Chapter 32
Time seemed to slow down as each of the girls saw the shadowy figure in the distance. It didn't move, but rather, seemed to spectate the ensuing battle. "Rubes?!" Yang yelled, still holding her head from the pain.
"Weiss, are you sure?!" Ruby asked through the noise of battle.
"Yes! I'm not affected by the dust and I can't see anything! Don't believe anything it says or does!" Weiss replied.
"You heard her! Our plan stays the same!" Ruby said to everyone.
"Fuck! You better know what you're doing Ice Queen!" Yang said.
"Less talk, Yang. Vent your anger in other ways." Blake stated.
"Yeah, Yeah. I got it covered…don't worry your pretty little head." Yang stated as she leaped into the air and swung her fist back down to the ground, generating a wave of fire through the chaos of battle. Like a well-oiled machine, each of Yang teammates jumped into the air to avoid the flames in perfect sync.
"Yang, Weiss, you ready?" Ruby asked as both of them gave an affirmative nod.
"Kitty, keep them off us for just a second!" Yang yelled as Ruby reloaded her rifle with her high-combustion rounds. Yang fired one more quick flurry of lightning slugs at the remaining six turrets, temporarily frying their circuits. She jumped away and took Weiss' position in battling the White Fang, to which Blake and Yang had no issue syncing up. Weiss took the moment to freeze the ionizing chamber of the turrets while they were in a moment of stasis. Ruby aimed her rifle and fired right at the chamber, shattering it upon impact. The rounds exploded on impact with the force of a hand grenade. Within a matter of about ten seconds, the remaining turrets had been destroyed.
Without even hesitating, Weiss and Ruby were focusing on the White Fang immediately, who were proving to be a much greater challenge, but slightly more manageable without the turrets in their way. "You wretched children will have no place within my kingdom." The voice growled.
"Fuck you!" Yang yelled while simultaneously firing a slug at the shadowy figure, with no effect.
"Yang, it's not real." Blake stated.
"I know. I'm just asserting my dominance." Yang replied with a laugh.
The attacks seemed to have no effect on the White Fang as they continued to fight in spite of the damage they were taking. "Mind control is a truly horrid thing." Blake said.
"I agree. This isn't the way it should be." Weiss said.
"I'd hate to say it, but we need to just finish them in one blow." Yang said as she and her teammates stepped back from the White Fang. Both sides had paused for a moment to breathe.
"You say that like it's easy." Weiss said.
Yang looked over to her team for a snide remark but was surprised by what she saw. Ruby had the fewest injuries from being away from the fighting the most, but still had wounds from the blades the White Fang were using. Cuts and slashes, most of them quite deep, could be seen across her body. Weiss looked the worst, though she didn't have the most injuries. Her white uniform simply made the blood much more vibrant on her. Nevertheless, she still sported many deep injuries from their fighting. Blake was by far the worst of the group having not only bruises and slashes but a few stab wounds and a gunshot wound, from the turrets, as well. Yang looked at herself to see just a few wounds seeing as how she had been dealing with the turrets for a longer period of time. All things considered, they have been in worse shape and were still capable of fighting.
"Damn; I don't know about you guys, but the midst of fighting makes me forget all about getting hurt." Yang joked.
"For a brute like yourself, that's not very surprising." Weiss stated sarcastically.
"That's enough children." Blake said smugly.
"So, how do you propose that we end this Yang?" Weiss asked.
"We hit them…really, really hard." Yang said.
"So, the same way you always fight?" Ruby asked jokingly.
"Yes. But if we all do it, it'll be go by even faster." Yang said.
A loud growl echoed throughout the hall followed by the White Fang soldiers beginning their next round of attacks. "Enough of your meaningless talk." It yelled.
Yang jumped into the air to dodge an attack while also throwing a single bandolier of pulse slugs into the air. She emptied her Ember Celica and perfectly timed her gauntlet coming into contact with the pulse slugs to reload her weapon. When she finally landed on the ground, she swung her fist into one of the White Fang lieutenant's back. Just like her many other battles with the White Fang, his torso seemed to merely turn into a gory mess as his body exploded into many pieces.
"Who's next?!" Yang yelled as she turned around and faced her enemies with blood-red eyes.
Seemingly unfazed by Yang's intimidation, the remaining White Fang attacked without remorse. "This is ridiculous. They're so influenced that their emotions are even cut off?" Weiss wondered.
"It looks that way. Regardless, we have to move forward." Ruby stated as she began to fire Crescent Rose.
Weiss sent a burst of ice into the three remaining enemies, hitting no one, but creating a film of ice on top of the ground. Blake had already thrown Gambol to Yang, who caught it, and ran the ribbon underneath the lieutenants' feet, to which only one fell over. Ruby took her chance and fired, annihilating the woman's head upon impact and sending the two remaining flying back.
"Oops…I forgot I still have the high-combustion rounds in." Ruby said innocently.
Both Weiss and Blake jumped into the air with their respective blades and landed on top of each of the remaining White Fang members. With their blades securely in the middle of their enemies' chests, they turned to see the shadowy figure had vanished.
"That's right! You better run!" Yang yelled as her eyes returned to their normal lilac color. "…bitch…" she whispered under her breath.
"Yang, we need to keep moving." Blake said as Weiss activated another glyph. They each jumped onto the glyph and, just like before, Ruby took control to fly them down the rest of the hall, which was admittedly not very far. Just as before, Yang made sure to take care of the last few turrets with her lightning slugs before they reached the end of the hallway.
"Okay, hurry through the door." Ruby yelled as they each jumped off the glyph and ran through the open door.
"Any reason why that was open? They know we're here, so I don't think it should have been that easy." Yang stated as they waited on the elevator floor. Before any of them could begin to assess their surroundings on the elevator, it began to glide down slowly. "So...does anyone else think that they're just letting us in?" Yang asked.
"Yes." Weiss said.
"Form up, everyone." Ruby said before each of them surrounded the young leader with their backs facing her as Ruby loaded her rifle and placed it at the ready. The elevator continued its slow descent into the depths until they could eventually see the cargo bay appearing before them. Yang saw all of the White Fang working as though nothing was going on, they didn't even acknowledge the girl's existence.
"What's going on?" Yang asked as she walked over to exit the elevator.
"Yang stop!" Blake said to which Yang immediately stopped her advance. "There's a shield generator." She continued. Weiss let out a small burst of ice dust into the air which turned into vapor right as it made contact with the shield.
"So, what now?" Yang asked.
"We need to go down farther. I can just barely hear someone breathing below us…" Blake stated as she concentrated on the sound.
"Blake, you wouldn't happen to be familiar with the White Fang software, would you?" Weiss asked as she glanced to the control panel.
"I could give it a–" Blake was cut off by a loud clang of metal. Everyone looked to Yang who had hit the control panel as hard as she could, destroying it in the process.
"Yang, what are you–" Weiss was also cut off by the sound of the elevator beginning to move once again. "Luck." She said as she crossed her arms.
The elevator didn't move quite as far this time around, as it came to a stop a mere three minutes after it began to move again. There was only one door they could go through; a rusty iron door that looked like the entrance to a dungeon.
"That's not creepy at all." Yang said sarcastically.
"Well, it's not like we have another choice to pick from." Ruby said as she opened the door. It simply opened to a long stone hallway with the occasional flickering light.
"Ladies first." Yang said as she mockingly bowed to which Weiss and Blake rolled their eyes.
After reaching the end of the hall, they saw a series of small jail cells, most of which were empty. Only one was occupied; inside, there was an old man who looked to be sleeping. "They kidnap old dudes now? What the hell?" Yang said in annoyance as she punched the lock on the door, waking the old man up in the process.
"Wha – you girls…what's…" he trailed off as she looked at his body, seemingly checking for injuries.
"Don't worry, sir, we'll get you out of here." Ruby said. "My name is Ruby, it's nice to meet you." She continued as she held her hand out to shake his.
The old man stood up slowly, almost like he was thinking carefully about what he should do, before extending his hand. "Clark." The old man said I response. He was a taller man and looked as though his muscles were pretty well built, but the age had caused his wrinkled and loose skin to hide it. In spite of his physique, his was clearly in no shape to do much physical activity thought they couldn't tell if that was because of his age or because of the circumstances he is in.
"Glad to meet you, Clark. I'm Yang." Yang said as she lightly slapped him on the back.
"Blake." Blake said with a smile.
"I am Weiss Schnee." Weiss said with a curtsy.
"Well, I definitely know who you are." Clark said to Weiss with confidence. His attitude had done a one-eighty as he seemed less confused by this point.
"How did you end up here?" Ruby asked.
"I don't quite remember. All I can recall is that I was fighting against the temptation of purple dust." Clark said.
"Not many people can say that they're able to fight against it at all. How are you capable of doing so?" Weiss asked.
"Uhh…" Clark mumbled as he was trying to gather his thoughts. "Sorry…it's just taking me a moment to gather my thoughts." He stated.
"That's understandable…given the circumstances." Weiss replied.
"To answer your question…I used to hunt, so I am pretty well versed with most forms of dust." Clark said slowly.
"Makes sense…I kinda figured you used to hunt. You just give off that kinda vibe…" Yang stated.
"You wouldn't happen to be able to tell us how to get into the actual base, would you? The farthest we got was the cargo bay." Ruby stated.
"If we continue down the hall, it should take us out to the central structure. If you passed the cargo bay, however, they will be expecting you." Clark said.'
"I thought so. But we don't have a choice. The elevator is kind of…broken." Ruby said with a nervous laugh.
"Broken? It was you, right?" Clark asked Yang.
"Uhh…" Yang said.
"You just give off that kind of vibe…" Clark said mockingly to which Weiss and Blake laughed.
"Yeah, yeah…laugh all you want. We're still going to have to go through this the hard way." Yang said as she began to walk down the hall.
"Do you know if anyone else is down here?" Blake asked as Team RWBY and Clark began to follow Yang.
"As far as I know, it's just me. Aren't you able to tell?" Clark asked as he glanced at Blake's ribbon.
"Not many people can tell I'm a faunus. Even other hunter's…" Blake said.
"My body might be ragged and tattered, but my mind is still sharp." Clark stated as they turned the corner to see Yang and Ruby hiding next to the door frame of another rusty iron door.
"I can hear people out there." Yang said.
"Are you able to tell how many, Blake?" Weiss asked as she approached Ruby to hide next to her. Clark simply crouched to remain hidden from the only glass opening in the door.
"There's too many to distinguish the sounds…at least twenty. I can also hear the sound of machinery; they have weapons ready to fire." Blake whispered from behind Yang.
"See Yang…this is why we don't break things as a first resort." Weiss said sarcastically.
"We can keep blaming me if you want…or we can figure this shit out." Yang said.
"We're going to figure it out, but it is still your fault." Blake said with a chuckle.
"I've got an idea." Clark said as he held out his hand to Weiss and Blake.
"Can we at least find out what we're doing first?" Weiss asked as she took hold of his hand.
"I could give you four a lecture as to how my semblance works…or I can just show you." Clark said as he looked at Blake who slowly grabbed his hand. "Now each of you place your other hand on your teammates to that we're all connected." Clark said as Weiss placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder and Blake placed her hand on Yang's back.
"Miss Blake, where are the closest set of stairs that lead down?" Clark asked.
Blake closed her eyes and began to focus on her environment. "We would have to go outside, get passed the soldiers, go up a single floor on an elevator in the center of the room, turn left, and there should be a door that leads down. From the echo…I'd say at least twenty flights of stairs." Blake explained a moment later.
"How do you do that?" Yang asked.
"By listening to the sounds outside. Think of it as sonar." Blake said.
"I don't know what sonar is." Yang said.
"I know." Blake said as she looked to Clark. "Next?" She asked.
Clark began to take a few deep breaths in order to control his breathing. He was obviously putting a lot of effort into using his semblance as his breathing became deeper and, eventually, turned into an almost hyperventilating sound. In a matter of seconds, there was a blur of images that passed in the girls' fields of vision.
"What the hell?" Yang said as she fell to her knees, grabbing her head in pain. She looked around and saw that her teammates were in the same shape, confused and with a major headache.
"Bro, what'd you do?" Yang asked as she turned around to face Clark. To her surprise, he was on his hands and knees breathing as though he had just run a mile. Upon closer inspection, Yang noticed that there was a small puddle of blood on the ground right under his head. "You good?" Yang asked as she crouched down next to him.
Clark looked up to face her with a bit of blood running from his eyes and nose. "I'm good. I knew that this would happen; how are you ladies doing?" Clark asked as he got off his knees and sat down normally, trying to calm his aching head.
"Just a headache…and some confusion." Weiss said.
"A lot of confusion…where are we?" Ruby said as she looked around.
"The place I mentioned just a moment ago. This is the staircase that goes down about twenty levels." Blake said as she looked over the railing closest to them.
"So…did we just teleport? Why didn't you just say 'teleportation' when we asked you what you were doing?" Yang asked.
"Because it's not teleportation. I can explain…but I feel like you ladies have something important to be doing." Clark said. "Unless you just casually infiltrate enemy territory on a daily basis." He said sarcastically while standing up.
"Are you sure you're fine? It looks like you're hemorrhaged quite bad." Weiss said.
"This is nothing I haven't experienced before, though I appreciate the concern. That didn't just pick me up off the street and lock me up…they took something from me and I want it back." Clark said as he walked over to the top of the stairs while wiping his face with his shirt.
"Do you really think you're in any position to be fighting?" Weiss asked.
"…said the children to the professional hunter." Clark mocked with a smile to which Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Point taken." Weiss said.
Ruby stood up and made her way to the stairs also. "We're almost there, guys." Ruby said as she held up scroll to her teammates which showed the location of the Knight-General.
"Why wasn't that showing before?" Yang asked.
"This entire facility is probably meant to stop all signals from getting in or out unless it has permission. Lionel probably set the distress signal for when we made it inside." Blake stated.
"He's probably putting more faith in us than, literally, any other person would." Yang said with a giggle.
"Then you shouldn't let him down." Clark said as Ruby took another look at her scroll.
"He's at the bottom of these stairs, and down a few halls. Let's go." Ruby said confidently as everyone else stood up and began walking down the stairs.
"Finally! Shit's about to get real!" Yang said as she punched her fists together in excitement.