Chapter Thirteen: Hunt the Hunter
Morgan POV
Morgan was practically vibrating in excitement. He'd been training for seven months for this one chance. The chance to find and fight Chienne Blanc, to see how he'd stack up and to see just how strong he really was.
He bared his teeth in a feral grin and he felt his body heat up as the adrenaline coursed through his veins like liquid fire. He wasn't even really paying attention to Ozpin's speech about it, he was so excited.
After the headmaster had finished, Morgan and the rest of his team made their way over to the mission boards and selected the Search and Destroy mission in southern Anima that was rigged to only respond to MRLD's application.
The four of them found Goodwitch out by the docks and they boarded their Bullhead bound for southern Anima.
"Now, remember. This mission isn't going to just be killing Grimm. If and when we find Chienne Blanc's base, we'll have to deal with her henchmen as well. Be careful, they will not hesitate to kill you if given the chance. Do not give them that chance. Make sure to only knock them out as well. We may need them for questioning later." the professor explained.
All four of them nodded.
Morgan meditated to pass the time, focusing on a lit candle in front of him and attempting to make the flame grow and shrink purely through his breathing. He had to make sure he was completely ready.
His Aura flared and flowed as he went through the exercise, sparks of lightning even arcing off of him now and again.
He thought about Ki's ominous warning earlier in the month, though. Apparently, Blanc Senior was connected to some pretty shady guys and taking her out would paint a target on his back. But failing to beat her would result in his death as she wasn't exactly a pushover in the power department.
He went through all of his attack sequences in his head to make sure they were up to snuff and went through his plan of attack. All he knew about her was that she was strong and she was fast. He didn't know what her weapons or Semblance were.
If her build was any indicator, she wasn't as durable as she was strong so he planned on rushing her to capitalize. He figured catching her off guard and overwhelming her defenses would work the best and would be less likely to lead to him getting killed.
Of course, when Aura was taken into account, plans sometimes went out the window so there was a good chance Morgan would have to rely on his energy absorption.
The flame grew a little more than he would have liked as he growled, not wanting to have to resort to that sort of tactic.
It shrunk again as he quickly calmed himself, not wanting to lose control of the flame about ten thousand feet in the air. To pass the time, he visualized in his mind's eye two of himself sparring, slashing and hacking at each other.
The mental exercise helped him keep the flame and himself stable as he mentally prepared himself for what could possibly be the most difficult fight of his entire life up to this current point in time.
His Aura flared and flowed and sparked as he meditated and focused on the flame and mental sparring match. His heart pumped and blood boiled as the adrenaline again flowed through his veins like liquid fire.
He'd been like this all day. He was spoiling for a fight and he could barely contain himself. Whenever he was like this, he felt exhilarated and more alive than any other time. Simply put, he needed to fight as much as he needed to breathe.
His ears swiveled to his right as he heard Lilo mutter something. "Well, that doesn't make any sense…"
Morgan turned to him. "What doesn't?"
Lilo was studying a scroll tablet. "The Grimm activity in the area. They're not acting like typical Grimm. They seem to be… guarding something?"
Morgan cocked an eyebrow and walked over to Lilo, making the flame shrink until it extinguished. "Guarding something? What do you mean?"
"Well, according to aerial surveillance provided by Donna's mercs, they're just standing there. Not even moving. Just standing there, like they're guarding something. It doesn't make a damn bit of sense." he explained.
Morgan growled, the news making him uneasy. "Grimm aren't supposed to act like that. This is making me think this has something to do with Blanc's project. The one that's to do with Grimm. Think she's found a way to control them?" he asked.
Lilo scoffed, shaking his head. "Yeah, no way no how. Controlling Grimm is impossible. They're too unpredictable to train conventionally and there isn't even a way to study their biology to see if you can do it chemically." he explained.
Morgan rolled his eyes. "Well, how else would you explain them acting like they're trained? It doesn't make any sense, I'll give ya that, but… I don't know how else to explain it."
Lilo shrugged. "I guess. Still… this whole thing is off. And I don't like the implications either way. If someone's found a way to control the Grimm, the whole world's fucked if the wrong people get their hands on it. But if the Grimm are smarter than we thought… I don't even want to think about what could happen."
A shiver rolled down Morgan's spine. "I get what you mean. Either way, it ain't good."
Morgan and Lilo felt the Bullhead's mass shift as the nose pointed down. Goodwitch's voice came up on the PA. "Students, we're making our descent roughly a half mile away from the Grimm's perimeter. Ready your weapons and Aura." she said.
The four of them grabbed their weapons and made their last minute checks.
Goodwitch set the craft down and all five of them exited the airship. Morgan instantly felt uneasy and another shiver rolled down his spine. He growled softly as his ears flattened against his skull and his tail lashed.
"You okay, Morgan?" Robin asked.
"We're being hunted. It's either some Grimm or some of Blanc's henchmen. But we are being hunted." he growled.
The other four grimaced. "I can sense something out that way. I'm not sure what it is but that's where the vibrations are coming from." Robin said, pointing to a spot roughly fifty feet in front of them, with their backs facing the Bullhead.
Morgan growled and charged a fireball in his hand. He thrust his hand forward, launching the fireball. He hit a clump of bushes that were incinerated on contact and his ears swiveled as he heard whatever was stalking them run out of the bushes and out of the treeline.
It was an Alpha Beowolf, tall and muscular, about twice the size of Morgan himself. The wolf-like Grimm's white bony armor was scarred from previous engagements and charred from Morgan's fireball. Morgan also noted that the beast had a metal collar around its neck.
He ducked to dodge a hefty swipe from the monster and punched it in the gut, sending it flying back first into a tree. He drew his sword and settled into a defensive stance.
The Beowolf recovered quickly and rushed Morgan again, aiming to bite him this time.
Again, Morgan ducked to dodge and deftly sidestepped to maneuver behind the Grimm and stabbed it in the back of the head, killing it quickly and it disintegrated into black smoke.
However, the collar remained and dropped to the forest floor. Morgan picked it up and sniffed it. It carried the usual Grimm scent, that of decaying flesh and smoke, but it had another scent on it as well. He growled as the scent made him uneasy. It was like a Grimm's scent but worse. A hundred, thousand times worse. His ears flattened further and the fur on his tail fluffed up as it lashed about.
"Mister Rubrum? Are you alright?" Goodwitch asked, concern coloring her voice.
Morgan shook his head to clear it. "I'm fine. Just a weird scent on the collar. I can smell Blanc Senior, too. Her scent is similar enough to Chatte's."
Lilo walked up and motioned for the collar. Morgan handed it to him and Lilo studied it. "I've never seen anything like this…" he said, half to himself.
"Like what, Lilo?" Robin asked.
"There's a lot of odd tech inside this collar. I've got no idea what it does but the fact that someone managed to force a collar on a Grimm is impressive enough on its own. I'd say whatever this collar is, it's connected to Blanc's project." he explained, holding the device up.
Morgan took a closer look at the collar. There were needles connected to tubes, wires and circuits all along the inside of it and flashing lights around the outside. He had no more idea what it did than Lilo did but whatever it did, it probably wasn't good.
Goodwitch cleared her throat, getting all four students' attention. "Well, Mister Rubrum, what is our course of action?" she asked.
Morgan started. "You're asking me?"
She nodded. "This is your mission, after all. I'm just here to make sure you don't get seriously hurt or killed. I'm also using this as an impromptu test of your leadership capabilities. So, what is our next course of action?"
Morgan considered his options. The next step was obviously to use the collar to track where the base was exactly. However, they needed to be careful when they reached the main Grimm horde. There were a lot of them and they could get overrun if they weren't careful.
"Well, after I use the scent on the collar to lead us to the base, we should all combine our Semblances to take out most if not all of the Grimm at once so we can save our Aura and ammo for the base itself. I'd say for Robin to lift multiple boulders out of the ground and you to take over lifting them so Robin can conserve Aura. I'd then light the rocks on fire and you throw them. Lilo should create a mini tornado to get the remainder of the Grimm in the air and helpless so Donna can blast them with some chain lighting. If everything goes right, it shouldn't take longer than a few minutes or so, I'd say." Morgan proposed.
Lilo nodded. "That should work. Timing would be absolutely critical, though."
Robin shuffled her feet a bit. "I guess I could do it. I have been getting better with my Semblance."
Donna crossed her arms. "When I blast them, you guys are gonna have to duck. The wider I arc my lightning, the more unpredictable it gets."
Goodwitch nodded as well. "An excellent strategy, Mister Rubrum."
Morgan nodded. "We should probably get moving. Team MRLD, move out!" he ordered.
The five of them began walking deeper into the forest, with Morgan periodically stopping to find the scent trail again. Morgan's ears swiveled in all directions as he got used to the new sounds of the environment.
The forest in southern Anima was not like the forests back in Vale. Where those forests were seasonal and relatively dry, this forest was much warmer and more humid, more like a jungle or rainforest.
Morgan noticed that Robin was looking nervous. "Robin, what's the matter?"
"I just noticed how similar this forest is to the one near my home. Professor, how close are we to Shinobi Village?" she asked.
Goodwitch looked at her scroll. "Judging from the map, I'd say a good hundred miles. Your home is safe, Miss Tori."
Robin sighed in relief. "Okay. Still, the fact that Blanc was able to set up a base this close to my home without detection is worrying."
Morgan growled, a puff of flame exiting his nostrils. "All the more reason to take her down. Let's pick up the pace, we're getting closer."
As they traversed the forest, Morgan visualized again the two mental versions of him clashing, neither gaining the upper hand. His mind raced a mile a minute as he mentally reviewed every single attack sequence he'd ever learned or came up with.
He had to make absolutely sure he was at the top of his game so he wouldn't fail. Failure in this case meant death and Morgan was far too stubborn to die.
His footfalls were surprisingly soft as he led the others through the forest at a rapid pace. His mind was on one thing and one thing only: find Blanc and take her down. His heart pumped and blood boiled. He felt exhilarated and more alive than ever before.
Steam and small puffs of fire left his nostrils after each breath and his eyes had shifted to so bright a scarlet, they were practically glowing.
He bared his teeth in a feral snarl as the group neared the source of the scent trail. They slowed down and crouched in the bushes. The Grimm were standing in a circle around a large boulder, seemingly guarding it.
He noticed that the Grimm, a collection of Beowolves and Ursai, all had similar collars to the Alpha that had attacked them earlier.
Robin placed a hand on the ground in front of her. Morgan felt the spike in Aura that told him that she was feeling the vibrations in the ground. "The boulder's hiding the entrance. I can feel a tunnel going underground. There's a deadzone where I can't sense any vibrations almost a third of a mile deep that the tunnel leads to. I'd say that's the base." she informed.
"How come you can't sense anything in the base?" Donna asked.
"I'm not sure. I can sense vibrations through most metals and even manipulate a good chunk of them to some degree. But that relies on that metal having enough earth impurities for my Aura to latch onto. Whatever metal this base is made out of, it's pure enough that I can't sense vibrations through it, at least at this range." she explained.
Morgan growled lightly. "Is that gonna make getting in the base a problem?"
She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I'll have to physically get at the door. But if I'm able to sense vibrations through it when we get close, I'll be able to get us in."
Morgan closed his eyes and breathed deeply in… then out. He opened his eyes. "Alright, let's do this. Scorched Earth!" he roared.
Robin slammed both hands down to the forest floor, lifting six very large boulders out of the ground, which were immediately surrounded by a purple glow as Goodwitch took over. Morgan lit all six of them aflame with a sweeping motion of his arm and the professor flicked her riding crop to hurl the boulder at the Grimm, the attack taking a good three quarters of them out.
"Storm Front!" Morgan called out.
Lilo then ran in a circle around the remaining Grimm, using his Semblance to boost his speed and creating a tornado to lift them up into the air. He ran faster and faster, making the tornado bigger and bigger.
Donna stepped out, electricity crackling around her fists. "Everyone duck now!" she called out, preparing to fire. Lilo dashed back to the main group in the treeline and all four of them hit the deck, hoping none of the lightning would arc back towards them.
The tanned heiress thrust her hands forward and unleashed her attack and the lightning arced to every remaining Grimm and fried them into oblivion.
As the remaining corpses dissolved into black smoke, the collars that they were wearing dropped to the ground. Morgan checked each one. The scent he'd smelled before was on each and every one. He gathered the collars into a pile and blasted them with fire, destroying them.
Lilo looked incensed. "Morgan, what the hell?! We could've studied those collars, figured out how they worked!"
Morgan shook his head forcefully. "No. Whatever that Grimm-scent on those collars was, it's bad news. Besides the fact that having to deal with randos on the street being able to get their hands on collars that could control Grimm would not be fun at all. We're all better off with them destroyed." he growled, his skin still crawling.
"I'd have to agree with Mister Rubrum on this one, actually. While those collars might solve our short term issues with Grimm encroachment, they would only add to our already long list of long term issues. I stand by his decision to destroy the collars." Goodwitch said.
Lilo had the sense to deflate slightly. "That's… a fair point, actually."
Robin had already checked the large boulder and was feeling around its surface with her eyes closed. "If you guys are done, I've figured something interesting out!" she called out.
The rest of the team plus Goodwitch walked up to the boulder. "What is it, Robin?" Donna asked.
"Well, the boulder's on a weird sort of track so it can open and close. But I can't sense any sort of manual switch or button, which means I'm going to have to try and trigger it with my Semblance." the small girl explained.
Morgan cocked his head in confusion. "Okay? Is that an issue?"
Robin sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I can sense the control I'd have to trigger and I'm gonna be honest, I have absolutely no idea if I have the fine control I'd need to not completely shatter the boulder and give us away." she said.
Morgan shook his head again. "Robin, in the field is no time to be doubting yourself. You've got this. You can do this. You just have to visualize what you need to do and then do it. Alright?" Morgan said calmly.
Robin closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. "Okay. I got this, I got this…" she said to herself and she reached out with her hand.
Morgan felt her Aura go bitter with nervousness but he reached out with his own field and calmed her down as best he could. Aura had many uses, if you knew what you were doing.
Robin did manage to calm herself with Morgan's help and twitch her index finger slightly. Morgan felt her Aura spike slightly and heard a little click then whirring as the boulder's track sprang to life and it slid slowly out of the way to reveal the entrance tunnel.
Robin sighed heavily in relief. "How'd you know I could do it?" she asked.
Morgan shrugged. "I just trusted you." he said simply.
She blushed slightly.
Donna rolled her eyes. "Lovely though this moment might be, we should probably get rolling before Blanc and her cronies catch on to us being here, you know."
The group descended into the tunnel and walked for nearly ten minutes before coming to a large metal door. Robin placed a hand on it. "Well, this is an impressive door." she sighed.
Morgan cocked an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"
Robin sighed again. "It's really dense and really pure. I can only just barely sense anything through it. Manipulating it is going to be really hard."
Morgan nodded. "Let me try, then. Everyone stand back."
They got out of his way once he lit dual fireballs in his hands. His eyes shifted to red and the orange fire in his palms shifted to yellow and more yellow flames burst out of his hair. He thrust his hands forward, blasting the door with two yellow pillars of flame. He sustained the attack for about half a minute before cutting power to it.
The door was still there, no indication that it had even been touched. He touched it. It wasn't even warm. He could probably blast it in Full Power Berserker and it would remain standing. He growled as he moved to punch the door.
He felt an iron grip on his arm. He turned to his right and saw Donna, shaking her head. "Morgan, if you punch that door, it's gonna be loud even if you don't knock it down. I think we should let Robin try to work the door." she said.
Morgan powered down and nodded. "You're right. Robin?"
Robin placed her hands near the middle of the door, where the crack of it was. Robin grunted in exertion as she poured her Aura into controlling the metal. Her hands and forearms glowed brown as she clenched her hands into the gap of the door.
For at least a minute, the door did not budge and Morgan was about to tell Robin to rest and conserve Aura until the door started moving. It was only half a centimeter but it was enough for Robin to smirk, sweat beading on her forehead from the effort of it.
Over the next minute, she slowly pulled the door open and ripped both halves of the door completely off their tracks and threw them to the ground, nearly collapsing from the strain of the task. Morgan dashed to her side to catch her but she waved him off.
"That had to have tipped them off. We need to keep moving." she said.
Morgan nodded and inspected the hallway the empty doorway revealed. There was a passage to the left, one to the right and one to the center. "Right. Robin, you're with me. We'll go left. Donna, you take Lilo right. Professor, are you good to go on your own straight ahead?"
She nodded. "I am. But are all of you going to be okay if I do?"
Morgan looked around the hallway, scanning for enemies. "It doesn't matter. We've gotta split up to cover more ground. We don't know how big the base is and we probably can't cover the whole thing all together before we get caught."
Goodwitch nodded. "You're right, of course. Remember, be careful, all four of you. Remember your training and you will persevere." she said.
The four students nodded and the three groups parted ways, Morgan and Robin going left, Lilo and Donna going right and Goodwitch going straight.
Donna POV
She and Lilo were dashing through the halls, scanning for Blanc or any henchmen that could tell them where she was. So far, they hadn't seen Blanc and none of the henchmen were talking… mostly because Donna kept knocking them out in a single hit.
"Donna, you do realize the goons could tell us where Blanc is?" Lilo asked as they ran.
Donna growled. "It's not my fault they can't take a hit!" she said defensively.
Lilo rolled his eyes.
Lilo ducked and Donna swung her trident to block an energy blast from the side. The force of it was enough to knock her into the wall behind her. She recovered quickly and got to her feet, trident at the ready and lightning sparking at her fists.
The blast came from a tall, pale man exiting a room. He had a snow white suit with a red tie and red sunglasses. He also had a white fedora with a red feather covering his short coal black hair. He wielded a pulse rifle with a shortsword at his hip.
"Damn, I'd hoped the kitty would've come down this way. Oh, well, the heiress will do just fine." he jeered.
"And who the fuck are you?!" Donna snarled.
How the hell did they figure out we were here already? Security cameras maybe? she thought. Donna gripped her trident tightly as she tensed her muscles.
The man laughed. "I ain't gotta tell you shit, girlie! But let's just say that I'm Miss Chienne's new enforcer. And I'm the one who's gonna kill you." he sneered.
Donna glared at the man as more lightning sparked around her fists. "I am Donna Aquaria, heiress of Aquaria Munitions and second in command of Team MRLD. It'll take a helluva lot more than you to kill me, you bastard." she stated, pointing her weapon at him in a ready stance.
Lilo drew his weapons as well but Donna waved him down. "No, Lilo. You just watch my back. This guy's mine."
The enforcer grinned and slung his rifle onto his back and drew his sword. "Alright, little girl, let's see what you got!" he bellowed as he rushed her, surprisingly fast.
He came in for an overhead slash and Donna blocked it rather easily. She smirked at the low power of the hit. She pushed back against his blade and launched a flurry of slashes and jabs at him that he blocked and dodged.
Sparks flew as their weapons clashed again and again. She went in for a heavy slash and the enforcer ducked low to dodge. He came up quickly while she was over extended and got her jaw with his head.
She cried out as she staggered back. He slashed at her wrist, making her drop her trident, then launched a flurry of slashes and jabs at her. Her armor blocked the majority of the damage but the strikes were wearing down her Aura.
Donna thrust a hand forward to blast him with lightning but he quickly dodged the hit. The heiress backflipped away from him, recovering her trident in the process. She panted from the exertion.
"Oh, come on, girlie! Where'd all that bravado go?! I thought you were some hotshot! But I guess Miss Chienne's evaluation of you was right. You're weak. Hardly worth the effort." the enforcer sneered.
Donna's eyes narrowed in rage as she charged the enforcer with a screech, raining blow after blow onto the enforcer's sword. Her form had devolved to the point that there was no longer any grace or fluidity in her movements, she just needed him to go down.
She aimed a jab to his stomach after she knocked the sword out of his hands that he quickly side stepped and he reciprocated with a powerful roundhouse kick to the face. The force of the kick sent her into the wall again backfirst and she slid down it, falling to her hands and knees, trident knocked out of her grip.
"Donna!" Lilo cried out, rushing to her side, moving to help her up.
She waved him off and leveled a death glare at the enforcer. "I said he's mine, Lilo. You just watch my back." she growled, rushing the enforcer again.
She leapt into the air and delivered a bone crushing roundhouse kick that he managed to block. She threw a right hook aimed at his face that he dodged. A left upper that was caught. All the while, the enforcer had a massive grin on his face that just pissed Donna off more.
She charged a blast of lightning and fired the attack point blank with a shriek of rage but he dodged that as well.
Donna went in for another series of punches when the enforcer threw sand in her eyes. Blinded, she cried out and stumbled back. Trying to rub the offending material out of her eyes, she whipped around, left to right, attempting to find the bastard.
"Do you just keep sand in your pockets?! Cheap fucking trick!" she shouted as she stumbled into one of the walls of the hallway.
She heard slight footsteps to her right and behind her and whipped around to try and block the incoming attack but he was far too quick. He landed a massive gut punch that caused her to cough up a not small amount of spittle.
He punched her again and again, not even giving her time to think. "I'm a fucking mobster, girlie! I don't give a shit about fair!" he cackled.
She managed to catch one of his punches and headbutted him in the face, knocking him away from her. While he was staggered, she rushed him and threw a series of punches and kicks to whittle down his defenses.
She slowly managed to back him into the opposite wall and had his back against it. She bellowed as she rained punch after punch onto him. She pulled her arm back to go for another punch when she felt a sharp pain in her left side. She looked down and saw her blue Aura shimmering around a dagger that the enforcer had slipped into her unarmored stomach.
She coughed up some blood and staggered back, more coming up as the blade slipped out of her. "Y-you bastard! You cheap shotting motherfucker!" she growled, clutching her side to try and staunch the flow of blood.
The enforcer rushed her and threw her into the ground. He kicked her in the stomach, making her cry out in pain. "No fucking shit, girlie! Honestly, I've just been playing around this whole fucking time! I was just seeing how strong you really were before finishing you off! But you're even weaker than Miss Chienne said you were!" he cackled, kicking the whole time.
He kicked her, slammed her into the walls, threw her into the ceiling and slammed her into the floor, blood splatters marking every impact.
After he threw her into the floor a final time, her Aura shimmered around her, signaling she was nearly out. She barely got to her hands and knees, trying to stagger to her feet, before he grabbed her braided ponytail and held her up by it, bringing his sword to her throat.
"Donna!" Lilo cried out as he moved in to help her but she shook her head.
Donna replayed every defeat she'd ever suffered as the enforcer made some blow hardy speech about how weak and pathetic she was as the anger and wrath built in her heart. She couldn't even beat this one grunt in her base mode. She closed her eyes as she breathed in deeply. She exhaled as she opened her eyes.
They and her hair had lightened and her eyes had gained gold flecks. Lightning ran up and down her body as her hair broke out of its braid and stood on end in spikes, signaling she was in Wrath Mode. She grabbed the enforcer's hand and pulsed lighting into his whole body, shocking him to the point that she could see his skeleton in flashes.
She shrieked with rage and fury as she slammed him into as many hard surfaces as she could manage, her Aura working overtime to fix the gaping wound in her side. He couldn't even react as she delivered a bone shattering beatdown, unconsciously pulsing lighting out of every part of her body.
She threw the enforcer into a wall for a final time and took control of the water in his body and made it expand, making him inflate like a balloon. She cackled with an unhinged glee as the lowlife that had nearly killed her came ever closer to popping.
But just before she could do it, she felt a hand on her arm. She looked back and saw Lilo with a scared and concerned expression. She suddenly felt woozy as she powered down on instinct as the adrenaline high wore off.
The enforcer slumped to the ground, his bloated appearance returning to normal and he passed out from the pain.
Donna stood in place as Lilo tied the enforcer up with some rope they'd brought and hid him in the room he'd come out of. After he did that, he checked on Donna again. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She looked down to her injured side. Her Aura had at least stopped the bleeding. She clenched her fists and they shook with pure fury. She exploded into Wrath Mode with a banshee-like cry of rage and fury and she punched the wall immediately to her right hard enough to leave a decently sized crater.
"How dare that fucking bastard, that lowlife, make me go all out?! That fucking pisses me off! Oh, I'm gonna find Blanc myself and kick her fucking ass to let off steam! RAAARGH!" she screamed, chest heaving as she panted from the exertion.
"Uh… Donna?" Lilo said cautiously.
"What?!" Donna shouted, whipping her head around and glaring at him.
He had a concerned expression. "Donna, if you exert yourself like this, you're going to reopen that wound. At least let me bandage it."
Donna started and came to her senses. She powered down and wobbled, a bit lightheaded. She lifted her arm to let Lilo bandage her side. After that task was done, Donna rebraided her hair. "We should probably keep moving." she said quietly.
Lilo hesitated before nodding and they rushed off again after she recovered her weapon.
As they ran, Donna thought about the fight. She couldn't even beat him in her base form. All year she'd been playing second fiddle to Morgan and now she was only able to win by going all out. That fact pissed her off more than anything. All of her training, all of her blood, sweat and tears for such pitiful gains? She wouldn't stand for it.
She'd never rest until she and she alone was the strongest of all Hunters, the Goddess atop the Mountain! She was after all known as the Lightning Goddess and she'd make sure her power reflected that title!
She couldn't understand how she was so comparatively weak. Didn't she train the hardest? Didn't she come from the longest line of Huntresses in the world? But she'd been eclipsed, first by Morgan and now by this random noname lowlife.
It made her blood surge and thunder with anger. Morgan trained hard, true. But she trained harder. She trained longer. She trained until she couldn't move any longer. She worked herself to the bone and he was still stronger. She just couldn't understand it.
What did Morgan have that she didn't? He was skilled, yes, but his style was far less refined than hers. Donna had a dancer's grace on the battlefield and water's fluidity. She had the training so what was she missing?!
Her thoughts were interrupted as the hallway ended in a large door, similar in style to the one they entered the base through. She growled as she cursed their decision to split up. Getting through that door wouldn't be as easy without Robin.
She placed her trident on her back and ran her hands along the door. "Lilo, can you figure out a way past the door?" she asked.
He was examining the door, too. He pursed his lips as he sighed. "I don't think so. It's probably going to have to be brute force and who knows how long that'll take."
Donna growled, electricity sparking at her fists. Her hair and eyes lightened, her eyes gaining gold flecks. Her hair burst out of its braid and stood on end in spikes. Lightning sparked all around her body and she entered Wrath Mode with a furious shout.
She launched a volley of lightning speed punches at the door at full strength, denting the door with every strike. She bellowed as she landed a final right hook on the door and blasted it clean off its hinges, not caring in the slightest if anyone heard the commotion.
The door impacted the opposite wall of the room with a reverberating boom. Near the center of the room was a pale woman as tall as she was, similar looking to the mugshots of Chatte Blanc but with sharper, slightly older looking features. She wore a snow white suit with a black tie and black dress shoes. Her waist length hair was free flowing and as white as her suit. A fluffy white dog's tail swung behind her. Her coal black eyes were narrowed in annoyance.
"I was hoping it would be Rubrum to find me. Disappointing." she said coldly.
Donna screamed in fury as she charged at Blanc, swinging her trident for a heavy slash.
Blanc sighed and held up her hand in front of her. "Stop." she said forcefully, her eyes flashing slightly.
Donna's muscles tensed, making her tumble to a stop, in a heap on the ground. When she tried to get back up, she found she couldn't move. "Huh? Why can't I move?!" she demanded, straining to make her muscles work.
She turned her back to Donna. "I have no time for someone as weak as you. Goodday, Aquaria." she said as she climbed the staircase near where the door landed and crossed through the doorway at the top.
Donna's muscles relaxed and she could move again. She shrieked in fury. "Get back here, dammit! I will not be made a fool of!" She blazed up the stairs and launched another flurry of punches to hit it off its hinges but the door wasn't even budging this time.
"Donna, I don't think that's going to work this time!" Lilo called out.
Donna growled and punched the door one last time before walking down the stairs, powering down from Wrath Mode. "Fuck. I was so close too. Why the hell couldn't I move, though?" she wondered aloud. She took stock of the room. It was… shaped like an arena? Was Blanc planning on them finding her?
But that didn't make any sense. What was so interesting about Morgan that both the enforcer and Blanc wanted to fight him? And were those cages near the ceiling?
"Donna!" Lilo shouted.
She rolled her eyes. "What?"
"I've been trying to get your attention! Do you hear that hissing sound?" he asked.
She listened. "Yeah. Where's it coming from?"
All of a sudden, she felt lightheaded. She stumbled and saw Lilo struggling to stand as well. She extended a hand to Lilo before everything went dark and she lost consciousness.
Robin POV
She and Morgan had gotten the notification that Donna's Aura was low and they were both worried. "Think they ran into Blanc?" Robin asked.
Morgan shrugged, steam puffing out of his nostrils. "Don't know. But we've got to keep moving. Her Aura's already moving up, so I think she's fine. I'm just hoping she wasn't seriously hurt. Her Aura's moving kinda slow for her." he muttered.
Regardless, they did keep moving. The corridor they'd chosen was oddly devoid of grunts or henchmen so they were getting nervous.
"Shouldn't this place be crawling with grunts? Where is everybody?" Robin wondered aloud. Something about this didn't feel right.
Morgan growled nervously. "I don't know. It's makin' my skin crawl."
As her feet struck the ground as they ran, Robin sent out tiny seismic waves to sense her surroundings. Their part of the base was completely devoid of people. She screeched to a stop, motioning for Morgan to stop as well. She slammed a hand down to the floor for a clearer picture, closing her eyes to focus.
"Where are you…"
She felt Morgan crouch down next to her. "What're you sensing?"
She moved her hand slightly as she shifted her focus. "I'm sending seismic waves all over the base, looking for Blanc. Wait! I'm sensing Donna and Lilo! I recognize their seismic profiles! They're… down? They're lying down on the ground for some reason. I think they've been knocked out!" she explained.
The vibrations reverberated around the entire hallway as Morgan punched the wall in frustration. "Fuck! Can you tell if they're okay?!" he demanded.
Robin growled in exertion, sensing that far out for that long taxing her abilities. "I'm not sure. It feels like they're breathing but even with how hard I'm focusing, the vibrations that far out are fuzzy to me. This base is big and they're nearly a half mile out. We're gonna have to get closer." she said.
She opened her eyes. "Shit! If I keep that up, my Aura's gonna break. I do have their location, though. Let's go!"
They turned around and ran back the way they came. They pushed their speed to the absolute limit and ran as fast as physically possible. Robin felt uneasy about one thing, however. She couldn't find Professor Goodwitch, which she did tell Morgan.
"You couldn't find her at all?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No. I have no idea where she is. She might be outside my radius, the base is big enough for it. But I've got a bad feeling about it, though."
Morgan growled, a deep and rumbling sound that was both heard and felt. "That ain't good. We need to pick up the pace."
He powered up to Full Power Berserker Mode midrun and picked Robin up in a bridal carry, running even faster. Robin blushed deeply as she looked up at his face, purple eyes narrowed and face scrunched up in a determined scowl.
He ran for a little bit more before screeching to a halt just after the fork where they entered. "Where now?" he asked, as they'd gotten to another split in the hallways.
Robin shook her head to clear it and pointed to the hall to the right. Morgan nodded and kept running. His stamina was certainly impressive. In fact, she'd seen him train and exert himself for hours upon hours and still be good to go for more.
She noticed Morgan glance down at her, then back forward. "You do realize I can smell your pheromones, right? In the field ain't a good time for that stuff." he said.
Robin's face flushed crimson. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot!" she exclaimed.
Morgan smirked. "You're fine, you're fine!" he chuckled. His expression quickly darkened. "But this hallway isn't. What the hell happened here?"
Robin climbed down as Morgan stopped running and powered down. The hallway looked like a warzone. Impact craters, cracks in the walls, floor and ceiling as well as scorch marks. There'd been a fight and a major one at that.
Robin noticed red splatters on the ground. She pointed them out to Morgan who knelt down to one and ran his index and middle fingers through one of the splatters and sniffed it.
"Fuck. It's definitely Donna's blood. I guess we know why her Aura went low. She won, though, clearly. But where's her opponent?" he wondered aloud.
Robin's gaze settled on a door just opposite of a series of cracks that suggested Donna had hit the wall backfirst. "Shot in the dark, maybe in there?"
Morgan snapped his fingers. "Bingo."
He opened the door and they saw a tall, pale man in a ripped white suit with busted red sunglasses and a crumpled white fedora. He was tied up and lying on the ground. He narrowed his eyes in frustration. "Are you fucking kidding me?! Now you show up?!" he griped.
Through one of his broken lenses, Robin noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and she could feel that his blood vessels were a good deal more dilated than they should have been. "Let me guess, you got your ass handed to you by Donna after you underestimated her and she tried to pop you like a balloon?" she surmised.
The man narrowed his eyes even more. "Oh, fuck off!"
Robin smirked and nodded. "Yep, that's what happened."
Morgan glanced at her with a quizzical look. "How in the hell did you get there?"
She shrugged. "His eyes are bloodshot, his blood vessels are more dilated than they should be and his bones are cracked and 'look' like they've been recently expanded then deflated. Coupled that with the fact that Donna doesn't take losing well, that she tends to snap and lose her head and her hydrokinesis, I'm sure you can see where this is going."
Morgan snorted and shook his head. "You can sense all that but you have issues chucking a few rocks? Your Semblance is weird." he chuckled.
Robin rolled her eyes. "Whatever. We should keep moving, we're almost to them."
Morgan nodded, powering back up. He carried her again as he ran, leaving the man behind in what seemed to be an empty closet. Rather normal room for Blanc to have in her base. Robin guessed that it couldn't all be secret labs and such.
He ran for a good five minutes before he skidded to a stop again, powering down. He let Robin down and they examined the large black blast door blocking the end of the corridor. There were door tracks just in front of it that were bent and broken, suggesting that Donna had blasted the previous door out of place.
Robin placed a hand on the blast door. It was cold and smooth. She sent small seismic waves through it. Just like the entrance door, it was incredibly dense and incredibly pure but she could still sense vibrations through it.
She knelt down and felt for the seam in between the floor and the door. It was a pretty tight squeeze but she found it. She pulled up with all her might as she poured most of her remaining Aura into manipulating the metal.
Her hands and forearms glowed brown as the door slowly started to move, millimeter by millimeter, so slowly that if she couldn't sense it she'd say it wasn't moving at all. But she kept at it. Over the next minute, she pulled the door up as hard as she could, millimeters became centimeters, then inches.
When the door was at her knee level, she gave it one last push and the door retracted back into the ceiling and stayed there. Her Aura broke from the strain and she nearly collapsed but Morgan quickly caught her.
"You okay?" he asked.
She nodded and they looked into the room. It was a large, empty arena. Donna and Lilo were no longer there. The wall opposite of the doorway had a large impact crater where Robin assumed the door had been slammed into it but that was the only sign that anyone had been in it recently. She looked up at the ceiling. Were those cages?
"Robin, look." Morgan called. He was by the opposite wall. There was a staircase near the crater that led to a door.
They climbed the staircase and examined the door. There were slight dents in it that looked like Donna's fists, suggesting that she'd hit it multiple times.
Morgan pulled a fist back to punch the door but Robin stopped him. "Wait a second. I'm not sure we should do that just yet. I want to take a minute to look around the room a bit more. Look up there. I think those are cages. Can you tell what's in them?"
They had walked down to the center of the room and Morgan gazed up to the ceiling. "Not really. It's too dark in there and too light out here for my night vision to work properly. I can tell that there's something moving in there. Something big."
His ears flicked toward the blast door as it slammed shut with a deafening clang. "Shit, we probably shoulda tore that thing off its tracks." Morgan growled as he turned to face the door on top of the stairs.
Robin turned with him. They saw a woman in the window next to the door, tall and willowy. She was pale with coal black eyes and waist length white hair that was free flowing. She wore a snow white suit with a black tie and black dress shoes. All in all, she fit Morgan's description for what Chienne Blanc looked like.
"Where the hell are Donna and Lilo, bitch?!" Morgan roared.
She rolled her eyes. "You mean the weak annoyances? They don't matter. What does is that I'm not ready for you yet. I have some things to take care of first before our battle."
Morgan's eyes flashed scarlet and he drew his sword. He rushed the window and swung his sword in a downward slash, the blade just glancing off of the glass, barely doing anything. "The hell?! This sword can slice through solid rock, why couldn't it break the window?!" he demanded, backflipping down to Robin.
"Obviously the glass is reinforced. Like I said, I have some things to take care of before we cross blades. Goodday, Rubrum." Blanc said, turning away from them.
Morgan roared in fury, exploding into Berserker Mode and launching dual pillars of flame at the window. He cut power to the attack after a few seconds. Like the door they'd entered the base through, the window was unscathed by his flames.
He powered down with a growl. "Now what?" he grumbled.
Robin sensed vents opening near the base of the walls around the room and Morgan's ears twitched to follow the sound. "Where's that hissing coming from?"
All of a sudden, Robin felt lightheaded and passed out.
AN: And that's the chapter! We got some excitement and a hint of Chienne Blanc's Semblance! I'd meant to have her and Donna clash briefly but I couldn't get it to work. Either way, what did you guys think of it? The next chapter will have Morgan and Chienne's initial flurries. Their bout will be my first multi-chapter fight scene, something I'm definitely excited about!
Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!