CinderBella Chapter 7
As Blake had said, she was now at the White Fang main base, trying to hone in her Spring Maiden abilities.
From the interior, where Blake was looked like a proper dojo. With a completely wooden floor, and padded walls, the room was built to practice skills and simulate battles. The room was very popular with the members, if any dispute broke out between them, a practice battle would be the solution.
This was the kind of place the White Fang was, strength mattered above all.
Blake was sat in the center of the dojo, in a meditating position. Great mental gymnastics was needed for Blake to contain her Spring Maiden powers.
Slowly breathing in, Blake used her powers to create a small tornado on the floor in front of her.
As a Maiden, Blake was naturally talented with any powers including the elements, the girl actually found training her semblance harder than training as a Maiden.
However, freely using Maiden abilities, or flaring her aura, would attract alot of attention, which is why Blake only did so when necessary.
And because of the restriction Blake places on herself, she often finds herself twitching after a long time of not using her gift.
Almost like an itch inside of her that can't be scratched unless she releases a torrent of Maiden powers.
And that's exactly what she'd came here to do.
Still controlling the miniature tornado, Blake freely moved it around the dojo with ease. But doing this kind of thing wasn't enough.
Wanting to test herself, Blake grabbed hold of her knees, and began concentrating on increasing the size of the storm.
Gradually the tornado swelled up to twice the size of the sitting Faunus. Not being pleased with the size, Blake closed her eyes, and entered a state of tranquility.
Blake was now free from all worries, she was in a state of complete calmness. Doing this allowed Blake to harmonize more with her maiden powers.
When Blake became aware once more, a hurricane the size of a 2 story house was tearing apart the room. Planks of wood had became part of the torrential wind, and even some of the weapons hung around the room had been detached.
Weapons inside of the storm...that gave Blake an idea...
Noticing that members had started to gather to see one of their leaders practise, Blake felt this would be a good time to, once more, show how powerful she really was.
Dissipating the current of wind, Blake gathered up the weapons from around the room, and placed them together with the ones that had already been ripped off of their hinge.
This time Blake decided to stand up, her long ebony hair swaying in the still present winds.
From the members perspective, they couldn't tell what their leader was doing. Previously she had created a big tornado and destroyed alot of the dojo, this enough caused some of the members to cry out in shock, but they could never imagine what was coming.
In front of them was a thick pane of glass, used to protect those observing from any large scale attacks. The members felt safe behind the glass, never had their been a case where the glass had been broken, let alone scratched.
But Blake seemed interested by that.
"I'll be aiming down the center of the glass, so I'd move If I was you."
Seeing the confidence in Blake's eyes, some members edged away from the glass, while some others were unimpressed by Blake's declaration, deciding to stay center.
Who did this woman think she was, shattering glass that even Adam couldn't break? Even conventional bullets didn't leave a dent.
Returning their thoughts to the preparing leader, all members eagerly awaited to see Blake's next move.
Blake had it all planned out, she knew what she had to do, and she knew it would work.
Clearing her mind once again, Blake held her hands out, like she was carrying a tray, and began calling forth the wind into the palm of her hands.
Steadily as the swirling storm's speed and size increased, Blake focused on picking up the weapons laid on the floor.
Swords of various sizes, axes, hammers, spears and knives were just some of the weapons that gradually became part of the torrential storm.
After all the weapons had assimilated, and the storm was large enough, Blake channeled her powers in the direction of the glass, so much so that you could almost see a crosshairs on the window pane.
The tornado's speed then increased further, and began shooting out the weapons like bullets, all pinpointed on the centre of the glass.
Tens of weapons were violently launched at the window pane, and at first the members didn't seem to think it would do much. However...
*Smash!*
The glass shattered into pieces, sending all members watching into a fit of awe and wonder.
Well, almost all, those that had remained in the centre of the glass were now ducking and diving, trying to evade the machine-gun like bombardment of weapons.
Releasing the weapons from her hold, and dispersing the wind, Blake knew that this would be an excellent addition to her arsenal, though she would need to improve the casting speed.
Blake remained in the centre of the dojo, with a slightly heavier breathing. Seems that she was right to start training, controlling such particular parts of the storm was draining, and something she would need to improve on.
For the next week, Blake rigorously trained this ability, now known as 'Ascension', to what she believed to be an adequate level. Blake also trained her core, and martial arts and elemental abilities, aswell as her semblance, though seemingly not making any improvements with her shadow arts.
Blake was working herself to the bone, 16 hours a day she would be in the dojo, testing and trying new ideas, and executing general techniques to keep herself reminded of them.
Would all her training pay off? She would soon find out, as the attack on Beacon quickly approached.
At Beacon Academy, Cinder was relaxing in her seat in the stadium, overlooking Emerald and Mercury as they fought against Coco and Yatsuhashi of team CFVY. While the pair of second years were strong, they were no match for her prize-picked underlings.
As the fight was continuing, Cinder used her personal scroll to begin transferring data gathered from the CCT to the White Fang, so that Adam knew what her groups next moves were. Sending only the lineups for the upcoming matches, the layout of Beacon, and the battle formations that the members would be arranged in.
Seeing that the fight was coming to a close, Cinder stood from her seat and left the stadium. Heading back to her dorm room, she passed through the courtyard where her relationship with Blake was rekindled. A small smile quickly appeared, before her heart ached. Getting frustrated with herself, Cinder quickly retreated to her dorm room, where she entered the toilet and splashed her face with cold water.
"Calm down Cinder, It's only been a week…"
Blake had been gone for a week, that was all, yet Cinder was feeling more pain as each day passed. She missed the faunus. And while it was both a nice and horrible feeling to have, Cinder needed to be focused on the upcoming battle, and was frustrated with how even at critical times like this, her heart wasn't completely there.
"Just one more week and we can be together again…"
Cinder quietly told herself, trying to remedy her mental state.
Blake told Cinder that she would be joining the members during the invasion of Beacon. Meaning that Cinder would need to cleanse herself of her agonizing longing for the catgirl, and prepare herself for the events to come.
In order to steal the remainder of the Fall Maidens powers, Cinder needed to break into the facility that Beacon was using to maintain her condition. Another problem was that Cinder only had a narrow window to do so, and with each passing day that window came closer to closing. She knew that Ozpin's group was wanting to transfer the Maiden's powers, and in order to do that they would need a suitable host.
Unfortunately for Cinder, they had the perfect candidate in Pyrrha Nikos.
Due to their limited time, Cinder had brought up the invasion by a whole month, meaning that their forces would be more limited than they had planned to be. However, they never anticipated that the entirety of the Atlesian Military would arrive, ripe for the taking.
Cinder moved to her bed and sat down. Almost all the preparation on her side was finished, she just needed to believe that Adam's men were good enough for this.
A week later, It was the day of the attack. Emerald was set for her performance, and Mercury was making sure to stay hidden after getting 'attacked' by Yang. Cinder was typing on her laptop at what seemed like hyper speed, running final checks on the virus, and making sure that their tracks had been perfectly covered.
Feeling a buzz by her side, Cinder checked her scroll and saw that Blake had messaged her.
'All members are boarded on Bullheads. En route to Beacon Academy now.'
Cinder knew that Blake was taking this as seriously as she was, so this was no time for messages between lovers.
'Roger, all ground units at Beacon are already in position. Mercury and Emerald should be starting soon.'
As Cinder replied with this, she could hear the cheers from the stadium nearby. Standing from her seat, she quickly moved outside of the building and leaped onto the roof with little effort.
Equipping an earpiece, Cinder waited for Mercury's signal. Not far from her was the Vytal Tournament, and inside was Pyrrha about to destroy Penny. Emerald had used her semblance of illusions to make it seems as though Penny had 10 times more weapons than she really did, which caused Pyrrha to release a magnetic wave too strong for Penny to survive.
Cinder gave a wry smile as she looked upon the stadium, what was once full of cheers and laughing was now filled with gasps and remorseful cries.
'It's your time to shine Cinder.'
Without giving a reply Cinder used her scroll to take control of the live broadcast of the Vytal Festival. The teachers were trying to shut it down, but there was too big a crowd for Cinder to let this slip through her fingers.
Using her scroll as a microphone, Cinder announced for all of Remnant to hear.
'This is not a tragedy, this was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your Children to men who claim to be our guardians. But who are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our academies Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They claim to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here?
One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference.
And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy. Yet I have witnessed neither.
Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded it's streets. Or perhaps, this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting Kingdom with armed forces.
Honestly? I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know that the existence of peace is fragile. And the leaders of our Kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves.
As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you; the situation there is...equally undesirable.
Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark.
So I ask you… When the first shots are fired… who do you think you can trust?'
Throughout Cinder's speech, the hordes of Grimm had begun to invade Vale, being drawn by the strong sense of fear and sadness, sending sirens and alerts throughout the city.
'ALERT. INCOMING GRIMM ATTACK. THREAT LEVEL: NINE. SEEK SHELTER IN A CALM AND ORDERLY MANNER.'
Hearing these alarms, the citizens that had occupied the stadium had begun rushing towards the exit, screaming for their lives as they hoped they could escape.
Suddenly over the intercom, General Ironwood's voice rang out.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please! There is no need for pani..."
Almost on a cue, a Nevermore screeched and landed on the roof of the stadium.
Pecking and scratching at the surrounding shield, It succeeded in instilling fear and terror into the hearts of everyone in the stadium.
In Ozpin's office, Qrow and Glynda rushed in.
"Oz!" Qrow called, as he saw his classmate looking out the giant glass window.
"Get to the city!" Without hesitation Ozpin ordered the two.
"But what about-"
"NOW" Ozpin shouted.
Sharing a glance, Qrow and Glynda now rushed out of the office.
Following shortly behind them was Ozpin, heading towards the vault hidden beneath the school.
Operating his scroll before he reached his floor, Ozpin called Ironwood.
"Ozpin, the girl...I-I can explain!"
"You brought your army to my Kingdom, James. Use It."
Abruptly ending the call, Ozpin resumed brooding over the coming events.
Ironwood contacted his lead ships, Blue 1 through 4, and ordered them to move into defensive position. However, what was not expected was for the ships to be sliced in half…
As the cut segments of the ships now fell to the ground below, Adam Taurus leapt through the air, grabbing hold of a Bullheads open hatch, before the ships landed on an empty helipad.
Speaking into an earpiece for all White Fang members to hear, their leaders next words resonated with them.
"Bring them to their knees!"
Cinder bounded across the rooftops towards the main building of Beacon Academy.
Landing softly on the floor, Cinder headed for the basement, where she could finally get the rest of the power that is rightfully hers...
