V2E12: The First Move
Hope crawled out of the darkness with a heavy cough. Once he had held his breaths, Hope hoped against hope that his crowd swimming idea would work. Once he was in, he just let the current of the crowd move him to where he wanted to be.
"God, that was kinda cool... Never again..."
It didn't take long before he found the bright, massive unit of a man wearing stark snow-white in the crowd of shadows. With him were the Wizard and his overly competent secretary. Ozpin was the first to see him coming.
"Ah, Mister Hope." He greeted. "I hope the festivities are to your liking."
Anon wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.
"Let's cut the shit and get to the point." He interrupted curtly. "The Dark Queen has made her first move."
Ozpin's smile dropped.
"Is it as your feared?"
"Yes, The CCTT is being infiltrated as we speak."
Ironwood straightened out.
"My men will surely be enough to deal with this threat. Especially with all the reinforcement on standby."
Stand By, huh?
...
W A I T, W H A T?
"So what you're telling me... Is that the fucking backup I asked for... Are not on-site at the current..." Anon shook with agitation and fury.
"Of course they aren't, my men have been expressly instructed that at the first sight of trouble, they are to sound an alert. It wouldn't take them five minutes to reach the tower."
Anon had to hold himself back from clobbering Ironwood's head in with a punch glass. He swallowed back a veritable barrage of insult and slurs. His eyes became veiled in darkness.
"Well then..." His wrathful tone matched his gaze. "Why don't you ask for a quick report then?"
Ironwood narrowed his eyes at the leering Hope but did as he asked. He leaned into a small communicator hidden in his jacket's inner pocket.
"Soldier, report."
Nothing. The general raised an eyebrow.
"I repeat, your general is demanding a report."
The silence remained. Now Glynda and Oz were starting to worry and it was all too visible on their faces. Ironwood felt his blood boil at being ignored.
"Answer me godsdammit! I want a report!"
Third, same as the first. Ironwood's anger turned to anxiety. He straightened out but despite his towering height, he felt minuscule under Anon's imposing dark gaze. The heavy silence coming from Hope crushed into Ironwood's mind like a frozen boulder. Glynda pipped up, now deathly serious.
"We need to call an emergency."
Anon shook his head.
"No need. All I need you to do is to keep tabs on who's coming in and out of the entrance."
"What about the intruder?" Ozpin asked.
"The general and I are going to support Ruby and Penny at the CCTT."
The older trio looked at him confused.
"Miss Polendina and Miss Rose?" Ozpin queried. "What are they doing there?"
"I knew Ruby was by the balcony when the infiltrator was making their way to the CCTT. I just asked Penny to stick by her when she inevitably gave chase. That and since she's a silicate, I know I can trust her to deal with the virus."
Ironwood frowned in confusion, Following Hope as he turned to leave.
"A silicate?"
Anon wanted to give the tinman the cold shoulder but chose to shut him down instead.
"With your fuckup, you don't deserve an answer." He dismissed curtly. "Now hurry the hell up, we have a cunt to placate."
The general winced in silence as he followed the displaced seer.
The pair were now in a full sprint toward the Cross-Continental Transmit Tower. Once they arrived, the unnerving quiet was the first thing they noticed. Ironwood looked exceedingly worried.
"Where are my men?" He wondered anxiously.
Anon looked around before something else hit him.
God, what is that awful stench?!
The best way he could describe it would be halfway digested onion soup. Hope followed the smell into a decorative bush climbing the side of the building. They looked to have been recently moved by hands. He parted them and immediately cringed in disgust.
"Gah!" he cried out. "There he fucking was!"
It was one of the guards, a small gash pierced his stomach causing the smell. The general rushed over and balked in sorrow and shame.
"No!"
The general pulled him out of the bush and laid him flat on his back. He took the helmet off, revealing a young man barely in his twenties with blond hair and vacant green eyes. The general's hand hovered over the wound, his expression was one of emotional agony.
"No..."
His hand balled into a shaking fist and his expression turned vengeful.
"Whoever did this, will pay dearly for what they've done!"
Anon laid a hand on the old soldier's shoulder as he knelt down next to him.
"Then we need to hurry, Ruby has probably reached her and is holding her down as we speak."
Ironwood nodded and rose to his full height. He produced a large chromed revolver from his coat, Due Process. Before leaving, Anon crossed the dead young man's arms over his chest and closed his eyes. Hope held his fist against his head and prayed silently for the guard's soul's safe passing. Ironwood looked at Hope gratefully.
"Thank you."
He shook his head.
"Not now, thank me when this is all over."
...
The lobby was in a similar state to the entrance, eerily empty and far too quiet for a place that should be guarded by Atlas's soldiers. Ironwood's mood soured further and knowing what happened to the guard outside, he knows that his other men probably shared a similar fate. The pair rushed into the elevator. The Atlan headmaster let out an aggravated groan.
"Which floor are they on?!"
Anon thought for a moment and cursed his luck. During the Canon scene, the floor number was not displayed in any way. He pulled out his scroll and texted Penny.
Me: 'we're at the CCTT'
'need floor number asap'
The response was almost immediate.
LittleBolt: 'Top floor. Please Hurry, Ruby is fighting alone and she's barely holding on!'
Anon slammed the top floor access button and the elevator shot up. Anon produced his handgun from his coat and held it at the ready, pointing at the door and ready to fire as it opens. Ironwood humphed in amusement.
"Are you always armed?"
Anon gave a smirk.
"I could say the same for you, soldier boy*."
The elevator came to a stop and the two men readied. The door slid open to carnage. Two guards laid on the floor, the matter of them being unconscious or dead was unknown to the two new arrivals. The room itself was an utter mess, with computer stations being either shot to junk or completely gouged open. The furniture was even worse if you can believe it.
The only intact stations were the ones in the back where Penny was. A wire ran from a side panel on her temple, her eyes glowed a bright green as code rolled by in her orbs as she crouched behind a station. Ruby was on the floor going in and out of consciousness as the camo-clad intruder stood over her with magnum pointed down, ready to end the young would-be huntswoman's life.
A shot rang out as the doors of the elevator parted. The intruder dodge-rolled, the bullet grazing her and bouncing off her aura. She looked up just in time to see Hope rushing her with guns blazing. Using her punch daggers, the intruder blocked and deflected the shockingly powerful rounds of Hope's handgun. She backed away until she was at the very front of the room, her back towards the large wall window. She hit the deck with a pant, taking cover behind an overturned desk. One of her rogue locks of hair dangled loosely out of one of her balaclava's eyeholes. She tucked it back in swiftly as she scrambled to hide behind the desk.
Anon knelt by Ruby, his gun still trained on the infiltrator's last known location. He checked her pulse and quietly thanked Jinn, the maiden and whichever supernatural deistic being existed in this world that she was still alive if a bit banged up. Nothing her Aura can't fix up. He gave Ironwood a glance and the general immediately took point, covering Hope as he dragged Ruby to safety.
Cinder dared a peek, only to nearly get brained by Ironwood's Due Process. She was lucky that the desk's corner took the bullet for her. She grunted, her voice changer warbling her voice with an everchanging pitch and bass level.
"I have to admit, I didn't expect this to have been this difficult."
Anon set Ruby by Penny before joining Ironwood in pointing his gun at Cinder.
"I have to admit, I didn't expect you to be this well prepared." he retorted.
He heard a soft but warped snicker.
"What? Did you expect me to do this in a useless eye cover and my hair flowing in the wind?"
Anon paused with a knowing grimace.
"That, high heels and a plunging top showing off your double Ds."
The snicker became an honest laugh.
"So perverted!" She ended her laugh with a sigh. "It's sad really, you seem quite entertaining to be around."
Ironwood leaned into his stance, impatient with the stand-off.
"Why are you doing this!?" He demanded to know. "Why did you kill my men!?"
"I only killed one, the rest are only unconscious. " She admitted. "I don't want too much heat but that idiot nearly got me caught, so I had to deal with him permanently."
She dismissed the man's death with the same casual indifference that one would use when talking about swatting an annoying bug. This callousness made the general's blood boil.
"I will make you pay for his death!" He spat furiously.
"I'm sure you will." Despite the warbling, her mocking tone was crystal clear.
She rolled out of cover with a row of shots. Anon forcefully grabbed the general and pushed him into cover as soon as he saw her gun. The roles were now effectively reversed. Anon sniffed.
"You're definitely smarter than I gave you credit for," he admitted. "I do apologize for that."
Cinder was taken aback but kept it to herself.
"Why, how humble. I'll take your honesty as a compliment. Still, I recommend you do not get in our way."
Ironwood nudged Hope as he left the ground into a crouch.
"Our?" He questioned quietly "She means Salem, doesn't she?"
Anon nodded before blind firing over his cover. He heard something falling to the ground but the lack of pained exclamation told him he completely missed the mark. Anon silently motioned Ironwood to sneak around as he does his thing. The general nodded and began sneaking off.
"I'll have to decline, I'm afraid." He told her. "Your boss plans the end of the world and last I checked, I'm one of the morons still on it. So don't find it shocking if I fight back with all I've got."
She nodded her head slowly.
"A fair reasoning."
Anon dashed from cover to cover, narrowly avoiding a trio of shots. He let out a breath as sweat dripped from his forehead. He heard the swift click-clack of a magazine being released from its well and a new one being slammed back in. He whipped the sweat from his brow and let out a calm breath.
"This shit is getting old," he commented with manufactured annoyance.
"I agree." Cinder admitted. "Then I suppose it's time for us to finish this, yes?"
He reloaded, his intent certain.
"Yeah, let's."
On cue, Ironwood appeared behind Cinder with his revolver pointed square at her head. As soon as she heard the heavy click of Due Process's double-action trigger, Cinder back kicked the gun away, the bullet flying above her head. The two entered a short hand-to-hand fight. While Ironwood is an imposing foe in no way lacking in raw physical power, Cinder had something much more versatile; speed and agility. The general landed one hit that send her staggering back but as soon as she realized the fact that she can't outpower him, she immediately switched to dodging and weaving. Now Ironwood can't hit her worth a damn. In his younger years, the general might have been able to match her flexibility and speed but the ageing huntsman was now past his prime. He threw a haymaker, one that Cinder struck away with her palm before uppercutting the man right on the chin. The stunned man's stomach was soon under assault by a flurry of blows. He doubled over before being caught in a headlock.
Cinder smirked under her mask, ready to celebrate her victory by snapping his neck. The brilliant sheen of Hope's gun reflected the full moon at its zenith, interrupting her before she could end the career soldier.
"Only warning." Hope declared. "Let him go, or else."
She tilted her head in mock curiosity.
"Now, what might else be?" She asked, her tone full of arrogance at having won.
Without a second's notice, Hope shot her square in the chest. With the first shot, Cinder let go of the general with a shocked, pained gasp. Each subsequent shot sent her back towards the large glass window with the final shot sending the infiltrator tumbling out the window with a shattering crash of broken glass.
Anon walked over to the panting general. Ironwood was on his knees, rolling his shoulders and neck. Ironwood nodded thankfully as Anon helped him to his feet.
"Thank you, she nearly broke my neck." he dreaded the implication. "If it weren't for you..."
"I know," he replied neutrally.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THAT WAS CLOSE! IF HE HAD DIED WE WOULD BE IN A METRIC FUCK TON OF TROUBLE!
Hope and Ironwood returned to the girls. Anon squatted down next to Ruby and gave her a few light smacks on the cheek.
"Waky waky, sleepyhead."
Her eyelids fidgeted before slowly opening. She let out a groan as she slowly sat up. She gripped the side of her head, massaging her throbbing temple.
"My head..." she complained.
She shot up suddenly, her eyes scanning the entire room. She noticed the broken window and the fact that both Anon and General Ironwood were here and put two and two together. She deflated.
"Oh..." She sat back down. "You took care of it..."
He gave a half-smile.
"Sorry. I bet you were really excited to try and bag your first bad guy."
She pouted angrily.
"Don't remind me!"
He snickered. His teasing stopped when Penny came back from the digital realm and back into her body.
"Friend Anon. I've locked the data stream from the last two hours, but there's too much data. Can you narrow down what the virus affects specifically?"
He helped Ruby to her feet before slav squatting in front of Penny's idle frame.
"Look for anything related to Atlas's Operating Systems." He ordered. "And If you can, any back doors in the Vale defence grid."
Penny didn't answer back yet and only after a few minutes did she come back. She sounded... displeased.
"I can't find any back doors. As for the OS, The field is too broad. I need something specific."
"Maybe it's their A. I the virus affect?"
Penny tried again, this time she sounded distraught.
"There's too much! It's going to take months to check every file!"
"Sort by new?" He shrugged powerlessly.
This time Penny sounded more worried.
"I think I see the problem. And it's not good."
Ironwood inhaled sharply through his nose.
"Report..." he exhaled.
"The A.I behaviour has a new condition that when active, flips the A.I's recognition scripts. This means that they'll ignore the Grimm and target people!"
"Then delete it." The general ordered.
"That's the thing, sir. If I try anything, the entire operating system will crash."
"WHAT?!" He yelled out.
"The virus has an incredible amount of killswitches that will erase key parts of the Operating System. If I delete it, The damage to the OS will be catastrophic."
Ironwood's fist balled up and he slammed it down on a desk, splitting it in half out of sheer anger and frustration.
"GAH!" he cried out as his punch landed. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"I'm afraid not, general," Penny confirmed. "Our only real option is to quarantine the entire system and to shut down every affected machine. And since this is system-wide..."
"Our entire mechanized army has to be deactivated..." Ironwood gripped the bridge of his nose in defeated anger. "Damn you, Watts!"
He let out a defeated groan.
"Fine, shut it all down. Better safe than sorry." He looked down in shame. "Gods' know I learned that lesson the hard way..."
Anon hesitated.
"Penny." She met his sorry gaze. "Can you prepare a simulation of what would happen if the code was used?"
She looked incredibly disturbed.
"Friend Anon... I don't think that this is a good idea..."
He held her shoulder.
"Me neither, but this is important evidence. If we find the ones responsible, with this, they will never see the light of day again."
Penny looked down, obviously dreading the detailed recreation of people being torn asunder by Atlas's mechanized fist. She nodded grimly.
"I... I'll do it."
Anon held Penny in a warm hug.
"I'm sorry, but it needs to be done."
She nodded into the crook of his neck and returned the hug. Despite being made of metal and definitely tougher than he could ever be, she felt incredibly fragile in his arms.
She's just a scared girl, in the end...
The two separated and he faced the general.
"Call your backup and tell them to secure the entire location."
"And the dance?" he questioned.
"With Vytal on, we can't afford to start a panic. What happened here is off the record." he insisted. "This is between us, Oz and Glynda."
"Understood."
Anon turned to Ruby.
"You'll be questioned later tomorrow," he told her. "If you can, keep this between your team and us."
"Alright." Ruby nodded seriously.
Anon felt his strength leave and with a heavy sigh, he deflated.
"God fucking damn it... This is a mess."
The general blinked slowly, looking down at the ground.
"Indeed it is..." He shook his head in self-disappointment, looking up at Hope. "I should have listened to you."
"Too late for regrets now," Anon told him. "When your done securing the place, extract the guards and send them back home."
Ironwood nodded sadly.
"Understood... They deserve that much."
"Once you're done, ship your bots back to base and call in your men to take their place. Men you can trust with your life."
Ironwood nodded half-heartedly, probably too busy thinking about how to break down to the dead man's family that he will never come back home. Hope frowned sadly at the older headmaster before nudging Ruby to follow him to the elevator.
"C'mon. We have a dance to be at."
"Even after all of this?" she questioned incredulously.
"For one, I have to tell Ozpin about what happened and two, your sister still needs to be babysat."
Ruby groaned.
"Of course..."
He gave her a tap on the back.
"You'll get through this."
She rolled her eyes.
"You just like to see me suffer."
He grinned without an ounce of shame. After leaving the building, Anon noticed that Ruby looked to have a question burning at her lips.
"What is it?" He asked bluntly. "You obviously want to ask me something."
Ruby went to ask something but shook her head.
"It's just... I'm curious about Penny."
"She's one of Atlas's bleeding-edge tech projects." He revealed. "She's a completely artificial person with an Aura."
"So she's a robot?"
"Yes, but she actually has a soul."
"Well duh! If she has an Aura then that means she has a soul!"
Anon smirked.
"I don't have an Aura and I'm pretty sure I still have a soul. And unless some mad scientist rigged my brain in a cyborg in my sleep, I'm also pretty certain that I ain't no silicate. So what does that make me?"
She hummed thoughtfully then shrugged with a smile.
"An alien."
Hope looked at her stunned before grinning.
"Look's like I've been found out!"
"I knew it!"
The two giggled like idiots as they took the short trek back to the party.
The party was as they left it and still in full swing. Curious, Hope checked his scroll and it shocked him that the entire ordeal took less than twenty minutes. He waved Ruby in, telling her that he'll catch up, as he looked around for the disguised Neo. Sure enough, she was on the balcony, looking even more aggravated than when he last saw her. Probably because people haven't taken the hint that she wasn't in the mood to dance with a bunch of faceless jabronies. She lit up the moment she saw him, however, and waved with a soft smile. She jolted to attention when her scroll started ringing. She excused herself to the restroom to answer her call. Anon shook his head, knowing full well that it was probably her signal to switch back with the real Cinder. He joined up with the teachers and explained the situation down to the last detail. Glynda was understandably appaled at the death of the guard and Ozpin was quietly fuming that all of this mess had happened under his nose. Anon just shrugged at the old wizard's reaction.
Your own fault for not paying attention. War is coming, and Vale will be ground zero. Unless I can do something about it...
He checked his scroll again, a sinister smile slowly spreading across his lips. He sniggered darkly.
"It's time~!"
...
Cinder swore quietly as she massaged her chest. The massive bruise was extremely uncomfortable and sore. She thanked her fashion sense for picking a dress that had a dark screen hiding her cleavage, otherwise her cover would have been easily blown by that damned Hope guy. She exited the restroom with a flick of her luscious hair. Neo came in through the front entrance after they switched places. She frowned at her disguised "Teammate."
"Finally you decided to show up!" Cinder acted annoyed.
Neo shrugged and told her that she doesn't do parties for a reason. Then pointed to the three (mostly inebriated) guys she has (violently) rebuffed thus far. Cinder rolled her eyes and shook her head, hoping to Darkness that Neo didn't blow her cover. The two reunited with Emerald and Mercury on the balcony overlooking the dance floor. Cinder leaned against the balcony with a grunt, her action irritating her bruise.
"Anything of note?"
"We lost sight of that Hope guy," Mercury admitted.
"Yeah, he just..." Emerald struggled to explain what happened. "Let himself fall into the crowd and vanished."
"It was weird."
Cinder growled as her bruise flared up.
"I see..." She massaged her bruise. "I guess that explains his sudden appearance at the CCTT."
"What?!" Emerald balked in shock.
"Yes. He, General Ironwood himself, his metal puppet and the silver-eyed warrior all came to stop me." She snarled with a smile. "I was this close to taking Ironwood off the board, and he snatched that chance away from me."
She shook her head. No, she got too ahead of herself. Killing Ironwood would have been a horrid mistake at this stage. She realized that unbeknownst to the both of them at the time, he had saved her plan from ruin. She smirked, mentally thanking him for stopping her from ruining her own plans.
"Shit." Mercury cursed. "What now? Did the plan fail?"
Cinder's smirk turned to a smile. She looked down her position, her eye trailing on Hope with great interest as if he was an exotic curiosity.
"I may have been pushed back, but the system has still been subverted. The plan shall remain."
Mercury joined her on the balcony, following her eyes. His expression hardened into stone.
"Do you need us to get him out of the game?"
Hope began talking to Ozpin and Glynda, they looked extremely unpleased. Cinder took note of this.
"No, it seemed he's well connected." She turned to her coconspirator. "We need more info before making our next move. If he's just a tattle-tail who was at the right place at the right time, then it won't be a problem to take him out. But if he's part of Ozpin's circle, then killing him too soon will be a huge issue."
Neo sauntered over to the edge of the balcony and stared at Hope with a dubious smile. He looked at his scroll and grinned like a madman. He swaggered over to a group of guys and snatched them away from their dates, half the guys looked really flustered for some reason. The dates in question looked at them with befuddled confusion as their sweethearts were being whisked away. Hope waved their worries away and said something that was probably meant to be reassuring before marching towards the men's restroom. Neo eyed the door from her perch with morbid curiosity as her coconspirators kept talking behind her.
"So we keep doing what we've been doing?" Emerald asked.
"For the moment, yes. Although, I need certainty regarding Hope's status as a true threat."
"No offence, boss, but you seem a bit... hung up on this guy," Mercury said.
"Considering all the red flags he's raised in my head, I hardly find my paranoia unjustified. He was suspicious of us the moment he met us. I'm even willing to bet that he knew about us before we even met."
Mercury scoffed dismissively.
"What? You think he's some sort of fortune-teller or something?" he wiggled his fingers superstitiously. "For his next trick, he'll look into a crystal ball and divine your horoscope."
"Horoscopes are based on the month you're born, dumbass" Emerald corrected rudely. "Not some nebulous visions from a ball of cheap glass."
Cinder shook her head.
"Whatever the case may be, he's the biggest potential threat to our whole operation, along with Ozpin and his circle."
Mercury took a metaphorical step back.
"That much? He's just one guy! And he's not even a full-on huntsman trainee, he's a damn support student!"
"And a thorn is irritating but mostly harmless." Cinder retorted. "The thorn is not the problem, it's where it's stuck into that's the issue."
She overlooked the party from her perch atop the balcony.
"He's a torn in our side at the moment, the question is: Is he just going to be irritating? Or is he just above an artery, ready to bleed us like slaughter fodder?"
The howling of laughter disturbed her thoughts as she let what she said stew in her teammate's mind. Cinder cocked a brow and looked at the source of the commotion. She had... Difficulties understanding what she was seeing.
...
Ruby sighed as she rubbed her eyes. She hadn't stopped thinking about what had happened at the CCTT. All her big ideas of being an awesome warrior got sent straight into a garbage bin the moment she fought face to face with the first competent criminal she came across. The blow to her pride was worse than the blow she received on her still throbbing temple. She deflated like a balloon, her lips pursed in a sour expression. She had tried to play it off with Anon but the more she thought about it, the worse it got.
She looked up from the ground to scan around the place to locate her sister. It didn't take long to find the massive golden mane her sibling wore pridefully. She was with the rest of their friends and teammates, minus the guys for some reason. Yang blinked one eye at a time, her expression betrayed how slow-witted and fragile she was at the moment. The little sun dragon was the first amongst her team to notice their previously absent leader.
"Yo." Yang waved at her sister groggily as she was assisted by her feline companion. "Where have you been?"
"Hey." She greeted back half-heartedly. "I've been... Huh, it's kinda complicated. I don't really want to talk about it here."
Weiss frowned in concern.
"Did something happen?"
"Yeah, it was bad."
The girls exchanged looks.
"How bad?" Pyrrha asked tentatively.
"I'll tell you all once we're back at the dorm."
She looked around suspiciously before getting closer, her tone hushed.
"Too many people and I told Anon that I would keep this on the down-low."
The group looked at one another, concerned at the implications. The sudden howling of laughter startled the group. With a turn towards the restrooms, the gang was stunned with shock at what they saw.
...
"I feel like an idiot," Ren complained stoically.
"So do I," Anon admitted. "But if Yang talks shit, I'm gonna prove her wrong a thousand times over."
"So all of this is because you're a spiteful prick?"
Anon leaned on the restroom sink, pulling out a small bag from one of the many duffel bags.
"Yes, very much so." he opened a case with an audible mechanical click.
Jaune fiddled with one of Neptune's zippers.
"There!" Jaune tapped him on the back. "All done."
Neptune adjusted one of his shoes.
"You are surprisingly good at this, dude."
The yellow squire rolled his eyes.
"Let's just say I have experience." he sighed. "Damned Saffron."
Neptune gave him a supportive tap on the shoulder.
"It's ok, dude, no one's judging."
"I am," Anon said after smacking his lips.
"Yeah, but you're a dick." Jaune retorted.
"Correct!"
Anon leaned further towards the mirror, smirking at how good he looked.
"Y'all ready? Cause I am."
"Ready!" Sun chippered. "Man, this is gonna be unforgettable."
"Very apt." Ren quipped with a huffed laugh. "I'm ready when you are."
"Same." Nep and Jaune confirmed in unison.
With a mad cackle, Hope opened the restroom door with a slam, alerting everyone in the vicinity. At first, everyone who saw them were unable to fathom what the hell they were seeing but as the group swaggered out, they couldn't help but burst out laughing at the absurdity on display. The group of five gentlemen walked towards the dance floor, a shameless spring to their step. Anon grinned like a madman as he walked into his other friend's view. The look of disbelief was priceless.
Before the girls stood their dates and their typically manly friends wearing dresses and makeup.
Jaune was the most modest along with Neptune, both wearing white skirt dresses. Although Nep was more of a sundress style still whilst Jaune was more typical for a dance party. Sun was in a long blue skirt, doing his best Yankee delinquent impression with a white short-sleeved sailor top exposing his midriff included. Ren lived up to his bloodline with a qipao dress, his green and pink mingling with silver trim. Anon, ever the one for extravagance, looked like a songstress from a smooth jazz speakeasy. His velvety blue dress shone dully under the light with black accents that gave an air of sophistication, a black fur muffler hiding his bare shoulder. His usual panoply of rings shone on his gloved hand. The slit on his dress revealed shockingly smooth, recently waxed legs, not that anyone would notice since he wore thigh-highs and garters. His high-heeled stiletto click-clacked loudly during his catwalk up to the girls. His smokey eyelashes danced mischievously as his painted sapphire lips curved into a surly smile.
His sight set on Yang.
"By the way, Yang, what was it you said? 'Like you can do better?'"
Yang stared with a baffled smile.
"Are you freaking serious?"
"I'm standing here, flaring like a fucking peacock enough to make every drag queen in town nod with pride! I'm beyond fucking serious!"
He put a lid to his stare, his smile turning into a smirk.
"On that note..." he turned to his squad of absolute bellends. "LADS! TO THE STAGE!"
The group, having accepted the ridiculousness of their situation since they first entered their improvised changing rooms, just smiled as they followed their leader to the main stage. The crowd made way for the gang of chucklenuts, still slightly hysterical at how stupidly dressed these guys were. They spared no expenses and pulled no punches, their makeup alone having taken just as long to perfect as their choice of fashion did.
From the back of the stage, they pulled out an entire set of instruments. The girls of the group stared on in incredulity. Is this what they've been doing all of those times they left with no explanation?! From a pair of cases, Ren and Jaune pulled five-string bass and electric guitar respectively. Out the back came Sun with his full drum kit, it took him a few minutes to set up which gave time for the bassist and the guitarist to warm up. Neptune heaved as he pushed an entire synthesizer/DJ booth combo on the stage. RWBY stared in confusion at the JNPR girlfriends.
"Wait, they can play guitar and bass?"
Nora shrugged, just as in the dark as they were. Pyrrha held her shin, staring at her crush with doubt.
"I mean, I know Jaune plays acoustic. But electric?"
Anon tapped on the mic, taking the girls' attention back to their cadre of male buddies.
"One, two, three." he smiled at the audio quality of the speakers. "Bitchin'."
He cleared his throat away from the mic before speaking into it.
"I would like to take..." he checked his scroll. "Fifteen minutes, give or take. What for you may ask? Well..."
He glanced to his left at Jaune and gave him the nod. Jaune grinned as he and Ren dragged their picks on the lowest not of their respective instrument, eliciting a long droning sound. They followed the drone with the opening from This Will Be The Day as Sun joined them, beating on his drums like they owed him money.
"LET'S GO!" Anon announced as he began singing in Casey William's stead.
The group had gone through the effort of remixing the song from Alt-Rock into something closer to Metal, if still somewhat synthy due to Neptune's instrument of choice. So something in the ballpark of Nu-Metal.
The crowd bobbed up and down as they got into the rhythm of the song, cheering as the song upped in tempo. The girls stared with mouths agape as the guys rocked the stage. Except for Weiss, who nodded approvingly at Hope's vocals.
"He's not straining his vocal cords and he still has a good range with smooth transitions." She smiled cockily. "Not bad, for a rookie."
As the song went on, the girls quickly got over their bewilderment and just joined the crowd, Laughing, cheering and hollering as the guys went in. The song slowed down and Anon's smile disappeared. He gripped the microphone closely, his eyes focused with intensity.
Specifically on Ruby.
"Your world needs a great defender/ Your world's in the way of harm.
You want a romantic life/ A fairy tale, so full of charms."
Ruby blinked, having noticed that Hope looked straight at her. His intensity soured, his eyes veiled with shadows. Worry unintentionally invaded his tone.
"Beware that the light is fading/ Beware as the dark returns...
This world's unforgiving/ For even brilliant lights has been snuffed out."
He inhaled off-mic before belting out a cry of anguish taking lyrical form.
"LE-GENDS SCA-TTERS!
DAY AND NIGHT WILL BE SEVERED/ HOPE AND PEACE, LOST AND GONE FOREVER!"
Ruby felt her heart lurch. She knew Anon enough to know that despite this ridiculous setup, he meant every word of his dark omen. Jaune entered into the solo as Anon let go of the microphone with an off-mic sigh. He let the boys have their moment to shine and considering how well this was going, he thought that they bloody well earned it.
It still shocked him how good they all were. He kind of expected Jaune to suck, but to his pleasant surprise, he took quickly to playing electric despite his leanings towards acoustic. Sun had to have a bit of help but he made a fine drummer as is. Neptune already knew how to play piano and since a synthesizer is basically a really complicated electric piano, it didn't take long for him to get a grip. Ren probably had it the worst, as he didn't play any instrument. Jaune stuck by him and showed him how to play guitar. It took a lot of adjustment in translating guitar skill to bass but he eventually got the basics down thanks to his brother from another mother.
He pulled out his scroll and sent a quick text to Weiss, the resident singer.
Me: 'How you likin' the show so far?'
PrettyPrincess: 'Shockingly competent, considering how fast and loose you and the others set this whole thing up.'
Me: 'And me, Miss opera singer?'
He gave Weiss a confident look from the stage. She smiled back, cruelly.
PrettyPrincess: 'Could be worse.'
He rolled his eyes. With tongue firmly in cheek, he sent her a copy-pasted wall of text followed by a separate message.
Me: 'You have until the end of the song to memorize the lyrics and come to the stage for a duet.'
Weiss eyed the text then Hope, who smirked victoriously before getting back to singing. Weiss didn't flinch and smiled with competitive relish.
"Oh, you will not see this coming, Hope my dear."
Cinder blinked, then rubbed her eyes to look again at the scene unfolding before her. She stared incredulously as the man that shot her not long ago was rocking out on stage in drag. Mercury was looking at his boss with a bemused smile.
"So... A thorn, eh?"
Neo was filming the entire thing, streaming it directly to Roman with the caption of 'LMAO, YOU GOT YOUR ASS KICKED BY A DUDE IN A DRESS!1!'. All while chocking with silent laughter. Emerald was in a similar incredulous trance as her boss, but for another, less pertinent reason.
"He has a nice voice... And really nice legs..."
Cinder held the bridge of her nose, feeling silly despite the ironclad proof of his meddling.
"As... I was saying..." she tried and failed to ignore the men in drag playing loud music in the center of the main floor. "We should definitely keep a closer eye on him..."
Anon had stepped on one of the front speakers, revealing his undies to the crowd unintentionally.
"Boxers?" Some blonde girl jeered from the crowd. "You disappoint me, dude."
"What?! You expected me to wear panties or something?" He jeered back. "I'm not a crossdresser, Yang!"
The crowd roared with laughter. Anon chuckled along with them.
"ALRIGHT, HUNTSMEN AND HUNTSWOMEN! FOR OUR SECOND ACT, PLEASE ROAR A WARM WELCOME FOR WEISS SCHNEE."
Cinder froze.
"He's a friend of the Schnee?" She asked her choco-mint-coloured henchwoman.
Emerald shook off her incredulous daze with a throat-clearing cough.
"Uhm! Uh, yeah. Actually, he's a friend of her entire team. Including-"
"The silver-eyed warrior..."
She bit the tip of her thumb's nail, thinking with a defiant glare.
"You can't fool me." She murmured to herself. "Despite your buffoonery, I know you're a real threat."
She blinked as the goons in drag prepared for their second song. She saw Hope look straight at her. She saw him look to the side at nothing, probably thinking. He shivered as he rubbed the back of his neck. His frown turned into a callous sneer. he produced from a previously unseen handbag a small shock Dust crystal. He traced a line across his neck but not in the sense that he was slicing her throat.
He was tracing a collar, with the shock crystal as the jewel.
Cinder's eyes widened, her pupils shrinking. Her breathing shortened and she began trembling like a leaf in the wind. Her heart pounded in her ears like that monkey guy was doing on his drum. She swallowed with difficulty due to her slowly closing throat.
Her henchmen looked on in shock as their normally hardened boss held herself, chanting a small lullaby like a mantra. After a moment of awkward silence, Cinder managed to calm herself. A cold, freezing breeze passed, tickling her neck. Cinder gripped the railing, her eyes wide open and laser-focused on Hope.
"Neo..." She said, her voice trembling with an unknown emotion. "Change of plan."
The disguised ice-cream-coloured criminal leaned into view, worried at the tone of her current employer. Cinder's eyes didn't budge, still obsessively fixated on the band's frontman as they played their second song.
"I want him." she declared.
Usually, Neo would have chuckled at the poor choice of words, but the tone only furthered her worry. Cinder's next words added to the deepening pit in her stomach.
"Once his little friends are out of the picture during the field trip, I want you to get him to our Mount Glenn hideout."
Neo pulled out her scroll.
Neopolitan: 'What for?'
Cinder's answer made her skin crawl.
"Interrogation."
V2E12: END!
NEXT ON PLAYLIST: V2E13 - PLAY?
*: watch?v=YVjUHBYji0g