore; and though it was leveled at Blake, every faunus in the room could feel the weaponized spite in that glare tweak something deep in their core, even after everything they had seen today. A mosaic of violence and death both past and future.

It carried promise.

Then he gave them all a cheerful wave and stepped out.

She strode out the door then, purpose in every step as she made her way for the natural landing pads carved into the gargantuan beast. Several griffons were waiting there by the time she arrived and she gestured to them for the general. "I daresay I hope to see you again very soon, but do understand this...my daughter had a point. This host body turned on me before. Ironwood betrayed both Salem and Weiss. If you and yours even think of trying to do the same with me...no amount of Atlesian reconstructive surgery would ever be enough to put you back together." That was the only farewell given, her back already turned as she climbed upon a griffon herself. In the past, Ozpin would have just sent one of his grimm to take care of the matter, but now...in this case...Ozwen felt like the personal touch was warranted.

"Naturally," came his affable reply, features carrying nothing in the way of offense or a sign to indicate that it was anything other than expected. He was already situated atop his own Grimm's back while She mounted Hers, a few fingers skirting down the creature's spine with admiration even as he established a link with the outer rim of its consciousness. "And if I may extend some counsel, your lordship? Entirely well-meaning."

Provided nothing was bidden to the contrary, he smiled at Her moments before the griffon took flight.

"Have your fun with your 'daughter'. But be mindful of the faunus she fraternizes with. Cunning, ambitious beasts; they'll always look for a bigger slice of the pie than what they're owed."

His eye twinkled, pernicious in its amusement.

"It's their nature."

And then he was gone, one dark creature astride another as its wings beat off into the night.

A reckoning indeed.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

This had absolutely not been her priority. She had traveled back down this way for entirely different reasons, but yet, as she traversed the city, it proved impossible for her to ignore the sounds and sights of the chaos unfolding here. Her observing flew under the radar of all involved, from the faunus and the elite force looking woman to the raging screaming guy caught up in that powerful shot, for who pays attention to a simple bird in the midst of a mess like this. But her gaze was not focused on them either. Mismatched eyes looked towards one in particular, recognizing her straightaway...twice over, actually. That was the face of the killer she had stopped once, sent her running before she could make good on killing her daughter...but it was also not that woman. It was her younger counterpart, the huntress in training...or at the very least, had once had the aspiration to become a huntress.

The avian creature's head tilted, seemingly thinking about something. Then, inexplicably, if anyone had been close enough and if the sounds of everything going on wasn't drowning it out, they might have heard something of a small sigh escape the bird in the seconds before it took off in flight. She already possessed intentions that would make her an enemy of the local police force, the same these two seemed to belong to as well. Why not go for broke?

A few faint flaps of her wings were sufficient enough to get her down there. Just as the woman in full combat gear stood before Neo and reached for the cuffs, the small bird swooped in...and was a bird no longer. In an instant, another raven black haired woman also clad in red and black was there, dropping from above, and landed on her feet to put herself between the kitted out woman and the tiny awestruck Neo. It seemed she too was an impromptu savior? Not that she would have probably called herself that. It had been years since she or anyone really, would have considered her a hero. Her hair was cut much shorter in a messy look, and her mismatched eyes stood out in comparison to the last time the kids had seen either flavor of the woman, but at the very least she still seemed friendly-ish. Those red and blue eyes remained locked on the other woman.

"No." Raven declared in a stern voice, one hand hovering by her side ready to grab her blade if it proved necessary, and the other one...it held up a scroll, displaying her huntress license, one well-earned from Beacon. Albeit, not this world's Beacon, but for the purposes of this bluff it held up to scrutiny, indistinguishable from any that came from the Beacon Academy of this world. "Huntress authority. I'll take her and her friends in, the rest are all yours. See to them." She didn't have any rank among the police but it still came out sounding like a command, still carried the full weight of authority. She was no stranger to being in charge after all, not after years of ruling the tribe and even before then, even though she was not the leader, the amount of times she had chewed out Summer, or Taiyang, or her brother...

Raven stared unflinchingly at the woman and the bird faunus, waiting for them to either acquiesce to her demands or force things to go the hard way.

It initially looked like the sting of Raven's authoratitive voice worked better than it should've, even if it carried the weight of the bandit queen with a Beacon pedigree. The officer(?) looked... stunned. Even through the goggles, it was obvious her eyes tracked up and down Raven's form, though whether it was fear, surprise, or something else was impossible to tell.

"...Aren't... you're.... but... Are you-"

But right when she was finally about to form a coherent sentence

View attachment 833159

Hey, he was man enough to admit it. Not bad.

For a mook.






"Actually, officer—madame huntress—"

View attachment 833160

Interjected a bright, genial tone from the figure who had quite literally appeared by Neo's side so suddenly and without explanation nobody in the conversation was totally sure which angle she'd approached it from, a trio of very official (looking) IDs fanned out between her fingers as she shook them lightly in the JMLDU trooper's direction for perusal if so inclined. There was no sign that she recognized Raven by anything other than her authority, and she kept her eyes fixed largely on the other regardless.

When you came from her background, swam in her circles, a good pokerface could either make you or break you, prove to be the difference between a night spent with warm food and a bed and one spent with cold gruel in a colder cell. Emerald, despite only having turned eighteen last week (she didn't like to make a big thing of it) had already experienced roughly an equal ratio of both in her lifetime, and her pokerface was one of the very best. She wrapped her arm around Neo's shoulder with a squeeze, lightly pushing her in the opposite direction and waiting until the documents were taken.
​

Every single nerve in Neo's body lit on fire as Emerald grabbed onto her shoulder without the emotional buffer of six gallons of adrenaline pumping through her six ounce body, and Emerald could feel very clearly that shoulder just sort of let itself be pushed farther into her collarbone than shoulders were normally supposed to go.

At least she didn't scream.

The officer, for her part, had almost the same reaction she did to Raven when she turned around and saw Emerald standing there; doe eyed surprise behind her mask, before she hesitantly accepted the documents and started to flip through them

A glance over Neo's, in particular, revealed what appeared to be a completely valid and in-date license issued by the Mistrali Bounty Hunting Guild for one 'Pinkiepie Balderdash', Mercury's and her own sporting similarly appropriate aliases ('Bonnie Pistachio' and 'Clyde Thunderboots', respectively) and likewise completely official (looking) as Em arched her eyebrows with an expectant smile. Mistral wasn't exactly her city, but it didn't take long for someone like her to kick over the rocks you needed to get set up with your bases covered.

"—I think you'll find everything's on the up-and-up here. Official Guild business. Apprehending a wanted felon sighted in the area—"

"This dude." Mercury confirmed as he manifested with equal spontaneity, hoisting Lupin up by the scruff of the neck for inspection. The real reason he was here.

Whatever wells of willpower Raven drew from to not laugh at those names, the officer came up short, and a hand caught itself halfway from trying to cover a giggle that barely slipped out, even if the paperwork all looked in order.

Lupin, for his part, was deeply unenthused with his part in this plan, and there was a quiet resentment to his face as he delivered his lines.

"No prison can hold me. Huzzah. Adventuuuurrre....."

"—along with our associate."

"This chick." He echoed, scooping Neo up in his other hand the same way. She was free to wonder why he shook her like a can of grape soda while doing so.

She was gonna fucking ScreeEEaaaAaAaAm~!

Her eyes flickered away for a second, passing over where Tyrian was fully submerged in the depths of Crazy T mode and assaulting the downed and helpless Aurora, then back.

"—Absolutely no one else. Any proximity to your whole operation here is entirely coincidental, as is any resemblance you may think miss Balderdash here shares with this 'Neopolitan' character. Kind of a silly name, too, dontcha think?" She chirped, flashing that disarming smile again. In fact, if the woman peered closer? She could see that color pallet aside, miss Balderdash's facial features (both on the ID and standing in front of her) only passingly resembled those of Neopolitan's. Miss Balderdash was kinda lumpy, actually. "So you see, ma'am, per the unreliability of eyesight and our civil liberties and all that I'm afraid you guys really have nothing to hold us on. My partners and I have places to be and you don't have the resources to waste, so what say we just take our bounty and leave you good folks to your job, alright? If your boss decides there's really something worth pursuing here, feel free to look us up in the addressbook and come by our place with a warrant."

"That is," she added casually, almost as an afterthought. Only then did the breezy affectation finally drop an octave, her eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly at the woman with the kind of experienced scrutiny only someone who'd been in this situation a thousand times before could bring to bear.

"If you're even cops."

Emerald was that someone. And maybe it was just her nerves, a built-in sense of mistrust born from experience towards most members of humanity and the faunus alike, a glance towards Merc that told her he was thinking the same thing she was, or something else (like the fact that this lady didn't even know Char's name) that made her test that particular line, just to gauge how the woman reacted. She didn't know.

Something just didn't feel right.

The goggled cop glanced back and forth between the IDs, and all five of them could practically see her brain working a hundred miles a minute before she pushed back the paper back to Emerald and turned to look back down at the leuitenant.

"Well.... everything sounds like its in order up here, sir! Just a coincidence! they have... nothing to do with any of this."

Whatever sort of Mistrali special operative this chick was supposed to be, they could just hear the awkward smile in her voice.

The leuitenant for his part, was regarding the scene in the pit with a sort of muted, befuddled interest, grinding the end of his latest cigarette in his teeth. When he answered, though, there was a far more dangerous, cold edge to the words as he spat the still smouldering remains to the ground.



"Officer, I don't recall asking you to check their credentials. Arrest them. Or do I to remind you what the cost of insubordination is?"

The officer's shoulders deflated, just in time for one of the mantas to come to bear at the other end of the rooftop with its spotlights on the impromptu group, two rappel ropes dropping out of both its sides and a JMDLU S.W.A.T. team already descending down them, as the other Manta pulled to a stop above the lieutenant and the crater and likewise emptied its passengers.

"...Ok."

Emerald got the bizarrest sensation that the person she was focusing on no longer had a brain-

Two swords flashed in the night as a cross bladed swing and a battlecry came from above Raven, Just as the officers on the other end of the rooftop raised their rifles and opened fire.

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

Normally, Tyrian was one of the hardest members of team WTCH to land a punch on.

It was easier when he was in the middle of a half crazed interrogation.

The one that hit Tyrian was on fire.

it slammed into the side of chin, hard enough to eject him from the crater outright. The lieutenant flapped out after him, landing in a stride straight for the other faunus while he scraped his still burning first against his other glove, igniting that one as well. "S'a poor thank you for helpin' us finally drag that scum out of hiding, son, but you're under arrest too. Take that one away boys." He added off hand to the S.W.A.T. behind him, and the last thing Aurora saw was two of them jumping into the crater before a rifle butt to the forehead gave him a blessed release from the confusion and pain of abandoment.

 

[MyrtenRose]

It initially looked like the sting of Raven's authoratitive voice worked better than it should've, even if it carried the weight of the bandit queen with a Beacon pedigree. The officer(?) looked... stunned. Even through the goggles, it was obvious her eyes tracked up and down Raven's form, though whether it was fear, surprise, or something else was impossible to tell.

"...Aren't... you're.... but... Are you-"

But right when she was finally about to form a coherent sentence

"Ah."

Of all the cops she could have been saddled with dealing with, it was a motherfucking stutterer. That was the one she had to get stuck with. A whole giant city's worth of people who wanted to safeguard the kingdom but couldn't cut it as huntsmen or huntresses, and she just had to pull the short straw and get one of their easily confused idiots. That figured. That also swiftly became the least of her concerns.​

"Officer, I don't recall asking you to check their credentials. Arrest them. Or do I to remind you what the cost of insubordination is?"

The officer's shoulders deflated, just in time for one of the mantas to come to bear at the other end of the rooftop with its spotlights on the impromptu group, two rappel ropes dropping out of both its sides and a JMDLU S.W.A.T. team already descending down them, as the other Manta pulled to a stop above the lieutenant and the crater and likewise emptied its passengers.

"...Ok."

Emerald got the bizarrest sensation that the person she was focusing on no longer had a brain-

Two swords flashed in the night as a cross bladed swing and a battlecry came from above Raven, Just as the officers on the other end of the rooftop raised their rifles and opened fire.

"..."

Did bad luck just waft off Qrow and stick to people like a shitty odor? The talking way was out of the picture, leaving only the hard way. Bleh, whatever. Bad luck or no, that suited her, honestly. The hard way was always the less boring way, anyhow.

Her own blade was drawn in an instant, moving to parry the strike coming down and a kick following to slam the assailant away and clear her path. A few bullets were blocked with relative ease before she shifted back to bird form and made a beeline for the guys shooting. She transformed back at the last moment, dropping in among them and moving like a whirlwind, slices from Omen to cut weapons apart into useless junk mixed in with punches and kicks to drop them to the ground. Nothing too fancy used for the cops. Yet even as she moved around, she couldn't help but think about how the hard way would have been that much easier, if she still had access to the...

She didn't even manage to finish that thought completely before another overshadowed it.

Fuck you, Weiss Schnee.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Emerald got the bizarrest sensation that the person she was focusing on no longer had a brain-

Joke was on her. This chick was at the very least acting like a cop, so Emerald had been operating on that assumption from the word go.

The moment whatever effect took hold did all three members of MEN shimmered and vanished before her very eyes, and if anyone with the bird's eye view offered by the mantas had been paying particular attention to them they saw the trio disappear off the edge of the rooftop into the darkened alley below. Mercury whooped, tucking his legs in so he could do a flashy corkscrew flip in freefall, and scarcely a second later Neo and Lupin both found themselves yeeted hard right down into the cold, hellaciously cramped, too-much-leather-not-enough-comfort confines of the familiar friend they had stashed behind the warehouse.



Pistachio and Thunderboots landed with a pair of harmonious thumps themselves in the passenger and driver side, respectively, and Mercury was already turning the key and putting his (extremely dumb) baby in drive when Emerald gave her frank appraisal of the situation.

"Something's weird."

"No kidding. I mean sure, piggies gonna oink and all, but last I heard Atlas was the fascist kingdom. Think it's to do with Haven? Salem's gopher was there."

"Mrh, dunno." She sounded ambivalent, but there wasn't exactly time to think it over.

"So gun it?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

He smirked and slammed on the gas pedal so gleefully it was a wonder he didn't blow a hole in the bottom of the car, and with a squeal of tires and a shower of sparks the hotrod tore out the other side of the alleyway—

it slammed into the side of chin, hard enough to eject him from the crater outright. The lieutenant flapped out after him, landing in a stride straight for the other faunus while he scraped his still burning first against his other glove, igniting that one as well. "S'a poor thank you for helpin' us finally drag that scum out of hiding, son, but you're under arrest too. Take that one away boys." He added off hand to the S.W.A.T. behind him, and the last thing Aurora saw was two of them jumping into the crater before a rifle butt to the forehead gave him a blessed release from the confusion and pain of abandoment.

—Where, bar a preternatural display of foresight and evasion, it slammed right into Lieutenant Asshole and bowled him right up into the air where he could spread his wings, Emerald's kusarigama already sliding back into pistols with a pair of clicks as she opened fire to try and keep him at bay.

*honkhonk* "GET IN THE CAR, PSYCHO!" Mercury demanded as he cupped his hands and shouted in Tyrian's direction, shooting Neo a warning glare to stay put just in case. What was it with his unhinged friends and putting themselves in crappy situations from not listening to him? Come to think of it, why were all his friends unhinged???

Oh, right. Son of a career killer.​

 

[MidwayLives]

This....Had not at all been the day of reckoning that he'd hoped it be.

Lives were lost, people were hurt, and as far as he knew the killer still hadn't been found.

Whatever threat had sparked that explosion, it seemed it'd gotten the other's attention.

Leaving him alone in the warehouse with Callie and Ghastly who'd been promptly tied up since Tyrian's attempted torture of him. His wrists and ankles bound together, blood dripped onto the concrete floor from the stitching that'd been halfway pulled out of his lips which left bloody ripping on them. As he propped himself up against a toppled over crate, Ghastly couldn't help but chuckle weakly. He didn't know much of what had transpired outside either but the thought that the Boss had some kind of plan incase he failed made him happy. It also gave him a real kick to think that no matter what Blanco and his friends did, they were ultimately doomed. As was anyone who went against the gang. Watching as Mercury and the others had left to investigate the source of that explosion, Blanco stuck behind and grimaced.

"Damn that Tyrian, running off all hotheaded like that isn't going to get us anywhere..." He bemoaned before he noticed Ghastly's snickering. Looking over in the fellow gangster's direction, Ghastly spit a glob of blood and spittle at Blanco's feet. His messy blonde hair hung over his face as he glared daggers at Blanco. The leader of the Community Team who'd left him in such terrible pain. His muscles from his forearms to his quads were exposed and it hurt like hell. Seeing him contort his face in what Ghastly could only have assumed to be frustration was amusing.

"Ghastly, was it?"

"Mleh...." Ghastly spit again missing Blanco's shoes by inches this time. The stitching was out enough that he could talk if he wished to do so.

...But the intention clearly wasn't there.

"You of all people must know where Aurora takes those that the Boss has plans for don't you? Aurora's the only one of us who I can say has the Boss's ear. Neither me or you have ever or will ever have that luxury I'm afraid." Blanco admitted and Ghastly didn't stop glaring. What was this stronzo's point?

"I'm well aware I could ask my comrade here the same question I'm going to ask you...and I'd likely get a lot less spittle thrown my way. I want to know where Aurora holds meetings on the Boss's behalf and I want to know now, Ghastly."

Ghastly bared his teeth-bloodsoaked mess that they were-and shook his head. It wasn't going to happen. He'd never betray the boss.

Blanco nodded. "You don't wish to talk? That's fine." Blanco looked over his knuckles. "You probably don't know this but my semblance 'Split' doesn't have to just stop at your muscles. I can split your bones as cleanly as a hot knife cuts through butter. I can even make sure it stays that way. Your left arm? Gone. Your right leg? Gone?" He tapped Ghastly's forehead. "Your skull? Right down the middle." Ghastly didn't want to admit it but he could feel the sweat starting to run down his face. "Now, baring all that in mind, I'm a man who deplores violence unless it's absolutely necessary to aid those I care about. But I'm also the leader of the Community Team, a gangster, and you know what that means? Don't you, Ghastly?"

"M...Mh...."

Blanco stood over him.

"Now, is my friend here going to have to tell me what I need to know or will I have to make you...? Decisions decisions..."

".....!"

~~~

Whatever happened and whoever told Blanco what he needed, Ghastly was left behind at the warehouse. Bound up as he was, he wasn't going to be running around anytime soon. Running in the direction of the explosion, Blanco exhaled at the sight of a section of the beloved community that he'd taken an oath to protect looked as though it'd been put through the wringer. All the while a few buildings down, the Hitman Team had managed to find Blanche-barely hanging in there but alive- and Abyss. ...The same couldn't be said for the Hitman Team's semblance-less leader. A hole had been punched through her midsection and a path chopped clean through her left shoulder. With Char passed out and still at risk of being arrested, things didn't look good for the Hitman Team.

Blanco couldn't worry about any of that though.

The authorities were here and Blanco frowned. Normally, he liked to be upfront and as honest with the police as he could. Most of them came to him seeking bribes and it wasn't something Blanco typically liked to indulge in. Relationships that benefitted the community as a whole couldn't rest solely on whether the right person was paid off or not. At least that wasn't how he could ever see it. Getting mixed up in this now with the police involved would only serve to complicate things further-
​

Her eyes flickered away for a second, passing over where Tyrian was fully submerged in the depths of Crazy T mode and assaulting the downed and helpless Aurora, then back.

Aurora? What was he...

No, that wasn't important. ...At least not in the heat of the moment.

"Tyrian!" Blanco called out but the faunus was too caught up in his anger to listen or acknowledge Blanco's call.
​

The one that hit Tyrian was on fire.

it slammed into the side of chin, hard enough to eject him from the crater outright.

Tyrian almost pulled the trigger.

Whether it would have been enough to shatter Aurora's aura after the damage that the Boss had taken...?

Knocked aside as he was, he clutched at the side of his face, his tail swinging from side to side.

"UGH!! HOT! HOT!!"

It felt like...Felt like training with the old man.
​

The lieutenant flapped out after him, landing in a stride straight for the other faunus while he scraped his still burning first against his other glove, igniting that one as well. "S'a poor thank you for helpin' us finally drag that scum out of hiding, son, but you're under arrest too. Take that one away boys."

Placing himself into something of a primal stance on all fours with his tail coiled up, Tyrian growled.

Faunus or not, policeman or not, Tyrian didn't care one bit.

"Whatever. I've never had much respect for authority so figures this is the reception I'd get..." Tyrian's tail slammed down. "I CAN'T let you take him yet! HE KNOWS WHERE MY FRIEND IS!!" The faunus screamed as he prepared to charge into a fight he almost surely would have lost. With one of his hands looking like it'd been put through a cold press juicer and his mind clearly too addled to focus, the officer had the advantages in every way that mattered.

Thankfully, he wouldn't need to.
​

—Where, bar a preternatural display of foresight and evasion, it slammed right into Lieutenant Asshole and bowled him right up into the air where he could spread his wings, Emerald's kusarigama already sliding back into pistols with a pair of clicks as she opened fire to try and keep him at bay.

*honkhonk* "GET IN THE CAR, PSYCHO!" Mercury demanded as he cupped his hands and shouted in Tyrian's direction, shooting Neo a warning glare to stay put just in case. What was it with his unhinged friends and putting themselves in crappy situations from not listening to him? Come to think of it, why were all his friends unhinged???

Oh, right. Son of a career killer.

Huh.

Tyrian hadn't expected that at all.

But he DID remember that car! ....It was the one he bled all over Emerald in.

"But...But I can't...THE KID KNOWS WHERE MY FRIEND IS!!" Part of the whole reason he'd gotten his hand crushed for! Faced with a battle he was starting to realize he just wasn't in the right state of mind to win and not having a clue as to where to go find his friend, Tyrian swallowed his pride and leaped for the car.

It was far less graceful than he'd hoped with him landing facefirst in the backseat, feet and tail swaying in the air.

"U-Ugh! I-I'm in!!! Let's go!!"

Blanco didn't know why it'd taken so long for the police to get themselves involved/or why they'd made an effort of seeking to arrest Tyrian or his friends as well but if they were going to be on their way then Blanco could at least do this for them. Sprinting forward, he jumped, as the car had knocked the Lieutenant skywards and as his hands began to give off a blue ethereal glow, he lashed out.

"STICKY FINGERS!!!"

"SPLIT!"

The punch barrage hopefully allowing the others to continue to drive off unimpeded.

Blanco had done his best to be seen as a pillar for Mistral's locals and it's people. Someone they could come to in their time of need. So, what kind of man would he have been if he just sat back while a youth simply seeking to catch a murderer and save his friend was stopped in the pursuit of that quest? Turning his head in the direction of Tyrian and the others, he called out in an attempt to aid them.

"TYRIAN! YOUR FRIEND...THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR! YOU CAN LIKELY FIND HER AT...."

Tyrian strained his ears to listen to Blanco's words but the gangster could only hope that the faunus had gotten it.

Whatever fate was in store for him now that he'd interfered?

Blanco welcomed it with a smile.
​

He added off hand to the S.W.A.T. behind him, and the last thing Aurora saw was two of them jumping into the crater before a rifle butt to the forehead gave him a blessed release from the confusion and pain of abandoment.

Aurora had started attempting to crawl out of the crater the second Tyrian wasn't threatening him.

However, he was much less adapt at using his semblance than the Boss or Jack. Most didn't even believe that Aurora knew how to tap into his aura, let alone figuring out his semblance. An image that the Boss preferred to cultivate so as to leave people unsuspecting of Aurora as he walked about and acted as the Boss's eyes and ears in day to day life of Mistral's people.

"Darn it....Boss, where are you...?' He whimpered. Wasn't even a scroll nearby to call him. Was he alright? What the heck had happened here? Things looked like they'd gotten out of hand for sure and somehow he'd ended up at the literal center of it.

It wasn't until the two SWAT officers jumped into the crater that Aurora yelped.

Weakly looking over his shoulder, Aurora shivered.

"B-BOSS!! HELP-"

*thwack*

*thud*

'Boss....where were you...?'​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Ah."

Of all the cops she could have been saddled with dealing with, it was a motherfucking stutterer. That was the one she had to get stuck with. A whole giant city's worth of people who wanted to safeguard the kingdom but couldn't cut it as huntsmen or huntresses, and she just had to pull the short straw and get one of their easily confused idiots. That figured. That also swiftly became the least of her concerns.



"..."

Did bad luck just waft off Qrow and stick to people like a shitty odor? The talking way was out of the picture, leaving only the hard way. Bleh, whatever. Bad luck or no, that suited her, honestly. The hard way was always the less boring way, anyhow.

Her own blade was drawn in an instant, moving to parry the strike coming down and a kick following to slam the assailant away and clear her path. A few bullets were blocked with relative ease before she shifted back to bird form and made a beeline for the guys shooting. She transformed back at the last moment, dropping in among them and moving like a whirlwind, slices from Omen to cut weapons apart into useless junk mixed in with punches and kicks to drop them to the ground. Nothing too fancy used for the cops. Yet even as she moved around, she couldn't help but think about how the hard way would have been that much easier, if she still had access to the...

She didn't even manage to finish that thought completely before another overshadowed it.

Fuck you, Weiss Schnee.​

JMLDU SWAT were well trained professionals; they were the ones tasked with defending the city from internal threats and criminals with unlocked aura, and most of the ones that were on the scene now had cut their teeth on grimm attacks by now as well; the reason the streets had become so lawless wasn't because the law wasn't around anymore, it was just too busy defending a far less secure border.

Being a well trained professional didn't stack up with being Raven Branwen. As far as they were concerned, one moment she'd been in front of them, and the next she vanished entirely, a little black bird nigh impossible to see against the night sky. The next moment after that she was on top of them, and by the time the last one had swung his rifle to even see what had tore through his fellow officers, he felt his rifle suddenly split in his hands and a fist slam into his face, making him stumble with a yelp straight off the roof-

-Raven just barely caught sight of the other officer cutting across her right-

-before she was suddenly slammed into from the left in a full force tackle that sent them both tumbling off the roof. The officer pivoted her grip in the air and kicked off of Raven, somersaulting into nimble landing with both swords drawn as she watched Raven's own landing.

"Don't run yet. You're Raven Branwen."

The words were muted, purposefully quiet against the din of the rest of the chaos happening on the other side of the building, but they were assured and determined. It wasn't a question whoever this was knew who she was. At least, partly, and the next words were far less sure even as she suddenly dashed forward with both blades lashing out in a furious combo of light stab and slashes.

"Which one?!"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

View attachment 833735

Joke was on her. This chick was at the very least acting like a cop, so Emerald had been operating on that assumption from the word go.

The moment whatever effect took hold did all three members of MEN shimmered and vanished before her very eyes, and if anyone with the bird's eye view offered by the mantas had been paying particular attention to them they saw the trio disappear off the edge of the rooftop into the darkened alley below. Mercury whooped, tucking his legs in so he could do a flashy corkscrew flip in freefall, and scarcely a second later Neo and Lupin both found themselves yeeted hard right down into the cold, hellaciously cramped, too-much-leather-not-enough-comfort confines of the familiar friend they had stashed behind the warehouse.

View attachment 833746

Pistachio and Thunderboots landed with a pair of harmonious thumps themselves in the passenger and driver side, respectively, and Mercury was already turning the key and putting his (extremely dumb) baby in drive when Emerald gave her frank appraisal of the situation.

"Something's weird."

"No kidding. I mean sure, piggies gonna oink and all, but last I heard Atlas was the fascist kingdom. Think it's to do with Haven? Salem's gopher was there."

"Mrh, dunno." She sounded ambivalent, but there wasn't exactly time to think it over.

"So gun it?"

"Yeah."

THe "Yeah."

He smirked and slammed on the gas pedal so gleefully it was a wonder he didn't blow a hole in the bottom of the car, and with a squeal of tires and a shower of sparks the hotrod tore out the other side of the alleyway—



—Where, bar a preternatural display of foresight and evasion, it slammed right into Lieutenant Asshole and bowled him right up into the air where he could spread his wings, Emerald's kusarigama already sliding back into pistols with a pair of clicks as she opened fire to try and keep him at bay.

*honkhonk* "GET IN THE CAR, PSYCHO!" Mercury demanded as he cupped his hands and shouted in Tyrian's direction, shooting Neo a warning glare to stay put just in case. What was it with his unhinged friends and putting themselves in crappy situations from not listening to him? Come to think of it, why were all his friends unhinged???

Oh, right. Son of a career killer.​

​

Maiden flight was easy; you used the wind to just sort of push yourself where you wanted to go. Penny's flight was more complicated; thrust, fuel usage, all sorts of calculations went through the little war machine's digital brain every time she took a small dip or turn.

Flying with wings was really complicated. Despite what everyone and their mother seemed to think, it was a lot harder than just flapping those boys and becoming faunus jesus. There were some winged faunus who just couldn't fly. Icarus Blaze wasn't one of those; he was one of the best flying faunus their was, with his own wings or a fighter jet. This was just to illustrate that it wasn't some sort of failing on his part that, after he got hit by a car at full speed, he tumbled through the air and landed in a heap almost a full block's distance, his wings curled tight around him to keep them from catching too much wind and snapping rather than bursting open to catch the air and swoop right back in angry vengeance.

But even if it wasn't a failing , it was absolutely what happened.

Tyrian hadn't expected that at all.

But he DID remember that car! ....It was the one he bled all over Emerald in.

"But...But I can't...THE KID KNOWS WHERE MY FRIEND IS!!" Part of the whole reason he'd gotten his hand crushed for! Faced with a battle he was starting to realize he just wasn't in the right state of mind to win and not having a clue as to where to go find his friend, Tyrian swallowed his pride and leaped for the car.

It was far less graceful than he'd hoped with him landing facefirst in the backseat, feet and tail swaying in the air.

"U-Ugh! I-I'm in!!! Let's go!!"

Neo was crammed as far into the corner as she could be, her shoulder protectively angled in the corners direction with a dirty glare shot at anyone who got too close. Lupin was slumped in the middle of the back seat, staring blankly into the sky, wondering where in the hell his life went wrong in the last few days.

"I shoulda stayed a salesman" He said to no one in particular, right before the SWAT that had been with the lieutenant opened fire on the car in a hail of bullets.

*BANG BANG BANG*

A much growlier, heavy sounding trio of blasts than the automatic rifles cut through the air, and three rubber rounds the size of golf balls suddenly ricocheted through the entire team, a chorus of yelps and curses filling the air at the same moment Callie sprinted out of the cover she'd holed herself up in after she saw the shitshow this shindig had become and vaulted over the seat to slam into Lupin's lap while the cops were stumbling and dazed. "GUN IT!" she accidentally echoed

Tires squeeled as the hotrod tore down the street in a spray of smoke, the ruined asphalt making for a horrendously bumpy ride that had Neo in purely instinctual tears at the continued jostling before they rounded a corner into blessedly normal streets. There was a heavy tension among a few of the passengers for the first few blocks, Neo leering behind them for any sign of pursuit, but the chaotic nature of their escape and Bruno, bless whoever he was' soul (neo had been entirely gone for his little spiel back at the bar), staying behind had seemingly given them space, for now.

She slumped into her seat with a sigh, then reached into her pockets with her good hand, spun a pocket knife out, and started cutting off a chunk of the jeans that had already been mangled along with the rest of her by the boss to cut off strips for a sling.

Callie sat up, her eyes shifting back towards where they'd come from, and in a slightly breathy, incredulous voice, asked. "What the fuck?" She elaborated. "Aurora's a serial killer. Lil hair poof aurora. An' I dunno if y'all keep track of those kinda circles the way Spiders do but that 'lieutenant' was a gods-damned shadowfang talon. Working with the JMLDU"

"Can you get off me." Came lupin's muffled request, his head currently wedged in Callie's side.

"and go where, you stupid git?! This is a two person seat and there's four of us back here"

 

[MyrtenRose]

JMLDU SWAT were well trained professionals; they were the ones tasked with defending the city from internal threats and criminals with unlocked aura, and most of the ones that were on the scene now had cut their teeth on grimm attacks by now as well; the reason the streets had become so lawless wasn't because the law wasn't around anymore, it was just too busy defending a far less secure border.

Being a well trained professional didn't stack up with being Raven Branwen. As far as they were concerned, one moment she'd been in front of them, and the next she vanished entirely, a little black bird nigh impossible to see against the night sky. The next moment after that she was on top of them, and by the time the last one had swung his rifle to even see what had tore through his fellow officers, he felt his rifle suddenly split in his hands and a fist slam into his face, making him stumble with a yelp straight off the roof-

-Raven just barely caught sight of the other officer cutting across her right-

-before she was suddenly slammed into from the left in a full force tackle that sent them both tumbling off the roof. The officer pivoted her grip in the air and kicked off of Raven, somersaulting into nimble landing with both swords drawn as she watched Raven's own landing.

"Don't run yet. You're Raven Branwen."

The words were muted, purposefully quiet against the din of the rest of the chaos happening on the other side of the building, but they were assured and determined. It wasn't a question whoever this was knew who she was. At least, partly, and the next words were far less sure even as she suddenly dashed forward with both blades lashing out in a furious combo of light stab and slashes.

"Which one?!"

She recovered quickly from the tackle, as well as being subsequently used as a platform to jump off of, and landed just as nimbly as the officer. Her feet were spread apart even before she hit the ground, landing perfectly in a well-practiced combat stance. No surprise, there was one or two combatants worth noting among the lot of cops. Enough that they managed to get the drop on her. Still, Raven didn't show much concern, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the officer. "Yeah...? You just picking that up now? I showed you my goddamn huntress licens--you know what, nevermind. I literally don't care." Raven's grip on her hilt tensed up as the officer charged and then Omen was moving in a constant blur of motion, either blocking or parrying every strike that came in. All the while she was stepping back slowly, giving ground to the officer and not yet launching any attacks of her own. She was seemingly content to let the cop tire herself out.

Then the officer revealed knowledge that was a bit more unexpected than knowing Raven's name. The awareness that there were two of them. Raven's eyes momentarily widened, the thought of asking how the woman knew about that coming to mind, but she ultimately didn't act on that thought. "Which one?" She repeated before plenty of frustration revealed itself in her annoyed expression as thoughts of the oh so much better Raven surfaced in her mind, all thanks to that question.

She spat out:

"THE ONE WHO WANTS TO GET HOME AND WHO ALSO IS JUST ABOUT DONE WITH SO MANY OF THE SHITTY PEOPLE ON THIS SHITTY REMNANT!"

Raven shoved back much harder with her own blade against the next strike that came in, forcing the weapon down with gritted teeth and immediately followed through with a heavy kick to knock the officer back...and nothing further, as she transformed right then and took off in a burst of feathers to catch up with the way too cramped hot rod and try to land on it.

She may not have been too eager to talk with complete fucking strangers, but she at least knew those kids to a small degree. Recognized their faces, from this world and also her own. That and admittedly, she was curious. It wasn't Ozpin or global level crap they were dealing with but these kids had at least managed to keep themselves busy ever since splitting off, it seemed. Heh. That was very team STRQ...and RWBY too. The amount of times they had broken plenty of rules, gotten into more trouble than they should have...this seemed like a similar deal, if that complete mess back there with all those other people was anything to go by.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Tires squeeled as the hotrod tore down the street in a spray of smoke, the ruined asphalt making for a horrendously bumpy ride that had Neo in purely instinctual tears at the continued jostling before they rounded a corner into blessedly normal streets. There was a heavy tension among a few of the passengers for the first few blocks, Neo leering behind them for any sign of pursuit, but the chaotic nature of their escape and Bruno, bless whoever he was' soul (neo had been entirely gone for his little spiel back at the bar), staying behind had seemingly given them space, for now.

She slumped into her seat with a sigh, then reached into her pockets with her good hand, spun a pocket knife out, and started cutting off a chunk of the jeans that had already been mangled along with the rest of her by the boss to cut off strips for a sling.

Blanco watched the car disappear into the night.

He exhaled a sigh of a relief while rolling up his sleeves.

If anybody else tried pursuing them? Well, he'd just have to do his due diligence as leader of the Community Team and stop that, wouldn't he?

"Time to split."

~~~

The Hitman Team had heard all the gunshots going off and made themselves scarce for now.

They didn't know where Char had gone or where he'd ended up.

But they wouldn't leave Mistral without him.

~~~
​

Callie sat up, her eyes shifting back towards where they'd come from, and in a slightly breathy, incredulous voice, asked. "What the fuck?" She elaborated. "Aurora's a serial killer. Lil hair poof aurora.

Tyrian's feet kicked back and forth as his face was still uncomfortably pressed against the floor of the backseat.

"Aurora??? N...No he couldn't have been the killer!! Guy was trembling like a baby when I grabbed him!! The guy I fought was BIG!"
​

An' I dunno if y'all keep track of those kinda circles the way Spiders do but that 'lieutenant' was a gods-damned shadowfang talon. Working with the JMLDU"

Just then Tyrian thought back to his brief fight with Fox.

"Turn the car around, Merc!!! Those Shadow Fang assholes are up to something!!!"

Maybe once the adrenaline of fighting wore off, he could do something about his mangled hand...​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Just then Tyrian thought back to his brief fight with Fox.

"Turn the car around, Merc!!! That Shadow Fang assholes are up to something!!!"

"How bout no, retard." He answered as bluntly and unequivocally as a nurse at Beacon Academy.

And so they were off, and as if an assassin child, speed demon delinquent driving a painted clown car's idea of losing the cops wasn't terrifying enough for anyone in the overcrowded back seat they had to deal with the added stipulation of a few extra palpitating swerves thrown in there as Mercury steered one handed, twiddling through radio channels for a fitting 'gun it' tune. Whatever else could be said for Mistral's infrastructural collapse, with communication technology in the kingdom having been catapulted back a good 50 years the pirate broadcast industry was booming. Faith FM.

"No."

Country.

"Blugh."

24/7 holiday classics.

"What even?"

Some guy ranting in his basement about Big Farma and their stranglehold over the city's food supply and how the faunus were involved and secretly ran the entire world from Menagerie.

"Yikes-"





Yea. He could do something crazy to this.

Emerald hummed, a little absent. "Who is this guy? I swear I hear his voice all the time."

"No clue, but I'm thinking we have our winner. Heh, right on time too." He tilted his chin back slightly to address his passengers, possibly to offer assurance as to why they were currently gaining speed in a straight line for one of the railings overlooking the drop to the next tier down on the mountain. "Ladies, gentlemen? Your captain speaking, just checking in with a quick reminder to hold onto your butts."

Emerald, having parked her brain on another planet while she tried to process everything that had just happened and who this dude on the radio was, just now seemed to notice this. "Mercury."

"If you cannot hold onto your own butt then please ask the passenger to your left to grab it for you—"



Holy shit. This wasn't cool. This was like, a death wish. "Mercury?"

"—Thank you for flying Air Awesome, and remember—" He cackled and hit the nitrous pedal. "—No refunds!"

CRASH

"MERCURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

"Can you get off me." [/FONT]Came lupin's muffled request, his head currently wedged in Callie's side.

"and go where, you stupid git?! This is a two person seat and there's four of us back here"

Thus it was, barely a minute later, that one hot rod containing various people happy in one form or another just to be alive slowly trundled to a stop, shrouded in the darkness of a grungier and deeper alleyway further down Mistral's mountainside as Mercury turned off the headlights and answered Callie in a cocky drawl.

"Yea, but you should see the torque I get on her, babe. I could drive this sucker backwards up a waterfall."

He was lying out his ass. He'd tried. And frankly, he wasn't even sure what torque meant in relation to cars. But what did that matter? He wasn't the pit crew. He was the driver. The getaway expert. His job was to hit the gas pedal and pour so much aura into this baby it held together through hell and high water, like it was every bit as much an extension of his own body as his legs were.

That may have given some insight as to why his legs were both missing below the knees, as the moment the car came to a halt various pieces collapsed with a noisy clatter off the chassis, engine sputtering out like a death rattle.

She'd be missed.

"Meh. We were gonna have to ditch it after this anyway."



"I hate you. I hate. So much about you. Personally. Like, about your personality. Things you can never fix." Emerald murmured, kind of just shoving all the bad feelings deep down inside and keeping an eye on the skies for sign of pursuit. It was pretty much all she could do.

"And yet you want me for my body. So sad. Anyway—" He rummaged around the glovebox and came out with a magazine, rolling it up into a dense cylinder and holding it out to Neo to use as a splint. "—Hold up. So much stuff happened in the last five minutes there and I feel like Em and me just got stuck fighting, like, nobody important. So the Shadow Fang are arresting people now? Isn't that bad? Isn't that like, monumentally terrible 'we're all screwed' news for pretty much every human living in the kingdom? And so wait—"

His gaze went back to Neo again.

"—So Pinkiepie wasn't just beating up on some manlet? That guy was like, the guy? You went at it solo with a serial killer whose semblance had the entire street looking like the 'after' picture of a natural disaster? Dude."

Any friction that may have arose from their last conversation on his end seemed abandoned, and he held his hand out for a high-five. A little too high, since if Neo reciprocated he curled it back at the last second and pretended like he meant to slick back his hair the whole time.



"Then again, you do look like you just got beat up for your lunch money."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

She recovered quickly from the tackle, as well as being subsequently used as a platform to jump off of, and landed just as nimbly as the officer. Her feet were spread apart even before she hit the ground, landing perfectly in a well-practiced combat stance. No surprise, there was one or two combatants worth noting among the lot of cops. Enough that they managed to get the drop on her. Still, Raven didn't show much concern, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the officer. "Yeah...? You just picking that up now? I showed you my goddamn huntress licens--you know what, nevermind. I literally don't care." Raven's grip on her hilt tensed up as the officer charged and then Omen was moving in a constant blur of motion, either blocking or parrying every strike that came in. All the while she was stepping back slowly, giving ground to the officer and not yet launching any attacks of her own. She was seemingly content to let the cop tire herself out.

Then the officer revealed knowledge that was a bit more unexpected than knowing Raven's name. The awareness that there were two of them. Raven's eyes momentarily widened, the thought of asking how the woman knew about that coming to mind, but she ultimately didn't act on that thought. "Which one?" She repeated before plenty of frustration revealed itself in her annoyed expression as thoughts of the oh so much better Raven surfaced in her mind, all thanks to that question.

She spat out:

"THE ONE WHO WANTS TO GET HOME AND WHO ALSO IS JUST ABOUT DONE WITH SO MANY OF THE SHITTY PEOPLE ON THIS SHITTY REMNANT!"

Raven shoved back much harder with her own blade against the next strike that came in, forcing the weapon down with gritted teeth and immediately followed through with a heavy kick to knock the officer back...and nothing further, as she transformed right then and took off in a burst of feathers to catch up with the way too cramped hot rod and try to land on it.

She may not have been too eager to talk with complete fucking strangers, but she at least knew those kids to a small degree. Recognized their faces, from this world and also her own. That and admittedly, she was curious. It wasn't Ozpin or global level crap they were dealing with but these kids had at least managed to keep themselves busy ever since splitting off, it seemed. Heh. That was very team STRQ...and RWBY too. The amount of times they had broken plenty of rules, gotten into more trouble than they should have...this seemed like a similar deal, if that complete mess back there with all those other people was anything to go by.​

The officer looked taken aback at the sudden outburst, her stance softening, and took the kick straight through the chest, and Raven's foot went straight through her chest before she seemed to vanish. A sword slashed up through her extended leg to rip a chunk of aura long with it, and the officer danced back from where she'd been hiding in her double's shadow, only to look as surprised and aggravated as a fully masked woman could as Raven suddenly turned into a bird.

"Hey!"

Much like before, Ravens' dark wings blended with the night sky-

-Which did absolutely nothing to stop the officer's faunus eyes from pinpointing her, and a downright acrobatic display of speed and agility had her vault off the wall in a leap and snag the bird out of air mid flight with a squeeze as she landed deftly on the ground.

She held the raven right up to her eyes, and Raven could just barely make out the faint, amber, very annoyed looking irises behind the goggles.

"Look, I know running off's kind of your thing, but I'm trying to tell you something important!"

She couldn't say she'd never thought about what meeting Raven would go like, either friendly or on the field of battle, but she was pretty positive this particular scenario had never been one of her worries.

 

[MyrtenRose]

The officer looked taken aback at the sudden outburst, her stance softening, and took the kick straight through the chest, and Raven's foot went straight through her chest before she seemed to vanish. A sword slashed up through her extended leg to rip a chunk of aura long with it, and the officer danced back from where she'd been hiding in her double's shadow, only to look as surprised and aggravated as a fully masked woman could as Raven suddenly turned into a bird.

"Hey!"

Much like before, Ravens' dark wings blended with the night sky-

-Which did absolutely nothing to stop the officer's faunus eyes from pinpointing her, and a downright acrobatic display of speed and agility had her vault off the wall in a leap and snag the bird out of air mid flight with a squeeze as she landed deftly on the ground.

She held the raven right up to her eyes, and Raven could just barely make out the faint, amber, very annoyed looking irises behind the goggles.

"Look, I know running off's kind of your thing, but I'm trying to tell you something important!"

She couldn't say she'd never thought about what meeting Raven would go like, either friendly or on the field of battle, but she was pretty positive this particular scenario had never been one of her worries.

There was something between a squeal and a shrill screech as she got snatched right out of the air with ridiculous ease, the furious flapping of wings just beforehand immediately cut off and silenced. Even if it had not been, it would not have been enough to cover for that high pitched shriek, that almost entirely involuntary and downright pathetic sounding noise that was so un-Raven-like. It was not a sound she would have made if she had any say in the matter. Trying to discuss bravery or boldness or strength after a pitiful shout like that...the worlds would ring absolutely hollow. Thankfully she did not have to do that but...

Perhaps that might explain why, as Raven the raven got lifted up to the faunus’s face while being held in such a demeaning manner, those mismatched circles of pale blue and dark red that were the bird’s eyes came across as hateful and annoyed as they could possibly get. And why, when the beak opened, the words that hissed out were:

“Do it then already. Asshole.”​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"How bout no, retard." He answered as bluntly and unequivocally as a nurse at Beacon Academy.

And so they were off, and as if an assassin child, speed demon delinquent driving a painted clown car's idea of losing the cops wasn't terrifying enough for anyone in the overcrowded back seat they had to deal with the added stipulation of a few extra palpitating swerves thrown in there as Mercury steered one handed, twiddling through radio channels for a fitting 'gun it' tune. Whatever else could be said for Mistral's infrastructural collapse, with communication technology in the kingdom having been catapulted back a good 50 years the pirate broadcast industry was booming. Faith FM.

"No."

Country.

"Blugh."

24/7 holiday classics.

"What even?"

Some guy ranting in his basement about Big Farma and their stranglehold over the city's food supply and how the faunus were involved and secretly ran the entire world from Menagerie.

"Yikes-"



View attachment 834347

Yea. He could do something crazy to this.

Emerald hummed, a little absent. "Who is this guy? I swear I hear his voice all the time."

"No clue, but I'm thinking we have our winner. Heh, right on time too." He tilted his chin back slightly to address his passengers, possibly to offer assurance as to why they were currently gaining speed in a straight line for one of the railings overlooking the drop to the next tier down on the mountain. "Ladies, gentlemen? Your captain speaking, just checking in with a quick reminder to hold onto your butts."

Emerald, having parked her brain on another planet while she tried to process everything that had just happened and who this dude on the radio was, just now seemed to notice this. "Mercury."

"If you cannot hold onto your own butt then please ask the passenger to your left to grab it for you—"

View attachment 834358

Holy shit. This wasn't cool. This was like, a death wish. "Mercury?"

"—Thank you for flying Air Awesome, and remember—" He cackled and hit the nitrous pedal. "—No refunds!"

CRASH

"MERCURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"




View attachment 834361

Thus it was, barely a minute later, that one hot rod containing various people happy in one form or another just to be alive slowly trundled to a stop, shrouded in the darkness of a grungier and deeper alleyway further down Mistral's mountainside as Mercury turned off the headlights and answered Callie in a cocky drawl.

"Yea, but you should see the torque I get on her, babe. I could drive this sucker backwards up a waterfall."

He was lying out his ass. He'd tried. And frankly, he wasn't even sure what torque meant in relation to cars. But what did that matter? He wasn't the pit crew. He was the driver. The getaway expert. His job was to hit the gas pedal and pour so much aura into this baby it held together through hell and high water, like it was every bit as much an extension of his own body as his legs were.

That may have given some insight as to why his legs were both missing below the knees, as the moment the car came to a halt various pieces collapsed with a noisy clatter off the chassis, engine sputtering out like a death rattle.

She'd be missed.

"Meh. We were gonna have to ditch it after this anyway."

View attachment 834371

"I hate you. I hate. So much about you. Personally. Like, about your personality. Things you can never fix." Emerald murmured, kind of just shoving all the bad feelings deep down inside and keeping an eye on the skies for sign of pursuit. It was pretty much all she could do.

"And yet you want me for my body. So sad. Anyway—" He rummaged around the glovebox and came out with a magazine, rolling it up into a dense cylinder and holding it out to Neo to use as a splint. "—Hold up. So much stuff happened in the last five minutes there and I feel like Em and me just got stuck fighting, like, nobody important. So the Shadow Fang are arresting people now? Isn't that bad? Isn't that like, monumentally terrible 'we're all screwed' news for pretty much every human living in the kingdom? And so wait—"

His gaze went back to Neo again.

"—So Pinkiepie wasn't just beating up on some manlet? That guy was like, the guy? You went at it solo with a serial killer whose semblance had the entire street looking like the 'after' picture of a natural disaster? Dude."

Any friction that may have arose from their last conversation on his end seemed abandoned, and he held his hand out for a high-five. A little too high, since if Neo reciprocated he curled it back at the last second and pretended like he meant to slick back his hair the whole time.

View attachment 834380

"Then again, you do look like you just got beat up for your lunch money."​

By far the least flustered person in the car that wasn't named Mercury (and maybe Tyrian) by the end of the joyride from hell was Neo. Even with her busted shoulder and her hair such a windtossed mess she looked more like a poorly shaved shi tzu than a huntress before she shook it out to at least close to its normal state, she lost it in fit a breathy giggles when they came to a grinding stop. The adrenaline rush of Mistral's Wild Ride was as close as she was getting to painkillers right now anyways.

One particular heavy thud of metal snapped her out of it, and she peered over the door on her side to get a view of the car itself.

... that was... so many bullet holes.

She somewhat forlornly pressed a kiss to her hand before patting the side of the car. Goodnight, sweet prince.

Callie, meanwhile, had Lupin in her grip like he was a human sized stress ball, her eyes the size of baseballs and still locked facing forward like they were still doing a hundred in a 25.

"Why."

"Can't.... breathe..."

Neo rolled her eyes at them and gratefully accepted the magazine roll as she resumed her work now that it was a physical possibility, though she somewhat accidentally ignored the high five as the rush started to wear down and she pondered Merc's statement. Her eyes furrowed as she stared forward, before she shook her head and gave a helpless shrug as she finished the splint. When it was done, she snapped her fingers and drew a little square of light in the air, as much a test of her aura slowly flickering back into existence as it was to tell her side of things;

A tiny eight bit Neo appeared in the air, bouncing up and down in a steady rythmn. The 'screen' panned to the side, and a similarly pixelated Char and Blanco bounced to the same unheard tune. Suddenly, little NES Aurora crashed into the two goons, and little x's appeared over their eyes as the faux neo gasped, had a little steam cloud appear over her head, and she leaped next to Aurora.

Two health bars appeared over their heads and a giant 'ROUND ONE' appeared on the scree., Little blue strands of wind starting batting Neo around until she vanished, and then multiple Neo's started to appear, always prodding the boss where he wasn't looking. Then the wind stopped and all the neo's disappeared, and her and the boss both looked to see little char standing back up and glowing. Faux Neo turned with an evil smile hidden by shadows, the boss gave a terrified shriek, and in a flurry of blows the Boss' healthbar dropped within inches of defeat.

Then little Char passed out, and in the middle of their little fight the boss teleported right behind Neo, his eyes glowing, and piledrived her into the bottom of the screen with a K.O. flashing across the screen. He laughed evilly for a moment, before he jumped back in surprise as 'NEW CHALLENGER' shoved him to the edge of the screen. A red haired, blackwinged faunus floated from the top of the screen, pulled out a scroll, pointed at the boss, and the top of the screen broke as a bullet the size of the 8 bit characters came from outside and hit the boss in an explosion that had his healthbar go to zero and then start going even farther backwards until it ran into Lupin's cheek and the entire illusion shattered from the contact.

Neo looked up to the others with a helpless frown as she shrugged, catching herself with a wince.

Then her eyes hardened slightly as she put her hand out, a small Shadowfang symbol floating in her palm before she crushed it in a violent grip. She watched the pieces float away before she glanced up at her two teammates in askance.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

There was something between a squeal and a shrill screech as she got snatched right out of the air with ridiculous ease, the furious flapping of wings just beforehand immediately cut off and silenced. Even if it had not been, it would not have been enough to cover for that high pitched shriek, that almost entirely involuntary and downright pathetic sounding noise that was so un-Raven-like. It was not a sound she would have made if she had any say in the matter. Trying to discuss bravery or boldness or strength after a pitiful shout like that...the worlds would ring absolutely hollow. Thankfully she did not have to do that but...

Perhaps that might explain why, as Raven the raven got lifted up to the faunus’s face while being held in such a demeaning manner, those mismatched circles of pale blue and dark red that were the bird’s eyes came across as hateful and annoyed as they could possibly get. And why, when the beak opened, the words that hissed out were:

“Do it then already. Asshole.”​

"I'm trying to!" The officer whisper yelled as she started to power walk for the edge of the alleyway they'd fallen into. "But I also have to try to arrest you; I don't have time to explain it really, but someone's got their semblance on me and its bad if I don't listen. So... fight back or something before I hand you over to Blaze."

She peered around the corner to see what the situation was, and caught sight of the leuitenant giving orders to the rest of the officers while clutching his side with a growl.

"I don't know how but the shadowfang have gotten in with Mistral's government. Deep. In a few months its gonna be even worse, and I don't know if I can do anything about it by myself. I..."

She took a deep, frustrated breath, seemingly being very careful in her choice of words as they stepped around the corner and started walking towards Blaze

"...There are... people like us here who are... important to me. I was hoping you knew where they were. I caught one Leuitenant!"

 

[Gus Gungus]

By far the least flustered person in the car that wasn't named Mercury (and maybe Tyrian) by the end of the joyride from hell was Neo. Even with her busted shoulder and her hair such a windtossed mess she looked more like a poorly shaved shi tzu than a huntress before she shook it out to at least close to its normal state, she lost it in fit a breathy giggles when they came to a grinding stop. The adrenaline rush of Mistral's Wild Ride was as close as she was getting to painkillers right now anyways.

One particular heavy thud of metal snapped her out of it, and she peered over the door on her side to get a view of the car itself.

... that was... so many bullet holes.

She somewhat forlornly pressed a kiss to her hand before patting the side of the car. Goodnight, sweet prince.

Callie, meanwhile, had Lupin in her grip like he was a human sized stress ball, her eyes the size of baseballs and still locked facing forward like they were still doing a hundred in a 25.

"Why."

"Can't.... breathe..."

Neo rolled her eyes at them and gratefully accepted the magazine roll as she resumed her work now that it was a physical possibility, though she somewhat accidentally ignored the high five as the rush started to wear down and she pondered Merc's statement. Her eyes furrowed as she stared forward, before she shook her head and gave a helpless shrug as she finished the splint. When it was done, she snapped her fingers and drew a little square of light in the air, as much a test of her aura slowly flickering back into existence as it was to tell her side of things;

A tiny eight bit Neo appeared in the air, bouncing up and down in a steady rythmn. The 'screen' panned to the side, and a similarly pixelated Char and Blanco bounced to the same unheard tune. Suddenly, little NES Aurora crashed into the two goons, and little x's appeared over their eyes as the faux neo gasped, had a little steam cloud appear over her head, and she leaped next to Aurora.

Two health bars appeared over their heads and a giant 'ROUND ONE' appeared on the scree., Little blue strands of wind starting batting Neo around until she vanished, and then multiple Neo's started to appear, always prodding the boss where he wasn't looking. Then the wind stopped and all the neo's disappeared, and her and the boss both looked to see little char standing back up and glowing. Faux Neo turned with an evil smile hidden by shadows, the boss gave a terrified shriek, and in a flurry of blows the Boss' healthbar dropped within inches of defeat.

Then little Char passed out, and in the middle of their little fight the boss teleported right behind Neo, his eyes glowing, and piledrived her into the bottom of the screen with a K.O. flashing across the screen. He laughed evilly for a moment, before he jumped back in surprise as 'NEW CHALLENGER' shoved him to the edge of the screen. A red haired, blackwinged faunus floated from the top of the screen, pulled out a scroll, pointed at the boss, and the top of the screen broke as a bullet the size of the 8 bit characters came from outside and hit the boss in an explosion that had his healthbar go to zero and then start going even farther backwards until it ran into Lupin's cheek and the entire illusion shattered from the contact.

Neo looked up to the others with a helpless frown as she shrugged, catching herself with a wince.

Then her eyes hardened slightly as she put her hand out, a small Shadowfang symbol floating in her palm before she crushed it in a violent grip. She watched the pieces float away before she glanced up at her two teammates in askance.

"Awesome!" Emerald reviewed with keen enthusiasm, using the puppet show to distract from the fact that unlike her two goofy trigger-happy teammates she always seemed to skew towards the less fun end of the fight-or-flight scale when her adrenaline got surging like that. The entire cutscene earned a rousing round of applause, the thief always having been about that illusionist solidarity (when she wasn't busy establishing superiority). She looked at Mercury.



"...No."

The firm, emphatic word was the first sound the assassin-by-legacy had made since Neo's yarn began, having shifted back around in his seat to front face again at his teammate's nonverbal closing query. His features were locked in the kind of grim, inscrutable frown that only came over him on the bluest of moons, as difficult to read as an instruction booklet in another language.

"Some nutjob and the Ashes were one thing. But if the Shadow Fang are getting involved in their business now, it's some kind of a turf play. Has to be. With the condition they left the kingdom in they're the only group left that could make things difficult if they decide they're not done with this place. Which they clearly aren't."

It was subtle, but the gradual blanching of his knuckles gave away just how tight he was gripping the steering wheel as he mulled it all over in his head, no amount of adrenaline enough to distract from what had happened the last time their little crew and the Shadow Fang ended up driving in the same lane.

"If the Shadow Fang aren't done here, it means they aren't. It means he isn't. And y'know what that means?"

He gave Neo a hard, pointed stare in the rearview. Emerald didn't chime in further, an ambivalent look on her face as she put her cheek in her palm and slunk lower in her seat, staring out the window with mild discomfort.

"It means we are. Well, Callie, T, guy whose name I can't remember, it's been real. But the time has come for my t- friends and I to pack our shit and blow this sinking popsicle stand. I'm thinking someplace warm. If any of you are smart, you'll do the same."​