Red and blue streaks slashed through the air across the roof. The soft hiss of rain as it came into contact with the blades made a soft backdrop alongside the storm. The red girl moved with a speed that was surely inhuman. Her scythe trailed behind her making huge sweeping strikes, with a force that would knock even a man in full armor into the air. Cleaving through the surrounding obstructions like they weren't even there, she was clearly in her element, a continuous barrage of attacks constantly changing direction every couple of strikes.
She would have thought the man with the glowing blue sickles would be wanting to close in, take away Red's advantage in reach. Instead he was consistently backing off, only for her to dart behind him, and force him back the other way. His armor and blades had become transparent by some obvious form of mysticism. The blue of his blade still glowed for all to see, but when he wasn't actively striking or defending, they were off; making him nearly impossible to see. Were it not for the rain breaking on his form he would be.
Backing away from the two combatants, "Schnee" made her way towards the door down the stairs she ran up. The two sides clearly had an agenda with her. To what end, she couldn't even begin to guess. Perhaps someone else would be willing to help her.
Getting down was the problem though. She jogged across the roof, until she reached the edge. Looking around, she tried to identify anything that would take her back inside the building. The rain obscured her vision where the light of the buildings didn't shine through, and none of the obstacles that she could see looked like a way down. A deep breath released some of her irritation. Her mood was rapidly souring in the rain. Being wet, even if it was a warm rain, two people trying to have her go with them, the slight pain her her stomach demanding food, she just wanted to find some place dry that served noodles. The thought of 'Old Oako's sauced noodles made her mouth water, and strengthened her desire to be some place else.
A strange sound behind her made her stop in her tracks. The wind started to pick up as a strange whine rung through the air. Looking to the source, a craft the like she had never seen before floated into sight. Long and angular, it floated in the rain with no effort. The wind and the source of the sound was emitted from holes in the two wings on its side, with something moving within almost too fast to see.
A bright light from the the front of the flying vessel sparked to life, blinding her as it consumed her sight. Her hand rose to shield them, but the blinding light still hurt her eyes.
"Freeze!" A loud voice boomed from the craft, though who she couldn't see, "On the ground, now!" they ordered, their tone betraying an apparent authority they thought they had over her.
Her eyes continued adjusting to the light, and she started moving her hand away from her face slowly so she could see. There was an opening in the side of the craft now, a man in black armor with a gold star painted on the front was crouched next to the opening pointing, what she guessed to be a weapon similar to what the others had, at her. A moment later a pair of hands came around her, grabbing her wrist. A forceful pull threw her balance to the side, and the leg she tried to move to stop her fall was blocked by something. With a hard crash she fell face first into the gravel, her attacker still holding onto her arms.
"Who are you? Let me go!" She protested, the only response was a pair of clicks as something was placed on her wrist. She struggled to free herself, but her new restraints were too strong for her. Her metal arms didn't yeild in her attempt to free herself, a shock rolled up her arms causing pain throughout her body. She yelped, the pain making her twitch involuntarily. After a moment the man did something with the cuffs, causing it to stop.
"Target neutralized. Human, female, pure white hair. Upper twenties to lower thirties in age, with extensive chrome work to both arms and legs. Chrome in both lower and upper brain, along with her eyes. No detectable arms on her person-"
The sound of the fighting echoed through the rain drawing his attention away from her. He pulled some kind of goggles, mounted to the top of his large bulky helmet, over his eyes. The two eye pieces stuck out from the rest of the device, reminding her of what the King's Jewelers would wear when they worked on the royal gems.
"Hostiles identified on the Roof, hard light weapons detected."
A muffled voice from somewhere spoke back to him. The man that was on the craft she saw jumped down, weapon leveled, followed by a full squad. Her subduer got up and took a position next to the rest of them. A women, looking at the shape of the armor, jumped down and walked over to her.
"Hex, stay with the suspect, she matches the description of the Architect VIP."
"Roger, Kitten." She spoke back, crouching down next the white haired girl as she rolled onto her back.
The man let out a growl at the use of his nickname before signaling to his squad instructions. "Two targets on the roof confirmed. Both armed, but currently fighting each other. Assume hostile." He made a few more signals with his hands, before the squad stood and started moving across the roof.
The other four squad members lowered their goggles to see clearly through the rain. Two, including their squad sniper, moved to the left crouching behind an air vent. 'Kitten' and the other two squad members stacked up against a skylight that went all the way down to the front lobby.
"Point is on overwatch duty, Ryder will hug the left flank. Lion, you take right, me and Jester will take point."
'Point' leveled her heavy sniper on the vent system, the bipod taking the weight off her arms so she could aim better. The vent system ran along the side of the building till meeting up at a small utility shed in the corner, which managed the air systems and the water. Solar panels covered the roof obscuring her vision to an extent though the special lenses in her scope would make their obstruction irrelevant. In the far corner she could see where the staircase down into the building was. Movement towards the right side caught her attention and she focused her scope on it.
"Obvious runner, armed with a heavy ballistic rifle. Right side."
"I got him." Lion called over the radio as he dashed between the solar panels and vent heads to minimize his exposure.
He could hear the fighting right next to him, but he avoided showing himself prematurely. He flipped the small switch to set the underbarrel hard light shots to primary. The crunch of gravel as his prey ran towards him revealed their location. Steadying himself, he aimed his rifle down to where their feet would be.
As expected they ran into view. Back to him as they spun on their heel to face whoever they were fighting. Their right foot hung back to stop their slide, a quick adjustment of his aim, then Lion fired his shot, right at their heel.
A small feminine yelp escaped his target as they fell on their back, their center of gravity preventing them from righting themselves. With instinctual reflexes, he brought the butt of his gun up to strike her in the head while she was still phased from his attack. Her left arm intercepted the attack, catching it in her hand.
Swinging her feet, she lashed out at the officer, missing by only a hair, but forcing him to release his weapon to avoid it. Taking her moment she rolled back her weight enough to jump up onto her toes in a crouch. Lion drew the pistol on his waist and brought it to bare. The gunshots echoed in the air as he tried to land a hit, but his opponent was too fast. Using the two weapons in her hands as makeshift swords she swatted at his weapon trying to remove the threat.
Their dance was mostly one sided, Lion's opponent was fast, even with the odd weight distribution of holding two large firearms in her hands she flowed effortlessly from one attack to the next. Tired of being on the defensive he rolled the dice by leaving his center open. The red hooded runner took the bait immediately, jumping at him, foot lashing out to kick him to the ground. Lion raised his knee, the guard plate projecting a hard light panel, to intercept. The force of her kick stopped Lion's knee without effort, but the hard light plate also held, sending the entire force of the kick back into her.
Seeing her stumble back, Lion dashed forwards grabbing her left wrist, while his right hand came around to pistolwhip her in the head. The force of the blow knocked her head till her chin touched her shoulder. He was sure he hit her in the temple, but she still stood. Such a blow should have put someone down for the count, if not send them to the hospital.
His foe's own goggles illuminated, glowing bright red before the head snapped back to face him. His gun was released from her grip as she tried to pull away from him. Lion shifted forward slightly to remain upright and holding her in place.
"I got yo-!" His voice was suddenly silenced as the hooded runner's left hand suddenly pushed forward with strength that he wasn't expecting, coming around his throat. He pulled at it, as the metal limb started to squeeze, but it had no effect. His throat felt like it was in a trash compactor, his struggles doing nothing to aid him.
He tried to make a desperate plea of surrender, but he couldn't work the air to make the sounds, just a struggling wheeze. The pressure was suddenly released, and he realized he was in the air over her head. He reached the arc of his flight and it looked like he was going to land on top of her face first. The glowing red eyes remained focused on him, but his own eyes were drawn to the glowing red scythe now in her hands, prepared to meet him.
With a single effortless swing, Ruby brought Crescent Rose around, cleaving a red trail through the Lone Star Officer's body, splitting him in two. She held Crescent Rose up defensively, waiting for another would-be attacker. None showed themselves, and she relaxed letting her weapon return to its rifle form.
"Yang, Lone Star is here."
"Can it wait? Lone Star just showed up, they are swarming the whole building." Gun fire could be heard in the background.
"I'm going after the objective, get the van and we'll meet up later."
"Right, van. Sure-" her voice came to a sudden stop, making Ruby pause with slight concern. "You just cut my hair..." Ruby let out a breath glad that nothing actually serious had happened. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU PIECE OF-"
Ruby cut the commlink she had with Yang, confident she'd be alright. The sound of a small explosion much further down in the building only solidifying it. She turned her focus from her sister to her target, the Phantom Blade seemed to have disappeared, and Ruby guessed he was already moving to steal her away. She bolted across the building her vision turning red as her mind shut off all external thought that didn't involve the mission.
Kitten and Jester ran up the center. The two hostiles were moving between all the obstructions making them consistently lose sight of them. Lion confirmed he was going to be engaging one of them, which mean they could push forward, with Ryder ready to loop around and flank them.
"Point, I've lost my visual, where are they?"
Static was the only reply, making Kitten call again, this time with some concern. More static buzzed in his ear.
"Hex, check on Point." Static.
"Com interference." Jester pointed out, fiddling with his own system.
"Rain?"
"At two kilometers maybe, but not a couple meters." Jester pointed out.
"Come on, let's regroup, I don't want us separated if we can't-"
Movement caught his eye. Rain breaking on something moving towards them. "Look out!" Kitten shouted, raising his bullpup rifle toward the incoming threat. The burst of gunfire muted the rain, the jackets cutting through the drops toward the invisible target. Jester turned to face the opposition, bringing up his own rifle to fire. A sudden shift let the transparent shape avoid the shots as it continued to rush forward.
Kitten followed the target, but avoided shooting when Jester came into the line of fire. Jester himself pulled the trigger on his rifle, but his weapon was still a little off from his intended target, making the shots go wide.
An impact in Jester's center sent him off his heels. Flying back like a piece of paper into one of the solar panels, the impact forcing the air from his lungs. Gravity pulled him to his knees, mind still in shock from the hard blow.
Now with a clear shot Kitten started firing again, firing short bursts as the invisible target wove back and forth to avoid his fire. The invisible figure leapt into the air, the rain the only thing revealing his movements, as Kitten raised his weapon to follow. The gun was knocked from his grip as he felt a solid force push down on it. A second blow with equal strength slammed into his face, knocking him to the ground.
Gravel crunched underneath him, as he slip across the rooftop. His focus shifted to the pain in his nose, the obvious feeling of blood starting to flow out, to the sound of thunder, to the sound of hard light humming with power. Kitten's vision focused, clearing away the blurs into discernible shapes and colors. Jester came into view first, his face next to Kitten's shoulder. Pushing himself up Kitten found Jester's body down by his feet, looking up a blue glowing hook hovered in the air in front of him. His mind was slowed by ringing in his ears, but his arms knew what to do. In less then a second, he had the pistol on his waist trained on where he could only guess his attacker was. The blue blade passed by as he pulled the trigger, but the weapon didn't discharge. After a second, he realized his gun wasn't there anymore, nor his hand. The blade came around again from the opposite direction, this time on a collision course with his head.
The Lone Star officer collapsed to the ground, dead. Rain continuing to break on the transparent form of the Phantom blade.
"Hidekatsu, we expected you to have obtain the package by now."
"My apologies, a team of runners has interfered with my progress." He stated, turning to continue with the mission.
"Are you suggesting a group of street punks are a match for Ashita's finest trained and equipt soldiers?"
"No sir, they are merely simple annoyances. However they have suspiciously high quality gear to just be normal runners."
There was a pause on the other side of the line while his superiors thought on the information. "Perform your mission, I shall have your friends investigated. Find some information that could aid you, should they pursue. This 'Aurora Schnee' has been deemed by the chairman to be of absolute importance, do not fail him.'"
Hidekatsu didn't respond, instead opting to cut the communication so he could return his focus to his objective. His optics focused on the battlefield before him. Weiss was sitting on the ground, with an officer kneeling beside her. A gunship hovered slightly behind them, but it's guns were pointing off to the side, presenting its side doors instead. Off in the corner was a sniper looking across the rooftop for a target.
He rushed forward, discrediting the sniper as a threat as he sprinted across the gravel. Weaving between the solar panels and leaping a set of vents he closed in on the officer next to his target. Weiss looked up, facing directly at him, though she didn't seem to make a response. Her guard noticed the sudden change and followed her focus.
It didn't take long for her to notice him, the rain being a persistent annoyance for him as always. He noted the quick speed she could draw her pistol, and bring its fire to bear. He broke his assault to avoid her fire, deeming the distance too far for him to strike. Her shots were well placed, but the distortion of his cloaking field meant she couldn't immediately react to his movements. The gunship behind her started to turn seeing the officer in distress. He rushed full speed, seeing his window of opportunity to steal away his target closing. Avoiding semi-automatic fire was one thing, avoiding an autocannon was a feat he was well aware he couldn't do. He activated his blades, letting the blue hardlight envelop them as he came within striking distance. His blades came into striking position as the officer's pistol focused in on where his head was.
Ruby rushed towards the gunfire as fast as she could. She knew the Phantom Blade was closing in on their target, and she needed to hurry. She used as much of her enhanced speed as she could, only having to slow herself for the obstacles in her way. Her focus fully centered on the mission. At times she even felt like there was another force commanding her as she went. A heavy caliber weapon discharged it's shot to her right, and she looked over her shoulder to see who was shooting. She was slightly shocked to see Crescent Rose in its rifle form pointed back past her side. Another officer fell to the ground, his upper chest splattered across the solar panel behind him.
Turning her gaze forward, she saw a sniper across the way, their focus somewhere else though. Her arm swung forward, not wanting to risk anything, and with her optic implant focused her aim on their head. She fired her weapon with only a single arm, never breaking stride as she ran. The heavy caliber shot having minimal recoil in her mechanical grip. She scored the hit, their head exploding into gib, the force pulling the body over the ledge.
With all immediate threats neutralized, she turned her focus on her last target. She leaped over some vents in time to see the Phantom Blade deliver a roundhouse kick to the last Lone Star officer, sending her back over the lip of the building. Her VP rolled in her spot to look over the edge as the echoes of the female officer's screams continued to come over the ledge.
The gunship hovering next to them finished pivoting around. A search light flashed on, flooding the rooftop in bright white light. Ruby's optics dimmed the light so it didn't blind her, but the actual craft was still a silhouette. The soft sound of static echoed in her ears, before a pulse of energy emitted from the nose of the craft blasting away the gravel near by, and knocking Ruby back a step.
Her metal fingers and toes sporadically twitched and curled. Her Optic HUD broke into static, and the parts of her sight that relied on her augments became either blurs or holes in her vision. The flood light, flashed over her, before moving away. She could see the phantom blade also standing there, twitching the same way she was. After a few long seconds she regained control of her body.
"Freeze! Your augments have been disabled, surrender or lethal force will be used." The gunship pilot commanded. The heavy gun mounted below the nose pivoted slightly to focus on Ruby further back, to prevent her from escaping. Hidekatsu took advantage of the situation, and let his weapons compact into their ranged forms. The gun on the ship turned to impose the pilot's will on him, but it was too slow. A bragge of blue hardlight fire passed the distance between him and the cockpit. The hair thin projectiles so fine, they passed through the bullet resistant glass without breaking it. The only damage to the transparent surface being the dozens of small sliver sized holes.
The craft dipped to the side, falling several feet before red lights inside the cockpit came to life. The craft stabilized itself, and started moving to return to its original spot. Seeing her chance Ruby rushed forward, hoping to snatch up the cuffed women before her opposition could. Her speed was gone though, her mechanical legs only carried her as fast as her old biological ones. She had always been fast, but she certainly didn't have any kind of inhuman speed before her enhancements.
Hidekatsu being right next to her, returned the weapon in his right hand to its blade form, and he slashed out Ruby forcing her to back off. Turning back to the gunship, he took aim at one of the turbines in its wing and open fired. After half a second, a small explosion erupted from the center of the turbine and the craft rocked as it started to fall on it's damaged flank.
Hidekatsu turned to the still sitting women, who seemed to be in some form of shock, and quickly grabbed her. He noticed the strength in his arm was gone, and quickly took her up bridal style.
"Hey, what are you-" She was cut off when he turned to the falling craft and leaped off the building.
"Why is nothing simple?" Ruby growled as she ran to the edge making her own dive off the edge.
Aurora was screaming at the top of her lungs as they free fell towards the earth below. Hidekatsu said something to her, probably in an attempt to calm her, but it fell on deafened ears. A small thud silenced her. The craft, despite falling towards the streets below, was still attempting to right itself, preventing it from entering a more catastrophic speed. Sprinting along the good wing toward the main body, Hidekatsu came to a stop when a second thud came behind him.
"Hey!" Ruby shouted, sprinting after him when he turned to continue running towards the body. Setting her down, he used his sickle blade to cut a small crack into the hull. He instructed her to hold on, but didn't wait for a response as he turned to face Ruby. The red girl circled around the turbine, to avoid being sucked in, her weapon already ready for melee.
Ruby opened with a wide horizontal strike, sparks coming off her red blade, as the pair of blue crescents came down from overhead to stop it. She let his strength push her away, while she side stepped to set up her riposte. The spear tip on her pommel came up to slash at his face, but only left a scratch along where she guessed the cheek was as he leaned back. Sliding her foot forward behind his, she brought the pommel back catching him on his collar. Hidekatsu was forced to tumble away, or be forced to the ground right in striking range. The falling craft made him hang longer than he wanted, making sure he landed further then he wanted too and in a poor position, late into the roll.
He jumped up with ease and turned, blades ready to block the incoming attack. None came though. Ruby had her weapon on her waist as she sprinted over to Aurora.
"Time to bail!" She shouted, adjusting her so she could be lifted bridal style again.
She tried to protest, but Ruby didn't pay her any mind as she ran towards the edge of the ship, rapidly nearing the ground. With all the strength she could muster, she kicked off, aiming for a small side alley.
Feet forward, she collided with the wall at an angle. The brickwork crumbling as she slid across the surface, the friction slowing her down slightly. A fire escape, cut off her route, forcing her to kick off to the opposite wall. She slid along for another second, before her horizontal movement was spent. With practiced movements she jumped from one wall to the next each time breaking her fall as she made her way towards the ground.
She slammed into the ground, a little harder than she intended to. A loud crash sounded a moment later further down the main street, causing both women to pause and look for a moment.
"Please tell me he died in that." Ruby muttered to herself, setting Aurora down when she started to struggle in her grip. She immediately ran off with a small wobble in her steps before hunching over a trash bin, and releasing some kind of strange white jelly that had been in her stomach.
"Too much excitement for ya?" Ruby joked lightheartedly, also agreeing it had been more exciting than she had expected.
"You're crazy!" She got in response as her VIP righted herself and started to step away.
"Only if I didn't know what I was doing!" She pouted back, fist on her waist, as she tapped her foot in annoyance. "Now come on, we need to get out of here before more police show up."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Her target turning and running as fast as she could.
"Wait! Stop!" She called, taking off after her, "Slow down! My legs aren't as long as yours!"
Ruby huffed after her, annoyed her augments weren't working. She could easily chase her down if they were. As they neared the end of the alley, her target was starting to make some distance, and Ruby started to fear she would get away.
A horn sounded and people screamed as they moved away from the alley entrance. A van screeched to a stop in front of Aurora, cutting her off before she entered the street. The door slid open, and Ruby saw Yang standing there.
"In you go." She stated as she pulled their target inside the van, throwing her into one of the seats along the wall. Taking a moment to spot Ruby, she turned back to push down their VIP, who was in the process of trying to escape.
"Nice timing." The red runner called as she climbed in, slamming the door closed, before slamming her fist on the roof, signalling she was in. Blake slammed on the pedal, the vehicle surging forward as she pulled back onto the street. Their prisoner continued to struggle, till she accidentally reactivated the cuffs. She yelled out in pain, while Ruby and Yang struggled to figure out how to turn them off. After a long painful minute, they finally got it to turn off, much to the relief of all of them.
Both runners sat down on opposite sides of each other, Ruby sitting next to their VIP. Both let out a breath in sync with each other. It had been a busy day. A grumble from Ruby's stomach pulled her attention away from the situation at hand.
"So, who's hungry? I am. You like Chinese?" She asked, looking over to their captive.
Whew, finally pumped this guy out. Sorry it took to long, motivational problems. Not as in, "I don't want to work on this anymore." More like, "I'm really in the mood to play some more Chronicles: Runescape Legends/System Shock 2/Civ5/EU4." I will make an effort to get the next chapter out sooner (should be easier since there isn't as much action) the it took me to get this guy out.
Thanks as always to Lazerbear7, and /u/Spartacus400 for helping me with editing.
Till next timeReview + Follow.