Chapter 13: Cold blooded killers.
Somewhere in Mistral
A few dozens of huntsmen were gathered inside of a secret bunker. They seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive. A man then lost his patience and said.
"Okay, where the HELL is he!?"
"That's it! If he is not here in five minutes, I'm leaving." A woman declared.
As soon as she said that, Kano and a masked man walked in. The said man had brown, neck length hair and some sort of breathing mask and red visor. He was wearing a fur coat on the outside and some sort of armor on the inside along with green pants and a pair of brown Kevlar boots. His weapons were a pair of hook swords lying across his back.
"Sorry, ladies and gents! Kabal and I were a bit busy with some things. It's all good now." Kano declared while Kabal remained quiet.
"Mind telling me why the hell you brought us here in this bunker. Like, not to be rude or anything but this bunker is in the middle of Mistral's destroyed land." A woman asked.
"Good question, love! That is the reason why Kabal and I are personally talking to you. This is about your next job. Kabal? Wanna do the honor, mate?" Kano looked at his partner and asked.
"Alright. Listen up, you're all fired." The masked man stated nonchalantly.
This statement filled the crowd in rage. Some were throwing swearing and cursing at the two.
" YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN CUT OUR FUCKING PAYMENT JUST LIKE THAT!?" A man screamed.
"Oi, OI! I said nothing about not paying, mate! Relax, will ya?" Kano calmed the crowd down a bit before continuing.
"It's just that contracts are making us trackable, so we don't use that anymore. Now, we will pay y'all up front."
Silence filled the room before a woman asked.
"Is that all?"
"Oh, dear! Sorry love, I almost forgot the most important thing!" Kano said as he put on a Cheshire cat grin on his face.
A few seconds after he said that, the metal doors behind them closed, locking everyone in the room.
"Hey, wha-"
Before the man could even finish his sentence, he and a few people got cut in half by a powerful laser beam. Some opened fire at the two but Kano hid behind covers while Kabal deflected the bullets and chopped off the closest huntsman head. He then continued his assault by ducking to dodge the bullets and cut off the legs of a few more people.
Kabal used his speed semblance more fluently than any other huntsmen or huntresses alive. He was so fast that none of the huntsman and huntress in that room saw any of his movements. All they saw was a streak and the next thing they knew was getting their bodies mutilated.
A woman tried to shoot at the speedster with her rifle but before she could even pull the trigger, a crimson knife went through her neck. She choked in her own blood before her body limped away. A few turned towards Kano, who was closing in really quickly. He sliced the throat of the nearest huntsman and jumped to his right to dodge a spear hit.
The trickster then plunged his left knife into the head of a huntress and quickly took it out and threw the knife at a huntsman to his left. The three huntsmen to his right were trying to shoot at him but he ran to his right and used his cybernetic right eye to cut them in half with a laser beam.
Kano then turned around and saw a huntsman swiping left with an axe. Kano side-flipped to his left to dodge the blow and back-gripping his right knife and took out three more knives from his back pocket while he was still on air.
As the cyborg landed, he stabbed his right knife into the back of the axe wielding huntsman and threw the knives in his right hand, killing three people standing in front of him.
Kabal sliced in an x formation to decapitate the man in front of him. He then turned around to deflect the bullets coming from a woman with a shotgun axe and a man with an assault rifle with a chainsaw attached in the front. The speedster then ran at them while deflecting the bullets and stabbed both of his swords through the woman's guts. As the man continued firing, Kabal used the woman as a human shield and waited for the gun to run out of bullets.
As soon as a familiar click was heard, the speedster twisted his swords and ripped the woman's torso and lower half apart. He then brought his right hook blade down upon the man, to which he blocked the hit with the body of his gun, only for it to be cut in half smoothly. The man looked at his weapon in fear before looking up to see Kabal's left hook blade decapitating his head.
The metal doors then opened for dozens of Black Dragons members to pick up the body and bring it to the machine room. The room had many equipment and devices that allowed them to cyberize people.
"Alright, people! Heads to the left and the rest to the right! Bodies that are still intact go to the front! Chop! Chop!" Kano ordered.
"So,... This is what we need for the cyber initiative?" Kabal asked.
"Of course. We just need the huntsmen brains for the fighting program while we gather dead bodies for the initiative." The trickster answered.
"And how are you planning on keeping the bodies from rotting away?" The speedster asked again.
The cybernetic leader of the Black Dragons gave him a smirk before pressing a button on a door, which opened to reveal hundreds of frozen corpses being hung by circular devices and hundreds more lying on the floor.
"Already taken care of." Kano said.
The Lin Kuei temple
The two cryomancers were walking along the corridor leading to a small room. Inside, lay a thin, elderly woman with short, spiky white hair with dark blue eyes similar to the two cryomancers. She was wearing a white outfit and a green outer coat. The two then sat down on their knees next to the woman on her right.
"Mother." The elder Sub Zero called out.
"Wang Lei? Is that you?" The woman asked.
"No, mother. It is us, Bi Han and Kuai Liang." The younger Sub Zero answered.
"My, my. Sorry, Bi Han. My mistake." She apologized.
"It is alright mother." Bi Han shrugged it off.
"You look just like your father in that outfit." The woman smiled as she raised her right hand to touch the left side of Bi Han's mask.
He raised his left hand to touch his mother's hand and looked down. The woman then turned to the younger Sub Zero and smiled.
"You are your brother's second in command, Kuai Liang. Listen to your brother and help him with whatever you can. You two have to take care of each other for it is a cruel and dangerous world out there." She said as she looked at the two.
"We will take that lesson to our hearts, mother." The grandmaster said as he put his right hand onto the left side of his chest before continuing.
"We have received an invitation from an ally. He wanted to talk to me face-to-face, so I will be away for a couple of days. I came here to inform you that so you need not to worry about me."
The woman only nodded as they bid her farewell and left the room. The two walked for a good amount of time before Kuai Liang asked.
"Are you sure that this 'James Ironwood' is trustworthy?"
"Personally, no. He seems to be a man of control. Even if he is our ally, we should still try to keep an eye out for him. Speaking of which, he's here." Bi Han declared.
The two then looked up at the airships as they slowly descended. A man then walked out of the ship and approached the brothers. He then raised his right hand for a handshake as Bi Han firmly grabbed his hand.
"Hello, I am general James Ironwood." He informed.
"Sub Zero, Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. Please, come in. I will have the tea ready." The elder brother offered.
"Thank you, Grandmaster. I intend to have a quick conversation about your mother, Fria." Ironwood nodded.
"Kuai Liang, go help Cyrax and Sektor with the Grimm. General and I will have a conversation inside. Do not bother us, unless it is urgent." Bi Han ordered, to which his brother immediately followed.
LINEBREAK
Erron was walking in the crowd of evacuees, looking for the two particular children until he heard a familiar voice. He quickly turned around to catch a flying pink blur.
"ERRON!" Nora screamed as she clung to him tightly by the neck while Ren hugged him by his waist.
"Hey, kids. Told cha I'd be back." Erron said as he let out a small chuckle.
"And I've never doubted you once!" Nora declared.
"You continuously made up fake scenarios of what we would do if he doesn't come back." Ren deadpanned.
"Hush, Ren. Don't ruin this moment." The bubbly girl glared at the young boy.
"By the way, how did you come here, Erron?" The green shirt wearing boy asked.
"It's a long story." The young Black said.
"Meeting us isn't really a long story." The three turned to see a certain raven haired huntsman.
"What happened?" Nora asked.
"Well, kids. It seems like your brother here got a new job. One with stable payment." Qrow said as he took out a flask and started drinking.
"Really?" Nora asked the cowboy with a raised eyebrow.
"That's good to hear." Ren stated.
"Not really,... Good actually. This job just means that I'll have to travel more. So, this means you two will need to be more independent. I won't be able to make you pancakes for breakfast every morning anymore." Erron said as he pry Nora off his neck before putting her down.
Her hug is tighter than before. It would seem that the training they got in Signal is paying off. He smiled at the thought. Ren gave him a thumbs up in approval while Nora collapsed on her knees dramatically like it was the end of the world.
"We are leaving in five. Gotta go check on my nieces real quick." Qrow informed the cowboy, to which he nodded.
This chapter and the last one was the opening for the next arc so stay tuned guys. The next arc is going to involve a hella lot of plot twists.