I'm back. I know it's been a while, but I have more time on my hands now and my imagination is back in full swing. Hope you enjoy this one.
Like a military unit, the Huntresses moved through the prison. They swept through hallway after hallway, slaughtering every inmate they encountered with brutal efficiency. Though they met many armed and dangerous, their superior firepower and armour allowed them to make swift progress. Nothing could stand in their way, or at least it seemed that way.
Ruby led them the whole, as she cleared the way with her weapon. She only came to a stop when she reached an unusually quiet cell block, it was completely silent unlike everywhere else they had been. Every room they had been through, had at least a few inmates in it. But this cell bloc was only occupied by the eviscerated corpses of guards and inmates alike.
"Everyone, hold up, I've got a bad feeling about this one," Ruby told the others, as she scanned the large room. It was possible that whoever had killed them all just decided to go elsewhere, and many people would have just assumed that was the case. But Ruby's gut told her that there was something else going on, something bad.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Weiss asked her. She trusted Ruby fully, but she wanted to know what had her so on edge. After the hell she had just led them through, it must have been something major to bring her to a complete halt. She moved closer to Ruby which allowed her to see into the cellblock, and that was all it took for a sense of dread to wash over her.
"Do you think it's a trap?" Blake asked the two of them. She had been expecting to walk into a trap or an ambush from the moment they left the canteen, so she had no doubt that that's what had Ruby so concerned. After all, there were plenty of inmates capable of setting up a successful ambush or booby trap.
Ruby nodded before moving away from the doorway and whispering her next order. "Someone, bring me a body from down the hall, I want to try something out," she said. She wasn't prepared to risk one of their lives by sending someone in to investigate, so she had to find another way to find out what they were facing.
Penny who was closest to the back of the group went and grabbed the corpse of their most recent victim, before carrying it back to Ruby. "Let me guess, you want me to shove it in there and see what happens?" she quietly asked Ruby. She was no stranger to setting traps, often using them to take out or disable her own victims. So she was of the same opinion of the others, and she was fairly certain she knew what Ruby's plan was.
Ruby nodded and whispered "Just be careful, I don't want you getting hurt." in response. The plan was simple, push a body into the cell block and see if anything happened to it. If nothing happened, they could enter with extreme caution. If something did happen, they could work out the best way to proceed.
With Ruby giving her the go-ahead, Penny approached the doorway before throwing the body forward into the room. The moment the body entered the room, it hit a tripwire and set off a trap. Several sharp and pointed projectiles were launched at it from both sides, only missing it by inches before it hit the floor and joined the pile of corpses. "Holy shit!" Penny exclaimed uncharacteristically.
Although they had been expecting something to happen, the group were still surprised. Whoever had set the trap was clearly incredibly sadistic, resourceful and indiscriminate. "What kind of a fucking coward sets up something like that? I'm gonna tear their fucking legs off when I find them, nobody does that shit to us and gets to live." Yang ranted. After what happened with Vernal, she was more aggravated than normal.
"Considering Ruby could have walked into that, I'm all for tearing their legs off. But first, we need to get through here without ending up like everyone else in there." Weiss responded. She was about as angry as Yang, if not more so. Even with her armour on, Ruby could still have been seriously hurt by the projectiles. The thought of that alone was enough to make Weiss' blood boil. But even though she was desperate to make the person responsible suffer, she knew that their primary focus had to be safely reaching their destination.
"Weiss is right, we need to be extra careful from this point on. I don't want anyone getting killed or injured, I just want to get everything and everyone we need, then get out of here before escape becomes impossible. Now follow me, just keep your eyes peeled and kill on sight." Ruby ordered, finally becoming the leader they all knew she could be. She then approached the doorway again, before cautiously entering with the others close behind her.
Back in the control room, Pyrrha and the other officers were dealing with the warden's body. "I don't agree with what she was trying to do, but wasn't killing her a little extreme?" Ren asked Pyrrha, as he looked down on the body of his former boss. Despite the fact he'd just witnessed the accidental killing of Warden Goodwitch, he was still his usual stoic self.
Pyrrha sighed "I had no intention of killing her, I just couldn't let her kill them all. Not that I have any regrets, she deserved this for being such a callous sadistic bitch." she responded. Her time with Yang and the Huntresses had changed her, she didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for what she did to the Warden. In her eyes, the woman deserved to die, even if she hadn't intended to be the one to kill her.
"Yeah Ren, she had it coming. If anyone tried to kill you, I'd do exactly the same thing to them." Nora added. Though she normally agreed with Ren and she didn't like to go against him, in this case, she had to side with Pyrrha. After all, if she was in Pyrrha's position and Ren was in Yang's position, She would have killed the Warden without hesitation.
"I see your point, but I still don't like the idea of killing unless it's completely unavoidable." Ren reluctantly conceded. "If we're going to get out of here and help those inmates escape, can we please keep killing to a minimum?" he then asked. Though he would go along with the plan and he could understand why Pyrrha was doing what she was doing, he still wanted to leave the killing to the inmates. He didn't want blood on his hands if he could avoid it.
"Don't worry Ren, I won't force you into doing anything you do want to. Now I think we should get going." Pyrrha responded as she prepared to venture outside again. Having seen what was going on throughout the prison, it was hard to leave the relative safety of the control room. But the Huntresses needed help and she needed to help them, so staying put was not an option.
After moving at a snail's pace through the corpse-filled cellblock, the Huntresses managed to safely reach the doorway on the far side. Ruby was still at the head of the group, so she was the first to reach the doorway. "I can't see any tripwires on this one, but I don't want to risk it," she told the others, after scanning every inch of the exit. There was nothing immediately obvious, but she believed there was a high likelihood of running into more traps.
"I'll handle this one, everyone, stand back," Arslan said, as she picked up the dismembered body of a prison officer. As soon as the others were out of her way, she launched the corpse through the doorway. Having fully expected something to happen, she barely flinched when the body was torn apart by gunfire. The rest of the Huntresses reacted in a similar manner, raising their weapons and preparing for a gunfight.
"Congratulations, you tricked us! Shame that won't save you!" someone yelled from down the hall. The angle they were at meant that they couldn't see each other or engage each other, but it was very clear that all hell was about to break loose. That fact was emphasized even more, by the sound of many people running in the direction of the Huntresses.
Fortunately for the Huntresses, they had the element of surprise on their side. Their enemy had no idea that they had guns of their own, or that there were so many of them. With that in mind, they quickly took up defensive positions and trained their weapons on the doorway. As long as they had the ammo, that chokepoint would enable them to slaughter anyone who came at them.
Thanks to the cover they had found and the darkness in the cell block, the Huntresses were able to keep out of sight as their first three opponents entered. The three women were all carrying weapons they had stolen from the guards, but they hadn't thought to take any of the guards' armour. So after allowing them to take a few steps into the room, Ruby, May and Reese each fired a single shot. All three shots reached their targets, simultaneously dropping the three hostiles.
Probably assuming that the gunfire had been their friends killing whoever was in the cellblock, five other women wandered into the room. They were armed but didn't spot their fallen comrades in time, they were all headless before they could even raise their weapons in self-defence. Once again the superior firepower and combat training of the Huntresses made them more than a match for their enemies.
Once the gunfire came to an end and before the Huntresses considered moving on, the same voice came from down the hall. "Get your asses back here, we've got more prey to hunt!" she shouted. She sounded angry at her minions for not returning after dealing with their targets, it hadn't yet hit her that it wasn't outgoing fire she had heard.
Rather than giving her time to come to the realization herself, Ruby responded to the voice. "They won't be coming back to you, they're all dead. You better hope we don't catch you!" she shouted back. She wasn't messing around, she was furious at having almost walked into two traps. She didn't know who the owner of the voice was, but they would pay for putting her and her friends in danger.
"Ha, you think you can threaten me. I don't need those useless fucks, I can kill you myself. But I'm not stupid enough to go to you, you'll just have to come and get me." replied the voice. That was fine with the Huntresses, they would get her and they would kill her. All they had to do was reach her without being shot, and that would be quite simple thanks to their training and the design of the prison.
Rather than responding to the woman, the Huntresses quietly hatched a plan for taking her down. "You know, this place is full of air vents and ventilation shafts. They would be impossible to reach if the prison was running normally, but now we can take full advantage." Ilia explained as she pointed to a grate on the wall above the doorway. It was dark but the grate was just illuminated by the dim emergency lighting.
"So you want to use the vents to sneak up behind that bitch?" Coco asked. She wasn't opposed to the idea and would go with it if everyone else thought it would work, but she wasn't convinced that the vents would be navigable. After all, this was reality and not a Spruce Willis movie.
Ilia nodded "Exactly, it wouldn't be my first time and I'm sure at least a few of us could do it." she explained. Stealth had been a major part of her time in the White Fang, so she was no stranger to using vents to make her way around. Ideally, she wouldn't have to go through vents as it was easy to get lost or stuck, but it seemed like the safest way to reach their target.
"If you're sure you can do it, then I'm all for it. Any other ideas or should we go with this one?" Ruby asked the gang. From what she knew about Ilia, she was confident that she could pull it off. But she wanted to know all of her options before making a move, and she didn't want to send Ilia in alone.
"Ilia knows what she's talking about, we should go with her plan. I'll go with her and the rest of you can join us once we have the target subdued." Blake said. She knew that Ilia's plan was their best option, as long as she could go with her. The situation was incredibly dangerous and she wouldn't allow Ilia to go in alone, plus she would likely need backup once she reached the target.
"They way I see it, we have three options. We can go in guns blazing and hope we drop her before she drops us, we can leave and find another way out of her, or we can go with Ilia's plan." Nebula responded. With Ilia's plan and Nebula's summary of their options, the rest of the gang had nothing to add. Using the vents was the best option, so they were all on board with the plan.
Within moments of the plan being made Ilia and Blake had removed their armour and climbed into the vent. The others waited by the doorway, ready to run in and back them up the instant they were required. To distract their target and to conceal any noises from the vents, Yang shouted to the woman. "So bitch. If you're so confident that you can take us all out, why don't you introduce yourself?" she asked.
"The name's Tock. And I'm your worst nightmare!" the woman shouted back. She clearly had a high opinion of herself and had no idea who she was talking to. Anyone who knew of Yang knew that trying to intimidate her was an incredibly bad idea, that was a lesson that Tock would learn the hard way.
"Well Tock, I'm Yang and I'm going to tear your legs off and use them to cave your skull in." Yang menacingly replied. There was no doubt in her mind, she would do exactly as she said. All she had to do was wait for Ilia and Blake to outflank Tock, then she could do all the limb tearing and skull-crushing she wanted without running the risk of being shot by her victim.
"Thanks for the suggestion, now I know what to do with you when you get here," Tock said. Normally Yang would have been annoyed by the response, but in this case, she just found it hilarious. Tock was utterly oblivious to the fact she was about to suffer one of the most brutal deaths imaginable, she still thought she had the advantage.
As if on cue, Ilia silently dropped to the floor behind Tock. Thanks to Yang's distraction and their stealth abilities, she and Blake had managed to avoid detection. Tock hadn't even noticed the grate behind her being opened. Seconds later Blake dropped down next to her, and they slowly approached their unfortunate quarry. The crocodile Faunus was holding a gun just like Ruby's and she was aiming it in the direction of the cellblock door. She didn't stand a chance.
In one synchronized strike, Ilia and Blake took their target down and wrestled the weapon from her hands. Ilia held her lower half down, while Blake held her upper half down. She was left lying face down, completely unable to defend herself and with her weapon out of reach. "We've got her, you can move up!" Blake shouted to Yang and the others.
"Oh, Fuck" was all Tock could manage to say, as the other Huntresses came charging down the hall. She knew exactly what was coming and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it, all she could do was pray for a swift death to relieve her of the agony she was about to endure.
As always, feel free to leave a review even if you just want to insult my lack of talent. Whatever happens, I'll try to get another chapter out at some point tomorrow. Bye for now.