Let's just keep this between us friends.
Ruben approached the kickboxer, with his fists up and resting besides his cheeks as he steadied his breaths. Steeling himself against someone who would have had put up a decent fight against Yin on any other day. Mercury didn't seem too worried about the approaching Ruben Thorn, who's eyes were flared up with rage and who's hands were coiled into tight fists. He even gave the poor boy a courtesy bow, a quick bend of the knees. If anything, just to taunt him.
"Fighters, are you ready?!"
"Ohhhhh Yes..." Mercury flexed out his leg, clearing his throat before taking a hard pivot and ramming his right heel straight into Ruben's chest. Knocking him off of his feet and sliding across the floor. Shoulders scratching against the concrete and paint. Rubble trailing behind the boy before he eventually rolled into a stop. Mercury clapped his hands against his thighs, chuckling softly. "But the question is! Is he! Ready for me?"
Ruben wasn't going to lie when he thought about how much that kick hurt. Or question how a man was able to summon such an amount of power and not be Yin. He rested his hand against his bruised sternum, before easing himself up into a sitting position and bellowing out a grunt. The kind that probably meant he was out of his league.
"3!"
"You...son of a..." Ruben growled out, rising up onto his feet and swiftly charging at Mercury. Cocking back his arm, aiming straight for Mercury's cheek. Swinging out right arm and following it up with a stern and quick left roundhouse. The fist was easily blocked, and the toe of his steel toed boot did end up smashing against Mercury's cheek. Catapulting the kickboxer off of his two feet and smashing against a nearby wall. Earning a smirk out of the red warrior.
"2!"
Mercury had slid down the concrete wall, before blowing out some hot steam and hand springing back up onto his feet. Shuffling a bit in his spot before shaking out his wrists. Spitting out a mouthful of blood and wiping it off of his lip. Ruben's knuckles smashing together as he barred his teeth.
"1!"
The two charged at one another, the aloofness of the mellow gray and the veracity of the rage fueled silver clashed as the two approached one another. Ruben's eyes perked to the noise of what sounded like the strain of rivets and the whirring of some sort of joints. His eyes going wide as soon as he realized why his kick was hard and sturdy.
That foot, or both if Ruben were to guess, were not in fact flesh and bone. But steel and machinery. And if he was going to win this fight...
"Begin!"
He had to win by not getting smashed in the chest again.
Ruben's body dropped to the floor, sliding on his side before springing his leg up into Mercury's stomach. Jamming into the man's abdomen with his boot's heel. Throwing the man off of his game as his eyes slammed to the floor.
Ruben's left leg swung up and caught the kickboxer in the already smashed in cheek, Ruben's hands resting besides his shoulders. Using the momentum to roll back up onto his feet. Mercury shuffled back and spun his hands in a wave, steadying his stance as he bent his knees and let out a shout.
Mercury followed with a spin kick, which was dodged with a quick step back and a shuffle towards the right. Mercury's high axe kick was missed when Ruben strafed over towards the right, and his rising roundhouse was ducked under in quick succession.
Mercury let out a blow of hot air, throwing an elbow back and catching Ruben right across the bridge of his nose. Reopening an old wound and feeling blood shoot out and cover his tracksuit's sleeves. The kickboxer re-positioning his hands and rolling onto the balls of his feet. Ruben glanced down at his feet, before back up to Mercury. Spitting the blood that ran over his fangs and lapping the still wet crimson with his tongue.
"Those feet?" Ruben gulped, flexing out his fingers and rotating his wrists. Spitting yet another mouthful of blood before rolling his shoulders back. "Loose 'em or upgrades? Cause no normal man packing that kind of strength."
"Funny, coming for a man who's brother can punch out concrete walls." Mercury smirked, shrugging his shoulders and swinging out his right foot and trying to catch Ruben with a hard side kick. Ruben threw his elbow down to blow, biting down a yell when the top of the boot smashed against his humorous and sent tingles up his arms. Ruben threw up his right foot and jammed it into Mercury's stomach, giving himself some breathing room.
"It's the noise. I hear it when my scythes lock in from firearm to melee. It's the noise of machine, not the noise of limbs." Ruben let out a groan as he began rubbing his very sore elbow. Glaring at the kickboxer.
"Shouldn't you be worried about your dear metal friend instead of me?" Mercury flashed Ruben a dear old smile, before raising a finger up into the air. Giving it a few wags before chuckling. "I hear polarity doesn't suit well for people like her..."
"What do you..." Polarity when mixed with metal would only end with disastrous results. The results that would end rather nastily with whoever was on the unlucky side of that matchup. Which meant, that unlucky girl was Penny. Who would surely give it her all. Pyrrah wouldn't know, and would surely go one hundred percent. Using that semblance of hers at full power.
"No..." Ruben's eyes grew wide as he took off in a mad sprint back towards the arena. His arm running across his nose and wiping all of his still fresh blood across his sleeve. He had to hurry, and hurry Ruben did. He was praying. Hoping to stop that match before it was too late. Maybe he could rush out onto the field and get in between Pyrrah and Penny, or get the attention of some guards and force them to stop the match, maybe even stop Pyrrah himself if he really had to. Even though she is, par none, the most capable fighter in the school that wasn't Yin. "No! No! No!"
He reached the doors and braced himself as he steamrolled through them. Knocking the door off of it's hinges and taking it, as well as himself, to the floor. The metal clanking against the concrete floor and absorbing most of the shock.
That's when the screaming was heard, and the cries of bloody murder. Ruben's eyes fluttered as the smell of soot and ash filled his senses. The roars of Grimm and the thundering sound of airships. His hands were covered in blood and his vision was only red.
After a few moments, Ruben was able to concentrate and focus. Only for the whirring noise of a radio and the flickering screens to annoy him. There it was. The chess piece once again. Ruben's eyes grew wide and his hands started trembling. This was planned. This was all planned. The fights, the accident, the matchups, everything.
Ruben's heart sank as he turned his attention to Penny, who was laid out in pieces in the middle of the arena. His eyes glistening as his jaw dropped and his stomach churned.
"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men."
Penny's gaze was a soft and somber stare, with the kind of eyes that could make even Ruben's cold heart feel some warmth. With her limbs torn asunder, and Pyrrah's hands clapped against her cheeks, it made for a rather sad look. The warrior's eyes were glistening with tears, the spear that was so strong and powerful in her hand just laid to the ground. Her once apologetic and inspiring words now just the mutterings and cries of a woman who had gone too far.
"They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."
Winter watched on one of the many giant jumbo-trons throughout the city, before gearing up his feet and charging off to go find either Ruben or Blair. As he needed to start getting the team in order.
"And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a beating, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither."
The eyes seemed to be all fixated upon the television, as all the patrons of the bar turned the volume on high and kept their whispers to a low. Blair, with a drink in his hands and his eyes on the television, his whole mouth dropped. His lips then curling to a growl as he threw down the drink and paid off with a few crumpled bills. He soon stormed out, sprinting off into the night.
"Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves."
Yin's hands were held intertwined as he began to rock back and forth in his seat. His eyes shut and his mouth mumbling what was sure to be some sort of silent prayer. He had to hope that Ruben was safe and sound. That Blair and Winter could and would look after him. That this was just blown out of control and that no one was to be in danger. This was just some sort of sick joke. That this wasn't the beckoning bells to some sort of disaster that laid upon the horizon.
The two soldiers that stood watch outside his doors invited themselves in, one with his weapon drawn on the perceived trouble maker and the other on the horn. Trying to contact Head quarters. Yin's eyes kept watch on the muzzle of the gun, before finding them gazing off towards the windows. His heart racing and his heels knocking hard against the floors beneath him.
Once Yin heard that the radios were jammed, he shut his eyes and loosened his hands, once again trying to steady his breath.
"As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark."
Ruben's eyes were twitching, his hands were shaking in rage, and all he could see was red. His eyes peering up, seeing a Nevermore raven landing on the aerial shield and began bashing it's skull into it. Each time pinging off the system and alerting the whole stadium. Ruben eased himself up onto his feet, rotated his shoulders back, and charged towards the arena. First things first, he had to get the traumatized Pyrrah on the first boat out of here.
"So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?"
Yin threw his arms out and broke through his cuffs, pivoting and grabbing the gun in the nearest guard's hands. Reeling his head back and slamming it hard into the faceplate. Smashing it in two and sending the guard rocketing into the wall. Smashing into Blair's bookcase and dresser. The whole book case and it's cavalcade of books falling and burying the poor man in what was Blair's month supply.
Yin heard the cocking of the other's gun, dropping the one in his hands and turning to the last one. Who was shaking in his boots and who's finger was shakily against the trigger. Yin squinted his eyes, glancing down at the gun then the guard.
"'Oh no. I was overpowered by the rage fueled blonde demon.'" Yin threw his hand onto the gun, squeezing it tight and crushing the barrel. The grip under it breaking and splintering into plastic pieces. Yin glanced down at the man who was now buried in books, who open hand was now flinching and trembling. "'I had to make the hard call and save my partner. He escaped.'"
Yin marched right past the man, throwing his legs over the frame and easing himself on the wood. Taking in a deep breath, breathing in all the cool night air and letting it out in a hard breath. The kind that made his lips curl into a huge smile.
"Say it verbatim please. I appreciate a good story." With that, Yin pushed himself out and disappeared into the dark streets below.