[X] Ran through the floors and ensured as many people as possible were aware of the threat.
Bounding up the stairs like the dogs of hell were at her heels, Blake quickly rounding the corner to find another group of robots standing around an open door. The same as the last few groups, it was of no challenge to the White Fang member.
Her blade tore through steel like it wasn't even there, and the robots weren't advanced enough to survive long enough to get a hit. Working her way through them didn't even warrant a mention.
As the last of the ones in the hallway feel, there was a gunshot from inside, and Blake turned, ready to dodge. But then she saw the robot wasn't aiming at her.
The machine has fired at a wolf-eared teenage girl, Blake's age at best, who stumbled. Her Aura held strong, but the girl collapsed at the hit. She seemed barely conscious, she wasn't able to focus enough to ignore the force of the bullet entirely. A knife fell from the wolf girl's hand, and a robotic monotone came from the automata.
"Cease resistance immediately." It stuttered. "You-"
It got no further, as Blake opened fire. It turned to face her as the first bullet hit it's shoulder, but the next two tore through it's head and destroyed it. Ignoring the remains as it collapsed, Blake rushed to the wolf-girl's side.
"Are you all right?" She asked.
The wolf girl looked up blearily. "Mph... Hurts..."
"It's going to be alright." Blake said.
"My home..." The girl muttered. "Only one I got... Not taking it..."
Blake looked at the Faunus, and took a moment to consider her next statement.
"The entire building is being raided by Atlas." She said. "We need to move.
The girl's eyes widened slightly, even if her response was still sluggish. "...Wha?"
"You need to wake up properly." Blake advised. "Those robots were nearly enough to take you when you can't focus, you're going to need to concentrate if you want to fight your way out."
Groaning, the girl sat up. "What's..."
"No time to explain." Blake said. "There could be more Atlas machines flooding the building, and there's other people in here. Do you think you can wake up anyone on this floor?"
The wolf girl frowned. "I... Guess? I don't really know them-"
"Doesn't matter." Blake said. "It looks like everyone except suspected White Fang members were evacuated before the robots came in."
The wolf girl rubbed her eyes with her fingers , then slapped her cheek a few times. "...So just people in the Fang, then? I can talk with them."
"Get them awake and tell them we're under attack." Blake said. "I'm heading up to spread the word."
"Good luck!" The girl chirped. "I'll see you when we get out, then!"
Noting that, Blake left the apartment, and started running again. It took a few moments to get to the next set of stairs, where the next set of robots where. This time, they'd had time to get their target. A woman with a blindfold and large ears was surrounded on all sides by robots, stumbling along with her hands tied behind her back and four guns aimed at her.
The woman's ears twitched as the cat Faunus watched from around the corner, and her head tilted towards Blake's direction.
A bat Faunus?
Rounding the corner before the robots could take her to the elevator, Blake held her fire. Wouldn't do if she missed and hit the woman. Instead, she checked that the ribbon on her weapon was tied to her arm, and threw it.
It hit the robot to the right of the woman just fine, impaling the machine and letting Blake pull it forward into the machine in front of the bat Faunus.
The robot at the back of the pack knocked the woman to the side to get a clear shot at Blake, and the other machine opened fire. Blake slid under ths hots, reaching the body her weapon was impaled in, and ripped it out. Kicking up the robotic remains into a third robot, Blake bought herself enough time to dash in close and cleave through the machine.
She turned to the fourth, but the ding of the elevator made her stop. Hearing a sound, Blake dodged to the side, and where she was standing a moment earlier, a young woman stabbed through.
The newcomer was undoubtedly human, and was wearing a... Curious outfit, which seemed to be some sort of armour made of different sized gears.
"Hm." The woman noted. "Fast. So, you're the reason we've had a bunch of bots go offline up here?"
Blake ignored her, taking the opportunity to shoot to her side and take down the last standing robot.
"The quiet type, then." The woman sighed. "What exactly are you going for here? Vaguely sad little girl meant to prove that the poor little terrorists aren't all bad peple? Mysterious silent unknown who's using the mystery for intimidation? Or are you just no good at bante-"
The bat-woman on the floor screamed, and a shockwave shook the corridor. Dust shook from the ceiling, and the human stumbled back, clutching at her ears. Ignoring the pain in her own ears, Blake dug her nails into her palm to focus, and moved to strike as the scream ended.
Her sword slashed at the woman's Aura, and before the woman could stumble more than a step, quickly changed into the pistol form, which opened fire. The bullets tore through the woman's Aura and pushed her back more and more, until the woman was against the wall.
Switching back to melee, Blake dashed in for what was likely a fight-ending blow, only for the woman to recover with record speed, flashing at Blake and forcing the car Faunus to leave a shadow behind to take the blow for her.
"You're good." The woman noted. "Maybe I should've stuck with the experienced officers like I was supposed to. Still, you haven't given me a shot yet, little miss mysterious."
And with that, the gears surrounding the woman like armour began spinning, and steam started bellowing out of the woman. Blake felt some of it touch her skin and hissed as it started burning, melting away at her Aura like a knife through butter, and the cat Faunus flipped back, stopping next to the bat Faunus. Quickly measuring the speed of steam expanding through the floor, Blake gulped.
Already, the steam was almost up to her. She allowed herself only a pause long enough to cut at the handcuffs holding the bat Faunus, then fired into the smoke.
A geyser of steam burst out of the cloud at Blake, who left a shadow behind to swiften her dodge, even as she continued firing. A second jet of steam, and then a third, fired at Blake, who continued to try and fire at the source.
When the fourth ran past, Blake noted that the first three had begun fading, and dodged away from the wall back, back towards the bat Faunus.
Then the steam bursting at Blake changed directions and the cat Faunus realised that it was just big enough to conceal a humanoid figure, before the sword cleaved out of the steam and into her torso.
Her Aura taking a hit before she could react, Blake rolled as she hit the floor, getting to her feet as fast as she could, before firing into the steam again. As she did so, an echo of the sword swing appeared in the form of a wave of steam shooting at her.
The bat Faunus screamed again, and the shockwave hit the corridor again. Blake stopped firing as he aim was thrown off, but the steam was pushed away from the cat, exposing the woman at the core of it.
She was panting, short of breath, and exhausted. The gears of her armour where throwing off sparks, and there was a noticeable burn on the side of her face.
"I don't suppose..." The woman huffed. "That you're surrendering?"
Blake aimed a gun at her face.
"Worth a shot..." The woman puffed, before taking a tired swing at Blake. The steam coming away from her was weaker, but focused on the sword, trying to deal as much damage in a single blow.
Blake used her Semblance to leave behind a shadow for the woman to hit, appearing behind her at the same time it faded away. She didn't even need to use her weapon, just hitting the woman with her fist was enough to destroy the last of her Aura.
The woman collapsed, panted for a moment, and tried to claw her way towards the elevator.
Standing up, the bat Faunus walked towards one of the destroyed robots, and picked up a rifle. Right in front of Blake, she aimed at the woman on the ground.
Dashing to the woman's side, Blake grabbed the barrel of the rifle and jolted it upwards, into the roof. It fired off once, before the woman stopped.
"What are you doing?" The bat Faunus asked.
"She's beaten." Blake responded. "We don't need to take this any further."
The bat Faunus made an angry face. "You- We've been attacked! We're going to have to run! How am I supposed to explain this to my sister?"
"Will killing her change the fact that you're forced to run?" Blake asked. "Or will it just mean you need to run more? Atlas cracks down harder on killers."
The bat Faunus gave Blake a look, before closing her eyes. Blake could see the reluctance on her face as she let go of the rifle, letting it fall to the ground.
"Is there anyone else on this floor?" Blake asked.
"A few." The bat said, in a quiet voice. "Fang members. My sister. Younger than you and has nothing to do with the Fang. I probably just woke them all up, too."
"Get them out of here." Blake said, before turning towards the woman in the clockwork armour.
"You..." The woman wheezed.
Blake didn't respond, as she grabbed the woman's arm, picking her up slightly and carrying her towards the elevator.
"Why?" The woman asked. "There was no reason..."
"Exactly." Blake said, pushing the call button on the elevator. It hadn't moved since the woman stepped out of it, and Blake pushed her on. "There was no reason."
Reaching around and pushing the button to the ground floor, Blake stepped away from the elevator, turning towards the next set of stairs up.
As she did so, she passed the bat Faunus.
"...Belladonna?" The bat asked. "I... Fuck. I shouldn't have gotten angry at you. You're not the enemy here. Sorry."
Blake did her best to avoid noticing that the woman wasn't apologising for trying to kill the human woman.
"It's no trouble." The cat Faunus responded. "This is a shock to everyone. Try to get people out."
The bat nodded, and turned to open a nearby door.
Running past her, Blake bounded up another set of stairs, and paused.
This was her floor again. Nothing new here. She saw the deer Faunus talking to a man with a donkey's tail, and nodded.
Everything was fine here, at least.
Running up another floor, however, and Blake was immediately suspicious of how empty it was.
Slowing her pace, she looked around.
It didn't look like there were any traps. Nothing out of place that might be explosives or tripwire or part of an ambush. She doubted that Atlas would have had enough time to set one up, anyway.
Then she heard an airship moving, and she looked out the window just in time to see it open fire.
Bullets ripped through the wall in front of Blake and the walls and doors behind her, and the cat Faunus immediately began running. The stream of bullets followed her down the path, and as she approached the corner, Blake realised that, if she didn't change something, it'd just need to shoot straight to have a good chance of hitting her.
So when she reached the corner, she didn't change direction to run down it. Instead, she set course for the window.
There was a shattering of glass, and Blake hovered in the air for a moment. She threw Gambol Shroud again, and it wrapped around the barrel of the gun on front of the airship. A moment later, and Blake was swinging around, quickly positioning herself above the airship, at which point she pulled on her weapon to get closer to it.
It was a small airship. Most likely originally brought along to scout out possible threats from the outside, with a weapon to be used in case of emergency. And, most importantly, a one-person crew.
Looking around the airship, Blake kept and eye out for a latch. While the opening and closing of the entrance was likely automated, in an airship this small, if the mechanism jammed up, there'd need to be a manual way to pry it open. Just cutting a hole in it would mean basically cutting it in half.
Seeing a small latch near the front, Blake stabbed her weapon into the roof of the airship and slid down towards it. Passing over the front, she got to the latch quickly enough, and reached to pry it open.
The airship spun around, and Blake quickly climbed back up her ribbon, before it could slam her into the building. As it was, she got just high enough that she merely almost hit her as the ribbon swung her around. Which was enough for Blake to kick off and get back to the airship.
Alright, that wasn't going to work? Time for plan B, then. Atlas pilots were picked out of people with enough Aura to survive a crash, which meant...
Pulling her weapon out of the airship, Blake stepped off, before stabbing into the side of the airship. With her weapon in two parts, she was able to stab into it twice, getting a good enough grip while still being close enough to the airship that the pilot couldn't just crash to force her off. Looking around fron that position, Blake saw the engines keeping the airship up.
Pulling one of her blades free, Blake turned it into a pistol and opened fire.
The engine took a few hits, and then started beeping. There was a muffled swearing sound, followed by the sound of an ejection, as the airship pilot bailed out before the airship could go down.
Still attached to the side, Blake waited for a chance to leap away from it. Jumping at the building even as the airship went down, she ran diagonally down it, getting closer to the ground, before jumping down and rolling on the ground.
The airship hit the ground with a heavy thud, and Blake had just enough time to note that it didn't explode, before she heard the cocking of many guns.
"You're under arrest." Said a masculine voice. "For... A lot of things, currently. Do not resist. We have you surrounded and outmatched."
A second voice spoke, from behind the first speaker.
"For now."
There was a shattering sound, as the man who tried to arrest Blake collapsed. A red sword swept through the air behind him, already moving on to it's next target. Said target, a middle-aged woman, clicked her fingers to create a ball of flame around her, but there was the sound of a cut, and the flames died as quickly as they had come.
All the others surrounding Blake turned to the new figure, who paused just long enough for everyone to get a look at him.
"I thought I told you to take a vacation, Blake." Came the familiar voice of Adam Taurus.
Before Blake could try and reply, the remaining Atlas forces made their move. One of them pulled out two tommy guns, one in each hand, before flickering, his form changing so he had twelve hands, each with a tommy gun. He opened fire all of them at once, sending hundreds of bullets at Blake and Adam in a second.
In a flash, Adam was standing before Blake, his sword moving so fast that it was invisible to the naked eye. The only hint that his sword was moving at all was the way the bullets deflected around Adam, every single one that would have hit true veering off into a different direction.
Behind the twelve-armed man, a woman held a fist in the air, and let out a cry. Around Adam, the ground ripped upwards, leaving a small circle for him to stand on while the rest of it formed a fist above his head. It hovered, and as Blake watched, the woman moved her grip to try and turn the fist downward.
Adam looked at her, and shifting his stance slightly, continued to deflect bullets. After a moment, a bullet struck at the woman, causing the man wit hthe tommy gun to stop firing, abandoning all but two of his guns, which fused together into some sort of pole weapon.
The final figure, whose gender Blake couldn't identify on a glance, charged into Adam at the same time as the twelve armed man, striking out with knives which he dropped as soon as his attacks missed. With almost casual ease, Adam sheathed his sword, and waited.
In the few seconds that followed, neither man was able to hit Adam, who kicked up one of the daggers and sent it flying at the woman again. She blocked with a shield of stone, but that left her distracted enough that she was unable to help with the fight for the rest of that vital second.
Then Adam struck, unsheathing his sword with a fiery blast that shredded the pole used by the twelve-armed man, as well as reducing his arms down to a more manageable number. He cried out as he fell backwards, all of his micellaneous arms fading until he only had his original two, and the man with the daggers desperately closed in. All of his daggers started glowing, and Adam simply hit his face with the hilt of his sword before he could do anything.
The woman's earth shield fell down as the man's daggers stopped glowing, and before she could react, Adam cut her down too, tearing through her Aura and sending her falling to the floor. For one vital moment, Blake saw Adam's arm twitch, before it froze. She noticed his gaze turn to him for a moment, and Blake realised that he was half a thought away from ending the woman's life.
Instead, Adam sheathed his sword. Holding back on her account.
"Blake." Adam began. "I need you to go. Meet me at the outpost outside the walls."
Blake didn't need to ask which one. Adam wouldn't say anyway, given the risk of being overheard, but it was clear from the context which one he meant.
So they were leaving Atlas soon, then. The base in question was a temporary one, only meant to store a few large airships in case of emergency.
"What about everyone else?" Blake asked.
"I'm here." Adam replied. "And I know what you'e thinking, Blake. Anyone who doesn't make it out without me isn't going to make it out because you stayed behind. Lose any pursuers, and get to the base. Tell Schramm that I'm ordering a large evacuation, to make things as difficult as possible for Atlas. I need you to do this, Blake."
...There wasn't any reason not to listen to him, Blake realised. He was right. She wouldn't be that much of a difference here, and while she thought he was exaggerating on not being able to help one person more with her presence, she'd help everyone a lot by getting to the base.
The sooner she got there, the more prepared to go people would be when she got there. The harder it'd be for Atlas to pursue. The more likely Atlas was to decide that pursuing was too costly.
"Understood." Blake said, sheathing her weapon. Adam nodded, then turned back to the hotel.
As he walked toward it, sword in hand, Blake fled.
Blake needs to ensure she isn't being pursued. What's the best way to do that?
[X] They won't send too much of a pursuit after one Faunus getting away. Lead them somewhere open, fight them, and stop them in combat.
[X] They won't cause a scene in the richer parts of town. Pass by the marketing district, it'd be too crowded to track her in the crowd there.