Trying my hand at yet another RWBY fanfiction. These never go well... why do I keep trying?
Tubes of dust lined the walls. Bullets, in small packages, lined the shelves, among other things. Magazines, weapon parts, tools. And, most valuable, dust crystals sitting under the watchful gaze of an elderly shopkeeper.
A bell jingled as the door opened. The shopkeeper turned around from counting the register to greet the customer, but froze halfway. Six large men walked through the door, five wearing black suits, and one wearing white, smoking a cigar. The man in the white suit leaned down on the glass counter in front of the shopkeeper his orange hair billowing lightly as the door closed behind the last of the men. He shook his cigar out, the soot landing on the floor as the shopkeeper widened his eyes. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?" He spoke rhetorically. True, it was past ten P.M.
The shopkeeper shivered in fear. The menacing aura the men were giving off was... frightening, to say the least. His eyes nervously darted to the back corner of his shop, where he knew the young girl was. The last thing he wanted was to put her in danger. Suddenly, one of the men in black pointed a gun at him, the dust humming as it started to charge. "Please," he gasped, stepping back in fear, holding his hands in the air. "just take my Lien and leave!"
The orange-haired criminal shook his head as he shushed the man. "Calm down, we're not here for your money," he told the old man. His tone was deceptively kind, but it instantly went flat. "Grab the dust," he ordered. A case was put on the table, containing multiple cylinders with a siphoning mechanism attached. The hired hands grabbed them quickly, and took them over to the tubes on either side of the shop, beginning to fill them.
Another, empty box was presented to the shopkeeper. "Crystals," a goon ordered. "Burnt, uncut." The man complied wordlessly, grabbing the colored glass-like shards from beneath the counter and placing them carefully in the box. After all, any misuse or jumbling, and the entire place could explode. The goons started to finish up with the first wall of dust tubes and started heading to the other. This, as with all carefully crafted plans, is where things went wrong.
The first goon over noticed something that hadn't been important until now. A child, a girl if the pants were anything to go by, clad in a red, hooded cape standing in the corner, perusing through the magazines. "Hey, kid, hands in the air!" He shouted, drawing the curiosity of other occupants as the shopkeeper winced. However, it wasn't too important to them right now. The kid, however, didn't move. 'This kid gotta death wish or something?' The man thought as he slowly started making his way towards her, unsheathing a plain, red sword from its sheath on his waist as he repeated his exclamation. "Hey, hands in the air!" The girl still didn't move until he put his hand on her shoulder and twirled her around.
Oddly enough, she didn't seem at all shocked by his appearance, or even the sword pointed at her face. The hood fell back, revealing the headphones that had been covering her ears. The man grit his teeth in frustration and pointed at his ears, signaling for the child to take off her headphones, which she complied to.
"Yes?" she questioned. She seemed more... annoyed at the intrusion than anything else.
"I said, put your hands in the air, now!" The goon repeated for the third time.
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Are you... trying to rob me?"
"Ye-" he didn't even finish the word before he was suddenly sent flying into one of the shop's shelves. This finally gathered the full attention of the other people in the shop, although the white-clad leader remained focused on inspecting the crystals. He flicked a hand in the direction that the goon had come flying from, and another charged in.
"Fre-" again, the word remained unfinished as he lost his grip on the gun he was holding as his body was flung through the shop window, too surprised by the fast attack to activate his aura and ending up unconscious on the pavement outside. A blur was seen following after him, a brief hue of red and pink visible to the stunned onlookers. The girl stood up, her cape billowing in the fresh night air. She reached to her waist, but then momentarily paused and then retracted her hand, grabbing nothing.
The four remaining men were staring through the broken window frame, looking at her. "Okay..." The leader said, seemingly annoyed. "She's unarmed," he prompted to the men around him. After no movement, he sighed. "Get her!" Finally, the goons rushed out into the street, all holding their basic swords in what appeared to be an attempt at a threatening position. The girl rolled her eyes. She didn't even need her beloved for this.
The first goon to reach her swung wildly at her. He cut through the girl like a hot knife through... rose petals? 'What the-' Was all he was able to think before an elbow hit him in the back, sending him flying forward. Rose petals swirled around him, and a black boot made contact with his face and pulled him to the ground, shattering his reflective glasses and leaving him unconscious on the ground. The girl turned towards the remaining two men, and one of her shimmering silver eyes winked at them before she, once again, disappeared into rose petals.
This time she didn't reappear instantly. The two goons quickly huddled back-to-back as their heads darted around, looking for the girl. How quickly the hunter became the hunted... Suddenly, one of the men was knocked to the side, although his aura protected him from most of the damage. The girl grabbed the other one by the shoulders, and the men barely had time to marvel at her strength as she quickly threw him into the air, blurred out of existence, appeared above him, and seemingly jumped off of solid air to ram her knee into the goon's black-suited chest. He crashed into the ground, forming a crater, and most definitely going unconscious.
Not even giving the last goon time to think, she blurred in front of him, red petals flying in her wake, and punched him in the chest. Faster than the eye could see, she appeared in his flight path, uppercut him in the back, sending him slightly upwards, and then grabbed him by the head, slamming him into the ground. Yeah, he definitely wasn't fighting again any time soon... if you could even call this a fight. Slow clapping ensued from the Dust shop's doorway.
"Now this is interesting," the man declared. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening." The man in the white suit dropped his cigar on the ground and crumpled it with his cane. "And, as much as I'd love to stick around..." He pointed the cane at her, and the bottom flipped up to reveal a sight. His arm didn't shake in the slightest, despite the obvious instability that came with holding a long weapon single-handedly, demonstrating his comfort with the weapon. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."
The girl didn't seem too worried about the gun pointed at her. "That nickname is so lame," she complained, pouting. "And it's not even the evening!" The orange-haired man raised an eyebrow at her childish complaints, but shrugged it off and squeezed the trigger. A flare-like bullet screamed out of the barrel, which the girl easily dodged, although the smoke it contained spread quickly, making her cough. It quickly dispersed, but the criminal was already gone. She scanned the area quickly for him, seeing him scrambling up a ladder at a record pace. She grinned, noticing a package of high-quality sniper rounds on the ground near her. She looked towards the shopkeeper, who was staring wide-eyed through the doorway. "Sorry about the window. Mind if I grab these?" She picked the package up and waved it slightly. The man nodded slightly, still shocked. "Thanks!" She smiled cheerfully, and then rose petals were all that remained of her on the street.
The first thing Roman Torchwick noticed when he got to the top of the ladder was a small figure sitting on a... scythe? "Persistent," he growled, his eye twitching as he took in the figure of the girl that should've been left behind on the street.
She pouted, again. "Not even a mention of how perfectly balanced the scythe must be for me to sit like this?" She questioned. "And I worked so hard on it, too..."
Roman raised an eyebrow. "You look a little young to be a Huntress," he jabbed. The girl shrugged in response.
"Probably because I'm not a Huntress, just a Huntress-in-training." Roman frowned. 'This skilled, and...?'
"Either way, your luck runs out now, Red." He grabbed a red crystal from his pocket. In particular, red Dust was known for its destructive capabilities. He tossed at her, and in a gust of petals, she caught it.
"You break it, you buy it," she giggled. Roman smirked and quickly pointed his cane at her and fired. She dropped the crystal in surprise and started moving away, but was caught by the edge of the blast and tossed a few feet, although she still landed solidly on her boots.
"I was beginning to think you were invincible," Roman laughed. "Glad to see there're still times where I'm wrong." He had strolled over to the other side of the roof, now. A copter swooped in from across the sky, and the cabin doors opened, allowing the criminal to get on, holding his briefcase full of Dust crystals. He tossed another fire crystal and shot another flare at it, although the girl dashed far away this time, collecting the crystal as well.
To her surprise, though, the shot was stopped from ever hitting the building. A young blonde woman clad in white had appeared on top of the rooftop as well, and had dissipated the shot. Ruby Rose grinned at the sight. A real Huntress! Roman grit his teeth in frustration, and began to move towards the cockpit. Moving without thinking, Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into its sniper form and loaded one of the bullets she had picked up earlier into the firing chamber, quickly aiming and firing, disconnecting the briefcase from the handle Roman was holding. It slid out of the vessel and onto the roof without damaging anything, surprisingly enough.
Roman growled, but didn't stop moving. Seconds later, another woman headed out into the open side door, but her face was covered by shadows. She was wearing a short red and gold dress that stopped far above the knees, as well as heels and... Ruby squinted... anklets? Her hands suddenly flashed, and the Huntress in front of her glowed purple for a short moment as storm clouds suddenly appeared, shooting ice at the plane. The woman on board growled as the plane shook, probably trying to avoid going down. Her hands, still lit, covered her face as she pointed them at the rooftop. Or, more specifically, the woman. Where she had been standing exploded into pieces, although she had already retreated.
The Huntress glowed purple again, salvaging the material into her own weapon, which looked like a massive spear. She hurtled it at the vehicle, and the woman in the dress wasted no time in blowing it apart with fireballs, still managing to conceal her face with the flashes providing too much contrast to get a good look.
Ruby breathed in deeply... and fired. The high quality round rocketed towards the woman, who had to pause from blasting the spear to block it. She didn't have enough time to do both, however, and the copter was flung to the side as debris smashed into the inside of the cabin. The woman was tossed around slightly, but then released a burst of flame around her that dissolved all of the debris, letting the criminal fly the plane away quickly. Ruby frowned, but sighed as the vehicle faded into the distance.
She sighed and clicked her tongue in disappointment. She had had that, goddamnit! The woman had started to talk to her, but she wasn't paying attention, even as she scaled down the building and returned the Dust crystals to the shopkeeper, who was practically crying in relief. No, that wasn't important to her. The only thing on her mind now was the sad, sad look in those amber eyes.