Because I need to sleep, but I also want to update, part one today, part two tomorrow.
No one moved as the two teams stared each other down, the air crackling under the strain. Ruby felt Crescent Rose slide into her hands, but was not aware of it, her eyes still locked on Coco's shimmering pools of darkness. Sounds of her teammates readying their weapons reached her ears, battling with the thundering of her heart as it thrashed against her chest.
"I don't think we've met," Coco said, stepping forward and casually sliding her handbag to her hand, like it wasn't a minigun capable of cutting a Nevermore in half. "I'm—"
"Coco Adel," Yang finished, leaving Coco to stare at her with the expression of a dead fish. "Fox Allistair, Yatsuhashi Daichi, and Velvet Scarlatina." With each word, she cast a glance to the huntress or huntsman that bore it.
Coco took a step back, the rest of her team shifting their gaze from "curious" to "threat". "Alright, I take it you've heard of us."
"You could say that," Yang growled, shards of light glinting off her gauntlets. Her hands clenched, her nails trying to dig their way through her skin.
Ruby took a step forward and parted her lips, the inside of her mouth dry as the desert sand. "What are you doing here?"
A laugh bubbled from Coco's chest, spilling out from her lips. "Really?" she said, letting her bag slip down, with only a few fingers keeping it out of reach of the floor. "You need to ask?"
A snarl ripped itself from Yang's lips, but before she could do something her teammates would regret, Ruby took a step forward and blocked her advance with her free hand.
"You're going to try and stop us, aren't you?" she whispered, her voice barely rising above the gentle puffs of her breath.
A sigh fell from Coco's lips, and she lowered her head. "Yeah," she admitted. "If we have too. Kinda hoping you'll be willing to talk."
"Why?" Ruby asked, her hand drifting towards her gun. "You have to know what we're here for."
Coco remained impassive, but her teammates were beginning to fidget. Velvet's eyes slipped to the floor.
"I know," Coco said, a sigh following her words. "I saw the news. I'm sorry about your teammate, but this isn't going to help her."
"And doing nothing will?" Yang took a step forward, but it was a gentle step, like the floor was made of marshmallows. "This is the only chance we have left." Her hands clenched, and Ruby heard a faint edge of desperation creep into her voice, riding along on every word she spoke. "What if it was Velvet, Coco? What if she was in danger? You really going to tell me that you'd just… wait?"
Coco didn't answer.
Velvet broke the silence, speaking with the force of a silenced gunshot. "It doesn't matter. You don't understand what you're doing, how the White Fang will react. This…" She gestured towards the broken computer monitor, and to the city below, still buzzing with police cars and firefighters. "This scares them. And if they get scared…"
"Your teammate dies," Yatsu finished, his voice booming through the room.
"They cover this stuff in the later grades," Coco explained. "Hostage situations, negotiations, all of it. Believe me; pushing forward won't end well for anyone."
"What if they kill her anyways?" Weiss countered, bringing her sword up to bear. "I know what you mean, but she isn't a hostage. Where's the ransom? Demands? Any reason as to why they would capture her beyond killing her?"
"If they wanted her dead, why not just shoot her?" Coco said. "Why capture her?"
"Because Adam's a psychopath who enjoys pain," Yang growled. "And he's got… history, with Blake. He wants to make her suffer."
Coco let out a breath. "As much as that sucks, it's probably the only reason she's still alive." Her head jerked up, glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. "Are you really going to tell me he won't kill her if you show up?"
"We can't predict anything he'll do," Weiss argued. "He's not motivated by any sane reason; he's doing this out of hate."
"We have to move while she's still alive," Yang said, red peeking through lilac. "There's too much risk in leaving her there."
A sigh fell from Coco's lips, and her gaze shifted from Yang's glowering form to Ruby's shrunken silhouette. "What do you think? Red? Rouge? Whatever your name is?"
"Ruby," offered Velvet, her voice barely above a whisper.
Coco gave her a small nod, and continued, "You're the leader, aren't you? Is this what you think is right?"
"I…" Ruby said, her voice fading off into the night air. She took a deep breath in to replace it, and felt the cold settle in her limbs. "It doesn't matter. We can't get track down her scroll."
"You're tracking a scroll?" Coco blinked, bewilderment taking residence behind those black shades. "Ooookay then, could have stayed home. First years don't have access to those files."
"But you do, don't you?" Weiss's words slammed into Coco, punching through her front of unflappability, catching on the flesh with barbed hooks. "You're almost completely independent by this point, so they'd need to give you your own code."
CFVY's reaction was immediate. Yatsu pulled out his sword, letting it hang from his hand by his side. Fox's arms dropped, hands curled, and Velvet grabbed her box thingy, stopped only by Coco's hand.
"I don't know if you remember, but we're here to stop you," Coco said, swapping her bag to her right hand.
"…That's not a denial," Weiss noted.
Ruby took a step forward. "Please, you have to help us. This is our only chance to save her."
Velvet looked away, teeth digging into her lips, like it was the only thing keeping her from talking.
"I…" Coco shook her head. "It isn't my call. Ozpin said—"
"Ozpin's said a lot of things," Yang snarled, stomping up to Coco, close enough that the minigun wielder had to take a step back. "What's the matter? Can't make a decision by yourself?"
Coco pushed the brawler away, teeth bared. "Look, like it or not, he's the boss. Believe me, I get where you're coming from. Really, I do. But it isn't my decision! It isn't yours; it's Ozpin's. And I really do not want to piss that guy off, alright?"
"So you're scared?" Yang jeered. "Scared of a man probably five times your age?"
"Yang, stop this!" Weiss hissed, but the blonde was undeterred.
"You know what?" Yang snarled, advancing towards Coco with the same gait of a serial killer stalking its prey. "You're just another idiot who has no clue what the hell is at stake. You have no idea what that man did, does, will do, whatever!" Red surged through her eyes, and the room turned from the inside of a freezer into an oven.
Coco's eyes grew beyond the frames of her glasses, slivers of white peeking out like stars on a cloudy night. "Holy shit," she breathed. "You're not—you need help. Professional help.
"Yeah, I know," Yang growled.
Coco let out a sigh, and brought her eyes to Yang's, staring straight into the red circles. "You aren't to give up on this?" She leaned to the right, regarding Ruby and Weiss with a cool stare. "None of you are?"
"She's our teammate," Weiss affirmed. "Our—our friend."
"I don't like this," Ruby admitted, but she pulled out Crescent Rose and held it at her side. "But we don't have any other choice."
Coco let out a sigh, the crack between her skin and her glasses showing her eyes sliding shut. "Alright then," she said, eyes reopening with a fire burning within their depths. "Yatsu, start us off."
There was barely enough time for Yang to get her hands up before a giant bronze sword crashed into them, sending her flying.
Weiss cast a glyph just before she crashed into a computer to cushion the blow, but was unable to do anymore before two red claws tried to take her head off. She ducked under Fox's arms and swept her sword towards his feet, but he jumped over her and raked his hands down her back.
Ruby brought her scythe up and aimed it him, pulling the trigger as fast as she possibly could. Just as the Dust ignited and the metal slug began to accelerate down the barrel, her gun was suddenly forced downward, launching the bullet harmlessly into the floor. All she could see was two brown eyes, staring at her like she was a puppy about to be put down.
"I—I'm sorry," Velvet said, stepping off Crescent Rose. "I really don't want to do this." Her leg came crashing down, Velvet somehow managing to get above her. It was almost a complete blur to Ruby, fast enough that her eyes struggled to follow the rabbit faunus's movements.
Almost.
Her scythe rose to meet her foot, the metal of her armor crashing into the red and grey. A horrible screeching sound, like two tuning forks smashing into each other, filled the room.
"So am I," Ruby growled, before bringing her scythe down on Velvet's head.
Weiss's glyph kept Yang from breaking her back, but it still took a minute for her to regain her bearings once she hit the floor. She could hear metal grinding against metal, feet smashing into the floor, Dust firing, and, most critically, a minigun powering up close by.
Very, very close.
Yang rolled to her right milliseconds before an avalanche of bullets smashed into the metal behind her. She rose to her knees, firing a volley of shots towards Coco, but each were blocked by a bronze sword, which came flying towards her. She fired two shots into the ground, launching herself over the sword-wielder's attack, and landed at his back.
Yatsu turned, faster than a spinning top, and swept his sword across her chest. She jumped back, but the edge caught her shirt, cutting through the admittedly thin fabric like it was wet tissue paper. She retaliated with several jabs to his chest, but each were stopped by that sword, although it was starting to resemble a bronze river flowing across his chest.
She took a step back, gauntlets still hot from the shells she had fired, with the weight of realisation settling in. Yatsu was strong, at least as strong as she was, probably more. (Not accounting for semblances) But the problem was that he was much, much faster than she was, and considerably more skilled.
Of course, because misery loves company, her thoughts were interrupted with the peppering of bullets ramming into her back, pushing out every whisper of breath left in her. Even through aura, Yang could feel her ribs crackle, bruises spreading across her skin.
She tried to jump to the right, but caught a blade to the stomach and was lifted clear off the floor, ramming into the ceiling and leaving a small crater. It took a few seconds for gravity to realise she was there, slowly peeling her off like it was still deciding if it actually wanted to.
She landed on the floor with a clang, shooting cold air against her skin. Her clothes, not really designed for combat, were shredded, exposing a great expanse of her back, and the purple bruise spreading across its surface. Yang took in a breath, her hand shooting to her chest as a spike of fire ran through her lungs.
Time for a new plan.
Yang threw her arms out, slinging the shells within her gauntlets to the floor, and pulled out a handful of the light blue versions Weiss gave her, slotting them into place with practised ease. They didn't have the belt of her normal rounds, so each one had to be placed manually.
Yatsu wasn't interested in waiting for her to reload, rushing at her with his sword low, the metal flowing towards her feet in a river of sharpened bronze. Thanks to the seconds it took him to reach her, Yang managed to jump over the sword, and smash a heel into its surface, ramming the blade into the floor below, creating a web of cracks radiating from its entry point.
She saw the muscle's in Yatsu's arm tighten as he tried to pull it out, but before he could make any progress, she fired a shot.
Ice spread out from the tip of the sword, racing up its side and spreading across the floor, sinking deep within the weakened surface. Ice flowed up his arm, rooting the swordsman to the floor, and becoming nothing more than a punching bag to the brawler.
Yang, however, knew exactly how long it would take to break free of that little ice. So she kept Weiss's rounds loaded, and turned herself into a frozen geyser, launching Yatsu upwards with a frozen uppercut, each metre of height followed by foot-thick ice.
Before long, the sword wielder was stuck, suspended several metres above the floor and encased in a freezing cocoon. His muscles strained, desperately trying to escape, but he might as well have been trying to break through steel with his pinkie.
Yang emptied her gauntlets, the spent shells clattering to the floor. Fresh stripes were thrown in, and she fired herself across the room, towards a certain minigun and its wielder.
Coco switched her gun back to its handbag form and took a swing at her head. Compared to Yatsu's attack, it was almost trivially easy to go under it, and throw a fist into her stomach.
When her head came down, still reeling from the attack, Yang slammed her fist into her chin, firing a shot as it connected. Coco went flying upwards, her chest right at eye level, and Yang threw another punch at her.
Coco smashed into one of the windows, cracks radiating out from her position, like ripples in a pond. Her bag clattered to the ground, followed shortly by the girl herself. She peeled herself off the floor, sunglasses falling off in a tangle, broken mess, exposing two burning eyes.
Yang threw back her arm for another shot, but before she got the chance, the minigun roared to life, bullets sparking off the ground in front of her. She threw herself to the side, behind a bank of computers, covering her head as bullets whizzed by. Her arms leaned out; firing a few shots towards the gunner, but nothing stopped the hailstorm of bullets.
Until they did.
Yang peeked her head out of cover, but was unable to see anything before a giant grabbed her hair and pulled, ripping her from cover and suspending her in the air. She caught sight of Coco, leveling a smug smirk at her predicament, before the giant pulled down, smashing her face into the floor with the force of a train crashing into a brick wall.
Metal met her teeth, her smile saved only by her aura. Fluid, hot, sticky, and coppery pooled under her lip, spilling out in big, fat drops on the dark floor. Stars danced in her eyes, their feet pounding her skull with deep booms. Each heartbeat crashed into her head, tunneling into her brain and tearing it apart as they went.
Then she was rising again, and saw the leering face of Yatsu, shards of ice still dotting his clothes. He gave her one last look of anger, (and perhaps pity) and then threw her upwards, bringing his sword to her chest.
Fast.
Ruby dropped to the floor, spinning her scythe around her. Petals gushed off her body, her semblance pushed to the absolute limit. Crescent Rose and her body were fused as one, each movement of the weapon as instinctive as breathing.
Velvet leapt over her attack, shooting her leg forward to jab at her chin. Her neck tugged her head out of the way, but it didn't stop the foot from hitting her shoulder, and sending her spinning into a computer.
Her scythe rammed into the floor, adding a flurry of sparks to the rainstorm of petals. Ruby's head rose, eyes alight with the power of a storm. She ripped her scythe from its metal cradle and spun it behind her, firing herself forward like lightening.
Velvet's eyes grew wide, and she raised her arms just in time to stop Ruby's curved blade. She was pushed backwards, feet grinding against the floor.
Ruby swept her rifle downwards, planting its tip into the ground, and pulled the bolt back. Her finger brushed against the trigger, and the gun let out a mighty roar, spewing bullets towards her opponent.
The first shot was dodged, the second and third slamming into Velvet's arms and legs.
Ruby ripped her scythe free and threw herself forward, spinning her scythe behind and over her. Velvet lowered her arms, let out a fearful gasp, and dodged to the right, just barely avoiding being skewered.
Ruby tried to lift her scythe out, but got nowhere before she felt her chest pushed in on itself. Her eyes glanced down, and saw both of Velvet's feet, connected to the almost prone huntress with two very strong legs.
Her scythe tore itself free of the floor as she herself was rocketed upwards, bouncing off the roof and to the ground below. Her head sang sharp songs, the footsteps and gunfire surrounding her a burning choir to the orchestra within. Ruby's fingers fumbled for her scythe, and she slowly pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the way the ground slipped out from under her.
Next to her, Weiss threw up a shield against Fox's claws, the two red pieces of metal bouncing harmlessly off the glow. Her sword gleamed with blue ice, and the ground erupted in white shards, surrounding the huntsman's feet and rooting him to the floor.
Weiss drew her blade back, bringing her free arm to the cylinder and spinning it, until the blade shined with pure white, glinting off her scowl and bending through the frozen crystals. It thrusted forward, ringing out a trill as it cut through the air, only to give a sharp note of pain when it was wrenched to the ground by a brown leg. Weiss barely had time to see her new attacker before a foot connected with her temple, sending her into the ground.
Velvet rushed after Weiss, allowing Fox to carve his feet free of the ice. The same motion cleared Ruby's head of its fog, allowing her to swing the scythe towards his head. His head dropped, only a few wisps of hair showing just how close she got, and then she felt his weapons dig into her stomach.
Her gun's barrel planted itself in the floor, and she pulled the trigger, firing a bullet downwards and herself upwards. Both her feet smashed into Fox's jaw, and when she reached the apex of her swing, she flipped herself around and stomped down on his head.
She felt the impact ring through his bones, each singing their own song of pain. Twisting around, she hooked her scythe under his arms, lifting the boy up to her, and spun the red death dealer around, aimed straight for his stomach. Her eyes darted towards the nearest window, a white spider web growing out from the center. At this range, she could easily bash him out of it.
Her blade was inches from his skin when it was stopped by red steel. Ruby's eyes grew wide, and then she felt her sweetheart ripped from her hands, clattering to the floor in a mournful symphony.
Soft taps sounded out from the floor below as Fox found his footing, her own body still suspended in the air. Her wrists twisted, moaning in agony as she was thrown to the ground, the floor meeting her head with a hard slap. Stars danced in her eyes, prancing to the aching beat within her skull.
Two blurry blobs of red shrieked towards her. Ruby threw her semblance into nitro, rolling to the left fast enough to leave a vacuum.
Her hands groped for her weapon, moving fast enough that an observer would think she found it on her first try. She tried to bring it to bear, but could barely use it to steady herself as the drums within her head refused to quiet.
Some small part of her mind wondered if she had a normal, non-injury induced headache. She chuckled at the thought. Surely, the universe didn't hate her that much, right?
She found herself questioning this when Fox slammed back into her few, jabbing at her with the speed of a machine gun. Each time she saw the blow coming, she tried to bring Crescent Rose to block, counter-attack, anything. Each time, Fox was already done, or even worse, simply batted the stick—for at this range, that was all it was— like she was a little girl.
Her heart burning with frustration, she shifted the scythe into its gun form, and tried to shoot Fox.
In hindsight, removing the one thing keeping him from grabbing her right arm and twisting was a really, really bad idea.
Every muscle in her arm shrieked with pain, fire, and pain, each shrill sound tunneling through her flesh and flying out her open mouth. Something popped, and suddenly the arm would no longer turn, or do any more that twitch at her commands.
For the second time that night, Crescent Rose fell to the ground, throwing up shavings that she desperately hoped were the floors.
Fox's continued assault turned her around, and allowed her to pick up her scythe with her still functioning arm. Scythe in hand, she tried to think of some plan, a way out of his grip.
She knew three things: A. She needed help before she could fight. B. Fox wanted to stop her, not permanently injure, and C. If he had to choose between letting go, and holding on to her arm and nothing else, he would choose letting go.
She hoped.
Petals flew out in a gust of wind, Ruby's feet grinding into the floor like a cheese shredder rocket. The grip on her arm intensified, before Fox realised what she was doing and let go, unwilling to risk maiming her. Her lips shot upwards, joy bubbling within her chest like chocolate fondue, only to be extinguished by the very close holy crap wall in front of her.
Moving her head in a way that would break if it if she was anyone else, her eyes met her misshapen shoulder.
When life gives you lemons…
Her body twisted in the wind, her semblance providing the necessary force to get her moving. Teeth grinded together in her mouth, every part of her body, aside from the shoulder, tensing in preparation for the blow.
Which was a good thing, because ow. Ow, ow ow ow ow. Holy crap, that hurts!
She might as well have fallen off building, landed in a pit of spikes, and then got gored alive by a Beowolf, because there was little else in her mind aside from pain. Sheer, unstoppable, blinding pain. How did Dad do this once, let alone the dozens of times she saw him pop bones back into place.
It was a small mercy that she could move her arm again, and the pain soon faded to a simple tiredness. Her whole body felt drained, like each hit she took spilled more and more fuel on the ground, and now she was running on little more than fumes.
Of course, because the universe wasn't done using her as a punching bag, the first thing she saw when she looked up was red claws leering at her, and growing ever bigger.
Yippee.