Chapter 2: The guardian
Location: From Dust till Dawn, Downtown Vale
SKERTCH! Bumblebee squeaked as Yang pulled up to the dust shop, with several police cruisers surrounding the entrance. The policemen were in a firefight with several criminals within the shop, but were unable to gain any ground, trapping them in this deadlock!
The three girls leaped off the bike and ran up to the officer that seemed to be leading the firefight.
The police officer acknowledged the three as they walked up, "Its good to see you guys, I imagine your bosses will be coming to help as well."
"Our partners…" Yang corrected, as she crossed her arms in annoyance "…are on a mission right now?"
"We're all you got" Ruby added, with an awkward shrug
"Is that going to be a problem?" Weiss challenged, hands on her hips
The police officer looked disappointed for a sec, but his face quickly turned back into a smile
"Of course not, any help is better than none"
He then pointed to the blockade that they had formed with their cars and were firing their handguns from.
"We are having a hard time getting close, as those robbers have some pretty high power weaponry" He added in frustration "If you three can give us an opening, we might be able to get close enough to nab em."
Yang grinned, punching her palm "We'll do you one better."
She then nodded to her two teammates, as they leapt into position behind a car.
"Frost Storm" Ruby commanded, as Weiss raised her sword, using it to summon a pool of ice that ran under the criminals that were firing at them, making them slip and slide on the new surface.
Ruby than turned to her sister, "Golden Dragon"
Yang winked at her, before using her gauntlets to launch herself into the air, over the car barricade and slammed down on the ice floor, shattering it, and sending the robbers sprawling.
Ruby then finished the attack, by transforming into a swarm of petals, flying over the barricade, and firing several electric dust shots at the robbers, each landing on their mark.
The robbers felt a volt of electricity run through their body, before falling over in a heap, temporally paralyzed, but were otherwise okay.
The three girls then rushed into the dust shop, leaving the police behind to arrest the robbers. To their surprise they found the shop empty, but there was a large hole in the middle, indicating that the robbers had drilled down into the earth.
"Why didn't they take the dust?" Weiss asked, "And where is Torchwick?"
Ruby, who was examining the dust shelves around them "I don't know, but they didn't take any dust, none of it seems to be missing."
"So, they must be down that hole" Yang finished "We should go down and get em. Find out what they're really up to."
"This is clearly more than a dust robbery" Weiss said hesitantly "Maybe we should contact the league."
"But we did this to prove that we are ready and can handle ourselves" Ruby protested "If we call them at the first sign of trouble, we'll just prove that we're not."
Weiss considered this, and again nodded in agreement "Okay, we need a plan then."
"I got a plan" Yang said and then proceeded to fling herself down the hole, screaming in delight as she did so. Ruby and Weiss heard a large boom a few seconds later, indicating she had made it to the bottom.
"Really" Weiss groaned in frustration "Is she brain dead?!" She said, throwing her hands out in exasperation at Ruby.
"I mean it's Yang" Ruby said, shrugging her shoulders and transformed into her petal form, flying down the hole.
Weiss rolled her eyes before following. She free fell for a bit, before using her glyphs to slow her decent. Ruby on the other hand swirled around the edge of the hole in her petal form, to slow her fall, before shifting back, riding crescent rose and firing a shot right before she landed.
Yang was waiting at the bottom, nonchalantly brushing herself off from the small crater that she created.
"You could have collapsed the whole tunnel!" Weiss exclaimed "What were you thinking?"
Yang shrugged at this "We'd be fine. Don't get so worked up Ice Queen"
Before Weiss could retort, Ruby silenced them both.
"Look" she whispered pointing off a small cliff in front of them.
A large tunnel was ahead of them, with nothing but darkness laying before them. There was no telling how far it went, it could have gone on for miles.
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang looked at each other with unease and surprise. They began to cautiously walk forward, using their scrolls to light the path ahead of them.
It seemed they had walked for nearly an hour when the tunnel of shadow before them had a dim light barely piercing through it.
"What's that?" Yang asked, scratching her head.
Ruby's neutral expression shifted to an excited grin, and she ran forward, drawing her scythe.
However, Weiss's pale hand grabbed her shoulder.
"We need to be careful" Weiss sternly told off Ruby, as she pulled the red cloaked girl back "We can't rush in without knowing what we're up against."
Ruby nodded. Weiss could be a buzz kill, but she was right. If it were the robbers ahead of them, they'd need to be cautious.
They quickly but stealthily crept forward, following the light as it got brighter and brighter, before the whole tunnel was shinning with its white glow. The girls looked past where the tunnel expanded and saw a large cavern, with several large stalactites descending down from the caves roof on the side closest to them. On the other side however was something that certainly wasn't supposed to be there.
Over a dozen guys in black were wandering around, waiting for something going on inside the large vehicle with a drill attached to its front.
"Idiots" A harsh voice echoed as the door to the vehicle was kicked open and a man walked out. Roman Torchwick stepped out "Alright, who was the moron who was supposed to fill up before we left?"
All the goons turned and shrugged nervously, as Roman rolled his eyes and walked down the ramp that descended from the immobile vehicle's door. As he did so, Ruby, Weiss and Yang snuck over to behind the nearest stalactite, trying to get a better view on the scene.
"Well get it working or our employers will eat us alive, and believe me these aren't the kind of people you wanna piss off!" He yelled as he lit a cigar and proceeded to smoke it while he watched his men at work, trying to get the drill and the vehicle to start.
Ruby watched this scene carefully, both watching the weapons that the goons had, as well as their size and build. It seemed more than likely that this would end in a fight, but if they could launch a surprise attack, maybe they could take them all down quickly enough. The goons weren't armed with anything special, only some standard pistols and swords. She continued to ramble on in her head, but was interrupted by a loud sound coming to the left of her.
ATCHOO! Yang let out a massive sneeze that shook the whole cavern, causing all the goons and Roman to look directly at them. Everyone was still for what seemed like a minute, before Roman began to yell at his men.
"Well, get them!" He berated mockingly, clearly exhausted by their incompetence. The men roared and charged the three huntress's who got in their respective fighting stances.
Ruby rushed forward in her petal form, blitzing past the black clad men and brought her scythe down on Roman, as Weiss and Yang began to deal with the goons.
Roman step sided the strike, and swung his cane, which Ruby ducked under. She tried to swing for his legs, but he jumped over it and struck her with the cane, knocking her back.
Ruby shook off the blow and growled in frustration and leapt back at Roman, swinging her scythe wildly, which Roman was easily able to block and maneuver around her strikes.
As Ruby kept swinging, Roman got several small hits with his cane in, chipping away at her aura. Finally, she tried a downwards slash again with her scythe, but he was able to block in and then hooked it with his cane. He pulled crescent rose to the side, unbalancing Ruby and then landed a front kick, which sent her rolling away. He then raised his cane and blasted Ruby with some sort of explosive, launching her across the dirt floor.
Yang saw this, as she knocked goon out with an uppercut. She cursed Roman and launched herself across the floor in a rage. She launched a series of punches at Roman who used his cane to knock each of the blows away. Yang tried a spinning elbow, which he ducked under, countering with a headbutt as he got up, stunning her. He then wrapped the hook end around Yang's neck and pulled her forward, causing her to trip and roll over. He then finished the attack by launching her away with an explosive shot, just as he did to Ruby.
"HYAHH" Weiss screamed as she attacked Roman with a downward thrust from the air. Using explosive dust, the ground erupted with force as she struck it. Roman did a series of back flips to avoid her strike but got knocked back by the force of impact, sending him sprawling across the floor. He growled and got back up. She raised her sword and charged forward with her glyphs and struck at the criminal, who managed to knock the tip away with his cane. Weiss spun gracefully, and slid forward like a dancer, jabbing at Roman with her sword. While he is able to block the blows, he was getting pushed back with each strike. She then formed a repulsion glyph behind him, sending him stumbling forward.
Roman swung his Cane down to counter, which Weiss performed a backhand spring to avoid. Out of no where Yang socked him in the jaw, knocking him back! She followed up with an uppercut, launching him into the air. Ruby then hit him with a shot from her sniper rifle, slamming him into the wall of the cavern.
Roman slid down and fell to his knees. Punching the ground in frustration he raised his cane, firing another explosive shot at the girls.
Weiss created a hard dust shield to block the explosion, causing the girls to slide back due to the force. The explosion rocked the whole tunnel, with Ruby, Weiss Yang and Roman looking around nervously.
One of Roman's goons gets up raising his rocket launcher, aiming at the girls.
"NOOO!" Roman yells as he pulls the trigger. "Stop!"
Several rockets erupted from the barrel, flying around the cavern before diving straight at the girls. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all scattered, jumping into a series of acrobatics to avoid the explosions.
BOOM!
Rocks began to fall from the roof as the tunnel collapsed around them. The girls tried to avoid the massive rocks, but it was in vain as the floor fell away beneath them, and they slipped into the abyss.
The three girls awoke with a start, with nothing but darkness around them. They got up, brushing the dust and rocks off themselves, and got their scrolls out to shine a light in the dark.
"Okay" Weiss coughed, as she blinked to adjust to the darkness "Now we call the league"
"Can't" Yang said, as she waved her scroll around "No service"
They all looked forward to the tunnel in front of them.
"I guess we gotta go this way" Ruby said, unsure of what to do. "Let's go this way." She commanded, much louder, and surer of herself the second time. They proceeded to follow her, raising their scrolls to light the way.
Finally, the dirt around them turned to metal, and they found themselves in a rather odd place. There was a massive chamber before them, with dimly lit torches illuminating the room in an ominous green glow.
"Where are we?" Weiss asked as the three girls looked around, trying to get a better look at the strange area.
"Hey!" A female voice called out "What are you doing here?"
They all turned to find the source of the voice.
She was tall, even more so than Yang, with a slim, yet toned and athletic frame, looking to be in her late teens. She had bright red hair, which was held in a long ponytail. She wore a bronze circlet on her head, matching the colour of her gauntlet she wore on her left hand, as well as her greaves, boots, and armour, which exposed some of her chest. She held her shield out in front of her with her with her left, and raised her sword behind with her right, ready to fight.
Everyone just stared at each other in surprise, with Ruby, Weiss and Yang shifting their eyes back in forth, unsure of how to proceed with this stranger.
"It's kind of a long story" Yang joked to ease the tension "Hey do you know where we are?"
The red-haired woman narrowed her eyes and flung her shield. Shocked, Yang fired her gauntlet blasts to knock the shield away. Despite this it stayed on its course, with a black shine around it, slamming into Yang, knocking her head back.
The woman leapt in, and grabbed her shield before it hit the ground. Yang tried to punch her, but the woman deflected with her shield, which carried Yang forward. She then countered by striking with her shield, which Yang blocked with her forearms. However, Yang didn't see the sword strike she followed up with, which slashed across her torso, sending her into the air. The red head finished the combo with a side kick, slamming Yang into a wall across the room.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted and fired at the woman, who lifted her shield and blocked every shot. Ruby burst into petals, charging at the woman, and shifted back right before impact. Ruby then opened up a series of slashes with her scythe, pressuring the redhead and forcing her back as she blocked with her shield.
Ruby then slashed at her legs, which the red head leapt over and landed on. She then rammed into Ruby with her shield, knocking her several metres back, landing on the ground hard.
She heard a shimmering sound and turned to her left to see Weiss standing in a ballet like stance, with her sword being held in front of her face, a clock like glyph forming under her feet.
Before the woman could react, several glyphs formed around her. Weiss rushed in, and the red head blocked all the strikes, as Weiss bounced off the glyphs, slashing at the woman at an incredibly fast pace. Weiss then slashed downwards, and while the woman blocked the blade, she still hit the floor hard. As Weiss came down however, attempting to stab into her from above, the woman rolled away, avoiding the attack, which caused Weiss's blade to be embedded into the ground.
The red head charged as Weiss tried to remove her blade from the floor. She flipped over Weiss, grabbing her head in the process, and then landed. She then proceeded to pull the smaller girl over her and slammed her down, hard enough to create a small crater. Weiss's aura shattered as she laid there, unconscious.
Yang roared as she charged in, as flames burst from her hair! She struck the woman across the face and knocked her down, but she rolled to her feet with the impact. As Yang went for another strike, a black force seemed to cover her gauntlet and the woman was able to pull her forward easily, slashing at her ribs. In pain and rage, Yang swung again but the girl ducked under the punch, slashing at her stomach. However, the slashes did not seem to be doing a large amount of damage, as Yang continued to punch at the woman, who used her shield to deflect them all.
Yang then delivered a roundhouse kick to the woman, who blocked it with her sword arm, and threw her shield at Yang's knee, causing her to drop to the floor.
As Yang tried to get up the woman flipped over her shoulder and wrapped her sword, which had shifted into a javelin, around Yang's neck, choking her out. Yang struggled and fired back, slamming both of them into the wall behind her, but the redhead's choke held strong. While Yang was a bit stronger than the woman, the redhead was much more skilled and had more aura left than Yang, who was exhausted from the fight with Roman. Soon Yang collapsed from a lack of oxygen, and fell unconscious at the girl's feet.
The red head felt a swirl of wind around her, and soon saw what the cause was. Ruby, now in her petal form, was swirling around the room at super speed, and was closing the circle on the girl fast. Once she got close enough Ruby opened up a series of slashes on the woman, knocking her around with the woman being unable to react to her speed, whittling down her aura with each strike!
The woman now frustrated, was trying to track Ruby's movements, holding out her hand, which glowed black. All of a sudden Ruby's scythe had the same glow too! The girl pulled her hand close to her, causing Ruby's scythe to jolt to a stop, and with it Ruby experienced a wicked whiplash. Ruby fell to the floor, and before she could recover the woman had kicked her in the face, knocking her out!