So sorry for the time it took for this to come out! The end of my second semester and first year of college was something I had to put a lot more effort into once we moved online.
That and I lost motivation for a little bit. It happens.
At any rate, we're back again folks. Hope you are all doing well and that you're taking things easy.
Glad to see people excited for the new stories! Means a lot to me that you'd all be interested in reading more of my goofy work. More on those at the bottom.
Enough of me, I'll see you at the bottom!
He moved quietly, necessary considering his task. He rounded the corner of an alley, the heaters in Mantle casting an orange glow on his legs only when he walked close to them.
Mercury peeked around the other end of the alley, looking left and right quickly. After being sure he was safe he kept moving. He was on a time limit, needing to get this done in one night lest they lose the chance to reach the people.
Roman had sent Mercury down, stating that he would meet with one of Robyn Hill's 'Happy Huntresses' to start the first phase of their plan. He was in the place they had said to meet, ready for a fight as always. He was looking for a faunus, and was told the signal would be obvious. What did that entail though? Obvious how?
"COCKADOODLEDOO! CHICKIREE CHICKIREE! HOOTIE HOO! SQUAK SQUAK GOES THE HAWK!" a screech came from above him. It had him grimacing in pain from the volume and pitch.
He looked up and saw a young looking girl with white hair and a green jacket. She had a long pitchfork across her back and was taking a breath to holler at him again.
Before she could he used his new legs to leap up and land in front of her, slapping a hand over her mouth.
"What the hell was that!?" he hissed, "signals are supposed to be succinct and difficult to understand!"
She mumbled something and he rolled his eyes before taking his hand off her face. She rolled her jaw before looking at him as though she had done nothing wrong.
"I'm Fiona!" she greeted. He grunted, but didn't give her his name. That was suicide in the criminal world, and unless you trusted the person or you were famous, you never gave someone your name.
"You're the chick Robert Hell sent?" he asked. She puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms with a humph.
"It's Robyn Hill, and yes, I am," she said. He shrugged and took out a small slip of paper. She raised an eyebrow.
"What's that?" she asked. He opened the slip to its full length, just a normal sized piece of copy paper, and handed it to her.
"Get your other huntress friends to stake out these areas in the next week. It'll make all of our jobs easier," he said curtly. She looked over the crude map of Mantle, noting down the areas circled in red.
"And what's gonna happen in these places?" she asked. He smirked and shrugged.
"A little birdie told me that a string of crimes is about to start happening in Mantle and that having someone other than Ironwood's soldiers save the day will get the people singing those heroes praises," he said as he turned to leave. She ran forward and grabbed his wrist, but let go when he glared at her.
"What?" he asked, not really interested in the girl or her cause all that much. He was in this for the fun, and politics was definitely the opposite of fun.
"Are people going to get hurt?" she asked seriously. He said nothing, his face not even shifting from it's neutral glare.
After a minute he finally spoke up, his eyebrows spelling confusion but his eyes saying he knew everything.
"I'm sure they'll be just fine," he said, leaping to the next building before jumping off and out of sight.
Fiona sighed and looked back at the paper, taking a picture and sending it to Robyn. As always the woman replied immediately.
Fiona personally wasn't too happy with working with established criminals that had done much worse than just stealing, but Robyn had assured her that it was okay to commit crimes to win the election since Jacques Schnee had definitely done worse before.
What weighed more on her shoulders? Helping corrupt an election or the chance of Jacques Schnee winning?
That one was pretty obvious.
She left through the fire escape and made her way back to Robyn to tell her what the strange boy had mysteriously and vaguely told her.
Surely they wouldn't hurt anyone, right?
"Neo, I need you to go hurt people," Roman ordered as he looked his daughter in the eyes from across the table.
"Roman!" Glynda shouted, stomping a foot down.
"What?" he whined, "Trust me on this one, will ya? We're professionals at this!"
Neo looked all too happy to have a chance to go out and cause trouble again. Ruby gave her a scolding look, but she deftly ignored her and bowed theatrically to Roman.
"Roman, we are not sending Neo to hurt random, likely innocent citizens!" Glynda raged. He put his hands up.
"She's not gonna hurt anyone per say, just... rough 'em up a bit. Get them scared and needing a hero," he explained. She looked pissed still, but didn't move to shout again.
"Besides, you and Red have a part to play here," he said shortly after. Ruby immediately stopped pouting at Neo to look at Roman in shock.
"What!? I actually have to do crimes!?" she asked. He rolled his eyes.
"First of all, don't say things like 'do crimes' it makes you sound like a cop," he said and she deflated, "and second, yes, you do."
She let out a little 'aww' but Neo patted her back and gave her a thumbs up. Glynda just looked at him, unimpressed.
"And what are we doing?" she asked.
"Easy. While Neo, Merc, and the twins go around wreaking havoc, you and Red will be doing a little slandering of our good friend Jacques," he stated, stepping over a snoring Dante to grab a stack of papers he had printed out.
"Slandering?" she asked. Ruby had a finger to her chin, also confused.
"The man relies heavily on the fact that he can essentially buy the vote of the people up here in Atlas, so you two are going to change their opinions on the rich bastard," he explained. Glynda still looked lost.
"And how do you expect us two to do that?" she asked. He laughed.
"That's the easy part," he said as he straightened his coat, "you two are going to go around dropping off these."
He slapped the mountain of papers down and the two looked over them. Ruby looked at them in horror, the sight before her too evil to witness.
"So many numbers! Such a small font size! Are these... are these..."
"Tax reforms," Glynda uttered, glaring at the stack of papers as though it would kill her. She had seen her fair share of the forms in her time at Beacon.
"Not just tax reforms. Forged tax reforms," he stated proudly. He'd stayed up all night faking them.
"But... why?" Glynda asked. He walked over to the door and grabbed his cane, which had been resting against the wall.
"The rich love their money more than anything. Show them that dust is about to be a lot more expensive and that the stock will tank and they'll be a lot less friendly to our slave-driving friend," he claimed as he opened the door.
"And where are you going?" Glynda asked as she picked up the stack of papers, holding them away from herself as though they'd vomit all over her.
"To keep James and his little boy scouts busy the best way I know how," he stated.
"How's that?" Ruby asked. He laughed.
"Just setting the fires of revolution."
Yang thought herself fairly perceptive. It was hard not to be when your primary means of fighting was high-speed hand to hand combat with shotguns strapped to your arms. She knew her friends and family well, and she knew when they were acting off.
That's why she raised an eyebrow at the giant and clearly fake smile Ruby was wearing right now. Neo had noticed and nudged the reaper, but she had responded by smiling wider, earning a facepalm from the mute girl.
Yeah, there was definitely something going on there and Yang was willing to bet it wasn't just a lovers quarrel. She wouldn't be a good sister if she didn't stick her nose in her sister's business.
They had all gathered in the same meeting room they'd been starting their days in since they arrived in Atlas. It was where they prepped for the day's missions and tasks. Ruby, Neo, and Glynda had arrived a little later than normal, but Yang assumed that Goodwitch had found the two and dragged them here. Chew had walked in happily, Dante prowling his way in after the dog. That was its own can of worms and Yang needed to focus on her sister.
Now the real question was: did she put her on the spot here, in front of everyone or take her aside and ask her by herself? Ruby was bad when there were a lot of eyes on her but she was equally as bad when Yang gave her the 'big sister' look.
"Ruby, why on Remnant are you smiling like a lunatic?" Weiss asked suddenly, everyone turning their attention to the girl.
That worked too, the brawler thought to herself.
"What do you mean Weiss? I'm fine! We're all fine! And we're gonna go out and do hunter work!" Ruby said, laying it on way too thick. Most of them passed it off as the girls normal excited nature when it came to all things hunter related but Yang knew better. Apparently, so did Penny.
"Oh! But friend Ruby, your heart rate is incredibly high right now! Are you experiencing a cardiac arrest? I am equipped with built in defibrillators!" Penny offered, concerned for her friend. Her hands rubbed together, a high pitched whirr sounding as her hands charged with electricity.
"GAH! DON'T DEFIBRILLATE ME!" Ruby cried, hiding behind Neo who looked very betrayed that she had been demoted to human shield.
"Ruby, what's got you so on edge?" Yang asked, worried for her sister. She was normally hyper but this was... well this was just a tad strange.
"Um... uh... oh! Wouldja look at that! No time to talk right now!" Ruby claimed as she pointed towards the door where a group of people marched in. The girl sighed in relief as they all turned from her.
In that moment Neo flicked her in the temple. When the young reaper looked at her in shock Neo raised an eyebrow and looked at her pointedly.
Calm down babe you're scaring the kids, she signed. Ruby let out a sigh of defeat and hunched over. How did Neo and Mercury and the twins not freak out knowing they were doing bad things!?
The ace-ops filed in cordially, and Ironwood marched in behind them, standing at the front of the room. He gazed over the occupants and raised an eyebrow.
"Where's Torchwick?" he asked, looking to Glynda. She sighed and pushed her glasses up as Dante rubbed himself along her leg, an action that still put the cybernetic man on edge.. She dragged her hand along his head and back unconsciously.
"Roman decided that rather than assist us in the city or on the site, he'd rather roam the streets of Mantle looking for, and I quote, 'pimp activity' and then left. I haven't seen him for the last half hour," she told him.
The others all stared at her, nobody saying a word.
"O...kay then," Ironwood said slowly turning to the screen beside him, "well, we still have work that needs to be done and it needs to be done as efficiently as possible. If you'll look here we have a mission in the city that requires—"
He was cut off when a notification appeared on the monitor in the corner, a small alert exclamation point blinking. He narrowed his eyes and tapped the screen, redirecting the display to the news.
"I'm Skip Larson from channel three! We're here live on the streets of Mantle! A local bakery known for its outstanding charity has just combusted into flames, and emergency responders are doing their best to put the fires out! The cause of this fire is unknown..."
They all looked back at the general as the report became standard fare journalism. Blake was the first to voice her confusion.
"Why is a bakery fire cause for an alert signal?" she asked. Before anyone could reply, the anchor spoke up again.
"We have word another location has just caught fire! The park for the sick and elderly has also just burst into flames!"
Now they all started tensing. A local business catching fire was bad news for sure, but nothing that firefighters couldn't handle themselves without the aid of hunters. But two locations on fire? At the same time?
"Maybe we should—" Jaune was cut off by the reported speaking up once more.
"What!? The orphanage for specifically adorable baby animals has also caught—"
"OKAY WE'RE GETTING DOWN THERE!" Clover shouted, everyone getting up to run from the room to get to the city. Somebody was starting these fires and it was their job to stop them. The negativity from such a thing could bring a lot of Grimm into the city.
What madman could be doing such a thing to all these nice places!?
Ironwood broke off and headed towards the backup comms room, the first still a wreck from when they'd crashed a bullhead through it. He ordered them all to hurry while he got in contact with the fire department to work with his soldiers.
Glynda had a feeling she had just witnessed the fires of revolution that Roman had mentioned. She'd have words with him about them being literal fires later. She had brought the false forms with her and had them in a small bag that lay on her hip. She tapped Ruby on the shoulder and gestured to the bag.
The young reaper looked between the woman and the news rapidly. She tried forming words but couldn't seem to find any. Neo seemed to have the answer she wanted.
Don't worry about it, Roman starts fires all the time! If he wanted those people dead then they'd be dead! Neo said proudly. That didn't assuage Ruby the way she thought it would and Glynda rubbed her temples.
"I'm going to kill him," she mumbled before filing out of the room. She looked back and cleared her throat. Ruby eeped before running and catching up with the woman. Neo flipped backwards onto Chew and pointed forward, the dog barking before dashing down the hall. She blew a kiss to Ruby as they rounded the corner and joined the others.
"Does that mean that instead of helping we have to go do bad guy stuff?" Ruby asked. Glynda sighed.
"Yes Miss Rose, it would appear so," she groaned as she walked quickly down the hall. Rather than turn the way the others went, she continued forward. Dante strode next to her, circling between her and Ruby as they walked.
This went against everything she had ever trained for and believed in. She was a huntress, a teacher, and she was about to leave who knows how many buildings to burn. She had to remind herself that the alternative was God literally coming back down to Remnant and erasing all traces of the planet forever.
She held her resolve. If it meant the entire world had a chance at surviving, they could burn the entire kingdom of Vacuo.
Unless they burned themselves down first. You never knew with Vacuo.
They missed someone seeing them go in a different direction, and didn't hear or see when they followed them out of the academy.
Mercury made sure when their bullhead touched down that none of the others had landed near them. They had separated into teams and split up to cover the entire city. Whatever Roman was doing, he was doing it fast since on their way down four more fires were reported.
"So what are we doing?" he asked once he was sure they were alone. The twins made sure their new dust chambers were loaded before retracting their blades. Neo meanwhile pet Chew, who licked her hand happily.
"Roman said we had to make sure we can keep everyone busy and distracted until Goodwitch and Ruby are done and this Robyn Hill looks like a hero," Miltia said as she pulled out a bag and retrieved it's contents.
"Masks, huh?" he asked as she handed him one shaped like a silver skull. Hers and Melanie's were black and white cat masks, complete with ears and a nose.
Neo was the only one who didn't get a mask, but her semblance allowed her and Chew to look however she wanted. It was pretty funny when the dog barked before appearing as a motorcycle. A large helmet with a pitch black visor manifested on Neo's head as she hopped on the dogs back.
"So we just go and fuck shit up so these 'Happy Huntresses' get some PR?" he clarified. Melanie rolled her eyes from under her mask.
"Wreck street signs, toss trash cans around, take out people's sideview mirrors, hell you can push someone over as long as we don't actually hurt the civies," Miltia explained. He shrugged.
"Sounds like a Thursday night," he commented as he put the mask on and tapped his feet on the ground.
"Make sure that our people don't see you and that the cameras don't catch you. Even with masks, us three won't be able to stay hidden if they catch us," Melanie said. He nodded and they all set off, ready to make a scene.
Meanwhile on the other side of the city, Roman was smoking a cigar while talking to an older man.
"So you're saying if I let you set my business on fire you'll pay me triple what the original building was worth?" the man asked.
"Well you'll certainly get the money, but I'm not gonna be the one paying you," Roman said, having already told Watts his plan. The man would be wiring people 'insurance claims' that would come after this unfortunate mass arson.
"Hrmm, I don't know..." he mumbled, clearly skeptical. All of them had been but Roman offered the man the same out he'd offered all the other people whose livelihoods he'd burned down.
"Either I burn it down and you get money or I burn it down regardless and you get nothing," he said flatly, already having done this seven times before this.
"Well when you put it like that you can go right ahead!" the man said, afraid and stepping back. Roman tipped his hat to him and shot a flare through the window.
"Pleasure doing business with you. Don't worry about giving me your information, my friend will be sure to get the money in your hands," the thief said as he strolled away.
Now came the hard part.
Getting the Atlas forces attention was easy, they were a prideful bunch so light a fire here, throw some stones there and they'd be scrambling to show the world how well they could handle the situation.
The hard part was keeping the forces from actually helping.
Robyn and her Laughing Lesbians or whatever she called them would need to get the spotlight for this, which meant no ace-ops, no specialists, no general, and no huntsman could help here. This would be a pain in the ass but he was willing to bet good money this would do the trick.
"Okay Watts, let's see if you know your stuff..." he mumbled as he held up the scroll Watts had sent him via carrier nevermore.
He thumbed through it and looked over the encryptions. He needed to be somewhere central so this would do the most.
Luckily for him, he'd set his fires in a pattern. Not that you'd be able to tell from the ground or the news, but from above he'd been spiraling his way from the outskirts of Mantle towards the center.
He pressed the icon on the scroll. It grew hot and he tossed it up in the air, aware of what would happen next.
Hacking Atlas remotely would take too long and even if Watts was an expert, he was still just one man. He'd need time and enough distractions to hack the city by this point. That's why Roman hadn't asked him for a hack.
The scroll in the air surged with electricity before making a loud yet dull THUMP. A wave of static shot out and dispersed into the air. Roman looked around for a moment and waited, taking in the serenity, the burning building two blocks behind him not included, of the lights in Mantle.
Then all the lights went out, starting from where he stood and rapidly shutting down around him like a wave. While it was still morning, the cloudy nature of the Atlesian tundra made the entire city dark.
The screaming came next. One would expect Grimm to have arrived as well, but he'd asked Salem to hold them off while he did this. He needed Robyn to save people who weren't really in danger. Grimm killed, but he knew how not to kill people.
His real scroll rang and he picked it up. It was Qrow.
"Roman where are you!? The city's—"
"On fire? Ya don't say. I was down here when they started. I've been looking around since the second one popped up," the thief cut him off. Qrow grunted.
"The kids and the ace-ops are running around the city right now trying to find who's doing this. We also lost that bucket of bolts. Have you seen anyone who looks susp— what? What do you mean gangsters!?" Qrow was talking with Clover. Roman raised an eyebrow.
"What's going on now?"
"Apparently some unknown group of bastards has been spotted running around and terrorizing the streets. We're talking some real anarchy kind of stuff here Roman," Roman was simply checking his nails as he held the device up to his ear with his shoulder.
"Trash cans thrown through windows."
Check.
"People getting robbed and attacked."
Check.
"Cars being driven into shit with no thought!"
That one sounded improvised and definitely like Mercury. Check anyways, he supposed.
"We gotta get a handle on this before Grimm get into the city!"
"I'm on it. You tell the kids and Ironwood's boy scouts to handle the fires. I'll get Glynda and Neo's team to help me with these wannabe anarchists," Roman said. Qrow shot back his affirmative and Roman could hear him telling the others the plan. When he heard agreement he smirked. Too easy.
"Shit I almost forgot. Ruby must've bolted off once we got here and we were too busy trying to figure this out that we lost her. You have any lead on her?" Qrow asked him. His jaw clicked shut. Damn! He didn't have an excuse ready for this one! Red and Glynda were supposed to get away without anyone noticing!
"Uh, nope! Maybe she's chasing those guys you mentioned! You know how Red is when it comes to sticking her nose in criminal activity! I'll have Neo keep an eye out while we look for them!" he made up on the spot. Qrow seemed too focused on the chaos around them to read into it anymore. He thanked the crook and hung up.
Okay Robyn, any minute you wanna come out now, the thief thought to himself as he ducked into an alley. If the woman didn't follow through than he risked all of this for nothing!
Robyn watched as her Happy Huntresses helped another civilian to their feet. When Roman had said he'd cause a scene, she didn't think he'd meant he'd set a sixth of the city on fire and rob the other five sixths!
She recalled the map he'd sent her and pulled out the paper, looking it over. This was one of the areas and it was marked with a two. The one marked with one had been a burning building that they'd helped people out of.
This one was a seven car pile up that was also on fire. Seemed the crook had a thing for that.
She dreaded what the other locations held. According to the plan he'd given her, he would have some of his own people running around causing trouble for her to stop. When she'd asked what they looked like he laughed and said she couldn't miss them.
The person who just drove their motorcycle through the wall of a convenience store and out the other end looked like they might be one of those individuals. Oddly enough the motorcycle didn't make much noise. And was that a dog barking? Where was that even coming from!?
She made sure she had bolts with her so she could make sure to put on a good show with the person. Whoever Roman had hired, they sure knew how to make a mess.
Neo rubbed Chew's head as they crashed through a park, tearing through a tree and he bolted around the block. Or rather, what everyone else saw was a masked biker revving their cycle as they power drifted around the corner.
Damn she loved her semblance. It might not have made things real but it made for a damn good show.
On the roof of the buildings above she saw two women leaping from rooftop to rooftop and keeping track of her. Looked like those were the ones she was supposed to find.
She raised her hands to them and made a bird, moving her hands as though the hand-bird was flapping its wings. She caught their nods and made sure she drove towards an area that would have some onlookers.
Luckily for her, Chew ran right into the center of an intersection that had soldiers guiding lines of people to safety. Neo tapped Chew's armored head and he barked before running at the two soldiers standing side by side.
They only stood a moment longer before, much to the horror of the people they were leading, a motorcycle crashed into them and sent them flying through a window. They didn't get up, but the slight movement meant they weren't dead.
The person on the motorcycle was about to drive away when two women jumped from the roof of a nearby building and landed in front of and behind them. The cyclist leaned forward and the two tensed.
"All of you! Run! We'll hold them off! We have friends three blocks down and off of Main Street! They'll meet you and get you to safety!" one of the women shouted.
She dodged to the side as the anarchist shot past her and the motorcycle skid to a halt, turning and facing them both now.
"GO!" they yelled again. The people ran and shouted their thanks as the cyclist sped toward the two women again.
It slowed to a stop right in front of them as they leaned over to make sure none of the people were looking back.
"Um, are you one of Romans friends?" one of them asked. Her semblance faded away and Neo and Chew stood there instead. Neo smirked and nodded.
"Huh. Cute dog," the other commented. She puffed up proudly and Chew barked happily before her semblance covered her again and she nodded, Chew turning and running away.
"Okay, I guess we should make ourselves look roughed up," the two laughed at the situation and began making their way back to Robyn.
As Neo and Chew ran off to cause more trouble, she wondered how Ruby was doing.
Ha! Crime isn't that hard after all! Neo and Roman always made it sound like it was something you had to train at!
Ruby smiled as she dashed from mansion to mansion, slipping false documents and evil tax reforms into elegant mailboxes that easily cost more than her family's cabin.
This was easy! She thought you were supposed to feel evil while doing crime! This was more like running an errand. And Ruby was great at running so this was nothing!
"I see the look in your eyes Ms. Rose. While I'm happy to see you're not dejected in what is definitely an illegal act, do keep in mind that this is nothing compared to what Roman and the others are doing below us in Mantle," Glynda said as Ruby zipped back from the most recent mansion and grabbed another stack of forgeries from the woman.
Ruby grumbled at that. Let her have this! Neo already teased her about how bad she was at being bad!
Dante had been helping too, running around and dripping the papers in front of doors. Glynda smiled as he returned and pet him. Ruby asked the woman a question she had since that morning.
"Ms. Goodwitch? What if the rich people don't believe these? It's kinda weird that they'd walk outside and randomly find these and just buy it," Ruby said, head tilted.
At any other time Glynda would agree with the girl. This however was a question with a simple answer.
"Ms. Rose, where are we right now?" Glynda asked.
"Atlas?" Ruby said, confused why she had been asked in the first place.
"And what do you know about Atlas?" Glynda asked.
"That it floats!" she said. Everyone knew that!" Glynda nodded.
"Tell me Ms. Rose, do you think people rich and pretentious enough to live in a massive floating city care about money?" she asked. Ruby didn't even hesitate.
"They probably do!" she said. Then she went silent before the 'ohhhhh' came out.
"The people here will see any threat to their wealth as a very real offense," Glynda stated. She knew the type. Years as Beacon's secretary meant she had to deal with all the rich and spoiled children who thought throwing their money around could solve any issue that arose in the school.
Those were always some of her favorite students to put in their place. Normally through some act fear or threat. She sighed as she remembered those days. Simpler times.
Dante suddenly went on alert mode. Glynda noticed and her eyes narrowed.
"Is someone coming?" Ruby asked. Glynda held up a hand to silence the girl.
They waited for a tense moment. Neither said anything, both ready as the woman sensed a presence nearby.
"I... suppose it was nothing..." Glynda said, still on edge.
"But Dante still looks ready to pounce," the young reaper pointed out, the Grimm indeed looking ready to leap at something. It seemed that even he couldn't see it however, but his hackles were still raised as he scanned around.
"We should hurry then. If any soldiers see us while the others are all burning the city down we may be in trouble," Glynda said, rolling her eyes at Roman's plan as she and the young girl hustled to get the deed done faster.
As they did, they seemed to miss one thing.
The blur of bright green that frantically streaked away and towards Mantle. Whatever it had just witnessed was clearly enough to cause it to panic.
Rightfully so if what she just heard was right.
"Friend Ruby..." Penny mumbled as she flew back down to help save the people in Mantle.
Apparently from her own friends.
A short chapter for the first time since I started. Apologies but this is a setup for the coming events of this fic. Even today's omake is setup, I just couldn't find a place to put it in the main bulk of the story. The end is near.
And yes that's right, the end.
Not next chapter, or even the chapter after that, but very soon. I hope to finish this story before it's one year anniversary.
Onto the other two stories I mentioned.
Glad to see people excited for 'Talk About a Role Reversal'. I'm very excited to start getting into that story and I can't wait to hear from you guys once it starts going up.
As for the Monster Hunter story, I likely won't do two stories at once. I wanna make sure I'm giving my stories the attention they need and if I'm doing two that just won't happen.
Make sure to follow if you want to see more and favorite if you like the story! Thank you for your continued support and love for this! Reviews are greatly appreciated!
Have a wonderful time.
And don't bite off more than you can chew!
Omake: The Happy Huntresses 'save' the day
"I've vanquished you foul criminal!" Fiona shouted as she landed what was, to the untrained civilian, a devastating blow against the anarchist.
Mercury almost forgot he was supposed to be hurt, catching himself before toppling over and holding his arm tightly.
"You bitch! You and your Dandy Dancers or whatever will pay for this!" he said, clearly not even trying to sound hurt or halted in his evildoing.
"It's 'Happy Huntresses'!" Fiona stomped. He rolled his eyes.
"Mommy is the bad man gonna go to jail and die?" he heard a child ask their mother. What kind of question was that!?
"I hope so sweetie. For now stay close to mommy and let the kind woman save us."
What kind of answer was that!? I hope so!? What ever happened to rehabilitation!?
"Now come quietly or face the might of Robyn Hill and her huntresses!" Fiona said, putting a ton of extra emphasis on Robyn's name. Gotta sell the people on it somehow, he supposed.
Hopefully the twins were putting on a better show.
"Was that too much?" Melanie asked the woman on the street. She groaned as the twins looked over her.
"A-aren't you two supposed to lose the fight?" she asked, sore from the savage beating she had received from the two girls.
As if remembering just then they both threw themselves backwards and held each other close, like children afraid and gripping one another for comfort.
"Y-you! Curse the huntresses of a like, surely powerful and strong leadership figure!" Miltia shouted, the onlookers blinking.
Was that the huntress's semblance? We're the two girls beaten that easily?
The woman realized it was her time to sell the show so she cleared her throat and stood, still miffed that the twins had actually fought her and laid her out like that.
"That's right! Robyn Hill won't stand for people like you trying to ruin our city!" she said valiantly.
The people watching cheered.
Idiots, the twins and huntress thought in disappointment.
"We'll be back to terrorize these people again! Like, mark our words!" Melanie yelled.
"Like, totally!" Miltia added. The two then used their weapon's new functions and slashed them together, creating a bright flash and leaving while everyone was blinded.
That was a shitshow. They both said as much.
"Think that's enough?" Miltia asked. Melanie shrugged. That was the third time they'd been 'defeated' today.
"Maybe," she said as they removed their masks and crushed them, tossing them away. Would this really make a difference?
Robyn looked at the screen in shock.
What an astronomical difference this had made.
It seemed as though the rich people in Atlas had a change of heart too.
The election progress was displayed brightly in front of her.
Jacques Schnee: 21%
Robyn Hill: 79%
"I can't believe this worked," she mumbled. And to think.
They said cheaters never prosper.