Halcyon Days: Blackjack
Adam couldn't move. His breath was caught in his throat. Almond wasn't supposed to be here. This was only a regional headquarters! He hadn't even been able to prepare himself for the moment he would once again meet one of his closest friends, let alone prepare himself to be standing on opposing sides of the battlefield.
Ruby nudged Adam's hand aside and raised her weapon up, letting it extend to its full length. "And just who are you, huh?" she shouted in her best intimidating voice.
It sounded just as much like a puppy to the massive White Fang leader as it did to Adam, however. He chuckled and raised his chainsaw in turn.
"Captain Almond of the White Fang." He yanked the weapon's cord, and the roar of the saw filled the basement. "Acting Commander of the Vale Branch."
Ruby took a step back not in fear but excitement, and Adam knew it. He needed to stop her: using his semblance or his true weapon would have him identified immediately. He took a breath to speak, but realized even that would be foolish. So he turned and reached for Ruby's arm, but it was too late: she was gone in a rush of red.
Steel shrieked against steel as, with a roar, the massive commander swung his chainsaw up fast enough to parry even Ruby's speedy stab, leaving her spear tip half-embedded into the roof and her body wide open. He brought his saw back in both hands, ready to throw his momentum into a killing blow, when a gleam of light in the storage room caught his eye.
He twisted his mighty weapon to the side just in time to block a wave of gunfire pouring from Adam. It gave Ruby all the time she needed to rip her weapon free and strike Almond's head with it for good measure as she leaped further back into the hallway. The heart-shape blade parted, and Dust swirled within the barrel revealed within. A single twirl sent a rush of frigid wind throughout the basement.
Accepting her challenge with a growl, Almond stormed forward and swept his saw out with reckless abandon. In such tight quarters, Ruby needed to carefully push back and deflect his strikes with stabs and narrow blocks, but Almond simply ripped through stone walls without losing momentum, scattering dust and rubble with each pass. Faunus instincts left Almond twisting behind after a missed swing and swiping down an office chair flung from behind him, shredding it to little more than scraps of fabric.
The perfect cover for Adam to burst forth, spinning mid-air into a kick aimed right for his head. Almond stumbled and recklessly slashed in pursuit. He clipped Adam, and even that amount of force sent him tumbling through the air, but a swift backflip left him skidding on his feet further down the hall.
"Pathetic 'vigilantes'. Cheap tricks won't save you forever!" Almond took a step forward, intent to rush them down.
"But they're good enough for now!" Ruby stabbed her spear into the ground and emptied the Dust inside it completely, jettisoning a cartridge and encasing the ground—and Almond's legs in ice. She reached back into her hoodie to grab a new one when Adam snatched her sleeve and yanked her deeper into the building in a blur.
"What?! Where are we going—we've got him!" Ruby shouted.
"Listen!" Adam hissed under his breath. Beneath the chainsaw's furious snarling and the grinding of ice behind them, they could hear it. A constant rumble. A lack of the musical rhythm before.
It was an entire headquarters coming down on them.
He couldn't speak. That was the first thing that occurred to him. Almond would know who he is from even the shortest of orders. He couldn't take the chance that any of these troops were from his own unit. Even if rumors had spread that he was a traitor, every single hint to his location put a target closer and closer to Beacon.
Even as a door ahead of them flung open and Adam dropped to a slide, firing into a group of White Fang descending down the stairs, the thought struck him as peculiar. Since when had he cared so much about Beacon?
Bullets filled the air behind them as Adam flipped back to his feet, dust and chunks of rock flying in their path. Worse, around the corner of the hall, he saw the ends of a rifle poking out. They were drawing them into a trap. A couple bullets struck home, drawing sparks off of their aura but not much more. He looked to Ruby and nodded. They'd have to fight their way out.
His eyes widened.
"Jump!" Ruby shouted. She was thrusting her spear straight up. She had a different idea. Of course she did.
The barrel of the spear flashed and, with a burst of light and noise that forced his aura to protect his senses, blasted a hole through the ceiling in an eruption of fire. Adam and Ruby leaped up through the cloud of dust and embers kicked up by the blast, landing not on the first but the second floor. The ceiling above the wrecked carpet was still almost completely burned through.
Adam snapped his rifles up the moment they touched down. Besides the pieces of floor collapsing into the smog below them and shouts of confusion, the room was silent. They'd landed in an old, dark office occupying the entire vast floor, abandoned even by the White Fang. Dust still gathered on peeling cubical walls and long-empty desks. The only windows stood on the opposite end, letting light from moon and streetlights alike pour in. Metal boarded up what few surrounded them, clearly meant for a potential raid or shoot-out. Too thick to tear through, then. Still... for now, they were alone.
He snarled beneath his mask and whirled around to Ruby. More pressing matters, then. "Warn me before doing something like that!" he hissed.
"Wha—I did!" Ruby huffed.
"Jump is not an accurate warning for 'I'm blowing up the ceiling!' What kind of weapon even is that, anyway?" As Ruby loaded another fire cartridge into her rifle, he started jogging for the easiest point to leave from: the windows so far away.
"Well, I couldn't just go around using Crescent Rose. So~o, I made my own, new weapon! I always wanted to experiment in using Dust, but I don't have nearly the control Weiss does, so I sorta just pumped a ton of Dust into a big single-use cartridge that I could use at once an—" Ruby went silent.
Adam checked over his shoulder, only to see Ruby perfectly fine, her lips moving. She had still been talking, so caught up that she didn't notice until he looked back that she wasn't saying anything at all. Ruby put a hand to her throat, brow furrowed but expression masked. In fact, now that he thought about it... he couldn't hear anything at all. No panicked voices. No burning. No crackling of fire. Silence.
Shit.
He stowed one of his rifles and snatched Ruby's wrist just as he saw a shadow moving in the smoke left by their escape. One yank, and they'd dived through a cubicle just as a black glaive ripped through the air where they once were. A massive, hulking man easily the size of Almond stumbled forward into view, clad in casual clothes of only a t-shirt and black jogging pants. Off-duty. He didn't even have his mask.
But Adam knew who that was nonetheless: Tacet Avalanche. He was one of their assassins, and a good one, at that. Why? A Semblance that created an area of total silence. Without his voice to give orders, his Semblance, his weapon and at danger of even too much of his fighting style drawing comparisons, their chances were slim.
Gold, slitted eyes turned to look down at him. Brown bat ears twitched.
Forced to trust in Ruby's ability to listen even when there was no sound to speak of. Adam did not envy this situation. He twisted, leaped up and jumped off of the cubicle's wall deeper into the office. Bright flashes of light and heat around them told him that their pursuer had changed back to a ranged weapon. The ceiling erupted into fire and force just a few feet away as Adam jumped from the tops of the cubicles.
A flicker of red drew his attention to Ruby racing just nearby. He was both relieved and impressed: it seemed she had the smart idea of not using her Semblance out in the open as well. Behind her, doors were flung open. White Fang took aim beyond them. Raising his rifle, he nodded down to Ruby.
She understood, dropping into the space between the miniature offices as Adam opened up with his rifles, forcing the soldiers to hide once more. Much more importantly, their sight of him was broken: without sound to depend on, they were perfectly hidden, for now. He rounded the corner of a cubicle in search of Ruby and, as only lightning-quick reflexes let him duck back enough for only one of his mask's lenses to be ripped off by a sneak attack, discovered that this stealth went both ways.
It was substantially easier to sneak up on someone with a chainsaw if no one could hear it.
Adam flipped back onto a desk just in time to avoid Captain Almond's follow-up slash. He aimed his guns, but a flash from his side had him duck: the soldiers had taken aim again. Almond twisted into another heavy swing aimed to cleave him in two, but Adam dived just over his head. There, visible by the bright-red of her hoodie and the orange glow of spreading flames, Adam could spot a glimpse of Ruby.
She was barely fending off Tacet.
He dropped into a low roll, gathered all of his aura into his leg and swept out. Almond came crashing to the ground, and Adam wasted no time spinning to his feet and racing through the dusty office for Ruby. He flipped over another soldier in casual clothes—one of the same that had stopped them in the alley, he couldn't help but notice—moving in his path and aimed down. Four shots did the trick: three to crack his weak aura, the last to cripple his leg.
Though he would never hear it, Adam muttered an apology to him.
This bat guy had to be a rogue Huntsman. It was the only way he could be this strong.
Ruby was forced to one knee, straining against the force of the massive faunus' glaive. Only the thin shaft of her spear kept the deadly blade away from her head. It was clearly a mechashift weapon, but Ruby couldn't discern what its original form was. She did know, however, that the massive barrel bent backwards behind the blade's tip was fit for a .50 caliber weapon or higher, and its angle meant it was for angular momentum. It was for amplifying swings... but he wasn't using it. He was toying with her!
This Huntsman was the only thing between her and the windows to freedom, but right now that one man in front of her might as well have been a mountain.
The man's finger shifted onto the trigger. He smirked.
Ruby gulped. She really had hoped she wouldn't need to use her Semblance—it was really easy to spot in public, after all—but right now, it looked like it was the only way out. She gathered her aura, began to focus...
The man's bat ears twitched, and Ruby saw his eyes turn to something behind her before there was a flash and his head snapped back, glowing black with aura. He grabbed at his face with one hand, and it was all Ruby needed to push her aura to its limits and throw his weapon back.
Adam bolted past her, planted his gun in the soldier's gut and fired, yet more than a bullet came out. Forcing the bat Huntsman backwards was not just a shot but a black afterimage of Adam himself, already aiming for his head. Each shot shoved Tacet back and brought another afterimage in its place already poised to fire. The White Fang Huntsman didn't even know what hit him when the images leaped up and, Adam jumping with to fuse back with them in flight, dropped their foot down on his arm carrying the glaive, burying the blade into the floor.
That was... new.
The Huntsman looked just as surprised as she was, eyes wide when he looked up at Adam. He was open! Ruby spun her spear back, sent a rippling wave of flame back and launched forward at him like a rocket.
More surprising than that strange technique Adam pulled was that the Huntsman snapped back to reality and lunged in an instant, hand outstretched for her face. The choice was made for her: by instinct she activated her Semblance, rolling past his arm in a rush of red and slamming into his chest at full force, blasting both of them clean out of the window. A single jump to send her skyward and him diving down into an alleyway, and Ruby rolled to a stop on another rooftop.
She spared a single glance back to make sure Adam had leaped after her, and then, streaks of white gunfire following all the while, sprinted off into the night. Ruby had never been so thankful for fresh air.
"Sergeant Avalanche! Sir, are you alright?!" A uniformed soldier rushed to his aid in the alleyway he so unceremoniously was kicked into. With a sneer, Tacet dropped his Semblance and stood tall.
That fighting style—'aura clones'. He'd seen that before. It wasn't unique, but it was certainly rare. Too rare for just some vigilante punk with an aura to know.
"Sergeant?"
"I'm fine, private." He stared down at his still-clenched fist. "My aura's already patched itself up." Tacet opened his hand to stare at the rose petals in his palm, vibrant yet flat, as if painted onto the air itself. He glared down at them. Waited for them to turn black and decay. To wilt. If she were some sort of sibling or disciple...
The rose petals remained bright. Some fluttered away in the breeze.
He dumped the rest to the ground. Nothing. He was just being paranoid.
"Tell the captain to search the records. Look for any new Huntresses in Vale with a Semblance that leaves rose petals behind. Preference for spears or polearms." Tacet stomped down on the few petals that fell before him, then walked out of the alley.
"If we find her, we find this traitor."
Adam didn't know the exact moment they'd passed out of the influence of Tacet's Semblance, but he did know that at some point in their sprint across rooftops, he could hear his beleaguered breathing. They kept running. Further and further, until about a mile or so away, when they could hear crowds walking and chattering in a more commercial district, they let themselves rest atop a mall's rooftop.
Ruby caught her breath leaning up against a vent as Adam threw back his hood and pulled off his now half-ruined mask. That was going to be annoying to replace.
"That... was... awesome!" Ruby leaped up to her feet. Having long since cast aside her bandana and glasses, her giddy grin and the glint in her silver eyes were clear to see. "I mean, with the fighting and the narrow escape and oh did you even see that huge mechashift glaive the big guy had it must've been some sort of Dust rifle from how heavy it was and—"
"Ruby." Adam rubbed his temples.
She gasped, jumping on another train of thought. "Oh! Oh! What was that crazy clone thing you that was like whoosh, waa—"
"Ruby."
That got her attention. She cleared her throat and folded her arms behind her back. "Ehe, sorry!"
Adam glared at her for a moment, then closed his eyes and sighed, unable to hold onto his anger for much longer. Rather, unwilling to hold onto it. "Right. I assume, then, that you did not notice the danger you were in."
"Well duh, I noticed the danger! But I'll be in danger every day as a Huntress, what's the big difference?"
He gritted his teeth and turned away. She had a point. "It's different when you are against intelligent people. Not to mention that the next time I return here—alone—it'll be far worse than what it was like now. They'll no doubt increase security after a stunt like that."
"Which means you'd need a partner, yep!" Ruby chirped behind him.
Adam spun around to face her, teeth bared. "No! You're staying behind, and that is final! Were the mission successful, perhaps I would have changed my mind, but it's clear that while you are skilled, you're not prepared for things of that class yet."
Ruby, however, was smiling like the cat that caught the canary, rocking on her heels through it all. Like his words had gone through one ear and out the other.
" 'If the mission were successful', hm? The one to collect super important information?"
She was up to something. Adam narrowed his eyes. "What of it?"
"Oh, well, nothing at all!" The young student strolled up to Adam with long, lazy steps, peering up at him. "Just that if that was what it takes to change your mind..." She slowly lifted a fist up and uncurled her hand.
"Tada~a!" A small portable hard drive sat in her palm.
Adam's brow shot to his hairline. "When did you manage to get that?"
Ruby grinned. "I just happened upon it while I was looking through some files and thought I might need a souvenir! Bu~ut, if we're not partners..." She tapped her chin with the flash drive, an innocent look in her eye and her grin turned to a little pout.
A black blur snapped by her hand faster than she could react, and Adam looked over his now-pilfered flash drive. "... You can't bribe me into it, Ruby."
Ruby gasped and jumped up to try and grab it, but Adam simply held it above his head, just out of reach. Finally, Ruby growled and crossed her arms. "Well, fine! I won't give you Glaive Guy's Scroll, then!" She let out a petulant huff, turned her nose up and turned away from him.
Adam examined her. Closely. He didn't believe that for a second. "... You took Tacet's Scroll."
"Is... is that his name? I-I mean, yeah! When I ran into him. Not that you'll ever know what's on it or anything. I'm not telling you where it is." She huffed again.
"In your front pocket."
Ruby jolted. "Uh... Nope!"
"That could easily have what I'm looking for, Ruby," Adam said in a tone frozen enough to leave the night itself feeling colder.
Ruby twitched, but still refused to budge.
Adam took a deep, slow breath, willing the anger that had even left his hair beginning to glow to fade. He made sure there was nothing left behind, rolled his shoulders, and then closed the distance in a single step, hand outstretched for her.
He grasped only rose petals. Ruby snickered a few feet away, dangling a black, folded Scroll in front of him. With burning-red eyes and a livid growl, the former terrorist leader took off after the schoolgirl now giggling in the distance.
Getting slung over Adam's shoulder like a sack of potatoes and being dragged back to Beacon wasn't exactly how Ruby saw that night ending, but she couldn't help but notice the little smirk on his face when he'd finally caught her.
She also couldn't help but notice that when she followed Adam the next time he tried to sneak off, he had waited for her.
A/N: Chapter was getting a little too big, so I split it in two.
