The snow laden city of Atlas floated above the forgotten and now detrimentally costly Mantel, at the bottom of which was a slum that housed hundreds of faunus, and as you move farther away from the center of Mantel the higher you climb the closer you get to Atlas and the easier life you live, it was a sickening display of a pyramid scheme leading those who are seen as racially or economically inferior, many found it disgusting, others choose to ignore the differences and just live their lives ignoring the issue... others, others are far more willing to fight.
A loud boom roared through the town center causing the humans to start to panic and run in the middle of the chaos multiple members of the crowd quickly drew weapons and opened fire on the fleeing civilians as those who planted the bombs quickly rushed to paint their symbol in the road as the lights turned red all along the street warning the civilians of danger and telling the soldiers where to go, after finishing the paint job they quickly scattered taking shots at drones that soon showed up on the site, a few moments afterwards soldiers began to flood the area
(o)
as they reached the hideout they all sat down, nine of them in total, nine faunus who are hiding in an abandoned hotel under the Atlas militarys' nose, this is what the White Fang is all about fighting for what is right with a group of friends, sadly though none of them are really masters of anything, they all know how to make explosives, and can shoot guns, they all are somewhat skilled with swords and all can shoot straight, they all have the same feelings towards Atlas though, Ryka is probably a bit too... hateful, her parents were White Fang and was gunned down in the last peaceful protest in Atlas, after one of the first protests in Vale went violent almost twenty years ago Atlas has greeted any faunus gathering as a violent mob, three separate times did the White Fang try to conduct peaceful protests two in Mantle and one in Atlas all were greeted with lethal force.
Ryka an armadillo faunus with red hair and yellow eyes she put great effort into her training, being the youngest of their crew she learned everything they could teach and would practice every hour they weren't on missions, even now they had barely dodged the military and she was going at a punching bag
"Ryka! Meeting!" Antalor called as he limped into map room, Ryka just growled and brushed back her messy bangs and followed after him, pulling her hair tie free she quickly regathered her hair and tied it back again, attempting to keep it out of her eyes, walking up the once garish stairs she turned onto an upper level and counted out each door, until she reached the third one on that landing, upon entering the room she smiled, it was the two leaders, Antalor and Shera, and their White Fang communicator Keelin. Antalor was reading over what seemed to be a freshly translated message, while Shera was checking the security systems, Keelin was encrypting a message and prepared to send it out on their message raven
"Hey guys, what's up?"
"Ryka... we have a few things lining up, but this is mostly a problem when it come to you." Keelin said his voice was slow and had a slight drawl to it, but what he said caused her more worry than how he said it with a sigh he continued "High Leader Khan has ordered that until the CCT is reestablished we are to halt all attacks on Atlas facilities." he finished causing the young girl to gawk
"You... you cant be serious! What the hell are we suppose to do!? Sit around and circle jerk?!"
"Watch your tongue girl."
"I'm fourteen I can decide for my-"
"Just shut up!" Shera roared causing all of them to quickly quiet down "Look at it this way, you can hone your skills while not worrying about a raid or planning an escape for a while, use this time to recuperate and prepare for the future, let us worry about our orders, is that understood?" Shera ordered as her tail hung low and still, her voice was always the loudest, and considering she used to be a Rekrutenausbilder which was gibberish to Ryka so she just called her a Drill instructor, which seemed to piss her off more each time she said it, but to get her to talk like an Atlesian would mean she would need to spent time understanding Atlas which could be better spent destroying Atlas property.
Turning away from the three she stormed out of the room without another word and went back to her room, which was hidden away from the others mainly due to her desire to be alone, and a few other reasons, upon entering her back room she smiled it looked more like a storage closet than anything else but in her eyes it was home, walking to the shelf where she kept her stuff she reached into her civilian bag and pulled free a small book and flipped it open passing by most of her drawings and reaching a fresh page where she stored her pencil awaiting use, then plopped down onto her cot and began to draw, this was one of the only things that brought her joy these days, everything else would get so serious sometimes she just needed some time to sit down and let time go by the seconds and not speed by.
Within the time it took for her to complete her drawings she appeared to have fallen asleep if the sunlight peaking through the boarded window was anything to go by sitting up she felt a wave of exhaustion wave over her, as of right now they weren't taking missions, they weren't going to cause chaos, they weren't fighting for their freedom, with a groan she pushed herself up and off her cot and began to go through her morning routine, push ups, sit ups, and some lunges and her fatigue was gone, thus her day began, leaving her broom closet she moved into the lobby where a other members were talking and eating but quickly moved away to avoid her, she constantly told herself it was because they were jealous of her semblance, but she knew it was because of her semblance, having the ability to grow in power the more pain she inflicts, and it makes her rather sadistic.
Hours passed and Ryka was sitting in the gym, wiping sweat from her brow she peaked out the window, and took stock of what she could see, mostly human children were running by playing games, it was sickening, they laughed while faunus children starved, it wasn't fair and it wasn't kind, she was reaching down to her hand wraps she began to tighten the wraps as she turned and slammed a fist into the hanging back causing the chains to snap and tossed the bag across the room and into the wall dropping it to the ground with a loud thud, causing the girl to growl in frustration, Shera was gonna be pissed that she was being so loud, if the sounds of footsteps was anything to go off, with a sigh she turned to the door as the woman in question quickly stormed in and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck
"The hell is wrong with you?" she growled as the girl allowed herself to get yanked along as they moved out into the hall "If anyone get suspicious we would have to leave, and with how many of us are we'd have to abandon our foothold up here-"
"I know-"
"I get that you're pissed, trust me I get it. We have two options, go down to Mantle and be safer, or stay here and keep quiet, so when we get the option to do our work you can bathe in all the human blood you want, understand." she growled her blue eyes were dancing across Rykas' face holding some feelings that Ryka couldn't place but she just wanted to push the woman off and go shower, but Shera was much stronger than she was and that wasn't something she wanted to deal with right now so she let the woman shriek about it.
(o)
She had no idea where she was, everything was unfamiliar yet she knew where she was going, her vision was a blur of blue-green her body felt floaty and heavy all at the same time, her muddled thoughts were completely unintelligible and kept changing and burying things that she did understand with new information that she needed to take the time to understand only for that to be replaced too, she found herself in an office at a computer, soon after she sat down she immediately began to go over what she would think General Ironwood would use as his password for his more sensitive documents, he was a hardliner, and a man who desires nothing but order, so it would more than likely be something related to himself and Atlas which he believes is interchangeable 'Mettle' would be the most likely, it's something personal to himself and doesn't share but it's also what he considers to be the reason for Atlas' greatness. The screen then flashed green and she rose from the spot which again became the blue-green blur
When she returned to the difficult state of consciousness that she was growing more accustom to she couldn't quite recognize where she was, until something grabbed her arm which she lashed out against throwing it against the wall then continued along blankly moving, from what she could recognize it was a medical hallway her mind bluing out again, eventually she came to a room a small room but she could hear a ventilator beeping and breathing walking into the room reaching to her side she felt a familiar weight in her hand as some amount of clarity returned, the room soon came into focus her eyes slowly shifted to the woman in the bed an elderly woman she recognized as the winter maiden, why is she here? What was she... her eyes drifted to the blade in her hands as her body began to move on it's own, attempting to stop herself yielded no noticeable change to her movements, but what also startled her was the sounds, everything was muted, she couldn't hear the ventilator, no all she could hear was the sound of cracking and breaking wood, screams and the sounds of fire.
Lifting her weapon above her head she stared down at the sleeping woman she attempted everything to stop herself up until she brought the weapon down coating the weapon in blood the womans' eyes widened and she turned attempted to move, but in one quick move her body moved and grabbed the maiden by the face and stared her dead in the eyes, slowly the light within them faded and she was greeted by a new sight
Around herself she watched as the world fell away until it was just her and Fria who surprisingly de-aged to a much younger black haired woman her eye going from aged and weary to rapidly returning to focus and anger until she was around the same age as Winter herself
"Well, not the way I would have chose to go... ugh, Jimmy was always a worrywart." she growled her voice was rather deep for a woman and she spoke with the same cadence as Qrow
"I... I don't know what happened, I couldn't control my body." Winter quickly tried to explain as the woman strolled around her, the black and white void around them
"Meh, I was ninety-two, I don't really care, and seriously you should try showing more skin, you're a maiden, so you're pretty enough to turn heads, might as well take advantage of that fact." she advised earning a frown from Winter who turned and faced her
"Fria please, this is serious I have no control over myself, I... I'm not sure what's going on."
"Ugh..." Fria groaned and hung back a bit "I'm sure it's fine, your body is pumped full of magic now, so if someone wants to control you it's gonna take quite a bit more effort than before, and I was being serious, look at you, you're dressed like a soldier, I was hoping to pass on my style before I died, bUt nO. ugh fine, fine." she muttered walking right up to Winter and grabbed her hands and the woman in question felt a powerful thrum shoot through her body, like electricity shocking down her spine, Fria just chuckled at her reaction, and looked down at the ground where her appearance reflected back out at her
"Man, and I was happy to see myself lookin' so young again... ah well, oh and do me a favor, wear something other than-" her request was cut off as the power finally siphoned into the new winter maiden, the monochrome surrounding quickly faded into darkness eventually returning to the grizzly scene that she had unwillingly entered with the sickening squelch of her blade exiting Frias' body, turning on her heel her vision blurred once more as she began to walk
(o)
Ryka was scared, two weeks in hiding and she did something stupid, something very, very, stupid it was a horrid idea for her to scout out this location, she thought that using the confusions of the Schnee specialist blowing out the side of Ironwoods ship would allow her to do something worth doing but what she witnessed wasn't worth-
As the frighted girl rounded the corner she bumped into a tall man who in an instant grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air his blue eyes were hardened and stared deeply into her own, the silver metal plate on his brow told her everything and his black graying hair only confirmed what she saw as she began to kick and struggle in his grip as she gagged and clawed at his fingers
"And is this little rat the cause for Schnees' madness?" he questioned looking over his shoulder at another man slightly short and with brown hair and blue eyes who looked rather smug at her
"I doubt it, but she seems to have gotten rather far, pretty skilled if you ask me, but still a know activist." he answered with a shrug as Ironwood nodded and loosened his girl but kept her in the air as she swung a kick at his gut which he blocked "Alright girl, Clover here will be keeping his eyes on you, while I go and snap my soldier out of whatever is going on with her." he said catching her next kick and let go of her neck causing her to slam her head into the ground and let out a shout of frustration and pain as he walked past her
"If you're going after her you should know she did something weird with that old chick, whatever it was destroyed the room she was in and nearly killed me!" she called out after him, she may hate that man more than anything but she also wanted to see him fight, if he strolled in and got killed instantly that would have been great but she wanted to watch the great iron general turn on one of his own, it would be a spectacle
"Come on." the other man ordered grabbing her by the wrist and pulled her up and began to push her along
"Damn, and I wanted to watch him kill 'er." she muttered as he pushed her again which she continued to fight the whole way along
"Well you're gonna have to settle with the gray concrete wall of a prison block." he replied without missing a beat as she continued to struggle against his grip which she couldn't break "Or you could tell us where the rest of your friends are and you can walk." he added as he shoved her along earning a growl from the girl
"Like hell!" she replied swinging her head back as she activated her semblance catching him square in the nose and quickly took off running, turning the corner she found a long and open hall leading to a staircase, dashing towards it she punched her ribs a few times letting the pain fuel her speed, making her way up the stairs she ignored the footfalls behind her came face to face with the rest of the Ace Ops all of whom quickly jumped into action, leaping to the left she avoided a powerful strike from their bruiser Elm, rolling back she avoided one of the grasping hands from Vine, then suffered a dozen strikes from a fast moving blur, whom she could only assume was Harriet, swinging wildly she felt a strong strike to her ribs tossing her away, rolling to her knees she place a hand over her newly bruised ribs and let out a hiss of pain
"If you're gonna fight someone better than you, it's a good idea to not pick the strongest huntsman in Atlas." the smug speedster comment earning a glare from the red headed faunus
"Ugh..." she grumbled and staggered to her feet and yanked the mask from her face and undid her over armor dropping it to the ground and lowered her stance her eyes locking into the speedy soldier, Harriet just grinned and vanished from sight, dropping down she swung her leg around behind her and raised her arms blocking a strike which tossed her back, sliding along the ground she quickly planted her hands and pushed off her feet catching the grip of Elms' weapon and kicked off attempting to catch Harriet off guard, but before she could recognize what happened she was laying on the ground her back in searing pain as glass rained down from the lighting above, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees she gasped feeling her aura drop quite a bit
"Damn, if you were a bit faster that'd have been bad." Harriet commented as she stomped down onto Rykas' back throwing her down, then dropped down and grabbed her wrists and tied her up, struggling against the bonds she growled as she was yanked up to her feet, Clover let out a whistle as he walked into the room and looked over the room
"Wow, what happened here?"
"Nothing we couldn't handle. Marrow, check her things." Harriet ordered shoving Ryka into the corner of the room "Sorry girly, but your lil chaos spree is done." Harriet gloated earning a glare from the girl
"She's got a collapsible staff in here, a few throwing knives, oh! And a scroll!" he said causing Rykas' blood to run cold it appeared that Harriet caught that if that smug grin on her face was anything to go off
"Nice, we'll track down the rest of her sect and that'll be that. Thank's for the good work kid, Atlas thanks you for your... loyalty." she said in a clearly sarcastic voice, quickly leaping to her feet she suffered a powerful knee to the gut causing her to the drop onto her own and curled in on herself but felt a pat on her back "Don't think about it too hard, and hey if you give us what we want you've got yourself pretty set as a nark." she said causing Ryka to slowly glare at her, Harriet knew that she was fucking with her so Ryka just faced the ground and closed her eyes attempting to keep herself from crying, what was to come was all her fault.
(o)
James couldn't find Winter, looking around the security footage he watched as she killed Fria then blew a hole in the wall leaving, she had to be going to the school to get to the vault. Quickly running off he panicked a bit, trying to figure out what she was planning, why was she doing this, what is the point? What on Remnant was she planing, and why is she doing it, she wanted to join the DNA alteration program for her sister. Quickly making his way down he drew his scroll and quickly called Penny
"Salutations General Ironwood, it's rather late for a call, but I'm more than happy to help."
"Penny, get to the vault, Winter has gone rouge and she's on her way there now, we must protect the staff."
"Understood General... but if I may ask shouldn't we attempt to understand her reasoning before acting rashly?"
"She killed Fria, and killed a few dozen guards on her way to do that, I have no idea what she's planning, but we can't take risks, if you want to try reasoning with her do it after we have her somewhere safer."
"Very well." she agreed causing the connection to end as he rounded a corner and made his way towards the elevator, it was down to a simple choice, either they stopped Winter or she did something he would regret.
Eventually he got through the many similar looking halls coming to the hidden lift leading down into the vault and activated it causing it to start moving down, standing in darkness for a few moments it opened up into the vault where he found Winter and Penny flying around shooting blue and green blasts at one and other, leaping off the lift he drew Due Process and fired throwing himself into Winter dragging her to the ground but was quickly kicked off rolling to a stop in front of the vault door she stood and smiled
"Winter, stand down, now, that's an order." he quickly said leveling both of Due Process with the woman who just mumbled in coherently, looking deeply into her eyes he recognized something, her eyes were lazily drifting from him to the vault and back again, she wasn't conscious.
"Penny knock her out, we need to restrain her." Ironwood shouted as he leapt forward into a roll as Winter reacted just as quickly she was fighting with far more skill and tact than normal, as if she wasn't in control of her own body, rising to his feet he quickly trapped her arm with his as Penny slammed her foot into the side of the womans' head causing her to fall limp, with a sigh he let her go causing her to drop to the floor
Penny was quick to come to Winters' aide checking over her wound she picked the woman up and looked to the general who sighed and ran a hand through his hair
"Take her to... to a holding cell, inform the Ace Ops they are to guard her until she returns to consciousness, I want you to keep an eye on her as well." he ordered quickly returning Due Process to his coat and turned towards the lift and began to walk but paused before he made it too far "Should Winter prove incapable to contain the maiden powers then you are our next option. As the protector of Mantle you have a responsibility, do you understand?"
"Of course General." she gave him a salute but quickly dropped it to prevent Winter from hitting the ground, he then turned and left, as Penny jumped from the platform and loop around to keep suspicions low.
A/N Not much to say here, other than I may or may not be enjoying this Atlas stuff a bit too much, anyways hope you've enjoyed this chapter as much as I have had writing it.