I'm horribly sorry about the wait. This is probably the fifth time I've written the chapter and it only now sounds good. It had been bland and forced the last few times I wrote it, but I finally got my drive back. I'm in school again which strangely enough, should help me get chapters out quicker. I hope you enjoy this one, I put some extras into this fight scene.
It's not as long, but you'll see why I had to stop where I did.
After applying my first bottle outside the door and donning my mask, I summoned my fake faunus appendages and walked up to the door man who was posing as your typical hobo. "I'm here for the meeting." I stated. His eyes bugged out and he stood up.
"What are you, stupid? Keep your voice down." He said and dug for some keys.
"Right, sorry. New recruit here." I said. He huffed and opened the door.
"Just don't cause a scene. Stand still, shut up, and cheer at the right moments. You'll fit right in." The man said and ushered me in. His advice was almost word-for-word what Blake had told me. That didn't matter though. I walked down a small hallway and started the call to Blake before pushing through a set of double doors and heading into the meeting. Immediatley I was encountered by many other faunus that were wearing the same mask as me. Quietley I slipped through the crowd towards the front stage where some representative was spouting pro-faunus testaments.
When they complained I simply took the persona of a passionate new recruit who wanted front-row seats. When I finally got as close as I could the representative was just ending his speech and introducing someone to his left, my right. He named the person a comrade, and the key to their success. On que a very familliar ginger mob leader with a cane. Roman Torchwick entered the stage.
I muttered the name as if unbelieving, but in reality I was telling Blake. Roman entered while repeating 'thank you' as almost every faunus in the room tried booing him off stage and a few threw things at him.
One deer-faunus yelled out, "What's a human doing here?"
Torchwick smiled and said, "Well I'm glad you asked deary. Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans are the worst. Case and Point." He stated, pointing to himself.
"So", He continued, "I understand why you would love to see us all locked away or, better yet, killed." Roman continued to win over the crowd, speaking of common enemies, being the higher ups, all human. Pasting more blame on humans for faunus' rotten lives had the crowd cheering him on soon enough.
"Humans are all pests that need to be dealt with. Fortunatley, I'm the best exterminator around." Roman said in a sinister, more quiet voice. As he turned around Roman threw off the giant White Fang banner. Behind the bannner stood an Atlesian Paladin. I muttered the words again to alert Blake and I heard her quiet gasp through my jacket, but it was faint. No one else could hear over the wild cheering that ensued at the sight of the massive war machine.
"As you all may have heard, this is Atlas' latest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my, employer, we've managed to snag a few before they uh, hit the shelves." Roman kept speaking. The Paladin was coated in a darker paint with other White Fang graffitti on it.
"Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the south east. If you would rather stay within the city, that's fine. But if you're truly ready to fight for what you belive in, this is the arsenal I can provide you." More cheering, I raised my fist in the air along with many others.
"Will all new recruits please come forward." Roman commanded, and I stood my place against the slow surge of bodies, wanting to remain close to the exits. I looked for an inconspicuous place to exit when my scroll vibrated in my pocket. Looking down showed me the faint glow of the call I was in with Blake. Looking up granted me the sight Roman throwing down his cigar and walking towards me.
"I've been had." I whispered into the phone. There was no response until Roman was almost at the edge of the stage. "Hit a power panel. He can't see in the dark." Blake said quickly. I scanned fast and saw a silver box. With one hand I threw a summoned blade at the box and with the other I called forth a force rune, pushing Roman back and into the leg of the Paladin.
The second the room went dark I turned intangible. In pitch black I was as thin as smoke and drifted through the room and to the exit, materialising and knocking out the guard in the hallway. Behind me I heard a ridiculously powerful engine start up and multiple technological beeps. Roman was in the suit. I was outside in a hurry and bolted for the rooftops.
Roman crashed through the wall in the Paladin and chased me. The pace that hulking machine was able to put out was impressive as it kept up with me running at least 35mph. Blake joined Weiss and Ruby into the group call and gave them my location. "Everyone hurry. Darren needs backup." She said. I yelled out the highway in front of me as I passed by a street near Junior's club, and I heard my own voice from a scroll.
With the throaty roar of an engine, Blake and Yang were following us. I leaped onto the raised highway and Torchwick followed me, knocking cars off the road in his pursuit. That machine could really move because on the roof of a car at highway speeds, it was gaining. Multiple gunshots sounded as they impacted with the power-suit's legs to no avail.
Weiss leaped from a higher bridge a few moments to late for her ice to form and Roman barreked faster. "Darren, we need to get this guy off the road, hes hurting civillians!" Yang yelled into the call. I could care less about the civillians, but that wouldn't look right.
"Darren, Iron Shoulder!" Ruby yelled into the call. I looked around and saw a sliver of red from a nearby rooftop. 'Iron Shoulder' was a singular move Ruby had designed for me to use on larger Grimm. I let the machine gain on me as I summoned rows of force runes down my right arm and two propulsions at my feet. The second he was in line I jumped.
The metal roof of the car bent inwards as I bashed into Roman's side with enough force to knock him off balance. He fell through the barrier and down onto an empty concrete lot. In a rush of petals Ruby was standing in front of it. The rest of us landed next to her, weapons drawn. "Freezerburn!" Ruby called out, jumping back. I moved to the side and let them do their thing.
Weiss summoned a sheet of soft ice as Yang punched thee ground with her gauntlets, creating a large plume of fog that allowed us to see the tracking lasers and stay hidden. Blake and Yang acted as bait, drawing the cannons on the machine to strike as she jumped forwards. Using her Velocity state briefly, she impacted the chest of the robot hard enough to stagger it before returning to normal. She was getting good at that.
"Checkmate!" Ruby called out, using a multitude of team attacks to take out some of the trackign lasers. Weiss was impacted backwards with an energy blast as Roman launched a barage of missiles. Blake and I cut them down as Ruby called out 'LadyBug'. Ruby and Blake charged in, using swirling combo attacks to try and weaken the legs. Nothing so far had been even scratching the paint.
That changed when Ruby and Blake launched up and Ruby pulled Blake into her Velocity state. The strain on her aura was immediate and black petals sprouted from her skin as the sliced straight through the shoulder of the machine. When they landed Blake all but collapsed as Yang ran up and jumped towards the cockpit, fist ready.
After latching onto the metal frame Yang started blasting the glass to get to Roman. With a surprising move Roman blasted forwards with back jets, barreling through three concrete bridge pillars with Yang as the wedge. As she fell off the cover the cannon arm transformed into a fist and smashed Yang out of the air and through the final pillar.
Blake cried out at her partner and Ruby reassured her, at least at first. After Yang stayed down Ruby's face turned from a slight grin to worry. Blake made to help her partner but fell back down to a kneel. Weiss was back and preparing as Torchwick turned towards us. The robot raised its cannons towards us and prepared to fire, and then the temperature dropped.
Between the Paladin's legs I watches as Yang got up. The majority of her hair had turned to a pearlescent light blue with glowing gold streaks running through it. Her eyes were blue once again, but a much deeper shade this time. After the temperature drop, the rise was much more noticable. Any remaining fog from earlier boiled away from her as she slowly walked towards Torchwick.
Torchwick turned and threw a punch at Yang. This time however the blow was stopped cold by a simple raised hand, and the surface of the steel began to turn red from the heat. She glowed brighter for just a moment and the hand turned to liquid against hers. Torchwick kicked Yang backwards and she became airborne, her strength doing nothing to keep her on the ground.
"Orbital Strike!" Ruby called out as Yang neared us. I raised my sword in one hand and placed the flat of the blade in the other. Yang's boots impacted the blade with a metallic tone as I pushed upwards. Her feet exploded as she launched a good 10 stories above Torchwick and began falling. Once she began her descent Weiss case multiple Glyphs that puched her faster downwards at the machine.
The unbroken arm raised its armor plating to the sky in utter futility. In a brilliant flash of blue heat that nearly singed our clothes at 50 feet away, Yang exploded through the machines hull and blasted it into bits. There was a plume of flame that briefly clouded our vision before we saw Yang holding Torchwick by his smoldering collar. Her hair had died down to a blazing yellow, but still very much dangerous.
Torchwick was covered in bad burns all over his body and his clothes were tattered. After a brief coughing fit he wistled as Yang tightened her grip and pulled back her fist. A purple, brown, and white clad girl who couldn't have been more than 4 feet tall appeared behind Yang and stabbed her in the back. With Yang's aura unfocused on defense, the bladed tip of her umbrella slid straight through her skin.
Yang's hair lost all of its glowing luster as she dropped Torchwick and fell to the ground. "YANG!" Ruby screamed, immediatley entering Velocity and sprinting towards the short girl. Seeing this, the girl quickly tackled Torchwick and shattered them both into glass as Ruby's scythe was meant to hit them. She looked around wildly for them as a Bullhead rose off into the sky.
Ruby desperatley fired shots from Crescent Rose that careened off the plating of the ship. Once Ruby realized that she couldn't stop them she turned to her sister. Yang's eyes were closed and there was already a good amount of blood on the ground. Blake had tied Gambol Shroud's ribbon across the wound with Yang's scarf to stench the blood while Weiss pulled it taught. Ruby looked at her dying sister with tears in her eyes.