A.N. (11/21/21) - Posting this near midnight, so the date might be off.
Argus (30) - Blackguard
"What was that just now?"
"Didn't that come from the military base?"
"Is something going on?"
Terra stared into the distance and watched with clear worry in her eyes.
"Rin…"
Was she fighting against the Allies? Jupiter had already called and informed them about what happened at the relay tower. So she knew that Rin was going to participate in the coming conflicts. But as an ordinary person, Terra couldn't do anything other than watch. So many others had their reasons to fight, but this wasn't something she could interfere with easily.
A hand clamped onto her shoulder. "Come on, Miss Cotta. We should get inside."
"I suppose you're right," she turned to give Pietro a tired look. "What's the news with the city?"
His face contorted into a grimace. "Bad. Right now, the faunus protests are escalating into riots as people are demanding answers. At this point, the existence of the Allies is known to everyone. With the situation in Atlas spreading to here, there's a lot of human-faunus conflicts going on at the moment."
"And what about the Grimm?"
"Every available huntsman is currently aiding in the defense of the city," Pietro answered. "Even the remaining professors have decided to help, but that won't be enough. If things keep escalating, we might have to worry about a large-scale Grimm attack."
Fear gripped Terra's heart. She heard stories of disasters like this, but she never thought that she would ever get involved in something as bad as her current situation. Until now, it always seemed like something that just happened, but never something that mattered to her. It made her realize how fragile her peaceful life was. How easy it was for it to slowly crumble as the Grimm pushed against their defenses.
"How long will the soldiers outside Argus return?"
"Still a few more hours," he replied. "At least two at the minimum, and that's if they push themselves."
"Two hours is a long time."
"Believe me, I know."
Pietro glanced towards the direction of the Argus base and grimaced. "I came because I wanted to meet with Miss Tohsaka to work on an important project. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect for things to get this bad."
"Me neither." She glanced at the nearby room, where it housed the escaped faunus. "It wouldn't be strange if the Grimm decided to attack any minute. Are there any plans for evacuations set in place?"
"I don't know," Pietro sighed. "This situation is a bit unprecedented. Let's just hope that it doesn't come to that."
"Yeah," Terra lowered her gaze. "Of course."
"But we still need to focus on the current issue," Pietro followed up. "The Allies, the White Fang, they're not the real problem here, aren't they? No, if what the young Vasilias is true, then the real threat is most likely Merlot. If he truly is alive, then he must be here somewhere in the city."
"I've never heard of him," Terra admitted. "Is it really that bad if he's still alive?"
"Yes," Pietro said. "Because… I fear that this may be another Mountain Glenn incident."
}-{
Two metallic objects streak through the air, only to be deflected by a chain.
The objects are revealed to be throwing knives, which stab into the ground as they fall. Had they struck her, her Aura should have protected her from the worst of it. But they weren't meant to pierce her defenses, but act as the distraction for the assassin's true weapon to strike.
A knife stabs straight for her neck, and Sienna tilts her entire body backward to dodge the blow. At the same time, her legs leave the ground and wrap around Marcus's arm. Leveraging her weight, she yells as both of them topple onto the floor with her body keeping him locked in place.
"Kuh…!"
Marcus struggled in her hold as Sienna gritted her teeth, her eyes angrily keeping an eye on him the entire time. He suddenly yells as a knife appears out of nowhere to stab into her side.
She quickly released him and kicked him in response, sending his body flying towards the wall behind him. He somehow uses that to maneuver his body to leap off the wall and use it as a platform, charging towards her with a mad grin on his face.
"Die!"
Using her arms, she propelled herself into the air and dodged right as Marcus passed underneath her. Both fighters landed and stood up to stare at each other with wary eyes, with the two having the same thought.
This person is strong.
"Damn, I heard that the White Fang was led by someone strong," Marcus smirked. "But this, I wasn't expecting someone to keep up with me."
"And I never expected a self-proclaimed assassin to be this good in close-quarter combat," she replied. "I'm guessing this is what you're forced to resort to when Aura stops the first killing blow."
"Bingo," he answered. "When you're targeting huntsmen, you need to up your game. If I had time, I'd have preferred more subtle means like poisoning or targeting you from a distance. But against weaklings like those faunus from before, simply ambushing them is fine. Throats are easy to slice if their Aura isn't up, and not every person knows how to keep their shields constantly active."
She steeled her eyes. Sienna knew that he was trying to rile her up and make her reckless. It was obvious that he was provoking her, but his words still made her vexed.
"Oh?" Marcus raised a brow. "Does what I say irritate you? My, you certainly care about your followers. I guess that's what makes you a good leader, doesn't it?"
"That's part of it," she replied. "But you misunderstand, the reason I'm leader is my hatred for humans like you."
"A hatred for humans, huh?" Marcus laughed. "Well, I don't really care about that kind of thing. Human or faunus, they all bleed the same color. What good is the number of ears or having a tail or not when they all die in the end? I just don't understand how you people think."
"You don't have to," Sienna raised her weapon. "I'll make it so that you won't have to think about anything anymore."
"Ohh, how exciting." He rolled his eyes. "Tease all you want, but can you deliver?"
"I'll do more than that."
Her body disappeared as she dashed forward at her top speed. His face sobered as he also moved, ready to act. Even he knew better when to joke and when to take her seriously.
Dozens of knives fly through the air, and Sienna does her best to deflect as many as she could. A few scratched at the edges of her Aura, but she ignored those. Instead, she kept charging forward as she extended her weapon to fly towards him.
He jumped out of the way, but Sienna flicked her arms. The chain flew upward and detached the tip of itself so that the point flew towards the ceiling. Exploding upon contact, Marcus yelped as his body was suddenly crushed by a large pile of earth.
"Guh…!"
A strained gasp escaped his lips, and Sienna recalled her weapon so that she could throw it again. But before she could attack, the rubble of debris exploded as Marcus's body shot out of it.
Marcus backed off and relaxed for a bit.
"Huh, I wasn't expecting that." He suddenly smirked. "But two can play at that game."
Her confusion barely lasted as something exploded from behind her, causing her to fly forward from the force of it. From the corner of her mind, she realized that it must have been due to the daggers he had thrown earlier. Projectiles laced with Dust to explode after some time passed.
He was already in her space when a knife began to stab towards her. But crying out, she stopped it by wrapping her chain around his arms and diverting the attack at the last second. The two stumbled past each other before once again adjusting to stare at their respective opponents.
"Damn, are you kidding me? I was expecting that to work."
"I don't understand," she spoke. "What is your goal? Somehow, I don't get the feeling that you're working with the Allies."
At that, Marcus smiled.
"Well, we're partners for the moment. Really, my boss is the one who's cooperating with them. But you're right in the fact that I'm not working with them. Our goals don't exactly line up, but I can't exactly tell you what my 'evil plan' is. I'm not that stupid."
"I see… I guess it was futile of me to ask."
"Maybe not," Marcus replied. "It did give me enough time to distract you, after all."
He suddenly yelled, "Now, boy!"
Something struck her in the back, causing Sienna to gasp in pain as she felt her Aura break. Before she could turn around to see who attacked her, Marcus reached her and threw a powerful punch towards her face. Her body flew as the force behind the blow lifted her to the ground, and she crashed against the floor a second later.
Marcus patted the shoulder of the boy who appeared out of nowhere. "Good job, kid."
"Yes, father."
Her eyes swam as she realized that there were now two of them, the new enemy being a teenager who shared a resemblance to the man she was fighting. His son, she realized with a start.
"This here is my kid, Mercury." Marcus picked up one of his old knives and inspected the edge. "He's a little green behind the ears, but I brought him with me to get some experience."
"Kuh…!" Her body cried out in pain as she tried to move.
"Guess we should finish you off before you can do anything else. Any last words?"
She snarled. "Go to hell!"
"Go to hell? Seriously?" He gave out an exasperated sigh. "Do you know how many times I've heard someone say that to me before I killed them? Come on, come up with something creative at least."
"Go to hell, bastard."
"While technically true, that's not much better than before." He threw a knife right into her stomach, causing her to cry out in pain. "Guess fun time is over."
He paused.
"Hmm… but then again." Marcus gives his son a speculative look. "Hey, boy. You haven't had your first kill yet, have you? How about this, I want you to do the deed."
Mercury gave his father a surprised look. "W-What? You want me to kill her?"
"No, I want you to take her to a doctor and recite cute poems to her saying how sorry you are for attacking her." Marcus rolled his eyes. "Yes, obviously I want you to kill her." He took another knife from somewhere and flipped it over so that the handle was facing Mercury. "Take this as a chance to claim your first kill. After all, you did contribute to the battle by taking her by surprise. Show me that you have the balls to survive in this kind of business."
Mercury stared at the knife in his father's hand with a complicated look on his face. Slowly, he took it.
Marcus smiled. "That's a good boy. Now, we don't got all day."
Slowly walking towards her, Mercury stood above Sienna's body with the knife in his hands.
The older man yawned. "Hurry up, will you? We still have better things to do."
Mercury hesitated for a second before his arm raised itself into the air. Sienna was close enough to see the hesitation in his eyes, and she realized that the boy was afraid.
"—WOOOOOOO-!"
Before she could figure out what that was about, the sound of something strange caused all three to look up.
"What th-?" Marcus turned towards the nearby window. "Is that coming from outside?"
"—HOOOOOOOH!"
The entire wall exploded as something crashed through it, causing everyone there to widen their eyes in shock. As the dust began to settle, the sight of two girls sitting on a broom appeared in sight.
One of them collapsed to the ground with wobbly knees. "Rin, promise me that we'll never do that again."
The other girl had an excited look on her face. "Are you kidding me?! That was amazing!"
"I think I swallowed a bug. No, scratch that. I'm pretty sure I swallowed a dozen. Ugh, I need to wash my mouth."
"Why was your mouth open in the first place?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was because I was screaming my lungs off the entire time!"
"Sheesh, it's like you've never been on a roller coaster before."
"Of course I haven't! The only amusement parks I know are in Atlas and Vale."
Watching the two girls suddenly begin to bicker in front of them, all three gave the sight dumbfounded looks.
The two finally paused as they realized where they were, staring at the scene of Sienna on the ground sporting heavy wounds and Mercury standing above her with a knife in his hands.
The younger girl blinked. "Were we interrupting something?"
}-{
Rin expected many things when she decided to scout out the base.
Stop a few White Fang grunts, sure. Fight a few mooks of the Allies, definitely. Meet Sienna Khan again, well the possibility wasn't zero. But finding Mercury Black here along with someone that Rin assumed was his father was certainly not what she expected.
At this point, Rin shouldn't even be surprised at meeting another canon character. She was seriously putting some stock into the idea that she was actually cursed. Maybe it would be best to set up some countercurse measures in her bounded fields in the future. Try and somehow balance her karma from getting her into more shenanigans.
Blue eyes took in the scene, checking how Sienna was badly injured and almost certainly out of Aura. Mercury's father looked somewhat fatigued himself, but still relatively combat-ready and dangerous looking. Mercury himself stared at the two of them with a face of befuddlement.
"So…" her voice drawled in the silence. "This looks fun. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly who I'm supposed to root for here."
Mercury's father gave her a strange look. "You… are Rin Tohsaka?"
She tilted her head. "Yeah, that's me. What's it to you?"
"The Criminal of Mantle?"
"Technically, I was a criminal long before that. I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone here except Pyrrha is a criminal. Then again, I don't exactly know her history of misdemeanors."
"I once accidentally stole a protein bar from a convenience store," she confessed.
"That's cute, Pyrrha."
Laughter rang out as Mercury's father held his chest. "Oh, to think that I would be this lucky. Now I won't have to search the entire city looking for you."
Rin frowned. "You want something with me?"
"Yes, a lot of things." He smiled. "To think that you would appear before me just like that. Well, as an assassin, naturally I must take advantage of my great fortune."
His hand suddenly glowed an ominous black light, and Rin's focus shot towards it with wary intent. There was something about it that unnerved her, even though she had no idea what he was doing.
He held his arm up. "For this, I'll get serious."
Danger!
Every instinct in her body yelled out to her at that moment. Without realizing it, her mystic code activated its emergency evasion skill right as the older man somehow tore through her previous position in an instant. The speed at which he reached her shocked her since it was far beyond anyone she has ever encountered before.
She landed on her feet. "Pyrrha!"
The other girl immediately acted, charging forward while expanding her weapon into a spear. Moving behind her, Rin began firing as many gandr shots as she could from behind her. Her target, Mercury's father.
Dodging all of her attacks, he pulled out his knives to block Pyrrha's attack. Pyrrha continued to press forward, using her shield to bash into him and toppling his balance. Spinning her body, she yelled as she swung her javelin in a circle to slash at him using the weapon's tip.
He blocked it with his arm, only to cry out as Rin charged into his space to strike with a powerful blow. His body flew through the air and crashed into the wall.
No more talk was necessary. The two girls moved together as a team to take out their new foe. They rushed towards the man, who was slowly getting back up.
A figure blocked them from moving forward.
"Hey ladies," Mercury gave off a roguish smirk. "Forgetting about someone?"
Pyrrha responded by throwing her shield towards him, to which Mercury kicked aside before it smashed into him. Rin used that moment to fire off several point-blank gandr shots straight into his chest, causing him to cough and crumple to the ground. The two moved past his body without another thought, with Pyrrha's shield returning to her from bouncing off the walls.
But damn, did they work well together.
Mercury's father exploded into action, dozens of knives flying towards them. Pyrrha's weapon changed to a sword as she used the blade to swipe a few aside while her shield blocked the rest. Rin allowed her to take the lead, content with trailing behind her shield.
As soon as they reached him, Rin moved to the side and continued to fire off several gandr shots to distract the older man. Meanwhile, he continued to parry off Pyrrha's attacks while dodging her shots.
Rin realized that she was wasting her magical energy, so she instead switched to using her weapon. Firing shot after shot, she switched back to gandr shots every time she had to change the magazine.
Most of the time, she managed to hit her target. But somehow, Mercury's father seemed to ignore the damage. Whatever he was doing was making him stronger and faster than any regular person should have been capable of.
Pyrrha continued to press him while using her sword and shield to attack. While the older man was distracted, Pyrrha tried to jab his stomach and succeeded when a random gandr shot made contact with him at the same time.
"Guh…!"
His Aura shields flickered, and they realized that he was almost out. The two didn't hesitate, both charging forward to finish him off.
Too deeply engrossed in the fight, everyone was alarmed when the entire base suddenly shook.
"What th-?!" Rin stared outside through the hole they came through. "What was that?"
Emerging from the large rock spire, a gigantic mecha robot began to stride forward.
Yay, another chapter! Three chapters in the past week, guess I'm making up for my hiatus, even if I wrote this in somewhat of a hurry.
So this is it, Rin and Pyrrha's first team-up. Hope this is everything you guys wanted, and it's against a pretty powerful opponent too. I'm not counting Mercury, since he's not really relevant to my plans for the story at the moment. No, I'm talking about his father, who's a relatively unknown character without much information from the show. If Volume 9 comes out with a Mercury backstory, most of what I've written will probably turn out wrong.
And from the end of the chapter, it seems that Cordovin finally reached her limit. Sad that she couldn't hold out longer, but I guess getting multiple people executed might get to anyone if prolonged to torture her.