A/N: Enjoy~
~Angel and Hel
Chapter Two: Dead Heat
-.-.-
Winter most definitely didn't panic. She didn't internally curse the military and ask why they'd allowed a Grimm breach during a fucking training exercise. She didn't suddenly realise she couldn't use her glyphs without identifying herself. All of those would be foolish, unproductive actions.
Instead, she remembered where the exit was and did her best to set off for it with long, confident strides.
A task made difficult by everyone else in the room.
Faces lit up from the glow of Dust tech. The giantess's armour was highlighted gold, Helia's robes glowed a soft blue, Red's sword-shotgun burst into bright flame... and illuminated a pile of half-dressed girls tripping over each other in the middle of the room.
"Hey, geddoff!" Red shouted, jumping away and swinging her flaming sword around at the revelation of Blue hiding behind her.
"Idiots." Giantess rumbled, her already deep voice slightly echoed by her armour.
"Enough." Winter only realised she'd spoken half a second later. "Get out of here now, bicker later." Everyone was still standing around. "Move!"
Finally, the gaggle of girls got their wits together and started heading to the exits. Red lead the way with her flaming sword for light. "It's blocked!" she yelled back.
A chorus of moans and groans rose from the group. Winter could feel the heavy footsteps of the giantess as she moved down to the other hall, flanked by the tall girl. There was a startling BANG as the giantess thumped her shield into the ground, activating something that lit up the front with more of that golden-hued light.
How had they not heard the debris falling? The massive hunks of steel and concrete blocking their path couldn't have fallen silently. Unless, of course, this was one of the trials. Either way, their options had to be the same.
"Can anyone move this? If you can, begin work on it. I need scouts heading in the other direction," Winter ordered.
"Who says you're in charge!?" Blue cried out indignantly, pouting and crossing her arms. By now, the constantly repeating alarm had fallen into the background.
"Yes, let's keep arguing and standing in this corridor. That's bound to help us get out." A distant thud had her hand fall to her saber. "Stop standing around. Move!"
"You know, he did say the Trials have been lethal in the past…" Helia said almost offhandedly, her smaller voice seeming to remind everyone that their lives could be at stake here. Winter jerked back in surprise as Helia's voice came from above her head rather than below her shoulder. She was… flying? Her wings were out, but they were framed with glowing blue blades.
That was some - impressive technology. How had she gotten it? Stolen? Made herself? If so, she'd have to be a prodigy, despite her blindness.
A loud roar echoed through the facility, sending a shiver down everyone's spine.
Had anyone headed out? She couldn't tell. Too many unfamiliar faces, too many people to keep track of. A few were pawing at the concrete, pulling it away. Too slowly. The whole damn thing was taking far too long. If there were Grimm attacking, if there were enough Grimm to breach the defenses, taking ten or more minutes to remove this breach was unacceptable. Where were the damn scouts?
She drew her saber with a slick rasp of metal on metal and strode into the corridor herself.
It was dark - not the darkness of the house at night, with light through the windows, but the darkness of underground, a flat warm darkness that spoke of living things with claws lurking in it.
She hadn't ever faced a Grimm before. She knew about them. She'd done combat training. But she'd never faced one. Never killed one. What if - what if she couldn't?
That was foolish. She couldn't possibly know that. And it wasn't as though any of the others could be more capable - why, she was the only one out here actually trying to do something -
"Hic!"
Winter didn't jump, because that would imply she hadn't noticed Helia following her.
"So, uhh… whi- Hic!- which way are we-"
"Why. Are you hiccuping?" Be polite, be firm but polite. Don't shout at the poor damaged faunus girl for her irritating habits or for sneaking up on her like a thief -
"I dun- Hic!- …" she mumbled, before pausing and giving up, her cheeks puffing out as she took a deep breath and held it.
Winter couldn't think of anything to say that could possibly explain this - this situation. So, instead, she stormed onwards. Foolish idiotic - idiotic creature. Stumbling around blindly. Barely aware of anything at all.
It was at that moment that a squat thing burst through the floor in red and white and black and lashed at her with its tail, spinning to bite at her with slavering jaws.
"Hic!" A small thump came from behind Winter as Helia dropped to the ground, her knives slamming into the floor between the pair and the Grimm, locking together into a shield mesh. "Don't get- Hic!- distracted!" Helia struggled to say, her arms windmilling as she stumbled away from the creature.
"Don't distract me then!" A Creep. Weakpoints in shoulders, stomach, strong jaws and legs. She readied her saber, looking for an opening - there, the mesh parted a little and she lunged, stabbing at the creature beyond. Resistance as blade hit flesh and flesh parted, but the Creep backed away, not yet dead.
The shield-links split and the knives flew back into wing formation around Helia, who jumped over the Creep in a spinning dive. She launched those blades down without a gesture into the Grimm's tail, feet, and the floor below, pinning it.
The Creep screamed and Winter launched herself forward again in a fleche that speared through the beast's mouth. It faded away into black flakes, then nothingness, but she still examined her saber to see if it needed cleaning.
"Hic."
"Damn it, why!?"
"I 'unno."
The shrug she gave was beyond infuriating. "How - how -"
This girl had made sure Winter was in the same group as her. Knew she was watching as she changed despite her blindness then made - inappropriate and lewd comments on that fact. How could she not know why she had hiccups? Was it a further manipulation? Was it?
...this was getting very silly. There could be no way a blind girl could plan hiccups to irritate her. She was just being paranoid.
But then Helia turned around far too quickly and Winter could have sworn she saw a flash of smirk. "C'mon, we st- Hic!- still need to get out of h- Hic!- here," she reminded the taller girl, floating into the air with the gentle hum of her knives.
Winter strode forward. No signs, no indicators of a way out, but they'd gone down. If they could find a stairwell, or something similar - she peered through the hole the Creep had made. Nothing. She couldn't see anything down it. Hardly surprising, but she had hoped…
The next two doors were locked, another hallway blocked by rubble. She rounded the corner at a trot, hand ready to flex a glyph into existence. A small one with dark dust to hide in plain sight, obviously. She could pretend it was telekinesis or something.
And suddenly someone yelled in surprise and came to a screeching halt by slamming into the wall and bouncing off. The high-pitched squealing of their shoes grated on Winter's already shot nerves. "Ow, DAMNIT!" the young man exclaimed, taking a few wild stumbling steps to regain his balance. "Yo, Deathstroke, wet floors- well hello ladies," he said, suddenly changing tunes as he spotted the pair, sweeping a hand through his hair- it didn't help. "Hi, I'm Maverick, I don't suppose either of you know the way out?"
"Get out of our way." Despite his build, the boy was clearly a fool. As evidenced by the fact that he was smirking at them under a fringe of orange-blond hair rather than actually getting on with getting out of the Grimm-infested base. "Allow me to rephrase; get out of our way or I will make you get out of our way."
He grinned. He just grinned at them. "Of course, Miladies," he said, bowing before spotting someone coming from down the hall and bursting into laughter as he broke into a sprint past the girls. "See ya round, Ice Queen!"
What a lout. The nickname was most likely coincidence, but the cheek -
"You little shit, get back here -" The figure skidded past, dressed in heavy black and orange combat armour, before slamming into the wall much as the boy before had. "Fucking damn it!" He recovered far faster though, already running after the other.
Helia slid up against the wall out of his way and pointed in the direction Maverick had gone. "He went left."
"Thanks, kid," he said, running past. Winter thought she saw a flash of a smile as he too disappeared round the corner
Helia smiled and stuck her tongue out at Winter. "See, someone appreciates me."
She did her best not to roll her eyes or smile. Encouraging her would be a bad move. But - "You can't see though."
"No shit, your highness."
Winter was about to reply, but something… happened. One moment she had steady footing, the next she had to reach out to grab onto- but it slammed into her side and a roaring filled her ears and Helia was screaming and clinging to her and they were bouncing around the hallway-
A chunk of ceiling fell with a crash and filled the air with dust, leaving the pair wedged between a rock and a concrete slab as their stomachs churned and the ground under them couldn't make up it's mind -
Winter tried to stand, but she couldn't. There was no resistance like walking around on a turbulent airship, it was simply… her feet were moving but her body wasn't. She loosened her muscles, trying to ride the waves- It simply didn't work. She was flung about like a rag in a tumbler until it mercifully ended.
Helia was still screaming and clinging to her for a solid minute after it ended. Winter hadn't even realised the roaring had stopped - her ears were still ringing.
"Helia. Helia!" She shook her a little in the confined space. "Are you injured?" She flexed her own limbs a little - no abnormal aches or pains. Some scrapes, and far too much dirt, but no injuries. Lucky.
And then she inspected Helia, her screaming dying down to pained whimpers - at first glance, it didn't look like anything was wrong. And then she saw the horrific angle Helia's left wing most definitely should not be hanging at.
Winter's eyes didn't bulge, nor did her brain scream loud obscenities at her - was her bone structure different in her wing like in birds, how did you deal with a broken wing, how did you deal with a broken limb, she'd never broken anything how, how, how? Helia was gripping her, those miserable little exhalations of air - she didn't - she didn't know what to do -
"Hold still, ok? Moving will probab - will make it worse. I'm going to try and get a better look at it, ok?"
Helia winced but nodded, burying her face in Winter. When Winter moved, she gasped and twitched, holding on tighter in pain even though the older girl hadn't even touched her yet.
Her wing was - the middle part of it's bone seemed to be gone. The whole thing hung loose and twisted, like paper, tiny feathers rumpled and broken by whatever blow had struck it. Winter's vague thoughts of a splint died quickly - straightening it out to apply something like that would put the poor girl through agony.
But she had to keep it still, somehow. Maybe…
She fumbled for her lightning dust. She'd learnt this glyph a few days ago - well, a variation on it, and it shouldn't be hard to apply it to just Helia's wing -
"Wh- what are you…" the tiny girl rasped, her breathing coming in shuddering, torture-filled gasps, "Doing?"
"I'm going to try something to keep your wing still so you can move with it. Then - then I'm going to blast this wreckage off us and we'll get going." Winter lifted the dust bottle to her mouth and gently pulled the cork with her teeth. Idly she noted the alarms were silent - likely the result of the quake. "This might sting, ok?"
Helia whimpered and nodded. Her tears had gotten past the blindfold and were working on soaking Winter's uniform.
She flicked her fingers, spilling a tiny fraction of the bottle's contents onto the wing and extending her fingers as she did so, a glowing image of a clock settling onto the limb, hands moving slower and slower as she willed the clock to stop, to keep the wing as it was. She could speed herself up, the principle was the same, she just - had - to -
A thick gold glow settled over the wing, which no longer moved with her shuddering breaths. Winter shook a stray strand of hair from her face. That had been exhausting. But the best solution to the problem.
Helia's grip on her quickly loosened as the girl fell limp with relief. "Th-thhan…" she murmured before collapsing against her, unconscious.
"Helia!?" She checked her pulse - alive, breathing, fine. Allowed herself a sigh of relief. Not that she - she'd just met this girl, but anyone dying on top of you would be upsetting. And likely regarded as poor effort by the academy. She twisted her fingers further, summoning black repulsion glyphs that began to shoot the stone around the away, positioning them carefully to remove those blocks that might fall on them otherwise first.
She slowly eased herself upright in the darkness and, cradling the faunus, set off into the corridors.
-.-.-