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XxX-XxX-XxX
"It's so pretty…" Ruby murmured tiredly as the Atlesian transport listed down and to the side, angling to land on a small island they'd scanned while they flew. Around them, the northern lights of Atlas glowed a fractal of colors, undulating like waves around them. Nervous, she asked, "The island will be… Safe, right?"
"Long as everyone stays calm and doesn't get scared? Or angry? Or upset, or anxious, or-"
"Maria…" Ruby glowered and the old woman smiled and waved her off in a gesture of 'it'll be fine'. With a sigh, the young Rose gave first her uncle and then, turning, her team a look. To the last they were asleep, curled up against each other or on the floor of the craft tiredly. "We all got so tired so fast… After what happened with the Apathy, I don't like that."
"Well, the Apathy can't fly, and there's no space on this for them to be hiding, so I think we're fine." Ruby hummed but didn't answer or relax, and Maria sighed. She'd been around them long enough to get to know their tells, and Yang always said a quiet Ruby was an anxious Ruby. "Look, as far as I know there aren't any Grimm that can fly and make people tired."
"But there is a flying mind controlling thingy?"
"There's only one that can affect the mind and fly, and it only pops up in Vacuo for some reason, and makes you angry. Not tired." That worked to calm her down and she smiled, relieved, and then nodded. Seeing her anxiety vanish, the woman sighed and said, "It's good to always be wary, Ruby. But getting sick over it is just stupid. We had a long day, and a big fight, and we're tired."
"And that's all. R-Right…?" Stupidly, she looked to Maria for that, and then flushed for the smile that stretched the woman's old face. "N-Nevermind, I'm sure it's fine. I wanted to get to Atlas tonight, though."
"Yeah, well, I'm old, tired, and the only one that knows how to fly this piece of frosty Atlesian crap." The old Huntress waved her hand at the control console as she spoke to make her point, the dials and gauges all as good as another language to her. "So you can just deal with it, unless you wanna try and fly."
"I guess…" She still didn't like it, though, and Maria could hear it in her tired voice.
"Also, my eyes don't work as well in the dark as I would like, so we could hit something." Her eyes chose that moment to spark and sputter and she hissed in agitation, slapping her fist into it again and again. "Agh, these things! I swear I need to have them replaced."
"It's like they know when to act up just to spite you…" She laughed, pushing off the chair and stretching tiredly, finally letting herself yawn. It had been a fight this long just to keep her eyes open, presumably as the adrenaline faded out of her system and battle fatigue caught up. "I'm gonna lay down, then. Catch some sleep with the others."
"Wake me up when you wake up." Maria ordered simply as the ship shuddered to a landing and Ruby plopped onto the ground beside her sister, whose head had wound up on Blake's lap at some point. "Should only be a couple hours to reach Atlas come morning, and it'll be warmer out when we land anyway. Which is good, since some of you aren't exactly, well, wearing sleeves or anything."
"Yeah, Blake's got torn up in that fight..." It sucked, too, because she'd liked Blake's big white coat. She looked like some kind of cowboy that way, but she didn't dwell on it. Couldn't, even, her eyes were forcing themselves closed as soon as she laid against her sister's side. "G'night, Miss Maria."
"Good night, Ruby." The woman responded as the craft shut down and she relaxed in the chair, griping about her hips and shoulders all the while.
Regardless, the old Huntress quickly fell asleep. A moment later, just before Ruby joined her, she felt an odd shudder and caught a glint of gentle violet light washing over the cabin. But she was asleep before she could do more than register it happening, and didn't know anything else.
It was probably just the Atlesian lights… Right?
"...New breed…"
"Hmmph." Ruby whined against her sister's hot side and shifted, hot and sweaty in the heat inside the Atlesian ship. The woman shifted beside her in her sleep and Ruby whined, "Yaaaang. Be quiet, 'm tryin' to sleep."
"...New breed, new potential…"
"Yang, shush… Need my sleep..." Ruby whined more, rolling over and curling up with her face pressed against the cooler metal inside the craft. The blonde woman shuffled away from her, unconsciously trying to let her sister and herself sleep more, and Ruby sighed, "Das better."
"...But where… Where are you, New Breed?"
"In bed! Ya… Ya doof." She whined at whoever was annoying her, tucking her cloak tighter around her and curling into a tighter ball. "Ask me where we's at later."
Couldn't whoever that was tell she was trying to sleep, even as hot as it was in Atlas? Honestly, how rude of whoever it was, bothering her when she was trying to sleep. It was so hot, and for some reason her head was hurting even though she was sleeping still, but she ignored both and settled in to try and get some more sleep. A little more, she was sure, and she'd feel so much better, even if she wasn't really sure why her Aura wasn't doing it for her right now…
"Problems for future Ruby…" She murmured as she relaxed again and started to nod off back into sleep.
"AWAKEN!"
"Agh! 'M awake, Yang!" She squeaked, shooting upright on the floor and scooching back against the hull of the ship, looking around for whoever had shouted in her ear.
Looking around, all she could see through her sleepy eyes were her friends, all asleep and snoring, and the bright light coming in from the front window. Qrow and Maria had, at some point, gotten up and moved to sit on the floor like the two teams of teenagers, with their backs to their chairs and in Qrow's case his sword across his lap while he snored gently. It was honestly a kind of cute thing to see, and pulled a smile to her face when she spotted his flask up on the console where he'd put it the day before.
She was just so proud of him for letting that go, even if she knew he'd never stop carrying the little silver thing.
"But why is so frickin' hot?" Atlas was cold enough that even Aura couldn't wholly protect you from frostbite, Weiss had told her. Even Argus had been brisk, and they were miles and miles north now, closer to Mantle than Anima. It was warm enough in here that she almost felt like sweating! "It should be colder… Like, a lot colder."
Given her team was currently mounded against one door, and Juniper against the other, she climbed into the copilot's seat to get a look outside and blinked in surprise.
"The frick…?" She murmured, reaching back and to the side to shake Maria's shoulder and for once not caring for how rough she was being with the old woman. "Mariaaaa. Wake up, weird stuff is happening and I need to know if it's my eyes."
"Mph, why would you think it's your eyes?"
"Cuz I don't remember us landing in a city." She responded pointedly, waking up faster as adrenaline driven by surprise at her surroundings began to filter into her blood. Normally, a little confusion probably wouldn't have done that to someone, but between the Apathy, Ozpin's secret keeping and everything else, surprises in and of themselves were enough to push her into combat mode. "And definitely not a big one like this… Or in this state. How big was the island?"
"Just a bit bigger than you could spit." The woman grumbled as she rose and shuffled into her seat, flicking switches on her eyes to presumably turn them on. "Why do you ask- Oh… Oh my."
"Yeah…" Ruby grimaced, "Oh my."
At some point, and somehow that she would look into later, the Atlesian gunship had found its way on top of a roof. And not one that looked to be in the best state, either. A corner had seemingly long since collapsed, brick hanging in places where it was still somehow attached either by cable, other brick or whatever else that kept it on the heavy red girders. A door down into the building was in a similar state, the lower half cracked and falling to pieces while it hung off hinges choked by vines covered in little yellow flowers. Old conditioning units, or what she assumed to be them, and ventilating tubes were similarly broken, rusted or clogged with vines.
Around them more buildings in similar, or somehow worse though Ruby had to blink at considering that with how their roof looked, condition stretched on for what looked like an eternity. Eventually, the green overwhelming the buildings, rubble and what roads she could make out almost gave her the impression of some kind of forest. The rusted metal, spot of shining glass, and exposed girders of course ruined that illusion, but the staggering amount of green in the ruins astounded her.
"Even Mountain Glenn hadn't had this much growing on it…" It had, in fact, been surprisingly bare and bleak considering it had been left to nature's grip. Though she chalked some of that up to its artificial height and structure. "Maria what- Where are we?"
"I… Have no idea." The woman answered, mouth agape for a moment before she grit her jaw and strapped herself in. "But we are leaving. Right now. Get everyone up and ready in case something-"
A loud screech suddenly sounded from far in front of them, before being echoed around and below them from a hundred similar sounding mouths. It came on violently, suddenly, and piercingly enough that Ruby could hear her team reacting. Across the road, she caught a glimpse of something humanoid and green in a window before several more like it joined the creature and they slammed against the glass of some kind of flat.
Monsters like something out of a horror movie tumbled out into the air and fell from view, and Maria finally finished her statement, "...happens. Everyone up, up, up! It'll take just a couple seconds to warm this baby up, but be ready in case whatever Grimm those were come up here!"
"Where is here?!" Ruby heard Weiss shriek almost loudly and shrilly enough to match the Grimm outside. The Schnee, hair matted and disordered from sleep, joined Ruby in leaning against the two piloting seats while Qrow climbed into his own. "I don't remember setting down in a city!"
"Well, you kind of went to sleep before we landed, so…" Maria trailed off as the ship flickered to life and her hand found the control, her other connecting her eyes to the ship's systems like she'd done at Argus. "Fifteen seconds before we start moving, but I'm getting motion under us and… Well, everywhere, really. And a lot of it."
"Grimm?" Her sister asked, the sound of Ember Celica chambering reaching Ruby's ears as the eight Hunters began to equip themselves while Qrow and Maria ran through starting the ship up.
"I mean, obviously." Maria droned tiredly, earning several eye rolls around them. "And oh look! I see a couple out the window and they are very much not Human!"
True enough, Ruby caught sight of several of the odd green Grimm pulling themselves onto the roof in front of them. One lost its grip and it fell back with a chunk of bricks, but that didn't dissuade them. Soon, four were clambering towards the ship, shrieking all the while. Bangs along the roof told her more had mounted the back and, doubtless, the wings as well, though they didn't seem to be smashing it as much as looking for a way in.
"Sis, Weiss, Jaune and I out first." Ruby ordered, giving the disarmed Blake an apologetic smile as they parted into duos and moved to the doors. Jaune and Yang each grabbed a handle and turned to look at her, waiting for a command, and she began rattling off orders, "Get 'em off the ship. Maria, get it in the air and moving, and swing around to pick us up when you can. Oscar, Blake if you can, and Nora, keep them off the hull while it's moving."
Various forms of 'Got it' echoed around the confines of the craft as they took a breath before the fighting, and then Ruby raised her voice and ordered, "Out you get!"
The first thing she saw was a hideous, green, wart covered face that screamed 'Zombie' to her on a deep and primal level. So she took it and ran with it, Crescent Rose snapping up in its compact rifle form to blast its head off. The crack of the rifle was a cue to combat, apparently, and Weiss stabbed out beside her to sever first the groping arm of another and then weave down with the motion and around to take its head off. Ruby was out inside the same breath, rifle cracking twice as she swung it out and to the side, perforating Grimm skulls as her weapon unfolded to its massive, deadly glory.
Spinning it beside her as she advanced, she closed on the first of several rushing creatures who, while faster than the first, proved just as susceptible to a six foot scythe blade. Cut in half, they fell aside as Weiss gave her space, her glyphs letting her float up and away to rain shards of long, needle-like ice down on several of the monsters flanking her. One lunged towards her legs and Ruby's scythe came up and then down, punching down through its back as she cartwheeled over the top of the scythe's grip and laid across it, feet against the blade facing towards the roof as another group clambered up.
With a crack, she sent one sprawling from the roof and soared back, landing with her feet against the hull over the open door and swinging her baby behind her, barrel pointed skyward, "Weiss!"
"Got it." Her partner called out as a black glyph spun to life under her feet to lock her into place and the Schnee landed above her partner's feet.
With a flourish and a spin of Myrtenaster's cylinder, a wave of fire roiled ahead of her and lit several of the creatures on fire. They fell with shrieks and hisses but more kept coming and Ruby, still standing horizontally from her partner's glyph, swung Crescent Rose around to start lining up shots. With each crack, limbs flew free and the creatures fell in rapid succession.
"Aaand we're moving!" Maria warned as the craft lifted off the ground and the two small women leapt off the hull. Four more Grimm sought to take advantage of their landing but Weiss just spun on her heel, a wall of sharp ice springing to life for them to impale themselves on. "I still have friends on my windshield, though, so moving is a bit of a thing right now! A little help?"
"Ren!" She'd kept the young man in reserve for a reason and now, he leapt onto the roof of the ship and drew his Stormflowers free. Long bursts sent the creatures tumbling from the nose and tail of the craft as he turned, alternating his fire as needed, and Ruby added. "Weiss, up there, hold him down. Nora, take Weiss' spot!"
"Got it." Weiss barked, leaping high and landing upside down with a surface glyph to let her join Ren, her back pressed to his. "I will have to concentrate with the ship moving. Cover me?"
"Got it." The young man nodded, standing over her as she knelt and the black glyph spun to life. "Masking the ship would be a very good idea, once we're away, too!"
"Jaune?"
"I can do it." Jaune called back, pausing to crush a lunging Zombie's skull with the edge of his shield and then cut a following one's arms and then head free. "I mean, if Weiss can hold three of us up there, that is."
"I cannot." She answered simply, "Get in the ship, we'll join you in a minute."
"Uh, that leaves…" Blake, who was unarmed aside from a broken pistol, Ruby didn't say.
"I can use a longsword." She called out, taking the weapon as Jaune turned and she leapt into the fray, spinning, leaping and cutting with ease. "Gambol Shroud had one kind of like it incorporated. Remember?"
Leaving the four of them to defend themselves, unable to pull away without replacements unless they wanted the steady tide of Grimm to drag them down, the craft lifted away and pulled into the sky. Ruby didn't watch them go, though, too busy spinning Crescent Rose at her side and alternating chopping, blasting and occasionally even kicking Grimm away. All the while Nora crushed and batted entire clusters with ease and a giggle, sending them back the way they came in hilariously spinning rag dolls.
But the tide never seemed to slow, and soon, her arms began to burn in that familiar, almost pleasant feeling of a long fight.
"Get ready for pick up!" Maria called out over the ship's external speakers, the words almost lost beyond their blasts, cracks and shouts.
From ahead of the way Ruby was facing, the craft came in for a landing, with a severe lack of rooftop Hunters. As it came to a stop and the door opened courtesy of Oscar, she caught sight of Ren kneeling with Jaune's hand on his shoulder. A moment before a quartet of the Grimm turned towards them, hissing and chittering their fury as they made to charge.
"Guys!" Crescent Rose spun as she did, the Huntress kneeling to crack off shots into the backs of the creatures.
Seeing Ren's Semblance fail, the two leapt to defend the door alongside Oscar, beating back the creatures as Maria pulled the ship away and hovered over the street. Their gambit ruined, the group began slowly cutting their way towards the edge of the roof, and closing ranks as they did, to escape the old fashioned way.
Also known as 'jumping and hoping not to get eaten', but hey, that was the job.
"Gah!" She heard Blake cry out a moment before the Faunus sailed past her and into Nora's legs, the woman falling back over her as Magnhild fell to the rooftop with a heavy clang. The Faunus rose, clutching her evidently still aching side, and pointed with her borrowed weapon, "A big one!"
"Nora, Blake, take over." Ruby ordered as she turned and leapt into the air, Crescent Rose cracking a shot that ended a monster as it launched her towards where she saw her sister fighting a larger one of the creatures.
Like the others, this one was human-ish, and covered in green warts that oozed slime. Unlike them, though, it was almost ten feet tall and easily three wide, and covered in thick slabs of chunky meat that acted as armor against Yang's buckshot blasts. Its meaty fist came up and down, crunching the metal of an air unit as Yang dodged to the side, but the pummeling blows she rapid-fired into its gut didn't seem to do anything.
Crescent Rose catching it by the throat and lopping its head off, though, managed a decent effect.
"Thanks, sis." Yang called out, sliding towards a Zombie and caving its skull in. It fell and added to the growing piles steadily building up and she called out, "Noticing a distinct lack of evaporating here, guys!"
"Me too." Ruby called back, spinning her scythe on alternating sides as she closed on and then cut down more of the monsters. "We'll worry about that later. Keep fighting!"
With no end to their numbers in sight, and no room for Maria to land or do anything more than let Ren add his fire to their efforts from the door, it was all they could do. Several leapt out of the building across from theirs, the one on Maria's other side, but Weiss was already on top of the craft. Black glyphs flickered to life, flicked them aside and then died as fast as she needed and the tip of Myrtenaster moved.
With each one that fell, more kept coming, but they could press on through it.
XxX-XxX-XxX
"I have reached the source of the energy you detected." Pratal Mox spoke into the ether, knowing that Central would be listening through the open channel of the communication frequency he'd been given. Behind him, a pair of X-COM soldiers knelt, hiding behind an old, ruined couch and watching the door to the small apartment they'd come in through while he watched outside. "I see no Advent forces anywhere near us, for the moment, though that shall likely change soon."
"I'm assuming that's because of the gunfire I'm hearing." Bradford responded dryly, "You say that you don't see Advent?"
"None at all, Central." He answered, quickly detailing the smattering of colors, and weapons, he saw as fast as he could. "They appear young, and I sense no psionics at play in spite of their… Strange abilities. Their weapons are also strange, and though they are in the center of the dead city, they don't appear to know how to combat the Lost."
"I'll say." James, the large, very British rifleman that had been tasked to meet him chipped in oh-so-helplfully, his rifle slung across his very broad chest while he watched the door. "Even I know all that bloody shootin' is just gonna draw the blighters down on their heads. Not to mention the damn engine whining out there!"
"Only because you were told when you arrived that was the case." Outrider murmured, only speaking loud enough to be heard over the fighting outside and below them. She was a Reaper, garbed head to toe in black like her compatriot was in brown and grey flak armor, and the only other human that was supposed to meet with him. "Before that, you had come screaming in with your little ship, and nearly shot the first Lost you saw."
"Yeah, yeah…" The man waved her off, checking the straps of his old, apparently 'standard' once upon a time, X-COM armor. "Brief didn't mention much about the damn green gits, since X-COM didn't fight 'em much."
"An oversight on my part." He spoke, taking what blame was on the Reapers from their shoulders and turning back to watch the fighting calmly. "I apologize. And am thankful none were killed as a result of you firing and calling that Advent patrol down on our heads."
He was stocky, heavily armored, and genetically altered to be both of these things. His white armor was custom made out of old, scavenged Advent gear, and his personal defense weapon was small. Easily maneuvered and accurate, it suited his rapid relocation and brutal closing strikes just fine.
Outrider, conversely, was lithe, small of frame and sharp-eyed, with little more than a long leather coat and leather for protection. She, like Pratal Mox himself, preferred to move fast and hit hard. Though she preferred to strike hard from long range and move on to the next place to hide, while he preferred to stick and brawl, as a Skirmisher was wont to do.
Their last was a man that was broad but not stocky, and tall but not large, with pale skin where Pratal could see it and the rest covered in old flak armor, cloth wrappings along his forearms, and heavy gloves. An old helmet with a blackened riot visor attached hid most of his face aside from a stubby beard. All of it was simply screaming of a man hiding who he was, though the old, weather symbol of X-COM was clearly visible to all. The rifle was much the same, albeit with a litany of scratches covering every surface in clear lines meant to denote 'kills'.
One representative from all sides had been the arrangement, after all, and so they had come. He from the Skirmishers, she from the Reapers, and their newest addition very clearly from the newly active X-COM. Which begged the question of who these were, since three of the four major resistance factions were present, and they certainly didn't feel like Templars. He'd have sensed their Psionics at work if they had been, assuming the purple hadn't ruined that surprise well ahead of time.
"Options?" Central asked over the line, "Firebrand is overhead and high, and we have a feed from her. If something isn't done, they'll be overwhelmed."
"Leaving them is one." Outrider pointed out, receiving only glares from himself and the Human present. She shrugged and didn't defend herself, simply grunting, "What? I'm not wrong."
"Outrider and I can lend long range fire from the roof." James spoke, idly drawing one of his spare magazines and weighing it in a hand to check its contents. A reasonable concern, with the state of things. "If he doesn't mind a scrap, Mox here can zip over and support. Firebrand can grab the girls off that death trap of a roof, then us, and we zip away with the white ship on our tail, assumin' they have some way of talkin'."
"Mox?"
"I have no disagreements, and agree heartily." The Skirmisher responded shortly, standing and rolling his shoulders. "I will not wait on the long range support, however. They need to know our plans. What of you, Reaper?" He got no response, the woman having already left to head for the roof, and the Skirmisher chuckled. "As though you would have ever left them behind."
Smashing the window while James jogged to catch up to the woman, he clambered out onto the edge of the crumbling structure with his Kal on his waist. His gauntlet hissed and clicked as its hook shot forth into the back of a Brute climbing onto the other roof and he zipped over to the unfortunate, grabbing hold and burying the hooks of his claws in its skull with practiced ease. Rolling off it as it fell, he came up and turned, Kal barking short bursts of fire that perforated skulls, necks and knees as he backed away towards the women.
"When the ropes lower, do not hesitate." He spoke loudly when he reached them, the woman opening their fold of melee to accommodate him easily. Like experts who knew nothing but fights like these, and breathed them as he did. The smallest there turned to him, great scythe cleaving a Lost in two, and he explained in brief. "My allies are rescuing us in their Skyranger. We will carry you to safety, and your ship may follow. Can you direct it too?"
"Left my Scroll on it, but I got it." The woman answered, turning and shouting, "Nora! Get back to the bus! Tell Maria we have help coming, and she needs to follow a ship coming to save us."
The woman didn't answer and instead swung her massive hammer up and down, crushing a Lost under its weight and perching on its head. Smiling like a woman without a mind, she shaded her eyes and it blasted, carrying her up and into the air, towards the white craft where she easily rolled to a landing.
He simply shrugged, ripped a Lost throat open with his claw and impaled another with his grapple to pull it in and do the same, and moved on to hold the ground.
XxX-XxX-XxX
"Is that it?" Ruby shouted at their white armored, slime and gore covered friend as a sleek looking black and silver ship listed into place over their heads. The man didn't answer, but a half dozen thick ropes fell from its open back and she shrugged. "Gonna guess it is. Yang! Blake! Grab on, the cavalry's here!"
Blake was the first to turn to leave, using a weapon that wasn't her own and knowing she was the weakest for it. As she climbed Yang turned to follow and the Atlesian ship pulled up and away, rising to join the 'Skyranger' at its altitude and orienting to match it. Yang's eyes met hers, then a fist batted away a Zombie, and Ruby motioned for her to go, spinning on her heel and cutting around them to clear space for herself and her new friend.
"You first." He ordered as he turned round and round, firing bursts of fire that cut down the creatures and lashing out with his claws wherever one got too close. Ruby made to argue, to tell him to go first, but he only snarled, "I will follow. We have no time. Now go."
Ruby knew he was right and collapsed her weapon, grabbing the rope and climbing as fast as she could. Which wasn't very fast, it turned out, the young woman terrible at the rope climb both in Signal and now. But inside a moment, the rope began to retract and pull her up and soon, she was standing on grated decking and looking down as her rescuer zipped up to join her.
"Now we can get out of here." The blonde gasped, collapsing onto a seat and leaning her head back as the craft lifted and the large man turned, looking out the back of the ship as it moved. Seeing him not moving, the woman added a nervous, "Right, Big White?"
"My allies did not help us as they were supposed to, and we must save them." Was his only answer as he slapped a fresh magazine home and held onto the side of the open door. Ruby met his helmeted gaze but said nothing until they had risen high enough and the man swore in a language she didn't understand. "M'ortat ton! Assassin!"
Below, a woman with a long knife stood over a man bleeding and clutching his stomach, the former desperately trying to fend off a purple thing twice her size. Without hesitation, the white armored man dropped the dozen or so feet and landed on her back, punching down with his claws as he did and drawing bright blood.
"Traitor! You finally decided to show yourself, did you?" The creature screamed, grabbing him by the helmet and turning, hurling him down and into the metal casing of an air unit hard enough it buckled around him. Raising her blade, the creature laughed, "That was a poor choice."
Carrying the bleeding man, the woman wrapped one of the hanging cables around her waist and began to rise without the broken remains of either of the two rifles on the roof, albeit slower than Ruby herself had. For the weight, she guessed, but that wasn't were her focus was even as Yang and Blake helped her up and into the ship. Their rescuer's hand snapped up, his little bullpup blaring round at his opponent, but the weapon was easily crushed in a hand as the 'Assassin' raised its blade.
And as Ruby leapt, Crescent Rose unfurling as she fell and spun, the blade whistling as she did and the girl shouting, "Let him go!"
"What?" The creature looked up and seemed stunned for a brief second before it leapt aside faster than even Ruby could follow. The tip of her blade bit down into concrete and Ruby knelt over her fallen savior's chest, eyes hard and staring at her opponent while the creature grinned. "Ah, and who are you, little one?"
"A Huntress." Was all she said, raising a foot as her friend rolled off the ruined metal and stood, blades of one arm extending. Firmly, she ordered a simple, "You go first."
"I will-"
"Go. First." She finished sharply, refusing to meet his eyes as Crescent Rose spun before her and came to rest behind her, the blade curving against the ground at her heels in her favored ready stance for when a fight was serious. Smiling thinly, she added a small, "I will follow."
Without a word, the man grabbed one of the thick ropes and rose out of her sight while the purple woman scowled. She took a step towards him as he left and Ruby twitched, Crescent Rose rising slightly in a clear warning, and forced her to stop. Or at least to stop until she fought Ruby.
"I'm giving you the chance to let us go." Ruby spoke simply, "I don't know who you are, or what you want, but let us go."
"If you think any of you are leaving her alive then- Ah." The creature's eyes widened and then grew foggy for a long, tense moment before she blinked owlishly. As her eyes cleared she smiled and stepped back, bowing slightly and grinning in a way that reminded her of the scorpion Faunus, all teeth and manic pleasure. "Since you so graciously offered, I'll go my own way, just this once."
"Really?" Ruby asked, stepping back and off the metal to drop onto the roof beside a cable. A fast escape, if she needed it.
"Oh of course! After all, you offered, and it would be rude to look a present like that in the mouth. Besides, I have orders from my masters, and I don't disobey orders like your traitorous friend." The creature laughed loudly and shook its head, an odd purple energy sparking into existence around it. Then she stepped back and seemingly into… Whatever it was, tossing a final farewell, "I'll see you soon, New Breed."
Blinking at the term and her sudden disappearance, Ruby grabbed the rope and rose, letting the white armored man pull her up and offer her a small, "Thank you."
"Everyone sit down and strap in, we're headed home." A woman's voice crackled around them as the door closed behind her. Tired from the fight, Ruby fell into a seat beside Blake and eyed the wounded man whose black clothed partner was tending to him.
"Is he…?"
"He'll be fine." The woman snapped, more for tending to him then for any heat towards her. Her gaze flicked to the young Huntress and she grimaced slightly, adding a more gentle, "Once we get to the Avenger he will be, at least. I've seen men survive a lot worse than this, so don't stress yourself."
"You should turn your gaze to yourself, young one." The armored man rumbled from his seat, leaning forward with the knuckles of his hand resting on his armored thigh just above his knee. He caught her gaze and nodded to her friends who were similarly catching their breath, "Your allies fought well against the Lost Horde. But you should check on them."
"We're fine." Blake grunted shortly, taking a breath and straightening in her seat beside her blonde partner. The man's gaze turned to her and, feigning confidence while Yang checked over her prosthetic beside her, Blake smiled. "Takes more than a bunch of one-tap Grimm to slow down a Huntress team."
"What are you-"
"We can discuss matters once we return to the Avenger." The man cut across, before the woman could ask whatever she wanted to. She rounded on him and he gave her a small, curt nod. "You've a man to focus on tending to. Questions our betters are meant to ask can wait until they won't be distracting you, Outrider."
From there, the tired Huntresses sat with their rescuers in relative silence. At least, aside from the engine whines and the man's labored breathing while 'Outrider' tended to his wounds. A code name, clear as day, but she wasn't about to push the issue to get proper introductions in while she tended to him. The large man was right that she had more important things to tend to, and they weren't the ones Ruby and her friends needed to talk to, apparently.
So all she could do was wait, for now, and catch her breath from the fight… Though she kept finding herself drawn back to being called 'New Breed' and what that could possibly even mean.
XxX-XxX-XxX
So this is very much a case of 'Blame le Vampire over there' who super wanted this story to happen. So here we go on another crossover when I really oughta be writing Arclight. Lol. Oh well, I hope you enjoy, and as demonstrated here canon will be altered by having super powered fighters on X-COM's side. However, don't expect the Hunters to fare so well in every fight.
One tap zombies rushing them headlong is a far cry from, say, a Sectopod.