Mantle, Kingdom of Atlas
He could hear the bass, even from nearly three blocks away. Is this what music's come to these days? He thought. He made a mental note to blast the club, too.
"Disgusting." His partner said exactly what he was thinking. He walked back into the makeshift hunting post they'd made atop the office building.
He adjusted his hood, accidentally bumping his facemask and disconnecting a thin tube. It hissed and flailed as it sprayed a dark gas. Guh. He grabbed at the tube with a grimy metal arm, barely avoiding cutting into it with the jagged fingertips of the prosthetics. He swiftly plugged the hose into the left side of his mask, sighing with relief.
"I don't understand why you insist on consuming that gas. What good does it do you?" His partner spoke again, his own mask moving slightly.
"We crawled out of that sludge. Keeps me focused when I have the stuff vaporized and running through my lungs." He narrowed his eyes at his partner, milky white irises shifting behind dark goggles.
"Fine." They stood in silence.
"Is that her?" He said, squinting at a limousine pulling up to the club.
"Most likely. We should be careful, though. The mistress doesn't want any mistakes, and the target's likely to be heavily guarded. Not to mention that she can hold her own in a fight. So can her partner."
"Right. Hey, Ink, stand back a bit." He grabbed what looked like a ball of scrap metal and tossed it into the air. It unfolded to look like a disk atop a cylinder and began lazily hovering in front of the duo. Light reflected off its surface, illuminating the pair atop their building.
The hooded one appeared to be wearing mechanic's overalls, shoulderpads, and baggy pants under a work belt and sarashi. His forearms and legs were replaced with messy, jagged metal prosthetics, with protruding spikes and jagged ends, digits ending in wicked claws. Two more metal arms unfolded from his back, hanging lazily.
His partner, Ink, wore a headband over lazily-tied-back hair, a sleeveless compression suit, and a sash tied down by an obi. The sash was tied in a knot at knee-level. His forearms and calves were covered with clean, oily metal guards. His exposed arms were decorated with detailed tattoos depicting various Grimm species.
"This should help us scope the place out. And…" The first one said
"What?" His partner asked. The first man just began laughing, a raspy noise made even more unintelligible by his mask. "Rust, what are you planning?" Ink asked again.
"Cylinder's a bomb. We can clear the place out and mop up the rest ourselves." Rust said, light glinting off his goggles.
"Make it clean, Rust."
"This is cleaner than leaving witnesses."
"I hate it when you're right." Ink sighed. Rust grabbed the drone with one of his additional arms, throwing it towards the club. It sputtered as it flew, maintaining its course.
-VOL 2-
Weiss S. Rose strode into the club, followed by her wife, Ruby.
"You know, I really have to hand it to Yang. She knows her way around!" Weis chuckled. Ruby bounced up to her, nodding her head.
"What'd I tell you? She knows, like, everything about the club scene in any city."
"And I imagine it would be more interesting without the armed security escort." Weiss said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Aww, I know, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I mean, between Schnee Dust branching into experimental research for Atlas, Jaune's paranoia, and Avalon winding up dead in his own cell from untraceable gunshots, it's better than us needing to stay on guard constantly."
Weiss sighed. "I… guess you're right."
They stood in silence for a bit, listening to the music and feeling the vibes of the nightclub.
"I'm gonna go get us some drinks." Ruby said, adjusting her eye bandage.
"Sounds good. You know, you should really get that eye fixed. Wren got new eyes, maybe you should too."
"I'm used to it. Plus, the little cameras on the fabric give me even better eyesight than I had before." Ruby's voice trailed off as she walked away, making Weiss laugh lightly. She really hasn't changed since Beacon.
She looked out the open window at the club's patio, absentmindedly watching the people milling about. Suddenly, she saw something moving. She blinked, focusing on the object of her attention.
It looked like a delivery drone of some kind, except for the fact that it was covered in a dark grime, with wires and bolts sticking out of its hull in several places.
She squinted at the drone, eyes moving down to the cylinder it held. She heard it beep, almost like a…
A bomb!? Weiss surged backwards, away from the window. She stumbled, quickly regaining her footing. She ran towards the bar, shoving past several people. She fumbled for her Scroll, quickly dialing… whoever could help with this situation.
"Ruby!" She shouted.
"Weiss!? What? What happened?"
"Over by the patio. There's a drone. I think it's rigged to explode." She panted.
"Wait, what!? We need to do somethi-"
Ruby was cut off by a massive explosion. Furniture, broken glass, and people were all sent flying from the force. In the smoke, two silhouettes faded into view. One had four wicked-looking clawed arms, and the other had a long, loose ponytail flapping in the breeze behind it.
"Who are you?" Ruby warily called out.
A raspy voice replied, "I'm Rust. And this is Ink."
The smoke cleared up slightly. Rust's dark leather and Ink's pale blue figures stood in the middle of what used to be a dance floor.
"Freeze!" Several armed guards drew their weapons on the pair. Ink glanced at them dispassionately. He flexed his fingers, shattering several bottles of various alcohols from the bar. The streams of liquid flew towards the guards, running them through like spears. They curved around, streaking through the cadre of security forces and coming to a stop in a swirling orbit around Ink.
A drone sputtered in, weighed down by a large case. Rust grabbed it, slamming a fist into the hovering porter. He retrieved four rusty, jagged shirasaya.
"What's your goal here?" Ruby asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ink said.
"You." Rust finished.
He was clobbered by two flying lockers, which flew over his prone body and over to Ruby and Weiss.
"It won't be easy, then." Weiss said, grabbing her rapier from the case.
Ruby dashed towards Ink, scythe a spinning blur around her. Ink directed the streams of alcohol around him towards Ruby, flying as fast as bullets. They glanced off her spinning scythe and reformed behind her, circling back for another attack. She spun out of the way.
Ink leapt off the ground, slamming a foot into Ruby's gut. He drew the liquid streams back and grabbed ahold of them, consolidating them into a single, blade-like bubble. He swung towards Ruby, who ducked under the swipe and attempted to hook him around the abdomen. He jumped over the scythe. She whirled Crescent Rose around again and brought it down over her head. Ink put his liquid blade out as if to block, but Ruby's scythe went right through it.
Ruby grinned slightly. "It's a good idea, but there are drawbacks. Biggest one is, you can't block or parry!"
"Exactly. Neither can you." Ink said, tapping her on the shoulder.
Wh-what!? Ruby thought, right before she was sent flying across the room.
Meanwhile, Rust was slowly approaching Weiss, mechanical hands spinning. His blades made him into a walking blender, forcing the precision-focused Weiss to stay away from him at all costs. However, that was getting harder and harder, as Rust's drones were constantly deploying energy fencing, forcing them closer together.
She called up a glyph behind Rust, firing an ice crystal into his back. He staggered forward, blades stopping momentarily. Weiss surged forwards, lunging into his chest. To her surprise, her rapier went through his gut and out the other side, causing him to spew a black tar-like substance.
Weiss withdrew her sword and stumbled backwards.
"What are you?" She stammered.
"We… have gone beyond. Beyond life… beyond humanity." Rust heaved.
"Beyond the Grimm." Ink added, having knocked Ruby to the other side of the club.
"We are Grimmwraiths." They said simultaneously, white eyes briefly flickering red.
Ink raised his arm, streams of alcohol circling like bracelets. Before he could strike Weiss, though, the spear-like pommel of Crescent Rose burst from his chest. Ruby had recovered and run him through, just in time.
Ink simply snapped his fingers.
"Now." he wheezed.
A shot rang out in the night sky as a bullet tore into Weiss' left shoulder.
A/N: Hello! It's time for VOLUME TWO! I've got big plans for this.
Ink and Rust were initially based on Sub-Zero and Scorpion, respectively, but I recently changed their designs in order to better suit their unique tastes and abilities. Now, Rust looks like Tremor from MKX with something kinda like Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii arms from 40K. Ink looks kinda like Archer's second ascension from Fate/Stay Night but pale, blue, and with a ponytail.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Stay tuned for more!
That's all this week. Follow, favorite, and review!
Cyber, out!