(So, this took me longer than planned, and I didn't get nearly as far as I wanted. Also, I'm nowhere near as confident in it as I usually am because I wanted to get this out and not make people wait yet another month before I had the presence of mind and focus to work on it again. So, fun!
Last chapter numerous comments addressed how I describe actions for my action scenes, so I'm trying something different. Better, worse, no idea what I'm talking about? Feedback is as always appreciated!
Anyways, I hope that it's entertaining regardless of flaws, please enjoy!)
The sky shone red as the sun began to set on Remnant. The heavens were filled with fire, shot from rotating barrels and launched from rocket tubes, turning Grimm to ash and sending gunship and bullhead alike spiraling down in streams of flaming wreckage. Ash struck back against metal, as the Nevermores ripped wings off of gunships and rammed through bullheads, while Griffins tore through cockpits and dragged out the pilots, the latter screaming as they were torn apart or swallowed whole. Below the hunters prowling the skies, Vale was as a lit funeral pyre, burning bright, and signaling the terminal end of an entire people, with a roaring flame that poured smoke into the heavens.
Or at least that was what Alabaster made of it, eyes turning across the spectacular view from atop the airship, a gentle smile on his face as he observed the chaos all around with a practically poetic mindset.
"And the sun descends on Vale. Light the sky with fire and shroud the world in night, for this is how a Kingdom dies." He spoke gently to himself, before shaking his head, and turning around to look down an opened hatch on the Airship's roof, ladder going down to a hallway beneath, eyes again finding something to fixate on, though this something was considerably smaller than the subject of his previous viewing.
"Ah, my apologies Miss Neopolitan. The roof access is clear, for the moment at least." He spoke simply, offering his right hand down to the ice-cream lady as her head made it up past the hatch. She looked up at him with a smirk, and took his hand with her right, stepping up the rest of the ladder, her umbrella hung by its hook on her left forearm as she ascended. She walked up from the last rung, heels clicking against the roof of the airship as she arrived, still smirking, before calmly moving her right heel back to kick the hatch close, letting it thud down as she daintily took her hand from Alabaster's, and transferred it to her parasol.
She then swung her umbrella up and over to rest on her right shoulder while her left hand moved to the handle beneath her right, holding her trusted weapon calmly with both hands as she and Alabaster both turned to look across the main roof section of the ship, the 'landing strip' part of it for lack of a better descriptor. Alabaster didn't exactly have the field manual on standard Atlesian Airship design and terminology to work with.
"Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the remainder of the ship." Continued the hireling, as he and his first employer both observed the rest of the vessel's surface… It was quite busy.
A group of Atlesian soldiers with green and yellow color markings moved up in formation, about eight in total, five arrayed in a curving arch at the front with three behind who, in a more spread-out formation, made a semi-circle, closing the group from all angles. It was a fairly standard Atlesian trooper combat formation for fighting Grimm, with the front curve serving to fire at all targets in front, and the soldiers behind keepings eyes to the sides and back to prevent Grimm from landing and coming up on the group from behind. And they all kept an eye to the skies, firing as Grimm left from the above and whatever else they were pursuing to come down and assault them as fresh prey.
It was a good choice of formation, considering that they had something on every side to shoot at. White-energized bursts impacted Griffins and Nevermores scattered across the surface of the vessel, busy ripping at metal and tearing at wires before-hand, now turning their focus onto the oncoming soldiers. Constant fire put down the smaller Nevermores and turned them into ash, but seemed only to just hold back the Griffins, sending some to flight, and encouraging another particularly large one to charge. The front curve shifted their combined fire onto the big Griffin which seemed to slow it, but Griffins were tough by nature, and it kept up the charge, roaring its displeasure as it lunged to close with the line. It was unlikely that it was going to be dropped before it reached the soldiers.
"Hm. Well, looks like this might be sorting itself ou-" started Alabaster, before an Atlesian Gunship seemed to burst up from underneath the side of the airship, to Neo and Alabaster's right, and jerk itself across the length of the ship and into position over the advancing soldier formation. The barrels of the gunship's twin miniguns spun, and a torrent of fire rained down from the triple barrels, streaking flare-lit rounds smacking into the charging Gryphon, heavy-hitting armor-piercing ammunition sending it roaring back and down onto the surface of the airship, where it went quiet and began to disintegrate into ash.
Alabaster blinked, then 'snapped' his mouth shut mid-sentence, before speaking again.
"Ah. Never mind then." He stated simply, as Neo moved her left hand up to her mouth and let her shoulders shake with a silent giggle. The formation resumed its movement forward, taking pot-shots at the flying Grimm that tried to come down onto them or the ship again, keeping the long landing way clear as the supporting gunship turned in the air behind the advancing formation, lowered itself down slightly, and opened the ramp.
Six more Atlesian soldiers hopped out, guns raised, fanning out in a half-circle in front of the ramp, aiming all about to make sure that no Grimm were approaching. Then, two more passengers exited, far more interesting than the standard soldier fair.
The one stepping out at the left, at least to Neo and Alabaster's distant view, was a man. A man with light brown skin, green eyes, and mostly grey hair that was neatly cut and somewhat squareish, with the part near his ears black, along with his eyebrows and a fancy slim mustache. He wore a captain's uniform, white with shoulder pads, chest-pinned commendations, some intricate patterning up to the collar, blue armband on the left arm, and fancy white gloves all. Frankly, he looked pretty great for a man that was part of a military that had failed literally every objective they'd come to Vale with.
He was armed with a pistol in his left hand, one of the standard sidearms for Atlesian soldiers likely grabbed quickly from a subordinate, and more interestingly, a rapier in his right. It was a beautiful looking thing, even from back at Neo and Alabaster's view, they could tell how fancy it was. Silver cylindrical handle that looked like waves of water spiraling down, hilt in the shape of a white-metal dove with its wings spread, sword guard that looked like a white swan with its wings spread and brought around to make a curved guard, and long-neck bending down to nearly touch the hilt, and form a protection for the fingers. Then after all of this the blade, stretching up as an elegant thin but lethal weapon, shining silver by appearance, made to pierce but sharpened at either edge to slice if need be.
Beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the girl who hopped out to his left, at Alabaster and Neo's right view. She was darker skinned, with blue eyes, and short black hair grown longer at the left, going down nearer to the shoulder. Her arms were covered by fingerless long cloth gloves that went up to a bit past her elbow, and she wore a white buttoned up shirt with gold buttons, all the way to a high collar, with a black cloth sash around her waist, and a blue skirt with gold trimming going down. She wore a set of very high, almost thigh-high socks that appeared to be made of a somewhat hard material, with black shoes upon her feet. She seemed to have gold buttons on… actually quite a few of these articles of clothing, notably up the outer sides of her socks, with a couple more on her gloves near the wrists. And in the center of her forehead was what appeared to be some form of ornamentation, with a golden sphere in the center of four other smaller spheres, one to the North, South, East, and West, all close by. And all of it was topped off by a blue beret upon her head.
The only thing that didn't quite fit with her fashion choices was a watch, grey metal with a cyan watch face, on her left wrist, the only thing there that didn't match up to her clothing scheme. Which meant it was probably the most important thing she had on her.
As these two slightly different looking individuals hit the airship roof, the gunship that dropped them closed up its ramp, turned right in the air, and jetted away, likely responding to some other emergency that needed its close fire support more than a troop-drop. Even as it did so, the soldiers nearby stayed in a six-wide troop circle, before a barking order came from the male, too far away for Neo and Alabaster to grasp the details, and they began to advance, while he and the blue-bereted female stayed back for a moment, turning to talk with one another, in what looked like some sort of urgent discussion, with the female tapping her watch for some reason.
It was fairly apparent who these people were of course, at least in terms of ranking and position in the Atlas hierarchy. Neo, in particular, had the benefit of being intimately educated in Atlesian military protocol, and her observation and infiltration during the Vytal Festival Tournament made the identification even easier. The man was a Captain, obviously, possibly the only one left. After all, Neo had personally made sure they were down one ranked official, with a particularly sadistic glee at the time she might add. And the other was an Atlas student from the Academy proper, brought over to participate in the tournament. Neo could have figured that one out even if she hadn't seen her fighting in the robot girl's team. But what did it really mean to see them there? Well, mainly, that Neo might actually enjoy herself.
Before those two had exited Neo had been particularly annoyed at the turn-out. Yes yes, Atlas, world's foremost military power, blah blah blah. She could gag from the rhetoric and the chest-pounding those play soldiers liked to spout out. The truth was that since Atlas made its robots do all the fighting there weren't many in their rank and file these days who actually knew how to kill people. Grimm, oh sure, that just takes a bit of discipline and teamwork, things that Atlas droned into its soldier boys pretty damn well. But people? The closest they tended to get with fighting actual people was during police actions, and even then usually to stun or restrain. Most of them hesitated to pull the trigger, if only for a moment, when the enemy first walked into their sight and that combined with a lack of proper combat experience tended to get them killed. Neo could attest to that fun little fact first-hand.
Yeah, she was more than capable of killing whole squads of Atlas soldiers without batting an eyelash, on any day of any week. Especially Sunday. Neo liked Sundays. The point was that all those rank and file rifles equaled boring for Neo, and she didn't like that at all. No. She hated that to DEATH. But the Captain? Now he would have been through some of the more advanced combat training regimes in their Combat Schools, he probably wasn't going to be a challenge, definitely not if the last Captain was anything to go by, but he'd probably last long enough to keep Neo entertained. And the girl? Oh Academy students were always fun. So confident, so smug, so determined with their youthful idealism. And then Neo ripped it all apart, making those eyes fill with fear and pain, before she snuffed them out forever, sometimes over the course of hours… Oh yes, little Miss Blue over there could be lots of fun for Neo.
Of course all those soldiers would get in the way when she tried to have her fun. Shouting something heroic sounding probably then opening fire, and she'd have to dodge and dance and kick instead of getting to focus on-
Neo's eyes both went wide and turned pink as her thought line was interrupted to be replaced with an utterly brilliant idea strutting into her head. Slowly, with a Cheshire-cat like grin, she turned her view away from the Captain and the student to Alabaster, who was looking at the advancing Atlas soldiers with narrowed eyes, right hand pulling down on the wrist of his left glove slightly, tightening it up a little.
Alabaster felt the eyes on him only after a moment, and then turned his gaze to look to Neopolitan, meeting her gaze with his own. He slowly raised his right eyebrow as he saw the downright creepy stare she was giving him, his left hand moving to his right glove and tugging it down at the wrist, helping tighten it up a bit.
"I get the distinct feeling Miss Neopolitan that you have just thought of something that involves me doing something that I would rather not do." He stated bluntly, to which Neo gave a quick and excited nod of her head, eyes glinting with mischief.
"Hm. Well, please do enlighten me quickly Miss Neopolitan." Stated Alabaster simply, looking back to the oncoming soldiers and flexing the fingers of both hands, while shaking his wrists out slightly, making sure they were appropriately limber.
"They'll stop looking everywhere but up here and actually notice us any second now that the Grimm are clearing away." He spoke, a bit dryly as he observed the approaching men. He wasn't particularly pleased with what he saw.
Slight jerking of the guns when aiming, off-pace rapid step from the one to the immediate left of the front before catching himself and stepping back into time, an ever-so-subtle tremor here and there amongst the advancing troops… The proper term was FNGs Alabaster believed. Fresh meat, raw recruits, held back for routine ship maintenance and guarding on whatever airships Atlas still had in the sky, and only being deployed now because they were literally all that was left to try and take this airship back. It was practically tragic how they were about to be wasted. He had to wonder how many of them were teenagers under that armor.
Miss Neopolitan somehow managed to grin even wider, and raised her umbrella up to point towards the advancing combatants, while her left hand extended to point a single finger towards him.
"You want me to take care of the frontline soldiers?" He asked simply, to which she nodded, then lifted her umbrella up a little higher. Now it pointed towards the second group of six, who had moved into a similar formation as the front group with four in front and two in back to keep a watch out.
"And the second line soldiers." Continued the hireling, frowning ever-so-slightly.
"And what shall you be doing while I handle Atlas's finest, pray-tell?" He asked, before Neo lifted her umbrella up just a little more, to point towards the Captain and the blue bereted student who seemed to have just finished whatever they were discussing and were starting to move forward, significantly back from the second line. Neo then turned her left hand back to point to herself, to make sure there were no doubts, and kept the grin all the while. Alabaster let his features relax into a wry expression, grasping her meaning.
"So you'll be fighting with the Captain and the student. I see. I am to handle the basic infantry so that you may have fun with the more skilled opponents without interruption." He spoke, and Neo gave a chipper nod as she blinked a few times, and her eyes went to left brown and right pink, happy that Alabaster had picked up on her intent.
Alabaster sighed lightly, and looked forward, moving his right and left hands both up to his tie and straightening it slightly. Professional appearance was important after all; it wouldn't do to enter into a pitched battle to the death looking like a vagabond.
"Very well. I'll keep our less interesting guests clear of your 'play time'." He spoke, running his eyes over his soon to be opponents and doing some quick calculations in his head, examinations letting him chart the course in his mind. Even as he did this however Neo beamed a bright smile, a smile that might have been cute if not for the very clear sadism inherent in it. She then tucked her umbrella under her left arm, and moved her right hand to 'tap' him on the arm. This caused him to look at her again, his right eyebrow raised again in question, as she smugly moved her right hand back and 'tapped' her own cheek with her right index finger, leaning forward with her chin up.
It took Alabaster a moment to comprehend, before his mind clicked in understanding, and he smirked just a little himself.
"Ah, of course. It will be my pleasure." He stated simply, before lifting his left hand up in a fist, and punching out with it, smacking straight into Neo's cheek.
A shatter sounded with the motion. Not a thud or a grunt or a cracking of teeth, but a shatter as Neopolitan's form disappeared in a fractured falling of mirror-like shards, disappearing almost as soon as they scattered. Alabaster moved his hands back to straighten his tie again slightly, and then looked away from where Neo had been as-
"Hey you, up there! Identify yourself!" Sounded out from a soldier in the advancing frontline who had finally noticed Alabaster's existence. The pale-skinned hireling took a breath in through his nose, then slowly out through his mouth… and clicked the heel of his right shoe against the heel of his left, tapping twice.
Wind Dust began circulating through his soles from the second cache, mixing with some remnants of the first he'd used earlier, and in a burst of gusting air he leapt from near the hatch, well over the heads of the first line of soldiers, to about mid-way between them and the second on the ship.
His feet hit the metal surface of the airship, gusts of air dissipating from the impact point, as the first line quickly turned to aim their rifles at him, front curve turning and folding back with the group behind to make an eight-man semi-curve of leveled Atlesian rifles. The second line, seeing this, quick-stepped forward into range and brought the back up to the front to make a six-man curve of pointed rifles, putting fourteen guns on the hireling. In a world of elite combatants using incredible powers, there was no such thing as too cautious.
Alabaster for his part allowed himself a smirk at successfully gaining the attention of both firing lines, before standing straight, legs together, and hands behind his back. Calmly he slowly started to turn, looking around to the soldiers with their guns pointed at him, as his right hand raised itself up from behind... and calmly plucked his hat from his head.
"Gentlemen, greetings." He addressed the soldiers, giving a slight nod as he continued to turn slowly, the only drawback of being surrounded for him being that it made politely addressing his opponents a slightly more ridiculous affair.
"My name is Alabaster Flatly." He continued, placing his fedora over his heart and bowing forward slightly, head remaining tilted up to keep his eyes on the men around him, albeit separated by many feet in each direction, as he continued to turn slowly.
"And I will be serving as your opponent this evening. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances." He stated plainly, straightening up and calmly plop-ing his hat back onto his head.
Soldiers from both lines looked to one another, a sort of 'is this guy for real' look being shared. This was when they should have, of course, been closing in to initiate combat. Alabaster smiled a wry closed-lipped smile, and bit back a sigh as his right hand moved into the left fold of his suit at the chest, reaching for a very particular holster while keeping himself turning, eyes moving over the men around him. Like feeding babies to a shark…
THUD
Alabaster blinked slightly as a griffin hit the metal roof of the airship, within the circle of guns, and only a couple feet away from him, lifting itself up, spreading its beak, and letting out a-
"Rrrooaaarrr!" Of some strength and agitation.
Alabaster raised his right eyebrow at the interloper, a 'really?' apparent in the look. The griffin, obviously eager to enact its own plans for slaughter and mayhem regardless of the pale hireling's opinions, then proceeded to charge straight at the man, claws forward and beak open, launching itself into an attack. Alabaster, keeping a calm gaze locked on the approaching monster, waited for it to get a little closer. And then his right leg shot forward and up, striking the griffin beneath its beaked chin with enough force to not only stop its charge, but knock its head back and start its ascent up into the air.
Before it could rise any significant distance however, that same leg moved blurred around in a right-up curve from the impact point, and placed itself, sole flat and ankle bent, on top of the griffin's head. For a moment, the extreme flexibility and balance of Alabaster was apparent as his right leg remained fully extended, his left straight and supporting his body, right hand in the folds of his suit with his left hand still behind his back, the entire position looking rather awkward. And then he pushed his foot down.
Another thud sounded, not as loud as the griffin's landing but in some ways more impressive, as Alabaster slammed the griffin's head into the metal with his foot, the force of the impact giving off a visible shimmer as the griffin's skull cracked and the fire burned out from its eyes. Alabaster calmly removed his foot from the creature as it began to disintegrate, then grimaced as he saw the griffin-head sized dent he'd just made in the airship's roof, becoming ever-more apparent as the monster turned to ash.
"Right, the floor is also the ship. I must restrain myself, it would not do to unnecessarily damage Mister Torchwick's property." Muttered Alabaster, gently chiding his own person as he gripped his right hand around a pair of short sleek black metal cylinders, held by a small holster hidden in his suit, and withdrew them.
Calmly he moved one to his left hand, then brought them both down as the click and whir of miniaturization tech sounded, unlocking and extending the weapons, long metal cylinders extending out horizontally below the first two, revealing Alabaster's weapons of choice…
The Night Clubs were a pair of twin black tonfa, sleek, metallic bludgeoning tools designed to swing, hit, or block, as Alabaster required. Aside from an engraved fancy silver W on the right side of the right tonfa, on the weapon's body below the handle, and an equally fancy silver T on the left side of the left tonfa beneath its handle, nothing particularly distinguishing seemed to be upon them.
This was by design. The sleek tonfa, individually dubbed Waltz and Tango, had some fairly simple yet appropriately brutal surprises hidden in their design, that could allow for a deliciously unexpected 'sucker punch' to be delivered whenever Alabaster needed it. There was also an aspect slightly breaking the sleekness that someone could notice if they were observant. Namely, six small oval bumps up at the tops of the weapon handles, around a rim which, on closer inspection, was a separated cap over the rest of the handle, made to turn easily with pressure from Alabaster's thumb. This let him slot the ovals, each filled with raw Dust, into position to release their loads into tubes running along the interior of his weapons, activating when pressed in, making the Clubs far more versatile than they appeared.
That was all beyond their appearance however. And frankly, Alabaster doubted that he'd be needing much from them aside from their ability to whack peoples' various body parts with the appropriate levels of force. Alabaster swung Waltz up, spinning it by the handle lightly with his right hand, then swung it left to right, and brought it back to his side. He then calmly did the same with Tango, swinging it up, spinning it lightly, then swinging it right to left, before letting it drop by his side. He then rolled his shoulders back, cracked his head side to side, and looked up and around to the soldiers who, instead of doing the sensible thing and charging, were still watching him, apparently some slack-jawed from the griffin incident.
"My apologies for the delay. Shall we begin?" Asked the hireling… and then Atlas's finest opened fire.
Lagging behind the main advance wasn't something that Captain Oakwood or Ciel Soleil had particularly wanted to do, but they'd had to resolve an argument, one that they'd had since before boarding the gunship. It was better to have the majority of it outside of the hearing of the men, where they could finish it without making morale even worse for the rank and file than it had to be already. Losing most of your comrades and failing to protect an entire city on the day celebrating peace was something of a 'downer' to put it in the mildest possible terms.
Captain Oakwood had every reason to believe that he was the last Airship Captain in Vale. In fact, he had reason to believe that he may very well have been the highest ranking officer still alive in the Atlesian military, if the scattered communications they'd gotten from Atlas were any indication. But his thoughts were far more locally focused at the moment. Blue Three was gone, crashed and burned courtesy of the White Fang Bullheads and a metric fuck-ton of missiles. The last he'd seen of it the vessel had been on a collision path for Vale, nose pointed somewhere inside of the city as its engines blew and fires raged across the hull. Busy fending off the White Fang's attacks on their own airship, neither Oakwood nor his troops had seen where it hit, and there was so much fire and smoke in Vale right now that they couldn't even FIND the wreckage. A damn airship had gone missing and they had no idea where it was in the brutal inferno that was raging below. No hope of retrieval for the crew. No gunships to spare to find them and even try to get them out. Chow for the Grimm.
As for Blue Two, General Ironwood's personal airship, it had gone dark comparatively recently, a brief and panicked message from Captain Straw saying that they were boarded being the last communication received from the ship. The sharp, pained scream she gave before the audio cut out was something that would haunt Oakwood for the rest of his life. He knew it wasn't the Knights. All three ships had reported successfully fending off their hacked robotic soldiers, and he'd heard no rifle fire at the end. Someone else had killed Amelia. At first he'd thought it was the White Fang, then the Airship had sprung to life and annihilated everything in the sky around it, including the White Fang Bullheads. It quickly became apparent that someone else was to blame. And Oakwood knew of only one other person who could have taken over an airship, a passenger who, if he somehow escaped from his cellblock, might very well be able to take the bridge.
Oakwood wasn't a vengeful man by nature. Did he want to kill that vagabond who hijacked Blue Two, the entirety of the White Fang, whoever hacked their robots, and every damn Grimm in the whole of Remnant? Absolutely. But that wasn't why he was here now. With the loss of two airships, the majority of Atlas's remaining gunships had pulled back to defend Blue Four, sacrificing ground support and evacuation in the city to keep the last major bastion of Atlas's air power in Vale afloat. It was a tactical decision, even if it might keep some pilots awake at night wondering how many people they left to die to do it. Blue Four was the only ship left with the kind of firepower to smash Goliaths on the ground and Giant Nevermores in the skies, prioritizing attacking the large, stronger Grimm that the ground forces just couldn't handle. And with the gunships around it intercepting what White Fang Bullheads remained, and gunning down the smaller Grimm in the skies, they had a good chance of providing that necessary continuous fire-support, and sparing more and more of their munitions to clear out large Grimm clusters on the ground as well.
But if Blue Two could be retrieved, then all those chances increased. The skies could be cleared and the Grimm on the ground could be decimated with targeted fire. Getting that second airship into position to help was the best chance Vale, Atlas, everyone had to make it out of this alive. And that was why Captain Oakwood had gotten together what soldiers he could and requisitioned a pair of gunships to make a boarding action.
Now Ciel Soleil did not disagree with the Captain when it came to Blue Two's potential usefulness. However, she felt that he was far too quick in his attempt to retake the ship, that he had poor timing. Now her judgment might have been off a bit. She had personally had a… bad day. Her schedule was completely destroyed and that was quite literally the least terrible thing that had happened. She had no idea where Penny even was anymore, all the robots had gone crazy, and it had taken her a fight through the Amity Coliseum, and then the city to get back to Blue Four, along with a small group of soldiers. And when the Captain had insisted on this tactic she had argued with him about it, more than she'd ever argued with any authority figure in the entirety of her life, and gone along to not only keep arguing, but because she was desperately trying to keep him and his men alive. She didn't want to watch something else that was right and properly placed in the world get destroyed. So yes, perhaps she was biased against dangerous action at the moment. However, she did know that the actions were dangerous, perhaps more dangerous than the Captain realized.
She already knew who had taken the airship, and most things about him. Roman Torchwick, self-styled 'Criminal Mastermind', with too many crimes to list, including numerous noticeable heists, recently responsible for aiding the White Fang in an attack on the city proper, and notoriously effective thief in the Vale underworld. There was nothing in his record that suggested he couldn't take on a squad of soldiers and a Captain. Which was part of why she'd gone along with the operation. As an Atlas Academy student, she had access to better combat training than any of them would have ever gotten, perhaps enough to turn the tide in a direct conflict.
His presence wasn't the only reason she was calling for caution however. There was better timing for this move, timing that could make it less dangerous. Just recently the remaining Atlesian forces in Vale had received reports of the White Fang and Grimm both being driven away from Beacon, the student body there scoring a victory with much of its fighting power still intact. The reports around the White Fang's abandonments were strange, that they had become disorganized on the attack and even more so on the retreat, and Ciel's detail oriented mind couldn't help but wonder why. However, whatever the reasoning there, the Beacon Academy Students had pushed the attackers out of Beacon, and had begun to rally to distribute support across a city that was in dire need of it.
And that was the crux of her argument with the Captain. She'd been trying to convince Oakwood to wait and call in help from Beacon to take the ship, but he'd insisted that with Blue Two starting to fire its weaponry no time could be wasted, that an intervention was needed immediately. They'd argued the matter, loudly, up until they boarded the gunship, at which Ciel silenced herself only for the sake of the soldiers' morale. She had immediately resumed her argument with the Captain upon landing.
And she had finally convinced Oakwood to at least call in for support, now that he was actually here. And much to Ciel's relief, they'd received confirmation from a group of students quickly after, exactly twenty-one seconds actually. With their section of air mostly cleared by Blue Two's choice to decimate everything in front of it, the faculty felt confident enough to let a student team approach, and a Beacon Bullhead was headed towards them now. That alleviated Ciel's nerves somewhat, and while she knew the Captain wouldn't wait for them to enter the ship, at least they'd have back-up from combat experts. And while the Captain didn't like a teenager questioning his command so verbally, he acknowledged that she had a point. He couldn't wait, but it wasn't a bad idea to get some help on the way, so he'd begrudgingly made the call after they landed.
After they had 'finally' gotten that settled, they both started to move with the advance to get into the ship. And noticed fairly quickly that the advance had seemed to stop. They both frowned at that, though only Ciel got a twisting feeling in her gut. That wasn't supposed to happen. Every time something that wasn't supposed to happen, happened, someone died. It was the only reliable pattern to emerge over the course of the day. The fact that the line was arranged in a firing formation didn't calm her nerves any. The Captain was about to step forward and investigate, via a loud shouting question, when Ciel's gut-feelings were replaced with a sharp and sudden chill tingling up her spin.
Trusting her reflexes and warning senses, the teenager spun around and- got a high-heeled boot to her face. Aura turned what would have been a nose shattering, possibly brain-piercing hit from the heel into a pure impact strike that simply made her let out a 'ah!' of pain, and sent her flying back a few feet onto her back against the metal surface of the airship.
The Captain spun around as soon as he heard Ciel's cry, left hand rising and finger pulling the trigger on his pistol in the same motion. A pair of bright shots left the barrel's gun, only to go over the head of Neopolitan as she ducked down, slid forward across the airship's surface under the shots, and gracefully rose to kick her right leg out into Oakwood's gut, smirk on her face for the entire motion.
The Captain let out a gasp, spittle flying from his mouth as Neo's hit to his center robbed him of air, the heavy blow hurting so much more than he'd thought it could, even through his aura. How could someone so small hit so hard!?
Neo, instead of answering the Captain's unvoiced query, ducked under his left arm as the Captain continued to pull the pistol trigger, now on reflex, shooting out two more bright rounds uselessly into the metal roof as the ice cream killer got behind him. With an utterly smug expression on her face, Neo brought her umbrella around, right hand near its tip and left at the main body of her parasol, to hook it's handle around Oakwood's left wrist, and with a turn of her own wrists, trapped and pulled his hand with her umbrella handle, ducking as she moved forward and threw him off balance with his pistol turned towards Ciel, his finger still pressing the trigger.
Ciel finished rising from her downed position on the aircraft, only to see blazing bullets headed her way. Eyes widened, the Atlas student quickly cartwheeled the right, letting the shots fly into the air, then back flipped out of the way of further rounds, as Neo kept pulling and twisting the Captain's wrist to aim the pistol towards Ciel, jerky fire going wide. The pistol finally stopped shooting as Neo pulled the wrist all the way around so that Oakwood's arm was crossed over his body and pressed up against his own throat, Neo standing with her back pressed into the Captain's, watching Ciel as she finished back flipping. The blue-bereted girl landed a few feet away in a crouch, close to the ground, left hand on the surface of the airship palm-flat and fingers-spread while her right hand was out to her right, fingers curled into a fist. She caught her breath for just a moment, then lifted her head to look at Neo, eyes narrowed in anger.
Neo grinned. This was exactly the kind of fun she'd been looking for. Easy as could be, she kicked her right leg back into the Captain's left, knocking his foot out from under him as she pulled forward with her arms and back, and 'threw' him over her head by the handle around his left wrist, his left hand grip loosening and pistol flying away in the same movement.
Captain Oakwood hit the airship roof and rolled towards Ciel, grunting in pain as he did so, teeth gritted to stop himself from full-on shouting. Ciel's eyes widened slightly and she quickly rushed to him, kneeling down next to Oakwood as he stopped rolling. She quickly moved to help him up to his feet, wrapping her hands around his left arm and pulling him up, looking over the limb to see if it was broken anywhere, and then sparing a relieved glance for the sword still clutched tightly in his right hand. He could still fight. She looked back to their attacker, who now stood straight, smug as could be, left hand resting on her hip while her right hand gripped her umbrella just below the center.
The Captain panted as Ciel let go of his left arm and his left hand moved to his stomach, wincing as he managed to get steady on his feet. Ciel stepped away to his left to give them both some room, her left foot moving forward and her right foot staying back, her right hand clenched in a fist at her side while her left hand coming up in a fist in front of her own body as she continued to stare at the ice cream killer.
"Neopolitan." She spoke, her voice calm despite the shiver that was still going down her spine. Neo blinked at that, surprised that the girl knew her name. The Captain was somewhat surprised to, and turned his gaze over to Ciel with his brows furrowed. She ignored them both and continued.
"Alias or real name? Unknown. Age unknown, location of birth, unknown. Employment, professional assassin for hire." Ciel spoke, then grimaced.
"Status, wanted in every Kingdom for multiple high-profile homicides." Neo actually stood up a bit straighter at that and 'beamed' with pride when she heard that. It was nice to know that she was wanted!
Ciel looked back towards the Captain, who was still breathing a bit heavily, and met his eyes.
"It is approximately eleven minutes and twenty-seven seconds before reinforcements arrive." She stated succinctly, as Oakwood calmed his breathing, and straightened up a bit more, gripping his sword tighter. Looking towards Neo with a glare of anger and wounded pride, mixed with a very real need to remove her as a threat, he brought his left foot back while his right hand moved forward, rapier pointed at an angle up and forwards, his eyes locked onto his assailant.
"Then we'd better hold her off till then." He spoke bluntly, gritting his teeth as he looked straight at the small, cute, inhumanly sadistic murderess. Ciel nodded, swallowing down the lump in her throat, and lowered her body just a little more, narrowing her eyes further, as the spheres on her forehead began to glow gold…
Neo grinned, her left eye going pink and right going brown, as she kept her left hand on her waist and umbrella in her right, very happy with how this was turning out so far. And that grin only widened as white-blue flashes accompanied the sound of rifle fire back several feet away from her and her new playthings…
Roman was no fool. Even the people who hated his hot-tempered guts could attest to that. He had a healthy appreciation for vengeance of course, what right-thinking person didn't? But he had no intention of staying hovering over Vale with packs of Grimm all around, a robot apocalypse, and both White Fang and Atlas types probably real eager to get their hands on the airship he was flying. So why was he scanning the skies with a narrowed eye, keeping his hands at the controls and gazing for a very particular Nevermore with an itchy trigger-finger? Because it had almost certainly fixated. Grimm could get really selective about their targets, even causing them to ignore other potentially easier or obvious targets in favor of something they'd decided to pursue. Roman relished the chance to take that bird down, he did. But he wasn't just doing it for the kick of paying it back for earlier, he was doing it because if he didn't kill the damn thing it would follow the ship wherever he tried to go with it, with the intention of killing him inside of it of course.
So he was working on preventing that. With the engines keeping the airship moving at a steady pace away from the city, he was also pulling up the sensors from every angle he could access, front, side, and back views all, keeping an eye on the split four-screen display in front of him for any signs of his giant feathered friend. While doing so, he did his utmost to ignore the thuds and clangs from above, as the sounds of people on his ship were a little too audible. What kind of sheet metal was that roof made of anyways to let the sound carry like that? Was it by design? Did some engineer say 'hey, let's not put any sensors or guns up there, but let's totally make it so that you can hear it whenever something hits the roof! Every single fucking time! That's so much better than being able to actually look and see what it is!' Honestly… sometimes it felt like he was the only competent being in the whole of Remnant.
He shook his head clear of those thoughts. They weren't going to do him any good now. Now he needed to get away with this airship, and kill that Grimm, and then see how he could turn a profit from this whole 'apocalypse' thing. Well, the ship's armory might be a good start, check and see if there was anything valuable left there. And there was probably a complete list of Atlas bases in the ship's logs, and codes for accessing them. And wasn't the General's office on this thing? There was definitely going to be something juicy in there. Maybe-
Right, focus, Grimm, Nevermore, where the FUCK WAS IT!?
Roman snarled as the Giant Nevermore, emphasis on GIANT, somehow continued to evade his sight and all the sensors up. Honestly it was as though it knew where to- … where to hide… Roman blinked… … Had this particular Nevermore fought Atlesian airships before? Learned where they didn't look? If it was that big then it was certainly old enough to have done so. It was old enough to be smart enough to bide its time and not ram every chance it got as well, just wait where he wasn't looking for him to let his guard down. So, okay, where wasn't he looking? … Well, up obviously, but he had two people on the roof and at least Neo would send him a message if the stupid bird was flying around up there. And the only other place he wasn't looking was…
Roman narrowed his eyes, a spark of fire in them, but at the same time a grin made its way to his lips.
"Oh you clever little black-feathered vagabond, you're just waiting to slice my stomach open aren't ya?" He asked to the theoretical Grimm as his hands sped across the controls, causing the airship to 'turn' in the air, seeming to almost spin back 180 degrees from the nose, before it tilted back and up slightly. And what did Roman see on the forward-view then? He saw the image of a giant black bird, flapping its wings miles below right over the water of Vale's bay.
"Hah! Gotcha!" Shouted Roman with glee, as his fingers moved, locked the Nevermore in his sights, and proceeded to start firing the lasers… While literally everyone on the roof of the Airship suddenly had a massive and unexpected change of plans due to the floor beneath their feet no longer being flat…
To, Pockolypse: Thank you very much! And neither can I! Hopefully I'll actually GET to said fight with the next update.
To, HHH1: Well this made me smile and stroked my ego both. I'm glad that you're enjoying Roman, Neo, and my humble O.C. Hope the story continues to entertain!
To, Lord of Tuft: This was the first mention of the capitalization tendency, however certainly not the last! This and others made me experiment with how I emphasize things, and while I still like my sound-effects, I hope that this turned out better and flowed better.
To, Tacosaucelord: Well thank you very much! I'm glad I've destroyed your expectations, though I feel compelled to ask, was there a particular reason you expected it to be sub-par that I could potentially correct for in the future?
To, Hydroplatypus: You are not the only one to say so! I'm considering going back and re-editing that segment with focus on the sound effects and action scenes, and possibly even others, to correct for that. Of course, I need to know that my new methods work better than the old before I even try that, and if they don't... Well, I'm probably going to use M rated language for a bit before I try and figure out another new one.
To, Ace of Spies: Thank you very much! I shall endeavor to keep it going and make it a story worthy of the great Roman Torchwick, and the adorably psychopathic Neo! Oh, and that other guy I added in, he's there to.
To, Vertero: Ah, thank you, I do so love it when my character is enjoyed! And you are right, reviews do need loving criticism from time to time, and in this case it appears to be something I very much need to work on. I'm hoping that that's past tense though, and that how I'm trying to deal with sound effects now is less jarring and more enjoyable. If it's not though... well, I expect I shall hear of it in multiple reviews!
To, Kaeralonthi Moneta: Ah, I'm glad you like, and indeed, one thing I can never in good faith promise is actual timeliness in my updates. It is an unfortunate combination of life and my own mind's workings. Infrequency is, unfortunately, to be expected. And I hope that the way I'm trying to approach action is better this time around, if it's not, then I'm going to have to try and work something else out entirely. If it is though, then I'm probably going to go back and actually re-edit that whole bit to make it... well, readable apparently. All part of the learning process I doth suppose. Also, I'm going to address Alabaster below.
On Alabaster:
Now as to Alabaster, I'm actually going to go on about this since this seems like a good place to do it and I want to make my ideas regarding him clear, seems a rather opportune time. Alabaster is hard to find the sweet spot for. I made him for the sole purpose of being a competent henchman to Roman Torchwick, then decided to make him a character and give him a life of his own, because I viewed it as necessary. He's actually changed a bit from the original draft of his character, courtesy of Season Three, stronger than he was at first and I need to update his original sheet. The core is the same though. He's been made to help Torchwick.
The thing about him is that to be a competent helper, he needs to be a useful killer. And being a useful killer in a world populated by Huntsmen and Huntresses means being rather O.P. to most mortals. And it means that when he runs into RWBY or other teams that we know and love, he can't get bowled over in a single engagement, and needs to be at least a threat, or even kick their rears. What was one of the coolest Roman moments? Fighting off Blake and point-blank-dodging Sun's shotgun nunchucks. What was one of the most disappointing Roman moments? Him getting laid flat by Blake in a few Dust-fueled moves. And why did we love Neo after Volume Two? Because she kicked Yang's posterior from start to finish, Yang who we had seen annihilate all opponents previously, got owned completely by the little ice cream girl. Cool characters in Remnant are often good fighters, and as fighting will definitely happen, multiple times, Alabaster needs to be good at it, to do his job for Roman, and to just not be disappointing on screen.
That's not his main duty though. Neo is the strong right hand for murder and she IS better at that than Alabaster by miles. However he's better at something else, something that Roman needs. And that is going to come up as we get along in the story. Some other... surprises as well that I'll be interested to see reactions to. However the point is that while he has his own story, his own life, and his own goals beyond Roman, he is ultimately made to be a competent criminal helper for Roman Torchwick, to facilitate the building of his criminal empire. And so I need to make sure that he is impressive, but doesn't usurp the spotlight. That he supports Roman and Neo and doesn't detract from them. And so I need to make him entertaining, interesting, and capable of holding center stage... and not actually give it to him. So... he is hard, and I expect I will fail in using him properly more than once. However he has had a generally positive reception thus far, and I hope that continues, just as I hope I can use him to properly make Roman and Neo shine. Thank you for reading and any thoughts had on the character twould be appreciated!)
