The Hunters: Remnants Mightiest Heroes
In the words of Nikki from Camp Camp: I'MMM BAAACCCCKKKK!. Hopefully you guys wanted more and I wanted to do more so this is a win win for everyone, this is a follow up to Good In to Great, but it can be read separately if you don't want to read another Jaune fic. If you do want to read it be my guest as I think it's pretty good and I want to say thanks for all the support and favourites and follows and reviews. Didn't think it was going to have about three hundred people view it in an the space of two hours, that was great.
To any Marvel fans you might recognise the story I am loosely trying to follow, as the title is a bit of a give away. It is in my opinion the best Avengers cartoon ever and possibly the best Marvel cartoon ever, followed by The Spectacular Spider-Man. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about it is called Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes, worth a watch.
(Just another random Headcannon that popped into my head; the only person that managed to beat Nora in an arm wrestling contest in Beacon wasn't Yang like many thought, It wasn't Pyrrha who said that Nora pulled a lot of her muscles, causing Jaune to worry about her enough to massage her almost every day after that so much not that she minded, and it wasn't Ren since Nora couldn't do that to his arm, in fact it wasn't any one in the first year and nobody real wanted to try as Nora actually did break Cardin's arm. It wasn't Yatsuhashi, so many people lost Lien on that bet, it wasn't Coco... it was Velvet. Nora didn't leave her room for the next few days after that, not that she minded as Ren would bring her pancakes to make her feel better.)
Disclaimer; I own nothing.
Chapter one: NOPE
In terms of the weather it was a very gorgeous day; the shine was shining down, glistening through the trees casting pure beams of bright light where the leaves broke apart. The flowers were soaking up the sun that could come through at these points, and filling the air around them with a pleasant aroma of sunflowers, daisies and bluebells. There was even a lake nearby that hosted a whole variety of different wildlife that was living peacefully, the ducks were paddling around in the lake and some were waddling around on the shore, there were some dragonflies that were flying around creating a gentle buzzing noise that filled the air along with a calm breeze; generating a soft swishing sound that made the whole environment in the south of Mistral seem like a place of pure serenity and making it akin to a garden of Heaven. However in other areas the day could be considered to be a bad one.
"SHIT." Cried out a white fang thug, just as he dropped a heavy box filled with weapons on to the ground, directly in-front of a group of bandits.
"Why the hell couldn't the Mechs carry this crap?" He muttered as he slowly backed away from the bandit leader. He was a Shady Looking Guy who was missing one of his front teeth and looked like the typical man you would tell your kids not to talk to. The two groups of people faced off against each other; the white fang had five members and they were all wearing the traditional white fang uniform and who were carrying automatic rifles, straight off the Atlas line, and two members who were in the advanced Mech suits capable of lifting a car, their leader was a young woman who wielded an extendable whip sword and like all of the members of the white fang was a faunus, specifically a chameleon.
The bandits were dressed a little differently, there were seven of them in total and they didn't have a specific uniform between them so they just had on whatever they had managed to scrounge together, this left them looking less than professional compared to the uniformed members of the white fang. They also carried make-shift swords that they had managed to make and guns with various attachments on them that could not be safe. This was the whole reason that they were meeting together in the woods like this, the bandits required weapons and they were willing to pay quite a lot for the weapons, and that was money that the white fang could use, it's not like they were lacking in money as their leader was also the leader of a country, but they would never say no to more money and the chance to expand their connections to the other people in the world.
The leader of this group of bandits stepped forward to the crate that the white fang member had deposited in-front of them and flipped the lid open and pulled out one of the guns, it was a high tech rife with an advanced scope and special ammunition capable of drilling into amour and releasing a small compact explosion, not enough to take out a group of enemies, but it would take down anybody who was wearing amour vests or helmets. The bandit gave the gun a few test fires towards one of the trees and once he had imbedded ten bullets into the trunk of the tree, he flipped the switch on the side of the gun and detonates the explosives and blows the tree trunk up, completely shattering the bark and causing the tree to fall, with a satisfying creaking and crashing; thus destroying the silence that once was held in the tranquil area.
"TIMBER AHAHAHAH!" Yelled the Shady Looking Guy, as he was laughing out in glee at the carnage he was causing. The rest of the bandits move to step forward and they all pick up a rifle each inspecting it and almost preparing to fire as the leader places his down and hands over the money, to the faunus woman.
"Here you go babe, it's all there and if we ever do meet again; I hope that there will be more pleasure than business." He said as he waggled his eye brows at here.
"I sincerely hope that we don't." replied the woman curtly, accepting the money and walking back over to her group preparing to leave, before the bandits get them found by all of the shooting they are doing.
Just as she almost made it back to her group, her faunus senses picked up on seven small objects impacting the guns that she had just supplied to the bandits, this small noise caused her to turn around and take up a defensive stance and dart her eyes all over the sky, but she was unprepared for the scene that she then saw; what looked to be a comet was flying towards their meeting point at an incredible speed, unmatched by anything that she had ever seen before, surpassing the fastest aircraft that she had seen when they robbed that last military convoy leaving the base in Mistral. It smacked into the ground directly between the two meeting groups sending up a massive cloud of dust that obscured the line of sight between the two groups, this probably would have been good incentive to run right now, but everyone's eyes were locked on the object that was creating a dark silhouette, and when the dust settled it was seen that the object had actually created a marginally large crater. The object was then revealed to be a person, it was a short person and judging from the shape of the body it was defiantly a woman, but she was clad completely in bright red amour; not the amour of a knight, but an incredibly high tech amour that was whirling as she stood up and turned her head side to side to view all of her spectators and the helmet on her head gave her eyes a glowing silver eyed appearance that unnerved the faunus woman and her white fang members all growled slightly in defence. The woman stepped out of the crater, and her red cape fluttered in the breeze slightly, truly enrapturing the look of a hero, her amour also made a very pronounced sound of powering up, and this caused her chest piece to turn an even brighter shade of silver and her hands glowed silver as well.
"I don't know who you are, little lady, but you messed with the wrong crowd!" Said the Shady Looking Guy, as all seven of the bandits raised their weapons at the new-comer and took aim with their weapons. The woman just stared at the bandits and watched them not saying anything for a moment before she held up her hand.
"Did you not here me? I said you have messed with the wrong crowd, you should get out of here while you can." The Shady Looking Guy warned the woman, unaware of the person that he was facing.
"Wait." Came the woman's voice, sounding very young and slightly higher than she thought it would. It also came out as slightly robotic, most likely due to the technology of her amour. "Are you trying to shoot me?" She questioned, rather innocently for a question like that one.
"Uh, yeah!"
"Ohhhhh, please continue."
"SHOOT HER!" Cried the Shady Looking Guy as all of the bandits pulled back the trigger all expecting the same thing to happen; the woman's amour was going to get riddled with bullets and then as they activated the small explosives she would get blown to high hell, they clearly had no idea who they were dealing with. Luckily woman knew exactly who she was up against: idiots. As they all pulled the triggers of their weapons nothing happened, and then they began to grow irate slapping the guns to figure out what was happening, this is when the small devices that this woman had presumably shot from a great distance away to attach on to the rifles activated and set an electric shock through the people who were holding the guns, causing them all to yell, groan and scream out in pain as they then collapsed to the ground; that left the leader standing their amongst all of his unconscious bandit buddies, looking even more dumbstruck than he usually looked; most likely a very difficult feat for him to accomplish.
"Uh any way we can talk about-?" he tried to ask before the woman's still raised arm glowed even brighter and a bolt of pure silver energy left her palm and slammed into the Shaddy Looking Guy, knocking him back a few feet into a tree, and he groaned out in pain as he slide down its trunk.
"NOPE." Said the mysterious woman in a sweet voice, as she was clearly very pleased with her work, and enjoyed her time spent schooling idiots. She then turned her attention to the group of white fang grunts and its leader who held a retractable whip sword out in-front of her, poised and ready for attack. The red armoured woman rolled her shoulders slightly and two compartments popped out of her back and then went over her shoulders and fired two tiny little bullet like projectiles at the two Mechs stood behind the foot soldiers. They connected with the amour with a quiet little clang and this cause the pilots of the Mechs to chuckle slightly as they knew that this amour was made for heavy duty lifting and was tough enough to survive a bullet or three-hundred. That was when an electrical shock went over their Mechs and they started to beep in a way that suggested they were going to com-bust, so the pilots quickly ejected from the Mechs and ran away just as they exploded.
The white fang members stood deathly still as they knew they could not likely beat this new comer in a fight, they had seen what she had been able to do to a group of people with high tech guns able to shread and tear up amour, and what she could do against Mechs that were almost strong enough to throw a bus. They had also heard the stories of this womans escapade's in Vale, Atlas and Vacuo, and they knew that she was a literal one-woman-army, as she demolished a terrorist group in the desert and had reduced the amount of gun running that happened around Atlas by a staggering amount. But none the less, they would follow whatever order their leader gave them as they were nothing if not loyal.
"Do you know who I am?" the armoured avenger asked their leader. Ilia swallowed hard before answering, as she did not want to look weak in-front of her troops, even if all of their combined instincts screamed at them to run.
"You are the Armoured Avenger, the Machine Knight, the one-woman-army; The Iron Reaper."
"Yeah I don't know why they say Iron when it's actually a titanium-gold alloy, but that's not important, what is, is this; those were my guns, not yours. And I am getting rid of every weapon my company has produced, I don't care who I have to go through, even if it's your boss." She said passionately standing right in-front of Ilia so that they were almost nose to nose.
Now Ilia was a smart woman and she knew when she was out match, and right now she was about to go up against a tsunami in a canoe. So she did the smart thing and she walked away and just as her troopers were about to walk away the Iron Reaper called out to them before they disappeared into the forest.
"Just letting you know I got the whole thing on camera, so can you please tell that your leader. PLEASE AND THANK YOU!" She cried out and added a little wave to the departing white fang members. She knew that venturing an arrest order for citizens of the nation of Fort Castle (heh, funny name) would result in a massive legal battle but she could still threaten them.
Smiling to herself, Ruby turned to the peacefully sleeping bandits that she had taken-down. She didn't know what tribe they came from or how they managed to arrange the meeting with the white fang, but that was the job of others to find out. Ruby only had one job to do; destroy what she had created. Ever since she had started constructing weapons in her company, she had felt a little bit guilty, however the money that came with it allowed her to donate to hospitals, homeless shelters and orphanages to name a few, It allowed her company to expand to multiple location creating numerous job offers for thousands of people all over Remnant. So she thought what's the harm in something is like that for the right reasons and all of the good it does.
Turns out there were a very big harm in creating weapons; it attracts the wrong crowd. While she was on a weapon test in the Vacuo desert, demonstrating the ability of her new fire-and-forget rocket able to lock on to multiple targets and take them out in quick succession; called the Full Moon. Her convoy of troops transporting her back to the airfield was ambushed by terrorists known as the Grimm, they killed all of the troops and captured her and took her to an under-ground cave where they had her work on developing weapons for them. They had also been stockpiling dozens of her weapons over the years and using them to kill people who settled near their base and did not seek to join the Grimm.
That was the moment that Ruby Rose decided no more. She was getting out of the weapon business and making sure that every single one of her guns in enemy hands was turned to scrap. She was quite possible the smartest person on Remnant so she was well aware that her technology was decades ahead of whatever the scientist in Atlas could come up with, so she had no doubt about her work being replicated.
First thing though; she needed to get out of this cave, and unfortunately to destroy the weapons she had now grown to hate she would need to make one last weapon, the one that would end it all for her and at the same time provide her with salvation. Unfortunately during the attack she had been struck by a shrapnel missile that had embedded several tiny metal shards in her heart that had gotten quite close to killing her had she not been saved by a doctor Polendina, who attached a magnet in the centre of her chest that pulled the shrapnel away from the ventricle of her heart. That was when she designed the first renewable source of energy in the world; she liked to call it Silver eyed power as it glowed the same colour as her eyes, even though she tried so hard to make it blue as that would have been cooler. During the escape doctor Polendina had unfortunately been shot through the heart the last words that he said to Ruby have stuck with her every single day for a whole year now.
"Don't waste your life."
And Ruby was certain that she hadn't, the moment that she had escaped she announced she was pulling out of the weapons business, the militarise would need to return all of her models so they could be turned in to scrap metal and they could start on numerous new projects for the better meant of human and faunus kind, instead of causing death. She spoke about a renewable source of clean energy instead of dust as it was a finite resource and they needed to work on alternatives if they wanted to make it to another century. She talked about the efforts to repair the relationship between the humans and the faunus, as they were supposed to be together to make this planet a home for all to live in. Ruby was aware that she had a lot to say and that most things were often easier said than done, but they really need to start working on solutions to this problem, or the next war that everyone seemed so keen to fight would be fought with sticks and stones, between the dominant species of bugs that would take over the planet from them. Maybe that was being a tad to melodramatic, but it got the point across and everyone had listened to her and she was happy to say that her demands for the recall of her weapons was met with minimal resistance; sometimes convoy's from Atlas and sometimes Vale, lost their weapons, but Ruby usually found them sitting in a warehouse that she then proceeded to blow apart, destroying her weapons and creating more housing for the homeless and space to add in extra buildings for schools.
She especially loved the look on everyone's faces when she had turned up to a meeting in her new amour made especially for destroying all of her weapons and combat against foes who were resistant to her orders. She had of course been labelled a hypocrite and a liar, but she made a promise that the moment she had assurance all of her weapons were destroyed or back in her hands then she would turn her amour into scrap, she even signed an agreement with one of the few people she trusted enough, Director Ozpin, the head of BEACON the first line of defence for Remnant, that seemed to help calm the populace down.
Speaking of BEACON, the bullhead that Ruby had Penny contact had now arrived and was slowly landing on the ground and then a familiar handsome man walk out of the side of the bullhead with several agents following behind him, the man in question had long dark hair a slim build and was a little bit taller than she was, he had an eastern Mistral look and wore a similar outfit that allowed him a full range of movement. By his side were two small semi-automatic pistols with a retractable blade on each; on his back were a quiver and a collapsible bow for longer range. This was Agent Ren, Ruby was pretty sure his first name was Agent as that was what he introduced himself as.
"Miss Rose." He said in greeting and bowed to show her respect. "Thank you for your assistance with the bandits, they had been a blight on the nearby village for a couple of weeks now."
"Noooo problem." She replied with a thumb's up and just as she turned to take off in to the air Agent Ren spoke again.
"Miss Rose the hard drive please." Oh yeah she did just record the encounter to make sure the bandits were locked up for the appropriate time.
"Thank you. Also Director Ozpin wishes to talk to you back at BEACON if you are not too busy."
"Nah I'll stop by, he better have my cookies ready. Latter Ren." And then Ruby rocketed away at about a hundred miles an hour, faster than anything avian that could take off, and Ren would know he had been in contact with a decorated and very popular combat pilot, who was a winner of multiple competitions, for reasons that he knew of they hadn't been in contact for a while, and he knew that the information of her where a bouts was meant to be top secret, but it was his profession to know.
Now that that was over with he helped the other agents transport the prisoners to the bullhead and lock them down with the new handcuffs that were developed and then given to BEACON be STRQ industry's at a lot lower cost than they were given to the Atlas military, but nobody would say that out loud.
The journey to the prison was surprisingly uneventful and all Ren did was perform maintenance on his arrows and on his pistols to keep him busy and make sure that his equipment was in the best possible condition, when they arrived at the Emerald Forest prison he noticed that one of the prisoners gulped slightly, evidently he had heard of this place and their very dangerous inhabitants. In the world of Remnant there were two different places known as the Emerald Forest, one lived up to the name and was a lush haven for wildlife and the perfect place to go camping and spend a day out doors if you were in to that life. And then there was this Emerald Forest, a place where the most dangerous murders and terrorists were sent to live out their sentences, a place where people with enhanced abilities were sent if they chose to use them against the population, they were not experimented on they were simply locked up, Director Ozpin was very strict on that and his second in command was also incredibly strict on that as well, and she had the added effect of being terrifying to the people around the BEACON agency. As they walked the prisoners to their temporary cell before they could be tried and then given a proper home here, Ren was interrupted by a seductive drawl.
"Aww the handsome spy has come back to me, so sweet." Ren paused his walk and turned towards the cell and looked the woman directly in the eyes. One of the prisoners looked where he was looking and the moment he laid eyes on the woman he paled, not many people knew who she was, but those who did were terrified of her as they heard how she came to be locked up here, but Ren wasn't terrified of her, he was still smart enough to know that if she ever got out then they would have a problem on their hands as she was very smart, but Ren knew that with all his combat training and his expert marksmanship apprehending her would not be to difficult.
"Sorry you're not my type." Replied Ren in his monotone voice
"Bit too much woman for you?" she asked in sultry voice almost batting her eyes at him, and Ren might have been flattered as there was no denying it she was a very pretty woman, but he was not attracted to her in anyway.
"Too little actually." Sated Ren his eyes glaring right through her own as the dangerous woman let out a sarcastically surprised gasp
"ohhh, like them big do you, little man?" this conversation was going nowhere, Ren had realised before that this woman was very dangerously unhinged, and it always pained him to talk to those with an altered mental state as he had no idea how to help them control their emotions.
"No I prefer them to have a more sound mind." He said before walking away and hearing the woman laugh manically, her body shaking and the crackling sound filling the prison up with her noise, and if possible causing Ren to become even warier of her and feel even more pity for her.
Outside of the prison Ruby was waiting outside near the statue of the war that took place nearly sixty years ago, this statue was built for the hero of that war and was one of the two memorial's for all of the people who fought in the conflict, not just those that died. The main memorial was in the very centre of the city, right in the middle of the park, this one was just placed here to inspire those who wished to defend humanity as best as they could and remind them of the ultimate sacrifice they could give. Ruby gazed up at the statue sadly as it was one that her parents and aunt and uncle built together a long time ago in order to remember their good friend.
Ruby decided she was going to leave her amour right next to the statue as it was specifically coded to her DNA and required a code word to open and be activated. And she was certain that nobody was going to steal it as it was also primed in sentry mode and could be called to her on a button press and could also explode when a specific catch phrase was said. Leaving her amour there with its statue friend, she made her way to the main entrance and greeted the members of staff that was there as they asked her to remove her weapons and place them in a locker. When she told them she had left her amour outside they got a little bit strict and demanded that she had it over to her as it was protocol and they should be able to look after it, Ruby's saviour came, in the strangest form possible.
Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch.
This managed to get her all the way up the elevator riding with her saviour; any attempts to start a conversation had been silenced with the Deputy simply giving one word answers and glaring at her slightly when she made any movements as Ruby had the great urge to fiddle, in uncomfortable situations and this counted as the most uncomfortable situation that she had been in since she had been part of a love triangle between two people she had never met before, it turns out they were bandits and they had somehow found their way into that nightclub and then the next thing she knew it had burned down and then they had broken up with her, Ruby was actually so shocked that she didn't even try to follow them back to their camp to see if they had her weapons she was so embarrassed. When the elevator came to a stop the two inhabitants stepped out and walked forward to the empty desk, the sight of the empty desk confused Ruby as she was sure that the Director had scheduled this meeting so why wasn't he here?
Deputy Director Agent Goodwitch (she needed an abbreviation) gave him a call on his scroll telling him that they were waiting for her to turn up and that she might be forced to make a certain sacrifice with the budget this year if he wasn't here in the next five minutes. Two minutes later the Director walked out of the same elevator that they had just come up to get into his office and took a seat behind his desk and peered over the top of his glasses at Ruby, silently observing her before finally saying out loud.
"Agent Ren please come out of the ventilation and join us."
Ren dropped down from the ceiling.
"Perfect now that we are all here, I would like to first start off by saying thank you Miss Rose. Your companies help in the maintenance of this facility as well as the supply of equipment that we purchase off of you is most helpful, the new re-enforced cells in the prison are holding up a treat and the protection of the guards working there has gone up by a considerable degree due to the new restraints you have provided us with."
"Uh thanks. I might be out of the weapons business, but I am still all about protection." Said Ruby, as she rubbed the back of her neck and blushed at the complement.
"Speaking of protection, I was wondering if a deal of sorts could come between us. Not your company and BEACON, but you and me." Said Director Ozpin, choosing to be as cryptic as he could.
"What?"
"It is well known around Remnant that you are the Iron Reaper, and a few people think of your actions as heroic, but there are more who believe it to be purely selfish and that you are trying to become the most powerful force around." As Ruby opened her mouth to speak Director Ozpin held up his hand to stop her. "I know this to be false, but it couldn't help to get people to know the real you and see you doing well with others. That is why you are here Agent Ren; it is well known that you are quite possibly the most skilled Agent that BEACON has ever had, and I believe that skill could be put to better use, the two of you could go out into the world and help people."
Agent Ren made sure that he showed no emotion and kept in a 'poker face' as his colleagues would call it, but internally he was honestly flattered. To be considered for such an honour was incredible, his parents would be so proud if they could see him working to help people instead of just locking them away in a prison and occasionally putting stopping their schemes, but if he went out there and really help he could do their memory the proper justice it deserved. He might even be able to open up to more people as this could not possible stay as just himself and Miss Rose, so that would mean more exceptional people that he could call friends.
Ruby thought that the idea was great as well, the chance to help other people was something that she had not thought about when she had started her mission, she fully believed that the destruction of her weapons was the greatest way to help people, but the recent news had said that more and more attacks from the Grimm cult were growing, enhanced people were running all over the place, some were wreaking havoc, the faunus were being boxed in by humans and they would need to be helped out. It sounded like a good idea, and maybe it was the chance to make some friends along the way as that was something that she lacked in her life.
"The first thing that I wish to ask of you two is to talk to one of our new prisoners- not the bandits that you recovered for us Miss Rose- but someone different, they claim to come from a different planet altogether-"
"Sir?-" Ren tries to interrupt
"-Yes I know Agent Ren it does sound a little strange when said out loud, but I can assure you they are truly exceptional as they stopped a car head on with just one hand-"
"Mr Ozpin-" Ruby tried as she too had noticed the same thing as Ren and DDA Goodwitch had.
"-It's actually Director Ozpin Miss Rose, but it is a common mistake to make, now as I was saying; they appear to be very strong so we had to give them the strongest hand cuffs that we have in the facility, it was surprisingly easy to agree for them to come with us as-"
"-DIRECTOR OZPIN" Cried DDA Goodwitch; as she finally lost her patience with the man and his dismissal of the two before him, while she personally didn't think that the two of them forming a partnership or maybe a team down the line, was a very good idea. Having them interview a person they had detained bellow them was not something they should be doing for their first 'mission'.
Taken back by the force in his second in commands voice he turned his gaze over to her.
"Yes Glynda?" All she did was raise her hand and point to the window, gesturing for Director Ozpin to look out and see for himself. What he saw was the very same person that he had originally been interviewing down at the bottom of the tower before he had come up. Standing up from his desk Director Ozpin walked over and opened up the window, allowing their guest to float in and then skip across the room and place down her hammer in the centre of the room. She then turned around and let out a little squeal in excitement at seeing new people. The woman had shoulder length ginger hair and bright lively turquoise eyes that locked straight on to Ren and then Ruby and then Ren and then Ruby again and then back to Ren. She had a white shirt on with a cut out of a heart right on her chest with a diagonal strike going through it, on top of that was a blue jacket that had a pink hammer on the back, speaking of pink, her skirt went down to her knees, but was very frilly and very pink and she also had high white boots on. The outfit screamed out how loud the woman was, and she was practically bouncing on the spot and generating her own little energy field.
"HELLLLLLLOOOOOO! I'm Nora you've probably heard of me, you know the goddess of thunder, lady of the lightening and mistress of the sky. The princess of Valkyrie and soon to be the queen of the castle, not that my planet is a castle, it's a planet duh, but I live in a castle so I will be queen of that, and also the planet I guess and the nine realms, so no biggy, that technically makes me the queen of this planet but I don't want to be that queen soooooooooooo, I'll let you guys do your own thingy- speaking of thingy's I got bored waiting downstairs for you Mr O- so I decided to come and find you- I asked but they all just told me to go somewhere cold and then pointed at me and that's when it hit me ALTITUDE! The higher you get the colder it gets! That's why there is always snow on top of the tall hilly things what are they called agai-"
"Mountains." Supplied Ren not missing a beat and being able to keep up completely with Nora's rabbling, something which had managed to lose both the Director and the Deputy. Ruby meanwhile was staring at the hammer.
"Thank you Mr Handsome. That's probably not your name is it? But you are. Handsome that is, and I guess you are a Mr as well aren't you? Although with that very long hair you might be a girl, you could be a very pretty girl if you wanted to be or you could be a handsome boy, I don't mind. But i think your hair could use something more you know, it just looks a little to bland right now, once my brother decided to try and style my hair but he accidently made me and almost everyone else in the kingdom bold, Father was not happy with him seeing as my brother was the only guy to have hair. It was funny though." Said Nora again speaking at about a thousand times faster than she needed to speak, but Ren still heard her and understood everything she said; and found it sweet how she cared for her sibling and who they were choosing to be.
"I'm a boy. My name is Ren" Was all Ren had to say about that as Nora skipped forward to where Ren was now stood, since her arrival he had decided to stand, both in greeting a newcomer to the room and in shock that someone could fly with such a heavy looking hammer.
"I'm a girl, my name is Nora, boop." Said Nora as she poked him on the nose and smiled up at him with a big toothy grin, proud that she had made a friend.
"Miss Nora how did you get up here?" questioned the deputy, awestruck at this girl and preparing for the inevitable headache she would cause her, patience and paperwork wise.
"I flew!" she exclaimed happily still terribly cheerful, bouncing on her toes.
"You can fly?"
"Yeah I can! Can any of you guys fly? I know I am the only one of Valkyrie that can fly without a transport."
"I mean… technically I can fly." Said Ruby meekly as she raised her hand, and then Nora popped up in-front of her and poked her on the nose and said
"Boop." Two minutes in the realm of the mortals and she had made two new friends and all of the people on Valkyrie laughed when she said that she would be well loved and have a lot of friends on Remnant. They laughed really hard actually and for quite a while surprisingly, but Nora laughed with them for a bit as they were also her friends, weren't they?
"Ooh-ooh-ooh I can do this- so my hammer can only be picked up by those who are worthy-so far just me and dad-and it can help me expel lightening-watch!" she said as she grabbed her hammer and lifted it above her head very easily, and if Ren had any doubts about this woman being able to stop a car then they all went away as the hammer looked to weigh the same amount as a car and Nora lifted it as though it were bed sheets. Then both Nora and the hammer let off millions of sparks of electricity that went straight down the tower and hit the main reactor and power source for the BEACON facility causing all of the lights to burn out.
"Opps, that's never happened before…" said Nora
Just then a massive explosion was came from the south of the facility and the windows allowed them to see an extraordinary fireball shoot straight into the sky and then head right on its way to the city of Vale, right in the rush hour time. Then the power to the facility came back on the instant the fireball disappeared from view and Director Ozpin was already on the phone to the Emerald Forest.
"This is Director Ozpin report now and tell me what I just saw was a trick of the light."
"…"
"Damm it. Control the area and make sure nobody else escapes, lethal force is not authorised, I repeat NOT authorised. Glynda get down there and make sure they know what they are doing!" and then Glynda ran into the elevator and pressed the express button that should only be used in emergency's and checked over her weapon on the way down to the super max prison.
"As for you three. That thing with destroy everything in its path and it won't stop until does just that, so you need to stop it now, and you have no choice Miss Nora as you set it free." Said Director Ozpin firmly and Nora looked horrified for a second before steeling herself and grinning evily.
"I'll break it's legs, don't worry about it." She said as she grabbed Ren and flew out of the open window, causing Ren to have a mini heart attack; the first of many he thought. He was also slightly confused as he could count on one had the amount of people in the prison with enhanced abilities, but none of them could do anything like that, they either had a hypnotizing gaze, the ability to cling to any surface, enhanced strength or could bend their body in unnaturally ways. Nobody that Ren knew of could control fire like that.
"Miss Rose, this will be a fight unlike any other that you have ever encountered." But Ruby was already on the phone to someone who could defiantly lend a hand against this kind of person.
"Don't worry sir, team urhhhh… the team, yeah, is on it!" she said and then pressed a button on her summoning device and her amour rocketed up to the office and crashed right through one of the windows and landed in-front of her and opened up once it had scanned her. She then stepped inside and said the password required to confirm her identity to ensure that the amour would operate.
"Milk." And with that she started up her thrusters and blasted off after the marksman and the lightening lady as fast as she could, needless to say it didn't take her long to get there.
Right before Ruby even has a chance to call her amour Nora had left her and the grey haired guy in the office in the dust, if you thought that Ruby in her amour was fast then you didn't know how quickly Nora could go if she knew the chances of failing. She had also grabbed the handsome guy, Ren, and flown to where the fireball had landed. The man was right; it was her fault and she would do whatever it takes to end this fireball's short lived freedom and send it back where it came from. Currently it was quite easy to find the impact point of the fireball, as numerous mortals were running from the location, where a woman was shooting blasts of fire from her hands at anybody that tried to get close, it didn't look like anybody was hurt, but it was clear that they were just being toyed with as they were all firing their tiny little gun thingies at the woman, but the little arrows all looked to melt before they got to her, the woman was too hot. Now that Nora got a good look at her, she could see that she was in-fact a very pretty woman, with long dark hair, a curvaceous body and bright amber eyes. She immediately locked on to Ren and Nora as they arrived, the former flipping on to a car when Nora released him and the latter choosing to walk straight up to her while swinging her hammer side to side.
"HEELLLOOOOO, I'm Nora and I accept your surrender, which reminds me; that handsome man is my Ren, well not MY Ren, I mean he is good looking and I wouldn't say not, we only just met right? That would be-"
"Nora focus." Came Ren's calm voice, his eyes never leaving the woman as she watched on in amusement and curiosity at the new woman swinging such a large hammer with ease.
"SORRY REN." She called back and then turned back to the fire woman, who smiled at her.
"Little girl, you should leave while you can or I'll burn your pretty hair off." Said the woman menacingly.
"We don't even know your name and your already threatening us!" exclaimed Nora, a little shocked at how quickly the mortals did business around here, usually there was more talking before you got to the threats and some needless insults, but she skipped and went straight to the good stuff. Nora could get behind that.
"Her name is Cinder Fall; she was a respected dust scientist when she decided to go too far with her work and killed two hundred people at once in a massive explosion. When apprehended the first time all she did was smile and laugh at us." Explained Ren as the woman-now known as Cinder- shrugged innocently.
"Don't feel to put off, little man. I won't burn off your skin; I'll keep you around and see how long you last drinking molten lava." Cinder said sweetly and batting her eye lashes at Ren.
"But in the meantime, you might want to stop that fire; those poor people can't seem to get out." She said gesturing over to a building behind her that had caught on fire as if on cue. There did look to be a rather large group of people in the building and they all were on the roof and it was too far to reach the next one, but Nora could help them. That just meant Ren would have to hold Cinder off long enough for Ruby to get here and help out. He had no idea that she was able to manipulate or create such powerful blasts of fire and smoke, and he was Level Ten, able to view all the documents that BEACON had on everyone and everything, he wagered that he even knew things that DDA Goodwitch didn't, yet he had no clue about Cinder's abilities, but from the reaction of Director Ozpin; he did, and he had kept it from Ren for too long.
Taking as deep breath Ren leapt off of the car that he was stood on, into a sideways flip and peppered Cinder with bullets from his twin pistols; so happy that the BEACON staff knew him well enough to let him carry weapons at all times, otherwise Nora would have dragged him into battle and he would have had to make do with the environment.
Due to Cinder generating an extreme heat barrier, most of the bullets melted and the ones that made it to her skin did no damage to her at all, almost like she was made of steel. This meant that Ren would have to think smarter. Dodging a blast of fire by leap-frogging an upturned car Ren shot a few more bullets as he made his way to the side of the street that Nora was helping civilians on. Ren jumped on to of a food stand that was still functional and slowly took aim with one of his guns and fired the other one randomly all around Cinder while shooting two very specific bullets at the his targets, causing the cars around her to explode sealing her in a tornado of fire. Ren then holstered his pistols and drew his bow and readied three arrows. The tornado vanished and turned in to a long beam of fire aimed straight at the food stand that Ren was on; this caused him to dive off the stand and roll into a crouched position and take aim at Cinder with his three arrows and the moment they locked eyes Ren released the arrows letting them fly… with two going over Cinder completely missing her by several meters and the third landing at her feet and stabbing into the ground making her lock eyes on the arrow with amusement.
"Hahaha, losing your touch little man? I heard from the other prisoners that you never miss, but I guess there is a first time for everything." Said Cinder looking up from the arrow; smiling gleefully as she prepared to conjure another fireball to obliterate Ren.
"Made you look." Ren quipped. Just as a massive billboard, with the image of Peter Ports radio talk show, collapsed on top of her with a loud CRASH, completely flattening her and also taking her out of the fight for a few moments so that Ren could take in his surroundings, he noticed that a rocket like object was coming in to his left, headed straight from BEACON and he concluded that it most likely was Ruby finally in her amour and coming to help them out, Nora had a few more people to help out as she had been carrying people over to the next roof and she now looked to be summoning a rain cloud to help put the fire out… that was impressive. Ren quickly noticed that the billboard was starting to turn an orange colour and was also starting to bubble, meaning that Cinder was getting back up and she would be very angry when she did and it would most likely be directed at Ren, so he decided to position himself in a way that would give Ruby a devastating opportunity.
As Ruby was flying in she brought up the emergency line and advised everyone in a three block radius to evacuate out and seek shelter as far away from the area as possible so that nobody would get hurt during the battle, she also had Penny perform a diagnostic review of her suit and found that she was at about sixty percent power, which should be enough to see her through the battle, Penny also notified her about the position of Ren and Cinder, apparently she had been crushed by a billboard.
"Salutation Ruby, I am happy to report that the diagnostic has come back positive. It is also worth to note that the temperature of the air around Cinder Fall is hot enough to cause the amour significant discomfort; I have also tuned the repulsors to output more power and less heat as it would stand to reason she might be able to take a blast of pure heat." Came the voice of Ruby's Artificial Intelligence and Ruby's personal assistant and good friend.
"Great are there any signs of civilians in the area after the warning?" asked Ruby hoping that she had been taken seriously.
"Yes there are but it appears the one known as Nora has made sure that they have been able to escape." Answered Penny without hesitation and giving Ruby a quick map of where the nearest civilian body was.
"Thanks Penny, time to cue the music." Said Ruby, as she landed on the ground sliding a little from the speed of her flight and shooting a double blast of her silver energy at Cinder's back as she burst out from the collapsed billboard and turned towards Ren in rage. The power of the blast sent Cinder flying down the street and smacking in to a parked bus denting it and even over turning it from the force of her impacting the bus. Ren nodded in greeting to Ruby and nocked another arrow in his bow and stood next to Ruby ready for the fight to continue.
Cinder climbed out of the bus with venom in her eyes and fire burning all around her body, she regarded Ruby with a murderous look as she blasted fire at Ren causing him to back flip out of the way and fire off his arrow which exploded in to a blinding light causing Cinder to lose sight of Ruby who flew above her and blasted her down into the ground with a continuous silver blast from her hands. This effectively worked for a couple of second s before Cinder shot up in to the air, propelled by fire and grabbed Ruby around the throat and punched her across the face. Fortunately this did nothing to hurt her due to the amour; however they were still ascending and Cinder kept punching Ruby in the face.
"Ruby you need to break loose; the heat she is putting out is similar to a volcano, and this material can only withstand a couple more minutes of constant exposure before it melts on to your skin." Cried Penny's voice into Ruby's ear.
"Noted." Replied Ruby as she tapped her leg in a specific place causing a panel to come out of the amour and release a spinning rotor of fireworks, this disorientated Cinder in to releasing Ruby who then flew above her and dived down, striking Cinder in the stomach with a double punch and then when the ground got close enough, she blasted her with another beam of silver power sending her towards the street and skidding along the road creating a trench, Ren then leapt over her and shot three explosive arrows at Cinder; the first one hit her face, the second hit her arm and the third managed to curve around and hit her in the back, causing her to stumble forward. They didn't hurt, but Ren wasn't trying to hurt her; he just wanted her off balance so that-
"BOOP!" Yelled Nora as she dove off the top of the now not burning building as her rain cloud had put it out, and smacked Cinder as hard as she could with her hammer, sending her upwards crashing through the top of a building and down into the next street. Now that had to have hurt her a lot more then Handsome Ren's arrows, not that he wasn't doing a good job, he had set her up for one hail-Mary of a swing that her dad would have been very proud of.
Nora then jumped over the building and floated down next to where Cinder had landed in her own crater and hefted her hammer on top of her shoulders admiring the way that her opponent simply, stood up from a blow of such power. This was truly a battle for the ages and Nora was happy that even if the mortal may have been evil and her intentions were less than pure, she was still strong willed.
"Stay down. Final warning." Said Ruby as she landed next to Nora, and Nora took a moment to admire the amour her friend was wearing; it was awesome.
Back to the fight.
"Oh I'm just getting started." Replied Cinder as she blasted forward and punched Nora back into the side of a building shaking the foundations and then taking a swing at Ruby, who blasted herself back to a ranged distance and then flew back in kicking Cinder across the face as hard as she could and landing facing her square on. The kick hurt a little bit, but the pain could be taken as she prepared to shoot a wave of fire at the armoured pest and cook her in the suit, just as an arrow shot past her head wrapping around her hands and then melting almost instantly, however it stopped her from conjuring the wave of fire for a moment, but that was all Ruby needed as she fired a blast of silver from her chest, launching Cinder backwards into the swing of the hammer of Nora who caught her at the optimal time and sent her across the street and crashing into another building which then collapsed on top of Cinder.
As they all gather on the street in-front of the building they shared a collective look with each other and took up positions that best suited their style of combat; Nora stood at the front of the group as she was capable of taking the full force of Cinders hits and giving as good as she got, Ruby floated next to her able to blast powerful beams of energy that could send her into the ground for a short period of time, and finally Ren stood the furthest away as he had no defence other than his agility against the blasts of fire and his weapon was excellent for distraction and diversion allowing the heavy hitters to hit harder and not have to worry about their attacks being blocked or evaded.
Outburst Cinder flying from the rubble and heading straight for Ruby, punching her as hard as she could, sending her back into a car and then lifting up another car to slam down on top of her, trapping her in a metal cage. Next she caught the arrow that Ren fired at her and ducked under the swing that Nora gave her and blasted Nora with the strongest blast of fire that she could manage sending her tumbling. Ren fired two more arrows at Cinder but hey both missed her and flew past, when she turned around to look where they had gone she was greeted by a car being thrown at her which hit her in the face sending her reeling back a little bit before she ripped through the car and dodged the silver blast of energy headed straight for her and then, sidestepped the downward strike of Nora's hammer, before creating a cocoon of fire around her body and then releasing it in a powerful blast striking Ruby and Nora sending them into buildings and knocking them down to the ground, the blast also sent a lot of debris toward Ren, who managed to dodge most of it until it a car door stuck him and sent him into the ground, groaning.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU PEOPLE STOOD A CHANCE AGAINST ME! CINDER FALL! THE STRONGEST PERSON IN ALL OF REMNANT!" Screamed Cinder, as she glared at each of them; breathing heavily and yelling through the pain of being smacked around by the hammer repeatedly, as well as the silver blasts.
"I AM THE STRONGEST YOU THERE IS! YOU AREN'T EVEN WORTH THE DIRT ON MY SHOES!" She continued yelling. "YOU WILL ALL SUF-" then she felt a tapping on her shoulder like someone was trying to get her attention and a voice said
"Wow, and I thought I got Yang-ry."
This lead to Cinder making what has to be the dumbest decision of her life; Cinder actually turned around to come face to face with a punch. A punch that hurt as much as the hammer girl, maybe even more, and it sent her flying straight through another building, adding more scrapes to her already battered and bruised body. Cinder ended up lying on the city's outskirts shaking her head to clear her vision from the strongest attack that had hit her so far and she didn't even know who it was form, other than her newest play thing.
Nora recovered first from the attack, as was to be expected when you are as tough as she is, and she stood up just in time to catch the end of Cinder's little speech about how awesome she is. Nora also witnessed one of the funniest things ever; Cinder was so distracted that she didn't even hear the blonde girl land behind her and punch her through the stratosphere. And what a beautiful punch it was, coming all the way from the hips, relaxed shoulder and a perfect follow through, not stopping when the fist hit her face, but still moving afterwards, as though she was punching through Cinder instead of just hitting her. Now THAT was a FIGHTER, and a strong one at that, this just meant one thing to Nora.
They needed to arm wrestle.
And just as Nora was about to ask to arm wrestle, or to at least make some time to arm wrestle later, the blonde woman jumped after Cinder's flying body heading to no doubt finish her off; not without her she wasn't, or Ren, or Ruby. This was their fight as well, and mum always said you finish what you start; she was talking about vegetables, but Nora could see its usefulness in other daily applications, this being one of them for example. Nora flew over to where Ren was, as he pushed the car door off him and accepted her hand to help her up.
"Blondie gave us a bit of breathing room, but she'll need a hand, because this chick is strong!" Explained Nora
"Let's go." Said Ren as Nora wrapped her arm around his waist and took off towards where the blond girl and Cinder landed. Ruby blasted off after them and caught up with Nora just as she asked Ren.
"Any idea who the new girl is?"
"No." replied Ren his eyes scanning the areas that they both disappeared too.
"I called in some back up." Said Ruby as she flew up next to Nora and Ren. "Say hello to my sister; Yang."
"The Dragon?" Questioned Ren, cocking an eyebrow in Ruby's direction.
"Yep." She squeaked out in reply. This caused Ren to sigh and then look at Ruby with a strange look, as though he was asking if Yang could be trusted after what she did in Atlas.
"I called her, and she came to help, she doesn't attack people unless they attack her. Please Ren, we need you, all we can do is hit hard, but eventually Cinder is going to wear us down, you keep her guessing and give use openings, please work with her." Said Ruby and Ren was certain that she was pulling a puppy dog face, but the armoured helmet didn't show. Instead Nora gave him a puppy dog look… dammit… it worked.
"Okay, let's takedown Cinder." Said Ren after a second. As they fly closer to the area where Yang punched Cinder too, they notice that they are going toe-to-toe in an incredible display of strength from both fighters, the heat that Cinder is giving off obviously didn't seem to be effecting Yang in the slightest, however the attacks that Cinder was throwing back at Yang were clearly doing a lot more damage.
Yang was striking with combo attacks, resorting to fighting like a boxer; she would go for a left jab to the head to put Cinder off balance, and then come in with a right cross to the stomach, following up with a left hook. Cinder manages to doge all of these attacks ducking under the jab, deflect the cross to the side and then ducked under the left hook and brought her knee up into Yang's stomach and then threw her towards a group of tree's crashing through all of them.
Seeing this Nora flung Ren towards one of the taller tree's, confident that he could get his footing and begin his own attack, this allowed Nora to call down a lightening blast to her hammer and then bring it down on to Cinder, who managed to step back out of the way to avoid the full brunt of the attack, however she was still affected by the lightening blast as it knocked her back a few feet, and she was then hit by two electric arrows in the back shocking her for a moment before they melted, however that momentary distraction was all that was needed, as Ruby blasted her with more silver repulsor fire sending her to the ground in yet another crater.
If they kept going at her like this she was eventually going to notice their attack strategy was very basic, and then it would only be a matter of time before she managed to take them down one-by-one, and Ruby was already getting low on power, having gone from sixty percent down to thirty-five percent, the power she was putting in her repulsors was needed to push back Cinder, but soon she was going to be a sitting duck in her amour. That's when she had an idea, if she could just get everyone to coordinate together they could get Cinder to be taken down for good. Okay the hardest hitting thing they had was Nora's hammer, but Cinder was fast and was able to fly quickly in each direction, but not if she was stunned by a certain strong woman knocked her in to the sky, Ren had a whole assortment of arrows there was a good chance he had smoke so that her vision could be obstructed and then Ren could keep her attention; PERFECT!
After flying over to Ren she told him what to do and then went to go and inform Yang who was just getting out from under the trees, it was hard to not give her a hug at the moment as this was the first time they had seen each other since Ruby had managed to escape the Grimm cult in Vacuo. Cueing Nora into the plan would be easy; Ruby would just look at her and then point at Cinder and say 'nail her' as loud as she could.
With a plan now given out Ren could finally see an end to the battle, and a nap in sight, which was all he really wanted anyway and now he was even closer to it and it was much more deserved. Ren also realised that the secret kept from him about Cinder's true abilities were not the first secret that Director Ozpin and DDA Goodwitch had kept from him. He didn't realise that Yang was Ruby's sister as that wasn't said in either of their files, had had to find out on his own about the experimentation of his colleague in Mistral by the Atlas science division and when he questioned Director Ozpin about it, he lied and told him he didn't know about this.
"THIS CONFLICT HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH NOW! YOU SHOULD BOW DOWN BEFORE ME AND BEG FOR MERCY!" Screamed Cinder, as she set waves of fire to a flying Ruby trying to knock her out of the sky. That was when four different arrows impacted the area around her and she braced herself for an explosion, but then all they did was hiss and then she was in the middle of a massive cloud of smoke. That was when Ren realised that she might just fly up and try to get out of the smoke and mess up their plan, so acting fast he charged forward and shot a lot of bullets at her to get her attention focused on him. It worked a little too well, as she turned to him fully and prepared to incinerate him into nothing but ashes. However she never got the chance as Yang had managed to creep up behind her and turn her around again and launch her into the air with a massive uppercut that knocked her head back and rattled her brain, thus causing her to lose focus and make sure she wouldn't be flying away from the next attack as Ruby shot up into the air high above her.
"Penny put everything we got into the chest piece!" yelled Ruby to her AI
"Ruby are you su-" asked Penny
"JUST DO IT!" she cried back. Needless to say Penny came through and diverted all non-essential energy to the chest piece, which meant that the largest blast of silver repulsor energy slammed full force in to Cinder's ascending body, sending her hurtling towards the ground at neck breaking speeds, sure to hurt even someone as tough as her. Just before she was about to impact the ground Ruby turned her helmet to speaker mode and pointed at screamed as loud as she could to the hammer wielder.
"NORA, NAIL HER!" luckily Nora understood it immediately and had been in the air waiting for the right moment to strike, she quickly summoned as much lightening she could muster causing a massive thunder cloud to come over the group and dove down after Cinder, letting the lightening strike her body and her hammer, powering her up to levels she didn't think she could reach before. As she almost reached Cinder who had at this point crashed in to the ground and was now in the middle of a large amount of rubble, she decided to shout out a battle cry letting this fire woman know exactly who she was dealing with.
"FOR THE SOLTHS!"
And then she brought the hammer down as hard as she could on top of Cinder's body, making most people a mile away feel the effects of what they believed to be an earthquake happening right outside their city, little did they know that it was actually the thunder of the goddess shaking the core of Remnant, not for the first time as she had been tot the planet before, however that was seven hundred years ago and they didn't have anything cool like fire women, armoured flying girls, blonde chicks who were as strong as she was or very handsome Ren's. Personally Nora felt like she had lucked out this time visiting Remnant.
As the dust clear all of the combatants gathered around Cinder's body and looked down at her from the top of her crater; she appeared to be completely beaten, her body covered in bruises and cuts, her once lovely hair was now ruined as it was choppy and uneven, as well as spikey from the lightening blast. In short she looked like hell, but she still tried to stand and it appeared she even had something to say before she was finished.
"You … will… die… now…" she breathed out.
Yang then stepped forward and flicked her in the face to which Cinder fell backwards and passed out truly beaten.
"Nope." She said before turning back to her fellow fighters, looking a little bit sceptical, as she wasn't sure how they were going to react to seeing her in this place, they might even turn on her, well Ruby wouldn't, but she wasn't sure about the arrow dude or the hammer chick that was standing WAY to close to him.
"Soooo, that was a thing." Said Yang smiling nervously, although that soon turned in to genuine as Ruby dashed forward and leapt into her arms hugging her as hard as she could.
"YANG!"
"Ruby."
"NOOOORRRRRAAAA!" Shouted the ginger hammer girl as she lifted both of them up in to a massive bear hug that had Yang wincing at the strength, this girl was strong.
"Ohhh it's so good to see that Remnant has got such awesome people this time around, when I came here a while ago they just had a couple of guys with swords, they were cool looking, but you guys kick butt, like Valkyrie level kick butt, you ever want to come back with me to fight giant ice monsters then just say the word, they are always attacking some village or other up in the mountain and it's my favourite past time and you guys would make it even better, we could have a competition and see who can beat the most an-"
"Nora, give them a chance to speak." Interrupted the arrow dude; placing his hand on Nora's shoulder to stop her from rambling and to let them out of the bear hug. Thankfully, Nora as she was now known did let them go and gave the sole male a big toothy grin.
"Maybe it would be best to introduce ourselves to you; I am Lie Ren, an agent of BEACON." Said Ren bowing slightly in agreement however he did not taking his eyes off of Yang's eyes. She immediately got the hidden message, he knew what she was and what she could do, but the look in his eyes wasn't the same as all of the other agents and soldiers that had come after her, and yes there was caution but there was no malice, anger or fear, instead he seemed grateful that she had arrived when she had to help out. So Yang smiled back at him and held out her hand as she wasn't sure if she should bow back.
"Yang Xaio-Long, the dreaded Dragon, but I guess you already know about me." She said unsure what he would do, surprisingly he took her hand and gave it a shake.
"I have heard about you, but I think seeing is believing, and I have now seen what you are, thank you." It was a simple thing, but Yang understood, this man had known of the path of destruction she left in her wake, but still thanked her for helping her out, she had guessed right before, he was thanking her with his eyes.
They were still shaking hands and that annoyed Nora for some reason, where was her hand shake when she met Ren, all he did was stare and then she booped him, but this Yang girl got the hand shake. Now it was time for Nora's hand shake, so she reached in and pulled their hands apart and grabbed Ren's hand and started to shake it.
"You didn't do this to me when we met." She said as she then let go of his hand.
"Don't worry Nora, he's not my type, I like a little more smiley, but I guess eye candy is eye candy." Said Yang; with a twinkle in her eyes as she looked from the hammer wielder to the archer already sensing the prime opportunity to tease them.
"Eye candy?" asked Nora confused.
"Never heard the expression? How old are you? Every woman knows it." Says Yang
"One thousand, five hundred and twenty two years old. I don't think it is a saying on my planet though." Replied Nora honestly.
"You're from a different planet?! Oh this is the best day ever! And your so strong I propose-" declared Yang
"AN ARM WRESTLE." They both said at the same time and then high fived creating a loud smack, causing the air to ripple with power and a small breeze to pick up from the force of the highest of fives.
"I can teach you all about boy's, it will be so much fun." Said Yang smiling whole heartedly and momentarily forgetting who she was, so caught up in the moment.
"Yaaaaannngggg." Moaned Ruby, as she noticed her sister about to do a similar thing back when they went to school.
"BY ORDER OF THE ATLAS MILITARY YOU ARE TO STAND DOWN. NOW!" Bellowed a voice over a loud speaker, and that is when the group noticed several helicopters and bullheads fly above them, as well as a lot of trucks come into the area with several men jump out and point their guns at the four people stood at the edge of the new landmark they had created, Ren sighed as he supposed it was only a matter of time before these people showed up, as it would have been easy for any civilian who was stupid enough to stay and try to get a catastrophe on camera to make some money and the military would have defiantly seen Yang and demanded her arrest as soon as they could.
Ruby looked around and had Penny scan for any STRQ industries weapons and found that a lot of the troops were carrying guns that she had made, guns she knew were the source of much pain in Vacuo, guns which were being sold to bandits in Mistral and guns that had almost killed her. At least she knew where her weapons were now.
Yang was angry, she really could not catch a break, want to be left alone, BOOM. Want to live a normal life, BOOM. Try to help out your sister and her new friends take down some fire chick, BOOM. Everything she did just wasn't going to go to plan, maybe she should just give up and go with them, she couldn't run forever after all.
Nora was intrigued, why were all these people pointing their shiny things at her, did they think it would hurt her? Mortals really were so vast and different, some could be incredible strong like this Yang girl that Nora was actually starting to like, some could be really cool like Ruby as the amour was awesome, some could be as brave as Ren. But then there were these guys who turned up after the fight and asked them to stand still, and they didn't even say thank you for beating Cinder, that was rude, and mum always said 'treat everyone you meet with respect when you first meet them, if they don't do the same, they don't deserve you time.' Well saying thank you would classified as being respectful back seeing how Nora and her new friends hadn't even tried to move, but these guys still hadn't said thank you, so they didn't get her respect. Simple.
"Yang Xaio-Long, you are under arrest and will be coming with us now." Said a short woman pointing her finger right at Yang, who looked almost as though she had given up on everything and was considering going with the rude people, Nora was not going to stand for that, even if she had to hit everybody here with her hammer, fortunately she didn't need to do any of that as Ruby stepped in-front of Yang and held her arms out wide, not noticing her cape slap Yang in the face because she did it so quickly.
"If you want my sister you're going to have to go through me." She said causing all the troops to look nervously between each other, they weren't prepared to fight The Dragon and The Iron Reaper. That's when Ren stepped forward and stood beside Ruby, putting himself between them and her, and now the troops were stating to question their orders as most knew that Ren never missed a shot in his life.
"Yeah what she said!" yelled Nora stepping in-front of Yang as well, causing most of the troops to fiddle with their weapons, apparently according to the videos of the fight this woman called down lightning strikes on Cinder Fall and survived a whole building collapsing on her. They really didn't want to fight her as well as the others, and their leader could tell that this might be a losing battle, but dammit if she wasn't going to show them the might of the Atlas military and punish them for their insolence and stupidity.
"Stand down everyone, there has been enough damage to this forest and to the surrounding areas for a while now. Why don't we talk about this like adults?" said Director Ozpin as he stepped out of a car that had just pulled up to the scene, with DDA Goodwitch getting out of the other side and multiple BEACON agents coming on to the scene, adding more people pointing their guns at the four 'heroes'.
"Director Ozpin, this is none of your concern, Yang Xaio-Long is property of Atlas and she will be coming back with us."
"NOPE." Said Ruby stepping forward and moving towards the short woman. " Yang is my sister, she was born on Patch, she is part of STRQ industries, a company that has ordered the recall of every weapon they have ever made, so that we can do something good, yet I have managed to spot multiple STRQ weapons in this group just here. Despite what I demanded, I guess I need to get more lawyers involved and make some personal visits, because it seems the Atlas military cannot be trusted. And since I have the support of the council for my order, I wonder what that could mean for you and the rest of the military; discharge? Prison? Demotion? Finned?"
The woman spluttered and glared at Ruby, but she was right. If this got out it would be hazardous for her reputation, and that could not happen, so she motioned for her troops to drop off the weapons, and then to leave the area, this was not a battle for today, but another time. Befroe she left she spoke to Director Ozpin.
"This isn't over, the General will demand an explanation."
"He has my number." Replied Director Ozpin not sparring the woman another glance as she left, she was nothing but a headache, all be it a very annoying one.
"I want to say a good job on the defeat of Cinder Fall, I am very impressed and-"
"It would have been better if we knew what we were up against to begin with." Said Ren looking the Director in the eyes.
"What you talking about Ren?" asked Nora looking up at him.
"In all the information about the prisoners, it never said anything about her abilities. Yet you knew exactly what we were up against before you sent us over to fight her." Explained Ren to Nora and then turned back to the Director glaring at him accusingly.
"Yes some information was indeed kept a secret from you Agent Ren, but it was for the be-"
"No it wasn't" interrupted Yang "If they knew what they were going up against I bet they wouldn't have even needed me to help, hell if you told them about her beforehand Nora probably could take her solo."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"I understand that, but you four still did a good job, and if you worked for BEACON, think of what you could do."
They all stood there in silence, looking at each other, then at Cinder as she was being pulled up from the crater and handcuffed with STRQ industries cuff's designed hold people with enhanced abilities, they realised that they could do some good as they already had managed to stop a villain and save some people, even if it actually was Nora's fault to begin with. Eventually all of the looks turned to Ruby; Nora looking at her expectantly, Yang also as though she was waiting for her to decide what to do and Ren was just looking at her, his face showing nothing until he said.
"You came up with the plan, this victory is yours, so whatever you decide we're with you." And Nora and Yang both nodded, the latter placing her hand on Ruby's armoured shoulder in support.
"We will stay together, and we will help people and fight the battles that people cannot fight, but we will do it on our own terms, we don't want to work for anybody and we don't want to have secrets being kept from us, that is not how this is going to work." Said Ruby as the others all nodded in agreement and stood strong by her side.
"You are making a mistake, acting like children, can you not see that it would be better to work for us?" asked DDA Goodwitch, placing her hands on her hips. She reminded Nora of her mum with the scary glare that she was throwing them, but she couldn't throw a mountain at her for not doing as she was told. Could she?
"Maybe we are making a mistake, but it is our mistake to make, and we aren't children, we are the ones who will search for the evil doers, look for anyone to help and never stop moving forward to protect this planet. We are The Hunters of Remnant, and we are going to help." Said Ruby
"Very well then, if this is your choice I will not argue with you. Just know that if you ever need help you'll have it. Goodbye and good luck… Hunters."
And with that all of the BEACON agents left taking Cinder back, most likely to lock her back up in the Emerald Forest and this time making sure that she would never get out again. The four heroes, now dubbed as the Hunters all stood there for a moment taking in the area, all the damage and each other; Yang's outfit was burnt but still on her covering up her… vital areas with a few bruises along her arms and face as Cinder had really hit her hard, Ruby's amour was scorched and had scratches all over it and her cape was even more torn, Ren had cuts all over his arms and some on his face as well as a bruise under his eye. Nora was grinning like a mad woman, her skirt burnt up, her jacket had several holes in it and she had a bleeding lip, her hammer as always was undamaged and ready to rumble.
"So what now?" asked Yang looking around at everyone.
"Easy, we go home." Said Ruby, as she had called in her own personal bullhead while they were waiting in silence, as it landed Ruby got on to it and stepped out of her amour and went to the cockpit, with Yang and Ren following her and Nora took the time to admire to awesome ship before she raced after her friends. The bullhead then took off and started flying over the ocean and soon the four of them were descending and back on the ground. They had landed in a massive garden of an even bigger house, to which Ruby walked in to very comfortable with her amour being pushed along on a cart as it was too low on power for her to walk it in all the way down to the lab, as the others made their way through the front door a voice rang out through the house startling the three who did not know about the house's AI.
"SALUTATIONS. Welcome back home Ruby and a hello to your friends, I am Penny."
"The house has a voice?" Asked Nora a little scared and confused by what was going on with that, as she only knew of one object that had its own voice that her father had talked about, and he said it scared him more than anything in all the realms.
"Yeah I made her when I was thirteen, she handles a lot of business of STRQ industries and helps me run my amour and also my life, she's cool, I'm cool, no biggy." Said Ruby offhandedly. "And I was thinking that if we are going to be a team then this could be our home, a team would be better if we knew each other a lot more, right?"
"Be nice to sleep in a proper bed, and hang out with you more sis, I'm in."
"You fight well, I like that besides, I have sworn to defend the realms and I like this one."
"No more secrets, and a chance to help people. I will gladly fight by your side, if you lead us."
"Well then… let's get to work."
And so ends the beginning, More to come and more people to be added, do not worry, this one will be multi chapter. As there will need to be a bit of a split between the events as they might not happen continually.
I might also do some more solo stories as very long one shots, but I just need to figure out which characters I want to do, Suggestions would be welcome.
Over and Out.