Blake peered over the edge of the rooftop, keeping an eye on the dust shop across the street, "Is everyone in position?"
"For the tenth time, Blake. Yessss," Yang's voice replied back over their comms, feigning annoyance. You could always tell when Yang was actually upset, or just pretending to be. One had a lot more fire involved, both in looks and voice.
"Aye aye, el capitán!" Violet had used a different response every time she had asked, half of them barely recognizable as meaning 'yes'. Blake at least understood what 'aye aye' meant.
"Ruby?" Blake asked into the following silence.
"Oh-uh, sorry! I was pressing the wrong button! Everything's fine over here."
Their team had spread out across half a dozen streets in Vale for two nights now, creating a web of eyes to keep a watch on six different dust shops. Now they were just waiting for the robbers to fall into it. They had stolen from nearly every other dust shop in Vale, pushing their way out of the warehouse district, or so it seemed. These six shops were the most likely to get targeted, or at least they hoped so. Last night had been a total bust. No one had been robbed, but Blake and Violet had managed to convince the sisters to come out again for another night.
Blake shivered in the light wind that blew over the rooftops, and sighed. So far tonight had been another bust. It was getting late, nearly midnight, and there hadn't been hide nor hair of their perpetrators. 'Maybe they already collected enough dust.' The idea didn't bode well. Their only other lead was that it seemed as if they were coming from the warehouse district, but that district was huge. It would be completely impractical for four girls to scour the entire thing. More likely if they brought team Siren into it, but even then… 'There's too much ground to cover. This is our best bet.'
Still, it was late, and they had classes tomorrow. Blake hadn't even done her homework yet. She'd been too focused on planning the investigation and looking into which stores had been hit already. Blake brought her radio back up to press the button down, ready to call it a night. Her finger froze over it, though. The quiet street had been interrupted by the sounds of an approaching vehicle. Blake let the radio fall back down and crept back into the shadows of the rooftop she was on. A black, unmarked van came around the corner, windows tinted, and pulled up in front of the dust shop across the street.
"I think I have something over here. Hold on," Blake said, pulling her radio back up quickly to whisper into it.
The van had parked directly in front of the shop. The driver's side was angled towards her, but with the tinted windows, she couldn't tell who was driving it. Blake heard the sliding door on the other side of the van open, along with the front passenger door. The passenger door slammed shut, and Blake could see orange hair capped with a black and red bowler's hat just over the top of the van.
"It's Torchwick," Blake followed up her previous message. Ruby had given them a description of the man when they were considering other culprits. Blake breathed out a sigh of relief. The other girls radioed back, letting her know they were on their way. "It's not the White-" The thought was squashed down brutally as she saw members of the White Fang stepping out of the back and side of the van, weapons in hand and masks on their faces.
Blake's feet hit the street below before she had even thought to move. She drew Gambol Shroud from her back as gunfire rang out ahead of her. The sound of metal piercing glass told her they had shot out a window. Blake vaulted the van, taking in the scene in front of her the moment before her foot connected with a White Fang member's head. He flew forward, landing in a heap on the ground. 'No aura. Better for us, then.'
Torchwick spun in place at the sound, bringing up his cane gun. 'Seriously, how dapper is too dapper?' Blake left a clone, and shifted in a roll to the side. Torchwick didn't fire, though. He would have shot the van they just came out of.
"You're not the one I was expecting. Is your little friend here?" Torchwick asked, giving Blake a frown. His eyes darted up and down the street. 'Does he mean Ruby?'
Blake took that moment to pounce, crossing the distance and swinging Gambol Shroud at his chest. "Tch, rude much?" Torchwick taunted, his cane came up between them in an instant, faster than Blake had counted on. She was forced to leave a clone and flip backwards as two of the White Fang's swords slashed down at her from either side. The White Fang charged at her recklessly, untrained and full of openings. Blake waded into the frey, dodging their swings even as she countered. A clone here, backflip into a kick there.
As much as Blake had denounced the White Fang, though, she couldn't bring herself to do any real harm to them. They were still faunus, her past brothers in arms, and they had no aura. Her attacks were only meant to debilitate, but holding back was making it much more difficult. Pulling her punches, only dealing blows to nonlethal parts of the body, was taking too much concentration. Blake didn't notice quickly enough when Torchwick stepped through the crowd around her.
His cane came down across her back, knocking her forward into one of the White Fang that she had been dodging away from. His sword carved across her chest, aura sparking from both of the massive blows. The two attacks knocked her off balance and sent her to her knees. In desperation, she activated her semblance again, this time intent on escaping the group. Blake heard a shot as she rematerialized and felt the shock wave of heat wash over her as she was blown off her feet. Blake was propelled through the shop window by the blast, glass shattering around her. Shards raked across her aura as it flickered and broke under the strain. She rolled back into a crouch as well as she could when she landed, eyes darting up to see Torchwick cockily strolling in through the front door. He raised his cane again, aiming it at her feet.
"Now, tell me where your little friends are."
"Right here!" With a blast of Crescent Rose, Ruby blurred through the hole in the window that Blake had made, massive scythe already deployed and screaming towards Torchwick's chest. He was forced to throw himself backwards out of the way in a panic, back into the street where the rest of the White Fang were.
"Nice to see you too, Red!" Torchwick replied haughtily, pulling himself back up and brushing himself off. Ruby didn't follow, but stood her ground in front of Blake, scythe at the ready. Blake stood back up shakily. Her aura was broken, her arms and legs dripping blood from the cuts the glass had made when she fell.
Torchwick's eyes narrowed as he took in the situation, "I guess I'll call it a night for now." He motioned for the White Fang to get back into the vehicle. They hesitantly followed his silent order, many of them limping or holding wounds as they got back in the van and slammed the sliding door shut. Ruby's body lowered into the stance she always adopted before one of her semblance infused dashes. Blake put a hand on her shoulder, "Not without the others."
Torchwick had tensed up, but now eased as he opened the passenger door, "Enjoy this little victory while you can. The shops were drying up anyway, and we've got bigger fish to fry!"
Blake got a brief glimpse of the driver before Torchwick had climbed in and shut the window tinted door, blocking off sight. The van roared back to life as it took off, leaving a small column of smoke in its wake.
Blake dropped back down to a knee, breathing heavily. She was a mess. There were several shards of glass sticking out of her body in various places, not all of them had just cut across her as she rolled over them. Yang arrived a few moments later, eyes going red and hair exploding up past her shoulders as her eyes took in Blake's wounds. Furious red eyes darted down the street, but the van had already turned the corner, far out of reach for any of the three.
"Where's Violet?" Ruby asked into the silence.
Violet hummed along with Zenith as it reached its peak charge. She had been the furthest away from Blake, but heard the van as it approached the street she was on. It would cross the intersection in front of her soon enough, and she was waiting for it.
The black tinted van came roaring down the street. A smile twisted Violet's face as she pulled the trigger.
'Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.'
The shot caught the van directly through the front engine compartment. The force of it blasting a hole straight through to the other side and whipped the van sideways, tires catching in a direction they weren't made to spin, flipping it on its side. It screeched across the road, sparks flying in all directions before it finally came to a stop forty feet later, billowing smoke out of where the engine had been only seconds before. Violet approached leisurely as White Fang members climbed out the 'side' door and out the back, clearly dazed and disoriented.
"What in blazes was that!?" Torchwick yelled, pulling himself up out of the vehicle. His eyes settled on Violet, but she had already transformed Zenith back into its greatsword form. She couldn't use it again so soon anyway. The only sign that it had been her weapon to fire off the shot were the small vents that had opened up along the blade, usually hidden, but now allowing the heat trapped inside to poor out, ventilated by the wind dust that circulated within.
Torchwick grumbled, eyes narrowing as he kept them on her and dropped off the side of the van. The White Fang had finally recovered, although some of them were still wounded, likely from a fight with against the others. Torchwick's eyes looked over them, his confidence rising when it appeared that Violet was alone against all of them. "Well? Get her."
Violet smiled as they charged. This would be all too easy. She let them run to her, leaving Torchwick thirty or so feet away as the fight began. Violet didn't want her friends to think she was a murderer, and killing these White Fang here would certainly upset Blake, but where Blake had to hold back while using a smaller weapon meant primarily for slashing… Bones broke under the weight of Zenith's strikes, as Violet used the flat of the blade with reckless abandon. The White Fang members screamed in pain when she hit them, immediately disengaging as they nursed shattered collar bones and arms. Several of them went down in a heap, unconscious in seconds from glancing blows to the head. The last few backed up, looking to Torchwick uncertainly. They fled, not willing to risk his ire or fight the crazed teenager with a greatsword.
Violet started walking towards Torchwick again, keeping a slow but confident pace. She halted, though, as a mess of brown and pink hair popped out of the passenger door, followed by a pair of eyes that promised murder. Violet kept the confident smile on her face, even though she was reconsidering the situation in her mind. 'Torchwick I can take. Torchwick and Neo?' She didn't like her chances. 'I'll try and throw them off. Make them think I really can take both of them. Hopefully they'll just run.'
"Ah, Neo! Great to see ya. Sorry, I didn't know you were in there," Violet slipped her smile into a mocking grin, digging Zenith's point into the road in front of her to lean against as she had with Cardin.
"Do you know this girl, Neo?" Torchwick gave her a questioning look. Neo's face went from pure murder, to a frown. She turned to Torchwick and shrugged, clearly confused by the development.
"She doesn't, but I know her well enough," Violet interjected with a sigh and leaned harder against her greatsword, "It appears we are at an impasse. Even with the two of you here, you can't beat me. Unfortunately, with Neo's semblance, I can't catch you either," Violet shrugged, "Let's just call this night a wash, eh? You didn't get your dust. I failed to capture you."
"You seriously think you can take both of us?" Torchwick brought his cane up threateningly, but Violet could see the doubt in his eyes. 'Good.'
"Well, I would want to take you in alive... If you force my hand, though," Violet switched Zenith back into its railgun form and dropped a shot into it, letting it charge menacingly, "You could press the issue and end up as a red stain across the top of that van behind you." She added a smile for good measure as she leveled Zenith in his direction.
Torchwick eyed her gun. It was still steaming, but the lightning dust had enough of a charge left in it to spark between the coils. 'Its his first time seeing it. He can't tell it's charge is low.' His eyes flicked back to the foot wide hole punched through the van's engine and the smoke that still billowed up out of it.
"Neo… Let's go."
Neo nodded, even though Roman wasn't looking at her. She grabbed his hand, bowed to Violet with a cocky grin on her face that she had to have learned from Torchwick, and a moment later, shattered into glass onto the pavement along with him.
Violet shifted Zenith back into its greatsword form and returned it to her back, feeling like Yang's catchphrase was the only appropriate way to describe events.
'Well that was a thing.'
The police had arrived before the White Fang members regained consciousness, but Violet didn't stick around to be questioned. She did not want to explain the giant hole left in the shop that had been on the other side of the van. Nor the hole in the building after that one, or the building after that one… Thankfully no one had been hurt by the blast, but Violet still chided herself for being so careless. She'd been too caught up in the moment to consider the collateral damage Zenith's path might cause. 'Damn it Spruce Willis.'
Their team was back at Beacon, in their dorm. Violet had just finished picking the glass out of Blake's wounds to wash and bandage them. Ozpin would know who had fired the shot once he heard about it on the news tomorrow, but she wasn't eager to tell him herself, and Blake going to the hospital wing would draw his attention too soon. Blake's aura had started to recover by the time they got back to their dorm, anyway. The bandages were just there to slow the bleeding until her aura could patch her up properly. Blake thanked her and they headed back out into the dorm, where Yang and Ruby were pacing. Their eyes lit up in worry at the sight of Blake in bandages.
"I'm fine guys, really," Blake smiled and waved for them to calm down. They both did with a sigh, sitting down on the lower bunk beds. Ruby on Violet's and Yang on her own.
"Blake already filled me in on what happened at the shop," Violet told them, as she and Blake moved in front of the window, both backed up against the bookshelf.
"What about you?" Ruby asked, letting the question hang in the air.
"I took out the van and fought off the White Fang that came after me," Violet replied. At a look from Blake she continued, "I broke bones and gave a few concussions, but they'll all live. Torchwick escaped after that. He has a brown and pink haired midget with him that can create glass illusions. I wasn't able to follow them after they vanished." Violet shrugged, raising her hands, palm up in a 'what can you do' motion.
"This might have been our only chance," Blake mumbled loud enough for them all to hear.
"What do you mean?" Yang asked. She hadn't been there to hear Torchwick's parting words.
"Torchwick said they were on to bigger fish since the shops were drying up," Blake answered, brows furrowing in concentration as she tried to remember the exact wording he had used.
'Do I want the fight at the docks to go down? We should be able to handle it, even with Neo there, and I know exactly where it'll happen. I just need to come up with a reason why I would know…'
Violet slapped herself on the forehead, drawing the rest of the girl's attention to her before pulling her Scroll out of her pocket and pulling a certain webpage back up. She tossed it to Blake, who caught it deftly and looked over the screen.
"Weiss wasn't kidding, that's a lot of zeroes," Blake replied, not sure what she was supposed to be looking at.
"No, no, look at the date," Violet replied, reaching over to scroll down the webpage and point out the delivery date, "My dust cells are coming in tomorrow, probably along with another shipment of dust from the SDC. What did Torchwick tell you? That they were going after bigger fish? It sounds to me like they're going to attack the docks to go after the shipment directly." Blake's eyes widened, as did Yang and Ruby's as they considered her words.
"That's a lot of dust," Yang chipped in with a forced laugh.
"Which is exactly why we can't just let them have it," Violet finished, turning to look at each of them in turn. They nodded, somewhat hesitantly.
"We'll just have to go down into Vale early after classes tomorrow to avoid Ozpin, scope the place out, then sit and wait while we keep an eye on the place."
They nodded along with the plan, but Violet saw Yang's head tilt when she brought up Ozpin, "And why exactly are we avoiding Ozpin?"
"Ehhhhh, you've seen what happens when I fire Zenith off, right?"
"Yeahhhhh," Yang's face grew worried.
"I maayyyy have not thought about that when I shot the van. And that shot may have gone straight through it and then through… a few, buildings behind it."
Their faces all betrayed the shock they felt as they stared at her, wide eyed. Violet raised her hands in a placating gesture, "Nobody got hurt. I made sure of that before the police even got there. It was just, you know, property damage."
"How could you be so careless!?" Blake glared at her from a foot away.
Violet put a hand on her shoulder but looked at Yang instead, "I blame Spruce Willis. He's a bad influence on my young, impressionable mind."
"Wow, and I thought Blake was the terrorist," Yang laughed. She sobered up when Blake's glare whipped in her direction, "Ex-terrorist, my bad."
"As long as no one was hurt," Ruby chipped in, "Just be more careful next time."
"Eh, I only have two shots left anyway, and I'll be stuck like that for a while if we let Torchwick get that shipment," Violet replied. Her hand moved off Blake's shoulder and rubbed her back, trying to comfort her. Blake's glare softened, the tension in her body fading away under Violet's hand. 'Did I find the kitty's sweet spot? Normally that's behind the ears...' Violet idly let her hand continue its motion across Blake's back as she turned her attention back to the conversation.
"Alright, so we go to the docks, save the shipment, capture Torchwick, and get home in time for dinner," Yang nodded along to her own version of how she thought events should play out.
"I doubt he's going to attack the docks that early. We should probably get dinner on the way and be home in time to get enough sleep before classes tomorrow," Violet corrected.
"Good enough for me," Yang shrugged.
"Alright! Let's catch this guy!" Ruby yelled excitedly, drumming her feet against the floor.
Violet pulled away from Blake, 'Did she just sigh?', and hoisted Ruby up into her bed. It was nearly two in the morning and they did have school tomorrow. Violet eyed the book as she rolled on to her bed, but decided it was best to save it for later. She needed her rest now. The last couple chapters would have to wait.
Violet felt a pair of eyes on her and turned in time to see Blake's head whip away, 'Firing Zenith off like that must have really upset her. I can kind of understand why. I'll be sure to be more careful in the future.'
The group gave a collective 'good night' and turned the lights off. When the hairs on the back of Violet's neck stood up though, she got the sneaking suspicion that Blake was stilling looking at her in the dark. 'Very careful, then.'