The group of four stared in confusion as the man stood up to his full height. He looked as if everything around him was new and then his eyes landed upon the group once more. A grin slowly started to form as he rested Dinnerbell on his shoulder.
"So this is what he was having problems with? That's kind of funny if you ask me." And with that, he chuckled. As Anemone jumped back from him she noticed that her scroll turned to dust and crumbled in her hands.
Around him, out to about four feet and spreading, was a thick ghostly blue fog. Everything that the fog touched seemed as if a sandstorm had been battering it for a century. Reaching to bring her weapon up, Anemone finally noticed how part of her arm had decayed; Revealing pink muscle beneath what had previously been skin. Her eyes widened; She hadn't even felt it happen in the first but once she noticed, pain slowly crept into her mind. Silently she screamed but made sure not to show anything on her face.
"You're at a disadvantage here. Unlike Six, I will be a tougher customer; But I should properly introduce myself, my name is Ross Goodman, at your service." He introduced himself with a mock bow, narrowly avoiding a swing from Saff's chain which almost instantly started to decay. The ghostly fog dissipated shortly after. "This will be fun." With a chuckle he raised Dinnerbell and fired off the last slug at Dahlia.
The girl's aura easily took the slug but before she could raise her sword in defense, Ross was in front of her with ALSD pointed at her face. Her eyes widened as he pulled the trigger, a smile creeping onto his face. Once again, her aura saved her life and Saff used her Semblance on Ross. The vertigo sensation overwhelmed him temporarily and Ross jumped back and fired off two rounds towards her. He fired off two more rounds before loading in a new clip and jumping behind one of the pillars holding the room up. Around the corner Evalin pulled out another shortsword as a ghostly fog emanated from her feet. Reaching into his long coat, Ross pulled out a flashbang and threw it up in the air.
Seeing the grenade in the air distracted the group long enough for Ross to take a shot off at it; A blinding flash filling the room. The small shockwave from the flashbang hit Ross and reoriented himself. Shaking his head a bit, he fired off a shot at each of the teens with V.A.T.S. A hole appeared in each of their shoulders and blood splattered on the pristine white floors. It stunned them that they were actually hurt by it and the fog Evalin was producing disappeared. The fog started to emanate from Ross once more as he stepped out from his cover. Walking towards them he reloaded his pistol once more and drew Blood-Nap from his belt; His slasher smile grew fiercer as he did so.
"While I'm not a big fan of sharing a body with Six, I can still feel his emotions. Seeing that little livestream made him angry… Which makes me very angry…" He explained calmly while the group regained their vision and saw him. He was standing in front of Saff; The barrel of his gun resting on her forehead. "Even with aura at this range, this should kill you especially with my Semblance activated." He commented and the group noticed their weapons turning to dust quickly.
Before he could fire though a loud boom resounded from Evalin. The shockwave blasted him back as she reached into an empty, black space and pulled out replacement weapons for everyone. "Don't worry you bastard, we'll kill you before you get the chance." Her words dripped with pure vitriol. A burning gold emanated from her eyes as she glared at him.
He just let out a laugh and pointed Blood-Nap at her. "I like that kind of moxxy, this should be fun. Great way to work out all of the kinks; It has been years since I controlled a body." He commented offhandedly and rushed towards them once more.
Soon they were all in a mad melee, steel connecting with steel and blood flowed freely from Ross; His Semblance prevented his aura from protecting him but the regeneration unit repaired the minor damage the group caused. Occasionally a bullet was fired from Ross or Anemone used her rifle to attempt to deliver a rib crushing soundwave. Of course he wasn't invincible but with his pain receptors disconnected, Ross didn't notice. Even when his right arm was dislocated he just jumped back and popped it back into place.
Normally when all four of them were fighting a single target, there wasn't a problem but Saff thought back to the last time it had happened. They had hunted down the Fall Maiden and had to fight her Guardian. The man had attempted to drink her blood like a vampire until Evalin had caused his eye to explode, knocking him back. After that they had retreated with only half of the Maiden's power. She looked far off to the side and saw Dahlia charging up a large ball of fire in her hands. Dahlia gave her a nod and Saff called out to the other two causing them to jump back. Ross looked confused for a second and he just rushed them once more. Before he got too close Saff wrapped him up with her chain and pressed a button on the end she was holding.
Ross struggled to get free from the sea of blackened steel only to notice the dust crystals started to glow. With a flick of her wrist, a small wave resonated out of the chain and it seemingly exploded. Lighting, fire, ice, wind, and earth burst out at him in his prison. The sudden surge of electricity caused his eyes to temporarily short circuit. The world darkened quickly for him and he felt everything. While he writhed in the chains Dahlia blasted her fireball at him. Saff pulled back her chain quickly and it caused Ross to spin around in a dizzying stupor. Everyone jumped back as the fireball engulfed Ross. He screamed in reaction to the heat and fell to the ground. Soon his eyes rebooted and he looked down at his left arm which absorbed most of the heat. A vial of ice dust was quickly dispensed and started to cool the arm. Ross struggled to his feet as he gasped for breath.
"Any last words?" Saff asked as the four grouped up around him, a distance of about six feet between them.
"You're going to need to try a lot harder than that, I'm built like the guy who trained Heracles." He coughed out once he regained enough breath to do so.
Saff giggled and smiled. "Such arrogance will be your undoing."
Ross just gave her a flat look. "Are you the queen of the world or something? Who talks like that?"
"I will be." She replied then slammed her chain at him.
Reacting quickly, Ross brought up a burning Blood-Nap and let the chain partially wrap it up. Ripping back with the blade he pulled her forward while he released the fog. Saff's eyes widened as she flew near him; The others had jumped back the moment they saw the fog. The first part of her body to reach the fog was her arm holding the chain. Quickly her aura was dissipated, then flesh on her arm rotted and turned to dust, then the muscle, then she dropped the chain only for Ross to slam his still cooling fist into her face and launch her back across the room. As she slammed into the wall she saw Ross rushing towards Dahlia. Pushing herself up she hissed in pain as she looked down at her arm. It looked like an animal had bit down and didn't let go.
She got to her feet after a moment only to hear a loud bang and crashing sound. Looking over she saw Nate in his power armour; Blood covering the studded knuckles of his fists and a light coating of white dust on the front of his suit. He noticed Ross fighting the group of three first then noticed her. Lumbering over to her, she looked up at him with confusion. As he raised his fist she activated her Semblance which caused him to wobble and fall to his knees. Jumping up to her feet she dove to pick up her weapon. Grabbing her chain she noticed it was only half of the normal length. With an annoyed sigh she saw a sheet of ice made by her chain. While it was only half of the normal length, it was still about ten feet long. Getting up to her feet she turned around to face Nate who had seemingly reoriented himself.
Whipping her chain out Saff attempted to attack Nate only for him to slap it away with his forearm. A moment later he lowered his head and charged at her like a football player tackling a person on the other team. Despite the weight and bulk of his armour it surprised her with how fast he could move. Slamming the chain to the ground she blasted herself away with a fiery explosion which Nate ran headfirst into. Smirking, Saff swung her chain once more and fired off a swarm of ice and stone shards at him. They mostly plinked off his armour but they kept him distracted as she looked towards her teammates.
"We need to retreat." She told them which got a series of nods. Reaching to her belt, she pulled out a small disk and threw it to the ground.
Extending out from the disk was a small platform that started to hover off the ground. Jumping onto it, Saff watched as the others blasted Ross back and ran over to her. Once they got on there was a blinding flash of light which caused Nate and Ross to look away; Then they were gone. The moment they disappeared Nate slammed into the ground, smashing the teleportation pad to pieces in the process. Ross scowled as he looked down at the crushed teleporter. With a click, he dropped the empty magazine to the ground and loaded a fresh one. Twirling it around on his finger, he holstered the pistol then looked over to Nate. Giving him a nod, Ross walked off to search for anything.
Nate called after him but Ross just ignored him. There was nothing of note in the room they were in, nothing to tip them of the new location of Father. Reaching around the coat he noticed that Six didn't keep any cigarettes on his person; That would be annoying but he'd deal with that later. Whistling, he made his way out of the room with Nate following behind him. At some point Nate stopped trying to talk to him as Ross just looked for a way out of the building. He only looked back when Nate shoved him to get his attention.
"What the hell do you want?" Ross replied which took Nate back a bit.
"Why aren't you telling me what happened back there?" Nate asked. It was clear he was annoyed, Ross didn't care though.
"Because I'm not sure what all happened. The other guy was dealing with them for half of the time and I wasn't paying attention. His friends are dead though." The nonchalonce in his tone struck Nate as strange.
"They're dead, so why aren't you upset?"
"Because Six knew them better than I did, I wasn't always looking through his eyes I just felt his anger inside. Honestly it gets kind of boring seeing the world so someone else's eyes even though they're yours." He explained calmly as he peaked around the corner and saw Cinder incinerating some poor fool. "Who's that?"
Even through the helmet, Ross knew Nate was giving him a strange look. "That's my daughter Cinder, you met her earlier today… Or yesterday I guess since it's after midnight."
Ross nodded. "Well I guess I should explain what I saw. Maybe once we meet back up with the Mac-something guy. Though my name is Ross Goodman, not Six Sustrai. He's sleeping right now." Which just confused Nate and Cinder once she walked over.
Inside of his own head Six woke up in a strange room. It reminded him somewhat of the Lucky 38 but things were a bit off here. In his room where his bed normally would be, he saw a mass of old tvs linked together via numerous cords and cables. The tvs didn't show any programs though, just memories from his past except for one in the center. In the center tv he could see himself was walking down a hallway with Nate and Cinder. They were talking but the words were all staticy; Turning the volume and channel nobs did nothing. Stepping out of the room he was a blank void with doors everywhere.
Some of the doors had labels, others didn't. Some were made of metal and looked similar to the ones on Remnant and others were burnt out wood like the Wasteland. It made his head hurt to see all of this. He started to run down the hall but soon realized he was basically running in a circle; It was like a maze that went in a straight line though even with all of the doors being the same. Stepping back into the TV Room he saw something new. An old, dusty ham radio appeared in front of the center tv.
Walking over he started to fiddle with it to try and turn it on. After a few minutes the dusty radio lit up and he could barely hear what Nate and Ross were saying. Straining to hear he heard them talking about how they were leaving and going back to their base but before he could really listen in, the sound cut out. With an annoyed grunt Six slammed his fist into the side of the radio.
"Look at this one Six!" Six quickly turned his head and looked at one of the many tvs and saw a younger Emerald; She looked about three years younger.
"Yeah? That's a good lookin' piece ya got there." He heard himself comment and the video shifted to him looking down at a shiny handgun Emerald was holding.
Six continued to watch the video and just watched them. They were all from his time on Remnant and eventually they went back further to his time in the Mojave and other parts of the Wasteland. It reached to the day he woke up at Doc Mitchell's house and the first time he ever woke up. While some of the videos put a smile on his face, they also caused a large frown to grow. He was currently inside his mind but it wasn't a dream. He was able to see the outside world but could do nothing to interact with it even after fiddling with the radio some more. With an angry yell he grabbed the closest object and chucked it at one of the tvs, causing it to shatter.
As the glass broke on the tv it felt as if his lungs were being pieced as his ribs broke. Coughing he looked over to the center tv and saw that whoever was controlling his body was on the ground coughing up blood.
"What do you think you're doing?!" The Voice yelled at him; The voice coming through all of the tvs.
Six scowlled as he looked towards the tvs then turned towards the radio and picked up the microphone. "Trying to find a way to take my body back you sonuvabitch!" He shouted, rage filling his voice.
"Well destroying the tvs won't do you any good, one will only cause physical damage to our body but breaking any more will destroy your memories!" The Voice explained. "I've been trapped for three decades, I am going to use MY body for as long as I please. I'll give it back when I feel like it dammit. Now go back to sleep." The Voice ordered and Six felt a pulse in the room.
Instantly he started to feel tired, immensely tired, his eyelids feeling heavier and heavier. Stumbling forward he tried to keep himself from falling down. Muttering into the microphone, he spoke up. "When I'm out of this, I'm going to find some way… To… Kill...You…" With that disdainful utterance, Six slipped into a strange nothing-like sleep.
Stepping through the doors of a warehouse, Adam motioned for his soldiers to spread out and search the building. Recently he was sent an anonymous message informing him that the Bonepickers were keeping Faunus prisoners here. For the past three years the White Fang and the Bonepickers had been at war and they had been at a stalemate for a year now. For the past two months he had been receiving messages from someone telling him the locations of Bonepicker warehouses.
As he walked around the building the potent smell of burnt flesh churned his stomach. While he was used to such smells he wasn't used to them smelling so recent given how they had only arrived twenty minutes ago to an undefended warehouse. Walking towards the back he saw a chained up steel door. Drawing his sword, he slashed the chain away and opened the door slowly; Peaking around for any traps. What he saw inside took him back in surprise. The room was full of mutilated bodys as per the usual but one of the bodies was still moving. It looked like a strange melted down robot but it smelt like burnt hair and bits of flesh were visible even through the melted armour. Around the form was a broken cage.
Calling over a few of his men he stepped over to the man and saw that the metal had partially melted and sealed his mouth shut. Rushing inside was a group of three entered inside and saw the carnage. One of the newer recruits ran outside immediately after and started to puke; Poor girl had to see something like on her first day but that weakness would soon be gone once she actually saw combat of some kind. The two others helped the man up to his feet and started to carry him out of the room. Adam scowled as he noticed a camera set up on the other side of the room along with a occupied chair. Leather straps were wrapped around the wrists of the body and blood was splattered about the place. Honestly it was hard to tell what the thing in the chair had used to be but that didn't matter anymore.
Taking out his scroll he sent a message back to the person who told him about it only to receive a frowning emoji in response. With an exasperated sigh he put it away and made his way out of the room and then the warehouse. There wasn't anything there for him to care about given how some of his men told him that they found nothing. Seems like the place was just a massive torture chamber.
Sorry editing took longer than I thought and work has been shit lately. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed.