It was a rare occasion when all available Hunters were called for a meeting, but apparently it was serious. Yang sighed and settled further into her chair, trying to get comfortable. It had been four years since she lost her arm, but she finally had gotten past the level of skill she had before the incident. The next time she saw that bull Faunus, he would pay.
It seemed that the last of the stragglers were trickling in, and that included her sister's team: RNAR. "Hey guys, over here!" Yang called out as they paused in the doorway.
"Hey sis," Ruby replied, "Any idea what they called us in for? This is a lot of people." Ever since Pyrrha died, she had become substantially more serious- in both her mannerisms and her fighting style. While it kept her alive in the outskirts of the Kingdoms, it still hurt Yang every time she saw the loss of Ruby's innocence.
"It's possible Cinder and the rest of her allies have resurfaced." Ren offered while idly listening to Nora chattering away in his right ear. "After all, the last time we faced her she did say that something was coming that would make the world would tremble in fear. I believe that the outcome she spoke of might be the cause of everyone being called here."
"Nah," Ana, the most standoffish member of team RNAR, grumbled, "My sources say that it's nowhere near as important as that." She fiddled with her scroll, then sighed, "Most likely it's the second coming of Roman Torchwick or something like that." Despite being Pyrrha's teammate, Ana was surprisingly unaffected by her death, which disturbed pretty much everyone who knew her. However, what was even stranger, was that Ana had information gathering/hacking abilities that were terrifyingly good. She had once given Ruby and Yang a complete catalog of all the girls their dad had hooked up with before he married Raven, just to prove a point. "It looks like they're starting, so we should probably shut up and pay attention.
On the stage, the screen started to boot up, and General Ironwood walked into view.
"Wait," Yang said, "Why is Ironwood here? We're in Vale, so shouldn't Ozpin be handling this?"
"Shut UP!" Hissed Ana, "I'm trying to listen!"
On the stage, Ironwood had already started speaking, "-erious injury, so I will be handling this meeting in his stead. The reason you have all been brought here is the emergence of a new threat. He is even more dangerous than the group that has been terrorizing the Four Kingdoms the last few years." Ironwood lifted a small remote, pointed it at the screen, and brought up an image.
It was slightly blurry, and obviously taken without the subject's consent, but the details were clear enough to be seen. The person displayed was a tall, fairly scrawny blond man desperately in need of a shave. His clothes were pretty ragged, as if he hadn't changed in a while, and his eyes had a hunted look in them.
"This is Jaune Arc. Despite his overall appearance, he is extremely dangerous: not only has he stolen an amount of experimental equipment worth more than the entirety of the White Fang's leadership's bounties, but he has also fought both Schnee Specialists Weiss and Winter to a standstill using nothing but his bare hands, he then proceeded to hijack an Bullhead and summarily disappear. He has had no documented combat training."
One of the Hunters towards the front asked a muffled question. The General nodded and switched the picture to a video. It showed a hooded figure seemingly teleporting around a squad of Atlas soldiers, ripping of helmets, and beating the aforementioned soldiers with them. At one point, one of the more able combatants managed to hit him with a dust bullet, which staggered him. His remaining squadmates took the opportunity to unload their rifles at the hooded figure, but he simply held up a hand and the bullets simply stopped. He then flicked his hand, and the bullets reversed their course and struck the soldiers. They dropped like puppets with cut strings. The figure staggered to his feet, steadied himself, then ran off.
Ironwood switched the video back to the image, "His greatest asset is his semblance: time control. Not time dilation, but actual time control. He has managed to survive and counteract every single tactic and asset that has been thrown at him. If you see him, call for backup and WAIT FOR IT. Do not engage him alone: he has a goal, and is willing to kill anyone who prevents him from reaching that goal. Thank you."
The screen split into two: one showing the image, the other showing the video.
"Well," Yang blinked, "do you really think he's that dangerous, or is the General just trying to impress the seriousness of the situation on us?"
"I don't know." Ruby hummed in thought, "The Arcs are a fairly famous family, and I've met some of them, but I don't remember them talking about a boy with any degree of combat skill, or even any having interest in learning. That is, IF they're the family I was thinking of. Any thoughts, Ana?"
Ana snorted, "Finally gotten past your reservations about my hacking breaking the law, Have you? Ok, give me some time to set up an algorithm, and I can have any relevant information on the dustnet for you."
"Hold up, Ruby. Are you consenting to breaking the law? Awwww, I'm so proud of my little sis!" Yang squealed and squished her sister in a massive hug. Maybe she couldn't tease Ruby for being innocent anymore, but she was going to take every opportunity to embarrass her sister that she could. It was her right as an older sister, Oumdamnit!
While Ruby squirmed and complained about not being little anymore, Nora came back from the front of the room where she had been inspecting the image of Jaune closely. "Renny," she looked uncharacteristically serious, "that was the nice guys we talked with on the way here."
The green Huntsman, who had been taking a quiet nap in his chair, shot up, looking alarmed. "Wait, he was heading to the SDC communications tower! He could shut down communications for the entire region!"
Ruby immediately took command. "Alright, Ren; tell General Ironwood we know where he is, and help him get the rest of the Hunters organized. We'll try to head him off and keep him occupied until everyone else can get there in time."
"I have Bumblebee, so I'll get there faster." Yang volunteered.
"Be careful, sis, don't go charging in: we have no idea how powerful he actually is," Warned Ruby, "I don't want you to get hurt again: you have a bad track record with solo fights."
The comment stung, but there were more important things that had to be done. Yang ran out of the building, hopped on Bumblebee, and raced off in the direction of the large tower.
As she arrived, she could immediately tell something was wrong: the steady stream of civilians that normally passed through the doors was nonexistent, and everything was silent. She dismounted and cautiously entered the building to find a disaster zone. It was obvious a battle had taken place, what with the broken chairs and bodies strewn all over the place, but besides some holes and dents in the walls, it wasn't as bad as first glance would have had her think.
Fortunately, the guards seemed to still be alive, just unconscious, but- wait, was that screaming?
Yang stood up and listened; it was very faint, but the screaming was coming from higher up in the tower, through the door that was hanging ominously open. Great.
She started heading up the stairs, priming the missile launcher on her prosthetic, and cocking the shotgun gauntlet on her arm. There were bullet holes lining the walls, and dents in the railings, but it all cleared up once she reached the next room. It was almost eerie how pristine everything was compared to the chaos down on the first level. However, that was not to last: the screams were getting louder.
There was a sort of shimmer in the air in front of the window leading up to the top of the tower, and suddenly, a figure appeared.
He was lightly tossing a large Dust crystal in one hand as he almost sauntered through the room. However, when he saw Yang, he stopped cold. "Um, sorry, but the CCT's closed, ma'am. Please come back tomorrow." His tone was entirely too sheepish for a terrorist.
Yang decided stalling was her best course of action. "Jaune Arc, wanted in every kingdom for theft, trespassing, assault, destruction of property, murder, and probably more. I thought you'd be taller."
He drew back, and stared at her as if doubting her mental health. "What? What does that have to do with my wanted status? Why does that even matter?"
She smirked; if she could draw him into a conversation, then she could stall enough for the others to get there. Even with his obvious skill in battle, he couldn't beat every Hunter in Vale. "Just think!" She urged, "Height is everything in how people treat you in life: a massively muscular dude is really intimidating and scary, but a short guy is much friendlier at first glance. I mean, I saw your face in the briefing, but I was expecting a bigger person, more in keeping with your reputation."
"Um…" Was the eloquent response. Heh, eloquent. Who said she didn't know fancy words? "That's what you're worried about? My height? The fact that I'm a dangerous criminal doesn't faze you at all?"
He seemed almost impressed, but there was a slight air of dejection about him. "And here I thought my reputation was more intimidating. Okay then, you know who I am, but who are you?"
He was willing to talk: that was good. "I am Yang Xiao Long, Huntress. I helped take down Roman Torchwick, maybe you've heard of him, possibly ran in the same circles?" Just keep him talking, and maybe he would surrender when the others arrived! Right, and Beowolves flew on their own power.
He relaxed slightly, maybe because the conversation shifted off his physical features (hmm, possible weak point?), but remained slightly tense. It was probably because she was still pointing a missile at him.
"Hmmm, Well, I've heard of Torchwick. Never met the guy though;" He flashed a grin, "He was before my time." He turned his back on her casually, leaned on the window frame, and stared outside. "If you're a Huntress, shouldn't you be with more people? I swear, every time I run into you people, more of you pop out of the woodworks for no reason; You're like cockroaches."
Yang drew back, pretending to be offended, "Excuse me? Cockroaches? You couldn't come up with anything better?" She placed a hand to her forehead and sighed dramatically. "You clearly don't know the first thing about banter."
Jaune shifted around until he was comfortably leaning against the wall and looked at her with a deadpan expression. "Y'know, I'm not an idiot, I know you're trying to stall. I can't afford too much distraction, but this conversation was nice. I think I'll let you live this time." He smiled and started cracking his knuckles one by one.
Yang shot a missile at him.
Time seemed to slow, Jaune stood up, and Yang lost sight of him. Her next encounter was of the five-knuckled kind. Fortunately, her Aura tanked the surprisingly powerful punch, and she turned and tried to return the favor.
Unfortunately, he seemed to favor his teleporting trick and kept blurring around her: his punches weren't devastating to her Aura, but neither were they inconsequential. It was almost like trying to hit a fly.
He appeared about ten feet away from her behind a table to catch his breath, and Yang took the opportunity to vault over the table and connect solidly with his face.
"Finally!" she exclaimed. Surprisingly, instead of breaking physics with his Aura, he went flying into and through the staircase, then tumbled down to the first level.
Yang stood still for a moment. Something felt like it was missing, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She glanced at her fist, just to be safe. There was a LOT of blood on it. Was his Aura out already? There was no way the Aura-less security guards could have brought his Aura lower than an entire Atlas squad and two specialists, so something else had to be going on.
She started heading down the wreckage of the stairs, leaping several steps at a time. The less time he had to get his bearings, the better. As she drew nearer to the first floor, it clicked. The soft sound of screaming that had been constantly ringing in her ears had disappeared at the blond criminal had. Was he the source of the detestable sound? How? Fortunately, when she landed on the ground, he was just beginning to stand up.
He rolled away from her punch and did his stupid blur-teleport trick again. He wasn't out of Aura, and his face was untouched, but she definitely drew blood. Something was up. He appeared back in existence next to one of the unconscious security guards and drew out the large dust crystal.
It was surprisingly undamaged from the fight, but his face exuded annoyance all the same. "You are extremely lucky you didn't break this." He stowed it back into his hoodie and drew a pistol. "However, you have also kept this fight going far longer than I wanted, and while I have the 'time,'" He smirked at the odd emphasizing, "but I really don't particularly have the inclination to fight all of Vale's Hunters, so I'm going to have to wrap this up."
He gestured towards her, and she was deafened by screams. The next thing she knew, she was staggering backwards in pain with about twenty bullets in her face.
She lashed out blindly, and felt her arm get seized, twisted, and dislocated. Her Aura surged to her shoulder in an attempt to heal it and shorted out.
His voice was casual, almost bored, as he started slamming her against various solid objects in the room; "I normally don't use much more than my fists and my dodge, but you are the worst kind of enemy: you're strong, tough, and haven't had to face very many people stronger than you." She could barely hear him over the sound of her blood pumping in her ears and the screams that seemed to constantly follow him. "Unfortunately for you, this means that you have no idea when to quit. If it was sheer stubbornness, you'd at least have my respect, but it's really that you have no idea how outclassed you are!"
Blackness swam at the edges of her vision and she could barely stay conscious. She felt her throat be grasped and stared into haunted sapphire eyes. His voice sounded as if he was underwater, but his words were clear; "I have one piece of advice for you; stop being a Huntress. If you continue, I doubt you'll live much longer."
He threw her out the window and the last she knew was the thrumming of Bullheads before she slipped into the blessed oblivion of unconsciousness.