A.N. (6/21/21) - This chapter was a bit of a struggle to write.
Argus (23) - Getaway
Everything was happening too fast.
Terra barely had time to react at first when a bunch of soldiers suddenly barged into the room where she and the faunus were. The only person who reacted was Huntsman Rhodey - the faunus huntsman who was held captive with the children. But he was quickly taken out once several soldiers shot through his Aura.
The absolute fear that she felt as Terra and the rest of the children were taken away was something she never thought she would expect to experience during her stay at the base. But it was even worse for the children, who seemed to have realized that their worst nightmares had become reality.
Something Terra noticed when they signaled her out to act as a hostage was that it wasn't random at all. They knew that she was close to Rin somehow... as if they had done their research on the younger girl.
Is this what you were running from, Rin?
But somehow, Rin had managed to not only free her but also save the rest of the children as well. And right now, they were currently escaping the base while the entire building was already under control by an enemy force.
"The Argus Military Base is split into multiple areas for various parts of their operations," Rin began explaining. "Right now, we're on Island A1 where the main base of operations is. What we need to do is head on over to Island A2, where all the airships are located."
It still shook her that even though Rin was only around half her age, she was taking charge of all of their safety as if it was natural. Again, Terra began to wonder exactly what kind of life Rin led that caused her to grow up like this.
Seeing that the other children were getting restless, she spoke up.
"So you're telling us that we have to not only escape the base without getting caught," Terra began. "But we also have to run out in the open in hopes that we make it to the airfield on another island?"
They exited the corridor and made their way into a large empty room, and Rin gave a reassuring grin. "Don't worry, they still haven't noticed that I've freed you guys yet. Hopefully, they should still be looking for me throughout the base."
Even Terra knew that Rin was just asking for trouble.
Right at that moment, the ringing sound of klaxon bells began filling the air accompanied by a flashing red light. A voice began echoing throughout the entire building.
"The asset has freed the rest of the prisoners," the voice yelled. "All units block off all exits of escape. We are initiating a full lockdown! I repeat, we are initiating a full lockdown!"
Terra raised an eyebrow in Rin's direction. "Still haven't noticed, huh?"
Rin glared at her. "Alright, so maybe they noticed us. But that doesn't change anything, we still need to head to the airships."
"I h-hear something," one of the faunus children raised their voice. He was cupping the large pair of long rabbit ears that shot from his head. "F-Footsteps heading o-our way."
"I see them," Rin said through gritted teeth. Dropping the faunus huntsman she was carrying gently on the ground, she began fiddling with something on her belt. "Terra, keep watch over them. I'll be busy for a minute."
"Wait, Rin—"
Too late, Rin had immediately shot forward with bright blue lines running down the limbs of her body. In an instant, the younger girl had reached the end of the hallway right as a group of soldiers rounded the corner.
Two soldiers tried to grab her, but Rin ducked past them and plunged further into the group. Lowering her body, Rin's leg shot out and swept several soldiers off their feet. Not only did their bodies fly into the air, but Rin followed up the attack by grabbing one of them and whirling the poor soldier around like a horrifying human version of a spinning top.
Needless to say, it was pure chaos.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"Take this!" Rin released the soldier and tossed him towards several others, knocking them to the ground. Turning around, Rin shot her fist forward into another man's abdomen with enough force to send his body flying. "Who's next?!"
"S-Screw this," one of them cried out. "Everyone, just shoot at her!"
The soldiers raised their guns and began firing, only for Rin to continue dodging the gunfire and closing in on the shooters. Raising her arms, Rin held up both hands and made finger-gun gestures pointed in front of her.
A barrage of black and red shot towards the soldiers, causing them to all cry out as they collapsed onto the ground. Within seconds, Rin closed in on the last man standing and knocked him out as well with a powerful palm strike.
As the last soldier's body slumped against the wall, Rin stood straight amongst the pile of unconscious soldiers lying at her feet. Turning towards them, she gave out a bright smile.
"Wow, that was fun. Now let's see if one of them has a Scroll that can help us unlock one of those airships?"
Everyone just stared at her in shock.
}-{
Thankfully for Rin, their group hadn't encountered any other resistance after that last fight.
Strangely enough, the airfield itself was unguarded by troops. Rin figured that it probably had something to do with the fact that most of the guards were engaged in making sure that they were able to secure the main base with all the numbers they could afford. After all, Rin doubted that there wasn't going to be some soldiers rebelling against those taking over their headquarters.
Worst case scenario, the soldiers who were in bed with the Allies would be kept busy by the other soldiers loyal to Atlas. But since Rin couldn't determine who was part of which faction, it was just better to escape with the rest of the faunus and Terra while they still could.
Using one of the Scrolls that Rin looted earlier, she was able to gain access to one of the airships. As everyone began to pour in and take seats in the back, Rin moved up to the pilot seats and began messing around with the underside of the control panel.
Those months of spending time under Lil' Miss weren't for nothing. It was only by pure luck that Rin had some experience in figuring out how to secure a getaway vehicle on the fly, whether that be a ground transport or something more airborne.
"Come on…" Rin muttered as her hands continued to fiddle around. "Don't want to let them catch up…"
The entire airship rumbled to life as Rin heard the engine roar. Getting up, Rin strapped herself to her seat and called out behind her.
"Everyone good?"
Terra entered and sat next to her. "Yeah, we're all good to go."
Rin didn't say anything else as she pressed a few buttons before she took the flight wheel and flew them off the ground.
Terra gave out a relieved sigh from right next to her. "Finally, we're free."
"We're not safe yet," Rin warned. "They still might try to pursue us."
A beeping sound caused the two of them to look down as several red dots began following after a green dot indicating their position. Both of them looked up and stared at each other.
"Correction," Rin said. "They are definitely pursuing us."
Terra was freaking out. "W-What do we do?!"
Before Rin could answer, Rin saw several blasts of energy fire past them and her eyes widened. Jerking the wheel, Rin dodged right as a volley of fire passed by where they previously were.
"They've got weapons!"
"Yeah," Rin replied. "I noticed."
"Shouldn't we be shooting back or something?!"
Rin looked down at the control panel and winced. "I don't think we have any guns. I'm pretty sure this is a cargo ship." After saying that, she pressed one of the buttons. "Just be glad that they have hard-light shields for protection against Grimm."
A blue shimmer washed over the ship for a second as a transparent shield formed around the ship. Right on time, as several shots from the pursuing ships landed on them.
The ship rattled as they continued to get hit, and Rin saw the energy gauge displayed slowly decreasing the more they were shot at.
She made a decision.
"Terra, take control. I need to thin the herd."
"What?" Her eyes widened. "Rin, I don't know how to fly one of these."
She quickly got up and pulled Terra into her seat. "Just keep it straight and don't let us crash for the next minute."
"RIN, DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!"
Too late, Rin pressed the door to open the cargo door and ran to the back. Passing by the faunus children, she smiled at them before she moved on and made her way to the back.
Since the shield was still up, there wasn't any wind as the back door opened up. Catching sight of three ships flying after them, Rin sighed as she knew that one bullet wasn't going to cut it.
"Terra, lower the shields on my command."
"What?!" Terra screamed from the front. "Are you crazy?"
"Just turn them off for two seconds," Rin yelled back. "I need a clear path. Don't worry, things will be fine!"
"Ugh, fine! But tell the kids to strap in their seat belts."
"You heard her," she turned to them. "Strap up, things might get windy."
Everyone hurried to follow her orders, and Rin noted that some of them even took the time to strap the huntsman down as well. Once she saw that they were okay, she turned around and bent her legs.
"Now!"
The shields flickered, and Rin's body shot forward as she jumped through the opening.
Flying through the air, her body started to crash towards the front of one of the ships. Angling her body, she instead managed to grab onto the top part of one of the ships instead.
Pointing her finger to the side, Rin began firing off as many Gandr shots as she could at the wings. The entire ship tilted as she saw it get blown off, and Rin quickly jumped to the next ship using her reinforced limbs.
Barely grabbing onto it, Rin's hand was gripping the bottom of a second ship. Pulling herself up, she saw the gun firing at Terra's ship and an idea came to her. Running across the roof, Rin's face clenched as she began pushing the weapon so that it began facing to its left.
And right as she moved it in place, she saw the gun aimed at the third ship and quickly destroyed its weapons and breaking their shield. The ship flew off and gave up on its pursuit once they realized that there was nothing left they could do.
Which left one last ship.
Running to the front, Rin broke the glass with her fist and jumped down where the pilot was. Before he could react, Rin shot a single Gandr towards him and knocked him out.
Grabbing onto the wheel, she took a few seconds to look for the right button. Pressing it, she moved back quickly as the seat shot upward and away from the ship as a parachute opened up a few seconds later.
Once she saw the chute open, Rin steered the ship so that it was directly underneath Terra's ship. Abandoning control, Rin jumped out of the ship and grabbed onto the bottom of Terra's ship. The ship she jumped out of soon veered off and crashed into the sea.
Climbing up, she knocked on the back doors and waited. A few seconds later, the cargo bay doors opened up and Rin quickly entered inside.
Making her way back to the pilot's seat, she swapped positions with Terra.
"See, what did I tell you? Everything was fine."
"I hate you," Terra muttered. "I hate you so much right now. You're crazy, you know that? You're completely crazy."
"Eh," Rin just smiled. "You need to be a little crazy to be able to do great things."
}-{
"You idiots," the man in charge of the Allies taking over the base yelled out loud. "How the hell did she escape all of us?!"
"Sir," one of them cried out. "We're receiving a call from the boss."
The man froze in place as he took in what the other person said. Quickly patting himself down and fixing his hair, he faked a wide smile on his face even as he spoke through gritted teeth. "Put him on."
"Yes sir," the other person replied. An instant later, the screen changed to that of an old man staring at them with an unamused look.
"Let me guess," the man began. "She got away."
"Y-Yes sir," the man hastily replied. "But don't you fear, we've taken control of the entire base already. Once we take control of all the unruly soldiers, we'll have our forces spread out into the city and look for her."
"Idiots," the man replied. "Did you not think of the possibility that she might decide to just leave Argus? And what about the assault force that's still outside of Argus? Once they return to the city, do you still think you'll be able to keep your forces stationed over the Argus base?"
"N-No sir," the man answered. "Which is why we'll move on to the next phase of our plan. A-According to the asset's psych eval, once we begin the next phase the target won't be able to leave without attempting to stop us. At least, that's what our men have been able to determine based on her personality."
"Hmm," the old man hummed. "Very well then, I'll give you all another chance. I want that girl caught and brought to me by the end of today. Or else I'll show you and your men what it's like to participate in my experiments."
The man's face completely turned white with those words. "D-Don't worry, we won't fail you, Sir!"
"You better," the old man said. "This organization means nothing in the grand scheme of my genius plans. Either you bring the girl before me, or I allow this… Allies of Humanity to dissolve."
"Yes, Sir!"
The call ended, and the old man turned around as he began to prepare for his upcoming guests. After all, he was quite excited to show off the latest results of his experiments.
"Oh yes," the man chuckled. "I admit, it's taken a few years to recover after the Glenn incident. But after this, nobody will ever forget the name Merlot again."
And once he captured the Tohsaka girl, then all of his plans will finally be complete.
I made up the idea that cargo ships from Atlas would have hard-light Dust to protect them from Grimm attacks. The technology made sense in my mind as something that people would have, even if there weren't any instances of such technology being used in the show. My headcanon is that only Argus and Atlas would have this kind of tech, and only certain ships are fitted with this tech since it's a relatively new concept. Rin just happened to come across one such ship on her escape.
Otherwise, I hoped that this was dramatic enough for all you readers. Again, I struggle writing fighting scenes since it's always a struggle to translate visual imagery into written words.
Oh yeah, and I've finally confirmed that Dr. Merlot was behind everything. I'm pretty sure I've already teased this a few chapters back, but this is confirmation. Now, go wild with the theories about what caused this change in canon.