A/N: hEY guys, goodness sorry this is like a week late. Buuuuuut since my night class is over now, that shouldn't be an issue any more ha hA. ahhhhh hah yeah I'm so sorry. x.x
HUGS OF APOLOGY,
Defenestrator
"It either went down the chimney or bounced off onto the roof," Ruby perched on the kitchen table, fiddling with Crescent Rose. After launching the message, she'd decided it would be a good idea to take stock of what food they had in the cabin. Weiss was sleeping in the other room, and both Yang and Blake looked like they needed a task to get their minds off of things. Ruby worked the bolt, chambering a regular round of ammo. It felt good to work with her hands. "Thanks for letting us borrow Gambol, by the way, Blake."
"I must admit, you've taught me more creative uses for my weapon in one week than I've learned in all my years of training," Blake mused, one hand gently scratching the ears of the cat that had taken up residence in their kitchen, while the other typed into her scroll whatever numbers Yang counted off to her.
"That's my sis for ya, always thinking outside the box! Twenty-four," Yang shoved the two stacks of tuna cans next to the bag of rice and boxes of noodles, moving on to counting cans of peas. Supplies looked decent, as far as nonperishables went, at least enough for a week with the four of them. Maybe even longer than that, considering Weiss really only counted as half a person when it came to food portions. Then again, both she and Ruby ate enough for three people so... so maybe it would be best to leave the math to Blake.
"Twelve." The peas joined the cans of tuna as Yang turned her attention next to the corn. She paused when Blake didn't give her usual affirmative "mmhmm," and turned back to see the Faunus and the cat both staring off into the distance, ears perked at attention.
Just when Yang was about to ask what was wrong, Blake got to her feet and locked eyes with Ruby.
"Something's coming."
Ruby was up at once, gripping her scythe, "Is it sledding? Walking?"
Yang shot to her feet as well, keeping perfectly silent other than the fluid series of steely clicks from Ember Celica extending into place.
Blake's ears swiveled, searching, trying to discern any familiar qualities in the low rumble coming from outside. "I'm not sure," she whispered. Her eyes narrowed, then widened when she finally placed it. "Neither. It sounds mechanical."
"Like an engine?" Yang proposed, her cautious expression hardening when Blake nodded.
"Like an airship?" Ruby breathed. She and the others exchanged glances. In a flash, she was at the couch, "Weiss, wake up!"
The heiress jolted up, flailing at the rose petals that showered over her, but Ruby was already out the front door, packed snow crunching under her boots as she took the makeshift stairs two at a time.
The town lay quiet, still buried in white. Wind whipped across the surface of the snow, snatching at Ruby's cloak like it wanted to tear it away.
Ruby shielded her eyes, searching the blue overhead for the source of the increasingly loud whine of a single Dust engine.
Wait. A single engine?
She listened to make sure.
... didn't airships generally have two engines?
A loud scrape of rock on metal sounded from the peaks over the town, and a battered ship tore across the air cupped in James Point valley. Gouts of black smoke poured from its one remaining engine- the other clattered uselessly down the cliffs and was lost in the trees as, with a soul-grinding screech, an enormous Nevermore swept over the ridge top in pursuit of the airship.
Blake followed close behind, arriving at Ruby's side just in time to watch the Nevermore rear back and throw both wings forward in a powerful flap, shooting countless jagged black feathers directly into the battered airship. The simple cargo ship's hull was little protection, the feathers puncturing straight through and throwing up immense clouds of dust where they struck the ground below.
On instinct, Blake drew her weapon when the ship lurched, its path drifting distinctly to the side missing its engine. "It's coming this way."
Ruby traced the ship's trajectory in a second. It wasn't on a direct course right now, but it wouldn't take much of a shift for the mangled airship to come plowing straight through the cabin.
"Get the sled," she told Blake and turned, colliding with her sister halfway down the stairs. The nevermore called out again, soaring overhead close enough for the rush of wind following it to kick up snow. Ruby flailed her arm behind her as she leapt down the remaining stairs, calling, "Distract it!"
"Got it!" Yang called over her shoulder, weathered shingles flying as she skidded to a stop on the roof. Sharpened amethyst eyes took in her surroundings at once.
Blake behind her at the roof's front edge, using Gambol Shroud like a grappling hook to pull their patchwork sled from its ice-cave hiding place over to the top of the snow-carved stairs.
The airship - the very same cargo ship that had brought them here, she was sure of it - falling fast in a steep glide as thick black smoke trailed from the gaping holes in its hull torn open by the unshakable assailant it was only barely outpacing.
The Nevermore - looming large directly behind its wounded prey, its crooked grasping talons reaching forward, mid-dive, scant feet from crushing the ship's tail into scrap metal.
Yang grit her teeth, deciding then and there to design herself at least a few long range shots that weren't so... indiscriminate. If she tried to shoot the Nevermore directly she'd risk hitting the ship. The airborne pair was, however, already dangerously low to the ground.
Her split-second decision made, Yang aimed low, straight at the ground beneath the airship, and fired a rapid volley of incendiary rounds into the snow. The resulting explosion kicked up a wall of powdery white that only barely missed the airship, an enraged shriek tearing through the air as the Nevermore disappeared from view, completely engulfed in blinding snowy debris that forced it upwards and away from its prize.
Yang's triumphant smirk lasted all of a half-second, wiped from her face by the familiar sound of a singular, powerful wingbeat.
Adrenaline flooded her system. She knew what was coming.
"Heads up!"
The wall of snow she'd created billowed forward as if to answer the brawler's call, erupting in a second shower of razor-edged feathers. A lucky shot tore the remaining engine from the ill-fated airship, sending it into a tailspin, but Yang never had the chance to worry - the scattered line of feathers descended in an instant.
It was all she could do to throw herself sideways into the snow and out of the line of fire to avoid being impaled, praying that the cry from Blake that somehow reached her ears over the hideous sound of splintering wood was merely one of concern. Thick, ice-cold clouds flew up around the feathers that struck snow, obscuring Yang's field of vision, but not before her blood ran cold at the sight of five sable feathers piercing straight through their cabin's roof.
The feathers struck the wood floor and stuck like knives, close enough for the bristles to brush Ruby's face as she yanked Weiss from the couch.
"What's going on," the heiress snarled, fighting the darkness rimming her vision from being dragged upright so quickly.
"Nevermore," Ruby fumbled to get Weiss's arms around her shoulders.
"Obviously!" The forest of black feathers embedded in the hardwood didn't leave room for doubt.
"Hang on, we're going up," Ruby braced her bootsoles for a second, like a racer on the blocks. Weiss ducked her head into the shoulder of her cloak, as she and Ruby shot out the open door and up the stairs to the light, petals scattering in her wake.
"Blake! Blake?" she called, skidding on the shredded shingles, trying to make sense of the chaos of broken wood and scrambled snow.
"Over here!" Blake called back, emerging from one of the receding walls of snow, teeth grit as she pulled the sled up onto the roof - what was left of it anyway. The back half of the sled sat a few feet away, shorn clean off by a feather that was currently impaling a dissipating shadow clone. She gave Ruby and Weiss split-second once over, relieved to see the pair unscathed.
"Where's-"
A shrill screech from the Nevermore as it burst back into view drowned out the rest of Blake's question, but her answer came in the form of three distinct shots tearing up from one of the looming clouds of snow surrounding the buried shaft of another feather a few feet out from the roof's edge. One shot narrowly missed the airship, another grazed the Grimm's wide-open beak, exploding harmlessly against the blackened bone, but the third found its mark, blasting one of the beast's four eyes clean out of its head, showering the ground below in a splash of crimson.
The Nevermore shrieked and dove to the side to protect its gouged eye, narrowly missing the airship it had been gunning for - the airship that was seconds from impacting the ground right where those three shots had come from.
Ruby looked up at the plane-shaped mess of ravaged steel. There was no time to get clear. She dove off the side of the roof, taking Weiss with her as the passenger airship slammed into the cabin. Steel screeched on stone and the chimney shattered, its stones vanishing in the deep snow. The walls toppled, boards and logs snapping like matchsticks. Ice blew everywhere.
Ruby thought someone cried out, but she wasn't sure if it was Weiss or Blake or herself. Where was Yang? She struggled to turn in the snow- the dive had put her a few feet down. Bits of shingle and splintered wood rained down from above.
In a few seconds, it was over.
"Weiss, you okay?" Ruby tried to flounder her way around so she could shield her partner. Her ears were ringing with quiet, and not being able to see outside the rim of their hole was making her crazy.
"I'm fine," Weiss coughed. Snow was stuck to her shirt and pants and clung in her hair. Half-sunk, the two of them were a tangled mess. Ruby kicked to get her cloak free from where it had gotten wound around her leg. Weiss tried to call up a glyph to help them get out of the snow, but the white circle flickered and gave out almost as soon as it formed.
The nevermore shrieked again. It was coming back around. Ruby half-extended Crescent Rose, aiming up in case it tried to come after them while she tried to think of a way out of this.
"Ruby! Weiss!" Blake's desperate calls carried poorly, overshadowed by the enraged cries of the Nevermore banking through a wide turn at a painstakingly slow pace, hampered by its own immense size. She emerged from the debris, brushing splinters of wood, bits of stone, and pieces of hot metal from her hair and clothes. She stared straight at the wall of twisted steel sitting right beside her, cringing at the tingling sensation that crept up her spine at the forceful dissipation of her shadow clone crushed beneath it.
Mind reeling a bit from her narrow escape, the Faunus scrambled up what was left of the airship's fragmented hull, unable to see the cockpit buried in the depths of what little remained of the cabin's first floor. A loose mixture of rubble and shrapnel shifted beneath her feet as she perched on a warped piece of metal jutting up from the ship's center, trying to find a better vantage point to find her teammates.
"Yang!"
No immediate answer came. For a fleeting moment Blake wondered if she was the only one who had escaped, panic seizing her heart until finally a familiar voice shouted back.
"On your left!"
Blake whipped around, dizzy with unspeakable relief at the sight of Yang, unharmed, hanging on the shaft of a feather that had been knocked askew by the airship. The brawler leaped, landing heavily next to her partner's metal perch, ridding herself of most of the snow clinging to her person with a great, full-bodied shake.
"Where's Ruby?" Yang asked immediately afterwards, eyes straying for a moment to track the Nevermore overhead. It had nearly finished its turn.
Blake snapped her focused back to scanning the snow, eyes lighting up when she caught a splash of red and black - the tip of Crescent Rose. "There." One light jump down from her perch and she was at Yang's side, securing the end of Gambol Shroud's ribbon to her partner's arm. Yang nodded in silent understanding, going back to tracking the Nevermore's return as she braced herself.
The Faunus made a running jump, landing deep in the powdery snow just shy of where she'd seen Crescent Rose, her ribbon stretched taut behind her, a lifeline. She worked her free hand into the loose wall of powder between their landing spots, pushing through to find cool, snow-damp hair beneath her fingers. "Ruby!" she called once more, hoping against hope the other girl was conscious, "Is Weiss in there with you?"
Weiss shrieked, "Let go of my hair!"
"Yang, you're okay!" Ruby braced Crescent Rose with her one arm and used the other to dig, shoving snow aside to find her sister. She noticed Blake's ribbon wound around her arm, "What's going on up there? Can you give us a lift?"
Blake released what was apparently a handful of Weiss's hair, pulling her arm back to peer through the hole she'd made in the snow, leaning back seconds later as Ruby demolished the rest of the icy barrier between them. She couldn't help but smile at the younger girl's fervor to reach who she thought was her sister, the look shifting to one of simple relief as she glanced between Ruby's confused expression and Weiss's perpetual scowl. Both seemed unharmed.
"Sorry, it's just me," Blake deadpanned, the looming shadow of the Nevermore closing in overhead lending a sense of urgency to her movements as she reached out to secure an arm beneath Ruby's shoulders, not even waiting for a response before she twisted her head around to call back to her partner, "Yang! Pull!"
Ruby locked both her arms around Weiss, who gritted her teeth and hung on, one arm over Ruby's neck and one hand gripping Blake's sleeve.
A forceful yank on the ribbon wound around Blake's arm signaled Yang's acknowledgement of her order, and with both teammates in tow, she used the momentum afforded by the brawler's strong, steady pull to help trudge back through the snow towards the roof.
Ruby struggled to walk, her combat boots vanishing in the white between pulls. Snow fell down her collar and in her face as she held onto her partner with dogged determination till finally they came to the edge of what used to be the roof. Now it was just a pile of semi-packed rubble and snow. She recognized stones from the chimney and long, shattered timbers that used to be rafters.
Her head snapped up at the sound of cannon fire from uphill. The miners were out on the rooftops, blasting away at the screeching Nevermore as it wheeled across the rim of the valley, its wingtips brushing ice from the cliffs.
"C'mon up you two," Yang pulled Ruby onto one of the larger sections of roof sloped against the aircraft's side, hoisting Weiss up along with her and catching the heiress's elbow when she stumbled. Blake followed close behind, shoving her teammates practically into Yang's arms as she took up the last bit of what little level space remained.
The Faunus's ears flattened at the now endless rounds of erratic fire, punctuated by random irritated screeches. She shot an equally irritated glance at the miners. They were only making the Nevermore angry.
Rather than watch idiots get themselves killed, Blake opted for addressing a more immediate need. She cast a quick calculating glance down at a small opening in the rubble that seemed to lead to the buried cockpit below, then turned questioning eyes to her partner.
Yang, who had apparently been watching her the entire time, nodded in understanding and released Weiss, trusting Ruby to keep the heiress steady. With a cursory check of the ribbon wrapped around her arm, the brawler braced herself once more and watched Blake slip between metal and stone to disappear beneath the wreckage.
Ruby noted Blake going after the pilot (don't think of Chuck, don't think of Chuck, she told herself) and helped Weiss kneel without getting scraped up by the razor sharp spurs of metal on the surface of the bulkhead. The ship hadn't blown up at least, which didn't exactly mean it wouldn't blow up, but it was better than nothing.
The Nevermore clawed enormous rocks off the cliff side, sending them crashing down on the frozen town.
Ruby set her jaw. They had to stop this.
"Don't they have anyone who can properly manage aura?" Weiss tried to stand again, leaning on Ruby. She was lightheaded and sick, and let her partner guide her back down to her knees on the metal. She grumbled as she put her head down, "Idiots..."
Plain old cannon balls didn't exactly pack a lot of punch against creatures of darkness.
They had to get over there. Or get the Grimm back over here, where Ruby could at least take chunks out of it with Crescent Rose. For now, she crouched with her hands on Weiss's shoulders and called, "Blake, do you see anything?"
Dust, smoke, snow, sparks bleeding from severed electrical lines dangling from mangled wings. There were plenty of things Blake's Faunus eyes could see, cutting through the areas where light couldn't reach with her darkvision, but the airship itself was barely recognizable save for its basic shape, its wreckage intermingled with the cabin's ruins.
Blake crept over what was left of the couch, stepping gingerly around the splinters of wood that once made up its frame as she edged towards the ship's cockpit, climbing over the airship's main door, torn from its hinges by the crash. The once eight-foot doorway into the airship's side had been crushed down to less than half its original size by the collapsed stones of the fireplace, leaving nothing more than a small crawl space.
"I found the ship's entrance," she called to answer Ruby before slipping through into even deeper darkness, careful not to upset a single piece of metal or stone.
Her lifeline to the surface wouldn't do much good if the wreckage collapsed around her.
It took a moment for Blake's eyes to adjust, fully dilating to pull visibility from the flickering red strips of emergency lighting lining a path away and up into the airship's twisted cargo hold. To her other side, the cockpit had been crushed inwards where it had met an unforgiving cabin wall reinforced by packed ice - an accordion of metal and electric wiring housing a still figure in the pilot's chair, slumped over the cockpit's dashboard, half-buried in snow and glass.
Heart in her throat, Blake immediately rushed to the figure's side, pressing her hand to a back that was ice-cold and disturbingly solid. "Are you-" Her upper ears twitched, catching the deep rumbling crunch of a computer processor. The high piercing whoosh of pneumatic limbs followed seconds later, and the figure jerked, flinging a bladed metal arm backwards, straight through the neck of a shadow clone.
The real Blake crouched a few feet back in a defensive stance, frozen in confusion as a heavily dented Atlesian Knight, one of the newer AK-200 models, shakily pulled itself from the chair into a standing position and turned to face Blake, the white lights of its faceless helmet dim and flickering.
"In-in-int-t-t-trrrrruuuuuder. I-i-iden-den-dentify yourself," it managed in a sad mechanical stutter, clearly damaged by the crash.
The Faunus slowly rose from her crouch, pushing back unpleasant memories of the last time she'd heard those same words uttered from an older model, an aural snapshot from what felt like a previous life. This time, she waited, allowing the android to sweep her with its sensors. Had Beacon sent reinforcements in the form of Atlas's military? It was unconventional, but certainly not unwelcome.
"I am a student," she spoke clearly, wondering what key words the android would respond to - whether it would respond at all in its damaged state, "A huntress-in-training from Beacon."
The android snapped to attention. Blake relaxed a bit, as it seemed "Beacon" had been the word to trigger a response.
it was not the response she anticipated.
Amber eyes went wide as the android's hands shifted into Gatling guns.