Chapter 3: New Dawn
Location: Unknown underground location, Vale
"Roman, what happened?" A harsh female voice demanded "Why aren't you at the vault?"
"Well, we may have run into a few complications" Roman responded nervously "You see, we have some little brats, the side kicks of Harbinger, Phoenix and Snow Sword, who attacked us…and caused a tunnel collapse."
The dark-haired woman on his scroll narrowed her eyes at him
"But" Roman added quickly "We have it all under control and will be in the vault soon. It might help if you told us what we were getting the woman for?" He questioned "Perhaps it would make this part of the job easier"
"Oh Roman" The woman said in a sickly-sweet tone "Worry about getting what I want, before you start working on your own ambitions. Believe me it works out better for everyone this way. You'll know everything you need to know when you need to know it."
She then turned off the scroll. Grumbling, Roman walked from the drill cart, and addressed his various goons, while lighting a cigar.
"Okay people let's get this show on the road!" He yelled "We're getting paid a lot for this job and if we screw up it's our asses on the line. Move!"
And with that the drill cart roared to life and began to drill through the earth in front of them, burrowing towards their target.
Location: Unknown vault
The red head woman paced across the vault floor, where three unconscious girls were tied to chairs in front of her, with reinforced metal wiring, as normal rope would likely be nothing for their abilities. She was unsure of what to do with them.
Pyrrha Nikos had spent her entire life training to be a warrior, a weapon. When she was thirteen, she was already a champion level fighter, well above her peers and winning multiple tournaments. This caught the eye of Ozpin, better known as The Wizard, the leader of the Huntsman Society of Remnant, and she was taken under his lieutenant's wing, Glynda Goodwitch, otherwise known as The Violet Witch. She trained Pyrrha on how to be a huntress, always stressing that some day she would be a champion that would save the world. Every aspect of combat and academics were drilled into her head, so much so that she had graduated high school a full year early, and at seventeen was training full time to be a huntress, for when she turned twenty-one.
This vault had become her training grounds, with Goodwitch explaining that it would be best if the world didn't know she existed yet, until she was ready to defend it. No one, save for an occasional visit from her parents and high-ranking huntsmen for specialized training, had ever come to the vault. In fact, these girls were the first adolescence that she had an extended interaction with in over four years. Granted, it was her beating them unconscious but still.
On one hand they really hadn't done anything wrong, besides coming into her vault. However, Goodwitch had given her instructions to defend this fortress from any invaders. For the greater good nobody could not know it's secrets, at least not yet. Hell, Pyrrha didn't even know what it contained, just that it was something powerful and dangerous.
She examined them, thinking that they looked oddly familiar, like she had seen them somewhere. She figured she'd wait until Goodwitch got back from her mission, she'd be able to sort all this out, to see if this was a misunderstanding, or an attempted invasion.
The three stirred, and soon all the girls had their eyes open, confused and dazed about where they were.
"Who are you?" The brawler screamed at her, as she struggled in her bonds "What do you want?"
"First you will be telling me who you are" Pyrrha said sternly, arms folded "And why you have come to this vault."
"I'm Crimson Reaper, and we're all huntress's" The small scythe wielder replied softly
As Pyrrha's eyes narrowed, she added with a small nervous giggle "…Huntress's in training anyway. We were trying to stop a dust robbery, but a tunnel collapsed in the fight. We ended up here."
"Yes, and then you attacked us when we tried to explain ourselves, what the hell were you doing?" the girl in white added, rather harshly.
Pyrrha paused for a moment, considering this, and then responded to Reaper.
"I have heard of you, you are partners with Harbinger, who knows my mentor, The Violet Witch" She added, being careful to not give away her mentors identity "Why are you not with him, and why aren't the rest of you with your mentors? They are out on a mission right now."
Reapers head hung low "We were left behind; they said the mission was for pro huntsmen only"
Pyrrha nodded sympathetically. She knew the pain of being left behind, never being able to prove herself. She understood why, to a certain degree, but still it was never an enjoyable experience.
"You're being trained by Violet Witch?" Frost Storm, asked surprised "How come we never meet you? Our partners have often worked with her."
Pyrrha turned her head and rubbed her arm nervously "They said… I'm not ready yet. That they will bring me forth when the time is right."
The three huntresses looked at each other and then back at Pyrrha.
Much softer this time the blond brawler asked "So now that you know that we are on your side, can you let us go? Being tied up like this really isn't my thing" She added, again trying to use jokes to ease the tension.
Pyrrha thought about this for a second and then nodded "Okay, but you need to stay here. If you go wandering around, we could all get in a lot of trouble."
The blond nodded in response and Pyrrha raised her hands, the same black glow forming around them. The ropes slid off the three girls and they massaged their wrists and arms, sore from the tight grip the wires had on them.
"I'm Yang or Golden Dragon" The Blond said, extending her hand to shake Pyrrha's. Pyrrha was uneasy for a second, but quickly returned the gesture.
"I'm Ruby" Crimson Reaper said, waving excitedly.
"Weiss" The white-haired Girl said coldly, still holding a grudge.
Pyrrha nodded at all of them "I'm…. Pyrrha" She replied nervously.
"Hi Pyrrha" Ruby said in an oddly friendly manner considering what had occurred. Her expressed then quickly changed to curiosity "Also, what was that thing you did to our weapons, and the ropes? The black glowy thingy?"
"Oh" Pyrrha said, surprised at the mood change "It's my semblance, Polarity, I can control metal."
"Oh really!" Ruby said, eye sparkling as she imagined the possibilities.
Addressing Yang, Pyrrha added "Also to answer your question, we're under Beacon Fortress. This is used to protect some of the most important secrets in the huntsmen community."
The conversation halted as they heard the sounds of drilling in the distance.
"What is that?" Pyrrha asked anxiously, as the sound got closer and closer, feeling the ground trembling beneath her.
"Oh, that's the robbers from the dust shop" Yang replied "That really can't be good"
"What's the plan?" Weiss said urgently "They'll be here any minute."
"Okay, Pyrrha they have a drill vehicle, that's the biggest threat." Ruby explained "If you handle it, we will handle the goons. Their boss, Roman Torchwick, is tough but the three of us can take him."
"And I'm itching for a rematch" Yang said, as she cracked her knuckles menacingly.
Ruby ushered them close, quietly discussing the plan. They then leapt off to their positions, ready for the storm they were about to face.
BOOM! The wall of the vault erupted as the massive drill began to crawl out of the tunnel, spitting rocks and dirt in all directions.
Pyrrha, walked out from her hiding place behind a pillar and raised her hands, her polarity semblance enveloping the drill vehicle, preventing it from moving forward.
"We don't have all day" Roman demanded to the drive, unsure of what happened, but was angry regardless of the hold ups cause. "Move this thing!"
The driver stomped on the gas but Pyrrha forced it back, her endurance holding, despite the strain of continuously using her semblance.
From the window, Roman narrowed his eyes at the crimson haired girl in front of him.
"All right boys, open fire on the red head" He ordered and kicked the door open, allowing his men to exit the vehicle.
They cocked their weapons and fired at Pyrrha, who was left defenseless due her focusing on using her semblance, especially without physical contact.
"Now Frost!" Ruby shouted from her hiding place
Weiss landed in front of Pyrrha and slammed her sword into the earth, using dust to create a massive wall of ice in front of her, protecting Pyrrha from the storm of bullets.
Yang and Ruby then burst from their hiding place, charging Roman and his boys. Yang leapt into the air and landed on Ruby's scythe, who launched Yang at Roman, who slamming into criminal, and knocked his men away.
Ruby then shifted into her petal form and swirled around their enemies and created a twister, which disoriented, and confused the goons.
Weiss then slipped through the wind, and used her glyphs to launch the robbers into Ruby's windstorm, where they were swiftly dispatched, thrown unconscious from the tornado like vortex.
Yang swung over and over at Roman, who used his cane to knock her fists away, but the attacks came in too fast for him to launch a counterattack. Yang fired at his legs with her shotgun shells, but he leapt over the blast, bringing his cane down on Yang. Yang was able to catch the cane, and pulled the thief closer, and landed an elbow in his gut, disarming him and knocking him into Ruby's tornado, which smacked him onto the ground, giving him the worst case of whiplash you could imagine.
Roman tried to get up, but Weiss used a Glyph to launch him into the air, where Ruby flew up to and landed on him, slamming him into the metal floor bellow. Roman weakly got to him feet, as the three girls began to advance on him.
Roman looked around, and saw his men being secured by Pyrrha, all unconscious. He quickly realized this wasn't a battle that he could win, and with that he turned to Ruby, Weiss, and Yang.
"It's been lovely ladies it really has, but this is where we part ways." He said snidely, backing up into the tunnel, pulling out and pressing a button from his jacket pocket.
"Get him!" Weiss shouted, and the girls were about to charge at the escaping criminal, but stopped as a sound erupted from door in the vehicle, indicating that it was opening.
The large Grimm slowly stepped from the cage it was being held in and steadily stomped towards the front of the vehicle, letting a menacing growl escape its lips.
WHAMM! The door was torn from its metal holdings and thrown at the three girls who back flipped to avoid it, landing beside Pyrrha who had gotten into her fighting stance.
With a mighty jump, the beringel launched itself from the drill cart, and slammed its massive fists down as it landed. It looked at them with pure hatred, and raised its hands to pound them against its chest, with a ground shaking roar erupting from its mouth, which was baring enormous fangs.
The huntress's looked in horror at the monster before them. As large as an ursa major, this ape like grimm towered over the. Its arms were thicker than any of their bodies, with muscles rippling from its black skin. None of them had ever faced a creature like this, much less without their mentors.
Yang used her shotgun gauntlets to launch herself at the beast, her fist connecting with the beringel's own, with shockwave being released from the clash, and the force sent both combatants backwards. As Yang landed, the beringel recovered and used its superior reach to grab her head, before she could launch another attack, and lifted her up and smashed her into the floor. It proceeded to throw her into a wall, where she slid down to the floor.
The beringel however was not done with her and tried to charge in to finish her off. Ruby and Weiss charged in, attempting to stop the beasts rampage, but were smacked away easily. It leapt into the air, bring his fists down onto yang.
CLANG! The mighty ape was stopped by Pyrrha, who used her shield to block the beringel's assault, and was kneeling in a defensive stance, due to the power of the beast's blow.
Yang leapt up and vaulted over Pyrrha and struck the beringel's face with a roundhouse kick, and followed up with uppercut, launching its head upwards. Now able to fully stand Pyrrha charged forward, slamming into the ape's stomach with her shield, sending sliding back across the floor, stunned from the girl's combination attack.
Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha surrounded the beast, the beringel twisting and turning to try to keep an eye on all combatants. It beat its chest furiously as the girls feinted charges and strikes, it's primitive brain trying to come up with a plan.
Ruby and Weiss attacked from opposite directions, slashing, and stabbing at the creature's lower torso and legs, blitzing in diagonal strikes. Yang kept the creature from counter attacking by blasting the creature's chest and face with her shotgun blasts, forcing it to raise its arms to defend itself. Pyrrha then finished the team assault by leaping into the air and slashing across the beringel's face with her sword, sending the disoriented and wounded creature stumbling backwards, and eventually toppled over in a heap.
Shaking the blows off the beringel got up, looking to have suffered little from the team attack. It roared before charging at the group yet again. Ruby fired at it with her sniper rifle, while the rest of the girls charged in. First to connect was Weiss, who blitzed in using her glyphs, striking the creature in the chest with Myrtenaster. The ape seemed dazed for a second but quickly recovered and smacked her aside with ease.
Next was Yang who took the creature head on yet again, trying to overpower the beast with her brute strength. She successful for a time, able to push it back, but the beringel simply lifted her up and slammed her down, and tossed her behind it, having to keep the confrontation brief as Pyrrha was advancing.
Pyrrha vaulted over the beringel's arm as it tried to take her legs out. She slashed at its torso and when that had little effect, kicked off its chest into a back flip. In the air she used her polarity to push off her shield, and then as she was passing over the creatures shoulders wrapped her spear around the creatures neck, flipping it over her shoulder when she landed, slamming the huge beast to the ground. Barely dazed the creature got up with surprising speed and grabbed Pyrrha's waist with both hands, charging into the wall and nearly slamming Pyrrha through it. Pyrrha struggled and slashed, but try as she might the monster was much too strong and was crushing her chest. However, with Ruby firing at it's face, the beringel was forced to drop Pyrrha, who fell to the floor winded.
The beringel had little issue shaking off Ruby's sniper shots, as it slowly advanced on her. As the creature was on top of her, it slammed it's fists down, attempting to crush the red cloaked girl. However, with Ruby's semblance, she dashed to the creatures back, and slashed the back with her scythe. As the beringel flailed around, Ruby simply repeated this strategy, blitzing around the monsters blows, and repeatedly slashed at it, trying to wear down its seemingly unbreakable defence. Eventually the creature got tired of this and slammed it's fists down, shaking the vault and stunning Ruby will in her petal form, which gave it the second it needed to strike, sending her flying into a pillar with a punch.
Dazed Ruby got up, watching in blurry vision as her teammates struggled to contain the creature, with Weiss using her glyphs to knock the beringel around and small slashes to wear it down, Yang pounding it with her fists and Pyrrha using her shield to block attacks and countering with her sword. However, all this did was make it angry, with the beringel getting up from each attack and knocking them away with ease. They needed a plan.
Ruby saw the drill cart and had an idea!
"We can't beat it head on" Ruby shouted at her teammates
"Well what do you suggest we do?" Weiss retorted
"Come help me attack it from a distance" Weiss rolled her eyes, but listened and leapt back from the fray to join Ruby.
Ruby then addressed her sister, who was dodging around the beringel's strikes "Yang, try to keep it busy"
"What should I do?" Pyrrha asked
"When I say so I need you to use your semblance with everything you got and throw that drill at that Grimm. Don't hold back" Ruby replied
Pyrrha nodded and leapt over the shoulder of the ape, again using it as a launch pad to push off of, causing the beast to stumble and was then stunned as Pyrrha threw her shield at it's face from where she landed at the drill, allowing Yang to give it a nasty strike to the ribs.
In a rage the creature back handed Yang, knocking the blond to the ground. Yang smiled as fire enveloped her hair, the impact triggering her semblance. She got to her feet, cracking her knuckles as the grimm looked at her curiously.
"My turn" Yang said confidently, and began to trade blows with the monster, neither moving from the smack down, shockwaves erupting from the impacts.
Pyrrha focused on the cart with all her might, but could barely move it, her semblance not being enough. She could feel the strain run through her whole body, but she continued on, pushing herself to her limits.
The beringel won the smackdown, shattering Yang's aura with a powerful hook, dropping the huntress to the floor. It raised its massive foot and steps on Yang's chest, crushing the blond huntress with its enormous weight.
"Ice flower!" Ruby shouted as Weiss formed a glyph in front of her sniper rifle. She fired and when the blue blast connected with the Grimm and knocked it off Yang, its left arm was frozen and encased in ice. Ruby fired over and over with more of the beringel being frozen with ever shot, immobilizing the creature.
A disappointing click sound came from the sniper rifle, indicating Ruby was out of ammo. The beringel was now completely encased in ice, with only its head being free roaring as it struggled to break out of its frozen bonds. Which was good, as Yang was nearly unconscious, and Weiss was on her knee's her aura being very low from using her semblance so much.
However, the creature's strength was enormous, and the ice began to crack from the it's struggles.
"Pyrrha now!" Ruby shouted nervously
Pyrrha still focusing on moving the drill cried out in exhaustion as she was unable to force it forward.
"Pyrrha" Ruby shouted again as the creature had now broken its chest and arms free
Sweat running down her face, Pyrrha fell to her knee's, now feeling like she was at her limit. Goodwitch had mostly taught her to use her semblance for small subtle movements, never for anything as big as this. However, the drill began to move.
CRACK! The beringel had now freed its legs and was about to raise its foot to crush Yang.
"PYRRHA" Ruby screamed as she was about to turn into her petal form, her instincts to save her sister kicking in.
"AAAHHH!" Pyrrha roared as she felt a surge of power flow through her as she threw the drill at the beringel, who only had time to turn before its chest was impaled, and was slammed into the vault wall.
The grimm struggled and weakly clasped at the drill before falling forward, and its body quickly began to fade into black smoke.
Pyrrha fell to the ground, her aura supply completely exhausted from the fight, with the rest of the girls more or less doing the same. Ruby who was only on her knee's crawled over to check on her sister, who had begun to regain consciousness.
"You okay sis?" Ruby asked with concern
"Oh yeah I'm peachy" Yang joked, cracking a weak smile at her sister.
Ruby smiled back and grabbed her hand, before she fell on her stomach, breathing heavily in exhaustion. They all rested for a few minutes, before one by one they got up, with Ruby supporting Yang and Pyrrha half supporting and half carrying the much shorter Weiss.
As they all slowly walked towards the elevator in silence, they heard the ding of the elevator descending towards them.
The elevator opened and were greeted by the faces of Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, Taiyang and Winter, none of which looked very happy and half looked like they were expecting a fight.
Glynda was the first to speak and with narrow eyes, she sharply said "Explain, now"
Ruby weakly smiled and her team began to try to explain what had just transpired.
"You disobeyed direct orders and tried to not only stop a robbery, but fought a highly dangerous grimm without back up." Winter ordered sternly "You will not be doing this again."
Weiss stood up straight and looked at her sister defiantly "I'm sorry Winter, but we will."
Winter looked taken back by this unusual display of insubordination.
"We did good work" Ruby continued, her usual smile vanishing from her face "The work you trained us to do. We're ready to use what you taught us to help people. Let us do that." She pleaded looking both her uncle and her father in the eyes as she did so.
Yang turned to the other young huntress's "Why let them tell us what to do?" She asked intensely and then turned back to the group of pro huntsmen "It's simple, get on board or get out of our way!"
The four young women stood tall, looking their mentor's dead in the eyes, as a silence fell across the room for what seemed like ages, with each side waiting for the other to respond.
"Miss Nikos" Goodwitch, addressing her pupil sternly "Are you in agreement with these four."
Pyrrha looked down nervously, rubbing her arm, before meeting her mentors gaze, with a look of fire in her eyes.
"Yes ma'am, I do" She responded calmly and confidently
Goodwitch stepped back to her comrades, arms folded considering the situation.
Ozpin then spoke, his calm and oddly soft voice grabbing everyone's attention "These young women did the work of huntress's tonight, and while they are not at an appropriate age to join our ranks, I may have a solution that will satisfy everyone."
Location: Abandoned fortress on Patch, an island off the coast of Vale
Qrow, Taiyang, Glynda and a tall huntsman with green hair and glasses that none of the girls recognized were addressing the team in an older looking castle, completely covered in moss and vines, but on the inside, it appeared quite modern. While this room was metal like the vault it was quite bright, and had various decorative vegetation around the room to give it a welcoming environment. In the middle of the room there was a large circular pad that was to be used for training, typically sparring matches with their trainer of the week. On the far side lay two large couches. This pad was surrounded by a large moat and on the wall next to the entrance to the air bay, lay a giant screen which was to be used for communication between them and the association, typically for mission assignments. Ruby was currently thinking to herself about how they could hook video games up to it. They all stood in a circle on the pad, with Qrow lecturing the girls.
"This is an abandoned huntsmen fortress, that we are now calling into service, since you four are determined to stay together" Qrow said, addressing the team grumpily, narrowing his eyes "You'll do it on our terms, so no funny business."
Qrow continued "Violet Witch volunteered to train you in combat, while Dr. Inferno." The Green haired man waved erratically at them with a mad look in his eyes "is going to supervise and watch over you. Missions will be deployed by the Wizard."
"Real missions?" Ruby asked excitedly
"Yes" Qrow responded dryly "But only the ones approved by us" He added, looking at the four girls in an accusatory manner "...unlike last night."
Taiyang continued Qrow's speech as his brother in law took a swig from his flask "Ruby, you will still attend Signal High, and Yang will still be able to attend her classes at the University of Patch, as both these schools and your homes are quite close, but on your down time you will come here for training, missions and team building. Weiss and Pyrrha since you have completed the high school curriculums of both Atlas and Vale respectively, you will live here permanently for the time being, as the commute from Beacon and Atlas is much too far. Pyrrha since you will be joining this team you will need a code name. What would you like it to be?"
Yang "Oooh how bout P-Money?"
Everyone turned to look at Yang, with expressions ranging from bewildered, concerned to downright disgusted.
"Well I like it" Yang asserted, crossing her arms, and beaming at her brilliant nicknaming ability.
Pyrrha considered this for a second. She remembered the stories that her mother told her of an old world, existing long before the Grimm and even humanity as they knew it. There was a time of great warriors, with a special kind of them using weapons very similar to Pyrrha's own.
"How about Centurion?" Pyrrha said nervously, unsure if the name fit.
They all considered this for a second, before nodding as a unit, the name clearly suiting the crimson haired huntress.
Taiyang continued "Okay, Welcome to the team Centurion. Now to your left, up the stairs are the rooms and medical bay, should you need it. To your right are the gyms, showers, bathrooms, and kitchen area."
He then pointed behind the girls to a large metal sliding door "That leads to the private beach, should we need to travel by water. That's everything for tonight, so if you girls want to get settled here, we'll leave you to it."
"Come on Ice Queen" Yang smiled as she heaved Weiss's many bags over her shoulder, with the heiress walking beside her, complaining about the nickname and berating Yang to be careful with her stuff.
"Alright I'll help you then" Ruby said cheerfully as she walked with Pyrrha to her room in relative silence, with both girls being unsure of what to say. The silence dragged on to an awkward extent as they climbed the stairs to where the rooms were, which had a large closet, a queen sized bed in the corner, and a desk next to a window with one way glass, that over looked the island, which had a small village present. Weiss had called for the master bedroom as soon as they arrived via bullhead, but Pyrrha was happy with this as apparently this room had a better view.
She sat down on the bed, overwhelmed by the situation before her. Barely 24 hrs ago she was doing nothing except training by herself at Beacon. Now she had four teammates and was away from the place she spent all of the last five years in. While it was what she wanted she did have to admit that she was very unsure of her new situation.
Ruby sat down next to her, and put her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, giving her a small smile "Hey are you okay?"
"I'm not sure" Pyrrha replied still looking down, pursing her lips nervously, before looking over at Ruby "It's just a lot to take in. I've never had teammates or gone on missions before"
"Well there's a first time for everything!" Ruby proclaimed with false bravado, trying to help despite the awkwardness.
Pyrrha gave a fake smile but looked down at the floor, still clearly overwhelmed at what lie before her.
Ruby took a deep breath before continuing.
"When I was 10 my uncle started training me on how to use a scythe." Ruby began, looking forward out the window towards the village. "I remember my first day training, I was complete garbage, and the training was awful. I had never worked so hard in my life and I didn't even improve a bit in my first week. Qrow kept telling me that eventually I would get better, eventually I would become a true huntress. I wanted to quit after that first week, everything seemed so overwhelming and difficult, but I wanted to be a huntress, to help people, so I kept with it. Eventually I got a little better and continued to do that every day. It got easier, and even became fun..."
She then put her hand on Pyrrha's "…because I had people to help me, friends and family who believed and supported me…"
Her gaze then met Pyrrha's "…and now you do too. If you need anything, we're here for you, because that's what friends do."
Pyrrha's eyes widened and she gave a genuine smile at this, with tears almost filling her eyes "Thank you Ruby" She replied simply, the aura of tension releasing slowly from her body.
"No worries" Ruby said, with a big grin and began to walk towards the door, but stopped at the door frame.
"If you need anything, just text me or Yang" Ruby added "and Weiss is here too. I know she may seem a bit cold, but once you get to know her, she really isn't so bad. But if you do need something late at night or early in the morning, maybe just text me or Yang. Weiss can be kinda grouchy if she doesn't get her beauty sleep"
Pyrrha nodded in thanks and began to walk towards her bags to unpack, opening her suitcase.
"You need some help with that" Ruby asked
Pyrrha smiled appreciatively but shook her head "No, I think I'll be fine. Thank you though."
Ruby nodded and walked out the door "Night Pyrrha."
"Goodnight Ruby."
Location: Unknown Warehouse, Vale
"How very disappointing Roman" a deceivingly sweet voice scolded, as the thief had a rare look of genuine fear on his face.
Roman scowled before getting defensive "Listen it's not my fault, I wasn't told that huntsmen were going to be an issue, wasn't that the whole point of releasing that goliath herd. It wouldn't have been an issue if those brats hadn't shown up."
The Raven-haired woman that the voice belonged to sneered, lighting a flame in her hand "Careful Roman, you shouldn't let your ego get away from you like that, especially in your current position. It could have…unpleasant consequences."
There were two figures cloaked in shadow that folded their arms at this, clearly trying to intimidate the criminal. It wasn't them that he was scared of, as he resisted the urge to cower as the woman stepped closer.
Cinder continued "But the protegee's interference is a concern. I wasn't aware that huntsmen let their protegee's go rogue like that, and there was one you didn't recognize correct? The red head in armour?"
"Yeah" Roman muttered as he kicked a rock on the ground in frustration "she was good too, probably better than most pros."
Cinder considered this as she stroked her chin in genuine interest "We will need to keep an eye on her then. She is clearly connected to Fall, and we wouldn't want her getting the way of us, now would we?"
Roman was about to answer but quickly realized she was asking a rhetorical question. Man, this woman really liked the sound of her own voice, and that was coming from him.
"Alright" Cinder finished "We will continue as planned, and if the children become an issue, we will deal with them accordingly."
She then flashed Roman a dark look "Ensure this failure isn't repeated Roman. We might be generous, but our master isn't so kind. Is that clear?"
Roman nodded as the Woman waltzed out of the warehouse, her two followers flashing Roman a glare one more time before following her into the night.