Sorry this took so long. I wrote most of it last week but I ended up getting too busy to finish it until now. Anyway, it's here so I hope you enjoy it.
Two cars and a van pulled up close to an apartment complex, five men climbed out of each of the cars and two climbed out of the van. All twelve of them were dressed in black suits with red ties, and all of them were carrying concealed weapons. "Alright listen up. The boss wants her alive and as unharmed as possible, so don't get violent unless she does. Now let's get this done." one of the men said, before leading the group in the direction of the complex.
It was easy to find where people lived in Vale as long as you knew the right people and had enough money to pay for the information, so the men knew exactly where they were going. They headed straight for the apartment where their target was supposed to live and were soon walking up the stairs that led up to where the apartment was.
When they reached the apartment, eleven of them stayed out of view of the windows while one went to the door. The man at the door knocked, while the others prepared themselves to force their way in and take their target by force.
They waited for a few moments for someone to answer the door, but nobody came. Either there was nobody home or they weren't going to come to the door, so they were going to have to let themselves into the apartment. The man at the door signalled for the others to join him and prepare to breach the door, which they did.
All twelve of them took out their guns ready for whatever or whoever they encounter in the apartment, and then they went in. They were stealthy about it with the first man in kicking the door open before they all ran in after him. They quickly searched the whole apartment but soon learned that there was nobody home. "Well shit, looks like we'll have to wait for her to come home." one of them commented, realizing that it was the only option they had.
What the men didn't realize, was that they had been caught. Thanks to a recently installed security system, they had triggered a silent alarm and were being recorded by hidden cameras. As soon as they had entered, notifications had flashed up on the phones of their target and her friends.
The Huntresses were all at their base when they simultaneously received notifications telling them that someone had entered Pyrrha's apartment. They had installed a security system so they would know is someone caught on to Pyrrha's connection to them and went after her, and now it was paying off.
Ruby pulled up the live feed from the cameras on her phone, seeing the twelve men walking around the apartment. Surprisingly she recognized some of them "Torchwick." she said, loud enough for the rest of the gang to hear. The others all looked at her, wondering what she meant, so she explained. "They work for Roman Torchwick, I remember some of them for the night I was arrested."
"Then let's get over there and kill those fuckers," Yang told her, ready to slaughter the people who helped Torchwick to screw Ruby over. The fact they had gone after Pyrrha only made her even more eager to kill them all. She would be there to do it in minutes, as long as Ruby was okay with it. They needed to die and their deaths had to come soon.
"Hold up Yang. If they know where Pyrrha lives, they might know about Jaune. Someone needs to head over to the hospital to make sure they don't do anything to him." Ruby pointed out. After what he did to her, she wouldn't put it past Torchwick to have a man in a coma killed.
"Shit, you're right," Yang responded, realizing that Torchwick or any of their enemies would do anything they could to hurt Pyrrha if they knew she was working with them. Though Jaune was her love rival, she knew his death would crush Pyrrha. So she knew they had to make sure that nobody could lay their hands on him. There was only one problem with that "But we're wanted, we can't just walk into the hospital." she pointed out.
"I can go. I'm only wanted in Atlas." Winter announced. She could go to the hospital without being arrested or killed on sight, plus she felt like she owed Pyrrha for helping to free Weiss. "Although I may require some backup," she added, knowing it would be dangerous to go alone in case they went after Jaune in large numbers as they did with Pyrrha.
"I'm going with you. Nobody touches Jaune without going through me first." Responded a determined Pyrrha, who cared more about protecting him than about dealing with the men in her apartment. "Nora, Ren you can come too. We're the only ones who can," she added, wanting her two friends to join her and Winter since the four of them were the only ones who weren't wanted in Vale.
"Alright, it's settled then. You four go to the hospital, May you go with them and give them sniper cover. Yang, take Arslan, Neon and Reese to Pyrrha's apartment. The rest of us will stay here and monitor the situation, but we all need to be ready for a fight." Ruby ordered, taking charge of the situation and sending the Huntresses into action. "Now let's go before it's too late." she then added, prompting the gang to get to work.
Within moments the gang was armed and ready to go. Winter, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren piled into one car and headed off in the direction of the hospital. May hopped on a bike and sped off after them, taking a dismantled sniper with her. Yang, Arslan, Neon and Reese also took bikes and headed for Pyrrha's apartment, with Yang and Arslan sharing one bike and the other two sharing another.
Winter weaved her way through the traffic to try to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, but it wasn't easy in the car. She and the three passengers were thrown around and they were repeatedly honked at by other vehicles, but somehow they managed to get through without causing any accidents.
Things were much easier for May, who tailed them the whole way. She sped through the narrow gaps they left in their wake, and expertly dodged out of the way of other vehicles. She only split off from them when she spotted a suitable vantage point for her to snipe from.
On the other side of the city, Yang and the others were having no trouble at all. They effortlessly weaved their way through the traffic, taking shortcuts and going off-road to reach their destination as quickly as possible. To everyone they passed, they were nothing more than blurs, as they tore past them at breakneck speeds. It didn't take long for them to reach the apartment complex.
The four of them climbed off the bikes and approached the complex, with their weapons in hand. Yang was armed with a high powered semi-automatic pistol, Arslan had a sawn-off shotgun, Neon had an SMG and Reese had a military-grade carbine. They moved in as a squad, not wanting to alert their targets until the last moment.
They stayed in cover as much as they could as they moved closer and closer to Pyrrha's apartment, keeping their eyes out for Torchwick's men the whole time. They were all more than ready to kill the men, but they were taking precautions to make the operation as clean and risk-free as possible. Unsurprisingly they didn't see any of the men outside of the apartment, as they were all hiding in the apartment and waiting for Pyrrha to return.
"They won't come to us, so we'll have to go in there and take them out. They probably paid the cops to stay away, so we can be as loud as we want." Yang said, taking charge of the team. With that, they moved to the apartment, ready to breach the door and clear the place out.
They moved as quietly as they could to catch the men off guard, sneaking up the stairs as quickly as they could to avoid being spotted. They had Ruby in their ears the whole time, telling them what was going on inside the apartment. They didn't know anything was going on and we're about to be caught completely off guard.
They were soon just outside the door, ready to rush in and start firing. But they were smart about it, so Yang took out a flashbang. She pushed the door open slightly, before throwing the flashbang in. If anyone noticed, they didn't have time to react or brace themselves for what was about to happen.
Within moments the grenade exploded, causing all hell to break loose in the apartment. It was an extremely powerful one, the same used by the military. So it was more than enough to stun everyone in the apartment. Four men came stumbling out, only to be lit up by Reese, Neon and Yang. "Knock, knock, motherfuckers!" Yang shouted as she and the others stormed the place.
The completely stunned men went into a panic, not knowing who was attacking them, how many attackers there were, or what their intentions were. They failed to put up a fight, instead, they threw themselves behind cover wherever they could find it. They were in no way prepared for what the onslaught that the four Huntresses unleashed on them.
Yang was the first one into the apartment, bursting in with her weapon raised and ready to use. She saw everyone trying to take cover or retreat, and she immediately took aim at the nearest one. Although he was attempting to flee, he was still an enemy who needed to die as far as she was concerned. She fired a single shot, punching a large hole straight through the back of his head and out the front. As she took the shot, she also pulled out a large combat knife to use as a secondary weapon.
Arslan was the next in, going in right behind Yang. Using her shotgun, she was able to blow away the first person she saw. Just like the one Yang killed, he was running away. Her shot hit him in the back, dropping him instantly as it demolished his spine and annihilated his internal organs. She fired a second shot into him as he fell, ensuring that he was down for good. She followed that up with a lighting fast reload, so she was ready to kill again.
Neon was next, following close behind Arslan. As soon as she was in, she started lighting up the room with her SMG. True to her chaotic nature, she fired randomly at anything that moved and wasn't one of her friends. Fortunately, she was able to land hits despite firing wildly, as she was no stranger to shooting places up. She managed to hit three people, the three of them were riddled with bullets which caused catastrophic damage inside them. The wounds inflicted weren't enough to kill them instantly, so they were left to bleed out on Pyrrha's floor.
Last into the apartment was Reese, who was already taking aim as she entered. She was a great shot, successfully gunning down one of the fleeing men. A few expertly placed shots hit him in the back of the head, demolishing his skull and destroying his brain. He was dead before he hit the ground, and his lifeless body dropping like a rock. Just like that, the Huntresses killed off half of Torchwick's men, with the six survivors having successfully retreated into other rooms.
"Come out and fight you pussies!" Yang shouted to the hiding men, as she and the others started to move towards the other rooms. They were dead either way so it didn't really matter if they came out or if they had to be cornered and executed, but Yang got a rush from fighting and she wanted them to at least try to fight before she and the others shot them down. What she wanted most of all was to punish them for what they did to Ruby, and she would ensure that they would get what they had coming to them.
"Fuck you, you're dead, bitch!" was the response from the men, who were now trapped in the rooms in which they were hiding. It was clear that they didn't fully understand what they were up against and were overly confident in their own abilities, but that wouldn't matter for long as their lives were soon to be brought to an end.
One of them stuck their arm out and tried to blind fire on the Huntresses, but it didn't work out for him. His shots were easily evaded by the Huntresses, who returned fire. A couple of rounds collided with his arm, ripping into it and forcing him to drop his weapon. He moaned in agony and backed away from the door, not attempting to get his weapon back.
"That was just embarrassing." Yang mocked, as she and the Huntresses moved in on them. She was going to enjoy finishing off them off, finding them completely pathetic and not worthy of living. The only problem was that getting to them would be dangerous, as she and the others would have to enter the rooms to get to them.
Fortunately, they had more flashbangs and just needed to get them into the rooms. Yang signalled for Arslan and Neon to get their flashbangs ready, and prepared to throw them into the rooms while she and Reese kept their weapons pointed at the doorways in case there were any attempts to attack them.
As soon as they were close enough, Neon and Arslan pulled the pins and threw the flashbangs through the open doors. They bounced off the doors and landed in the centre of each room before detonating. Yang and Reese rushed in just after they went off, opening fire on the stunned and wounded men. The other two joined them almost immediately, adding to the barrage of gunfire.
Four of the six men, including the one who had been shot in the arm, were all killed almost immediately in the attack. Their deaths were quick and relatively painless, but they died like cowards as far as Yang was concerned. There were, however, two survivors who were injured but not fatally. Those two wouldn't get such quick or easy deaths, as Yang wanted to make them suffer for going after Pyrrha.
"Girls, do whatever you want with the other guy. This one's mine." Yang said as she walked over to the wounded man in front of her. He had dropped his weapon when he'd been shot and it was lying just out of his reach, so Yang didn't have to worry about being shot. She grabbed him by the throat and dragged him up the wall he was lying against. With her free hand, she took out her knife and pressed it against his crotch as a warning.
He didn't put up much resistance, too injured to put up a fight and scared of what Yang would do to him if he tried anything. This meant that Yang was able to interrogate him with very little difficulty. "Who the fuck sent you?" she demanded, wanting to confirm that it was Torchwick as they suspected.
"Roman Torchwick." replied the man, not attempting to resist or hide anything. It was understandable given what he'd witnessed and who was staring him in the face and threatening to mutilate him.
"Why are you here?" Yang then demanded. It was obvious that they were going after Pyrrha, but Yang had to know why and what they had intended to do with Pyrrha if they caught her.
"Pyrrha Nikos. The boss wanted her taken alive." The man answered, again not trying to conceal anything from Yang. There was no point in him trying to, it would just go badly for him.
"Why does Torchwick want her?" Yang then asked, that being the one thing she and the Huntresses needed to know most of all. They needed to know what Torchwick and his allies knew.
"I don't know, he didn't say why and we didn't ask." responded the man, who was clearly worried that Yang would react badly to his answer. He was right to be worried.
"Then we're done here," Yang growled at him, furious that he couldn't answer the question. If he couldn't give her an answer, he was no longer of use to her or the gang. She then proceeded to repeatedly and brutally stab him.
While this was happening, the other survivor was being beaten to death by Arslan and Neon. Soon enough, both of the men were dead and it was time for the Huntresses to go. "Let's get out of here, the cops won't stay away forever," Yang said, as she allowed the body of her victim to drop to the floor and stole the phone from his pocket.
The four of them walked out of the apartment, ignoring the people peeking out of doorways to see what the commotion had been. They walked back to their bikes, climbing on before speeding off.
Meanwhile, at the hospital Winter, Pyrrha and the other two were navigating their way through the building heading to where Jaune and the other comatose patients were. Pyrrha knew the route like the back of her hand, having visited Jaune countless times since the night everything went wrong.
On the roof of a nearby building, May lay prone with her assembled sniper scanning the area for any potential hostiles. She was in her element and was relishing the opportunity to practice her sniping for the first time since she was thrown into Beacon.
It didn't take long for Pyrrha and the others to reach their destination, finding Jaune unharmed and still in his bed. There weren't any of Torchwick's men to be seen so they either weren't coming, had come and gone already or hadn't arrived yet.
The only thing that had changed since Pyrrha's last visit, was the new patient in the bed next to Jaune's. He was a middle-aged blonde man who looked to be an extremely bad way covered from head to toe in bruises and bandages. There was a dark-haired man of a similar age sitting by his bedside, who stared at the four as they entered the room.
The four of them eyed him suspiciously as they made their way over Jaune's bed, half expecting him to be one of Torchwick's hitmen. But he didn't try anything, he just watched them with a slight look of confusion on his face.
"Can we help you?" Winter asked, not liking being watched by the man. Even if he wasn't a threat, she didn't particularly want him there. He would only complicate things if Torchwick's people arrived, getting caught up in the crossfire.
"I'm just wondering why Vale's hero cop and Winter Schnee are hanging around together." the man responded, which explained the look of confusion on his face. He knew who they were and he was more interested in the situation than he should have been, which was problematic, to say the least.
"Why do you care? This doesn't involve you." Winter asked, she didn't like his curiosity and was more than ready to take him out if the situation called for it. He was a potential threat as far as she was concerned, so he needed to have a good excuse for why he was taking such an interest.
"I'm just curious and I've got nothing to lose." the man responded, not intimidated by Winter. He didn't seem to care at all about the potential repercussions of his curiosity and he didn't attempt to leave or get aggressive with them, he just sat there and continued to watch them.
"Who are you?" Winter then asked him, wondering why the man knew so much but didn't seem to care about the danger it put him in. There was no way he was just a random person, normal people wouldn't act the way he was.
"The name's Qrow, not that it matters." the man answered, not trying to be evasive about it. He really didn't care if they knew who he was, he really had nothing left to lose so it didn't matter if they knew his name or not.
"Wait. You're Qrow Branwen," exclaimed Pyrrha, who now recognized the man. She remembered his name from her research into Yang and her conversations with Yang and Ruby, she'd seen pictures of him but he'd clearly aged a lot since they were taken.
Qrow nodded and said, "Yeah that's me." They knew exactly who he was or at least Pyrrha did, but that still didn't bother him. He'd lost, abandoned or failed everyone he ever cared about, so they could kill him on the spot and he wouldn't really care.
Hearing that, Winter pulled a gun on him. She didn't trust any Branwens that weren't Yang, so she was fully prepared to blow him away now she knew he was one of them. The only reason she didn't open fire immediately was the fact he had never been mentioned when the gang was going through their list of enemies.
"Winter wait. He doesn't work with Raven or any of the others, he isn't our enemy." Pyrrha told her. One thing she knew about Qrow was that he'd turned his back on the life of crime and on his family, Yang and Ruby may have hated him but he wasn't really a threat to the gang.
"You know Rae? Oh, who am I kidding? Of course, you know Rae." Qrow responded. He really should have expected them to know his sister, given who they were and who she was. It would have been more surprising if they didn't know who she was.
"We don't know your sister personally, but we do know of her," Pyrrha explained to him, not fully understand why she was bothering to do so. After all, she didn't care for the man given how he abandoned Ruby to her fate, and she was sure Yang and Ruby would be far from civil with him.
"Why are you still talking to him Pyrrha? He's of no consequence to us." Winter asked as she put her weapon away. If he wasn't a threat and he wasn't an ally, talking to him was just a waste of time and energy. They were there to protect Jaune and kill any of Torchwick's men that came after them, that was it.
Before Pyrrha had a chance to respond, May's voice came through their earpieces. "Torchwick's men incoming. Seven of them just arrived, heading for the front entrance. I'll see what I can do." she said. The next thing they heard was the sound of gunfire, as she opened up on the men outside.
A car and two bikes arrived outside the hospital, which immediately drew May's attention. As two men climbed off the bikes and the other five got out of the car, she knew they worked for Torchwick. So she let the others know, before going to work.
After quickly lining up a shot on the one who seemed to be the leader, she fired. The bullet closed the distance in no time, blowing his head to pieces before he could hear the shot being fired. His men immediately started searching for where the shot came from, and everyone else around them went into a panic.
She fired again, scoring another headshot on another of Torchwick's men. They knew there was a sniper after them at this point, but they still didn't know where she was. They didn't stand a chance against her, she was too skilled and they were ill-prepared for a sniper attack.
May got one more shot off and dropped another of Torchwick's men before they realized where they were being attacked from. The four survivors returned fire as they retreated into the hospital, but they didn't come close to hitting May.
Back inside the hospital, Winter and the others headed for the entrance to deal with Torchwick's men. As they left Jaune's bedside, Pyrrha gave Qrow some advice "If you value your life at all, I suggest you get out of Vale and don't come back."
The four of them sprinted through the hospital, going against the tide of people fleeing the gunmen who had now moved into the building. They drew their weapons as they ran, ready for a gunfight with the four survivors of May's attack. Fortunately the men they were going after probably weren't expecting to be attacked from behind, and would probably be quite easy to dispose of.
Gunfire could be heard in the distance, as Torchwick's men clashed with the hospital's security guards. But it soon fell silent, as one side finished off the other. Unfortunately, it was most likely the security who lost the fight, as they probably lacked the training and experience to effectively counter Torchwick's men.
By the time they reached the hospital entrance, they found three dead hospital security guards and one of Torchwick's men bleeding out. The three survivors were close to the door, taking cover and preparing for an attack from the outside.
One of Torchwick's men noticed their arrival and tried to shoot at them, but he wasn't fast enough. Winter put three bullets in him, two in the chest and one in the head. He was dead before he hit the ground. With that, there were only two left.
The two survivors turned to see what had happened and who was shooting at them, taking aim as they did so. But just like the one before them, they didn't get the chance to fire. Two shots rang out, and both of them went down hard.
In a turn of events that neither Winter or Pyrrha expected, Nora and Ren stood beside them with smoking guns. The two of them had just taken out the last of Torchwick's men. Pyrrha and Winter looked at them in disbelief, prompting Nora to shrug her shoulders and say "We said we didn't want anyone innocent to die, they weren't innocent. Now let's get out of here before the cops arrive."
That was that, so the four of them put their weapons away and made their escape. They ran to their car, jumped in and sped off just in time to avoid the convoy of police cars which flew past them going the other way and pulled up in front of the hospital. They had done it, successfully protecting Jaune, taking out Torchwick's men and evading the responding police.
Before the police had a chance of locating and getting to her, May made her own escape. She dismantled her weapon, concealed it and headed off the roof and back inside the building. The building's occupants were evacuating to get away from what was going on across the street in the hospital, so May blended in with the crowd and slipped out the back door.
Once she was clear of the building and away from the police, May got back on her bike and returned to base just like the others. Considering how unplanned and hurried everything had been, it ended up working out about as well as the gang could have hoped for. It had been their first real test since escaping Beacon, and the Huntresses had smashed it.
This is one of the longest chapters I've written for this story, so I really hope it's not terrible. Anyway, please feel free to favourite, follow or review this, even PM me if you want. Whether you do any of those things or not, hopefully, I'll see you next time.