A man falls in a puddle of water mixed with dirty snow. His cries for help echo throughout the dark alley, but are soon buried by the laughter of three men standing around him. The metallic sound of a switchblade cuts through the air, killing all other sound but the the slow dripping of melting snow.
Two of the men see a white blur fall from above and disappear behind the third man.
"Wha? Why are you looking at me like that?" He asks as he sees the confused looks on their faces. He feels something piercing through his leg and falls to the ground, screaming in pain.
The other two take a step back in horror as they take in the ghostly figure before them.
"Wh-What the hell are you?" One of them manages to stutter. The voice that answers is filled with cold wrath.
"I am the storm that has come to clean this city. I am reckoning. I am Blizzard, and I'm your worst nightmare."
The blueish glow of a computer screen is the only source of light in the apartment. The sound of fast typing the only company to the voices of the radio.
"And in other news, it seems like Vale City's masked crusader has a new outfit!" A high pitched comes from the radio. The typing stops.
"Nora, we've talked about this, she's not real."
"Is too." Whispers a girl sitting in front of the computer.
"Is too!" Echoes Nora miles away at the radio station. "And now she's wearing white! The latest reports say she wears white with a long ice-blue coat with a snowflake on the back."
"A snowflake? Really?" Says the young man sitting next to her with a bored expression on his face.
"Yes Ren, really!"
"Nora, I know our audience is at an all time low but you can't just make stuff up."
"Ren! We're on air! Don't listen to him folks, we all know there's millions of you out there. Anyway, yes, a snowflake! And she is using a rapier!"
"A rapier."
"Yeah, you know, 'my name is Iñigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die', that kinda thing."
"So she's stabbing people now, eh? That's nice, she sounds like a very sane, balanced individual."
"Idiot." Mumbles the girl in the apartment as she starts to type again.
"Apparently she only leaves light wounds. I spoke to a paramedic earlier and he said it looked like she had gone out of her way to avoid any real danger."
"How considerate of her. So, let's assume for a minute that she's real..."
"'cause she is" Says the girl in the appartment.
"'cause she is!" Agrees Nora.
"And let's assume all these, ahem, 'reports' you're getting are accurate. Are you saying there's some madwoman with a ski mask and a sword taking the law in her own hands? How is this good news?"
"First, it's a rapier, that's like, way cooler. Second, she doesn't wear a ski mask anymore! One of the thugs she caught said she was wearing some kind of cowl, he could see the lower half of her face. He said she had a pretty smile."
"He said that?"
"He might have been more...crass about it. And anyway, she's only going after criminals! A little girl even told me she helped her get her kitty from a tree."
"Truly, a paragon of justice."
The sound of a key turning at the door catches the girl's attention and she misses Nora's reply.
"Frak" She whispers as the door opens.
"Ruby?" Yang's voice comes from the door. "You in here?"
Yang enters the apartment and takes in the scene for a second.
"Ruby Rose! How many times have I told you not to use the computer in the dark like that?" She says as she turn on the light.
"I thought I had a couple of hours until you got home!" Ruby answers, covering her eyes.
"That's not a valid excuse!"
"NO. WAY." Nora's loud voice fills the apartment and the two girls turn to look at the radio. "This just in folks: she has a name!"
"Who has a name?" Asks Yang.
"Shhhhh!" Says Ruby, her eyes fixed on the radio, expectant.
"Reliable sources-" Nora beings.
"Some random thugs" Ren corrects.
"-have recently come forward with this new information!"
"Just say it!" Ruby says.
"And her name is...Blizzard!"
"Blizzard? Really?" Ren says.
"Ruby, why is Nora Valkyrie talking about some chick with a stripper name?"
"Blizzard…" Ruby says. "That...is...AWESOME!"
"Oh god" Yang says, covering her face with her hand. "Please tell this isn't about that vigilante chick."
"She's not a vigilante! She's a hero!"
"No, she's not."
"She saved Pyrrha!"
"Oh please. As if miss Pyrrfect Cop could have gone down so easily. She's just a nutjob desperate for attention, I give her a month or so until she gets bored. Or killed. What's with the face? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Hello." A voice comes from behind Yang, and she freezes. She turns around slowly and meets a pair of blue eyes. "You left the door open."
"Weiss." Yang says.
"Hello." Weiss repeats quietly. "I-"
"No." Yang interrupts her.
"What?"
"No. I don't know why you're here, but I don't care."
"Yang, I-"
"You think you can just pop back into my- into our lives like this? You were gone for years Weiss! The only reason we even knew you were still alive was because of the pictures of you partying that hit the tabloids from time to time! I don't know what made you want to be...this." Yang says, the last word spoken in disgust as she gestures at the other girl. "But the Weiss I knew would never do something like that."
Yang brusquely pushes Weiss aside as she walks out the door.
"I'll be at the bar! Don't wait up!" Her voice comes from the hallway.
A few seconds pass in silence as the two remaining girls look at each other. Ruby sighs and nods towards the kitchen.
"Come on, I think we've still got some tea left." She says.
"I don't know what I expected." Weiss mutters as she watches the steam float away from her cup.
"Just...give her some time. You know how she is, she needs to get it out of her system. I'm not saying everything's gonna be sunshine and puppies, but she'll hear you out eventually."
"I just...I need her to know I'm not...you know...what she thinks I am."
"What, a spoiled brat that has given up on doing anything meaningful with her life and just settles for partying hard and wasting money?"
"...Yes."
"Well, for what is worth, I don't think you are."
"I...You don't?"
"Nah. I remember how much you hated parties. People change, but they don't change that much. But Yang has never been one for cold logic, specially when it comes to you. And all those hot chicks in the pictures with you sure didn't help. She'll figure it out eventually though."
"So...if you don't think that...what do you think?"
"I think you are a very strange person that's had a very complicated life. I think finding out you were back in town through the news sucked, there's this things called phones, you know? You should look them up. Oh, and I think you missed a lot of birthdays, if you know what I mean."
"I'm sorry."
"Eh. Water under the bridge." Ruby says, shrugging. "Hey, have you heard about the masked hero? Cool, huh?"
"...hero?"
"Yeah, this masked girl has been kicking ass all over town, putting criminals behind bars and all of that."
"And you think she's a hero." Weiss says flatly.
"W-well yeah! This city has being going to hell since...you know…" There's an awkward pause as both girls look silently at their drinks. Since your parents were killed, the unspoken words float between them. "Yang thinks she's a nutjob though."
"Yes. I heard." Weiss says with a small a smile. "That's very...Yang of her. Good to know some things are still the same."
"Ha. Yeah."
It's a cold friday night in Vale City. Too cold for snow.
In a small bedroom, a girl sketches a bright red costume design.
Outside a bar, a cop helps her drunk partner stay straight up on their way home.
In dark alleys superstition spreads and criminals start looking behind their shoulders, afraid of the night that no longer belongs to them.
Above it all, the Blizzard watches over her city.
"You can't be serious." A female voice says in her ear. Across the street, inside a high class restaurant, a thug, unaware he's been bugged, has just explained to his boss his friends are in jail now because of 'a ghost'.
"All white, with flamin' blue eyes" says the man. "and the way it moved, that was no ordinary person."
"A ghost." The female voice repeats "Don't be ridiculous. It's just that madwoman from the news. What I'd like to know is how she managed to take down four of my men. And why she let go of the fifth one."
"I escaped boss. Ran like hell."
"She let you. Someone who can do what she did so easily wouldn't have had any trouble putting you down." There's a brief pause in the conversation "Check him."
There's sound of movement, and a few grunts of complaint from the thug. Then absolute silence. Finally, the female voice is heard again, louder and clearer, as if she's speaking right next to the microphone.
"Nice try, ghost." It says. "But you'll need to try harder if you want to go against Cinder Fall. Now listen carefully, because this one's on you."
The sound of a gunshot comes both from the earpiece and from across the street, and a hand tightens around a cold rapier hilt.
A.N: Had to fight the urge to change her name to Cinder Fallcone. As in Carmine Falcone. Eh? Eh? Anyone? And yes, I know he's 'The ROMAN' Falcone, but Cinder makes more sense as a character, and I got big plans for my bud Roman. At least she has the same initials.