Ch. 4
Off the southern coast of Mantle, a mobile repair platform sat in the ocean. It was a triple leveled mazelike structure of bridges, open elevated rooms, smokestacks that burned resources to generate heat, repair docks of varying sizes, and large closed living structures to accommodate a massive amount of personnel and equipment. All the repair docks were mostly empty save for several bullheads occupying a few of the outer ones and the Amity Coliseum floating in the main dock, which sat in the top middle of the massive platform. White Fang soldiers strolled about in winter variations of their uniforms, with longer sleeves, insulation, and fur lining. They were either checking on equipment, chatting with one another or in some cases complaining about the weather.
"Damn is it cold or what?" said Mike as he and his friend Ike patrolled the upper southern area of the platform.
"Uh-huh."
"How cold do you think it is? It-it has to be below freezing, right?"
"Well, there's ice soo...yeah. Freezing."
"Patrolling in the ice. Gimme a fucking break dude!"
"Hm."
"You know who doesn't have patrol in the middle of the night? In the ice?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
"Jakobs! I bet Jakobs is sleeping right now! Back in his rack, with his big fucking melon head on a soft pillow!"
"Yeah, that's Jakobs."
"You know I had equipment stock duty eight weeks straight! Eight weeks man!"
"Yeah good for you."
"And I make one fucking comment about one of the Lieutenants to Jakobs and the next thing you know I'm out on patrol. Jakobs gets my stock duty...and I get to freeze my ass off out here with..."
Mike stopped, noticing that Ike was gone.
"Ike?"
Mike looked out the east entrance of the building they walked into earlier. There was no reply from Ike.
"C'mon Ike. Hey, where are ya?"
Still no reply.
"Ike!"
Mike pulled his pistol out of its holster, aiming as he slowly stepped forward.
"Stop messin' around! Ike!"
He stopped halfway across the little bridge that went into another building.
"Ike!"
"Yeah, in here. Thought I heard somethin'."
Relief spread throughout Mike's body when he heard his friend's voice. He put his pistol away and strolled into the next building.
"Oh yeah? What'd ya hear? A ghost?" Mike chuckled.
...drip...
He stopped just inside the room, finding a pool of blood on the floor before him, with more blood dripping into it. Mike looked up to see Ike's body hanging upside down six feet above him.
"Yeah, I guess you could say something like that." What used to be Ike's voice slowly changed into that of a female.
Mike looked back down to see a female clad in purple and green full body armor standing in front of him.
"What the fu-," Mike said as he grabbed his pistol, but the lady struck him in the throat.
She caught Mike's pistol as he clutched his throat in pain and backed out onto the bridge. She then disposed of him with a backhand to the face that sent him silently tumbling off the bridge into the icy water below. She then tossed his pistol over the edge as well.
"Hey, we clear?" South Dakota asked through her helmet communicator.
Her brother, North Dakota, lay prone on a smokestack not far from her with a thermal sniper rifle in hand.
"Yes South, you're clear, but watch your corners. The smoke is good for cover but it's playing hell with my thermals," said North. "The cold isn't helping."
"What's the time?" South asked him.
"Don't worry about the time. Worry about the objective. Next patrols in twenty seconds."
"Heh, I'll be gone before then." South took off out of the room and down a nearby ramp.
"Okay slow down South. Set your motion tracker."
"Naw, takes too long."
"So does getting caught too early! Set your trackers!"
"Everything alright over there?" asked Kathleen.
"Yeah, just the same old story. Younger siblings don't like to listen."
"Whatever," South retorted.
"Anyway, how's your progress, Kathleen?" North asked.
Kathleen was running down a walkway on the other side of the platform, in the mid-northern section.
"I should be close to the hostages. I downloaded some intel from a terminal like you suggested. It didn't give me any extra details, just where the storage building was. Then I listened in on a conversation between two soldiers saying that that's where an operative was being hassled. This cloaking device you gave me is really helpful by the way."
"Glad you could put it to good use," said North.
"Makes getting past certain points way too easy," Kathleen told him.
"Killing witnesses does just fine too," South scoffed.
"No. It would just be unnecessary," Kathleen snapped back.
"What are you? Some sort of pacifist?" South complained.
"Ladies," North said. "Remember, focus on the mission at hand."
Kathleen nodded and kept going. She rounded a corner and dashed past another patrol without a sound. She slid down a ramp and jumped onto a nearby building, then ran along a large pipe before jumping off its end and falling towards a large storage building below. She used her semblance to create a wind gust that cushioned her fall. Her active camouflage still working, Kathleen walked over to the edge and looked down. Three White Fang soldiers were guarding a metal door. She jumped down, lightly landing behind them. She tapped the one in the middle on his shoulder, making him do a quick one- eighty and was knocked out with a hard jab to the jaw. The other two were on immediate alarm. Kathleen swiftly disarmed then, using one of her swords to slice through their guns in a single strike. She then kneed the soldier on the left in the stomach and knocked her out with a strike to the face with the pommel of her sword. The last soldier tried to run, but he was tripped by a low sweeping kick from Kathleen, then was put to sleep with a quick kick to the face.
"This must be it."
Kathleen searched all three of the soldiers and found a key to the door. She unlocked it, then entered, closing the door behind her. She was now in a long hallway, dimly lit by overhead lights. She walked down the hallway, passing several doors on her left and right until she came to a pair of double doors. She checked to see if it was locked, which it fortunately wasn't. Kathleen slowly opened one door with her left hand and held her sword in her right. The room beyond was also dim, but she could still see a group of Atlas personnel huddled together at the back of the room. Kathleen once more closed the door behind her, but as soon as she turned back around, she saw a metal pipe headed towards her face. Kathleen ducked under and kicked her attacker in the stomach, sending them flying into a wooden crate. Kathleen felt someone else coming up behind her. She immediately blocked the attack, using her sword to guard against a crudely made metal blade held by a girl with a short blonde bob cut and blue eyes wearing the outfit of a White Fang soldier.
"Stop! I'm here to help you! On behalf of Heracles Vesuvius!" Kathleen said.
"General Vesuvius?" The girl slowly backed away, putting her weapon down.
"Yes, he sent me and several of his special operatives to free you and reclaim the Mitus Platform," Kathleen explained.
"Excellent. Now we can get these civilians to safety," said another voice.
From behind an old machine came a tall woman with pale white skin, slate-blue eyes, and white-haired tied in a bun with bangs on the right side of her face. She wore a white coat with sleeves that exposed her upper arms, a redlined high collar, with a red brooch, black gloves, and pants with garters incorporated into them. Despite her dignified stance, the woman looked tired, her hair somewhat disheveled, and her clothes were torn and dirty in some places.
"Winter Schnee I presume?" asked Kathleen.
"Correct."
"I'm Olivia by the way," said the blonde girl. "Sorry for attacking you. Aramus and I thought you were another of the White Fang."
Aramus climbed out of the broken wooden crate and walked over to them, rubbing his stomach in pain. He was a short young faunus man with tanned skin, grass green eyes, a violet-colored lizard tail, and a spiky dark violet mullet.
"You pack quite the punch kid," Aramus said. "Are you a new special operative?"
"No. I'm going into my second year at Beacon. I know the general, and he asked me and my partner for help."
"I'm impressed you managed to get this far by yourself," Winter said to Kathleen. "Is there a plan for our escape?"
"Yes," Kathleen answered. "While I secure the hostages, my colleagues are supposed to get any data that the White Fang have placed in the platform's terminals, then get the full attention of, and eliminate or capture, any soldiers left on the platform."
"Alrighty then, where do we fit into this equation?" Olivia asked.
"When I get the signal from Agent North, that is to say when the alarm goes off, we should guard this building until the others have done their job."
Kathleen then noticed that Olivia, Aramus, and Winter had collars on their necks.
"What are those collars for?" She asked.
Winter frowned as she touched hers. "They're one of the reasons why we were unable to escape. Aura blockers. They severely dampen the aura of those wearing them. So much so that we barely have enough to heal any wounds inflicted on us and we can't use our semblances."
"And what was the other re-."
OOOOOWWEEEEEE!OOOOWWEEEEEE!OOOOWWEEEE!
"That's the alarm!" Winter screamed. "Olivia! Aramus! Kathleen and I will head outside and watch the entrance! You two barricade the door behind us until everything has quieted down!"
"Yes ma'am!" The pair saluted in unison.
Winter and Kathleen exited the building while Olivia closed the main door behind them and locked it soundly shut. At the same time, the sound of running boots alerted the huntress' ears. A large group of fighters was headed their way, weapons at the ready.
"Take this," said Kathleen as she handed Winter one of her swords.
"Thank you. I pray your partner and the General's agents don't take too long," Winter said.
"I have faith in them," Kathleen said. "As should you."
XXXXXXX
Back on the upper level of the Mitus Platform, after South had unintentionally been caught, she and her brother fought through several waves of White Fang before reaching the main air pad. Now they were completely surrounded, with no way to fight that didn't involve getting themselves killed.
"Well, out of the frying pan and into the fire," said North as he stood back-to-back with his sister.
"I bet I can take about fifty of them, how about you?" South asked.
"How about you save your jokes until later," he replied.
South grimaced. "Where the hell are our reinforcements?!"
The operation's Lieutenant, a short female faunus with goat horns and an overhead mask, aimed a mounted machine gun at the twins.
"Attention assholes! Stand down, your surrounded! We know you're here for the coliseum! Surrender now and we may spare you! Otherwise, we'll cut you down here and now!"
At the lieutenant's command, four soldiers on either side of her aimed grenade launchers at them while the rest carried assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and pistols.
"Somewhat overkill, yes, but I like to make my point clear-"
The lieutenant was interrupted when two cloaked figures from a nearby crate jumped into action, leaping into the midst of the soldiers and attacking them.
"What?!," yelled the Lieutenant before she was punched in the face, knocking her away from the machine gun.
Caroline aimed the machine gun at the supports for the platform on her right. She destroyed them, causing the platform to tilt and the soldiers to tumble onto the main air pad or into the sea far below. Caroline did the same to the other platform before kicking the gun down and jumping onto the air pad herself. Abaddon followed suit, unsheathing his short swords.
"You two okay?" Carolina asked.
"More or less," North replied. "Ready to clean house?"
Abaddon smiled. "Hell yeah!"
The female lieutenant got to her feet, her frustration rising as she watched the four infiltrators massacre her soldiers. Her eyes fell on a grenade launcher laying conveniently on the ground nearby. She immediately lunged and grabbed hold of it, then aimed it at Carolina.
"No one gets the jump on me, bitch."
The lieutenant fired her gun, a grenade flying towards Carolina. The agent saw this coming and did a backflip kick, somehow hitting the grenade with enough force to not only keep it from detonating on her foot but also causing it to rebound back at its owner. The lieutenant gulped she was struck by the explosive and thrown off the platform.
Abaddon slashed through two more soldiers before activating his communicator.
"Hey Kat, how's things on your end?" he asked.
"Well, I've got the hostages. Winter Schnee and I are currently fighting off some White Fang. How many of them were on this platform anyway?" Kathleen asked him.
"We estimated there to be an entire company. So, a little over a hundred soldiers," Abaddon replied with a grunt, punching another soldier across the jaw.
"Seems like that much," Kathleen replied. "Okay. The White Fang have stopped coming our way. There's just one left."
Abaddon frowned. "A grunt or a Lieutenant?"
"It's a pale blonde woman. She's not wearing any White Fang garb, but I get the feeling she's more formidable than a Lieutenant would be."
"Alright, I'll be on my way there. Don't push yourselves too hard," Abaddon told her.
"I should be fine," Kathleen replied to him. "See you in a bit."
XXXXXXX
Winter and Kathleen stood on a large square platform, guarding the bridge to the Atlesian hostages, the unconscious and dead bodies of many White Fang laying around them. Although, a woman with pale white skin, long light blonde hair, and icy blue eyes now stood before them. She wore a white long-sleeved blouse, light brown corset and waist sash, white baggy pants, and a detached white hood with a semi-translucent cape. She carried a stark white longsword in each hand and as she approached, frost appeared right under her bare feet.
"The other reason….," Winter uttered.
"What?" Kathleen asked.
"The other reason we couldn't escape…is her. Chanel. She defeated all of us at once." Winter grimaced.
"Precisely," Chanel finally spoke. "Do I need to punish you again?"
Winter ignored the comment. "Kathleen! Keep your guard up at all times!"
Chanel rushed Winter first, both of her blades connecting with Winter's. Chanel then kicked Winter in the face. The operative tumbled back from the force of the blow, her left cheek both bruised and covered in light frost. Kathleen fired several rifle rounds at Chanel, who blocked each one before advancing on the huntress. Kathleen managed to dodge Chanel's double sword slash, and from the right, delivered a hard kick with both feet into the woman's torso. Chanel flew into the air and flipped, landing gracefully on her feet. She unsheathed a crystalline long bow, as if out of thin air, and fired a volley of three crystalline arrows. Winter avoided two of them, but one exploded in a geyser of ice at her feet. What remained of her aura shattered, and she sustained several cuts. The operative repositioned herself next to Kathleen, sword at the ready.
"Her semblance seems like it's based on manipulating ice, but she's not using dust at all. It's natural ice that she can conjure…. almost like magic," Winter explained. "And I doubt we've seen the limit of her abilities."
Chanel fired another volley of ice arrows, but not at them. These arrows embedded themselves in the ground and a moment later three columns of ice rose from the ground. These columns shattered, revealing three ice doppelgangers of Chanel. They all carried bows and began firing ice shards. Winter and Kathleen sprinted forward, using their swords to deflect any ice shards in their way. Kathleen unleashed a vertical wind slash from the tip of her sword. The attack shattered one of the doppelgangers, prompting the other two to dissolve their bows and conjure dual swords. The girls clashed with the doppelgangers with unparalleled resolve. Kathleen parried her assailant and destroyed it with a quick slash, bisecting its body. Winter's sword met the last doppelganger's several times before she saw an opening and quite literally disarmed her opponent. She then kicked the doppelganger hard enough for it shatter to small pieces.
"You have improved a little," Chanel said to Winter, sounding somewhat impressed. "But is it enough?"
Chanel took one step forward and the entire platform they were on was covered in ice. She tapped her foot on the ice and a wave of spikes began cascading towards them. Kathleen pushed Winter behind her and used her semblance to create a wind blast that cut through the ice like paper. Chanel stabbed her swords into the ground, bracing herself against the onslaught of wind. When it passed, she looked up just as Winter came flying towards her. There was no time to dodge. Winter slashed Chanel, cutting a large and deep gash into the right of her torso. A bit of blood sprayed out, but the wound was quickly covered in ice.
"You can't fight as well with a wound like that," Winter said. "Are you ready to surrender?"
"This is nothing child."
With unseen speed, Chanel attacked Winter. The Schnee operative didn't have the speed to counter her. Chanel relentlessly attacked Winter, whose defense was failing by the second. Without her natural shield, she was getting bruised, cut, and bloodied. Kathleen moved to intervene, but Chanel quickly blocked her path with an ice wall.
"No! Dammit!"
Within moments, Chanel had Winter on the ground, now unconscious and wounded.
"Typical. You huntsmen and huntresses aren't worth the effort."
Chanel moved to execute Winter, but her blades were knocked away by a black dart. She jumped back as Abaddon landed in between her and Winter.
"I beg to differ," Abaddon told her. "You haven't fought all of us yet."
The faunus then fired an orb at the ice wall. It exploded, leaving a massive hole that Kathleen was able to leap through.
"Objective secure! All the White Fang have been dealt with," said Carolina as she and North appeared on the scene. She looked at the battlefield before them, along with the wall of ice and Winter's injured state.
"Need help with this one?" Carolina asked.
"Nope," Abaddon smirked. "My partner and I are more than enough. Take care of Winter."
"Gotcha," North replied.
He and Carolina carried Winter into the building where the other operatives were still stationed. Abaddon looked Chanel up and down before smirking once more.
"Didn't think the White Fang had someone this strong besides Corvus, Adam, and Bantus. When did you join their ranks?" Abaddon asked her.
"I am merely working with them," Chanel replied. "I serve a different master. And you are the Hell Hound correct? You are not as intimidating as I thought you would be."
"What I lack in looks I can make up for in action. Plus, my girl is here, and I'd rather embarrass myself by losing to you."
Abaddon picked up one of Kathleen's swords off the ground and tossed it to her. Chanel attempted to blast it with ice, but a thin black spike erupted from the ground and grazed her shoulder. Kathleen caught her weapon, now able to fight at her with both blades.
"Like I said, I can make up for it in action." Abaddon unsheathed his swords, forming his dual great swords.
"No." Kathleen strode over to Abaddon and stood in front of him. "I want her for myself."
"Are you sure about this Kathleen?" Abaddon asked her.
"I was holding back earlier because I didn't want Winter to feel intimidated. She is our senior after all. But now that she's not here, I wish to try going all out. I want to show Chanel that I am more than worth the effort."
Without a word, Abaddon nodded and moved out of the way.
Kathleen combined her swords into its nodachi form. She and Chanel stared each other down for a few seconds, waiting for one of them to make move.
In a flash, Kathleen slashed at Chanel. The woman managed to raise her swords to block, but they were cut in half. Chanel took a few steps back, now sporting a cut across the bridge of her nose.
"She used her wind to increase her attack range," Chanel thought. "Clever girl."
Chanel jumped into the air high above Kathleen and fired five arrows. Kathleen deflected each one. Each arrow exploded into shards once they hit the ground around her, but Kathleen swung her blade around once, creating a momentary wall of wind that destroyed each shard. She raised her sword above her in time to block a one-handed downward strike from Chanel. Chanel tried to stab Kathleen with her other sword, but the huntress sliced through her right arm using only her bare hand. She then blasted Chanel away with a quick aura pulse.
The ice witch tumbled on the ground. A slimy semi-translucent liquid seeped from her wound, burning the metal under it. Chanel slowly stood to face Kathleen, her face not showing even the slightest bit of pain.
"Why don't you freeze that wound of yours so we can continue?" Kathleen said.
"On the contrary," Chanel replied. "I think I'll keep it this way."
The slime pouring out of her arm morphed, turning into a long liquid tendril. The appendage flailed around for a bit before shrinking into the shape of an arm. She created another sword in her left hand, this one a little larger than the last with a hook at the end of the blade. Kathleen raised her weapon as Chanel flew forward, her sword clashing with huntress' blade. Using the hook to grab her weapon, Chanel pulled Kathleen's blade down and sent her slimy hand surging towards Kathleen's face. The huntress ducked and destroyed the arm with a palm strike, then immediately kicked Chanel away from her. She grimaced as she quickly removed her gloved from her left hand and threw it away. Some of the slime had gotten on her hand when she destroyed Chanel's arm. She felt it burning through as soon as it touched her. A few of Kathleen's fingers were now significantly burned along with a few bleeding spots on her hand.
"If she had grabbed my face with that hand…"
Chanel assaulted Kathleen once more, using both her sword and her acidic arm. The huntress, now choosing to go on the defensive, dodged each attack. After a few strikes, Chanel could see that her opponent was moving much faster and more fluidly than before. It was surprising to her at first, but after many successive attacks she began to get irritated.
"Enough!" Chanel yelled. "Do you plan to only evade me for the rest of this battle?!"
Kathleen disappeared from Chanel's sight, then reappeared behind Chanel with her back to the witch.
"No, I was just waiting for a golden opportunity."
Faster than Chanel could even blink, Kathleen deconstructed her nodachi into its dual form. She spun around, using both swords to easily slice through Chanel's head and mid-torso. Kathleen reformed her nodachi as the pieces of Chanel's body fell to the floor. She swiped her sword in an x shape, hoping to throw off any of the acidic liquid that may have gotten on the blade before condensing and sheathing the sword.
"Kathleen? You okay?" Abaddon asked her as he approached.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, I didn't expect you to kill her."
"It was either me or her in this situation….As full huntsmen we may have to kill actual people in the field. And remember it was mainly Emma, along with maybe RWBY and JNPR, who were worried about the blood on your hands. Cinder and Neo have seen you do it. Mercury seemed unfazed. Emerald thinks you're a psycho. And Jurano and I…just didn't like the fact that you went off without a telling us that you were even alive or what you were doing. Plus….I've done this before. Taking a life, I mean."
"When did this happen Kat?"
"I'll tell you later. After I've taken a shower maybe."
"And maybe I'll join you there."
Kathleen smiled. "Hmmm, I like the sound of that."
"But first let me heal your hand."
Abaddon took Kathleen's left hand to inspect it but found that there were no injuries or blood. This made the faunus kind of suspicious.
"I thought I saw you get injured earlier when you took your glove off?"
Kathleen shook her head. "I thought my hand was burning from exposure to her slimy arm, but it just gave me that sensation. Nothing to worry about."
Abaddon was about to reply when someone else entered the area.
"Hey, everything clear over here?"
South came running towards them with a military sniper rifle in hand and covered in a bit of blood.
"Yeah, all clear South. Mission complete," Abaddon replied.
"All right. I've already contacted the general. He should be here soon with medics, technicians, and more to secure the Amity Coliseum," said South as they walked towards the storage building. "So, this was the only mission assigned to you two, right? What do you plan to do after tonight?"
"Continue our goddamn summer vacation! What hell else are we supposed to do?"
