The grainy image on the old computer monitor flickered. For a moment, the security camera's feed was replaced with a burst of white noise. The girl seated at the table, the focus of the camera's gaze, seemed to jump about in place, going from laying face down, forehead rested on her arms, to slouching back in her chair. The camera seemed to lose focus for a moment, then readjusted, making her image clear again. The girl was idly tapping her fingers on the tabletop, causing a slight rattle to pass through the chains attached to her wrists.

The computer monitor was in a darkened room, set on the desk next to another. Intermittently, similar bursts of static would interrupt the feeds on the monitors. Two monitors, two rooms, two prisoners. On the left monitor was the young one. She was a teenager, wearing a red hoodie, which she wore hood up, skewing her dark bangs over her eyes. She was chained to the table she sat at. The other had a noticeably different set-up; her chair featured massive armrests. They weren't there for the sake of comfort; they allowed her arms to be strapped into place as tightly as her torso, legs, and head.

The personnel in the dark security office stared at the monitors through a haze of cigarette smoke. There was one man, a comm tech, seated in an office chair, controlling the different security feeds. Behind him, the Chief of Police took a sip from his coffee mug. The Colonel next to him was staring at the feeds, and although he wasn't consciously aware of it, his hand was hovering near the holster of his revolver.

"Cams have been doing that," the comm tech said, "Interference, focus breathing, shit like that. Might be a firmware issue."

The colonel took a drag from his cigarette.

"It's not a goddam firmware problem," He said, "It's them. Just being near them."

"We don't know that's the case," The chief said, "We don't know the extent of their abilities."

"No, we don't," The colonel said, "We probably can't. Every second we keep them alive, we're risking this facility and its personnel."

The chief took another sip of coffee, then set the mug down on the desk in front of him. He leaned in closer to the monitors, studying the girl on the left monitor. She certainly didn't appear dangerous.

"Don't like the look of that one," The Colonel said, "I doubt she really knows what she's doing with... whatever it is. The other one we can use, if we give her the right incentive."

"It's too early to say that," The chief mused, "You look at these girls and you see a threat. I see potential. They're young... the red one, there, she's what, fifteen? They can be convinced to act in their own self-interest."

"One of them," The Colonel said, "We're only taking one of them."

"Our other two successful candidates-"

"-rely on each other, as you've said. They'll choose each other over you, someday."

"The instant I decide we can't control these two, you do as you see fit," The chief said, "Hell, wouldn't be the first time I've put one of these things down myself. For the moment, this is my precinct, and they are under my custody."

The colonel let these words hang in the air a moment, then walked towards the door.

"I'll start, then," He said, "I'll start with the red one."

The chief looked towards him in surprise. He pushed his small, rounded glasses up his nose bridge.

"James," He said, "Do I have to be afraid of putting you and her in the same room?"

Colonel Ironwood stroked his chin, then scoffed.

"Trust me."

Ruby gave the chain linking the cuffs on her wrists another tug. It was threaded, from one cuff to the other, through a large steel loop bolted to the table's surface. With less than a meter of chain, Ruby could adjust her position, even stand, but not much else. The cold metal contrasted strangely with the mess of bandages over her knuckles and fingers. She'd been sitting in this room for almost two hours, or maybe twenty minutes. It was hard to tell without a clock, and her perception of time was odd enough as it was.

She could free herself from the table; that much she'd figured out. Getting out of the cuffs would be a trick, but the loop holding her to the table was held in place by just four screws. She could be free to move about the room in seconds, but what would it get her? Could she get through the door? Had the cops figured her out well enough to place barricades past the door she couldn't get through? They were probably waiting, guns at the ready, to burst in and kill her the instant she did anything they didn't like. How many of them could she take down first? No, they'd kill her eventually, and on the off-chance Yang was still alive, well, they'd surely take Ruby's attempted escape as an excuse to kill them both.

There was a noise like an electrical hum from the door, and then a heavy mechanical thud. After a moment, these two sounds repeated, and then a third time. By the third, Ruby had placed the odd sound as a heavy lock being remotely opened. She'd been right in her assumption that she wouldn't have made it through the door. She sat up straight, anticipating the door opening. This would be the moment, if there was going to be one. Once the door opened, she could get out; Break the loop from the table, use the chain to snap the neck of whoever was coming in. Take her chances with the rest of the building.

The door opened, and a man appeared in the door frame, dressed in a military-style long coat. He didn't look like a cop. His hair was a little longer than a crew cut, with hints of gray. His face was clean-shaven, and firmly lined, as if carved out of stone. There were slight bags under his eyes, though there was no evidence of fatigue in his glare. Ruby wrapped her fingers around the chains, keeping the movement subtle as she could. The man stepped in and, quicker than Ruby had anticipated, the door swung shut behind him. Ruby's shoulders slumped slightly; a movement she was sure the man saw.

The man marched forward, pulling one side of his long coat open as he did. In a side holster beneath the coat was an ostentatiously large revolver. Ruby didn't have enough experience with guns to guess the caliber, but she imagined one shot would be all the man needed to blow her head off. The man lowered a hand to the holster, and popped open the small leather strap with his thumb. Then, he let the coat fall back into place, leaving the revolver where it sat, ready to go.

"If you were going to kill me, you wouldn't make such a show of it," Ruby said.

"If I was going to kill you, I'd have the room gassed," He said, "Take me opening that door as a sign that you have a way to survive tonight."

"Is my sister alive?"

The man pulled out the chair across from Ruby. It made a dull scrape as it was dragged across stone.

"She is. Would you like to talk about keeping her that way?"

The world around Ruby became a swirling silver. The military man was frozen in place, his mouth still curled in the shape of his final syllable. He'd just begun descending into the chair; leaving him stuck in an almost hunch. Ruby clapped a hand over her mouth, fighting back tears. She wrapped her hands about her head, taking a few deep, desperate breaths.

"Yang," She whispered, "Christ. Yang. I'll find you. We'll get out of here."

She felt the warmth in her eyes well into a tear that spilled over one eyelid. The sensation shook her back to reality. She looked at the man. His body hadn't visibly moved, though there was a nigh-imperceptible change in the position of his lips. She gave her eyes a quick wipe, and made sure to smear away the fallen tear from the table's surface. Then, she recreated as best she could her original position. The world returned to full colour, and the man sat down. He glanced at her, as if he'd noticed an odd twitch.

"If you're lying to me," Ruby said, "I'll kill you."

"I would expect you to try," He said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Colonel James Ironwood, of the Atlas Initiative."

"Should I know what that is?" Ruby scoffed.

"Part of my job is ensuring that you don't," Ironwood said, "The Atlas Initiative was activated six months ago. First among its objectives is identifying and neutralizing, well, people like you."

Ruby imagined a hundred different comebacks. By people like her, did he mean innocent people? Did he mean people trying to survive? People he and his thugs could kill without trial, in the name of public safety? If it was his job to neutralize people like her, why were people like her running amok? Why was Ottawa still a no-go zone?

"Post-Humans," Ruby said.

"Is that the term these days?" Ironwood asked, "All of our documentation still uses 'Aberrant'."

"Yeah," Ruby, "Yeah, all your documentation uses Aberrant. Uh huh."

"To be honest," Ironwood said, "We're still analyzing the footage we captured of you. Your sister, we understand, but you? Can you describe your Ability?"

Ruby actually laughed. The question was absurd enough to provoke a response.

"Sure! Would you like to know my one goddam weakness while I'm at it?" Ruby asked, "Let me just give you my fucking kryptonite."

Ironwood adjusted his position in his seat. Ruby could tell he meant for her to get another glimpse at the revolver.

"We know you're not teleporting," Ironwood said, "And we know the... damage you did wasn't telekinesis. I suspect some form of superhuman speed."

"How about a demonstration?" Ruby asked, "Uncuff me and time how long it takes me to kill my way to Yang."

"I also suspect that you're bluffing," Ironwood said, "If you were able to break yourself and your sister out of here, you'd have done it by now, and I'd figure out your ability by examining the pieces of anybody who got in your way. As I said, we've figured your sister out already, so if I have to go talk to her, the conversation will be much shorter. Tell me what you do."

Ruby looked up at the camera in the corner of the room. The little red blinking light. She imagined footage of her explaining her Ability being sent to every police precinct in the country. She sighed.

"I'm fast," She said, "Really fast. When I move, everything else, it's like it's frozen. I don't... feel myself moving faster, but I can walk faster than a bullet. They just hang in the air- or inch along, I guess."

"That would explain you disappearing from the dashcam footage between frames of video," Ironwood said, "It doesn't explain how you sent a cop flying hard enough to crush his ribcage."

The sound of snapping bone replayed itself in Ruby's head.

"I punched him," She said, "I turned the ability on, and I walked up and punched him. Three times, maybe. When people are frozen like that... it's like punching a wall. But I can't even guess how fast my fist was going. He was going to kill her. I didn't have a choice."

"So, can you move other objects using that speed?" Ironwood asked, "Why not just take his gun?"

"Because it was frozen, I just said it," Ruby spat, "I could pull on the gun for a little while. Once I turned the Ability off, it would have leapt from his hand and took his fingers with it. But it was right next to Yang's head. I was afraid she'd get a stray fingerbone through the skull."

"Would that kill her?"

"I thought you had her figured out."

Ironwood placed his elbows on the tabletop, and interlaced his fingers. His glare at her was utterly unmoving; it was like he was a machine.

"Miss Rose, from where you're sitting, I'm sure it seems like you have very few options," Ironwood said, "I want to assure you, you are overestimating the number. There is no escape for you. No freedom. No life that I do not control. You have two options, exactly two: An unceremonious death, or compliance."

Ruby tapped her fingers on the tabletop. She looked down at the metal loop again. Activate her Ability, and then pull really hard. Count to 30. When time went back to normal, the loop would tear off. The chain was small enough that she could carry it with her. She could get real creative with this chain if she needed to.

"What kind of compliance?"

The straps were so tight, Yang Xiao Long might as well have been wearing cement shoes. Everything, even her fingers were tightly secured in place. They knew; that much was obvious. They knew exactly what Yang would do if she was able to move. Careful as they were being, Yang doubted they knew for sure that it was enough. While she waited for a bullet in the head, or maybe a dissection, she took a small comfort in imagining they were terrified of her.

It hadn't been the way they'd caught Ruby. Yang had stood to face the SWAT team bursting into the room from every angle, and she'd taken a tasing and rubber bullet to the jaw for trying. That wouldn't have worked on Ruby. They had to take Ruby by surprise. There wasn't even any hint they'd been found out until Ruby stumbled into the living room, a tranquilizer dart in her neck. If they'd hit Yang with it instead, she'd probably have woken up surrounded by all the people Ruby had killed. They'd known who the priority target was. So why now the song and dance of treating Yang like she was the dangerous one? Was Ruby in the same level of restraints? The thought caused Yang to tense, and make another fruitless effort to tear herself free.

They busted into the place Ruby and her had been crashing and got them both; her and her sister. They knew they were there because of what had happened by the diner. They'd been caught, because they were found out, because Ruby killed a cop, because Yang almost got herself killed, by being a selfish bitch. Yang had never felt what she felt for herself in this moment.

There was an electric hum, followed by a heavy mechanical thud. A massive metal component of the steel door was rotating on the other side, sending out a grinding chorus of unseen gears. When the door finally opened, and swung inward with the inertia of a listing ship, Yang saw that it was almost a foot thick. She smiled at the idea that they thought that was enough; Like she would have any more difficulty just going through the wall.

Two cops in riot gear entered, each carrying a bullpup SMG. They flanked the door on either side, keeping their weapons trained on her.

"Showing off your toys, huh?" She hissed, "You look like they slapped Kevlar on a couple of rent-a-cops so you'd feel cool, playing army. Why don't you both suck-"

The words were caught in her mouth by the appearance of Ruby in the doorway. Her hoodie had been replaced by an orange jumpsuit, and chains wrapping her entire body. She wasn't standing of her own volition, but was strapped to some sort of hand truck, like you would use to move a stack of boxes. A man in a military long coat stood behind her, a .357 revolver held to her head, angled so that Yang would see it. With his other hand, he reached around Ruby and gripped her chains. Yang sputtered for less than a second before she felt an anger burn through her entire body.

"Get your fucking hands off her, you fuck! I'll pull you apart! I'll pull your insides out!"

"Yang, stop-" Ruby began.

"Get that fucking gun away from her, cunt!" Yang screamed, "Big fucking man, huh? Why don't you-"

With one hand, Ironwood took hold of the hand truck's grip and slid Ruby forward. He was followed by two more cops, both with shotguns. They waited until they were on either side of the man before training them on Ruby, keeping him out of the line of fire.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, "It's okay! Stop!"

Yang stopped screaming, but her teeth were gritted and her eyes burned. The man threatening her sister hadn't even blinked during the outburst.

"I'm okay, Yang, really," Ruby said, "This was the only way they'd let me see you."

Yang took a few deep breaths. There was a strange red glimmer in her eye. Then, she blinked and it was gone.

"Ruby," Yang said, "It was me. I got us caught."

"No, Yang, we-"

Ironwood took a step forward, in front of the hand truck with the bound girl on it. His eyes and Yang's were locked onto each other like a contest of strength. He smirked, and raised his revolver, aiming behind him. The two guards flanking the door stepped to either side, so they weren't directly behind Ruby. Yang's eyes shot to Ruby, watching in terror as the man in the coat pulled the trigger.

"Ruby!"

The entire room was quicksilver. Yang's face was caught in a primal scream. A cloud of gases was expanding from the barrel of the revolver; little wisps finding their way out of gaps around the cylinder. Usually, spotting a bullet in mid-air was tricky; they were dangerous little things that crept along the air currents, hiding in shadows until they reached a beam of light and sparkled across the room. This bullet was a hulking thing, shoving its way through the air, carrying with it a terrifying inertia. It was crossing the room from the gun, directly towards Ruby's heart. She wouldn't have long to deal with it.

Looking down, she breathed a sigh of relief to see she'd brought the chains with her. Had they been frozen like everything and everyone else, getting out of them might have been tricky. She'd stopped everybody a few times while being carted over, testing how she might get loose. But those times, there hadn't been a bullet on the way.

Ruby found that her squirming actually offered progress; she got her hands free of the binds at her waist, though her wrists were still cuffed. She examined the cuffs, biting her lip. She looked at the bullet again, and nodded.

"Please don't blow my hands off," Ruby whispered, "Don't blow my hands off."

She held out her cuffed hands in front of the bullet. Her fingers avoided the metal as if it had been on a stove. She placed the tiny chain linking the cuffs in front of the giant point on the front of the lump of moving metal. The bullet inched forward, effortlessly deforming the chain in its path. Her hands able to move freely again, Ruby took hold of the length of chain about her body. The bullet was getting closer; soon, she'd have to squirm against the back of the hand truck to avoid it. She held the chain tight in her hand, each link so much heavier than those of the cuffs. With just the right positioning, she put the chain in the bullet's path. Ruby stole another glance at Yang while the bullet made its way.

The chain link that it struck melted out its way like butter. Ruby tossed either end of the chain over her shoulder and felt the bindings on the rest of her body laxing. She squirmed once again, and this time, the chains collapsed in a pile at her feet. Ruby looked down and saw that the chains glowed quicksilver; just like the floor, and the lights, and the mirror, and Yang.

Ruby slipped to one side, finally clear of the bullet. It meandered over towards the hand truck, and the floor behind it. Ironwood still stared at Yang; the recoil of the shot was travelling up his arm. Ruby gave him the finger as she walked over to her sister. She threw her arms around Yang, feeling like she could take a breath for the first time since the dart had hit her in the neck.

"Yang, I'm okay," She whispered, "You haven't seen it yet, but... but he missed. We're going to get out of here."

Her sister was still screaming. Ruby whimpered at the sight and slipped her fingers into one of the straps on Yang's arms. She pulled outward for a moment, until she could see the shape of her fingers in the fabric, and the threads began to tear themselves apart. She did the same with the other straps on that arm, and the bindings on both legs. That would be enough.

"Yang," Ruby said, "We're going to be running, I think. You and me. We're going have to get out of this city- I mean, they'll follow us everywhere. But we can keep ahead of them, I bet, if we work together."

Ruby looked over the room. Frozen men with guns.

"West. Out west. California. Isn't that where...? But we'll have to- can we go home and get Zwei? No, they would- they would lock our place down."

Ruby dropped to the floor, her legs wrapped under her.

"Are they going to take care of Zwei?" She asked, "There's nothing wrong with him. He's a good dog. He isn't like us. I... hope they treat him right."

She sat there a moment.

"We're going to... Yang. We're going to have to hurt people sometimes to keep each other safe. You've done it for me. I think I'm ready to start."

She pulled herself to her feet, and looked about the room again. Ironwood, still absorbing the recoil, mid-blink. The two guards across the room, either side of the open door. Two guys with shotguns, aiming at an empty hand truck. One of them was starting to squint; a good reaction time. And past them all, the open steel door.

"Oh," Ruby said, "Well. In that case..."

The man stepped forward. He looked into her eyes. He pointed that gun at Ruby. That hideous, massive gun. Yang felt a knot in her throat like nothing she'd ever felt. She screamed as he pulled the trigger.

Yang blinked from the flash of the gunshot in the darkened room. The straps exploded from her body. Ruby was gone from the hand truck. The cylinder of Ironwood's revolver popped out of the frame and went spinning across the room. One guard's leg snapped to one side, the bone piercing the kevlar. The other's head bent backwards, without the torso moving to join it. One of the shotgun assholes hit the one-way mirror and cracked it. The other asshole's feet went out from under him and his head reached the ground far faster than gravity would have pulled it. Yang stood up; the restraints that remained coming away like tissue paper. Ironwood glanced back over his shoulder.

Yang walked forward. Ironwood threw the left side of his coat out, reaching for the back-up holster. Yang's fist slammed into him and he left the ground. He slammed into the wall after milliseconds in the air; cheap artifice of stone crumbling around him. He collapsed to the floor and stayed there. Yang glanced towards the one-way mirror, then headed for the door. There was distant gunfire. In the blink of an eye, Ruby appeared in the doorway, holding a can of spray paint.

"I blocked off some of the hallways and I left signs leading to the fire escape," Ruby said, panting.

"They could have drones in the air," Yang said, "Our best shot is driving."

Barked orders could be heard down the hall.

"Right," Ruby said.

She disappeared. Yang went in the direction of the abrupt shouts of pain.

A few minutes later, Yang slipped, quietly as she could, into the garage. The moment she was through the door, a broom in a bucket leaning against a nearby wall launched itself into the door handles, jamming the aperture shut. Outside, a vending machine had fallen over, skewing drinks across the staircase. Ruby stood beside Yang once again.

"You've been practicing," Yang said.

"Yeah."

Yang slid behind the seat of a personal vehicle that had been left in the corner of the parking lot, separate from the cruisers. It was a modern four-door, only making a meager attempt at the aesthetic of an older car, but Yang liked the colour. She popped the wiring from the bottom of the steering wheel and began stripping the correct ends with her fingernails.

"Think you could hotwire a car?" Yang asked Ruby, "You know, while you're doing your thing?"

"Wires are weird," Ruby said, "They don't behave the way you expect them to."

Yang had only now noticed Ruby had her hoodie back. She was resting her hands in the pockets.

"Uh huh," Yang said.

The car came to life. Yang sat back in the driver's seat and put her hand on the wheel. Her knuckles were bruised from hitting that man. The military guy in the coat whose spine she'd crushed. Christ, she'd never punched anything that felt like that. But there was no blood. She hadn't hit anyone else; not tonight. She threw the car into reverse and moved backwards. Back into forward gear and she turned to the garage door.

"There's an opener," She called out the window.

"A what?"

"For the garage door."

"Okay," Ruby said, "I'll see that the coast is clear, then?"

She walked over to the garage door. She looked back at the door that led in from the rest of the building. The two of them were still lost in the confusion, it seemed. She stood by the large metal barrier. Yang hit the button on the device clipped to the dash. The garage door began rising upwards. Sounds of city traffic, and the smells of greasy food and cigarette smoke and the industrial part of town swirling through the air. When the door had risen a meter, Ruby disappeared. Yang reached over, catching the passenger door latch with her middle finger. She pulled in, then shoved on the door with her finger tip. The door swung open hard against the hinges.

Yang sat alone in the car for a moment. She checked the door behind them in the rear view. There was someone far across the parking garage. Cleaning staff, maybe. Yang's fingers tightened on the wheel as the door kept sliding upwards. Ruby appeared in the passenger seat, swinging the door shut beside her.

"We're clear, go," Ruby said, "Take a left, then a right. The traffic light will turn yellow, but you can get through it."

As she said this, she put the passenger seat back, and once she was comfortable, closed her eyes.

Yang put her foot on the gas, and they left the garage.

Medical personnel and forensics workers struggled to get by each other in the chaotic halls of the station. It was like a tornado had hit. Furniture was everywhere. Doors were blocked off, lighting knocked out. Fire extinguishers had seemingly leapt off walls and expended their payload of their own volition. A lot of the police in this station were ex-military, and the place reminded them of an urban combat zone. Only no warzone in history could see so many people violently neutralized, yet so few fatalities.

The Chief of Police marched through the halls, taking in the absurd sights.

"-Patterns of spray paint markings manifested all over the station," The cop behind him was saying, "We think one of them was somehow using their Aberration to guide the other somewhere, but it also caused a lot of confusion for our guys."

"You follow the markings, because that's where the Aberrants are going, and you shoot them when you get there," The Chief said, an edge of irritation in his voice, "And where the hell is my coffee cup?"

"Well, sir, they were pretty inconsistently placed," The cop said, "It's like she got lost a lot."

"Wonderful."

From the corner up ahead, a flabbergasted EMT rushed after James Ironwood. He came into view making a wearied effort to straighten his coat. As he approached the chief, he turned his head to the side, cracking his neck.

"You've got dust on your uniform," The Chief said.

"Fuck yourself."

"Every goddam scrap of paperwork is going to include that you caused this breach, by firing your weapon."

"You want our legal teams to trade numbers?" Ironwood asked, "Or do you want to catch the two Aberrants who were in your goddam cage, ten minutes ago?"

Ozpin motioned for Ironwood to follow him. The Chief of Police's office had been largely unharmed by the breakout. The chief wouldn't realize for some time that the flask in his upper right desk drawer was gone. The chief took his seat, idly flicking his computer's power button.

"Every cop in this city works for me, until those two are dead," Ironwood said.

"The time for bravado and bold statements is over, James," Ozpin said, "Let us both acknowledge that these events threaten to grow beyond our control. We are in the same boat."

Ironwood gritted his teeth without parting his lips.

"This situation is uncontained," Ozpin said, "You let our guard down. What those two do will lead back to your failure. And my failure, for not stopping you."

"Unless?"

"Unless we use all assets available to us."

The words hung in the air. Ironwood stretched. The kid's fist had hurt worse than hitting the wall.

"Okay," Ironwood said, "I can make that work. At least, so that the collateral isn't our goddam problem."

"I would count that sort of damage control among my priorities."

The car glided through the city streets, cool and anonymous. Yang kept her hands at ten and two, but kept her arms loose, just like he'd shown her.

"Two hands," Yang said, "Two hands, use 'em both."

"Mmm?"

Ruby had stirred from where she lay. Jesus, the kid had been trying hard tonight. Yang looked down at her sister. In her head, she was counting the cops she'd seen who were definitely dead. A flare of tail lights ahead and Yang put her focus back on the road.

"I was- it was something Dad said," Yang said.

"Okay."

"We should be listening to the police scanner."

"Does the car have one?"

"Not that I can see."

A cop car passing by at the intersection up ahead.

"We're going to have to ditch this car soon," Yang said, "Could be a tracker, whatever. New car. Go through the glove compartment."

"Yeah."

"You. Now. The glove compartment."

"Yeah."

Ruby leaned forward, clicked open the compartment. She pulled out the 9mm and left it in the drink tray while rooting for change.

"After that," Yang said, slowing to a rolling stop at a pedestrian crossing, "How do you feel about west? I mean the coast, Ruby."

"Yeah."