Three young men and a young woman stood on a cliff that overlooked a large warehouse. Black jumpsuits armored with bone white metal plates coated the four of them as they stood in a circle.
The young man standing in the center stood on the ledge, crimson eyes glaring down at the warehouse, his payne grey hair fluttering in the dark wind. Quickly, he flipped open a black scroll with a buggy projection, the image of an Ursa head trying to push its way through the static.
"This is Stinger, you sure this is the right place?" He asked, raising an eyebrow while he spoke. "Just a dinky old warehouse on the fringes of Mountain Glenn?" As he spoke, a dark reverberation moved through his voice, like multiple of himself were speaking at once.
"Yes," A low and distorted voice replied, "The target is meeting with one Roman Torchwick at this location."
The boy who called himself 'Stinger' grunted in response, "So why are why killing this chick again?" He questioned, looking over his shoulder at the other three teens, all of them preparing their own weapons.
"She's not a threat now," The voice replied, "Nor is she very dangerous to our plans,"
"So I ask again, why are we axing off this chick?" Stinger asked once more, "I mean, I can go kill a Human any day, but I'm wondering what we're doing now."
"She'll never be a threat, child," The young man calling himself 'Stinger' grunted at the word 'child, "But she'll definitely be an annoyance."
The teen nodded understandingly, "Right, I hate things that annoy me too!" He was met with only a wave of static in reply, "Whelp, gotta go. Gonna go kill me a Human..."
Just as he was about to close his scroll, a reply came, "If you can, convert the woman. Otherwise, she's free to be terminated..."
Stinger simply groaned, as his mission just got a new layer of difficulty added to it, "Fine, fine, fine. The Black Queen can join the Grimm party." With that, Stinger closed his scroll and turned to his team of operatives.
"Alright boys," Stinger was interrupted by an indignant female grunt, "Fine! Ladies and Gentlemen!" Stinger turned to the sole female member of his squad, "Better, Talon?" He asked her, receiving a nod in response.
"Now that we got that little bug out of the way, allow me to explain the mission..."
The four of them were to enter the warehouse, which was currently under occupancy of the White Fang. Their mission was to find and execute and/or convert one Cinder Fall, aka the Black Queen.
"Scales, do you have the serum?" Stinger asked his subordinate.
"You think me an idiot, Stinger? Of course I brought it." The boy in question, nicknamed 'Scales', was dressed in similar attire to his leader, with the exception of a full bone white snake mask. He held up three syringes between his fingers. The needles were four inches long, each.
"Excellent," The teen smiled. He then turned to the other two members. "Howler, I want you assisting me up front; helping me clear out the stupid animals." The teen dressed in the Beowulf outfit, revealed to be named 'Howler' nodded, pulling his twin revolver-katanas from his lower back and giving them a decorative spin. "Talon, you stick with Scales, make sure that no one takes him down- we need him for the conversion." The teenage girl in a costume reminiscent of a Nevermore nodded, revealing her to be nicknamed 'Talon'.
"You three ready to kill Cinder Fall?"
They all responded in varied tones of "Yes, sir!" All with their own vocal reverberations, some ghostly, some snakelike.
"Good..."
It was then that Stinger pulled his own bone white Deathstalker mask over his face, an large hole opening the upper right section and exposing some hair and his eye. His crimson eye flashed quickly, turning a neon red, then back to its dull crimson.
"Let's move out!"
Less than fifteen minutes later, members of the White Fang were being slaughtered in front of their base by two teenage boys dressed as Grimm.
Alarms sounded off within the base, alerting the target and her cohort Roman Torchwick.
"What the hell is that?" Roman demanded, more out of annoyance than stress. Three teens looked around, none of them distressed in the slightest.
"Did that dusty old crow actually find us?" one Mercury Black inquired, raising an eyebrow curiously. He turned to his mistress and she shook her head, "No, Mercury. It would be far to quick, even for a skilled Huntsman like him."
Cinder then made her way over to a scroll on a desk, her glass shoes tinking on the ground with every seductive step. She then proceeded to open the scroll, tapping into live camera feed from the outside of the warehouse.
At that exact moment, Stinger had blown a fairly large sized hole in a certain White Fang agent who wielded a chainsaw-greatsword.
"Howler, move ahead!" He ordered, receiving an obedient nod from his subordinate.
Howler then proceeded to sprint forward, barely resisting the animalistic urge to bring his hands to the ground and prowl on all fours. His weapons had found themselves in their revolver forms, as he blasted rapidly and ruthlessly at the agents that poured out of the entrance.
Just as he made it within a few meters of the entrance, Holwer switched to katana mode.
The remaining agents that were still outside stopped, fear ever present in each of their faunas hearts.
It was then that codename 'Howler' let out a long animalistic howl, causing each of them to cringe as their eardrums began to take damage. Dark overtones coated his elongated howl, and what looked like smoke was trailing from the teen's jaws.
Stinger ran between each distracted member of the Fang, bringing his claymore across and through their bodies in a rapid and impressive succession. Faunas blood was smeared left and right across the cracked pavement of Mountain Glenn.
Howler had finally stopped his howl, twirling his swords around his wrists quickly before driving them hard into the gut of a hedgehog faunas. He pulled one blade out quickly, converted it to a revolver, then blew an agent in her forehead. As he walked by the dead faunas woman, he spit down into her open wound, growling like a beast as he marched alongside his leader and into the warehouse entrance.
At that moment, Mercury and Emerald were shifting uncomfortably.
"Huntsmen from Vale?" Roman questioned, tapping his cane anxiously on the polished concrete floor.
"No," Cinder responded, shaking her head, "These two are far too brutal to be from Vale, or Huntsmen for that matter."
"What if they're from Atlas?" Emerald questioned, cocking her head.
"No," Mercury intervened, "I doubt even that 'metalhead' Ironwood would resort to training his students like this..." It was then that a thought popped into his head, "What if they're assassins like me?"
Before anyone could raise him on his hypothesis, a second alarm blared.
"Dear God... I've had the worst headache..." Torchwick groaned, placing his hand on his forehead. "I think I'm gonna go home; call it a night. You got that Cindy?"
Roman made his way around the other three, his young multicolored sidekick following suit. The little girl known as Neapolitan, or 'Neo', gave Cinder and her followers a sweet and disturbing grin as she followed her much older partner.
As they walked out, an agent walked in.
"Black Queen, we have another problem! Two more of these attackers have found a way into the base and are thrashing us!"
At that moment a loud crash could be heard throughout the entire warehouse.
In the largest room, a stolen Atlasian Paladin stumbled around as two teenagers skated across the polished concrete floor. The two teens codenamed 'Scales' and 'Talon' delivered hit after hard hit to the mech, as it could barely swerve around to even get a glimpse of them.
Scales held onto his double-sided grapple-scythe tightly, one end extended and stabbed into the chinks in the mech's armor, the other still attached to the shaft. He slid quickly in a wide circle, tangling up the Paladin's torso and legs.
"Talon, daggerfall!" Scales called out, receiving a determinate nod from his partner. Talon then proceeded to jump to a lofty height above the mech. The roof was hovering less than a meter above the girl's head as a flurry of kunai and black razor sharp feathers rained down on the Paladin, jabbing into its armor and any weak spots left open. The machine quickly began to catch fire from the excessive damage.
"Scales, bottoms up!" Yelled the girl wearing the Nevermore mask, landing softly next to her partner. It was then that the boy in the King Taijitu mask slid between the mech's legs, giving his double-scythe a spin before shooting off the other end into the rafters. Scales then proceeded to retract both scythe blades, extended out by black chains. He flew towards the ceiling, tightening the cord around the Paladin's legs and torso, toppling it.
The boy known as 'Scales' then proceeded to dart back downward, his double-scythe spinning before he drove one of the blades through the cockpit, earning a pained scream from the inside.
The two then turned around to see their Beowulf and Deathstalker counterparts, both clapping slowly.
"Took you long enough," Stinger taunted, "I though for a sec' that Howler and I were gonna have to step in."
The girl known as 'Talon' groaned in exasperation, "We had it under control, Pa-" She was instantly silenced by a deathly stare from the teen, "Er... Stinger. We were just having a little fun with him."
"First off, I can understand that," Stinger said, nodding, "Second, don't you ever say my name, or any of our names while we're on a mission, Talon." He added, pointing his finger harshly in the girl's face, "We don't want anyone tracing us."
Talon sighed, then gave her leader an affirmative nod. "I understand, captain."
It was then that the four attackers heard two sets of footsteps coming out and into the open. What looked a teenager, definitely Human, walked toward them.
The one on the left was a boy with styled shell grey hair and eyes of the same shade, wearing a pale bluish grey vest, metallic plating across his arms and black pants that were stuffed into metal boots at the bottom. About his face was an annoyingly cocky smirk, one eyebrow raised higher than the other.
The four of them looked to one another, "Convert or kill?" Scales asked, receiving a shrug from Talon, but a definitive "Kill." from Stinger and Howler.
The four of them then turned to the teen, brandishing their individual weapons. A double-barrel shotgun with a four foot long bayonet and dust cartridges at the back of the barrels, a double-sided grapple-scythe with blades that fire off and retract, twin revolver-katanas with a chain of bullets in place of a chamber, and a long line of kunai stylized like black feathers along the outside of the arms like Nevermore wings.
"You heard me; kill him."
It was then that the stolen Atlasian Paladin began to get to its feet once more. Or so it seemed.
Talon proceeded to throw Kunai at the mech, the blades passing through and breaking the illusion produced by a dark skinned teenage girl with emerald hair and scarlet eyes. The girl then proceeded to pull two pistol-kama from her lower back and aim them at the four.
"Kill her too?" Howler queried, gaining an affirmative nod from his leader. "Got it!"
"Mercury, bullet-nado!" The girl shouted, receiving a toothy grin from her partner.
"We really gotta come up with a better name for that move." He snarked, proceeding to stand on his hands and breakdance, firing bullets as he did and trapping them in a wind-dust tornado.
Stinger couldn't help but flinch at the familiar fighting style, as he'd had a bad encounter with it days earlier.
The bullets span around the boy known as Mercury, hitting anyone who would get too close. Unfortunately, the four attackers wised to this strategy and proceeded to fire their weapons at range.
Scales took offensive against the girl, firing off one blade and lodging it in the wall behind her. He then retracted the blade, pulling himself toward her with his foot first. Just as he reached her he delivered a nasty kick to her abdomen, pulling his blade from the wall and proceeding to deliver a brutal array of elegant spinning strikes.
The girl finally came to her senses as she was flung away, rolling across the floor. She dragged one of her kama into the ground to stop her movement, aiming the second weapon forward to fire a rapid burst at her attacker.
It was then that the boy known as 'Scales' performed his semblance. A fission in his body began at the top of his head and split him vertically, dividing him into two of himself. Scales bore the same armor as before, but Selacs was coated in a bone white suit, plated with pitch dark armor. both wielded a single sided grapple-scythe in the reverse hand that the other held it.
"What the-" The emerald haired girl was cut short by a second rapid succession of attacks from two opponents at once, Scales striking with brutal and uncontrolled drags of his blade, Selacs dancing around her with elegant and clean swipes.
Try as the dark skinned girl did, she couldn't keep up with the two teenage boys, or single boy.
She eventually found herself forced to her knees, two scythe blades at her throat. It was then that she knew the brutality of this group; what they were going to do to her.
"Please! Don't!" She cried, fearful tears forming in her eyes.
"Humans don't have a say in their fate..." Scales and Selacs both replied in a single united voice. Quickly and efficiently, they brought their blades through her throat.
She had been killed.
Slaughtered like an animal.
No chance to put up any illusion either.
"Emerald!" The boy, Mercury, cried angrily. His angry glare quickly became a sneer, "You're gonna pay for-" He was quickly silenced by a blast in his face that sent him flying back.
"So her name was Emerald?" Stinger asked rhetorically, "Eh, doesn't matter. She was just another kill..."
Scales had reunited himself into one young man again, his weapon taking up both its sides once more. "Is it fine if I take a rest, captain?" He asked, leaning against the wall to his left. "No problem." His leader replied.
Mercury flipped up from the ground, facing his three attackers. His sneer faded, now replaced with a concentrated glare. He exhaled slowly, closing his eyes, crouching down into a position that a track runner might take.
"What in Luna's name is he doing?" Talon asked, cocking her masked head to its side.
Mercury then proceeded to open his eyes, sprinting quickly towards his enemies and accelerating each step with a blast from his gun-boots. "Graaah!" He cried, as each explosive step tore away at his pants, revealing a set of metallic legs. "I'm gonna kill you!"
"Pfft, oh please..." Stinger groaned, signaling with his hands for his teammates to move forward.
Both Howler and Talon sprinted forward, the former firing rapidly at the boy's legs, tearing the metal plating apart. This toppled Mercury over as he slid across the floor, legless and pathetic.
Mercury grunted in pain as he tried to crawl to Stinger, unable to hurt him, but filled with the rage of defeat, "Y-you!" each hand grabbed the floor, dragging his limp lower body towards his enemy.
"Quit trying," A dark, wolflike voice growled, just before a katana blade drove itself through the boy's back and out his chest, "You're a pathetic waste as it is!"
Mercury Black cried out in pain, choking on his own blood that flowed from his punctured lungs. He eventually stopped squirming and collapsed.
He had died.
Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai were no more.
Their parts had been finished before they even had a chance to be played.
"Well, those two were pathetic wastes of life," Scales stated as he made his way over to the group, "glad we got them out of the way."
"Heh, you're right; they barely put up a fight at all!"
Codename 'Stinger' grunted, silencing his subordinates. "We don't have the time to celebrate killing these filthy Humans, we have a mission to finish."
The three of them nodded and turned to the way their two attackers had come from.
It didn't take much time or effort to tear through the remaining White Fang members and hallways that kept them from their target: Cinder Fall.
Cinder was standing in the center of another large empty chamber, similar to the one in which the team of attackers had fought Emerald, Mercury and the Atlasian Paladin. All that was present in the room besides Cinder herself was the table before her, several files spread about said table and a scroll giving the woman live camera feed of all the events throughout her compromised base.
The Black Queen sighed quietly, more out of disappointment than any other emotion. Her two best fighters had been slaughtered with ease and her army she'd employed had been torn through like paper. Whoever these four teens were, they definitely weren't Hunters, and they definitely weren't amateurs.
No matter, Cinder thought, As strong as they may seem, they're no match for my powers... With that thought, her eyes became wreathed in flames and a shrill sound like a scream filled the room.
At that moment the four masked attackers had broken into her chamber, noting the emptiness surrounding the Black Queen.
"So you've found me, then?" Cinder asked, not taking the time to look at the four, "Are you proud of yourselves?"
"Killing a filthy, murderous Human like you?" The boy named 'Stinger' replied, "Of course we're proud!"
Just before the four would have charged to attack the woman, she turned around to face them. Her autumn shaded eyes glinted in the dim light, showing determination.
"Before we begin, I have only two questions..." Cinder looked up and directly at her attackers, "Who are you and who hired you?"
The four of them looked between each other, then back to their target, "We're the real bad guys, sweetheart. Not a pathetic human distraction like you, you annoying little problem." That last word, 'problem' was spat at her like she was an immature child. The look in Stinger's exposed eye conveyed that of annoyance more than any malice, like Cinder was nothing important.
This disrespect and complete lack of fear made Cinder feel something she'd not felt in a long time. Rage.
Her hand thrust outward and a spout of flame erupted between the four teens, spreading them apart.
"Now, attack!"
The other three nodded affirmatively, charging in with each their own strategy.
Stinger took a straightforward approach, firing powerful blasts from his shotgun that were split quickly by a pair of swords wielded by the Black Queen. Cinder would continuously summon explosions around her, blowing back her attackers and keeping herself at a distance from them.
Scales and Talon nodded to each other, the latter grabbing onto her partner as he swung above the Black Queen. As soon as she was directly above her adversary, Talon dropped. While falling, the girl threw kunai and senbon at rapid, catching Cinder off guard and breaking parts of her aura.
Cinder had just rolled out of the falling girl's way before she was met by a boy dressed like a Beowulf. He spun his two sword around his wrists threateningly before letting a snarl escape his mouth. Cinder quickly took the offensive, striking hard and fast with her dual swords against his, fire imbued into each strike creating small explosions.
Howler was blown away when the Black Queen stomped her heeled foot into the ground, blowing chunks of molten hot cement around her. She then proceeded to solidify the magma and send it flying around her at anyone who would get too close.
However, Cinder was caught unawares when a blade slipped across her calves, tripping her. She used her backward momentum to perform a backflip and land on her feet once more, just before being met by a boy in a suit that was strikingly reminiscent of a Deathstalker.
Stinger quickly switched his shotgun into its greatsword form, attacking Cinder up close. Every swipe, jab and swing thrown by the boy was deflected, blocked or returned by his opponent.
Cinder was just about to instigate another blast of fire when she felt a sudden sharp pain across the nerves in her upper back. Behind her stood Talon, her hands extended with thin metal strings around each finger, each string running through senbon that were lodged into the Black Queen's nerves.
Try as Cinder did, she had no control of her movements.
How did she pierce my aura!? The Black Queen wondered, the pain in her back drawing her to her knees.
"Scales, the syringes."
"I'm on it."
Cinder Fall was down on her knees, her hands forced to her sides while her nerves were being manipulated. As she struggled, her eyes became wreathed in flame, though she couldn't do anything.
What is this!? She screamed in her head.
"Cinder Fall..."
In front of her was the Deathstalker boy and another boy dressed similar to a King Taijitu.
"How does it feel?" Stinger queried, "To be completely powerless, with no control of your fate?"
From behind him, Scales produced a syringe. The needle glinted in the dim light.
"You should realize by now, that you're done." Stinger continued. Though he looked like a simple teenage boy, he was as devious as a demon, "You should also realize that you were never going to begin..."
It was then that the syringe was forcefully inserted into Cinder's neck, the pitch black liquid within being injected into her, intruding her blood.
"Hehehe..." The boy chuckled as he watched her undergo horrible convulsions before him. Tears formed in her eyes as Cinder realized what was happening; all her plans to obtain power were gone.
"It's pretty funny how you called yourself 'Black Queen', when in all actuality you were never even a piece on the board."
The veins across the former Black Queen's body were thicker than ropes, her mouth leaking black liquid and her eyes twitching.
"Feel lucky that you can at least be a pawn at this point."
Suddenly, her body stopped shaking, her already pale skin went deathly white and her eyes shut.
"She didn't make it, Stinger." The one known as Scales commented, looking down on the disfigured beauty that was once Cinder Fall.
Cinder Fall, the former Black Queen, was no more.
She'd been slaughtered by four teenagers in Grimm suits.
She never got to finish or even initiate what ever master plan she'd had.
"Well, that takes care of that." Howler grunted, kicking the dead woman's corpse over and pulling his ally's senbon from her back. He then proceeded to hand the needles to their owner.
"The mission was 'kill or convert'," Stinger reported to his subordinates, "We tried one, but ended up doing the other."
"Not our fault," Howler said, "She just wasn't strong enough to withstand the conversion."
During their discussion, Talon had been surveying the files that were previously on the table before Cinder. "Hey guys, you may wanna take a look at this." She called over her shoulder, alerting the other three.
They came quickly, following their female counterpart.
"What did you find, Talon?" Stinger questioned. It was then that his subordinate pulled up four folders. "What are those?" He asked, placing a hand on her hip and cocking his head, his exposed payne grey eyebrow raised.
"These are guest profiles for someone who'd be staying at Beacon during the Vytal Festival." Talon explained, pulling one out entitled 'Mercury Black'.
"Hmmm," Stinger moved closer to take the file, stepping over Cinder's body like it was worthless, "These could be useful..."
The boy flipped open his scroll, opening up to that buggy channel he'd spoke on before.
"This is codename 'Stinger', the mission was a success. Cinder Fall is dead."
"Good," The distorted voice from before replied, "Return to base at the effect of immediately."
"Sir, I have something else to report," Stinger added quickly.
"Yes, agent, speak up."
Stinger briefly explained the files that he and his team had found.
"Do you think they'd be useful?" He asked in finality.
The line was silent for a short time, save for the crackle of static.
"Bring the files back with you, we may indeed have use for them as you said."
"Affirmative. Stinger out."
Did anyone reading this get a hard punch to the gut by the content? I hope so.
So, this chapter was to more thoroughly introduce the villains I have planned, as well as axe off the villains that are actually part of canon.
As of this point, this fanfiction will be AU.
Yes. Cinder, Mercury and Emerald are dead. I swear to christ they will stay dead and will never come back.
And for all those emercury, ember (Emerald x Cinder), Cindury and any ships containing these characters. Screw You.
Not even gonna apologize!
Boom!
Next up: Meet the punks!