Part 10
Huo
"Oh my god, this is the most perfect day we could ever have for a girl's day out!" Cielo exclaimed, leaning back on the metal-frame chair she was seated in. "It's so warm today! A nice break from all the chilly weather we've had." She leaned forward and began stirring her over-priced latte topped high with whipped cream. "I kinda wish I didn't get a hot drink though," she added.
The three were seated on the second-floor balcony of a café in the shopping district of Vale, overlooking the street filled with people wading through the multitude of shops. There were six tables on the balcony, with two other ones occupied by other people talking amongst themselves.
Huo smirked and took a swig of her iced tea. "I told you getting that thing would be a bad idea," she chided her team leader. "But you didn't listen to me, now did you?"
"The last thing you need is more stimulants too," Rein chimed in, cupping her glass of water in both hands.
Cielo pouted. "I wanted to get something appropriate for a day with my girlfriends," she said solemnly. "I forgot you two aren't exactly the fancy-drink types." She sipped at her drink, licking cream off of her top lip. "We're still doing the full 'girl's day out' bit, though!" she announced.
"Kind of hard to do that without forty percent of the 'girls' though," Huo pointed out.
Cielo folded her arms defiantly. "We're still going to have fun!"
"I was having fun cutting mannequins in half," Huo informed her leader. "So unless we're wrecking shop somewhere, I ain't gonna be having fun."
"I'm not letting you try and buy me clothes," Rein said. "Or a wig."
"We've been out here for an hour already, and all we've done is buy these," Huo said, looking down at her drink in disappointment. "They're overpriced and not even good."
"My water's warm and this chair is uncomfortable."
Cielo made a frustrated whine. "I get it!" she said. "Huo: we can go to a junkyard and cut some old cars in half, okay?" She turned to Rein. "If you want, we can… uh… visit a crime scene?" Huo and Rein both stared at her blankly, and she sighed. "Well I don't know! What do you like to do for fun?" Rein didn't even blink, then took a sip of her water. Cielo groaned. "You aren't making this easy on me," she said. "I should've gotten Lylla to come with us; she'd like shopping." Even though Cielo had arranged the trip into the city, she seemed to have forgotten it faster than the other two: it was only a week until Lylla would be having her birthday, and Cielo was determined to find her the ultimate present. Neither Rein nor Huo wanted to go, but Cielo had pressured them enough to get them to finally agree to come with her.
"How about we do what you made us come here to do," Huo suggested. After having Cielo stare at her with a blank expression, Huo filled her in. "It is Lylla's birthday in a week, you made us come to get her presents, you got side-tracked, and now we are sitting here while you complain about a lack of motivation."
Cielo's eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh right!" She stood up with renewed vigor. "Alright Team Chariot! Or… Team Cherry, I guess." She shrugged and began her orders. "Our mission today is to find Lylla the coolest birthday presents ever!" Cielo's face suddenly contorted in discomfort. "Which will begin right after I get back from the little girl's room."
Huo laughed quietly as Cielo hurried off into the building. "So, what do you think I should get her?" Huo asked Rein, taking a drink of her sub-par tea afterwards. She knew Rein didn't care, but felt that she should at least try and start a conversation with the strange, bald girl.
Rein looked up at Huo with her watery yellow eyes. "I assume you'll want something Lylla will enjoy enough that she will consider sleeping with you." Huo almost choked on her drink, spewing iced tea over the edge of the balcony.
"I… how do you…?"
Rein shrugged. "If you want to keep something a secret, you shouldn't spend all the time you can staring at her," she said in her quiet voice.
Huo sank down in her metal chair, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Could you not mention that to anyone?" she asked. "I'm not really sure how to go about saying that I'm… you know."
"A lesbian."
Huo sighed. "Yes, thank you."
"So I assume Cielo changing in the same room as you for the past five months has been pleasant."
"Will you shut up?" Huo asked aggressively. "That's exactly what I'm talking about; I don't want to make things weird between everyone because I'm…"
"A lesbian."
"I get it!" she yelled back a little too loudly, causing some of the other people seated on the balcony look their way. "Hey, don't listen in on other people's conversations," Huo told them. They turned back to their own tables, some grumbling under their breath. Huo sighed and glanced over the street below her, unsure of what to say next. I was kind of hoping I could avoid this until I was ready, she thought, but I probably should've expected Rein to figure out on her own. Huo spun her glass around in her hand, watching the liquid swirl into a funnel. Huo was contemplating what to do with her drink when Cielo returned to their table.
"Okay then; now that that's settled, let's get our birthday shopping on!" she said enthusiastically while taking her seat in the third chair surrounding their circular glass table. "Come on girls! We've got a lot of ground to cover: down these drinks and let's go!" Cielo wiped the whipped cream off of her coffee and began guzzling it; Rein drank her cup of tepid water at a slightly faster pace than she previously did.
Huo glanced at the tea in her hand. "Ah fuck it; it's shit anyway." She held the cup out over the edge of the balcony and emptied its contents. She heard someone shout in alarm beneath her. "Alright, I'm ready."
Cielo looked at her disapprovingly. "That wasn't very nice," she said.
Huo shrugged. "I'll apologize later." She stretched and climbed onto her feet. "Lead the way, oh leading leader." Cielo giggled, walking through inside from the balcony, down the café's curved staircase, and out of the front of the shop with Huo and Rein. As they were leaving, Huo noticed a portly businessman arguing with the cashier. It wasn't a scene that she would have given any notice to, if it weren't for the man's hair and suit jacket being soaking wet. She tried to contain her smile, but it broke through and Huo turned away in hopes that the man didn't see her.
The three of them were standing on the side of the road, Cielo looking up and down the rows of stores and shops peddling their wares. "Ooh, this is why I love big cities!" Cielo exclaimed. "There's always so much stuff going on!"
Huo smirked. "I thought you said you love small towns and the country."
"Well that's because I grew up there," Cielo replied. "But all I ever did was watch TV and go hunting with my dad, so coming here for school was really awesome!" She moved down the street, passing numerous vendors and looking over what they had for sale.
"You hunt?" Cielo nodded. "Huh, never really figured you'd be into that sort of stuff; you're all girly and shit." Huo looked over a sidewalk stall that seemed to be selling some toys and comic books from a cartoon she could vaguely remember as a child. "Can't really imaging you shooting animals."
Cielo spun around with a grin on her face. "It was kinda me and dad's thing: it also helps when you've got super cool Semblance powers that held you curve the arrow!" She threw several jabs at the air infront of her, accidentally making a small gust of wind that blew several of the comics on the vendor's stall onto the sidewalk. "Oh, oops!" She bent down and picked up the books, placing them back on the stand, much to the bewilderment of the stall's operator. "Huntress! Don't worry!" Cielo said, patting the folded-up crossbow that was slung across her lower back.
As per usual, Cielo lost her focus almost immediately after they began browsing. She jumped from store to store, at first trying to find a gift for Lylla, but was soon pointing out all of the gifts she wanted to buy for herself. Huo realised she wasn't as familiar with the object of her affection as she would've liked, spending the better part of an hour picking through the variety of shops for something that would make a good gift. Even though she knew it was a futile effort, Huo still attempted to get Rein's opinion on what Lylla would want: the girl would only stand quietly, her hands, bandaged in light blue linen and almost covered with her long, grey cut-off sleeves, in the pockets of her grey shorts. Huo would have tried to get Cielo's input, but their leader had long forgotten about buying gifts and was spending her time buying things for herself.
After looking through what she assumed would have been miles of displays, Huo finally settled on a long, silver coat with white fur trimming the neckline and cuffs she found among a selection of overcoats meant for combat. It was a lot more expensive then Huo anticipated, but she dropped money on it anyway. She followed Rein through several buildings until she discovered a set of lighting crystals in a Dust shop.
"Really?" Huo asked her. "I know I'm not the best at this, but these are part of Lylla's equipment package at school: she gets them for free."
Rein looked down at the light yellow shards locked securely behind a thick glass pane. "She doesn't have these ones though," she said. "And it doesn't matter to me; I'm not the one trying to sleep with her."
"Stop that," Huo demanded impatiently as Rein asked the old man behind the counter for the Dust. She noticed cans of soda available, and bought one: orange-flavored. "I'd like to keep that under wraps until I know how I can get around to telling everyone without making myself look like an absolute pervert." She cracked open her can as the pair walked out of the shop.
"So you are a pervert?" Rein asked. Huo shrugged and took a drink, which she found tasted better than her tea from before. "If you want to sleep with someone so badly, I can do it." Huo actually choked on her drink this time, spewing the sugary orange soda all over the sidewalk infront of her.
"What?" Huo managed to sputter out between coughing up her drink.
Rein shrugged in indifference. "That's your end goal, right? This way is faster."
Huo took several deep breaths and regained her composure. "The other person's kinda the important part," she said. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm gonna have to say no."
Rein's face didn't show any signs of embarrassment over what she had just done. "Makes sense," she said, then looked down the street. "Cielo's coming."
Their leader came bounding down the street, her arms filled with bags of varying sizes and colours. "Hey girls!" she shouted at them, waving one of her package-leaden arms at them. "You wouldn't believe what I found!" She held the bags out to Huo and Rein, prompting them to look through Cielo's spoils. "There was this cute little shop down a ways that had the entire box set of A Huntress's Diary on sale for, like, twenty Lien!" She held up a box with a heavily stylized photograph of a young woman holding a rapier on it. "I was surprised there were any left, since it's basically the best thing ever made! Ooh! And look at this!"
She continued to rifle through her bags until Huo spoke up. "So what'd you get Lylla?"
Cielo's face froze. "Oops." She dove back into her purchases until she picked back up the television series again. "Lylla loves this show too, so I could give her this." She pouted for a brief moment, but perked up almost immediately. "And then we can have an all-night marathon! Oh my god, we have to go back to that store! They were selling these cookie things that were, like, half pure chocolate, and–" She finally noticed the bags that Huo and Rein were holding. "Oh, what'd you get her?"
Huo opened up her bag and lifted up the top of the silver coat. "Uh, I found this thing; I figured Lylla could use something for when it gets col–" Huo wasn't able to finish her sentence before Cielo grabbed the bag out of her hand greedily.
"Oh. My. God," she said in an awed voice. "Where did you get this?"
Huo pointed down the street at the store she had picked up the coat. "It was a little more than I thought, but I was already at the counter, and I'm horrible at finding–"
Cielo cut her off again. "This is an Arachne original! This is the kind of things rich businessmen buy their wives, not something you buy a friend!" She stroked the coat lovingly. "I can't believe I'm actually holding one! And not, you know, being told to stop touching it and get out of the display window." She brushed her hand up against a sleeve. "Oh my god, it's one of her combat gear styles; this thing is so expensive!"
Huo was almost at a loss for words. "Oh… uh… I just thought it was cool," she said. "So should I return it or something?"
Cielo shook her head defiantly. "Are you kidding? This could be the closest Lylla's ever going to get to owing one of these! I'm not letting you deprive her of that chance!" her grin suddenly faded to a face or horrid realization. "And all I'm getting her is a TV show box set? Oh no, that won't do!" She spun around and looked over all of the stores down the street. "We've got to go find another gift!"
As Huo followed Cielo around as she tried to bolster her gift, she couldn't help but feel proud of herself. I got Lylla something awesome, and didn't even need help doing it. She grinned. Thank god I still have my private account from back home, otherwise I wouldn't have had near enough for that thing. The thought of home sent a snap of fear through her, but Huo shook it off. Don't think about it now; you'll be fine.
It took Cielo another thirty minutes to finally piece together a package she deemed worthy. "Alright, now we can go back to school," she said, arms full of bags. "I'd say today was productive."
Both Huo and Rein were also carrying parts of Cielo's total haul. "How do you even have this much money?" Huo asked. "This is, like, five hundred Lien worth of shit!"
Cielo grinned. "I'm a pretty good haggler; I don't think I paid full price for anything today." She turned to walk down the street with a slight prance in her step. "It also helps when you act all docile and stuff: some of the people around here eat that stuff up." Cielo was doing an excellent job of weaving through the other pedestrians on the street, while Huo kept accidentally hitting the passing people with the edges of her bags. "I think we might need to clean out some of Terran's stuff to make room for my new–"
A loud screeching sound from around a corner cut Cielo off. "What the hell was that?" Huo asked. Down the street, she could see people gathering in curiosity.
"Somebody was probably just driving like a dummy and cut someone off," Cielo said. "Now, as I was saying–" The sound of a woman screaming interrupted her again, quickly followed by several bursts of gunfire. Cielo looked back at Huo. "Uh…"
"That's not bad driving," Huo said. Huo glanced over to Rein, then back at Cielo, and could tell they had all come to the same conclusion. The three of them quickly piled their bags in an alleyway, then took off running toward the gunshots. Huo tried to dodge and weave through the crowd like her teammates, but ended up having to just push her way through the groups of people running from the scene of the crime.
As they neared the corner, a multitude of people came running out of the street, screaming and looking over their shoulders in fear. Shit, what is this? Huo thought to herself. She slowed herself as she neared the corner, prompting Cielo and Rein to do so as well.
Huo glanced around the corner and froze in shock. "Oh god no," she said under her breath.
In the centre of the street were several black vans with open doors. Huo could see numerous people in dark purple hoods prowling the street, some breaking windows of shops and pilfering, but she wasn't concerned about them. Morgan was standing by one of the vehicles, talking sternly to a Faunus with a set of cat ears and a tail, all coloured lavender. Huo immediately hid behind the corner of the building again.
"This is a bad idea," she said to her teammates. "Come on, let's just let the cops take care of this."
Neither of the two seemed to like her plan. "We can't just sit here and wait!" Cielo argued. "It could take the police a while to show up! Something bad could happen before they even get here!" The sound of a woman screaming only bolstered her point. "Come on Rein!" she said before leveling her weapon and charging out into the street. Rein followed despite Huo's attempt to stop her. Huo cursed under her breath and chased after her teammates, desperate to stop them. "HEY!" Cielo shouted at the top of her lungs, brandishing her crossbow. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" She froze in her tracks as the purple-hooded goons Morgan had working for him lifted their weapons at her.
Huo felt her stomach drop as Morgan looked over to them. His eyes made contact with hers, and he grinned maniacally. "Oh, look what we have here: if it isn't a black sheep." He pulled out a small silver handle and poured out a pile of metal shards that began to take the form of a sabre in his hand. "I believe this is a violation of our little agreement." He looked to his right, at a figure that made Huo's stomach drop even further. "Now Ferrous, what would you suppose happens when someone violates an agreement?"
The grey-haired man was holding a young woman in one hand, holding a polished gold pistol to her head with the other. "They would have to suffer the consequences," he said flatly, then pushed the woman to Morgan. Morgan's blade broke apart, reforming itself into a heavy, antique pistol. He pressed the gun up against his captive's head.
"You see that girl with the red hair?" Morgan asked the woman. She nodded. "Good. Her name is Zhang Huo; she's eighteen years old, and is currently a student at Beacon Academy."
Huo could hear the sound of shifting metal, and saw that Cielo had expanded her weapon. "Stop it!" She shouted, unaware at how dangerous a demand that was. "Let her go!"
Morgan ignored Cielo. "Alright, now I just need to tell me: do you know who that is?"
"Zh-Zhang Huo," the woman said, stuttering in fear. "She's eigh-eighteen and is a st-st-student at Beacon Academy."
Morgan grinned. "Good." In one smooth motion, he pushed the woman onto the pavement, and leveled his gun at her. The woman began crying as Morgan turned his attention to Huo. "What did I say? You bother us; I kill someone who knows you." He fired of a round, and, after a loud shriek, the woman fell silent.
Cielo suddenly charged forward with a cry of anger, and Huo quickly reached forward and grabbed the short blue cloak that hung off of her shoulder. "Wait! Don't!" Huo yelled as she pulled the other girl back, just before the ground infront of them exploded. Damnit! I knew Khrysis was somewhere! Huo looked over her shoulder at Rein. "Did you see where that came from?" Rein nodded. "Good: attack him!" Rein silently confirmed the order, then ran to the buildings on the right side of the street. In one leap, Rein was halfway up the building, then used her scythes to claw her way to the roof, firing off shots behind her to boost her speed. Several of the purple-hooded thugs fired shots at her, but Rein was quick enough to avoid getting hit.
Huo ran at a group of the gunmen, landing a solid punch against one of them before drawing her sword to engage the others. One pulled his own sword on her, which Huo sidestepped with ease before kicking the weapon's wielder back so hard he dented the door of the vehicle that stopped him. She smashed her way through the final three by grabbing one of them by the shirt and beating his allies down with him, before throwing him through the window of a nearby shop.
A flurry of bullets shot past Huo's head, and she ducked down behind a car to avoid being shot. Huo took a deep breath, then put all her strength into lifting up the side of the car, until she managed to flip the vehicle onto its side, giving her more cover. She heard a lull in the sounds of bullets pinging off her cover, and took her chance to leap over the car and chard headlong at the assailants. Huo jumped and planted her feet in one thug's chest, slamming him into the ground. She turned back against the rest of the hooded men, parrying away sword strikes while dealing out her own. One of the swordsmen lunged at her, his weapon passing between Huo's body and arm. She caught his arm and spun him around, smashing him aggressively into the side of one of the black vans they had arrived in.
A flash of silver caught Huo's attention, and Huo managed to get her blade between Morgan's sabre and her body just in time to block his attack. "Enjoying my cannon fodder?" he asked. "They're costing me; please don't break them too much." He broke out of their stalemate and attacked again; thrusting forward with his sword, not giving Huo any time to retaliate.
She kept falling back. Shit! He's not letting me get a chance to absorb a hit! If it were a blunt object or a slash, Huo's Semblance would let her absorb the force of the impact, but the tip of Morgan's sword was too small a point for Huo to focus on while fighting: all Huo could hope for is a way to break Morgan's concentration. Her salvation came when a pair of sandaled feet suddenly smashed into Morgan's side, pushing him away from Huo.
"You okay?" Cielo asked, landing on her feet and spinning her halberd until it returned to its crossbow form before she leveled it at Morgan. "Sorry I took longer with my side."
Huo took a quick glance in the direction Cielo had come from, and saw numerous cuts in the road, a fallen streetlight, and no less than ten of the purple-hooded thugs lying in states of disarray. "No problem," she responded. "But watch yourself, this guy's not like the rest."
Morgan brushed off his black jacket, apparently more annoyed at the dusty prints than he was at being kicked. "Well now, I don't think two on one is that fair a fight," he said before grinning smugly. "Ferrous, would you like a chance?"
Huo immediately shoved Cielo to the side, then felt metal scrape against metal as a blade slide across the dark, red-trimmed armour Huo wore. She scrambled forward and brandished her sword at the suited man. In each of his hands was a butterfly knife, with gold handles and dark steel blades. The smiling, warm face of the man who had always played with her before she had run away was nowhere to be seen, replaced with cold, dead eyes and an emotionless expression. He's wearing glasses now, Huo noted, is he losing his vision?
"My, you've grown," he said. "What's it been? Eight years?" He looked at Cielo, who had her crossbow trained on him. "Leave child; it would be best for you to not get yourself caught up in this."
Cielo didn't move. "I don't know what your problem with Huo is, but I'm not leaving my friend with creeps like you."
Ferrous sighed. "Very well." He stabbed at Cielo, who managed to dash backwards in time for the edge of the knife to miss her. Huo realized his back was to her, and she gripped her sword with both hands and swung at him as hard as she could. Without even looking at her, Ferrous's second knife intercepted her sword, deflecting it away from his body. Ferrous spun around and smashed the knife's butt into the side of Huo's head.
Huo stumbled. Damnit! I knew this was a bad idea; I've never seen Ferrous lose a fight. She watched as Cielo tried to take down the knife-wielding serial killer: first with shots from her crossbow that Ferrous avoided with ease, then trying to attack with her halberd. Even though Cielo's weapon had a much longer reach, she was still unable to match Ferrous. She was a lot faster than Huo, vaulting around Ferrous with her halberd and striking out at him, but she still couldn't touch the grey-haired man.
Cielo swung at him, just missing Ferrous's chest with the point of her halberd. Ferrous hooked her weapon and pulled her towards him, then slammed his elbow into her chest and knocked Cielo onto her back. She groaned and tried to climb up, but Ferrous placed his foot on her stomach and held her down, then flipped his knife into a long golden pistol. There was a flash of black around Ferrous, and Huo heard a gunshot go off. When the black mist cleared, she saw that Rein had pushed Ferrous's weapon out of the way by hooking the barrel with a scythe. Her other hand held a second scythe up against his chest.
Ferrous almost seemed surprised to see Rein. "To think you'd be here as well," he said calmly. "I'm just having to deal with so much of the past today." Rein faltered at his comment, allowing Ferrous to break out of her hold.
He tried to slash down at her neck, but Rein flashed out of his knife's path. She reappeared several metres infront of him, then began throwing her scythes at Ferrous until she was only left with two. Ferrous deflected all of her throws, causing the cryptic black-and-silver scythes to implant themselves in the ground around him. Rein fired off the shotguns in her scythes' behind her and shot toward Ferrous.
Huo was grateful that Rein had come to their aide: the girl's ambidextrous fighting style was much more effective than Huo's hack-and-slash technique when it came to fighting Ferrous. The two of them where a flurry of blades as each one tried to cut the other. Any time Ferrous would stop one of her scythes, Rein would let go of the weapon and grab hold of one of its twins from the ground to continue her attacks. Even with her skill, Rein still never made a solid hit on Ferrous as the man always seemed to be just out of range of her blades.
A flash from a nearby roof caught Huo's attention, and she leapt back in time to see the ground she was standing on explode in a shower of asphalt. Huo could see smoke rising from Khrysis's position, and took a risk. He's a hell of a lot more predictable than the other two, she recalled. Even then, if I'm making a mistake, I'm probably as good as dead. She threw her fist forward, focusing her Semblance's absorption power on the space infront of her arm.
She guessed right, and one of Khrysis's heavy shells smashed into her balled fist, losing all of its momentum and falling harmlessly to the ground. Huo felt the surge of power flow through her arm and into her legs, then leapt into the air with the force of a cannon behind her. Huo easily cleared the height of the buildings, and managed to spot Khrysis hastily reforming the anti-material rifle in his hands into a sword as she came crashing down on the roof of a building several doors down from him.
Huo leapt up to her feet, brushing concrete dust off of her knee-length black shorts. "What's up fucker?" she shouted to Khrysis. "I see I'm taller than you are now."
The man dropped his five-foot-long blade beside him, then used the chain that attached it to his arm to fling the massive sword at Huo. Huo dodged backwards, the blade piercing the ground she had just been standing on. Khrysis wrapped the chain around his hand and pulled again, this time propelling himself towards his weapon and ripping the sword out of the ground, then swinging it over his head in a powerful downward slash. Huo held her own sword sideways and deflected the attack, taking her opportunity to ram the point of her sword into Khrysis's chest. The strike didn't break his skin, the dark black glow around the point of her sword proved that, but it was still more than enough to throw the killer back. Khrysis bounced off his back a couple times before flipping himself over and taking up a stance against Huo.
Huo charged into him again with her sword point angled at his face. Khrysis turned his sword sideways and allowed the point of Huo's weapon to pass through the hole in his blade before turning it in an attempt to disarm her. Huo smirked. He probably thinks he's clever, doesn't he? Huo allowed her sword to shatter, causing a look of shock on Khrysis's face before Huo slammed the empty hilt of her weapon into it. Khrysis flew back again, his sword clanking off of the roof as he slid.
She couldn't help but feel proud of herself. I know his tactical skill is shit, but I never would've guessed when I left that I'd beat the hell out of the man who was responsible for killing half of the Praetors. Her smug attitude left her when she felt a blade smash into the small of her back. What? I didn't see anyone else up here, did Morgan climb up? What happened to Cielo and Rein? Huo instinctively used her Semblance to absorb the rest of the strike, but could feel a hot trail of blood underneath of her shit. She spun around, throwing all of the force she absorbed into her fist and prepared to punch her assailant…
…until Huo saw that the person attacking her was a hooded girl she guessed was no older than twelve. What? Huo quickly corrected her fist, instead grabbing the young girl by the arm and pushing her towards Khrysis. Why is there a little kid up here? What's been going on since I left? The girl landed softly on her feet and slid back, still keeping a combat stance that held a wide, hilt-less blade and a pistol in her hands.
"What the hell are you doing, brat?" Khrysis spat out at the girl. "I thought I told you to fuck off!"
Now that the girl was further away, Huo could look her over better: she was dressed in tattered clothes, with a stripped hood over her head and a mask that started black in the centre and faded to white on the edges and was covered in a jagged pink design. "You're getting your ass handed to you," she responded.
Huo laughed. I like this kid. "Listen to her, Khrysis," she said mockingly. "It's too easy one on one like this." Huo took her chance to glance down to the street, where Cielo and Rein were fully engaged with Morgan and Ferrous. Cielo was fighting much more cautiously now, only countering when necessary and using her halberd to vault out of harm's way. Rein, on the other hand, was such a blinding flurry of scythes, gunshots, and black smoke Huo wasn't even sure what she was watching, yet Ferrous seemed to be keeping up with the girl without issue.All of the purple-hooded goons that Morgan had hired all seemed to be keeping out of the fight.
"Fuck you!" Khrysis yelled back. He was bleeding from a cut Huo must have made on his forehead, but it didn't seem to be bothering him. He picked up his sword and cracked the blades apart. The red blade of his weapon refitted itself into a high-powered rifle barrel, while the golden half of the weapon folded in on itself until it became the stock of Khrysis's massive gun. He leveled the gun at Huo and fired off another high-explosive round.
Huo focused her Semblance, and the shell bounced harmlessly off of her chest. "Man, you're dumb, aren't you?" Huo asked before pushing all of her built-up power into a headlong charge at Khrysis. Just before she tackled him, a red flash caught her eyes, and Huo's vision went white. She stumbled, then felt the cool, rough texture of the brick wall she ran through against her face. After shaking off her distortion, Huo noticed that she had broken through the wall of someone's apartment who was luckily away at the time, and was lying on the floor, covered in bricks, wood, and plaster. "Oh fuck me running," she commented to herself as she sat up and wiped brick dust off of herself. "That hurt."
"See?" the young girl noted from outside of the hole Huo had just made. "If I weren't here, you would've been that wall."
Khrysis turned to her. "I don't care! Just go back to your creepy boss and get out of my–" His sentence got cut short by Huo slamming her fist into the side of his face.
The girl watched Khrysis slide past her, shaking her head in derision. "Idiot." Huo took her chance to call back the shards of her sword, and pieced the weapon together just as the girl tensed and struck out at her.
The girl was fast, but wasn't trained to fight face-to-face. Huo parried, blocked, and dodged with ease, trying to figure out how to get herself out of the fight. She's just a little kid, I can't throw her through a wall like the other guys. The girl followed through too far with a slash, giving Huo the opportunity to hook her arm and knock her onto her back. The girl landed hard, and Huo could see her jaw tense in pain. She can't even protect herself properly, Huo noted. The girl rolled back onto her feet and held her weapons out again.
Huo sighed. "Give it a rest, kid," she said. "You're outclassed in this fight." Huo fished through her pocket and pulled out her Beacon scroll. "I don't know if my ass-hat brother said this, me and my friends are Huntresses in training." Even though Huo couldn't see the girl's eyes, she could tell that her status was something Morgan hadn't disclosed. "Just go. I'll tell my friends that you're not a part of this, but you have to leave. Now."
The girl tensed. "No."
"What?"
She gripped her blade tightly with both hands. "I'm tired of everyone treating me like a little kid! I can take care of myself! I don't need you to pity me!" The girl charged Huo again. Huo batted away her strike and gave the girl a swift shove. She skidded backwards, but managed to keep her balance. "Stop doing that!" she screamed. "Why won't you hit me like you did with Khrysis?"
Her question suddenly triggered Huo's instincts. Shit! Khrysis! Huo only managed to shield herself as one of Khrysis's shells exploded infront of her. She fell through the air and smashed into the street two storeys below. Damnit… Huo sat up, grimacing at the ache in her back. Right, the kid still cut me. Huo rolled to the side as Khrysis fired another round at her, then jumped onto her feet and braced herself for more shots to be fired.
Huo heard metal scrape against metal, followed soon by Cielo's halberd bouncing infront of her. She turned down the road and saw that Morgan had disarmed her teammate. Morgan pushed forward, able to focus only on offense due to Cielo's lack of a weapon. He raked his sword across her chestplate and followed through with a spinning kick to the side of her head. Huo noticed a light blue flash emanate from Cielo as the girl stumbled back from the blow, marking the last of her Aura's protective abilities. The sword in Morgan's hand began breaking apart, and he soon held his long antique pistol towards the stunned Cielo's head. Huo tackled Cielo to the side just as Morgan fired, and felt a spray of hot, red fluid across her face. After hitting the ground, Huo looked up at Cielo. Her right eye was wide in pain and shock, while the space where her left eye should have been…
Cielo's hands immediately covered her wound with both hands and began screaming in pain. Huo sprang onto her feet and held her sword out infront of her, the point angled toward her half-brother.
Morgan sighed. "Well you shouldn't've done that, now the poor girl's in pain." Rein skidded backward from blocking a blow by Ferrous and ended up beside Huo. Morgan began walking forward, and his elegant pistol dissolved into a flurry of shards that reassembled themselves into his sword. "So please, just move aside and let me end this civilly." The smug grin on his face disappeared at the sounds of sirens began to pierce through the sounds of commotion around them. "Well damn," he said to himself. "I guess our twelve minutes is up." Morgan turned to address the recuperating groups of purple-hooded thugs. "We're leaving; pick yourselves up and let's be on our way." Khrysis and the girl that Huo had fought leapt down from the roof and joined him.
One of the hooded men didn't seem happy with the order. "What are you talking about? We've got them right here!"
Morgan abruptly pointed the tip of his sabre at the hired gun. "It'll take us a few minutes to fight them, even with all of us; the police will show up well before that. God, think for once." Morgan stuck the tip of his sword into the bag on his hip and began to push the weapon down into it, disassembling the weapon. "Ashe, if you could please give us some cover, that'd be lovely."
The young girl nodded, and suddenly started glowing a bright red. Before Huo could react, her vision went white, with fractured patterns of red pulsating through it. Again? What the fuck is this? Through her blurred vision, Huo could see the figures far infront of her loading themselves into the hazy black rectangles that where their vans. Huo rubbed at her eyes until she could start seeing clearly again. She saw that Morgan and his hired goons had all but cleared out, and Huo let out a quiet sigh of relief before returning her attention to her wounded teammate. "Rein! Give me some of your bandages!" she yelled with hand outstretched. Huo felt Rein place the light blue linen in her hand, and she quickly wrapped the material around Cielo's eye socket. "Don't freak out, the police are on their way; we'll get you into an ambulance in no time."
Cielo's face was contorted in pain. "This sucks," she began. "I just bought a new pair of sunglasses too!" Huo smiled. She's gonna be fine. Huo made sure to help Cielo keep pressure on her wound until no less than nine police cars, three ambulances, and two armoured trucks arrived. After proving they were Beacon students and, more importantly, not the cause of the crimes they were surrounded by. Huo and Rein stood silently as a pair of paramedics rushed Cielo into the back of an ambulance and drove away, lights flashing.
"Why did the three of them have the same tattoo you do?" Rein asked quietly, as to not alert any of the authorities surrounding them. Huo's breath caught in her throat; she swallowed nervously, but said nothing. "Fine," Rein said. "But you'll have to tell us at some point." The girl stuck her hands in her pockets and left Huo to stand in the wreckage her brother had created.